General Mcclellan On Drunkenness

recent! y, as uot satisfactory, the finding of a oourt martial, with the following pnnted, just, and timely admonitions : " Tlie testimony iu the case exhibits a most disgruoeful state of things. Au officer reccivcs from a 'ñiord' in a neighboring city, a case of liquors. The arrival oí' tiiis mischievous box in camp ts tho signal and the occasion of a most disgracei'ul broach of discipline. It secms that all the ucquaiutauccs, oflicers and men, of the recipiënt, worp ctilled in to purtake of this most pernieious gift, whieh if it had been sent by an cueiny. pould not have been moro perfectly adapt ed to work iijury to tho regiment. - From druukcuness brought on by drinking iu this aseiublage, procoeded tlie iüsubíirdinate couduct of the prisoner. "This w.-is no palüation ot' his oíTcess, but an addition to it. No one cvil so muoh obstructs tliis ariny in its progrese to that condition which j'ill cnablo it to accomplish all that true soldiers can, as the degrading vico of druukenness. It is tbe cause of by far the greator part of'the disorders which are tried by COTirtinartiaí It is inipossible to estímate the benefits that would aucrue to the service from the adoption of a resolution on ihe part of tlie oJücers to set thejr men an eiample of total abstinenco from intoxicating drinkt. It would bo worth fifty thousand men to the army of the Uuited States" To which the Vcrmont Chronide coiumeuts thus : "Worth 50,000 men 1 This is not the opinión of a recluso, unaequainted with the ways of the world, or as a fiig"ht oí' hoated declamation, but the calm stutemeDt of one whose esperience and pogisition clothe his words relating to sucli a subject with the highest authoi-ity. The last two sentcnces - the two paragraphs in fact - deaerve to bo written in letters of gold fur the instruction of the country, and poured in üro and thunder upon the ears of driuking oiEoers."