Alexandria Gazette, Commercial And Political

REDUCTION OF THE ARMY.
From the Aurora.

"We have received many communications on the subject of the present arrangements of the army ; on the manner, or rather, the want of all principles or rules in the selection--cases of officers dismissed, who were wounded in service, but who are fit for duty; others totally disabled from any means of acquiring subsistence ; and not a few examples of the pernicious and afflicting influence of personal passions, and a scandalous system of favoritism; the selection of men without any other claim than their abject flattery and subserviency to men who commenced their career with intrigue, some of whom terminated it with infamy; the exclusion of men only because they were too honest and worthy to be servile to a set of puffers; men educated for the army in the public school of the country, and pledged by that education to the military profession, cast upon the world to begin a new life, with the loss of all their experience, and the disadvantage of the habits they have acquired :--above fifty essays on those several topics, and on the military transactions of the war, and on the artifices practised to cheat the public, and obtain a spurious renown, have been placed in our hands within the last ten weeks."

"These facts would necessarily indicate an examination of the talents and merits of those who do the wrong, as well as of those who are wronged ; and it will be perceived that there is great difficulty in the case; if men have puffed themselves with so much success into the good graces of the government, and even into the opinions of the country, have already occupied the minds of the people; and are as it were identified with the events themselves-two questions will arise :

1. Whether it be not better to bear the imposition, under the circumstances of the glory which the country has acquired, than to cloud the public renown by shewing where the glory properly belongs ?

2. Whether the public delusion on this point is not already so completely fixed, by newspaper puffing and magazine memoirs, as to pass already for authentic history with the million ?

"Military men of merit must not consider their cases as uncommon; the history of the revolution in 1776, would teach them that the soldiers of that glorious day were treated even worse ; the late army have not obtained even the gift of a few unproductive acres to propitiate their pride, or to testify to the goodness of their cause or the honor of their services; yet will it be grateful to the generous heart, to assert that this neglect is to be accounted for, because it might interfere with the speculations of men who go to congress only for speculation."

"At a more suitable period, their representations will be heard more dispassionately, and they will be made after reflection, with a better temper & more effect.

When the proper time comes this paper shall not be shut against them--if they are injured, they shall not at least want the means of making their complaints known, nor of exposing those who may have dealt unfairly by them however elevated or powerful."