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SANITARY COMMISSION. No. 49.

NOTE. The attention of the Sanitary Commission has been, for several months past, directed to the subject of a timely provision for the soldiers disabled in the war, after peace shall be restored. The question is full of difficulties. Very little information or guidance is to be obtained from books. The Commission, learning that S. G. Perkins, Esq., of Boston, was about visiting Europe, and being, acquainted with his interest in similar questions, resolved to avail itself, if possible, of his talents and opportunities, to collect information by personal visits to all the chief Military Hospitals in Europe. Mr. Perkins accepted the appointment, and sailed a month ago for France, where his investigations will commence. The letter of the President to Mr. Perkins, is printed, simply to draw the attention of fore-looking men to the subject. It will be sent only to such gentlemen as are supposed to be interested in the matter; and they are earnestly requested to communicate, by letter, any suggestions in regard to the question, in any of its departments, to the President of the Sanitary Commission, at 498 Broadway, New York.

October 13th, 1862.

NEW YORK, August 15th, 1862.

STEPHEN G. PERKINS, Esq.:

DEAR SIR -- The Sanitary Commission are much exercised with the subject of the future of the disabled soldiers of this war. They calculate that, if it continue a year longer, not less than a hundred thousand men, of impaired vigor, maimed, or broken in body and spirit, will be thrown on the country. Add to this a tide of another hundred thousand men, demoralized for civil life by military habits, and it is easy to see what a trial to the order, industry, and security of society, and what a burden to its already strained resources, there is in store for us. It is in our judgment, to the last degree important, to begin now, to create a public opinion which shall conduce to, or compel the adoption of, the wisest policy on the part of our municipal and town governments, in respect of disabled soldiers -- so as to discourage all favor to mendicity -- all allowance to any exceptional license to those who have been soldiers -- all disposition for invalids to throw themselves, any further than is necessary, on the support and protection of society. You, who have paid so much attention to social science, know how easily loose, indulgent, and destructive notions creep into communities, under the name and purpose of humanity, and what temptations of a sentimental kind there will be, to favor a policy which will undermine self-respect, self-support, and the true American pride of personal independence.

In view of this, the Sanitary Commission is now studying the general subject of the proper method of dealing with our disabled soldiers at the close of the war, and, as far as possible, prior to that. The few guiding principles thus far excogitated, appear to be these:

1. As little outside interference with natural laws and self-help as possible.

2. As much moral and other encouragement and strengthening of the natural reliances as possible.

3. The utmost endeavor to promote the healthy absorption of the invalid class into the homes, and into the ordinary industry of the country.

In opposition to these principles will be the rivalry and competition of States, in generosity to disabled soldiers -- similar to that which has appeared in running bounties to recruits up to an excessive and injurious height; the attempt to make political capital out of the sympathy of the public with the invalids of the war -- issuing in over-legislation and overaction -- with much bad and demoralizing sentimentality and, worst of all, a public disposition to treat this whole class as a class with a right to be idle, or to beg, or to claim exemption from the ordinary rules of life.

To illustrate what I mean by interference with natural laws, I should regard any general scheme for herding the invalids of the war into State or National institutions, as a most dangerous blow to domestic order, to the sacredness of home affections and responsibilities, as well as a weakening of what may be termed the law of local sympathy. Their natural kindred are the first protectors of our invalids the local community the next, and the State the last. We must exhaust the two first before drawing on the last; or, rather, we must cherish and sustain the two first by every possible means before resorting to the last, which in the end will require to be heavily drawn upon. This is not a matter of mere pecuniary consideration. It is not to save the State or National Treasury, but to encourage and save the spirit of independence, to preserve the self-respect, and the homely graces and virtues of the People, on which all the real dignity and strength of the Nation rest.

To accomplish this result -- i.e., to restore the large proportion of all our invalids to their homes, there to live and labor according to their strength, sustained and blessed by their own kindred -- we must have a sound, a generous, a wisely considered pension law; and this pension law must be rid of all humiliating or enslaving character. It must be considered as the payment of what has been earned, and its payment should be made regular, punctual, immediate, and with as little loss by agencies and obstructions as possible. Moreover, the right to a pension should not rest exclusively on visible wounds. Broken constitutions, or impaired vigor, traceable unmistakeably to military service, should entitle to a pension.