Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-08-07
substlfutes In the Army.
From the Richmond Whlg july 81

/ Duriug the last session of Congress an
effort was made by the Military Committee
10 the Senate to secure the passage of a
hill requiring all persons who lad put into
the army substitutes, who had deserted, to
lake their places. The bill did not pass
but we have no doubt it will be again in.
troduced at the next session, aud, under
the urgency of the plea that asomethinq
must be DONE" the opposition to its pas :
sage may be oyerruled. ,.-. .
A writer in The AtLdntd Appeal referring
to the reduction of our military strength,
says:
We have lost many men in battle aud by
wounds, disease, and death. But we still
have the necessary number of arms bear
ing men in the country, but they are not in
the army. How did those who have been
| in aAd are not in, aud Who are not disa-
bled, get out2 This is the rub that will
CRATE hardly uponthose who are bound by
every duty to serve their country, but who
are not willing to do SO. The immense
| number of easy places that have been made
out of reach OF guushot is one mode; the
immense number of men who have either
Government contract, or a finger in one,
is another mode. Another still is said to
be the favoritism of conscript officers
Another still is said to be the infdelity of
8 Il
of disability. But the great fruitful source
of this fatal mischief is the substitute law,
by which, ! am Informed, upon authority
that am not certain is correct, but which
have no reason to doubt, the army has
discharged $50. 900 men.
Generally, labOreTs have been taken in
of old men who would from choice or ne
necessity be engaged in producing some
thing; or of idle VHgabOnds, who desert
the army the fret opportunity they get
Those who remain and do not desert, are |
generally from age aud other causes. not |
of much value as soldiers The army thus |
swap off set of sound, active men, for a |
set of broken down, worthless fellows, who |
do not much good. The field is deprived !
of many, laborers whose services are and
will be of great demand at home, while
the men who are discharged from the army
thus, having the control of means, seldom
turn to work, but often to trading, to make
back the money their substitute cost them.
Thus the country is cursed with specu-
lator, the field deprived of laborer, and
the army of a soldier, all resulting from
most woful blunder 10 Congress allowing
men of means to buy their exemptions
from the duty of defending the country
against Invasion. 80. /
Now my proposition, startling as it may
seem, is: that the Government is entitled
to the services of these men now, upon the
same principle that it was in the begin
ming, to wit; Er neceSsitGte rel. The sal |
vation from utter ruin of the whole coun-
try depends upon it. The government will
perish hopelessly and speedily if these men
are not put back into the army. The
government ought to keep the good faith
implied in the discharge and substitution I
long only as in can Be done SSessfsBnsEEy sEsBsEy
vation of the whole country from devas-
tation and ruin. This it has already done. |
A correspondent of the same paper with |
the army in Tennesse, writes:
Among the dispatches received yester- |
day, the one regarded in many circles as
by far the most important, is the one Civ
ing the points of the circular issued from
the Bureau of Conscription, announcing |
the future rule as to substitutes. The i'm !
portance of the rule, and its probable |
practical results, may be determined by |
the publication of fact communicated to |
me by an officer of high rank yesterday, |
that there were in our army now more |
than l3O, 900 substitutes. My understand
ing of the rule is, that all of these substi- |
tutes under 40 take their own place 10 the
ranks, as we'll as those who have substi-
tutes there. Say that one-half of the |
present substitute force is under 45, the
effect of the rule will be, by sending those
who have substituted them with them into |
into the army, to give us an addition to
the army equal to one half of the present
substitute force-say between 10000 and
&c, 900 men, and largely to be increased by
enrolment of those whose services as sub
stitutes have been lost to the Government
from causes other than the casualties OF
war.
No doubt this rule will give rise to much
and be viewed as a great hard
ship, and the Government will be charged
with acting in bad faith by those who
have put in substitutes. Without discus
cussing the legal aspect of the question,
discussion more german to times of peace
than war, and putting the rule upon the
high ground of moral aud political neces-
sity, / am bound to justify it. This ia no
time, when the enemy is pressing every
point, and threatening to take everything
which we possess, for man to value him
self and all that he has, not to speak OF his
honor, aud the honor of his wife and chill
dren, at the paltrg sum let it be $500 or
$4,000, which he has paid for substitute,
propably incapable of service from age or
infrmity, and has died, or morally indis-
posed to do his duty, aud has therefore
struggled or deserted.