, 1865-03-24
THE CEVHL WAR IN AMERICA.
(Fr0m the Times Correspondent.
New York, Feb. IA.

%NNH ANLNj ~ k
Unpleasant truths are, and have to be, uttered to
the people both Of North and South. At the great
war meeting held vt Richmond, Immediately after
the failure of the peace negotiations, Mr.. Benjamin,
the Confederate Secretary OF State, declared that
he came before his fellow countrymen to say dis
agreeable things. He insisted that no further rein
f0rcements for the Confederate army could be
drawn from the white population, and that If the
negroes were not induced to volunteer on the pro-
mise of freedom, and in large numbers, it would
be necessary for General Lee to abandon Virginia
to the enemy. It is true that many OF the Con-
federate leaders and the Confederate Congress do
not take so gloomy a view of the situation, and
that the latter has declined to arm the negroes, on
the ground that the C0nfoderacy is not reduced to
such q state of exhaustion as to demand the trial
of SO perilous an experiment but that men like
Mr.. Benjamin, and moro especially General Lee,
should be Of a contrary opinion IS sufficient to
prove that the South is greatly suffering tor want
of men. But the statesmen of the North, who are
not too deeply immersed in party politics and
mean intrigues Tor place and power to survey the
whole situation Of their country, the dark side as
well as the light, with the sole object OF discover
ing the truth, might find as ample reason as Mr..
Benjamin to say disagreublo things. The North
is urgently, it not desperately, in want 81 men,
and knows not where to find them, except by re
sort to the dangerous process Of a compulsory
levy. 1t has tried volunteering and pumped tho
well dry. IL mas nau recourse 10 lll9I DOUBTLESS,
and been rewarded with nothing better than the
dregs of Europe, fellows who enlisted in dozen
places one after the other only to desert as soon as
thoy received a fraction Of their hire, and never
contributed Il seryiCeablo man to the ranks OF the
army. And, more than that, it has raised up in
New York and other citos a cloud Of bou05y-
brokers and swindlers, who when they could not
supply the duped and defrauded Government with
~cripplos and lunatics, with dragged and hocussad
soiIorS and other Str1uGRrS. with the refuse Of
prisons and penitontiaries, with all the yiIest ma
terial in the form Of humanity that the vice and
oriminality Of Europe and America could afford,
have resortcd to wholesale forgery and provided
imaginary recruits by the thousands, who had 10
other existence than a fictitious name upon a Slip
of printed paper, daily signed by officials who
would sign anything for $50, or u smaller sum.
BY these agencies the people, as we'll as the Co
yernment, have been robbed Of millions of dollars
and scores, if not hundreds OF rural towns and
villages, the citizens of which imagined they had
escaped the draught by means Of men purchased
in Now York and elsewhere to till their quotas,
find that their money has been expended in vain,
and that not a single recruit can be credited to
their eXertions. Tho bounty system is 50 com,
pletoly a breakdown, and has produced such wrong
and hardship to the enrichment OF a moro atroci-
Gus crew of public plunderers than ever before af-
hicted q people that no possible means is left TO
recruit the Federal armies, except a CONSUMPTION,
m WHICH, tFtI4 lkll NAtH ti+FS ~ %S'.iI'ytiti II
serve or purchase and be responsible for q sub
%stitute. The draught ought to have commenced
tomorrow, according to the terms ofM Lincoln's
last proclamation, but in consequence OF the dis
oovery of the enormous frauds perpotrateQ within
the last six months, as well as of the apathy Of the
population liable to draught, which has prevented
the proper enrolment in many cities, it is probable
that it viii be postponed, no one knows for how
long q period. There are not wanting hundreds
of Jealous supporters of tie Government and the
war who recommend that the draught be rigidIy
enforced, and predict that the people will quietly
submit to it. The result may prove that these
gentlemen are right, but it is useless to disguise or
DENY the fact that the Government itself is not
quite so sure on the matter, and that it hositates to
put the loyalty and determination Of the people to
a test so crucial. Nor is the money difficulty,
though not equal to that of the South, to be
lightly estimated. Mr.. Fessenden's official report
on the debt and the present state of the national
finances, addressed to the Committee of Ways and
Means, and published yesterday evening, is by no
means u cheerful document, though it only admits
a debt of about a thousand millions of dollars less
than NEST people anticipated. He reckons the
debt bearing interest in gold at S 1852, $50, 439;
the debt bearing interest in lawful money Il. G
greenbacks) at 5000, 570,952, land other liabilities
at $457, 608, 054 or, in all, s., 153, 735,441. This
is merely the debt incurred by the Federal Co
vernment in the prosecution of the war, and does
not include any of the liabilities incurred for the
roUna r,rnoco hy C4o%og oonp+ioc aDd towns ~