New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-08-19
THE DRAFT.

II is n month and Il week since the Dram IN
this city was suspended. To-day the Govern
ment resumes il. Possibly the President might
prefer TO postpone it still longer, till the su-
prcme Court should affirm lis oonsttutionality,
and till all plausible objections and criticisms
had been disposed of; but he cannot. There is
no time. The Draft is not only necessary, but
urgently necessary. Upon the troops thus OBJ
tanned depends the Immediate prosecution OF
the war; for the national armies wasted by
long service and thinned in battle, need instant
reimbursement in order once more to advance
against the Rebellion and to crush it into the
earth.
Every hour of delay is an opportunity for
misfortune. Already the Rebels, well-nieh
paralyzed by the great victories Of July, are
recovering from that paralysis, and are in a
measure inspirited by the delibera,ion with
which on our side those successes are followed
up. In order to pursue them, to make Gcttys-
burg vicksburg, Port Hudson, and Helena
fruitful Of other triumphs, the Government now
enforces the Draft, and none oppose II hu'
those who do not want other triumphs for The
National cause and who do want triumpha on
the side Of the Rebellion.
II is enough to reply, As the President replies
TO The demand that the constitutionality of the
law should be tested in the courts, that there Is
no time: but there j. another answer, no less
conclusive. The law, Ike all laws, is presumed
to be constitutional until judicially declared not
/ to be. Those who deny it, consti'utionality do
no, state their real objection TO il, but would be
I Jus, a. vehemently opposed 10 It's execution If
/ the Supreme Court had already pronounced IT
constitutional The Government not merely
has right, but j. bound To suppose It valid
! law. and to proceed with its enforcement
The corres p0ndence between President Lin
coin and Coy. Seymour, and the subsequent
deliberately fraudulent misstatemcnts Of Judge
\ Advocate Waterbury, are fresh in all memories.
The exposure Of the latter in our columns and
by Col. Fry was unanswerable. The patient
good nature and fairness with which the Presi-
dent responded TO Gov Seymour could not
have been exceeded if the objections which the
latter urged had been honest instead Of dsloyal
and captious. The concessions which have
been granted-the reduction in those districts
wherein the Governor urged that The enrolment
was excessive, and the offer to submit the re-
enrolment to the inspection Of officers appoint.
ed by Gov. Scymour-remoyc every possible
ground Of complaint, and do in fact cause the
draft to proceed on basis more favorable to
this city than was claimed for il either by the
Governor or by his Advocate. 1t is so fayora-
bic, and the conciliatory disposition shown by
the Government is so generous and undenia.
bic, that there remains no ground Of cavil even
to the most pertinacious enemy Of the law
! We presume, therefore, that the draft will be
made here in New York, as it has been elsewhere,
without opposition. The Government is Of
course prepared to sustain its authority by arms,
if it be necessary to sustain it, but we do not
learn that any apprehension of an outbreak ex-
lists. This city will present to the country the
spectacle Of quiet and peaceable submission to
a law which its sober judgment recognizes as
just and necessary, and which at all events it
will obey because it is a law.