The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-06-07
NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1861

FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1861.
British Cabinet suggest their expedieacy, with
the meeting Of Congress; and then let our des-
perate Southern insurgents beware of making
England their ally In this contest At present
this war against them Is to save them and their
Institution Of slavery, in restoring them to the
protection Of the Union; but let England in
terfere in this quarrel, and there will be an end
to her Southern cotton. Her Southern supplies
will be instantly and permanently cut of at all
hazards, as Q stroke of defensive war, which
will soon divert her attention to rebellion
at home, and as a war measure which cannot
fail to bring our Southern rebels to their
senses.
Nanifestly jeff Davis and his Confederates
fully appreciate the dangers of Northern
invasion among the densely populated slave
been disclosed in the stampede of the
slaves from Norfolk and that neighborhood
to the camp of General Butler. Hence our
belief that if Davis and his secession cohorts
are driven from Virginia there will be an end
Of this rebellion; for they will surely find that
they are paying too dearly for their whistle of
a Southern confederacy, in war which is risk
ing the total loss or decentralization of their
twenty five hundred millions of dollars invested
in slaves. We are therefore in favor of and
hope for a decisive Napoleonic campaign in
Virginia, in order to save the Union to
save the North and the South, and also to save
England from the sweeping consequences of
lingering contest, which may invite her to
fatal interference for the sake of her cotton.
The CONTRACTS FOR ARMY CLornINa.-Our
exchanges from the interior of the State are
filed with statements Of the grossest abuse in
the contracts for supplying the volunteer SOL
oiers with clothing and camp equipages. From
the tone of the country press, without regard
10 party predictions, there is every appear
ance of q gathering storm of indignation, that
will assume the form of tornado when it
reaches the State capital, where the military
Board cOncoct their schemes for retarding the
patriotic demonstration Of the North. 1t also
promises, before it spends its force, to create
90 little uneasiness about the heads of all par
ties who have had any part or lot in palmipg
OF inferior articles for good, and that, too, at
high price-not excepting the Military Plank
inspecting Committee or the contractors. That
here has been an enormous amount of specu
lation and wilfIf Encouragement in furnishing
The volunteers with the necessary outfit to
march to the seat of war is plainly to be seen
by the reports that come to us from all direc
lions, to say nothing of the appearance of the
soldiers in their coats of many colors.
It would seem strange time for men
| to make contracts for the purpose of disposing
of their inferior and unmarketable goods
at higher prices than for good articles making
tenfold greater profits than in ordinary times
compelling these who are leaving their fresides
to fight the battles of the Union aud to maintain
the integrity of our government to wear shabby
and rotten garments, and that, too, when our
patriotic men of wealth are, in response to the
urgent necessities of the country, opening their
pocketbooks and reducing their balances in
bank by their heavy donations to uphold those
free institutions that made us once the happiest
and most prosperous nation of the world
Neither are the members of that committee
who pretended to inspect and accept these infe-
rior and almost worthless garments less guilty
Of an outrage upon the public.
The result is just what the public might ex-
pect from the action of the incompetent Militia
ry Board under whose auspices this peculation
has been carried on. 1t is on par with the
frequent open assertions of the township poll
ticians who compose that Board to those gen.
tlemen who have from time to time visited
Albany to get the Board to accept regi-
ments of volunteers-"that no regiment would
be accepted by the Board until it was de.
cided what could be done with their sons;
and that any regiment from New York city or
elsewhere that would take their sons on the
staff could be accepted at once" Men who
will resort to that betrayal of trust in times
like these, to force their incompetent sons and
relatives upon the soldiers as officers, to lead
them into the battle field to be slaughtered,
are capable of committing any amount Of out
rage, or entering into any peculating contract
at the expense of the patriotic movement it
matters not how obnoxious.
We notice that committee of three members
of the Board are now in the city for the pur-
pose Of investigating the subject. But since
two members, or majority of the committee,
are those who have been the foremost in
making these contracts and throwing obstacles
in the way Of the speedy enrolment of the
volunteers in their schemes to provide for their
sons, we look for nothing else than white
washing report We hope, however, that the
universal indignation that exists in all quar-
tiers wal arouse them to sense of their duty,
and secure aspeedy, thorough and rigid investi.
cation of the whole affair, that the really guilty
parties may be brought to a just punishment