The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1863-08-20
The Draft in New York-.Letter Of Presi.
dent Lincoln.


dent Lincoln.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, Aup 2
His Excelency. Horatio Seymour Governor of
New York, Albany. N. 7.
Your communication of the Sd in
slant has been received and attentively
considered. / cannot consent to sus-
pend tho draft in New York, as you
request, because, among other reasons,
TIME is too important. BY the figures
you send, which l presume are correct.
the twelve districts represented fall in
two classes of eight and four rsspec-
lively.
The disparity of the quotas for the
draft in these two classes is certainly
very striking, being the difference be-
tween an average of 1920 in one class
and 1854 in the other. Assuming that
the districts are equal, one to another,
in entire population, as required by the
plan on which they were made, this
disparity is suck as to require attention.
Much of it, however, / suppose will be
accounted for by the fact that SO many
more persons fit for soldiers are in the
city than are in the country, who have
too recently arrived from other parts
of the United States and from Europe
to be either included in the census of
1860, or to have voted in 1862. Still
making due allowance for this, / am
yet unwilling to stand upon it as an
entirely sufficient explanation Of the
great disparity. / shall direct the draft
to proceed in all the districts, drawing,
however, at first from each of the four
districts-te wit, the Second, Fourth,
Sixth and Eighth-only 1900 being the
average quota of the other class. After
this drawing, these four Districts, and
also the Seventeenth and Twenty
ninth, shall be carefully re.enrolled-
and, if you please, agents of yours may
witness every step of the process. Any
deficiency which may appear by the
new enrolment will be supplied by a
special draft for that object, allowing
due credit for volunteers who may be
obtained from these Districts respectiye-
ly during the interval and at all
points, SO far as consistent with praeti-
cal convenience, due credits shall be
given for volunteers, and your Excel
lency shall be notified of the time fixed
for commencing draft in each Dis
trict.
do not object to abide decision
of the United States Supreme Court,
or of the Judges thereof, on the consti-
nationality of the draft law. In fact,
should be willing to facilitate the OBJ
tanning of it. But l cannot consent to
lose the time while it is being obtained.
We are contending With an enemy
who, as l understand, drives every
able-bod man lie can reach into his
ranks, very much as butcher drives
bullocks into slaughter-pen. Nc
time is wasted, argument is used
This produces an army which will soon
turn upon our now victorious soldiers
already in the field, if they shall not be
sustained by recruits as they should be
1t produces an army with rapidity
not to be matched on our side, if we
first waste time to re-experiment with
the volunteer system already deemed
by Congress, and palpably, in act, SC
far exhausted as to be inadequate anc
then more time to obtain Court deci
sion as to whether law is constitution
al which requires a part of those no
now in the service to go to the aid o
those who are already in it and still
mors time to determine with absolut,
certainty that we get those who are t.
60 in the precisely legal proportion t.
those who are not TO go. My purpos,
is to be in my action just and constitu
tional, and yet practical, in performin!
the important duty with which l an
charged, of maintaining the unity ant
the free principles of our common
country.
Your obedient servant.
A. LINCOLN.