Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-08-04
THE PRESIDENTS MILITARY FUNCTIONS.

The New York Evening Post, which few
months ago expressed the opinion that some one
OF the express companies Of that city could end
the war more expeditiously and economically than
the War Department is likely to do, now intimates
in recent number that any call for additional
troops had better come from Generals Grant and
Sherman than from the President of the United
States. To this effect our contemporary says:
1t needs only convinced, the word from sher
man. bring him all the reuforcemens he needs volu
tsrly, without the delay of draft We hope the Gov
ernment will lot the commanders in the field make their
appeal in time. few words from Them call from the
army itself to the people at home, will receive such
as will show how near and how dear the army is to the
heart OF the patton The bonds Of red-tape would be
broken at once and the at home would rush forward
TO support their brothers in the field
"Why should not such call be made The Presi-
dents proclamation for half million chilled tho blood of
the people 1t breahed delay it limited another year of
war; but word from Grant or Sherman message to
the people from the armies telling them how is the
end of the great struggle if only the country will help
vigorously would, convinced produce an immediate
response For, what the people want to put end to
the and let them understand that to do this
only necessary that they shall help to deliver the last
blow, they will not be backward II, then, Gen Sherman
needs help let him call upon the country for it il Gen
Grant requires more men, let him speak In the OF
the gallant old Army Of the Potomac. Such call will
the enthusiasm of the nation and send gladly
to the field many thousands whom the thought of draft
chs with hints OF ntermnabe aud hopeless struggle
1t is known that these views are not hasty utter
of the Post, but are the repetition of debe-
rate convictions previously announced by this in
fuential Republican journal only few days after
the President had issued his last call for FIVE hun
dred thousand more men. Commenting on the
manner and matter of that call the Post said
"Let the Government or the Lieutenant General in
command deal frankly with the people tell them plainly
how force is required and how rapidly it must
be under arms in order to the which is
now all believe, within grasp, and the East would
turn regiments fast the West did it's hundred day
in May. Such call so made and so understood,
would encourage body it would be responded to by
the best blood of the country; it would create new en-
thusssm
But the shape in which the President has chosen to
put his demand constrained to say pretty
TO do the very To threaten peremptory draft
now when every body believed that the war nearly end
ed demand men for three years when the struggle
should be and must be six months to call for half
million when the country had rightly or wrongly
imagined that hundred thousand would suffice to term
the struggle this does appear to msundertaud
the spirit of the American people, and to blunder
"This apparent, in the first place. cause 1T 10 sure to
be misunderstood by all enemies abroad and at home
1t will be received confession OF weakness and not as
sign of strength; it will be regarded compliment to
the resisting power Of the rebels it will be quoted
official acknowledgment that unless army, already
vast, made stronger by half million of shall
Ill.
the hopes and revvng the enthusiasm of the people, it
rather depresses them gives VOICE 10 the doubers and
sences those who doubted before of In
great crisis like this it important to keep up the spirit
of the people, maintain their hopeulness TO encourage
them efforts But this proclamation, cold lfeess,
rigid bound round with red tape, clothed in the formal
the bureau sounds though its author thought
the people could bear be chilled and dshearened. Its
tone is not that Of the chief of republic calling upon his
feow-czens to support cause in which ~ are .ka in.
sere.ed but rather is the tone of European sovereign
telling his subjects what be requires OF them
snow whateyer cold forms official routine may require
ordinary OCCASIONS supreme moment like this the
best words the President of the United States speak
TO the people the direcest simplest hearest the
best tone he assume that of unreserved trust and
confidence in the people, the strongest and most effective
appeal ne make to them s simple statement of the
truth Is it the truth that must absolutely have FIVE
hundred thousand more mem Is the truth that must
enlist for three years Is it true that military affairs
are that condition Then let know il at let
the people hear it from Mr. Lincoln words which shall
leave doubt Why should the whole people be 10 doubt
and in such distressing doubt at this time regard to
I'VE know perfectly what strength the enemy has
know that Davis has bis last the field that he
not increase HIS thirty thousand by the most
rigid and sweeping conscrpton we know that at least
in the present campaign the Army OF the Potomac
has completely routed that of Lee has put 1t to flight aud
might if Grant had known then what he knows have
utterly destroyed it, We know that Sherman has fought
bis way through hundred miles of mountains snd earth
works and is at last descended into the plains front of
that the most Formidable elaborate and carefully prepared
Of deences stretching from the Rapid Ann Rich
mond and from Dalton 10 Atlanta, have not sufced 10
protect the enemy from the assaults Of gallant brothers
in arms Why may n 1t know something m0re1 Why,
when troops needed does not the Government
tell the people the nature, the OF this want
why not word, cast away for official reference,
and say those words which would bring in abundance
without draft ~
We do not concur with the Post in its recon-
mendation that the President should abrogate his
legitimate functions as the constitutional comman-
der of the army so far as to authorize Gems. Grant
and Sherman to call for the troops they may want.
1t may be misfortune, as the Post regards
it, that the President has couched his demand for
more men in tho terms which care cold, lifeless,
rigid, and bound around with red tape" but we
confess that this formal language of the bureau"
seems to entirely appropriate to the enforcement
Of a draft, which is purely matter Of the bu-
reau." If the President had been asking for vo33
lupteers, without in the lack Of them, suspending
over the people the threat Of q compulsory draft,
he might have appropriately employed a tone of
earnest adjuration suited to the chief of Re
public calling upon his fellow-citizens to support
cause in which all are interested alike" But
the Post forgets that the machinery of the draft
proceeds on the assumption that all such moving
appeals have spent their force, and the Presi-
dent, by asking Congress to give him the power
Of eyactiup oomnuleoiy military service sufficient