Today in History:

603 Series III Volume IV- Serial 125 - Union Letters, Orders, Reports

Page 603 UNION AUTHORITIES.

"It is equally for the interest of each person enrolled in a given town or ward to place upon the list all persons in his town or ward liable to do military duty, because the greater the number to be drawn from the less chance that any particular individual will be drawn. As it is the personal interest of every enrolled man that the quota in which he is concerned shall not be made too large, and that his own chance for draft shall not be unjustly increased, and as both these objects will be attained by striking out the wrong names and putting in the right ones, there can be no serious difficulty in securing the co-operation of citizens for the purpose of making a correct enrollment.

"JAMES B. FRY,

"Provost-Marshal-General."

Secretary Stanton's dispatch to General Dix states that a call will be made at once and that a draft will be ordered from the 1st of July next. The quota of the several districts and sub- districts will probably be the same as under the call of October 17, 1863, for 600,000 men, from New York.

JOHN T. SPRAGUE,

Adjutant-General.

[Indorsement.]

Respectfully forwarded for the information of the Provost- Marshal-General.

It has been the special care of this office to keep the Governor advised of all movements in which he may be possibly concerned.

FREDK. TOWNSEND,

Lieutenant Colonel Ninth U. S. Infantry. Actg. Asst. Provost- Marshal-General.

On the 25th of June, 1864, the Governor's office was furnished with a copy of Circular Numbers 24, from this office, prescribing how the revision of the enrollment should be conducted, and providing "that any person enrolled may appear before the Board and claim to have a name (that is, any name) stricken from the list." This order recites that the "revision and correction of these lists is a continuous duty to which the labors of all the boards must be directed." The opportunity to make corrections in New York, heretofore neglected, is, therefore, still open, and this can be done in time, if the people interested will aid in it.

The claim to have each three-years" man in excess from the cities of New York and Brooklyn counted as there men is answered by the opinion of the Solicitor of the War Department on the subject, dated August 1, 1864 (herewith*).

The Governor further says:

These excessive enrollment also subject to heavy taxation those who have been foremost in filling the National Treasury, &c.

The taxation referred to results from the payment of bounties to volunteers raised toward the quotas based upon the enrollment; it has been voluntary on the part of the people. I do not know how the wealth of New York City and the amount it has been taxed for bounties will compare with the wealth of the rural districts of New York and elsewhere, and the amounts they have taxed themselves for the same purpose; but I doubt whether such a comparison would justify a claim on the part of [the] city to liberality surpassing the rural districts of the State on this point.

The Governor says finally:

In answer to an appeal which I made to you last year to correct a similar wrong, you appointed * * * a commission to examine the enrollment of 1863. They submitted an able report, showing it s great injustice, and you relieved these cities from a great wrong. I urge that some similar plan be adopted now whereby the quota of this State, which, especially in the districts I have names, including

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*See p. 562.

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Page 603 UNION AUTHORITIES.