The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1864-01-11

MONDAY, JANUARY IL.
jefferson Davis Denounced ~ =
Traitor.

Jeffersen Devis DsnsuncsA q :
Traitor.
fProm the Richmond nxaniner.]
The astounding proposilions which have
signslized the first days Il thu present
session. for placing the entire population
Of the Confederate Statss u the field,
leaving no producers of food to feed the
enormous ssny 20 saissd, end no tai psy-
srs to find the money to furnish it, have
crested quite > sensation. A feeling OF
despoudsncy he's been produced By them
among the reflective observers; not BY
the prospect Of the universal cessation Of
national life and organization, whioh the
realization Of those Wild projects would
certainly cause, for no one can fail to see
that there is no danger Of realizing pa
tent impossibility; but by the singular
want Of disoernment which they indicate.
1t is difficult to believe that many MEM
beers of the Congress really intend the
establishment of dictatorship, in this
country, still less to make Mr.. Davis do
tator. But it requires but little reflection
to perceive that such . law lately sug-
gested in his message, a suggestion which
members of Congress have taken in trust
from it, is nothing more nor less than
that.
An entire nation can not remain in
the field more than twenty -four hours,
under the penalty Of death by starvation.
A law requiring the whole population to
take up arms and 60 into camp is nullity.
Few will dispute the remark and the
President blandIy proposed that the pow
er and discretion should be given to detail
such persons as he pleased to continue
the pursuits of civil life. The relative
numbers ofthose in the army and those out
oft might not be changed by Law of uni
versal enrolment, if accompanied by this
provision. The sole difference between
the present and prospective condition of
the military force and nation would be the
change of "details" for exemp,s. One Of
these words designate persons who con.
tinue the work that must be done in war
and peace under the authority of law; the
other those who GO about their business
because Of the favor of the President and
his Office holders, both. great and small.
This is proposition to give them despot-
ic control over every individual 10 this
country, and to destroy every check on
their will. The parasites of power are
pleased with it. There exists . small
faction in this country who have long
clamored for this measurey because they
expect power. profit and revenge by il.
But it is impossible to believe that those
who have echoed this cry in some Of the
resolutions offered in Congress, intended
to do so. A resolution of inquiry, for
tunately, is not a law, and, when the
force of the measure suggested in the first
has been examined, as it must be before
it is fixed in the last, there will be little
danger that Congress will stultify itself
or sacrifice the cause by such insane steps
as are now feared by many.
The motive of those who have given a
quos, sanction to these projects is easily
understood The Confederate army sore
ly needs replenishing. But some means
of etfec,iug that purpose must be found
which Is not at once folly and crime.
The present army is created by conscrip-
ton. If the actual CONSUMPTION law does
not furnish a sufficient number of men,
the natural and rational means of remedy
ing the defect is to enlarge the sphere OF
its action, by increasing the age of con-
scripts, and diminishing, where it can be
done with safety, the exempted class.
The Armed Peace OF Europe.
Some startling statistics, exhibiting
the immense expenditure of men and
money in sustaining the EARNED peace"
OF Europe, have just been published in
report Of NJ. Legoyt, Chief OF the Statisti
cal Bureau of the French Ministry of Ag.
riculture, Commerce and Public Works.
According to this statement, which, from
the authors position, may be considered
perfectly reliable, Austria keeps up an
army OF $4,000 men, which costs her
$4,000, 0OOf. France an army Of 573..
060 men, which costs 6SS, 900, 600 francs:
Prussia an army of ella, 900 men, which |
costs her LAG. 000,O 00f.; England an army |
OF 800. 900 men, which costs 677, 0O0, 900 |
francs, and Russia an army of 600 600 |
men, which costs her 529 ,OoO, 600 francs.
That Is, out of the total budget of those
States, an expenditure of thirty-seven DER |
cent. In Austria, or more than third
thirty.t three per cent. in France, thirty 10
Prussia, ihirty-nine in England and forty
two IN Russia. Let us also mention la
ly, where 329,00O,00Of are expended in
keeping up forcs of $4,000 men; Den
mark and Sweden, the first with $4,000
and the second With $1,000 men, by
which their budgets are increased to thirtv-
seven and forty per cent. respectively
The other secondary States follow in an
ANALOGOUS proportion. Switzerland il the
only European State that neither increases
her army nor her budget. NJ. Leeoyt
adding together the effective of ali the
European armies, according to estimates
which be considers rather below than su
perlor to the reality, arrives at the fearful
number Of 3,Sl5,S47 men, and an outIav
OF $500, 00O,00 francs.
ANECDOTES OF GEN. BUFoRp.
ia'e Maj Gen. BufoId, than whom prob
ably no commander was so deyotedlv
loved BY those around him, was offered =
MAJOR GENERALS commission in the rebel