I
Feel Convinced That I Am Putting This Somewhat Too Low, Taking The
Average Of All The Markets From Which The Labor Has Been Withdrawn.
In Large Cities Labor Has Been Much Higher Than This, And A
Considerable Proportion Of The Army Has Been Taken From Large
Cities.
But, taking 65 cents a day as the average, labor has been
worth about 17 dollars a month over
And above the laborer's diet.
In the army the soldier receives 13 dollars a month, and also
receives his diet and clothes; in addition to this, in many States,
6 dollars a month have been paid by the State to the wives and
families of those soldiers who have left wives and families in the
States behind them. Thus for the married men the wages given by the
army have been 2 dollars a month, or less than 5l. a year, more than
his earnings at home, and for the unmarried man they have been 4
dollars a month, or less than 10l. a year, below his earnings at
home. But the army also gives clothing to the extent of 3 dollars a
month. This would place the unmarried soldier, in a pecuniary point
of view, worse off by one dollar a month, or 2l. l0s. a year, than
he would have been at home; and would give the married man 5 dollars
a month, or 12l. a year, more than his ordinary wages, for absenting
himself from his family. I cannot think, therefore, that the
pecuniary attractions have been very great.
Our soldiers in England enlist at wages which are about one-half
that paid in the ordinary labor market to the class from whence they
come. But labor in England is uncertain, whereas in the States it
is certain. In England the soldier with his shilling gets better
food than the laborer with his two shillings; and the Englishman has
no objection to the rigidity of that discipline which is so
distasteful to an American. Moreover, who in England ever dreamed
of raising 600,000 new troops in six months, out of a population of
thirty million? But this has been done in the Northern States out
of a population of eighteen million. If England were invaded,
Englishmen would come forward in the same way, actuated, as I
believe, by the same high motives. My object here is simply to show
that the American soldiers have not been drawn together by the
prospect of high wages, as has been often said since the war began.
They who inquire closely into the matter will find that hundreds and
thousands have joined the army as privates, who in doing so have
abandoned all their best worldly prospects, and have consented to
begin the game of life again, believing that their duty to their
country has now required their services. The fact has been that in
the different States a spirit of rivalry has been excited. Indiana
has endeavored to show that she was as forward as Illinois;
Pennsylvania has been unwilling to lag behind New York;
Massachusetts, who has always struggled to be foremost in peace, has
desired to boast that she was first in war also; the smaller States
have resolved to make their names heard, and those which at first
were backward in sending troops have been shamed into greater
earnestness by the public voice.
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