Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 10.
Frank Moore, Ed.

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[56] reported in favor of agreeing to the Senate amendments with amendments. Mr. Cox moved that the report of the committee of conference be laid upon the table — yeas, thirty-six; nays, fifty-nine. The yeas and nays were then taken on accepting the report of the committee of conference; and it was agreed to — yeas, seventy-three; nays, forty-seven. The bill was approved by the President on the twenty-fourth of February, 1864, and General Grant was immediately nominated and confirmed Lieutenant-General.

No. Lx.--The Bill to amend “the Act for Enrolling and Calling out the National Forces.”

In the Senate, on the fifth of January, 1864, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced a bill to amend an act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes, approved March third, 1863, which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs. On the sixth, Mr. Wilson reported it back with amendments.

The bill provided that the President should be authorized to call for such number of men for the military service as the public exigencies should require. That the quota of each ward of a city, town, or township, or of a county, where the county was not divided into wards, towns, or townships, should be in proportion to the number of men liable to render military service, taking into account the number which had been furnished the military and naval service. That if any State should fail to furnish, within the time designated by the President, the number of men required, the provost-marshal of the district within which any ward of a city, town, or township, or county, where the same was not divided into wards, towns, or townships, which was deficient in its quota, was situated, should make a draft for the number deficient. That any person enrolled under the provisions of the act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, or who might be hereafter so enrolled, might furnish, at any time, an acceptable substitute who was not liable to draft. That any person enrolled and drafted might furnish an acceptable substitute, subject to such rules and regulations as might be prescribed by the Secretary of War. That if such substitute is not liable to draft, the person furnishing him should be exempt from draft during the time for which such substitute was not liable to draft; and if such substitute was liable to draft, the name of the person furnishing him should again be placed on the roll. That the commutation money paid by persons drafted in any congressional district should be applied by the War Department for the procuration of substitutes, which substitutes should be credited to that district in filling its quota. That the fourteenth section of the act amended should be amended so as to read: That all drafted persons should, on arriving at the rendezvous, be carefully inspected by the surgeon of the board. That boards of enrolment should have power to enroll any person whose name should have been omitted, and any person arriving at the age of twenty years, and any person who had not been in the military or naval service of the United States two years during the existing war and honorably discharged; and the boards of enrolment should release from draft any person who, between the enrolment and the draft, should have arrived at the age of forty-five. That whenever a mariner or able seaman should be drafted, he should have the right to enlist in the naval service. That all enlistments into the naval service or into the marine corps, that might be hereafter made of persons liable to service, should be credited to the ward, town, or township, or county, when the same was not divided into wards, towns, or townships, in which such enlisted men were or might be enrolled. That section two of the act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, should be amended by striking out all of the section, and inserting: “That the following persons be excepted and exempted 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; the Vice-President of the United States, the judges of the various courts of the United States, the heads of the various executive departments, the governors of the several States, and all persons actually in the military or naval service at the time of the draft, or who have been in such service for the term of two years during the present war, and been honorably discharged.” That section third of the act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and so much of section ten of the act as provided for the separate enrolment of each class, should be repealed. That any person who should forcibly resist or oppose any enrolment, or who should incite, counsel, or encourage to resist or oppose any such enrolment, should be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding five years, or by both of the punishments, in the discretion of the court. That the Secretary of War should be authorized to detail or appoint such number of additional surgeons for temporary duty in the examination of persons drafted into the military service, as might be necessary to secure the prompt examination of all drafted persons. That provost-marshals, boards of enrolment, or any member thereof, acting by authority of the board, should have power to summon witnesses, and enforce their attendance. That copies of any record of a provost-marshal or board of enrolment, or of any part thereof, certified by the provost-marshal, or a majority of the board of enrolment, should be deemed and taken as evidence in any civil or military court, in like manner as the original record. That members of religious denominations, who should, by oath or affirmation, declare that they are conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms, should, when drafted, be considered non-combatants, and should be assigned by the Secretary of War to duty in the hospitals, or to the care of freedmen. That no person of foreign birth should, on account of alienage, be exempted from enrolment or draft, who had at