Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-05-20

general militia law This act remains to-
day on tie statute book, with all it's an
cient phraseology, and its mandates are i'm
| possible to execute. Still nominally in force
! Is its injr notion upon any ablebodied male
| citizen between eighteen and forty-five
years of age, enrolled by his captain, to
keep hin self provided with good mus
ket or firelock, of a bore sufficient for balls
of the eighteenth part of pound" two
spare fins and twenty-four cartridges, or
else with "a good rifle, shot pouch, powder
| horn, twenty balls and quarter of a
pound of powder" The quaint instruc-
lions for grenadiers and bombardiers are
| still to be perused, and also the directions
| to commi STONED officers to provide them
selves with "a sword or hanger and spon-
| toon," or, if mounted, TO have their ''hol-
| sters covered with bearskin caps" From
| time to time efforts have been made to re-
move this venerable chapter from the
statute books or at least to modernize it,
until now at last, it seems to derive a sort
of protect on from its age.
But the fact is that the law was never
carried out. No sooner was it enacted
than efforts were made to repeal some pro-
visions and amend others. Under the plan
of General Knox, which had been drawn
|
| and twenty-one years of age were to serve
thirty days in camp of instruction dur
ing each OF the first two years and ten DAYS
OF the third year; citizens between twenty
one and forty-fve years were to drill four
| days annually; those between forty-fiye
| and sixty were to be enrolled in the re-
serve, which was to assemble semiannual-
| ly for simple inspection of arms
This was a very striking, and, under the
| circumstances of the country at that time,
not very onerous system, while its seri-
BUSINESS was shown by provision that no
person reaching the age of twenty-one
| should exercise the rights of a citizen I'M
| less he could show a certificate of the re-
quired service in the militia But the act
| OF Mays, 1892, widely departed from Knox's
plan, and The very next year after it was
put in operation Washington asked con-
gress whether your own experience in the
several states has not detected some i'm
PROJECTIONS in the scheme" The story of
| the way in which numerous and fruitless
attempts to amend this system resulted at
| length in It's frank abandonment is in
| structive and interesting.
Two years after its adoption bill was
| reported for organizing a select corps of
militia, to he armed and equipped by the
| general government and to be paid while
serving in annual camps of instruction
| This of course would have been a radical
departure from the general law, which re-
CURED the citizens to arm and equip them
selves and put them all on the same foot
| ing. 1t is not unlikely that had this
measure prevailed, it would have been in
force to the present day, and might have
made vast difference in the history of
the country. 1t would, in fact have found
ed national militia of an effective char
acter However, years passed without
securing the notifications desired. The
chief step gained was the enactment of the
law of April %, 1905, making an appropri-
alton of SOC 900 annually to provide arms
and equipm ents for the militia. 1t is noted
as curious fact by the house committee
on militia, whose careful history of the
| subject is here briefly summarized that
| even when this new appropriation had been
| made the OLD requirement that each citizen
should arm and equip himself was not re-
pealed. Even then the reluctance to re-
move the OLD law was manifest.
| Jefferson and Madison followed Wash
| ington in urging year after year modifi-
cation of the militia system; the latter in
1906 desired such "a separation of the more
active part from that which is less so, that
we may draw from it, when necessary, an
|
ice, and to be called to it in regular rota-
tion." He thought that it was quite
enough to su bject the population between
| eighteen and twenty-six years of age to
military duty in time of peace. Madison's
most noticeab ole contribution to the subject
was proposal of annual camps of instruc-
tion for the commissioned and noncommis-
| stoned officers.
In 1916 Secretary Graham, by the direc-
ton of congress, prepared new plan. 1t
divided the militia into three classes, &C
cording to ages, of which the two younger
were to assemble in annual camps of in
struction. Congressman Harrison, of Ohio,
afterward president, proposed as a substi-
tute military drill for all the schools, and
revived Madison's plan of annually in
structing officers and noncommissioned
officers in camp. He estimated that the
cost to the government would be 81, 500, 900
a year. In 1873 a board, on which Scott
and Zachary Taylor were prominent, re-
ported that the great defect in the law was
the excess of numbers it held to service
| They suggest ed as a substitute a brigade
of militia in each congress district, to be
instructed in camps for ten days each year,
and paid for their time and expenses.
The drift toward select body instead of
a general organization had thus been
clearly manifest through all these years;
yet two additional elements, volunteering
and state organizations, were needed be-
fore the desired reforms could be secured.
jackson reco nmended the former, while
Secretary Poinsett in 1910 made an ap-
proach to the latter by proposal of 100,-
600 active mil tia, apportioned among the
states, each OF which could keep its quota
filled either by voluntary enlistment or
draft One-fourth would go out of service
annually into the reserve, while the presi-
dent could pur them into camps under pay
for month annually. In 1916 still another
plan was repo-te that of maintaining in
each state an active militia between
twenty-one and thirty years of age whose
}, officers should be instructed annually in
camp by the general government.
But by that time the new ideas of volun-
teers and state organizations had not only
become rooted, but had borne fruit. Such
militia bodies were springing up all over
the Union, anil in fact formed the basis of