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The folly
of joining the army
Editorial from the New York Evening Post on Jan. 24, 1812
"Tricks upon Travellers," or "More Ways than one to kill a Cat." - Old
saws. We are certainly now to have a war, for Congress have voted to
have an army. But let me tell you, there is all the difference in the world
between an army on paper, and an army in the field.
An army on paper is voted in a whiff, but to raise an army, you must
offer men good wages. The wages proposed to be given to induce men
to come forward and enlist for five years, leave their homes and march
away to take Canada, is a bounty of $16, and $5 a month; and at the
end of the war, if they can get a certificate of good behavior, 160 acres
of wild land and three months' pay; for the purpose, I presume, of
enabling the soldier to walk off and find it, if he can.
Now I should really be glad to be informed, whether it is seriously
expected that, in a country where a stout able-bodied man can earn $15
a month from May to November, and a dollar a day during mowing and
harvesting, he will go into the army for a bounty of $16, $5 a month for
five years, if the war should last so long, and 160 acres of wild land, if he
happens to be on such good terms with his commanding officer as to
obtain a certificate of good behavior? Let the public judge if such
inducements as these will ever raise an army of 25,000 men, or ever
were seriously expected to do it? If not, can anything be meant more
than "sound and fury signifying nothing?" This may be called
humbugging on a large scale.
of joining the army
Editorial from the New York Evening Post on Jan. 24, 1812
"Tricks upon Travellers," or "More Ways than one to kill a Cat." - Old
saws. We are certainly now to have a war, for Congress have voted to
have an army. But let me tell you, there is all the difference in the world
between an army on paper, and an army in the field.
An army on paper is voted in a whiff, but to raise an army, you must
offer men good wages. The wages proposed to be given to induce men
to come forward and enlist for five years, leave their homes and march
away to take Canada, is a bounty of $16, and $5 a month; and at the
end of the war, if they can get a certificate of good behavior, 160 acres
of wild land and three months' pay; for the purpose, I presume, of
enabling the soldier to walk off and find it, if he can.
Now I should really be glad to be informed, whether it is seriously
expected that, in a country where a stout able-bodied man can earn $15
a month from May to November, and a dollar a day during mowing and
harvesting, he will go into the army for a bounty of $16, $5 a month for
five years, if the war should last so long, and 160 acres of wild land, if he
happens to be on such good terms with his commanding officer as to
obtain a certificate of good behavior? Let the public judge if such
inducements as these will ever raise an army of 25,000 men, or ever
were seriously expected to do it? If not, can anything be meant more
than "sound and fury signifying nothing?" This may be called
humbugging on a large scale.