Bright morning, but a cold, cloudy, windy day.
A great crowd of people have been at the Treasury building all day, funding Treasury notes. It is to be hoped that as money gets scarcer, food and raiment will get cheaper.
Mr. Benton, the dentist, escaped being conscribed last year by the ingenuity of his attorney, G. W. Randolph, formerly Secretary of War, who, after keeping his case in suspense (alleging that dentists were physicians or experts) as long as possible, finally contrived to have him appointed hospital steward—the present Secretary consenting. But now the enrolling officer is after him again, and it will be seen what he is to do next. The act says dentists shall serve as conscripts.
And Mr. Randolph himself was put in the category of conscripts by the late military act, but Gov. Smith has decreed his exemption as a member of the Common Council! Oh, patriotism, where are thy votaries? Some go so far as to say Gov. Smith is too free with exemptions!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 177
