The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-03-18
Saturday Morning, March Is, 1865.
MIR. Blaine's Amendment in Regard to PA
per Credits" ..

MIR. Blaine's Amendment in Regard to PA
per Credits"
The following is from the Congressional
Globe of Feb. 25th: afe
Mr.. BLAINE. move to amend the second
section by adding thereto the following:
PROVIDED, That in any cali for troops, no county,
town. 10 ~nship ward, precinct election district,
shall have credit exceprfor actually furnished
said call, Preceding cal, by said county, town.
township, va d, precinct, or election district, and
mustered into the military CT naval service the
quota thereof.
There were two provisions inserted in the
enrolment law of last session, Mr.. Speaker,
which have, in my judgment, produced great
deal Of mischief aud very little good. / refer
TO those sections which permitted recruiting
in the rebel States, and the allowance OF cred
its for previous naval enlstments. From
these two sources has arisen the gigantic and
widespread evil OF filling the quotas of towns
without adding troops to the Army. The
amendment which have offered is designed
to correct this evil, to cut it up by the roots,
and to bring back recruiting to an honest
meritorious, and patriotic effort to fill the
ranks OF our gallant Army with men and not
Win the shadowy ffctiops which pass under
Inc general name of paper credits" We
nave witnessed with amazement the quotas of
entire cities and districts, and do not know
but States also, technically filed, without add
Mg a single man or mosele to the effective
military force OF the nation. How this Is
done, by what system of construcll.e credits.
or ncitious credits, or fraudulent GREATS ii
has been accomplished, is mystery whichx
atn totally unable to solve. The fact, howev-
er, lis one Of general notoriety, and the evil is
one which should not be allowed to exist for a
single day when the correction can bs applied
by Congress. @
And Congress, sir, is the only power that
can apply the remedy! The State authorities
see and appreciate the evil, but they have not
sufficient jurisdiction in the premises to cor
rect it. In the Legislature OF my own State
this winter there has been much discussion
and excitement in REGARD to this matter, and
a law was passed designed to abate the evil; !;
but all State laws necessarily fall short of the
object for want OF proper authority. Con-
gress, sir, and Congress alone, can remedy the
evil; and unless it is speed ly remedied it will
end in demoralizing and debauching the whole
system of enrolment and conscription, bring
ing it into such popular contempt, odium, and
distrust, as to paralvze it as an agency for
raising troops for our army.
MY amendment, sir, Is very simple and very
direct. 1t provides that no credit shall be
given to any town "except for men, Aye,
Slra lQr men n40u dCbudlly 1uTuloucu Uy 6dlu
town. and not actually furnished" only, but
mustered into the service on the quota OF
said town." 1t does not require tnat tae men
shall be citizens or residents OF the town for
which they enlist, but leaves the law on that
point unchanged, the law being simply to re-
qHire that men shall be furnished when men
are called for.
Sir, this simple rule had been adhered to we
should have had full ranks in our army to day
fNrr
for little ii any more than they paid for these
worthless "paper credits" Conscription aftel
CONSUMPTION, draft after draft, must ensue, ii
the Government fails in getting men; and it
thus happens that this constructive mode oil
filing quotas reacts upon and severely punish
es the very towns and districts that seem to
derive temporary advantage therefrom.-
Sooner or later, the men must come, and one
man in good season often removes the necessi-
ty of raising five men at later and less favor
able juncture of military affairs. So that the
policy, besides being equally disastrous to the
Government, is equally disastrous to the
towns, even when viewed from the standpoint
of local interest, local Jealousy and self-pres-
ervation. repeat sir, it is policy that saves
one man to-day, only to conscript five men to-
morrow.
When it was originally resolved to allow
credits for men in the naval service thought
some advantage might accrue to myown state
in having her quota for the military service
lesseHed thereby.
knew that Maine had contributed large
number Of volunteers to the Navy; very large
in proportion to her population as compared
with other States and / thoughts fair recog-
milton of this fact might diminish the number
of her citizens to be drafted for the military
And if the matter could have been fairly de-
cided, on high and honorable grounds, thai
would have been the result. But instead o.
that, sir, the allowance of naval credits to the
States, taken all together, has been positive
disadvantage to Maine. And for this simple
reason; so many more have been allowed to
other States than they were fairly entitled to
that Maine relatively lost in the distribution
New York got some thirty thousand of these
credits, and Massachusetts,, believe, some
seventeen thousand, while Maine was assign.
ed only some thirty three hundred by the
War Department ~ Isdta q
Other States, you will observe, were thus
relieved to SO much larger degree than Maine
that the reaction was against us, and in the
very next draft we found ourselves with &
larger quota assigned to US than we shoult
have had if no such thing as credits for nava
enlistments had ever been allowed.
But, sir, aside from this injustice to my
State, very great evil has sprung up in the
matter OF these naval credits. So far as they
were assigned to the general credit of the
State and went to the reduction of the entire
quota the benefit was the same to all sections
OF the State, and was in this respect impartial
But on top ofthis, throughout the whole coun
try we hear of substitute brokers selling these
credits obtained in some mysterious way al
one would sell town scrip in the market; ant
from this source has risen a large number o
those constructive 'paper credits" agains
which my amendment is evelled, and which
a. fa4,ro if urill nrovpnt If pnox,I ,ot ~