Daily national Democrat., 1861-10-13
Drafting.

question made its appearance IN one o' '''
Pony dispatches The mere mention VI sue"
thing os drafting was of course, food for
,bs Secession editors. They rolled the deli
cious morsel under their tongues and eXpee-
,orated into the ears of the public. They
said that "Lineoln's war was becoming "n-
popular. and that the Government could ger
no more soldiers without drafting. Now let
us see how plain tale can put down tn's
foolish stuff The President is authorized to
call into the field 50),000 men, but he has not
done it. lie has only cailed for such a pro-
norton ofthdt enormous force as coutd be fed
and armed at tie present time As rapidly as
human skill can devise. and energy can pro-
vide the means for equirping and sustaining
the men, just SO fast are they called into the
field. 1t is but little more than two
months since such an army was authorized
by Congress Within that time wonders
have been accomplished An army has been
organized on the Potomac, shattered to frag-
ments at Bull Run, Gin obedience to public
will diseased and influenced by mischievous
and bloody articles in the public press and
teorganized under the mastery rule of Nc
Ciellan. An army of 100000 men, now re-
ceiving daily instruction in military duty,
protects the capitol. The combined forces Of
Mcclellan, Wool, Banks, Fremont, and Ros-
encrauz are not far from 800 900 men. For
/ this number, ample provision has been made
! New regiments are daily joining the several
/ Departments, and the whole energy Of the
Government is being exerted to prepare for
them as fast as they come But human pow
er is not omnipotent Would it be prudent
or humane for the President to require each
State to report its full quota of the half mil
| lion of soldiers, within the next week, when
| 10y no power on earth could they be provided
/ for under a month? 1t seems to us that
there is a desire on the part of a few pro-
/ fessed Union men, in the ranks both of the
/ Republicans and the Union Democrats, to
see the Administration fail in whatever poll
! cy it adopts. There are too many wise med
/ lers, who can scent the battle from afar off,
and make cabinets, change military COM
manders, and, in fact, do anything, better
than the same can be done by President Lin
coin, aided as he is by the counsels of not
only his cabinet and of Generals Scott and
Mcclellan, but also Of some of the aLest
statesmen ever produced by this or any other
nation, to wit: Crittenden Holt, Everett,
Dix, Dickinson, johnson, Banks, and host
of others. We say that the reason why each
State has not yet furnished its quota of 500, =
600 men, is because no such number has as
yet been called for or authorized 10y the Ad-
minstrGtion. The gallant State of Iowa
fearing that, with all her readiness, she had
not done enough asked if drafting should be
resorted TO. The answer by no means signi-
fed that the Eastern States had been tardy
) in their response. 1t was in effect "Yo
{ have done nobly. You will never need t,
. draft, until we shall have called upon tn
East for its full proportion of the army au
IL thorized by Congress, and been responde
r TO-" The East has done all that any peop
r on earth could have done, more than any
q people on earth ever did do before Who
, shall say that this is not SO? Those who talk
/ Of drafting, are talking nonsense. The 3O0
900 men in the Union armies are hardly
missed from the communities in which they
f lived Except 10y their relatives and friends,
so few are they in proportion to the great
whole. A million of men can be raised with
out drafting. But if there was to be draft
ing, we suppose all the States would be treat.
ed alike. No State would be called to draft
for men called on over and above its quota
until all other loyal States had furnished
theirs. We do not believe that, in the event
of a Wstern State failing to furnish her que
ia, New England would be subjected to
drafting to raise its full quota, before any
similar steps were taken in the other ease
If this view is correct the newspapers have
been blabbing, without authority, upon this
subject of drafting. 1t is not likely that if
Iowa were as dull and Indifferent as she is
ready and patriotic, she would be permitted
to remain totally inactive until the New
England States had each sent their full pro-
portion, even though drafting were necessa-
ry to enable them to do so.
A letter from Boston to the Sacramento
Union has some sensible remarks upon the
subject under consideration 1t is dated
September 2o,h, anl says:
The papers are beginning to talk about
filing up the ranks by compulsory measures.
They are making all sorts of appeals to the
patriotism of the community, and maenifving
with ready and uuhcsitatug pens the dan
gers Of the situation. Is patriotism dead ?
say they, And must the rebellion make
head after all the splendid things we have
done, simply because we are 10th to go on
doing splendid things? Well, if such is the
case they continue, it is the duty of the
/ Government at once to make a draft, and
shorten the war by increasing the combatiye
material. Not SO fast gentlemen. Let me
insiuuate that You overlook a simple fact of
great significance. and yet so obvious that it
might have occurred to the meanest capacity
Grant that men are holding back. and that
they are not SO ready to give themselves and
all they have as they were three months ago
/ Does this necessarily imply The decay of pa
trotism? Does il indicate any growing dis
like to the war policy Of the Government or
any relaxing of the theoretical determination
to put down the rebellion? By no means
This is much more simple explanation of
the FILLING off of recruiting Tie Gorern.
mehd has not siqnjfed its irish far more men,
The President was authorized 10 call ont
half million, but he has only asked fora
little more than 0ne-third of that lulAbcr
10 n4t,ty Il t,, t,, l1,I