previous next

[74] township, ward, precinct, or election district, or of any county not so subdivided, should not be filled within the space of sixty days after such call, then the President should order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part thereof which might be unfilled; and in case of any such draft, no payment of money should be accepted or received by the Government as commutation to release any enrolled or drafted man from personal obligation to perform military service. That it should be lawful for the executive of any of the States to send recruiting agents into any of the States declared to be in rebellion, to recruit volunteers under any call under the provisions of this act, who should be credited to the State and to the respective subdivisions thereof which might procure the enlistment. That drafted men, substitutes, and volunteers, when mustered in, should be organized into or assigned to regiments, batteries, or other organizations of their own States, and, as far as practicable, should, when assigned, be permitted to select their own regiments, batteries, or other organizations from among those of their respective States, which, at the time of assignment, might not be filled to their maximum number. That the Secretary of War should discharge minors under the age of eighteen years, under the circumstances and on the conditions prescribed in said section; and thereafter, if any officer of the United States should knowingly enlist or muster into the military service any person under the age of sixteen years, with or without the consent of his parent or guardian, such person so enlisted or recruited should be immediately and unconditionally discharged; and such recruiting or mustering officer should be dismissed the service with forfeiture of all pay and, allowances. That section three of an act entitled, “An act to amend an act entitled, ‘An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes,’ ” approved February twenty-fourth, 1864, be amended so as to authorize and direct district provost-marshals, under the direction of the Provost-Marshal General, to make a draft for fifty per cent in addition to the number required to fill the quota of any district, as provided by said section. That, instead of travelling pay, all drafted persons reporting at the place of rendezvous should be allowed transportation from their places of residence; persons discharged at the place of rendezvous should be allowed transportation to their places of residence. That all persons in the naval service of the United States, who had entered said service during the present rebellion, who had not been credited to the quota of any town, district, ward, or State, by reason of their having been in said service and not enrolled prior to February twenty-fourth, 1864, should be enrolled and credited to the quotas of the town, ward, district, or State in which they respectively resided. That if any person duly drafted should be absent from home in prosecution of his usual business, the provost-marshal of the district should cause him to be duly notified as soon as might be, and he should not be deemed a deserter, nor liable as such, until notice had been given to him and reasonable time allowed for him to return and report to the provost-marshal of his district; but such absence should not otherwise affect his liability under the act. The vote was then taken on the substitute; and it was lost — yeas, seventy-five; nays, seventy-seven.

On the twenty-eighth, Mr. Blair, of West-Virginia, moved to reconsider the vote on Mr. Smithers's substitute. Mr. Holman moved to lay the potion on the table — yeas, seventy-three; nays, eighty-five. Mr. Blair's motion to reconsider the vote was then agreed to — yeas, eighty-three; nays, seventy-one. Mr. Smithers's amendment, in the nature of a substitute, was then agreed to — yeas, eighty-one; nays, seventy-five. Mr. Stevens moved further to amend the bill by adding that nothing contained in the act should be construed to alter, or in any way affect the law relative to those conscientiously opposed to bearing arms. Mr. Pike, of Maine, moved to amend Mr. Stevens's amendment requiring the enrolment of persons between forty-five and fifty years of age; but it was lost — yeas, forty-seven; nays, one hundred and two. Mr. Stevens's amendment was then agreed to — yeas, seventy-seven; nays, sixty-four. The bill, as amended, was then passed — yeas, eighty-two; nays, seventy-seven.

In the Senate, on the twenty-ninth, Mr. Wilson, from the Committee on Military Affairs, to which the bill had been referred, reported it back with amendments. On motion of Mr. Wilson, the Senate, in the evening session, proceeded to its consideration.. After being debated and amended in several particulars, Mr. Grimes moved to amend it by substituting for it the bill that passed the Senate; and the amendment was agreed to. Mr. Ten Eyck moved to amend the substitute by adding as a new section, That all enlistments that had been made into the naval service or marine corps since the passage of the act to amend an act entitled, “An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces,” and which should thereafter be made into the naval service or marine corps, should be allowed and credited to the appropriate township, precinct, or district, on account of which such enlistments had been or might be made, in the same manner as enlistments for the army were allowed and credited to the several townships, precincts, or districts; and the amendment was agreed to. Mr. Sherman moved to amend by adding as a new section, “That for the purpose of paying the bounties and of enforcing the draft, there be levied and collected, in addition to the duties imposed by law, a special duty of five per cent on all incomes exceeding six hundred dollars, accruing during the year 1864 ;” and the amendment was agreed to — yeas, twenty-five; nays, seven. Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, moved to add a section forbidding any State to recruit in other States; and it was agreed to. The bill as amended was then passed.

On the thirtieth, Mr. Stevens moved that the amendment to assess on incomes a tax to pay the bounties, and to carry into effect the enrolment

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)
hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Solon Stevens (4)
Henry Wilson (2)
Smithers (2)
W. W. Blair (2)
W. T. Sherman (1)
E. Powell (1)
Pike (1)
Holman (1)
Senator Grimes (1)
Eyck (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
February 24th, 1864 AD (2)
1864 AD (1)
30th (1)
29th (1)
28th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: