Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-01-13
THE MADNESS OF CONGRESS.

There are grave objections to the exemption bill
reported in the House. It shifts responsibility
from Congress, and desslyes upon the Secretary Of
War power which nQesingle man should be per.
mitted to exercise. 1t assumes that the Secretary
can know better than the representatives of the
people the wants OF the country and what classes
or particular individuals be better employed in
civil than in military pursuita The exemption
which Congress makes, except as to- Confederate
and State officers, is no exemption at all The
whole question, with the above exceptions, is re-.
terred to the Secretary and the President The
bill gives these functionaries power over indi-
viduals; not classes, merely, but individuals. The
determinations are in favor of "persons who can
better subserve the interests Of the country in their
respective avocations, than in the army: Hence,
the Secretary, with the approval Of the President,
can say that one-fourth, or any given number of
any particular class may be exempt. He may even
select from those classes the particular persons he
would prefer to exempt, remanding the others to
the army. He could prescribe whom he would Of
the classes deemed most entitled to exemption and
the letter of the law--if this bill becomes such
would not be violated. The discriminating reader
will, if he examines the bill carefully see that we
arc justified in tho oesol..sis.s- It
vestiug one man, who like all others, is liable to
passion and prejudice, with powers that may be
used to the injury and oppression of Individuals
No Secretary should desire to have such response.
bility thrust upon him.
And what propriety is there in thus shifting re-
spensibility from Congress to the Executive depart
mentss Surely, the representatives of the people
are as competent to determine what classes, (for
this should be the rule of exemption, without re-
spect of persons needful to the country outside
Of the army 1.-THE producers are necessary to fur
nish the food for the army and for other consumers
let Congress exempt them. So with respect to
nj nrin SnSct al
smiths, railroad and telegraph operatives together
with any and all classes that, 10 the Judgment Of
Congress, may be more useful in their respective
pursuits than they could be in the army. The rule
should be determined by Congress, leaving no opin
ion to the Secretary as m executive officer out to
carry it out in practice. A hundred men, or more
in Congressman Of talents and observation, rep
resenting all the varied interests Of the country and
assumed to be familiar with its resources to
be able to frame as good an exemption bill as the
Secretary of War, and one that would be free from
the caprices that might be INDUCED by single per.
son invested with arbitrary powers over his fellow
citizens q - - : -.
But finally, Congress and mot the Secretary o,
War should determine who should 20 into the ser.
vice. The former only is clothed with power to de-
eide who are liable to military duty. The Secretary
of War las no pow er- over the citizens in this re-
spect and can osll no man to the field who is not
placed at his disposal by Congress: Then why
should Congress abdicate its authority and PERM,
the Secretary to d. by indrection, what be cannot
do directiy1 Let Congress, therefore, either put
the whole military force of the country at the dis.
posat of the Secretary. or itself determine what
of labor deemed essential to the. best interests Of
the country. The Secretary should, in no event. be
entrusted with such powers. -Lyneh6ury Vjygin.
-.