Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-11-11
Results Of the Draft,

| g The machinery tor executing the enroll
| ment act is in complete working order. The
| law as it stands cannot be made to develop
| the entire military strength of the nation, and
| the execution of 1t has been rendered exceed
| ingly difficult By the efforts made IN various
ways to resist or eyade it, or to escape from
| its operation. Its fruits, therefore, are not
as abundant as they will be from perfected
law and more thoroughly established system
of executing it All the advantages, how
ever, which could reasonably have been ex-
pected from the law are accruing. Its gen
eral principles distribute the burdens OF mill
tary service fairly among those liable 10 bear
them, but there Is, perhaps, more generosity
than business in some of its humane proyis-
| ions. With certain notifications, which can
readily be made BY Congress, the military
| strength of the country may, by the direct
| and indirect operation Of this act, be surely
| and cheaply brought into the field.
Several of the Western States have not
| been subjected TO the present draft on &C
count of the excess of volunteers heretofore
| furnished and from the same cause the
| quotas in other Western States are rendered
| quite small; the present draft Is, therefore,
| but partial one, and no specific total was
| established as the quota for it.
"Of those drawn in the present draft, in
Guiding the fifty per cent. additional, over
I eighty per cent have reported in accordance
{
/ ty per ceet. who have not reported, many are
/ not willful deserters, being unavoidably alb
| sent at sea and the like. The deserters are
/ being arrested.
Of all examined about thirty Fer cent.
have been exempted on account of physical
disability, about thirty per cent. have been
exempted under the provisions of the second
section OF the act, or found not liable TO mil
itary duty on account of alienage, unsuitable
ness of age, nOn-resIaents, &c.
Those who are not liable 10 military dU-
tv and form no part of the national forces,
and therefore have been enormously enrolled,
appear in the general reports of the Boards
among those exempted, because their non
ability to serve could not be established un-
I'll they came before the Boards The num-
Der Of exemptions is thus made to appear
much larger than it really Is.
About thirty per cent Of the men exam
ined have been held to service, and have
either entered the army in person, furnished
substitutes, paid communication.
About one-half of those held TO service
have paid Communication; Of the remainder,
about one-third have gone in person, and
two-thirds have furnished substitutes, and all
except a few in transit and a small proportion
Of deserters from among the earlier substi-
tutes accepted, are IN the ranks Of their regi-
ments in front of the enemy
IL - ldlE 10 sup posi- tLlil must VI I44bot
who willingly tail to report, and thus become
deserters, are physically tit for service; if
they had been examined the proportion eX-
empted for physical disability would have
been reduced to about twenty-five per cent.
The proportion Of exemptions would be still
further reduced by purging the enrolment
lists before the draft Of all cases of manifest
untitness, and of aliens and others not La
BILE TO military duty, as may be done where
},
Iished
THE propositions above given are based
upon the reports up TO this time from the
seyenty-three Congressional districts where
the draft has been completed or has most
nearly approached completion.
Since the present rebellion began about
two hundred thousand soldiers, after entering
service have been discharged on surgeons
certificates of disability. 1t is probable that
1T least one half Of them were unfit for ser
vice when received. 1t may be safely said
that forty millions Of money were uselessly
expended in bringing them into the field, TO
say nothing Of their subsequent expense to
the Government.
I'm Great Britain. under the saystem of
voluntary enIistments, the reflections average
over tweuty-seyen per cent IN France, from
1881 TO 1912 the average number of exemp-
tiOus annually was Fl, 500 so that, TO secure
the contingent of 10000 men, Ia, 500 con
scripts were annually examined. Of the re-
cruits who presented themselves for enlist
meut in our regular army in 1852, seventy
per cent. were rejected for physical infirmi-
ties. exclusive of age or stature. Between
Ist January and lst July last more than one
half were rejected These were men who
desired to be accepted. These proper ions
are of interest Ia connexion with the fact
that less than one third of the drafted men
who desire not to be accepted have been eX-
empted on account of physical UnftuCsS.
''TIere have been but few cases of incom-
potency, fraud, neglect, or abuse in the eX-
animation Of drafted men. These men have,
however. in many WAYS, been swindled by
rOgues having no connection with the Boards
of Enrolment; as, for example, the fact that
certain drafted men were physically unfit for
service has BECOME known TO these sharpeTs
when it was perhaps not known to the men
themselves, and they have 50 far imposed up
on the ignorance or credulity of the drafted
men a. TO get from them sums of money 10
secure an exemption, to which the rOgues
knew they were entitled and would surely re-
ceiye and the drafted men, finding themselves
exempted rs promised, have sometimes
thought and given out that they secured ex-
emption By bribery of drafting officers,
whereas they were legally entitled to exemp-
ton, and have themselves been swindled by
sharpers All has been done that seemed
proper under existing laws to check these
evils, and to meet properly the few cases of
criminality and incompetency which have oc-
Cured among the officers of this bureau.
g" All the expenditures up 10 this time on
account Of this bureau, including the enroll
meut, draft, and pay Of officers and persons
connected with il, are but little over 81
100000. These expenditures include all
made on account Of the machinery which has
produced the arrest and return OF twenty
thousand deserters
q" The amount of money received from the
draft up TO this date IS about ten times a
great Is all the expenses incurred on account
81 the enrolment act; those resulting from
the New York riots are not, however, in
Guided ia this statement, as they are more
properly attributable to other causes and
other persons than 10 the draft, or the officers
of this bureau
4 MILITARY REPUBLIC.-By the census Of
1860 there were 27,oo0.0g0 of white people