Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-02-18

| the field; and if we could not, then tn
sooner we made terms with Abraham Lin
coin the better for us. We must hav,
more than two hundred thousand men il
field next Spring; we have now all TIN
supplies we will have then, for the far
mers' productions won't be available unit
next Winter. Everybody admits and ex
poets the next Spring will DC the wors
aud the heaviest and most decisive cam
paign that will occur, and yet there is :
demand for more exemptions.
Mr.. Dupre, of Louisiana, said the cry
of scarcity was stratagcm employed by
traitors, and it mislcd many honest anc
conscientious men, who really believed
what they said. The transportation ought
to have been attended to.
Mr.. Goode, of Virginia, was able tt
state, upon the best authority, that in re-
ply toinquries propoundcd to them by Col.
Preston Chief Of the Conscript Bureau,
an Of the enroainy obicers Of Me State,
RHO ~ere assembled here a fer days aga
said that the .Stutc couh not stand ano'h-
cr 9roH. lie said he was not afraid, and
the people need have no fears of their own
Executive. The great danger today to
our cause did not come from our own En-
ecutive; it came from the tyrant at Wash
ington, and it should be the effort of this
Government to use all its energies in pro-
viding against the calamities which that
tvrant would endeavor to infict upon
us.
Mr. Holcombe of Virginia, said that
NAPOLEON, in the ruthless conscription he
inflicted on France, never went above the
age of thirty years. We proposed to put
in Ill, Of every aye, and when 1t was
known that it was prcearlous matter to
supply, from week to week, the army in
the field. We had now five hundred
thousand men in the field to provide for;
the new law would add one hundred thou
sand more, and was it possible to escape
starvation when there were none ut home
to provide for them! Where was the weak
point of the enemy? Certainly not i'll
want of provisions.
1t was not probable then, that a de-
cisive victory could be fought this Spring,
and no such desperate hope should be
allowed to animate to such desperate mea-
sures as that of putting everybody in the
army. The weak point of the enemy was
in its financial condition. 1t was our
policy to proiract the war. Time and
distance We're onr great allies. Wcmus'
remember that in reference to this State
at least, Our last craps ~err far bcioc the
arn,,gc. Our space has been contracted
and all now must be devoted 10 tho pro-
duction of provisions for the next year
Take away the men, and starvation at
home and ruin in the army would be, i'll
his opinion, the inevitable result.
Mr., McRac, of Mississippi, believed
that the most certain way of feeding the
army was to increase its number in the
field The insuftcicncy existed because
there were so many Of the enemy within
our borders. and we had not sufficient
numbers to drive them out. We had now
hut one line of railroad, the Knoxville and
Chattanooga being in the posse. sion of the
enemy, left us, with vast auxiliary cut
off. lie believed that there WAS no def
cheney in the country, and that if We could
drive the enemy back, We could feed the
army. no matter what its numbers.
After further dcsultory debate, the bill
was passed by yeas II, nays 81. thread
as follows:-'.A bill to be entitled an act
amendatory of an act entitled An act to
put an end to the exemption from militia
ry service of those who have heretofore
furnished substitutes.