3. No provision herein contained will be constructed as doing away with existing regulations governing the subject of musters.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Albany, August 3, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: It is my duty to call your attention to the enrollments made with a view to the draft lately ordered by the President. I find that the quota assigned to New York is much larger than the numbers demanded from other Atlantic States, and that in some of the Congressional district they are especially excessive and injurious. The average quota in the thirty-one Congressional districts of New York is 2,881; in Massachusetts and New Hampshire they are 2,167; in Pennsylvania, 2,571. It will be seen that the average demand made on every Congressional district in this State is for 310 men per district more than are required in Pennsylvania, and for 714 men per district more than in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

I name these States, as I have not been able to procure the quotas assigned elsewhere.

There are no differences in the character of the population of these States to account for these discrepancies.

The most oppressive enrollments appear in the Congressional districts made up in the cities of New York and Brooklyn. The average demand made upon these is for 3,855 men each, while in the State of Massachusetts the average demand made upon each district is for 2,167 men. The census returns show that the proportion of aliens and females in the large towns should make their quota less, not greater, than in other sections. These returns are confirmed by the character of their respective populations. Not only are aliens numerous in New York and Brooklyn but females make a larger proportionate number than elsewhere, as they find more employment in workshops or as domestics.

If a comparison is made between cities of different States the disproportion of men demanded from New York and Brooklyn is still more starling. While in these cities 26 per cent. of the population is enrolled, in Boston only 12 1\2 per cent. (or less than one-half that ratio) are made liable to be drafted.

The ten Congressional districts of Massachusetts are required to furnish under the last call only 21,670 men. The first ten Congressional districts in this State are called on for 35,954, making an excess of 14,284.

It is clear that great injustice is done under these enrollments. I do not mean to find fault with those who made them in the cities of New York and Brooklyn. I know that what they state is true; that it is not possible to avoid the enrollment there of persons who are not liable to be drafted because they are aliens or non-residents. Those whose names are thus erroneously put down have no interest in correcting the lists, while the fact that they swell the enrollment brings grievous burdens upon the districts to which they are charged.

The draft makes a heavy drain upon all parts of our country. In our cities it is a terrible affliction. A great proportion of their inhabitants live upon daily wages, which they must receive with regularity