Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1817-02-15

| the officers. This amendment will dis
pense with three company musiers, and,
computing the whole number of the mill
| Tia ofthe commonwealth at 1000 men,
will save TO the people 24O, 900 days labor,
with all the incidental expences atten-
dant on the company musters. AS a
| measure of political! economy, ii was re-
commended by the soundest policy, as it
wonld augment the active and profitable
| industry oi the country TWAS the rich
est boon which the house could extend
To the people, at the end of long ses
SION. and would be gratefully received
ny them for there was not Il man In the
commonwealth, who could be of opinion
that any real benefit had resulted from
the company musters, except in pariicu-
lar cases, for wilich the proposed amend
ment contains a provision, leaving it to
the majority of the company, 10 augment
within certain limits, the number OF their
company muSterS.
While MP, Mr. Mercer said, he would
consume few minutes more, with the
indulgence of the committee, In stating
bis reasons for offering another amend
ment 70 the bill, under consideration, up-
on which, he wo,.ld ask, however, that
the sense OF the committee might be Sc
parately taken. BY this amendment, he
wished TO restore the former penalty i'm
posed by ouriuIltia laws, for a failure TO
obey amy draft upon the mili'ia for actu-
al service. This penalty had been pre-
scribed by the laws of the United States,
and was apecuniar: fine of eighty dollars.
BY an act of,he q eneral Assembly, which
passed at the close, and In the fervor of
the late war, this fine had been supplant-
ed by the penalty .fdesertion. The his
tory Olthis substitution, which would i'm
ply that the law had been before iefec-
tive, or imperative, was as singular, Us
the substitution, Itself, was ill-;adyed and
unnecessary. A bin came down to this
house from the Senate, containing some
thirty or forty am 3ndmcnts, aud Accord
ing 10 the usage oithe house, of which
we had a very recent example, In the
hurry ic pass the law farther suspendine
executions ordebt, all these amendments
were forthwith disposed of, and were en-
acted, In less than as many minutes, as
they contained sections, into law.
Mr.. Mercer said, he knew not that the
amendments contained the provision,
which he now proposed 10 repeal, until he
was told oft on his return home. That
he denied the fact, and the law, which he
could not dispute, WAS adduccd TO prove
II : he had offered, at the last session of
the General Assembly, an amendment in
thevery terms Of that, which he now held
III tbs hand. 1t had been received by the
Rouse, with scarcely dissentient voice
but, being offered at a late period of the
session. the bill, which contained If. was
"''o>"od, from some c:,uSs uT oTuGr, Ia
sleep upon The clerks table. until the final
Adjournment of the Legislature.
MIR. Mercer said, that he regarded The
change Of the formersaw asan insult 10 the
patriotism of the good people Of this Com
| monwealtli, more than sixty thousand of
whom had been, from time TO fine. cali
ed into the field, TO the most horrible of
all possible services TO encounter, not the
sword oithc enemy, which they could no.
morally meet. but pestilence, which walks
in broad day, unseen, and shoots its ar
rows with fatal certainty in the darkness
OF midnight and yet, not a single liz
stance of mutinv had disgraced tie cha
racter Of Virginia, during The war. 1t
was not Just to increase the penalties of
| law, already found to he efficient. Sc
we're punishments, bv enlistine ;he svm-
pathy oftle people in behalfof the often
der, defeat their own ends. Without the
people vow can execute no Lave thew
constitute your courts martial, as well
/ as your civil tribunals : tiey are Your
| Judges, as well as your jurors and laws,
| from which their feelings revolt, will ever
! be found, to be a dead letter.
Let us, said Mr.. Mercer, repeal this
odious provision in our present state of
profound tranquility: least on the rccur-
renee of another war, the subject should
acquire Fictitious consequence, from The
imagined danger Of the country, and The
feeling Of party he enlisted against the
claims, both of expedicncv, which is ever
temperate IN pursuing, as well as mode.
rate IN devising the means Of attaining its
object; and ofius'ice, Which has not now
| 10 learn, that " inter anna silent Icges."
Mr.. NJ. ihcn submitted 10 iIIe commit
tee his amendment in tie following
words:
BE nfmther enacied, That the several
company nusters now required by tie
militia laws of tE;s Commonwealth, shall
he, and The same arc hereby discontinue
ed, and IN lieu thereof, there shall he
hereafter bni one company muster in each
year, 10 he held on the and all
persons bound by law 10 attend any com
pany muster. shall he subject 10 like
fines, 90 be assessed, collected and &C
counted for like manner with the fines
which, Iiavc hitherto been levied for lai.
lure toaiicnd the company mustcrs hitIi-
erto required by law. Pyoridcd, thatan,
uniform or light compauy, disposed tc
muster more frequently, may Oh Il maio.
rity of tlle members ihcrcof) prescribe a.
ny additional mrSterS, not exceeding Gle
| Won in aua nup xg4r - tho vttf, IT ill.,;