Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-07-27

We have expressed decided dissent to
the action of the New York Common
Council in spprOpriating money to pay
the $500 exemption for every man draft
ed, as tending to, and in fact purposely,
defeating the Government, which seeks to
obtain men and not money. It will be seen
by the following that the courts have de-
cided that cities or towns have no le-
gal right to take this course. Several
towns in the State of Maine having voted
to appropriate money as cOmmutation for
drafted citizens, the following questions
were submitted by the Governor of the
State to Judges of the Supreme Court;
l. Has a city or town any legal right to
pledge its credit to raise money for the
purpose of paying the commissions Of
such of its citizens as may be drafted into
the service Of the United States under the
law aforesaid
2. Has a city or town any legal right to
raise money by taxation to provide COM
mutations for such of its citizens as may
be thus drafted
The Judges decided that money could be
raised TO cooperate Nth the Gorernmen {,
but not otherwise. They answered both
questions therefore, in the negative
A much better way is adopted in Phila-
delphia, where they defeated this motion
but voted money for the relief Of the fam
lilies Of drafted men, or as bounty 10 the
drafted men who go into the ranks. The
city of Portland, Maine, is about to pro-
vide $500 for every man who shall be
drafted from that city 10 serve in the
armies Of the Union, provided he stands
the draft either by going to the war him
self, or by securing an accepted substitute
This is talking to the purpose. Pay
whatever is fair and just 10 recruit
the National armies, but never
cent to deplete and cripple them.
The Government takes the $500 for the
prOcuratiOn Of substitutes, and not for the
Treasury The Pittsburg Chronicle says
that the amount paid in by parties drafted
in that district already exceeds S12O, 900.
This will make liberal bounty fund, and
will enable the Government to supply the
places of those who paid it with vol
uuteers.
ooEsTITUTToEALITY OF THE CoEsORIPTToE
ACT.
Governor Seymour and all his co-labor-
ers in the work of embarrassing the Gov
ernment and defeating the draft, are very
anxious to have the "constitulionality"
Of the act tested "by the courts" They
profess not to want to delay the work of
filing the depleted armies, but yet ad7o-
cate a delay Of weeks and perhaps
months, that some of their party
courts may give a decision adverse to the
right Of Government to call upon its cit
liens for aid. They are not willing TO rest
upon the usual assumption that a law is
constitutional until it is proved unconsti-
tutional, but declare it illegal without
particle Of proof Upon the same prinoi-
pie they might declare and arrest any
loyal man in the transaction of ordinary
business, and hold him until he had proved
that he had committed no crime. But even
upon their own extraordinary ground, the
friends of Government are ready to meet
them A case of hibsas corpus upon the
body of an arrested deserter, was brought
before Judge Cadwalader, a conservative
Judge of the District Court of the United
States, in the Eastern District of Pennsyl-
vania, in March last. The Judge cOnsid-
cred the cOnstitutiOnality of the Conscrip-
ton Law, and clearly decides it in the
words following;
The Constitution Of the United States
authorizes Congress to raise armies, and