same right to express an opinion with regard to this as any other matter of public policy.
I thought at the time, and think still, that a most unstatesmanlike blunder was committed in permitting conscripts to furnish substitutes, and in paying bounties to encourage voluntary enlistments. The results were, that the government did not get the men it needed, while villanies, the demoralizing influences of which penetrated to nearly every class of society, were directly encouraged.
There should have been a rigid conscription law, under which all citizens, whether rich or poor, would have been treated exactly the same. The men- who were drafted, if fit for service, should have been compelled to shoulder their muskets and go to the front.
If there was any justice in the war at all, it was a rich man's fight just as much as it was a poor man's; and when the time came for deciding who should and who should not take a turn on the battle-field, the chances ought to have been equal, between the rich men and the poor men, of drawing prizes or blanks in the lottery.
Had things been managed as I have suggested, not only would impartial justice have been done, but the proportions of the national debt would have been greatly curtailed, while the generals in the field would have kept their ranks full, and the downfall of the Confederacy would have occurred at a very much earlier day than it did.
Colonel Baker Undertakes to Investigate the Frauds.
During the whole time that I was interested in this bounty-jumping and substitute-brokerage business, it was a matter of constant surprise to me that some effort was not being made by the government to put a stop to the outrageous frauds that were being committed in the most open manner every day.
The matter finally was taken in hand by Colonel Baker, who came on to New York, and located himself at the Astor House, for the purpose of instituting an investigation. He kept himself very quiet, and endeavored to prevent those against whom he was operating from knowing that he was in the city until he was ready to deal with them. It was necessary that he should have some assistance, however, in order to begin right; and, by that peculiar good fortune by which I
