The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-07-17
Ritbmonn pispatrh.
v EpNEspAY MORNING.. July II. 1851


WEDN EsDAY MORNING.. July n. 1861.
Rssait " ,he Lew I'm Mssse.
The volunteer movement which WAS respen-
dsd to With so much lberA!ity BY Richmond
had reduced the working force engaged IN
every .lling and branch Of business to the
mos, limited numbers. The call for the body Ct
the militia. would strip the business of the cit,
e( Al, the rest. Nearly every storehouse would
have tn be closed. Every workshop would be
locked ur. Every mill would cease t. grind.
Every working machinist and every effective
mechanic be called away FROM his useful and
necessary occupation. The Banks would be
clo%ed. The notes Of the people due them would
go uupAid and protested, and universal bank
raptey eusus. Tne notes of the Banks, The
money Of which the people have in their peck
cts, might at any momen. become worthless
There would be no business aud no currency
Tae hotels and the restaurants would lose their
supervisory force, and strangers would
s,Arve, or have to rob or steal their food. The
market men would be taken away, and the pee
pie have to make what shift they could for the r
iood.
The newspapers would loose AL their opera
ting force, aud the people of the interior
bs ies, in &c ;al ignorance to what is going on
and become the prey to every idle rumor that
sweeps over the land. Tie condition of things
in Richmond would be repeated IN every town
and village Of the North side. But the case Of
the cities and towns would be fortunate COM
barred with that of the country. 1t would be
Only material disaster that would fall upon the
towns. The calamity of the country would be
moral and irreparsb.e.
Every country mill would be stopped, and
there would be scarcity of bread. Almost ev-
cry overseer weuld be taken from the custody Of
his charge; aud negroes would run riot, and
plantations would go 10 ruin. The crops which
a bouutiful Providence has vouchsafed to q
favored people would be lost by an act OF
improvidence, and what q benignant authority
gives, an unbenignaot one take away. The
women of the couatry. who have been the
most active patrigts in this whole movement
If resistance 10 aggression, would be made to
feel in their feeble and delicate persons. to
what hor-.d risks and dangers war may SUBJ
iect their sex. Great neighborhoods, teeming
with slaves by the thousand, would be strip
p.d Of every available gun and effective man
and lief, with none but women, with here ar d
,h,,s n feeble old man or beardless bow. tt
administer it, affairs and to protect its safety
We have looked through the experience o.
the country in past wars, and we have not
been able to find single instance of levy OF
the militia of great region of country en-
,,asse. before the present ono. 1t has been
done ip the instance Of individual towns in o
state of siege or in danger Of imminent as
sault. In confined districts of country. embrac-
ing the extent Of single county, it has been
done before the very presence of an enemy
but history does not furnish an example be-
fore the present one, of the fourth part OF
great Commonwealth and that Common
wealth thickly populated with slaves, being
called upon to drop all its industrial pursuits,
20 leave all it's crops and fields unsecured, to
remove oil guards from its fresides and upon
its slaves, aud to march n,asse to the distant
wars. Whether this neglect in the past has been
owing to a want of capacity in the Generals
Of the country, or to a want Of craftsmanship
in its rulers, boots not the thing is unprece-
denied and unheard Of If this immense mass
OF Harmed militia should drive away the enc
nv, il would be Gods blessing if on their re-
turn they should not find worse desc lation o.!
household and field than that which they
sought to avert by driving out the invader.
We have but ore counsel for the people in
thi. crave and most singular emergency.
and that is, to obey their rulers, trusting to
their own soLer second thought for the rectifi-
cation of any errors they may have fallen in
TO. When the body Of the militia shall have
been enrolled, and when it shall be thus re-
yeaied, what countless harm, both to the peace
interests and to the war interests of the coun-
try. would attend the indiscriminate marching
of them of to distant fields: there will certainly
be some expedient fallen upon cf supplying
with facility the wants Of our armies without
trenching upon the necessities Of the great
business interests of town and country
Surely the capacity Of our rulers is equal to
tho task Of supplying our want OF material,
30 abundant are the demands Of the war
without destroying the industry Of the country.