To Me It Is Always A Source Of Sorrow To See A Man Enlisted.
I Feel That The Individual Recruit Is Doing Badly With Himself -
Carrying Himself, And The Strength And Intelligence Which Belong To
Him, To A Bad Market.
I know that there must be soldiers; but as
to every separate soldier I regret that he should be
One of them.
And the higher is the class from which such soldiers are drawn, the
greater the intelligence of the men so to be employed, the deeper
with me is that feeling of regret. But this strikes one much less
in an old country than in a country that is new. In the old
countries population is thick and food sometimes scarce. Men can
be spared; and any employment may be serviceable, even though that
employment be in itself so unproductive as that of fighting battles
or preparing for them. But in the Western States of America every
arm that can guide a plow is of incalculable value. Minnesota was
admitted as a State about three years before this time, and its
whole population is not much above 150,000. Of this number perhaps
40,000 may be working men. And now this infant State, with its
huge territory and scanty population, is called upon to send its
heart's blood out to the war.
And it has sent its heart's best blood. Forth they came - fine,
stalwart, well-grown fellows - looking, to my eye, as though they
had as yet but faintly recognized the necessary severity of
military discipline.
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