November 2d.–Dark and dismal.
The Governor continues his exemptions, now amounting to thousands. S. Basset French (State agent to buy and sell supplies to the people), with one or more clerks, and such laborers, etc. as may be necessary, I find among his last exemptions. A smart and corrupt agent could make a fortune out of these exemptions. Of course, the Governor’s A. D. C. will do no such thing.
No news from below.
Rev. John Clark writes from Stafford County that the conscripts there have hid themselves in White Oak Swamp, because the Secretary of War has exempted an able-bodied man to work for Mrs. ––, his –– widow.
Gen. Winder, with the prisoners in the South, is in hot water again. He wants to make Cashmyer suttler (like ancient Pistol), and Major ––, the Secretary’s agent, opposes it, on the ground that he is a “Plug Ugly rogue and cut-throat.”
Mr. George Davis, Attorney-General Confederate States, has given it as his opinion that although certain civil officers of the government were exempted from military service by the Constitution, yet a recent act of Congress, decreeing that all residents between the ages of 17 and 50 are in the military service, must be executed. In other words, the cabinet ministers must “see that the laws be faithfully executed,” even should they be clearly and expressly unconstitutional. Is not the Constitution the law? Have they not sworn to support it, etc.? It seems to me that this is a weak opinion.
It makes the President ABSOLUTE. I fear this government in future times will be denounced as a Cabal of bandits and outlaws, making and executing the most despotic decrees. This decision will look bad in history, and will do no good at present. How could the President “approve” such a law?
The desertions from the Tredegar Battalion and other workshops–local defense–amount to between one and two hundred since the 1st of September.