Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-06-30
PRINCIPLES OF MILITARY DUTY.

the Senate on Monday last the 10th instant, on the
bill regulating the performance of military duty, is
so interesting for the facts it elected and the prn-
ciples involved in the discussion that we briefly
advert to some of Its salient points for the infor
nation of our readers.
The official report of the Congressional de-
bates is SO voluminous, and the daily abstract of
those debates is necessarily SO imperfect and
meagre, that we are sure we shall consult the best
interest Of all intelligent inqurers by briefly re-
olpitulating the heads of the discussion on that
day.
1t appears, then, from the statements made by
Mr. Wilson, the chairman of the Military Commit
teo in the Senate, and the organ Of communication
between the Senate and the War Department, that
under the existing regulations for recruiting the
army the latter is receiving about one hundred
men per week. The reason why SO few enlist was
stated by Mr.. Wilson in the following terms:
"Sir, think it wrong in the Senate of the United
States the Congress Of the United States to speak
of brave in the service Of the country
aries they have taken Of their State
Of their localities and of the National Government boun-
ties offered them to 20 into the service of their country
In the first place they ought to have had bounty. All
kinds Of labor are now exceedingly high; the cost of v
left families behind them dear to them families
are to They leave them at home and 20 and peril
their lives for the country perhaps come back manned
aud wounded The man who takes bounty and uses
the money man ought to do to support protect and
educate his family; that who bares his bosom to
rebel steel is just much patriot the man who vol
unteered for less 1t looks to in the present
condition of the country that expected to more
for men and ought to pay more than we did in the early
days OF the war;"
1t will be seen that these remarks proceed on
the assumption that military service, like every
other service performed under free Governments,
is founded on contract. 1t is of the essence of
"invountary servitude" that service should be
exacted by the party receiving it without the con-
tract or assent of the party rendering it, and such
servitude is forbidden by the laws of free States
except in punishment of crime
1t is commonly held, however, as we intimated
on Saturday last, that military service is excep
ton to this general law, and that that specie, of
service may be consistently made involuntary
whenever the State pleases to exact it of the SUBJ
ject. We have never been able to construct to our
mind satisfactory theory in support of this doc
trine, if we start from the assumption that invo-
luntary servitudei is inconsistent with human rights
in the figure of society. And we have never been
able to perceive by what law of reason or rule of
natural justice it was held that the State had the
right to take its subjects, without their consent
for the purpose of making soldiers of them in time
of war; unless it equally has the right to provide
itself with army officers, army surgeons, munitions
of war, &C., without the consent of the parties
from whom it may choose to exact such service.
That is, if the law of contract, the and
guardian of personal freedom, applies in the case
of all other professions and pursuits under free
Governments, why should it not apply to private
soldiers as well as to officers and army contractors
Is it just to abrogate this law with regard to sim
gle class of persons in the community, while lis
observance towards all others held to be the part
of justice and tho pledge of personal liberty
Why should the relations Of supply and demand,
which regulate the price of every other service in
the State, be subver;ed in the single case of pri-
vate soldiersY And do we not find in the con.
sideratioDs suggested by these interrogatories a
sufficient explanation of the instructive preference
given by all free peoples to volunteering means
Of filing up their armies
If it be within the just prerogatives of Govern
ment to demand military service in the ranks from
al its subjects of suitable age and strength, with
out their consent or contract and if it be the duty
Of all such subjects to render that service without
regard t. their individual interests wishes, then
it logically follows, as was indeed contended by
Mr.. McDoUGALL, in the course of the debate to
which we refer, that the true rule for asserting
the right on the part of the Government and en-
forcing the duty against the citizen is to place
them upon the exact same footing" In this view
he held the following language in support of his
amendment, which proposed that from and after
ten days from the passage Of this act substitutes
shall not be allowed in the place of persons subject
to draft and regularly drafted in the service Of the
United States"
I" For this am opposed to the Communication;
for this opposed to substitutes for this reason
opposed to bouniies Let all men be equal before
the law That popular term, and has received The
sanction Of eminent in the ofanguase and IN their
humanitarian philosophy. Let all men be equal before
the law and they al equal before the law let them
all obey the Laws let them ALL in obedience 10 law, main.
tain the Government which enacs and maintains the law
This whole system ia wrong from its beginning have
always been opposed to it. and enter my opposition
20 this movement stand by the bill extngushine the
Communication clause, with this difference that would cay
and shall move that thcte shall be substitutes here
after Let him who bound to service and drafted for
service serve without distinction of men, aud let them sl
- Ahala