Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[337] discharged. He requested each to inform him of the time when his quota might be expected at its rendezvous, as it would be there met, as soon as practicable, by an officer or officers, to muster it into the service and pay of the United States.¹ He directed that the oath of fidelity to. the United States should be administered to every officer and man; and none were to be received under the rank of a commissioned officer who was apparently under eighteen, or over forty-five years of age, and not in physical health and vigor. He ordered that each regiment should consist, on an aggregate of officers and men, of seven hundred and eighty, which would make a total, under the call, of seventy-three thousand three hundred and ninety-one. The remainder of the seventy-five thousand called for was to be composed of troops in the District of Columbia.²

The President's Proclamation, and the requisition of the Secretary of War, were received with unbounded favor and enthusiasm in the Free-labor States; while in six of the eight Slave-labor States included in the call, they were treated by the authorities with words of scorn and defiance. The exceptions were Maryland and Delaware. In the other States disloyal Governors held the reins of power. “I have only to say,” replied Governor Letcher, of Virginia, “that the militia of this State will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object — an object, in my judgment, not within the province of the Constitution or the Act of 1795--will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited toward the South.” Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, answered :--“Your dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply, that I regard the levy of troops, made by the Administration for the purpose of subjugating the States of the South, as in violation of the Constitution, and a usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina.” Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, replied:--“Your dispatch is received. I say emphatically that Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked pure pose of subduing her sister Southern States.” Governor Harris, of Tennessee, said:--“Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defense of our rights, or those of our Southern brethren.” Governor Rector, of Arkansas, replied:--“In answer ”