The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1865-01-13


legal aRd exclusion of Illegal votes at the polls;
and, 2. Faithful and correct returns Of the
votes actually polled. | communicate here
with The opinion of the Attorney General on
the conflicting returns for the Sixteenth Con-
eressional District, which will show some of
the practical difficulties which arise under the
existing system. Without undertaking to rec
omnend the adoption of any particular plan,
/ sabmit the whole subject to your careful and
earnest consideration, in the hope that in your
wisdom you will be able to devise some meas
nre which will produce the result SO essential
to the existence of free government: that
votes shall be fairly taken in the first instance,
and fairly counted and returned afterwards
| have endeavored since / came into office
to exercise as cautiously as possible the powers
confided to the Executive, and avoid usurping
any, shall endeavor to persist in this course
to the end.
A new call has been made by the President
for 300, 000 men. This renders it proper that
should invite your attention to the evils which
have resulted from abuses of the system of To-
cal bounties which was begun, in an emergen-
cy, by the voluntary and generous loyalty of
our citizens, before the passage by Congress of
the enrolment act, and has since been contin-
ued by sundry acts of Assembly. The result
has been to the last degree oppressive to our
citizens, and unproductive of corresponding
benefit to the Government In some counties
and townships it is believed that the bounty tax,
during the last year, exceeded the average in
come derived from the land. The large sums
offered in some places IN the competition for
men, have demoralized many of our people,
and the most atrocious frauds connected with
the system have become common. The men of
some of the poorer counties have been nearly
exhausted by their volunteers being credited to
richer localities paying heavier bounties. The
system rs practiced, lowers the morale of the
army itself, by putting into the ranks men act
ualed by merely mercenary motives, and who
are tempted to desert by the facility of esca-
ping detection, and the prospect of new gains
by re-enIistment, process which they expect
to be able to repeat an indefinite number of
times OF the number of men for whom boun-
ties have been paid, it IS believed that not one
fourth have been actually placed in the ranks
Of the army, and even those who have Joined
il have probably not on an aveaage received for
their. cwu use one-half of the bounty paid for
fsem Immense sums, have thus been appro-
Seq ur,ttLv~s,aata a--ond ssvindlers in MANY ca
agencies of the Government.
An effort was made to prosecute some of
the parties concerned III such frauds under the
act of Assembly of I4th August last, and they
were bound over by the Mayor Of this city, but
after the witnesses had come here on the meet
ing of The court, they disappeared from the
public eve. | recommend the whole subject to
your careful consideration, that the system may
be purged OF these evils.
| am officially Informed that the quota of
this State, under the recent caH, is G6, 999, but
| am not informed of the principle on which
the draft is to be made.
1t appears from the Presidents proclamation
tha. it is made chiefly to supply an alleged de-
ficiency in former calls. am surprised at the
amount of this large deficiency, and can only
account for the difference between the number
of men furnished by the State and the dehclen-
cy alleged to exist in the assignment OF Inc
present quota, by the assumption that the men
never reached the army, although enlisted and
mustered after the payment OF bountles by the
localities to which they were supposed 10 oe
credited 1t is probable that there are very
few counties in the State which have not paid
large bounties for number of men sufficient
to fill their former quotas.
Taking the local bountics at the low average
of four hundred dollars, it IS believed that it
can be demonstrated that the people OF Penn
syIvania have thus been robbed of more thar
twelve millions of dollars during the past year
This estimate does not include he money fraud
ulently taken from men who have actually gont
into the service.
The continuance of these monstrous and un'
narall-led abuses cannot be tolerated.
Certainly more men are required to aid oui
gallant soldiers in the field in crushing this re-
bellion, and every consideration of patriotism
and of regard for our brothers wlo are now il
the face of the enemy, obliges us to spare no eff
fort to raise the necessary force.
| In June last gave letters to-a committee o
the prison society of Philadelphia, requesting
that the members of the committee might bt
allowed to visit and examine the prisons anc
pcor-h ouses throughout the Commonwealth
| | transmit with this communication a copy o
| the report made to me by the society OF the re
| suits of their labors, and commend the same t.
your attention with view to the adoption
! proper measures TO reform tho abuses which
! have been found to exist.
| In connection with this subject, again cal
/ vour attention to the expediency of providing
| for the reception in the penitentiaries, OF per
sons convicted of murder in the first degree, an'
who may be pardoned on condition of serving
| limited term therein. II has become Gus
tom that an incoming Governor should not IS
sue a warrant of execution in cases left unact
ed on by his predecessor, and it not nnfre
quently happens that even in cases which ar
recent, while some punishment should be infiic
ted, that of death may appear to the ExecH
| tive to be too severe. The result is that Their
are at this time, in the various prisons, som
eighteen or twenty persons under sentence q
death, and who may lie there for an indefinit
period of time.
The vast amount of additional labor whic
has been imposed upon the Secretary OF ID