326 



CONGKESS, U. S. 



Henderson. Hendricks, Howard, Howe, Johnson, 

 .Lane of Kansas, Pomeroy, Saulsbury, Sherman, 

 Sumner, Van Winkle, and Wilson 28. 



The bill, after numerous amendments in Com- 

 mittee, was reported to the Senate, and on the 

 16th it was considered. 



Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, offered the 

 following amendment : 



And le it further enacted, That the commutation 

 money paid by persons drafted in any congressional 

 district shall be applied by the War Department for 

 the procuration ot substitutes, which substitutes 

 shall be credited to that district in filling its quota ; 

 and if the quota of such district shall not then be 

 full, a further draft shall be made in said district 

 according to the provisions of this act and the act 

 to which it is an amendment, and like proceedings 

 had until the quota of such district shall be filled. 



Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, said : " I recol- 

 lect that the strongest objection made before 

 the people to the law of last session was that 

 by allowing a portion of the drafted men to 

 pay money instead of rendering personal ser- 

 vice, you but increased the liability to draft of 

 those that did not pay the money ; and that 

 was answered somewhat successfully before the 

 people by saying that the payment of the money 

 discharged the obligation of the State to furnish 

 the quota, and therefore the liability of those 

 that could not pay the money was not increased. 

 But this proposition is that when a man pays 

 his money it shall not go to the credit of the 

 State upon the demand made against her, but 

 that the number of men shall remain the same, 

 to be taken from the people. Then we have to 

 raise the entire number of men from that class 

 of the community that are too poor to pay the 

 money at all. 



" The principle of the legislation of the last 

 Congress was that by the payment of the 

 money the Government procured a substitute 

 and the men were raised, and there was no 

 increase of liability upon those who could not 

 pay the money ; they were precisely in the 

 same position that they would have been in if 

 there had been no commutation at all. But 

 now, notwithstanding the Government receives 

 the money, we throw upon the truly poor men 

 the responsibility to furnish the men, and the 

 money is but a revenue." 



Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, replied: 

 " The amendment which I propose is that the 

 War Department shall take the money paid by 

 the men who are drafted and apply it, as far 

 as it goes, to the procuration of substitutes. It 

 may possibly, by the employment of Africans, 

 get them for $100, and then it would get four 

 for the $400, and credit that district with the 

 four, and so relieve the poor men of the dis- 

 trict very much." 



Mr. Brown, of Missouri, said : " If I under- 

 stand the bill, it provides that the amount of 

 the commutation money shall be paid over to 

 the Secretary of "War, to be by him expended 

 in the procuration of substitutes. Now, under 

 the amendment of the Senator from New 

 Hampshire, here is a district called upon to 



furnish one thousand men. Five hundred pay 

 the commutation money. That money goes 

 into the hands of the Secretary of War. He 

 is procuring substitutes generally. Now, how 

 is the Secretary of War to assign the number of 

 substitutes that he gets throughout the United 

 States in various quarters? Is he going to assign 

 some of them to this district and some of them 

 to another, or are the substitutes to be recruit- 

 ed within that district ? " 



Mr. Clark replied : " I think I understand 

 fully the Senator 'from Missouri, and I say to 

 him that the design of the amendment is that 

 the Secretary of War shall procure his substi- 

 tutes anywhere, and we trust to his discretion 

 to assign them rightfully to the districts accord- 

 ing to the time for which they are raised." 



Mr. Grimes, of Iowa, said : " Mr. President, 

 I agree with the honorable Senator as to the 

 necessity and propriety of calling these colored 

 men into the service of the United States. I 

 have been for that from the commencement of 

 this war. No man has been ahead of me in 

 that particular ; but I want them called into 

 the service of the United States as United 

 States troops, and not as the substitutes for 

 white soldiers from any State. That is the 

 difference between the Senator and me. I 

 would do any thing in my power to stimulate 

 the recruitment of colored troops. I believe it 

 is the most important thing, and more import- 

 ant than the passage of this bill, if we can 

 devise some scheme by which we can stimu- 

 late the Administration to that course ; but I 

 am utterly opposed to the selection of these 

 colored men as the representatives of the citi- 

 zens of any State, I do not care whether it be 

 mine or any other State, that has not filled up 

 its quota." 



Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, followed in reply : 

 " Mr. President, the argument of the honor- 

 able Senator from Iowa is founded on a possi- 

 bility. He thinks this amendment should not 

 prevail because by possibility certain colored 

 men may be procured to fill up the quotas of 

 the States. Now, sir, the probability of it, in 

 the first place, is not very strong ; but what 

 harm in it ? Follow out the Senator's argu- 

 ment : he says, and says justly, that nobody 

 has been more anxious than he has been to 

 enlist colored troops, and to enlist a great many 

 of them. For what purpose ? Is it not to re- 

 lieve the different States, if you please, or to 

 relieve the country of the necessity of furnish- 

 ing white men ? " 



An extended debate followed on recruiting 

 in the border States, when Mr. Doolittle, of 

 Wisconsin, offered the following amendment : 



Provided, That colored troops enlisted and mus- 

 tered into the service of the Imited States shall be 

 credited upon the quota of the State within which 

 they are enlisted, and not upon the quota of any 

 other State. 



This amendment to the amendment was 

 adopted yeas, 27; nays, 11, as follows: 



YEAS Messrs. Brown, Buckalew, Conness, Cowan, 



