Whether the cost of forming and keeping up such a
force of reserve would have greatly exceeded the cost of the recent
draft, we do not pretend to know. We are inclined to think it would not.
But that is a question of little moment. Money wisely spent is well
spent: money unwisely saved is ill saved. With such a force, the recent
draft might not have been necessary--at all events there would have been
no necessity for suspending active military operations in Virginia, and
awaiting the slow completion of the draft, at a moment when, large
additions to the forces in the field were precisely the one thing
needful. The army of reserve would at once have supplied disciplined
soldiers, and their places in the camps of instruction and reserve could
have been filled with the new conscripts as fast as they were collected.
CONSOLATION--ENFORCEMENT OF THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK.
But grave as the error is which we have signalized, there is something
that might well console us for greater misfortunes than it has entailed,
and which gives us another illustration of the truth that God and Time
often work for us better than we for ourselves, and out of our errors
bring good that we could not forecast.
It would not be wise to assert that the not having such a reserved force
necessitated the recent draft, and thereby occasioned the horrible
outbreak in New York. But if it may even be safely suggested as possibly
true, the successful enforcement of the draft becomes all the more a
matter for boundless joy and congratulation.
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