Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1862-10-03

Congress appears TO be entirely at sea on the sub
ject of the exemption bill. We fail to discover in
all that has been said in the House to who should
be exempt from the operations of the CONSUMPTION
bill and who should not be- any intelligent and just
principle of discrimination and there being no gen.
eral points of agreement in the debate, it has run
into all sorts of confusion and absurdity.
Now there is one plain and obvious princi pie to
be applied to this subject Of exemptions which at
once disembarrasSeS IT. 1t is to regard these ex-
emptons furnishing reserves upon which the
Government may hereafter very well draw as the
positive necessities of its military service may de-
Inand. This view suggests at once the policy of a
large and liberal list of exemptions a matter of
wise provision. The objects secured by liberal
exemption bill will be not only to ease the execu-
ton of the CONSUMPTION law and to administer
rigorous measure by wise instruments; it will create
large classes of military reserves; it will enable the
Government to keep the size of its armies proper
tomato to the necessity that calls them into the
field IN will economist the military resources of the
country and avoid the dangerous experiment of ex-
hausting those by sing act oflegslaton.
liberal exemption bill follows as the proper and
logical consequence of the enlargement of the
scription law. The government wants a considera-
BILE addition to its armies but it certainly does not
want the vast numbers which CONSUMPTION law
extended to the extreme limits of military age, and
imperfectly qualified by exemptions would furnish.
The country could not support such an army; it
could not put clothes on the backs of the soldiers
and Dread in their mouths. much less equip them.
The extension of the CONSUMPTION law, qualified by
a liberal and provdent system OF exemptions, will
bring into the field all the forces we want for the
present, and leave 4 margin for economy for the
future. If however, it is not TO be qualified and
Congress adhereS to narrow and ignorant rules the
government has rushed into desperate experiment.
If all its citizens between the ages of eighteen and
fortyfve with the fewest exceptions, to be
ordered to the field where is our army to be next
repleniShed? The new crop Of boys arriving at the
age of eighteen in each year, is in the proportion to
the leveS made between eighteen and forty-fve,
(making simple arithmetical calculation without
averageS) of one to twenty eight This will 60 but
q very little way to repair the losses we may expect
the army that it is proposed to put in the field
this winter Our government has the reputation of
using up its armies very fast and of economZing in
this matter somewhat on the principle of the brutal
and ignorant slavepropretor, that it is cheaper and
more convenient to wear out his old labourerS and
get new ones, than to trouble himself about keeping
the first alive. The large army that an unqualified
CONSUMPTION would put at one time in the field,
would waste away from star, alton if nothing else
and might break down under the weight of its own
numbers. The European press has already noticed
the marked tendency of both parties in this war to
increase their armies beyond the productive capac
ties of the country to support them. In this mat
ter our Government has to study wise moderation
there is limit to competition in numbers with the
enemy. 1t certainly could not venture upon more
rash and fearful experiment than that now proposed
by Congress-the occupation at one time of all the
military resources of the country, disregarding the
internal economy Of the State, not looking to the
exgencies Of the future, and hazarding the war on
a single campaign.
1t was well understood by the most of persons
who favoured the enlargement of the Consumption
law, that this enlargement to be qualified by a
liberal exemption bill; and that these exemptions
were to be made on the principle of making a mar
gin for future legislation, the military necessities
of the country developed themselves. 1t would
have been absurd to propose the depletion of the
country by single military draft Additions to our
army were needed prompt and sufficient measures
urged upon Congress, but it was not necessary
for that body to go to the pernicous extreme which
has been attempted in its exemption bill, of using
up at all the military resources of the country
and destroying the most valuable interests of So
ciety, for the sake of a childish matching with the
North in numbers. The exemption bill has afford
ed rare chance in Congress for military demago-
gueism, and the favourite rhodomontade Of every
man soldier; but those persons who have been
flourishing this sentiment may find when it is put
into practice that they have been assisting in weak
ening their country by false policy, and kindling
popular indignation by acts of unnecessary and
wanton despotsm.-R Examiner.
II