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Aug. 25.—Governor telegraphs
Mr. Stanton,—
We have now recruited thirteen thousand eight hundred and one men for three years, under July requisition.
Nothing done afternoons in Massachusetts but recruiting.
Balance of quota sure. So will be militia quota.
If supplies are ready, I mean the old Sixth Regiment, of Baltimore memory, to march the first day of September.
No draft can be useful or expedient here.
One of the greatest hardships which
Massachusetts and other maritime States had to bear in furnishing their quotas of the several calls for troops made by the
President, was the refusal of Congress to allow credits for men serving in the navy.
It bore with peculiar weight upon the towns in
Barnstable,
Nantucket,
Essex,
Suffolk,
Plymouth, and
Norfolk Counties, which had sent many thousand men into the navy, but had received no credit for them, and no reduction of their contingent for the army.
It was not until 1864, after
Massachusetts had sent upwards of twenty-three thousand men into the navy, that credits were allowed by Congress for the men who manned our frigates, under
Porter and
Farragut, watched blockade-runners, and sealed the
Southern ports.
Governor Andrew had frequently spoken of the injustice of Congress in refusing to allow these credits, and had exerted himself to the utmost to effect a change.
On the 27th of August, he telegraphed to
Governor Washburn, of
Maine,—
Has Maine succeeded in obtaining an allowance on her men in the navy towards the army draft?
If not, does she propose to be content without such an allowance?
How can some towns possibly fill their quotas without it?
On the same day in which the above was written,
Governor Andrew drew up a form of a letter, addressed to
President Lincoln, which was sent to the
Governors of the
New-England States, which, if approved, they were requested to sign.
The letter received their sanction and their signatures, and was forwarded to the
President of the
United States.
It read as follows:—
We unite in respectfully but most urgently presenting to your attention the inequality of the militia draft among the States, caused
