CONGEESS, U. S. 



281 



bad feeling which grew up all over the country 

 in regard to arrests made, not in accordance 

 with, but in opposition to, the law ; and in my 

 judgment it now behooves this legislative body 

 to act with caution in regard to all authority 

 conferred for the arrest and imprisonment of 

 citizens of the United States. The provisions 

 of the last section of the bill, to which I have 

 already referred, put it in the power of the pro- 

 vost-marshal to arrest and imprison citizens of 

 the United States on his own motion. That is 

 wrong. It ought not to be so. If there is to 

 be any charge of disloyalty against any citizen 

 of the Government, there are other ways in 

 which it may be fairly tried and decided, and 

 that, too, according to constitutional law. I 

 do not think that when gentlemen come to re- 

 flect on the vast power which this bill confers 

 upon any one of the provost-marshals created 

 under it to go into any one of the sovereign 

 States of the Union, and arrest on his own mo- 

 tion, and imprison unde his own construction 

 of what may be ' treasonable practices,' they 

 will be willing to retain such power in the bill. 



" This is one of the insuperable objections I 

 see to the bill. I am willing, and I say it with 

 candor, to send every man in the loyal States 

 into the field, if necessary. I am willing to de- 

 vote every cent of the nation's money, and 

 every drop of blood to put down this rebellion. 

 But, sir, you must not put the life and liberty 

 of the citizen under the whim and caprice of 

 every upstart officer who may take upon him- 

 self under this bill to judge as to what is treason 

 and what is not treason." 



Mr. Sargeant, of California, thus urged the 

 importance of the bill : " The practical ques- 

 tion arises, will this bill increase the efficiency 

 of the national forces ? Will it place more men 

 in the field, and enable the Government to carry 

 on the war upon sounder and surer principles? 

 It must be admitted that the successful raising 

 of armies by the rebels has been accomplished 

 by the conscription principle. By no other 

 could they have kept full half a million men in 

 arms so large a proportion of their available 

 population. As we must fight, we must begin 

 to fight upon effective principles. "We must 

 gird up the loins of the nation for a conclusive 

 struggle. The enemy have made their last ef- 

 fort. It is now with them a question of endur- 

 ance. If they can keep us at bay until our 

 present enlisted men are discharged with the 

 expiration of their short terms of enlistment, 

 and their allies in the North can defeat the re- 

 filling of our armies, they have gained their 

 purposes, and the Union is dissolved. It mat- 

 ters little upon what pretence this or a kindred 

 bill is opposed, the effect is the same. Some 

 such measure is imperative, and no one can be 

 devised which a fault-finding ingenuity cannot 

 fill an hour in condemning. One gentleman 

 objects because the patronage of Governors of 

 States in the appointment of officers is abridged, 

 while it has full scope under the volunteer sys- 

 tem. Yet gentlemen know that a curse of that 



system is that militia appointments have gone 

 more by favor than fitness, and the Govern- 

 ment is compelled to pay thousands of officers 

 who curse the army by their inefficiency. 

 Another thinks the Constitution gives no 

 power to Congress to summon the people to 

 the army unless they volunteer to come ; as if 

 the founders of this Government erected this 

 beautiful fabric of liberty and national glory, 

 and provided no means to secure its safety. 

 The Constitution confers the right to summon 

 every man, whether from the plough, the work- 

 shop, or the pulpit, to press back invasion or 

 crush insurrection ; and gives to Congress the 

 power to pass laws to see that that summons is 

 effectual. Else we are secured by a rope of 

 sand, and are dissolved into chaos at the first 

 jar of war." 



Mr. White, of Ohio, opposed the bill as being 

 unconstitutional. He said : " Mr. Speaker, if 

 there was anything of which our fathers were 

 jealous, and against the dangers of which they 

 sought to provide, it was the power of an over- 

 shadowing standing army. The writers and 

 commentators on the Constitution, contempora- 

 neous with its adoption, have written on the 

 subject and elucidated the meaning, the intent, 

 and the spirit of that instrument. The power 

 is clearly given to raise and support armies. 

 How are they to be raised and supported? I 

 admit the power of the General Government, 

 independent of the States, to get all the men 

 into the army that it can by voluntary enlist- 

 ments. But when it goes beyond that, you 

 have to resort to the militia of the States and 

 call them into the service of the United States 

 as such. You have no power to force soldiers 

 into the service of the United^ States in any 

 other way than through and by means of the 

 militia organizations established under the laws 

 of the States. 



" After granting the power to raise and sup- 

 port armies, the Constitution further provides 

 that Congress shall have power 



To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 

 laws of the Union, to suppress insurrection, and repel 

 invasions. 



" There is no other conceivable purpose for 

 which a military force could be used than those 

 here enumerated. And in order to make the 

 militia when called into the service efficient, 

 the further power is given Congress 



To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining 

 the militia, and for governing such part of them as 

 may be employed in the service of the United States, 

 reserving to the States respectively the appointment 

 of the officers and the authority of training the militia 

 according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. 



u These are plain, practical provisions incor- 

 porated into the Constitution in order to estab- 

 lish that uniformity in the organization, arm- 

 ing, and discipline of the militia of the different 

 States necessary to make them efficient when 

 brought into the service of the United States, 

 so that when placed under the governing power 

 of Congress and fused into one mass, they 





