The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-07-28

letters since the war began. He has pufrcd
himself incessantly, and has got the Committee
on the Conduct OF the War to putt him and
give a certificate that he Is a very good hero.
1t is Just like the certificates OF Geo. w.
Childs in faver of the Tribune, or the certif-
cate of John Jobson In praise of Brandreth's
pills. But the people don't believe it; and
| the more Butler says the more he is laughed at
! And It is not impossible that General Sher-
man, by the force Of many foolish speeches.
may make his own good record much less re-
| spectacle than ii is.
| The Military Power OF the Great Re-
public.
| IN the course of the exercises at the Yale
| College Commencement on Wednesday last
| General Parsons, of st. Louis, made speech.
| We have not had the pleasure of knowing
much about General Parsons, and under ord-
| nary circumstances speech from him would
| not attract much attention; but upon the
! present occasion General Parsons was fresh
| from an interview with Secretary Stanton, and
| the statements in his speech were made upon
| the authority of that official. General Parsons
said, then, that Secretary Stanton had already
| sent home about seven hundred and fifty
| thousand soldiers; that one hundred thousand
more would be ON the route in few days, and
| that at the time of Lees surrender the Union
| forces were within two or three thousand of
round million of men.
These enormous numbers will give our own
! citizens and our foreign critics some definite
- xho IF
republic. During the war the North has lost
about FIVE hundred thousand men in killed
and disabled, and the South about seven
hundred thousand. Here were twelve hundred
thousand men placed hors de combat, and yet
our ranks were full when the war closed. At
| the time of Lees surrender the South had
about three hundred thousand men In the
field, counting those who wee upon the muster
rolls, byt Who bad anticipated the dnal defeat
BY dessrting. On our side, as we have seen,
/ there we're million Of soldiers divided
among our various armies. OF these, eight
hundred and fifty or nine hundred thousand
have already been dismissed, or are pre-
pairing to retire. The balance will probably
be retained for the present and subsequently
discharged in patches of ten thousand, as the
restoration of the Union progresses, until only
our regular standing army of few thousand
men is left in the service.
But the point to which, most Of all, we desire
to direct attention is, that at least six hundred
thousand of our discharged veterans can again
| be called to the field at the tap of the drum
whenever the government may require their
aid in foreign war; Within six weeks we can
again have an army six hundred thousand
strong. This army will be composed of
veterans, against whom the volunteer militia of
England or the holiday soldiers Of France are
as nothing. These men have fought over half
| q continent, and are trained in all martial ex-
ercises. They constitute o continual defence
for the country they have saved, and are the
only standing army we shall need for many
| years to come. II, on the one hand, these
facts teach our government how cafe it is to be
economical in regard to our military establish
ment in time of peace, on the other hand they
teach foreign governments how formidable this
republic will always be in time of war.
Thirteen hundred thousand veteran soldiers,
North and South, are not the only military
strength of this country. Behind them and dis
tinct from them are the militia of the several
States, well drilled, thoroughly equipped, and,
as their brief campaigns have shown, by no
means Ineffective. Then again, there Ia the
| great body of citizens behind the militia
and ready TO furnish volunteers. But mill
lion and three hundred thousand trained
and experienced soldiers is larger nucleus
for an army than any other country possesses,
and than any other country has ever possessed
before Napoleon never had such an army in
his best and brightest days. Half of this force,
as We have said, could be placed in the field in
six weeks, and the other half could speedily
follow. During the recent war Europe has had
a chance to estimate the comparative strength
of the North and the South; but now Europeans
must learn TO estimate the strength of the
North and South combined. II will prove a
curious and instructive study. When the
Emperor Napoleon has finished teaching the
Prince Imperial all about Algiers we hope that
he will take up this subject and give the
young Prince few lessons upon it, apropos of
Mexico. The military mathematics, for which
| we here furnish him the data, will be found
| quite as interesting and much more important
than the discussion of the schemes for French
| colonization.
| Governor Fenton md Municipal Re-
form.
The heads OF departments and the Chase
radical politicians of this city have been trying
to patch up some arrangement whereby the
| present city officials shall not be disturbed by