The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-04-13


vision of the act of 1865, under consideration
was to offer inducement and present stim.
ulus to numbers or associations of individuals
in any sub-district, before the liability
of any of them became fixed by draft to
obtain volunteer recruits for the army. Con-
gress in this law, offers such associations a
! premium to use their exertions to fill up the
armies. 1t says to the residents of the mul
tItudlnous counties, townships, wards and
precincts throughout the country, ''oganize
/ yourself into recruiting societies; induce
! volunteers to enlist into the service before
the draft; pay them such amounts of bounty
as you may be able to raise by your contri-
buttons to the recruiting funds of your sever
al districts; and when they have been en-
Issted INTO the service, the volunteers you
may have raised will stand to the credit of
as many of you as may happen to be drafted
TO the extent of the number of recruits sin
! the order designated and the time the re-
crults are mustered in"
Such is the declaration and promise of the
new law. Its policy is to encourage recruit
ing, not the procuration of substitutes; to in
duce the people to organize associations for
the advancement of volunteering, rather than
the purchase of substitutes.
In enacting this new law, and Inaugural
ting this new policy, Congress, however, has
not taken away the right of the enrolled per-
son before the draft, to furnish a substitute,
with the qualification before stated, and thus
secure his exemption from draft during the
tune for which his substitute shall have been
accepted. He still has it in his power to
exercise that right in preference TO the right
conferred by the 23d section of the act of Sd
March 1865, of obtaining recruit previous
TO each draft, as it may occur, and securing
thereby q credit in the event, on any occa-
sion Of his being drafted.
am Of opinion, therefore, that the 23d |
section of the act of March Sd, 1865, does not
supersede the 4th section Of the act Of Feb !
ruary %, 1864
The second question which you have re-
terred to me, is, whether the recruits. which
are "io be taken as substitutes" are to be |
considered and borne upon the muster rolls |
and records Of the office of the Provost Mar
shall General, as other volunteer recruits
which arc obtained at the expense of the u
nlied States, or as substitutes which are fur
nlshcd at the cost of The principals
am of opinion that recruits" whom per-
sons enrolled IN any sub-disirict may ''cause
to be mustered into the service of the United
States" III pursuance of the 23d section of
the act Of Sd March, 1865, are to be consid-
cred and trea1ed as other volunteers who are
obtained at the expense of the United States
1t will be observed, from this analysis of the
law contained in the foregoing remarks that
the idea involved in the law of 1864 is sub
SiitutGn, while the idea of the law OF 1865,
Is crediting. The section of the act of 1865
under consideration does not speak of the re-
cr0ItS in question as "sUbsttutes," but de-
clares that they ''shall be taken as SubSii-
tUieS, FOR the persons who cause them to be
IN. They are not substitutes but
only OF the nature Of substitutes. Their pri. |.
mary end essential character, under the law,
Is that OF credits for their procurers or princi-
pals; and this description is the first descrip-
ton given of them in the section in question,
for after saying "10hich recruits shall stand
10 the credit Of the persons thus causing
them to be mustered in the section proceeds
sand shall be taken as substitutes for Such
persons, or so many Of them as may be draf.
ted, 10 Tie ertcnt Of the number Of such re-
Gratis"
A critical study of the words of the statute
thus develops The fundamental idea which ]
have supposed, from other indications was
intended 10 be embodied in the law. The
recruits who are 10 ''Stdad 20 The credit"
OF the enrolled persons, causing them 10 be
mustered in bef1re the occurrence of the
draft, am OF opinion then, are TO be consid-
cred as other volunteer recruits which are
obtained at the expense Of the United States
and not as substitutes, in the ordinary sense
of that term, which are furnished at the cost
Of the principals.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant.
JAMES SPEED,
Attorney General
M,rcb 90 Tce5