It is believed that such a rule, properly guarded, would effectually prevent the grievous and unanswerable complaints which have come up to this office from sub-districts in the agricultural portions of the State, and from small settlements and villages, that they were robbed and depleted of their arms- bearing population by the wealthy cities and towns under the temptation of enormous bounties, with which they could not possibly compete, being thus compelled to fill quotas based upon an enrollment a large percentage of which, having been credited elsewhere, could not be present to bear their portion in the responsibility of a draft.

Next to the errors of the enrollment, the practical injustice of the rule and manner of credits which has very extensively prevailed in this State, and no less, I presume, in other States, has been the most prolific source of irritation and hard feeling. It is simply impossible to convince the honest people of a sub-district that it is right or just to place them at the mercy of their wealthy neighbors, to be stripped of their young men and left to meet the emergencies of the draft with but a fraction of their rightful resources. It is confidently believed that the only true principle is, first, to obtain a complete and reliable enrollment, and then make each sub-district responsible for its own quota, insuring it credit for every man enlisted from it, making actual residence, as shown and verified by the enrollment lists, the rule and test of the place of credit in every case. It is further believed that the same rule should apply in the case of the enlistment of aliens, minors, persons over age-in a word, in the case of all persons who may for any reason not be liable to enrollment, so far as the question of residence can in such cases be determined, proper evidence of which could easily be prescribed and required.

I am aware that the adjustment of this matter upon a basis that shall be just alike to the public interests of the sub-district and the private interests of the individual is extremely difficult; but the number and enormity of the wrongs which have been committed and endured and enormity of the wrongs which have been committed and endured under existing permissive regulations, or, rather, in spite of the spirit and intent of existing orders, call loudly for a remedy; and I do not see that any other would be more effective and, in the main, just than the one suggested.

4. Substitute brokers.-In my judgment the strong hand of the Government should be laid upon the whole heartless crew of substitute brokers, whether as principals or subordinates, and all others who would make merchandise of the necessities and calamities of the country. The whole business is founded upon a supreme and sordid selfishness, and prosecuted with a degree of unprincipled recklessness and profligacy unparalleled in the annals of corruption and fraud. The traffic is too odious to be engaged in by respectable men, or, if such persons do embark in it with honest intentions at first, they soon become so corrupted by the nefarious practices to which competition compels them to resort as to lose all claim to the character of Honorable men. The whole thing is demoralizing to those engaged in it, whether as agents or subjects, and a disgrace to the people who connive at it devices which no vigilance can wholly prevent, great numbers of men wholly unfit for military duty. It disgraces the honest soldier and the service by conferring the dignity of the Federal uniform upon branded felons; upon blotched and bloated libertines and pimps; upon thieves, burglars, and vagabonds; upon the riff-raff of corruption and scoundrelism of every shade and degree of infamy which can be swept into the insatiable clutches of the vampires who fatten