The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)
The following is President Lincoln's reply to the
letter of Governor Seymour, of New York, concern-
ing the draft.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7.
His Excellency Horatio Seymour, Governor of
New York, Albany, N.Y.:—
" Your communication of the 31 instant, has been
received and attentively considered. I cannot con-
sent to suapend the draft in New York, as you re-
quest, because among other reasons, time is too im-
portant. By the figures you send, which I presume
are correct, the twelve districts represented fall in
two classes of eight and four respectively.
" The disparity of the quotas for the draft, i❑
these two classes is certainly very striking, being
the difflxence between an average of 2,200 in one
class, and 4,864 in the other. Assuming that the
districts are equal one to another in entire popula-
tion, as required by the plan on which they were
made, this disparity is such as to require attention.
Much of it, however, I suppose, will be accounted
for by the fact that so many more persons fit for
soldiers are in the city than are in the country, who
have too recently arrived from other parts of the
United States, and from Europe, to be either in-
cluded in the census of 1860, or to have voted in
1862. Still, making due allowance for this, I am
yet unwilling to stand upon it as an entirely suffi-
cient explanation of the great disparity. I shall
direct the draft to proceed in all the districts,
drawing, however, at first from each of the
four districts—to wit :—the second, fourth,

sixth, and eighth—only 2,200 being the average
quota of the other class. After this drawing, these
four districts, and also 17th and 29th, shall be care-
fully re-enrolled; and, if you please, agents of yours
may witness every step of the process. Any defi-
ciency which may appear by the new enrolment
will be supplied by a special draft for that object,
allowing due credit for volunteers who may be ob-
tained from districts respectively during the inter-
val ; and, at all points, so far as consistent with
practical convenience, due credit shall be given for
volunteers, and your Excellency shall be notified of
the time fixed for commencing a draft in each dis-
trict.

I do not object to abide a decision of the United
States Supreme Court, or of the judges thereof, on
the constitutionality of the draft law. In fact, I
should be willing to facilitate the obtaining of it ;
but I cannot consent to lose the time while it is
being obtained. We aro contending with an enemy
who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man
he can reach into his ranks, very much as a
butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter pen
—no time is wasted, no argument is used.
This produces an army which will soon turn upon
our victorious soldiers already in the field, if they
shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be.
It produces an army with a rapidity not to be
matched on our eic:c, if we first waste time to re-
experiment with the volunteer system, already
deemed by Congress, and palpably,
in fact, so far
exhausted to be inadequate; and then more time to
obtain a Court decision as to whether a law is con-
stitutional which requires a part of those not now
in the service to go to the aid of those who are

already in it; and still more time to determine with

absolute certainty that we are to get those who are
to go iu the precisely legal proportion to those who

are not to go. My purpose is to be in tny action
just and constitutional, and yet practical, in per-

forming the important duty with which faro

chvg,a, Inttinhinicg the 'unity tod the free