The military bill in the House of Representatives.
The
House, yesterday, passed the
Army Bill which originated in the Senate, with amendments in substance as follows: Everybody is rendered liable to enrollment for military service between 18 and 45, for the war; the 2d section of the Senate bill which required the enrollment of all able-bodied males between 45 and 55, was stricken out, and a substitute adopted that all provost, hospital and conscript service, all clerks and assistants in the
Quartermaster and Commissary departments, guards, laborers, &c., shall hereafter be performed by disabled soldiers, and when these are exhausted the
President shall call upon the
Governors of the several States, for quotas of men for such service, who are not liable to military duty, exempts one editor who was owner or editor of a newspaper on the 11th day of October, 1862, or prior to that date, and which has been so published regularly since that time, and who is a practical printer, and such journeymen printers, as such editor may, under oath, declare indispensable for printing such newspaper; the public printer and those employed to perform public printing for the
Confederate and State Governments;
Presidents and teachers of colleges and schools, regularly engaged as such for two years previous to the passage of this act, whose schools are composed of twenty students or more; one white man at the head of a family of eight of more white persons who are dependent on his labor for support; one overseer on each farm where there are twenty slaves, provided there is no white male adult on the place not liable to military duty;
President,
Superintendent, Treasurer, and Auditor of each railroad engaged in military transportation, and such officers or employees as the
Superintendent shall certify on oath to be necessary for the effective operation of the road, not to exceed one for each mile in actual use for military transportation — the names of such employees to be reported monthly to the
Secretary of War, with a certificate accompanying such report that no one liable to military duty has been employed, where it was practicable to procure one not liable, capable of performing the required duties; the white officers of negro fire companies in cities in existence on the 1st of January, 1864; and the
Secretary of War, under the direction of the
President, is authorized to exempt or detail such other persons as he may be satisfied ought to be exempted on account of public necessity, and to insure the production of grain for the army, or for non producers, he may grant exemptions or details to such overseers, farmers, or planters, as he may be satisfied will be more useful to the country in the pursuits of agriculture than in the military service; provided the exemption shall cease whenever such person shall fall, diligently and in good faith, to engage exclusively in the production of grain and provisions, the surplus of which must be sold to the
Government or nonproducers at prices not exceeding those fixed at the time by appraisers of the under the law imposing a fax in , or the law regulating impressments tists are specially excluded from the benefits of the clause exempting physicians.
These comprise the main features of the amendments of the
House to the Senate bill.
The bill as amended has been sent back to the Senate, and it is quite probable that a committee of conference will be had between the two Houses.
