Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-09-09
DesertiOns from the Army.


It is asserted by our enemies that the course of
the Standard in urging our people to fight and talk
for peace at the same time. has encouraged deser-
ton from the army Now, it is notorious that there
are more desertons from the Virginia, Mississippi
and Alabama troops than there are from the North
Carolina troops and our paper has little or no cir
culation among the former 1t circulates freely in
those States but not among their troops in Virginia
What then, the cause of desertion in the troops of
those Statesp The Standard? Certainly not for the
paper could not have influence, or such influence
where it has no circulation.
But we deny that our course has tendency to en-
courage desertion. Tell the soldiers as we do, to
stand by their colors and be faithful, while their
friends at home casting about to see if something
cannot be done Of az honorable charactes oshorten
the war, aud they will encouraged; but tell them
to fight on indefinitely until the enemy is conquer
ed and that every one who talks of an armistce or
of peace is traitor, and you will depress their
ergies and tempt them in their dependency to
abandon the flag. Is not that so ? Is it not natu-
raj Add to this the distress of their families at
home, thetyranny officers the denial of furloughs,
repress and misrepresent their opinions, under the
sanction, if not by direct orders from the authorities
at Richmond, and we may imagine the result-a
result that every loyal man deplores and which
nothing will really justify. -,
mo, if the men desert zoe are not to blame for it.
We voted in the Convention, and we have warmly
sustained in this journal every measure calculated
to do justice to the soldier and to render him con-
tented with his lot. We voted in that body for the
fifty dollar State bounty to both volunteers and con-
scripts; and we drafted, and advocated, and voted
for the ordinance to permit the soldiers to vote in
camp. And at the last session of the Legislature
We warmly advocated in the Standard the bill Of
fered by Mr. Grissom, of Granville, and which was
passed. appropriatlng the sum of three hundred
thousand dollars for the benefit of our sick and
wounded soldiers. From the very beginning of the
struggle We have labored to justice to our soldiers
and to their families at home, and thus reconcile
them to their condition and nerve their arms in the
day of battle. Would an enemy to the cause have
pursued such course? The surest way to precent
de.erion is to do justice to the SOLDIER and to age
the uar oith such vigor and such aoisdom adapting
to ed to ensure success at the earliest day
possible. Has this been done? We fear not The
responsibility for deserton rests those who have
wasted and misappled the resources of the country
-who for the want of ordinary foresight, have fail
ed to provide for emergencies-whose favoritism,
and party schemes and party partielis;e- and pro-
scription for opinions sake, have divided our peo
pie, and almost made them aliens one towards an.
other-and whose policy, if persisted in, must re-
sui: in continued disaster and depression ineom-
potency at Richmond is the main cause of deserten
1t is idle to attribute so great result the melt
ing away of armies to an humble newspaper Editor.
The cause is much deeper and much more serious.
1t exists in those who raise and manage the armies,
not in us. >We have done our duty, and shall esa.
tinue to do It, in urging the soldiers to stand by the
flag; but cannot for the folly, the shsrt-
sightedness, and the imbeeility Of the admnistra-
ton at Richmond. +