The Soldiers' journal. (Rendezvous of Distribution, Va.) 1864-1865, 1864-07-20
Result of Military Discipline.


New Military Element on our Social and Ma
tional Character in the United States Service
Magazine, advances the following decidedly
PLAUSIBLE theory:-
at is often said that all the lawlessness which
has so long infested our country should be put
down to the account of slavery and much of it
ought certainly to be charged in that quarter
much even of the occasional tendency to illegal
measures on the part of anti-slavery men. For
it the nature of slavery to foster lawlessness
by making as well as by breaking law, it's fa-
vorite enactments being of such character that
| the soul of every sef-respecting man instructive
ly rebelled against them. The lowered charac-
ter of the ministers of law, caused by the estab-
lishment of an elective judiciary in several
States, may also have had something to do with
diminishing respect for the law itself. But,
whatever the cause, the effect was indisputable
general and growing disregard for law per-
vaded the land. For this dangerous feeling an
infusion of the military element is the best COR
receive. Men trained in the stern, unyielding
discipline of the camp, knowing by experience
it's power and value, will not be apt hastily to
violate the law of the land themselves or excuse
| its violation in others.
eve are quite aware that efforts have been
| made, and will be made, to show that the very
| reverse is the case. There is vast bowling
| among the Copperheads and "Sympathizers"
about the suppression of civil justice by military
force. But whatever anomalies of this kind
have arisen are owing to the strange and il1egt-
innate position in which the pro-slavery party
had placed the laws. With them, obedience to
law was 'heads-I-win- tails-you-lose' game
Whenever legal authority could be made, by
any process of subtlety, to tell in their favor it
was disregarded. When their power was lost,
thew bQUan tn dQnOunca ipirIsticn tho
ton Of license to act unjustly. The very men
| who bawled out most loudly against the wick
edness of arbitrarily arresting traitors were
those who bounded on Governor Seymour's
| friends the wild Irish of New York, to burn
and plumber and murder, and convert the me-
tropols of the Western Continent into a pam
demonium and, when few of the wretches
had partly paid the penalty of their crimes these
same men again cried out Justify against the
presence of the military who had saved the city
from general pillage and slaughter. So, too, in
the South, the villagers who connive at the as
| sassination of our soldiers complain of the de-
| struction of houses which gave refuge to the
assassins 1t is impossible that such mud
die should be righted with all the ceremonies
| in during perfect peace and the common
sense of the country has already justified our
| soldiers in deciding that men cannot at the Same
| time repudiate the authority of the laws and
| claim their protection.
1--WE do not pretend to have exhausted this
theme, so pregnant with interest; but enough
has been said to show that while we need appre-
bend nothing from the new element necessarily
introduced into our society several of it's ten
denotes are directly and strongly beneficial
= a4if.t lEq5a +.
| TT is roughly estimated that Congress, during
its late session, appropriated over 81 0OO 600 OOO