Dark and dismal.
The Governor
continues his exemptions, now amounting to thousands. S. Basset French (State
agent to buy and sell supplies to the people), with one or more clerks, and
such laborers, etc. as may be necessary, I find among his last exemptions. A
smart and corrupt agent could make a fortune out of these exemptions. Of
course, the Governor's A. D. C. will do no such thing.
No news from below.
Rev. John Clark
writes from Stafford County that the conscripts there have hid themselves in
White Oak Swamp, because the Secretary of War has exempted an able-bodied man
to work for Mrs. ——, his —— widow.
Gen. Winder, with
the prisoners in the South, is in hot water again. He wants to make Cashmyer
suttler (like ancient Pistol), and Major —— the Secretary's agent, opposes it,
on the ground that he is a “Plug Ugly rogue and cut-throat."
Mr. George Davis,
Attorney-General Confederate States, has given it as his opinion that although
certain civil officers of the government were exempted from military service by
the Constitution, yet a recent act of Congress, decreeing that all residents
between the ages of 17 and 50 are in the military service, must be executed. In
other words, the cabinet ministers must “see that the laws be faithfully
executed,” even should they be clearly and expressly unconstitutional. Is not
the Constitution the law? Have they not sworn to support it, etc.? It seems to
me that this is a weak opinion.
It makes the
President ABSOLUTE. I fear this government in future times will be denounced as
a Cabal of bandits and outlaws, making and executing the most despotic decrees.
This decision will look bad in history, and will do no good at present.
How could the President “approve” such a law?
The desertions from
the Tredegar Battalion and other workshops—local defense—amount to between one
and two hundred since the 1st of September.