New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-08-12
A sOyND OPINION.

Various towns IN The State oi Name having
voted. In public meetings, 10 pay the 500
Communication money for each OF their citizens
that might be drafted into the service Of the
United States, Gov. Coburn addressed to the
Chief Justice and the Associate Justices OF
the Supreme judicial Court Of the State a
letter asking their opinion upon the legal
questions involved in two interrogatories. The
correspondence in full comes 10 us in the
Law Register for August. The interrosatores
are as follows:
Hn city town any sg, rish. TO pledge is credit to
ss. money or tie purpose Of paying tho combinations o.
ueb Of It. sI.os may be di.tsa into the military set
vice o.. II. United States. under III. law Aforesaid chat
p..ssd by the last Congress. and approved March 1850
D las ely or town saJ legal nsht to r1.e money by
.ron TO provide couma,s,loas for sGeh Of ia citizens
insy be thus draftsd'
To both these queries the Judges, in let
tor signed by the whole bench, reply in the
negative. The grounds Of this opinion are con-
elusive, and should command consideration, not
only as regards the immediate points involved
but for their pertinence to the general subject
Of the draft. Citing the express terms of the
Constitution whereby Congress has power to
declare war, to raise and support armies and
a navy, and to provide for calling forth the
militia to execute the laws Of the Union, to
suppress instruction, repel invasion, aud To
organise, discipline, and govern such part of
them ns may be thus called into the service OF
the United States, the Judges then further de-
clare:
The power OF Copges. in the premises IL supreme In a
grss, naiiousi emergency. when tho national uniy aud c
pabosn Institutions in peril whether iiom foreign foes
or worse still domestic uoA,ouaby sndoavor-
Ing to overthrow tho Union sui subysr our Institutions
tCongosl ha' hs rghi 20 command all fhere'op'ee' Of
As nation. M lir' If W e'nEens to prevent by any and
all proper mean. that f.ar; anarchy which would be so
imminent II It's dissolution should become mphod
fact.
Assuming, then, that Congress has the right
to require and command the services OF each
citizen, and that it may prescribe the mode
aud manner for obtaining such services. they
deduce the obligation of obedience as resting
upon the citizens, and as becoming personal
obligation m much as that 10 pay tax duly
assessed, to discharge debt due, or to per-
form any act imposed by contract or by stat
ute. Aud under the power given to towns by
the Revised Statutes of tho State OF Maine,
they decide that tax assessed to discharge
citizens from such nh obligation cannot be up
held. "Its obvious and inevitable tendency
would be to defeat the objects for which the
act OF Congress was passed" for that was
"a bill TO raise soldiers, not to raise money.
Its primary and especial purpose was
to suppress instruction by means Of an
armed force 10 be raised in pursuance
of its provisions. If ono town may assess
taxes to pay the commutation-moncy OF those
who may be drafted. so may all, and the Gov
eminent may DO left without soldier for its
protection. and the nation surrendered into
the power Of those who are warning for its de-
struction; tho wealth and taxable property of
tho community would DO diverted from the
defense Of Government and tho resources Of
tho State would DO turned to its destruction