Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-04-06


press servile insurrection.
Our Supreme Court has ruled that the Confeder-
ate government has the power to raise armies by
conscipton but it has not decided that it also has
the power to enroll the whole population of the
State who remain ut home so Is to place the whole
people under the military control of the Conteder
ate government and thereby take from the States
all command over their ewn citizens. to execute
their own laws ahd place the internal police regu-
lations of the States in the hands the President
Itis one thing to 'rsise armies" and another, and
quite different thing to put the whole population at
home under military law, and compel every man to
,obtan military detail upon such terms as the CEN
tral government may dictate, and to carry militia
ry pass in bis pocket while he cultiyates his farm,
or attends to his other necessary avocatlons at
home.
the farm, nor . blacksmith making agricultural i'm
plements nor miller grinding for the people at
home belongs to- or constitutes any part OF the ar
mics of the Confederacy and there is not the shad
ow of Constitutional power vested in the Conteder
ate government for conscrbng, and putting these
classes and others engaged in home pursuits under
military rule while they remain at home to dis
charge these duties. If transcription were constitu
tional, as means Of raising armies by the Confed
crate government it could not be constitutional to
conscribe those not actually needed and not to be
employed in the army, and the Constitutional pow
er to raise armies" could carry with it the
power in Congress to conscrbe the whole people,
who are not needed for the armies, but left at
home because more useful there, and place them
under military government, and compel Them to get
military details to plough their fields, shoe their
farm horses, or 60 to mill.
Copscription carried to this extent is the
of military despotism; placing all civil rights in
state of subordnation to military power, and put
ting the personal freedom of each individual in CIV
il life at the will of the chief of the military power
But it may be said that conscrption may act upon
one class as legally another, and that all classes
are equally subject to it.. This is undoubtedly true
If the government has right to conscribe at ALL it
has right to conscrbe persons of all classes. till it
has raised enough to supply its armies. But it has
no right to 60 farther and conscrbe ali, who are by
its own consent to remain at home to make supplies
If it considers supplies necessary, somebody must
make them; and those who do it. being no part of
the army, should be exempt from conscription and
the annoyance of military dictston, while engaged
in civil and not military pursuits
If all between II and so are to be enrolled and
placed in constant military service, we must con.
quer the enemy while We are consuming our pre-
sent crop Of provisions, or we are rnined as 1t Will
be impossible for the old over 3d. and the boys
under II, to make supplies enough to feed our
armies and people another year. l think every
y; actical man IN the Confederacy who knows any
thing about our agricultural interests and resources
will readily admit this.
If, on the other hand, it is not the intention to
put those between II and 10, and between As and
3d. into service ss soldiers, but to leave theta At
hsue to produce supplies and occasionally to- do
police duties within the State, which properly be-
long to the militia Of State, in other words, if
it is the intention simply to take the control Of
| them from the State, so to deprive her of all
power, and leave her without sufficient force to ex-
ecute her own laws, or suppress survile insurrecs
tion and place the whole militia of the State, not
needed for constant service in the Confederate
armies, under the control of the President while
engaged in their civil pursuits the act is unccnstu-
tonal and oppressive and ought not to be executed
If the act is executed in this State, it deprives
her Of her whole actiue militia, as Congress has so
shaped it as to include the identical persons en-
braced in the act passed at your late session, and
to transfer the control Of them all from the State to
the Confederate government.
The State has already enrolled these persons
under the solemn act of her Legislature for her
own defence and it is question for you to deter
mine, whether the necessities of the State her
sovereignty and dignity, and justice to those VINO
are to be affected by the act do not forbid that she
should permit her organization to be broken up,
and her means of self preservation to be taken out
| of her hands, If this is done, what will be our
condt;ons I prefer to answer by adopting the
language Of the present able and patriotic Governor
of Virginia; "A sovereign State without soldier,
and without the dignity of strength-stripped of
all her men, and with only the form and pageantry
of power-would indeed be nothing more than a
| wretched dependency, to which l should grieve to
see our proud old commonwealth reduced"
may be reminded that the enemy has three
times as many white men, able to bear arms, as we
have, and that it is necessary to take all between
the ages above mentioned, or We cannot keep as
many men in the field as he does.
If the result depend upon cur ability to do
this, we must necessarily fail But, fortunately for
US, this is not the case. While they have the ad-
vantage in numbers, we have other advantages,
which, if properly improved, they can never over
come. We are the Invaded party in the right,
struggling for all we have, and for all that we ex-
pect our posterity to inherit This gives US great
moral advantage over q more powerful enemy,
who, as the invaders, are in the wrong, and are
| fighting for conquest and power. We have the
inner and shorter lines Of defence; while they have
the longer and much more difficult ones. For In
stance, if desire to reinforce Dalton from Will
| mngton, Charleston, Savannah and Mobile or to
| reinforce either of those points, from Dalton We
can do SO by throwing troops rapidly over a short
line from one poin: to the other. If the enemy
wishes to reinforce Charleston or Chattanooga,
| from Washington or New Orleans, he must throw
his troops long distance around almost upon the
ChCuuiCI VI ehSiS "uito w Lh001 su0L W III
our reinforcements. by throwing them across the
| diameter of semi-circle. This difference In our
favor, is as great four to one, and enables u.s. il
our troops are properly handle1 to repel their as
saults, with little more than one fourth their
| number.
In consideration of these, and numerous other
advantages, which an invaded people, united and
determined to be free always have, it is not wise
policy for.us to undertake to keep IN The field as
large number as the enemy has.
It is the duty Of those in authority, in country
engaged in war which calls for all the resources
az command, to consider well what proportion Of
the whole population can safely be kept under arms
IL our present condition, surrounded by the enemy
and our ports blockaded. SO that we can place but
little dependence upon foreign supplies, we are oo,
lged to keep sufficient number Of men in the az.
ricultural fields to make. supplies Cor our troops
under arms and their families at home, or we must
ultimately fail. !.
The policy which would compel oil our men to !,
go to the military field and leave our farms nncu
tivated, and our workshops vacant, would oe tne
| Tnoct f,t IA that eOuld be 8dODte0 In