Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1864-01-05
s}lcI|mono Eaqnlrrr~
~ TYLER Il ALLEGRE.
SATURDAY MORNING. JAN. ., 1861.
rnE Ai;MY-ANp THE CURRENCY.

Tie tWo great anu principal questions that
row exercise the public mind, are, lst-The
army; and 2l-the Currency. Upon both of
tEl4sa a::orsant subjects every variety of orin-
icp tas been clah0rately given. Ty make the
al!ay - large in numbers AS the country can
t;-,!. Is enquestionably the proper principle.
Aml,a reduce the circulating medium within
ror4r !;:@.:;'s, :b" great remedy for the cur
ranGr. Ine army may 10 made so large that
the !aSo7 left to cultivate the soil and carry on
the Ds s.lry. business Of the country, cannot
fesi IN: clothe the people. The currency
msY :,e SO greatly reduced as to augment the
pSses of living, thus aggravating, instead of
r2iieY.0c the present evils.
The repo.l Of tho privilege Of putting in
aG::sti;u;ss, was proper, not only as O recess
sars r:sasrre to increase the army, but was
dcr.aaicl by the business of equality. To
cssn9. man FROM military service because
he my be more useful to the army and cause
ont Of, sLaa n the ranks, is recognized as just
aud ,ropcr: !at to excuse a mau because be
eau say sa1sti,uts is granting privilege
to v"alth which is denied 70 poverty; and as
: this war demands the scr, ice. of the rich as
we'll as of the poor, such privilege has been
justly aad properly recalled.
Ts' s::bisct os exemptions stands upon di-
res.'y different reasons: they are granted, not
as ia'uTs TO Individuals, bat because the inter.
es If the army and the cause of tho country
Wi 10 promoted and advanced as much by
kre2;as s,mo men cat CT, as by putting others,
in the ranks.
WitA1u: exempting ths Members Of Con.
e.es- aud the Legislatures of States, the lc-
s'.!n!ioa Of the couu try.eould not bs carried
on. Withaut judicial A-and executive off,
eer.. iiwless violence would destroy all that
tis army kas protected. With all rail
r@al employees in the ranks, transper-
tsiiys Of produce and troops would cease,
and The army itself be disbended by
Starvation, Or overpowered and destroyed
for want Of speedy reinforcement. Without
te!egraph operators and pest of6ces, and mail
agent, the Intelligence necessary 3, success
fui military operations wcuia ccaso. Without
"ono editor of each newspaper now being
published, and such employees us are necos-
sary to conduct the paper," universal moral
darkness, utter dependency and despair would
esvc- the land as the waters. cover tho sea.-
WHAT would Congress, and the Legislatures,
ana the army, and the people, and the ooua-
trs, and the cause, become without newspa,
psrs1 The idea is prepnsterons! Hated and
dcspised asths Yankees are the people would,
without knowing it, slidO back in tie Union,
or ind that they had been subjpgased in the
aarI. There muss no newspapers, or there
sau't be anything. The sun is sometimes
under a cloud, but it shines nevertheless; and
30 it is with newsrapers-theiri influence upon
tho people, the army and the outside world,
may not be such as can be weighed or mea--
sarcd, but it is powerful nevertheless. The
Constitution esteems the PRESS so highly that
it provides for its protection by ! prohibiting
Congress from passing any law "abridRing tho
:;-edsn of speech or Of the press" Without
physicians the people would all die, at any
rae many Of them think so. Without minis
tiers, how could the marrying 20 on, and the
supply Of population he kept up, and what
would the country do fer It, army hereafter /?
Wlth all shoemakers, tanners, blackumitha,
wagon makers, millers. &C., &C., in the army.
what would become Of the agriculture of the
e,ua.ry; with all the manufacturing estab-
lshm1nts closed BY putting the operatives IN
the arm =, how could the cause be maiutainp j.
Aud go we might go through the existing Ex:
emption Act, and show that it is rss tco
broad.
But we shall be told that all these profes.
s,ps and business can be filed by men over
A. and by buys under Is. 1t is not so be
cause man is over As, or bny isNunder ls
1t d"eS not follow that they are capable Of
doing the work of men between those ages
1t hsa heen proposed to enroll all men between
Is aud A, and then detail to the various en-.
pi'ymeats proper men to carry them on
There arc to, serious objections 20 this system
Of details: in the first place, such a system
w'uld require clerical force which wouid be
come as large as the humber of men it would
bring into the army; and, secondly, the ep-
po7uhity and inducement to fraud, bribery
and corruption, would be 4 source of immense
decentralization.
IHs principle Of the present exemption law
Is tn only proper and just mode Of solving this
difficult problem. That certain empieyments
All business are absolutely necessary TO the
cause I'D the country, and the men required
o. the successful mansseme Of those .raG ei