Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-29
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERICAN
 HISTORY
ATTEMPTED coNsCRlPTloN IN
 MAR OF 1912

When the United States found itself at war with Great Britain in 1912, the question of raising an army became a serious problem. It was a knotty one for President Monroe and his Cab tnet to solve. Monroes suggested four plans for the securing of the desirable number of troops: The first was a gen. eral and sweeping draft. The second plan was to divide the militia into three classes, according to age, and suffer the President to call any part of either class into service for two years. The third was to exempt every five men from militia service who would find one to enlist for the war. The fourth was to give the recruit one hundred and fifty acres of bounty land at the time of enlistment and one hun dred more for each year of service.
 After a long wrangle in both the Senate and house a compromise bill was finally decided upon, which had all the earmarks of a conscription bill, which idea, of raising an army was ve ry objectionable to the public at large. No State in the nion was more warmly supporting the war than New | York, yet at a special session in the autumn of 1914, the Legislature with | the reports of the burning of Wash | ington fresh in the mind, passed a bill authorizing the raising of twelve thou sand men for the defense of the state. 1 As the troops were to be gathered in | by sweeping conscription, Chancel- | Tor Kent declared it to be against the spirit of the Constitution and the pub lie good.
 But the council overruled his ob- 1 jection, approved of the bill, made it a law amid the heaty condemnation of the people and the vigorous denuncia- ton of town meetings all over the state.
 Connecticut bade her Governor bor- TOW $40O, 900, buy 1000 muskets, use any part of the militia he saw fit in in the defense of any adjoining state when invaded, and, if Congress should pass the conscription bill, convene the Legislature immediately.
 In Massachusetts it was decided that ten thousand men should be enlisted to serve for a year or during the war. Maryland ordered five thousand state troops to be raised, and when word came that the conscription bill had passed the House of Representative | her own House of Delegates ordered a committe to report what measures it may be competent to take for main- ] taining the sovereign rights of this state, and protecting the liberty of its | citizens, against the arbitrary and un- constitutional acts of the general gov ernment.
 Virginia made preparations to gath CT a state army and South Carrolina a state brigade. Kentucky ordered ten | thousand men to be enlisted, and Penn- l sylvania, when peace came, had under l consideration bill to raise a military force to be used for the defense of herself, New Jersey, DeIware and Ma | ryland.
 The various states resenting what they considered was the general gov ernment's interference with state rights and raising a sufficient number ot men to meet the emergency, and the early termination of the war, overcame | the Conscription Act in the war of 1S1: but this was not the case with the civil war.
 The Confederate congress on Apri 16, 1862, having passed a conscriptioT Act whereby all the white males 1T the seeding states, between t5A ages of eighteen and thirty-five, were plac- ed at the disposal of their executive the Northern States were constrained to follow in their footsteps since the ranks were filled too slowly for eXi. gencies of the service.
 |, The Northern Conscription Act wa! passed by Congress on March 3, 1863 providing for the enrolment of al ablebodied male citizens, between tht ages of eighteen and forty-five. Int President was authorized, from anC after July 1, to make drafts at his dis
 erection of persons to serve in the nat
 ional armies for not more than thret years.
 A communication of $500 was to b.
 received in lieu of such service, al though there were exemptions, pro Vided of certain heads of executive de partments, federal judges, Governors the only son of a widow, or of al
 aged or infirm father, dependent ol
 that sons labor for support. } The passage and execution of tlli act inevitably intensified and made ac tive the spirit of opposition to the war Those who detested every form o
 coercion" save the coercion of tn
 republic by the Confederacy, with thos who especially detested the nationa
 effort under it's present aspects as 't : war not for the Union but for the ne ] gro, were aroused by it to nor determined and active opposition. Bu the government placed a firm han about this act, and dealt severely wifi