Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1863-11-28
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
The CONSUMPTION Act Unconstitutional
Opinion of Judge Woodward.

Judge Woodward's opinion is an elabor.
ate defence of estate Rights" He de.
clares that Congress has no power to draft
the State militia, though it has power to
enlist volunteers. He think this Conscript
law poor and inefficient war measures,
he says:
In its political bearings, even more than
its military aspects, lis subversve of the
Constitution and of the rights of citizens
that depend upon State authority. A few
thoughts will make this plain. 1t is i'm
Constitutions, without seeing how mani
testify the one was designed to guard and
maintain the personal and social rights of
the citizens-the other to take care OF his
external relations
Nurture, education, property ,home, wife
and children, servants, administration of
goods and chattels after death, and grave
yard III which to sleep the sleep OF death,
these are among The objects Of State solic
itudc, for the protection Of which the State
provided civil authorities, and back Of
them the posse COnsttotuS and the mill
tary TO make the civil administration eifec-
tual. Now, ifthe principle be admitted
that Congress may take away the State
militia, who does not see that the ultimate
and final security of every mans domes-
tic aud personal right. is endangered. To
the extent delegated in tho Constitution
nobody questions the right of Congress to
control the State militia, but if to the
extent to which this enactment goes, the
States will be reduced to the condition OF
mere counties ola great commonwealth
and the citizen Of the State must look to
the Federal Government for the enforce
ment Of all his domestic rights as well as
for the regulation ofhis eternal relations
4
The great vice of the Conscript law is,
that it is founded on assumption that Con
gress may take away, not the State rights
of the citizen, but the security and founda-
ton of his State rights. And how long is
civil liberty expected to last, afte- the Sc
curities oil civil liberty are destroyed .
The Constitution of the United States COM
mitted the liberties of the citizens in part
TO the Federal Government, but expressly
reserved to the States, and the people OF
the States all it did not delegate, 1t gave
the General Government standing army
but left 10 the States their militia. 1t;
purposes in all this balancing of powers
were wise and good, but this legislation
disrcgards these distinctions, and upturns
the whole system of government when =
converts tae State militia into "nationa.
forces and claims to use and govern them
as such. The Precedent is not
Commander-n- Chief of the militia, except
when in actual service; and not merely
when they are ordered into service. They
are subjected to martial law only, when in
actual service, and not merely when called
forth before they have obeyed the call
The acts of 1895 and other acis on the
subject manilestIy contemplate and recog-
nilG this distinction. To bring the militia
within the meaning of being in the actual
service there must be and obedience ia
the call and some act Of organization, mus
tering, rendezvous, or marching done in
obedience to the call in the public service
-Story's Con. Law, Vol, 3, Sec. 1908.
If it be suggested that this plain rule o!
common sense and Constitutional law is
not violated by the conscriplion act be.
cause it applies to the National forces,
l reply as before that this is only new
name Tor the militia, and that the Consti-
tutional rights of citizen are not be sac
riliced to an unconstitutional name. Whor
Judge Story was ondeavoring to mark
with so much distinctness the time at which
the common law rights of the citizer
ceased and his liability to military rule be.
gan,-the time in word when he be-
came a soldier-why did it not occur tc
his fertile mind that Congress could render
this distinction vaiueess and unmeanins
by new momenclature-by calling the
militia "national forces?' 1t is not diff
cult to conceive how such suggestion
would have Jared had it occurred or been
made to him. Blu! it is difficult in the
presence Of tle grave issues Of the present
day, to treat so frivolous a suggestion
with the dignity and forbearance the oc.
casion demands. | have shown what
rights Of personal liberty these plaintiffs in
herited fon remote ancestry, and how
they are guaranteed to them by our con.
stitutions, and at what time they are to
give place to martial law, and surely if a
wheel set in motion by Congress can crush
and grind those rights out of existence
without regard to the limitations Of the
Constitution, some weighter reason should
be found for it than the msnomer which
the act so studiously applies to the militia
some reason that deserves to stand in
stead of Magma Charta, our constitution
aud all cur traditional freedom.
| Thr ly one that l have ever heard
ssgge, i, and which is applicable against
all til views advanced in this opinion, is
called military necessity. The country is
involy-d in great civil war which can be
brought to an honorable close only by an
energ cic use of all our resources, and no
resta nt should be tolerated, in such cir
cumst noes, save only those which Christ
ian ci ilization has imposed on all warfare.
Whatever is according 10 the Constitution
the argument claims, may bo done, Of