Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-08-04
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1864.
SHORT TERMS OF MILITARY SERVICE.

SHORT TERMS OF MILITARY SERVICE.
That excellent military paper, the Army and
Navy Journal, published in New York, in COM
menting on the recent call of the President for five
hundred thousand more men, intimates the opinion
that the short term Of the service for which draft
is permitted under that call must deserve to be
oonsdered mistake in military point Of view.
To this effect our contemporary says:
The first part of recruits term is wasted in learning
bs duty-in learning how to be soldier This draft,
however looking both at the time and the numbers is
based on the obvious assumption that the will be end
ed in ftytwO weeks, if at ALL For it's numbers
vsst as TO cause no little complaint at future day. should
Eve hundred Thousand troops be badly economical
not to substantially break an opponent whose armies we
outnumber But it is usually unsafe to speculate on
time in such matters sad experience has taught "
We need not inform our readers that these views
vero abundantIy enforced on the attention of Con-
press during the discussion that was had on the
enrolment act Among those who deprecated the
reduction of the compulsory term of military SER
vice was Senator BRowN, of Missouri. He said,
on the 9th of June:
GAS long the question of Volunteering was open,
was insisted upon all the time that should have the
longest term servce and it said and said very pro-
perIy that purely military question IT had been found
that one year was long enough within which to fit
troops for the field within which to Mt them for enduring
those hardshps which campaigns involve them IN 1t Is
not simply the equppns Of troops is not simply putting
arms ia their hands, but it is to speak, the seasoning
of the bodies of the soldiers to the endurance OF those Ia
toues that makes the soldier and makes the value of the
soldier; and say that within the period Of one year you
will have within two years or three years believe
am austaned when say that that has been the represen
taton which has come to continually from the War
and that have
come to us from the Military Committee in this body"
Many other Senators and many Representatives
spoke to the same purpose, but the policy Of one
wears service under draft prevailed And we
presume the Journal is correct in supposing that
this limitation of the compulsory military term
proceeds on the presumption, (however unwarrant-
ed by our "sad experience" as that paper sug-
eests) that the number actually called will suffice
to end the war within that period. To this effect
Mi. WILSON, of Massachusetts,, spoke, on the 23d
of June last, as follows:
aft we now limit the draft to year. and the Govern.
rnent will call for vast of men and act with vgor
beeye that befofe the opening Of next year the rebel
mics will be broken and the Of the country
ed and 90 believing, contend for reduction OF the time
It because believe VIII strengthen our cause tnAt
have advocated It,.
Upon the general subject of short terms of mill
tary service the Army and Naval Journal says
Short terms have always been mistakes The first
call for three months troops great error but an ex
pedent n crisis The nine months troops useful,
but their had better have been made longer that
the work Of two campaigns might have been done by Them
ipstead Of Cne Besides, they discharged after
being trained to usefulness soldiers The majority pro-
baby woul have ouneered for twelve fifteen montbs
az quickly for nine. SO fifteen months would
have been better term OF service than twelve"
Our contemporary, in looking at such ques-
tions exclusively from military point of view,
calls Pre.iden. Iincoln's first summons for three
months troops ga great error" 1t is not just SO
to denominste it, and least of ii. to ascrlbe any
blame on this score to Mr. Lincoln, for the iSw OF
1895, under which he acted in calling for those
troops, did not permit him to call them for longer
term. That statute, our readers will remember,
provides in its second section that
"whenever the laws Of the United States shall be OPP
posed or the execution thereof obsructed in any State
ry coure Of judicial proceedings by the powers vested
n the msrhss by this act shall be lawful for the Pres
dent of the United States to call forth the militia Of such
State Of any other state States as may be necessary
to suppress such and to the laws to be
duly executed aud the Of militia so to be called forth
may continued necessary, until the expiration OF larry
days after The Of tho then nert session
Congress."
AS on the same day Git was the 18th of April,
1867 on which the President called for $4,000
men under this act, he summoned the Senators
and Representatives to meet in extraordinary ses-
sion on the ensuing 4th of July, it follows that
the term Of service Of the troops thus called would
have expired by necessary legal limitation thirty
DAYS after the commencement Of the said session.
And it was in recognition Of this fact that the Pre-
sidcnt prescribed the term Of three months.
And so with regard to the nine months men af
forwards called into Services II is not pertinent to
say, as implying any reflection on the Executive,
that their time had better have been made longer
10 that the work Of two campaigns might have
been done by them instead of one" The term Of
service which these troops were called to render
was fixed by the act Of Congress approved July IL,
1862, and the President could not have called
them for longer period without d'regardng the
express provisions of the statute which was his
only authority in the premises.
We entirely concur with tho Journal 10 all it says
about the impolicy Of short military TERMS but it
is proper that the responsibility for fixing such
terms should be laid at the door of the Legislative
rather than Of the Executive Department of the
Government.