CONGRESS, U. S. 



279 



right to do it by voluntary enlistment or by 

 compulsory process. If men cannot be raised 

 by voluntary enlistment, then the Government 

 must raise men by involuntary means, or the 

 power to raise and support armies for the pub- 

 lie defence is a nullity." 



Numerous amendments were made to the 

 bill. 



Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, moved to make 

 the period of service for the conscripts one year. 

 This was rejected by the following vote : 



YEAS Messrs. Collamer, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, 

 Foot, Grimes, Harris, Henderson, Hicks, and Trum- 

 bull 10. 



NAYS Messrs. Anthony, Arnold, Chandler, Clark, 

 Doolittle, Fessenden, Foster, Harding, Harlan, Howard, 

 Howe, King, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Latham, 

 McDougall, Morrill, Nesmith, Pomeroy, Rice, Sher- 

 man, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wil- 

 son of Massachusetts 26. 



The bill was then ordered to be engrossed 

 for a third reading, and read the third time and 

 passed. The vote is not given in the official 

 report. 



On the 23d .of February, the bill was con- 

 sidered in the House. 



Mr. Olin, of New York, who had charge of 

 the bill in the House, thus stated the course he 

 proposed to pursue : "I propose to move to 

 commit the bill to the Committee on Military 

 Affairs, and on that motion to permit discus- 

 sion upon the merits of the bill for a reason- 

 able length of time ; then, after such discus- 

 sion, if I can obtain the floor, I propose to 

 withdraw that motion, and to ask the House 

 to vote upon the bill as reported from the 

 Senate. 



"My reasons for adopting this course are 

 simply these : the bill, in socie of its details, I 

 consider more or less imperfect ; but all these 

 details are of minor consequence when com- 

 pared with the great importance of the meas- 

 ure itself; and so far as these details are con- 

 cerned, if any of them are objectionable, they 

 can very easily be remedied by a supplement- 

 ary bill. These defects or imperfections are, 

 in my judgment, of infinitely less importance 

 than that this measure, or one substantially 

 like this, should be secured and passed into 

 law by the present Congress. I am, there- 

 fore, not willing to hazard the loss of a bill 

 which I deem so important by opening it to 

 the various propositions which may be made 

 by way of amendment to this bill. The Com- 

 mittee on Military Affairs have carefully con- 

 sidered this measure. It has been a measure of 

 vital interest from the commencement of the 

 session to the present hour. Our attention has 

 not been diverted from this measure since the 

 commencement of the session. 



" Now, although the committee would, if the 

 time permitted, alter some of its minor provis- 

 ions, yet I think as a whole they agree with 

 me in the propriety of asking this House to 

 pass this bill without amendment, and thus to 

 secure with certainty the measure, and clothe 

 the Government with power to exercise this 



necessary authority under the present situation 

 of our public affairs. I intend, if there shall 

 be time during the present session, to intro- 

 duce a bill into the House, open for discussion 

 and amendment, to allow us to perfect, if it is 

 thought we can perfect, some of the details of 

 this bill. I mean that the House shall have an 

 opportunity to do so if this bill shall become a 

 law. 



Mr. Olin then noticed the chief objections to 

 the bill thus : " Some objections are made to 

 this measure. First, that it does not ask the 

 cooperation of the States, and invite the in- 

 strumentality of State organizations in raising 

 these troops conceded to be necessary at this 

 time. My first answer is, there is no time to 

 employ such instrumentality. Many of our 

 State Legislatures would not and could not 

 perfect such measures within the next twelve 

 months. In the mean time untold disasters 

 would very likely befall our arms by reason 

 of such delay. All concede the present ia the 

 critical period of the war, and that the present 

 exigency demands imperiously that whatever 

 of vigor, whatever of authority, whatever of 

 power the National Government has as a Gov- 

 ernment, should be exerted at this time. 



"My second answer is, that this 'power to 

 raise and support armies,^ expressly given by 

 the Constitution to Congress, should be exer- 

 cised by Congress, and not petitioned for as a 

 boon from the State Governments. This idea of 

 calling upon the Governors of the States to fur- 

 nish troops had its origin in that accursed doc- 

 trirte of State rights, State sovereignty, which 

 has been chiefly instrumental in bringing upon 

 the republic our present calamity. It is high 

 time the Federal Government exerted every 

 power clearly and expressly granted to it. And 

 if the Government cannot exercise those pow- 

 ers, the sooner we know it the better, and let 

 us resolve again into that Confederacy which 

 existed before the formation of the Federal 

 Constitution. I am unwilling to rely upon 

 State instrumentality for the exercise of this 

 sovereign power. I wish now that the Gov- 

 ernment, as a Government, should be felt in 

 the exercise of its rightful authority. This is 

 not the time to abdicate any of the sovereign 

 powers granted in the Federal Constitution, or 

 to withhold their exercise." 



Mr. Holman, of Indiana, said : " I wish to 

 ask the gentleman from New York, whether 

 I understood him to say that he should not 

 give opportunity to offer amendments to the 

 bill?" 



Mr. OHn replied : "The gentleman certainly 

 could not have misunderstood me if he had lis- 

 tened to my remarks. I stated that I was un- 

 willing to hazard the passage of this bill by 

 putting amendments to it, and thereby sending 

 it back to the Senate at this late hour of the 

 session. 



"I stated further that I intended, if the 

 House would give us the liberty to do so, to 

 bring in a bill speedily, and thereby afford 



