ourselves of the power conferred by the Constitution and at last proposed to be adopted by this Bill. For short and irregular efforts no force can be better than a volunteer army. With brave and skilful officers and a short and active term of service, volunteer troops are highly efficient. But when a war is to last for years, as this will have done, however soon we may see its termination, it must depend for its success upon regular and systematic forces. . . . Such filling up is not possible to any degree under the volunteer system, as the Government has had occasion to know in this war.

The practical operation of the volunteer system has been that the earnest lovers of the country among the people, the haters of the rebellion, the noblest and best of our citizens, have left their homes to engage in this war to sustain the Constitution; while the enemies of civil liberty, those who hate the Government and desire its failure in this struggle, have stayed at home to embarrass it by discontent and clamour. By this system we have had the loyal States drained of those who could be relied upon in all political contests to sustain the Government; going forth to fight the manly foe in front, the covert foe left behind has opened a fire in the rear. Under the garb of democracy, a name that has been so defiled and prostituted that it has become synonymous with treason and should henceforth be a byword and hissing to the American people, these demagogues in this hall and out of it have traduced the Government, misrepresented the motives of loyal men. . . . The Bill goes upon the presumption that every citizen not incapacitated by physical or mental disability owes military service to the country in its hour of extremity, and that it is honourable and praiseworthy to render such service.

The views given fairly sum up the opinion held by the majority of the American people in the North and by that of their representatives at Washington who passed the Conscription Act without undue delay against a rather substantial minority. The principal provisions of the Act of March 3, 1863, establishing compulsory military service and exempting certain citizens, furnish so valuable and so interesting

a precedent to the fighting democracies that it is worth while giving them in this place. We read in the Act:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That all able-bodied male citizens of the United States, and persons of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath their intention to become citizens under and in pursuance of the laws thereof, between the ages of twenty and forty-five years, except as hereinafter excepted, are hereby declared to constitute the national forces, and shall be liable to perform military duty in the service of the United States when called out by the President for that purpose.

Section 2. And be it further enacted: That the following persons be and they are hereby excepted and exempt from the provisions of this Act, and shall not be liable to military duty under the same, to wit: Such as are rejected as physically or mentally unfit for the service; also, first, the VicePresident of the United States, the heads of the various Executive Departments of the Government, and the Governors of the several States. Second, the only son liable to military duty of a widow dependent upon his labour for support. Third, the only son of aged or infirm parent or parents dependent upon his labour for support. Fourth, where there are two or more sons of aged or infirm parents subject to the draft, the father, or if he be dead the mother, may elect which son shall be exempt. Fifth, the only brother of children not twelve years old, having neither father nor mother dependent upon his labour for support. Sixth, the father of motherless children under twelve years of age dependent upon his labour for support. Seventh, where there are a father and sons in the military service of the United States as non-commissioned officers, musicians, or privates, the residue of such family and household, not exceeding two, shall be exempt. And no person but such as herein excepted shall be exempt. Provided, however, that no person who has been convicted of any felony shall be enrolled or permitted to serve in said forces.

In each district a Provost-Marshal, acting under the Provost-Marshal-General, an examining surgeon, and a

The

commissioner constituted the Board of Enrolment. enrolling officers were directed to enrol all able-bodied persons within the prescribed ages and to judge of age by the best evidence they could obtain. They were required to make two classes in their returns, the first of all men between twenty and thirty-five years, and the second of all between thirty-five and forty-five years. If we wish to learn how the Conscription Act worked in the unruly North, where an enormous percentage of the population liable to military service consisted of immigrant foreigners who often were ill-acquainted with the English language, we should turn to the Report which the Provost-Marshal-General made to the Secretary of War on March 17, 1866. We read :

The Act of Congress creating the office of Provost-Marshal-General was approved March 3, 1863. I was appointed to it March 17, 1863.

Within a few weeks from that date the network of organisation adopted under the law was extended over the loyal States and the counties and towns of the same, and the principal duties of the Bureau [the Provost-MarshalGeneral's], to wit, the arrest of deserters, the enrolment of the national forces for draft, and the enlistment of volunteers had been commenced.

When the Bureau was put in operation the strength of the Army was deemed inadequate for offensive operations. Nearly 400,000 recruits were required to bring the regiments and companies then in service up to the legal and necessary standard. Disaster had been succeeded by inactivity, and the safety of the country depended on speedy and continued reinforcement of the Army. The insufficiency of the system of recruitment previously pursued had been demonstrated, and the Army was diminishing by the ordinary casualties of war, but more rapidly by the expiration of the terms for which the troops had engaged to serve. To meet the emergency a new system of recruitment was inaugurated. The General Government, through this Bureau, assumed direct control of the business which had heretofore been transacted mainly by the State Governments. . . .

The following is a condensed summary of the results of the operations of this Bureau from its organisation to the close of the war:

(1) By means of a full and exact enrolment of all persons liable to conscription under the law of March 3, and its amendments, a complete exhibit of the military resources of the loyal States in men was made, showing an aggregate number of 2,254,063 men, not including 1,000,516 soldiers actually under arms when hostilities ceased.

(2) 1,120,621 men were raised at an average cost (on account of recruitment exclusive of bounties) of 9.84 dols. per man; while the cost of recruiting the 1,356,593 raised prior to the organisation of the Bureau was 34-01 dols. per man. A saving of over 70 cents on the dollar in the cost of raising troops was thus effected under this Bureau, notwithstanding the increase in the price of subsistence, transportation, rents, &c., during the last two years of the war. (3) 76,526 deserters were arrested and returned to the Army.

The vigilance and energy of the officers of the Bureau in this branch of business put an effectual check to the widespread evil of desertion, which at one time impaired so seriously the numerical strength and efficiency of the Army.

(4) The quotas of men furnished by the various parts of the country were equalised and a proportionate share of military service secured from each, thus removing the very serious inequality of recruitment which had arisen during the first two years of the war, and which, when the Bureau was organised, had become an almost insuperable obstacle to further progress in raising troops.

The introduction of compulsion acted as a powerful stimulus to voluntary enlistment throughout the Union,1 and, in consequence of this revival of voluntary enlistment, the number of men compulsorily enlisted was not as great as it might have been, especially as the compulsory system was not exploited to the full. Only a comparatively moderate number of those who by law were declared to be liable for

1 This was due to the fact that the individual States vied with one another to fill their quota so as to make compulsion unnecessary.

military service were called upon to join the Army. On the other hand, the moral effect of the passing of the Conscription Act was very far-reaching and salutary. The Provost-Marshal-General's Report stated:

The historian who would trace accomplished results to their true and genuine causes must assign to the law constituting this Bureau a most important place among the agencies by which the great work of restoring the national authority has been so happily accomplished. The true turning-point of the War was reached when the first draft wheel' began to revolve, under the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1863. The general effect of this law throughout the country has been highly favourable to loyalty. No one department has brought its operations so directly and closely home to the people, or has given such a feeling of security, such a confidence in and such assurance of the power of the Government to preserve itself, conquer its enemies, and protect all its citizens. Next to the success of its arms, the ability of the Government to bring men into the field at its call, and the manner in which it has been done by this Bureau in the execution of the enrolment act,' in spite of innumerable and apparently insuperable difficulties, has best demonstrated that power.

The Conscription Act of 1863 was a most beneficial measure, but it had several grave defects. It failed to place upon the men liable for military service the duty of coming forward without delay. Hence the Government had to search them out. The Official Report tells us :

Instead of endeavouring to search out and hunt up every person liable to military service through the agency of a vast multitude of petty enrolling officers, upon whose capacity and fidelity it is not possible in all cases to rely, I think the Government should impose its supreme demands directly upon the people themselves, and require them, under the sternest penalties, to report themselves for enrolment. If the Government has a right to the military service of its citizens in times of public peril, rebellion, and war, it