there were apprehensions that a general draft would be necessary,
Governor Morgan telegraphed General Arthur, then with the Army of the
Potomac, to return to New York. The General did so, and was requested,
on his arrival, to act as secretary at a confidential meeting of the
governors of loyal States, held at the Astor House, on the twenty-eighth
of July, 1862. After a full and frank discussion of the condition of
affairs in their respective States, the governors united in a request to
the President to call for more troops. President Lincoln, on the first
of July, issued a proclamation, thanking the governors for their
patriotism, and calling for three hundred thousand three-years
volunteers, and three hundred thousand nine-months militia-men. Private
intimation that such a call was to be issued would have enabled army
contractors to have made millions; but the secret was honorably kept by
all until after the issue of the proclamation. The quota of New York was
59,705 volunteers, or sixty regiments, and it was desirable that they
should be recruited and sent to the front without delay. General Arthur,
by special request of Governor Morgan, resumed his duties as
quartermaster-general and established a system of recruiting and
officering the new levies, which proved wonderfully successful. In his
annual report, made to the governor on the twenty-seventh of January,
1863, he said:--

"In summing up the operations of the department during the last levy of
troops, I need only state as the result the fact that through the single
office and clothing department of this department in the city of New
York, from August 1 to December 1, the space of four months, there were
completely clothed, uniformed, and equipped, supplied with camp and
garrison equipage, and transported from this State to the seat of war,
sixty-eight regiments of infantry, two battalions of cavalry, and four
battalions and ten batteries of artillery."