Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-07-27
snsnen.inn of inc Drnft.

The New York Express thus argues upon the
expediency and policy of suspending the draft
and the policy of enforcing a measure which the
exigencies of the country do not demand:
There is no disgrace, ever, in listening to SUB
JEcrs at the foot of the thronel Her Majesty Of
England, and His Majesty of Austria hear. and
receive petitions, even from subjects over whom
they are Sovereign. BY right divine, as monarch
lists reason. The august Emperor OF France. the
victor Napoleon, has just changed his Ministry,
to propitiate subject Frenchmen, exhibiting in
their recent elections dissatisfaction with his
policy. The more august Abraham Lincoln is
the greater god, Power makes of him. the more,
he can afford to stoop down his majestic head,
and receive in his ears. the humble, and respect
full petition of his aggrieved people.
Nor will the suspension ''Daralyze the arm of
the Government. as the Times reasons, for the
Government is now SO re established by the great
victories on the Mississippi, as we'll as by the
successful battles of Gettysburg, and 1.-THE rout'
Of Lee, 1--WE quote the Secretary of War; that
no conscription n0D is necessary, and If persisted
in, as people must reason, will only be persisted
in, to subjugate the North. The President him
self, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, saws:
''It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to
the specifications and prayers of an afflicted peo-
Pile, and 30 vouchsafe to the army and the navy
of the United States, on the land and on the sea,
victories so signal and so effective as TO furnish
reasonable ground for augmented confidence that
the Union of these States will be maintained,
their Constitution preserved, and their peace and
prosperity permanently preserved"
The Times, therefore, is hard, harsh, contra
d%ictory even of its own President, when it says
of the CONSUMPTION:
awe can afford 10 fight it out; we can afford
to see our orphan asylums and benevolent insti
tutions burned to the ground; we can afford to
have our houses plundered, our shops sacked,
our helpless children murdered in cold blood; we
can afford all these things, and worse, if worse
are possible and necessary; but we cannot afford
to surrender the control Of this city and the au
thority of the nations laws into the hands OF
such a mob rs is nov ~grasping with black and
bloody hands at complete supremacy"
We can 'affOrd" no such borrors-or, If we
can afford them, we shall have but little to thank
God for. August 6. the day named by the Presi-
dent for a thanksgiving. The day, if such hor
rors as these be invoked, ns the alternative of a
nov unnecessary conscription, will be a day for
fasting and prayer, surely no day for a general
thanksgiving.
The poor wife, with hungry children about,
whose father and protector is taken off by the
conscription from earning bread for them to eat,
can not thank God. The soldier in the army,
with the vision of a famished wife and children
left behind him, will have but little to thank God
Tor. God abhors, must abhor, an "act' which,
while it drags down all classes of labor to the
fearful fnturity of a conscription. excerpts the
b~etler-off men, to whom even $500 may be moth
ing. To ask the millions of poor to be thankful,
when the rich can thus bring them means for
thankfullness, will be but to make the 9th OF
August a day. as we state. for fasting, prayer and
penitence-certainly no day for a national
thanksgiving. We beg the President, therefore,
to open the thankful hearts of all. of the working
man in his work shop. as well as tie better off
man In his saloon. and on his sofas and carpets.
God knows no difference between Lazarus and
Dives.
Nor is it true, as the Times reasons, that a mob
even now rules and dominates this CITY, or that
ANYBODY asks the State or Federal Government to
surrender to a mob. The mob will be put down,
and is now going down. Mobs are but of the
hour-and no wise administration Of Government
when mobs are hushed. will act as IL the whole
people we're a mob. unless they intend TO create
a civil war, or a revolution. We who now beg,
who implore. who conjure the President-from
the Governor of the State down to its huinblest
inhabitant-are not Of the excepted mob. but
many of us are i'm arms against that mob. The
reason why it is n mob, IL because il does not
know and comprehend the Constitutions Of the
country, and see in them the almost certain
means of redress. Because we do comprehend
the Federal and the State Constitutions. and be-
cause we do see in them the nearly certain means
for the salvation of the cause of Liberty, we sup
press these mObs and exhort for their suppression;
but If. as the Times and the Tribune advocate,
both State as well as Federal Constitutions are
to be overridden, this mob will certainly end in
revolution. Hence now not alone the labor OF
this great city, bus the wealth of this city implore
a suspension of the draft-fhe Fifth Avenue, If
possible, more than the First avenue-and IL a
poll we're to be taken of the 18th and 2Ist wards,
where the wealth of the city mainly is. the vote
would he fifty to one for a suspension of the
draft. Hence away with all such talk rs this in
the Times, that the friends of the suspension of
thu. CONSUMPTION are but "tbe mob"
In this connection we quote the views express
ed by Mr.. HARRIS, in the United States Senate.
when the conscript law was under consideration
in that body. Mr.. HARnis was formerly a judge
in the highest courts Of New York. and is no~
a Republican Senator representing that State.
His character as a lawyer and his present posi-
ton certainly give weight to his opinions and en-
title them to consideration by all who desire to
preserve Republican institutions.
England, with her many wars and often search
ity of men, neuer resorts 10 this despotic measure.
BY DESPOTS, but nerer by Republican gopern-
menfs. and the principle. If adopted. would pro-
vide large standing armies, which almost inevi-
tably lead 10 despotism. In a government Of
delegated power. and which rested upon the con
sent OF the governed, It was inexpedient and I'M
> necessary.