The dollar weekly bulletin. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1862-1864, 1863-01-01
From the Cincinnati Daily Times.
The Decentralization of the Army-'The
Canses and the Remedy.

.
ton and stealing, or, to use milder language,
by departing from the army without leave.
and appropriating private property for per-
sonal use. r The number of assertions from
ri the whole army cannot be less than one
hundred thousand-perhaps more-and is
alike from the armies of the East and the
West. Reports from all departments repre-
sont that march produces general devas-
tation along the route; that private property
is taken with impunity, and in one depart
ment (GRANT's1 instances are gived of pre-
concerted and organized robbery. All this
} is disgraceful to the army and shameful to
the country. f-rf .-a -. ..-,. ..,..,
Our own correspondents, and others, attri-
butte these ontrages to O. class of 'stragglers'
who manage to leave the ranks during a
march, or to steal from the camps with dis
honest designs. This is not precisely the
truth. We must look further as to the
causes of this disqualification. .i.-. oil.
First. 1t is inherent in the organization
of the army, which is a cruel despotism, and
which with full sway, will crush out the
manhood of the ranks. There is not only
no regard for the intellectual and moral
welfare of the common soldier, nothing 10
excite his pride or ambition, but from the
| time he enters the service until he is re-
lieved by death or discharge, he is the vic
tim of constant inhumanty and sufferer OF
untold cruelties.
Fidelity and well-tested valor meets with
no reward. Where one promotion is made
upon tested merit, hundred are made
through unworthy home influences. The
intelligent patriotic young freeman, who,
| from the highest M olives, strapped his KNAPP
sack upon his back at the call of his country,
finds himself once in the army, more a SER
want of his military superiors, but intellect
ual interiors, than proud soldier, fighting
: for a high and holy cause. Fettered, hand
| and foot, he dare not resent insult or resist
petty tyranny, as cowardly on the part of the
officer as it is humiiating to the intelligent
soldier. The private in the ranks of our
army has no redress, nor can he have until
the army is reorganized upon totally differ
ent principles.
Second. The amount of corruption in the
army is enormous, terrific. The attempts to
suppress it by the punishment Of the offend
ers have been fee BILE indeed, while hundreds
of appontm ents to the supply departments
have been made to reward political services,
with an understanding, at least, that tn e
favorte should be allowed to make good
thing out of it. Cameron introduced this
system, and il seems to be faithfully adher-
ed to in all depar. ents of the Administra-
ton Of the Government. A politician, for
instance, obtains quarter masters position;
he makes in twelve months $4,000. aud
retires. Who is there to say aught against
tie thief? Instead of meeting with shame
and infamy, as he deserves, he is likely, by a
wise use of portion of his i'll gotten wealth,
to be rewarded with higher position.
All the corruptons of political life, have
been forced upon the army, and it is not
confined alone to the Quartermasters and
the missaries. Colonies have been con-
vcted of demonstrating, and house-pluuder
ing So uublushipg have been the robberies /
in the supply departments, that it has ex-
tended elsewhere, and from robbing the
government it has come, among those whose I
Egerents within the lines or the army. Tho |
soldier'soon learns the prevailing dishonesty |
of those above him. lie cannot help it, for |
he, of all others, is the sufferer. He tastes I
it in his coffee, his fried bacon, his indigesti I
BILE beans and his admantne crackers. He I
sees it in the shabby or flimsily made gar
ments, which are given him to wear, and,
when so unfortunate as to be thrown into
military hospital, he sees it through long
weeks of unnecessary suffering. 3D."
The example is before him. Must his
stock of virtue not be very large if, in his
sufferings and distress, he resist not the
temptation to better his condition. even at
the expense of his character? We know,
personally, of not merely one, but many in
stances, where men of irreproachable char
acter before they entered the army, soon
become so demoralized as not only to pilfer,
but to boast of the cute manner in which it
was done. When the soldier knows that his
captain and his colonel, and perhaps his
is a man of no stability of char
acter, possessing no moral staunchness liar
or drnnkard, or a debauchee, or perhaps a
thief (for we hold the swindler of the Gov
eminent as theft what punishment need
he fear for the perpetration of petty crime
against acknowledgement?
Against the immortality of the shoulder
straps there are 70 sacred influences in the 6
army. There are Chaplains, to be sure, but /
we do not hesitate to declare, that in nine
cases out Of ten, their influence is m ischev-
BUS. 1t is such that their action bellies thei- 2
preaching, and they are not only without ]
moral influence but have not the respect of |
he men. On the whole the army would be I
IS moral without the Chaplains. b
Third. In every particular the Govern {
nent fails to fulfill its contract with the c
oldier. For his services the Governm ent !
ggrees to pay him so much month, clothe, I
I'D supply him with certain rations. With G
he exception, probably, or within a few r
niles of Washington, or at the camps of in s
truction, soldiers never have, and 90 not q
ow, nor are they likely to receive full ra- n
ions. a
The hard cracker and the musty junk, he Il
lways has, but beyond these two articles, O
be soldier nowhere can depend on a supply W
he full ration is never distributed in the q
cid. The soldier goes often without his tt
zeal, sometimes for days with only a slim il
Ilowance of hard crackers This of itself a,
sufficient to demoralize the army, especi- W
ly when it is patent that corruption in off, hi
, is the main cause of the failure. What &C
IN the soldier do? Buy provisions with fla