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Intemperate officers.

The crime of intemperance in a military or naval officer ought to be punished by the severest penalties of military law. It is only second in enormity to mutiny or desertion. The private who deserts, no matter though he be enticed from his duty by the innocent yearnings of his heart for home, is punished with death, and all men pronounce the sentence just. What does the officer deserve who, led astray not by a virtuous impulse, but by a low and degrading appetite, imperils for his sensual gratification the lives of thousands, deranges the plans of his superiors, and places at hazard the liberty of his country? No punishment can be too great for such an offender. The demoralizing effects of his example, even if no other evil effects followed his conduct, demand of themselves that he should be displaced from his position and put in the ranks, or be ignominiously dismissed from the army.

The Daily Dispatch: December 30, 1863. Richmond Dispatch. 2 pages. by Cowardin & Hammersley. Richmond. December 30, 1863. microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mi : Proquest. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.

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