The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-02-26
THE c0NsPIRAT0Rs IN COUNCIL.
--sfaNaf u : - = - ,s lo o-e
Important Proceedings in the
Rebel Congress.
Frank Acknowledgements Of Desti-
tuition in the South.
Virginia Cannot Stand Another
Draft.
The Negroes and Slaves to be
The Negroes and Slaves to be
Employed in the Army.

STRENGTHENING THE ARMY.

STRENGTHENING THE ARMY.
On January 80, the House of Repre-
sentatives had before it bill "amenda-
tory of the act to put an end to the ex-
emption from military service Of those
who haye heretofore furnished substi-
tutes," approved January 8, 1864. In
the course of the debate Mr.. Smith, of
North Carolina, said:
We had at this time 400, 900 men on
our muster rolls. How many were actually
in the field, he was unable to state; prob
ably it was that one half were not there,
and it was well known that we were not
able to feed the fractional part who were
in the field. If, however, there were half
If 100000 should require the possible
seizure of one half of the provisions of the
country-where, he would ask, we're the
means to feed ten times that number
who remained at home? With this con-
dition of affairs staring us in the face, it
was proposed to break up the farms, and
reduce the agricultural interests of the
country to about naught. Look at the
condition of the country around Rich
type of every other part of the Oonfed-
eracy. Congress did not propose to re-
duce the efficiency Of the different
bureaux, because the men must be fur
nished with munitions of war. And yet
munitions of war were not all that we
could rely on. We must feed and clothe
the army, and not only the army, but the
people at home. Private appeals were
daily coming to the members of Congress
from soldiers in the army, speaking OF the
suffering at home how many of their fam
lilies are wanting the necessaries OF life,
when they are unable to send them any
part of their scant pay; how many asking
for relief to the farming interests; how
some, stimulated by the prospects OF star
walton at home, and the deficiency of food
in the army, are driven to despair and
desertion. With these things constantly
before it, would Congress still break down
and cripple the limited resources that
were left rs to carry on this WARP
Mr. Chambers, Of Virginia, said that
manufactures we're as necessary as agri-
culture, and there was as great det-
cheney in clothing to-day as there was in
food. Did the gentleman say that our SOL
diers deserted to the Yankees because they
we're not fed? We could, he believed,
feed double two hundred thousand men in
the field; and if we could not, then the
sooner we made terms with Abraham Lin
coin the better for Us. We must have
more than two hundred thousand men in
the field next spring; we have now all the
supplies we will have then, for the farmers
productions won't be available until next
winter. Everybody admits and expects
that next spring will be the worst and the
heaviest and most decisive campaign that
will occur, and yet there is a demand for
more exemptions. He was not opposed to
the exemption of planters; whether they
furnished substitutes or not, it made no
difference. But he was opposed to class
legislation.
Mr.. Dupre, of Louisiana, believed that
if Congress had given more attention to
transportation, the subject of food would
not now be exciting 60 many tears. He
had travelled long way in getting here,
and from Western Louisiana to this place
he had seen very large quantities Of pro-
visions which only wanted transportation
to be distributed to the people and the
army. The cry OF scarcity was strata
gem employed by traitors, and it fnisled
many honest and conscientious men, who
really believed what they said. 1t was a
stratagem to excite the spirits and the
efforts of the Northern people, and dis
affection and hopelessness in our own:
Mr.. Goede, of Virginia, was able to
state, upon the best an hority, that, in re-
Div to INQUIRIES propounded to them by Col.
Preston. Chief of the Oonscript Bureau, all
of the enrolling officers of the State, who
were assembled here q few days ago, said
that the State could not stand another
draft. 1t had. been said that the agricul-
turists necessary at home might be en-
rolled and detailed. If men were wanted
outside of the army, it was our duty to ex-
empt them BY law, and not leave it to the
Secretary of War and the President TO dole
out details. He was not one of those who
delighted in the Quixotic pastime of maxi
ing man of straw and fitting at him he
had no fears, and the people need have no
fears of tbs Executive, and it was with no
feeling of want Of confidence in the Ex-
ecutive that he said that be preferred this
Congress to pass its own laws, rather than
call upon that branch of the government
to do it for them. The great danger to-
day to our cause did not come from our
own Executive it came from the tyrant
at Washington, and it should be the effort
of this government to use all its energies
in providing against the calamities which
that tyrant would endeavor to inf1ict
upon Us.
Mr.. Holcombe, of Virginia, said that by
the bill of which this was an amendment,
the whole agricultural population would
be put in the army, and that country
whose agricultural population greatly out
holopces that of the cities and towns. Ma
poleon, 10 the ruthless CONSUMPTION which
t,a inflicted on France, never went above
the age of thirty years. We proposed to
mt in all, of every age, and when it was