Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-03-17
- - FnroIment Law.

20 be credited to the sub-distriot in which
they reside. We learn from the Cincinnati
papers that public meeting has been, held
in that city, and committee appointed to
visit the Provost Marshal General and
procure different construction Of the law
1t Is stated that In many districts, the
effect of the new order has been to stop re.
cruiting, and that many recruits are being
refused because they cannot be credited
except to their place of residence.
Il has been common of late TO denounee
the orders of the Provost Msrshal General,
and the War Department, as unreason-
able, oppressive and absurd, whenever any
local hardship or inconvenience results.
We csll attention to the accused section
of the new law, which VIC publish in an
other column, and the evils it was designed
to prevent.
With 8 view 10 stimulate recruiting, the
law of 1854 provided that volunteers
might be credited to any sub-district they
should select. From this provision several
serious evils resulted.
/. The Weather sub-districts, by yohsring
large bounties, were enabled to fill their
quotas without putting their own citizens
into the army, but this was done at the
expense of the poorer townships, which
were compelled to AI their own quotas
based on their full number of enrolled men,
and In hundreds of instances their number
of able-bodied men had been so reduced,
before the draft by enlistments to the Gre
dit of other townships, that every remain
ing enrolled man was dIsf.ed before the
Quota was filed. In some instances there
we're not enough able-bOdied men left to
III the quota. Not only were the weaker
townships thus robbed Of their lsboring
men to tighten tbs burdens of their richer
neighbors, but, by the late laws, they were
taxed to support the families Of sll soldiers
residing within their limits. For example,
q township having one hundred enrolled
men, with an assigned quota of twenty,
might have forty Of its abls-bodied men
enlisted TO the credit of other townships,
and from the remaining sixty its quota of
twenty must be obtained Thus sixty of its
productive laborers enter the army, and its
property is taxed to support sixty families,
and thus the heaviest drain, both Of men
and money, is made upon those who are
least able TO bear it.
2. Tha habit of crediting men 20 town
chips in which they did not reside and were
not known, gsve rise to the infamous prsc-
tice of bounty jumping, which has become
go alarmingly prevalent during the last six
months. Men who had enlisted to the
credit of one district deserted before they
reschsd the field, aud enlisted to the credit
of srothe. district and repeated the pro-
cess sgain and again. Col. Baker has now
under arIea, in New York, more than two
hundred bounty Jumpers, some of whom
have deserted and enlisted twenty times,
saving large bounty by each enlistment
In many instances officers and employees
at the offices of the Provost MarshAIs have
been in collusion with these swindlers, and
shared the proceeds.
3. Another result Of the system has been
the establishment of substitute brokerage
and in all our principal cities the
scoundrels engaged in this business have
opened Offices and put out their signs, an
aouncing, with shsmeless efrOntery, that
st their shops men were bought and sold.
Minors, idiots, deserters, inaane and into1-
icated persons have been bought for q trife
and sold to the credit of different localities
at exorbitant rates, By refnsmsnt--of
villsiny they hsye forged csrti6csteslof en-
listmenta, and helped to Ill quotas by paper
edits, without adding man to the army.
A large proportion Of the men obtained
for the army under the present and former
calls proved worthless, and it is notorious
that more desertions have occurred among
substitutes than from all the resto the army.
A Colonel in the Army of the Cumberland
lately reported that, ont of sixty-fve sub
sHtutes sent to his regiment last summer,
over fifty deserted within four moRths from |
the QhlS OF klelE 6llisLn61b.
To strike down an these evils at one
blow, section l4of the act of March 3, 1866, |
provides tina. all recruits shall be credited
to the township or ward in which they re-
side, and are enrolled or liable to enrol
ment. OF course this would not include |
aliens who have no legal residence.
It Is difficult to understand how any one
can deny the justice of requiring each |
township to bear its own burdens, both of |
men and money, for the support of the
army. Eaa T
Men enlisted 70 the credit Of their
own township, receiving bounties from
their neighbors, will honorsbly and brave
" sustain the honor of their township in
the field.
We are glad that the Secretary of War
recommended and that Congress adopted
section which promises to make thorough
reform in the mstters referred to above
No doubt tais marked change in the law
Will work considerable hardship on those
districts which are new behind in filing
their quotas. That they are behind, how
ever, is their own fault, and neither Con-
grsss nor the Provost Marshal should be
blamed because dilatory townships are
compelled to make grester exertions than
those which have avaiIed themselves of the
former law toescaps the draft But these
objections are more than compensated for
by the fact that We get rid of q system
which helped one district at the expense of
HnotheT-was costly to the cOuntry-and
not profitable to the army. We remember
that much dissatisfaction was expressed q
year ago at the repeal ofthe law allowing