Burlington Free Press

THE ARMY.—There is something now existing in this important branch of our Government which is wrong, and which threatens to strip our army of the most experienced and its most brave and gallant officers. In a General Order lately published we find a list of thirty resignations, which, says the New York American, "large as is that number for so small a force as ours, it does not, as we have reason to believe, comprise one third of the resignations actually on file in the war office, awaiting the decision of the Commander-in Chief. This is a state of things fitted to excite inquiry—and inquiry would lead, we apprehend, to the conviction, that the army is losing its high tone, under the discouragements of every sort to which it is exposed, both from those who, officially, should be its guardians, and from public indifference.

The "spoils system," the odious, corrupting spoils system, which, of itself, should put Mr. Van Buren, its great founder and promoter, under the ban of every honest man's opinion, is eating its way into the army: and even there, where the spirit of honor and emulation in noble deeds, have been wont alone to rule, the discovery is made, and practised on, that party subserviency may find its reward. Men wearing an honorable uniform have not been ashamed to plead party services, as a consideration for advancement, or other favors—and appointments—as recently in the organization of the second regiment of dragoons, and habitually, in the selection of paymasters—are made, not for military merit, or services, or acquirements, or education, but on sheer party grounds. This must, of course, both dishearten, and disgust, those who, having from early life devoted themselves to a military career, see ravished from them by others, strangers to the service, the promotions they had looked to, through long years of expectation, and have the effect of subjecting the army, in some degree, to the contemptuous estimate which men of honor and character are compelled to form, under present circumstances, of the general class of office-holders.

Moreover there has been a niggardly spirit of economy, not only in the compensation of officers, but in restraining them from every sort of extra allowances, whatever the occasion. For instance, young officers are sent to a station where in order to preserve the appearance which should be inseparable from their rank, they must expend a considerable sum of their pay, in fitting up their quarters, Again and again, however, has it happened, that just as these expenses were incurred, some change of posts or service would be made, and the officer be transferred to another station, there to be compelled to go to the same expense, without a farthing's allowance for that previously incurred. And even when ordered into the field, and war is on foot, how little chance, for public favor, has a regularly trained officer, who goes about his business with knowledge, but in silence—against the multitudinous militia heroes, each one of whom has his friends and admirers ready to vaunt his prowess, to blazon through a hundred channels his self-sacrificing patriotism, and to prove, in the event of any battle, that all the merit belongs to the volunteers and militia. The popular ear, too, readily swallows such tales—for they flatter the personal vanity of the mass, out of which these occasional forces are taken, and each one of whom thinks himself entitled to a portion of the glory.

Add to this, the fact that the acquirements and talents of a well educated officer will, and do, command in almost any other sphere, higher compensation and more certain independence, than the Government allows, and it will cease to be wondered at, that resignations are common.