Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-12-23

y.s-s7--c-FFI
D9nued exempts, and partly of men detail
Gu 0y the Confederate government as ag-
riculturists, &c, who are held by the
supreme Court of this State, to be subject
TO militia duty, and have been ordered by
mt me INTO active service as part of the mill
nd much the larger part, however, IS
composed OF boys between Is and II, and
ola men between SO and SIS wears of aga
VINO, under the laws of Congress, are not
subject to Confederate service. All these
must, IN your estimate, be set down as e3-
empt 6y the Governor from service in tie
confederate armies, when they are, in fact,
exempt both by the laws of Congress aud
OF the State Legislature. l will remark
further, IN this connection, that the STATE
officers in Georgia are declared exempt
from Consumption, not by authority of the
Governor, but by joint resolution of the
General Assembly of the State. Georgia
seeded from the old Union to protect her
rights and maintain her sovereignty, and
she will, in her new alliance, neither
permit the centre machinery of her State
government to be stopped" her Z" Courts
of Justice closed" the "authority of her
uOF u6T Atal0
lines to be obliterated."
Nearly fifty regiments of her sons have
spent years under arms in Virginia, and
those ofthem who survive are now deiead-
ing the Capitol of that glorious old goln-
monwealth, while powerful army march
eS through their own beloved State-d ccu-
pies and desecrates their own CapifA
burns their cities and villages, do Fcys
hIlndredsso of miles efthesR ailreaGS ot ts,ef
;State, aud plumbers them of their property,
leaving their wives and children without
bread
Their Executive asks for aid, and espe-
cially that the sons of Georgia may be
perm tied to return and strike blow in
her defence. 1t is denied, and she is left
without all infantry force, while her Capt.
tol is the headquarters of General Sherman.
to confront his powerful army, except tho
Confederate Reserves in the State, and the
State officers and the Militia Reserves,
amounting i'll the aggregate to few thou
sand men many of them with but little
physical strength to endure the hardships
of the camp. Not thousand men of all
her large number Of splendid regiments
and batallions of veteran infantry in Con-
tederare service, were left upon her soil,
or permitted, prior to the occupancy other
Capitol by the enemy to return to her, when
her territory was being overrun, her cities,
towns, villages and private dwellings
sacked and burned.
With these facts before You, leave it
to your Own Judgment as a man of candor,
which your character as Virginia Repre-
sentative authorizes me to assume, whether
your published remarks do Justice to State
whose sons have acted as gallantly, and
made as great sacrifices as any others,
upon the soil of Virginia, and whether my
State should with her late sad experience,
turn over to Confederate control her State
officers, and her old men and boys, to be
taken from her limits; which would leave
her perfectly powerless even to ward off
the blows from vital points, should the ar
mics Of the enemy again pass over her ter
ritory.
Had the sons ofGeorgia been permitted
to return to the soil of Georgia, as asked
by her Executive short time since, the
army of Gen. Sherman would never have
passed over it, nor desecrated her Capital.
Very respectfully, &C.,
JOSEPH E, BROWN.