Year: 1861

AID me Cassus or sink"-JULIUs CESAR.
We deem no apology necessary for again calling
the attention of the Convention and of the public
70 the most agitious and reckless instance of EX
ecutive extravaganza which has ever been brought
TO our notice. It is pecllary the duty of the Con-
yention 10 offer the Knife to the abuse in question:
as an ordinance of the Convention was the innocent
cause of it. 1t is instance of folly and disregard
of the necessities of the Confederate States which
has produced most Just indignation. When the Con-
vention clothed the Governor of Virginia with the
power Of appointing aids" no one dreamed that
an official who had clambered up to his present /
position mainly by his reputation for rigid economy
as a public man, would have deliberately kicked
away the ladder upon which that reputation rests
bv burdening heavily indebted State, during a
most expensive war. with nearly thirty thousand
dollars Oc0rth Of aids At least such is the sum of
their cost price. This abuse of the appointing pow
err when first reported to US, seemed too outrageous
to be credible but we have been furnished with the
names of fourteen of the Governors Aids some of
whom have the pay Of Colonies, and the rest the
"pav of Captains" None of these officials receive
pay at the rate of less than eighteen hundred dollars
per annum and some receive at the rate of two
thousand dollars per annum. By this unheard of
extravaganza of Gov. Letcher, the Confederate
States taxed with the support of fourteen gentle
men of whose labOurS no one can give the least &C
count. What the Governor does with ody-guard
of fourteen COlonels one knows, unless he
templates some secret and desperate expedition
against Grafton, Newport News Alexandria Fortress
Monroe or the White House. He requires the per-
sona services of "ColonelS' enough for an army of
IL 900 men. And yet the gigantic military under
takingS which neceSSitates the employment of this
army of Aids nobody can fathom


In Turkey, they have BaShaws with two tails"
and Bashaws with three and five tails, according to
their rank but Virginia is the only State of our
acquaintance where there is " Bashaw with nine
teen tails" for if the five sages of the Aulic Coun
Gil are added the fourteen ColOnels, the total
of Gov. Letchers Aids is, learn, just nineteen.


We doubt whether the President of the Confed
crate States active, able soldier and statesman,
who directs the military, not less than the civil de-
partments of a vast Contederacy, has One-fourth
many Aids as economical and frugal John Letcher"
Although the Governor of Virginia long since
"burnt his ship" as a redhot friend of the South,
had hoped that he had not forgotten the title of
which he was once so proud, as the " watchdog of
the Treasury" The Cerberus of the Treasury must
have been sleeping as sound as the seven SleeperS
when he organized his brigade of "COlonels."


1t becomes the Convention, as the innocent cause
of all this unparalleled extravaganza to investigate
and Ventilate the whole hject of the Aids. When
the women giving their jewels to the cause Of
independence; when the clergy soliciting contr
buttons from the pulpit when faithful officials of all
sorts practicing the strictest economy to feed
our noble and brave soldiers who are exposed to
wind, rain disease, and every hardship, what right
had Governor Letcher to surround his precious per-
with twenty-five thirty thousand dollars
worth Of superfuous Colonels? What right has he
to more than a single Aid, when Generals Wise and
Floyd, and others of his predecessors, are making
ready to beard the enemy at the head of their thou
sands of brave men, with a single Aid each?


An indignant and heavily taxed people, with the
burden of long war upon their shoulders will
Glamour Indignantly until this gigantic specimen of
Executive extravaganza and folly is swept away by
TloG g
be taught one of those sharp lessons in economy
which, as Congressman, he delighted to teach to
others.


He has been stripped of all pretext for retaining
any of this army of Aids He has no military con-
troll or authority since the Dowb department of the
Government went to pieces before the advance de-
partmentS of the Confederate States. He bears to
President Davis the same relations that the old King
of Delhi did to the Governor Generals of India; he
has a comfortable house, good salary, and no pow
worth mentioning.


Let the Convention, therefore, repair its mistake
by sweeping away that useless excrescence, the
Aulic Council each member of which receives eight
dollars day. That body is now useless is
the rough scafoldng around finished edifice. The
sacred cause of Southern independence requires that
clean sweep should be made of every siRecure
berth in the Confederate States. If Gov Letcher
has not the decency and good taste to conform to
this first duty of the patriot we trust that the gen.





imaginary services, will refuse to be parties to
wrong which costs the Confederate States nearly
thirty thousand dollars per aunum.


Ii this abuse continues, the just indignation of
the people, and the natural prejudice of those Off
GERS and soldiers who are to bear the real hardshps
OF the campaign, will render the pay of Captain
scarcely adequate compensation for the odium of
being known hereafter as one of Letcher's fourteen
Aids, with the rank of Colonel


These gentlemen must know that since the Gov
of Virginia has shrveed back to the dimensi-
ons of the old executive machine for granting par
dons and reprieves there is nothing for them to do
unless it be to kick their heels in his Office or ride
at his horses TAIL when he bursts with all the efful-
gence of office upon the startled vision of the SOL
diers at the various encampments around this city.
For their own sakeS, we conjure them, whilst there
is yet time to return quietly home to their farms,
law offices and patients, atone for their brief as
sistance of the late Dowb department of the Gov
ernment by shouldcring their muskets. Let them
save themselves before the nickname of "Letcher's
COlonelS" becomes as unpleasant as the shirt OF
NesSus. This advice is kindly meant.


In striking contrast with the reckless extravag-
ance of the head of the dead Dowb department. in
taxing the cause of Southern independence with a
legion of unnecessary Aids stares forth the rigid
economy of all the departments of that able, sincere
energetic Government which has planted its stand
ard upon the ruins of the Dowb Castle of Doubt,
Delay, DETECTION, Despair and DisaffectiOn. The
Secretaries of the several departments slaughter
ing sinecures by the hundred The patriotic and
ceaheaded Secretary of the Treasury has saved the
Confederate States hundreds of thousands of dollars
by cutting down the expenses of his department
The heads of the other departments are doing the
same. The late Watch Dog of the Treasury ap-
spears to be the only official who sees nothing in the
necessities of the South to make him conform his
eXamDle economist to his al teach-