Year: 1863

Decisions regarding the RnroIlmrut md


Draft.


Solicitor Whiting, Of the Washington
Department has made decision IS to the
hostility Of those who hare been in the SER
vice Of the United States, to the coming
enrolment and draft. It is the duty Of
the enrolling officer to enroll all persons
subject to military duty. All these per-
sons are subject for two years after July
lst to be called into the military service.
Having spoken Of the two classes into
which these are to be divided, she Solicitor
says:


Z" II seems by the true construction Of this
act while all persons coming within its
provisions, arg to be enrolled in the ua-
uonal forces nevertheless, under the first
enrolment those who were in the military
serVice at the time the act went into effect.
are not 10 be included in that class which
Is subject TO the first draft"


After some further paragraphs, difficult
to be understood, he says:


Volunteers or Regulars, who had been
IN the service, and who had been diseharg-
ed therefrom, or had resigned prior to the
Sd day Of March, 1868, are liable to be
drafted in the same manner as if they had
never been in the service. No regard is
IS to be paid to their former period of ser
vice, or to the length or brevity Of the
period between the date Of their discharge
and that Of the draft.


Volunteers who were in the service of
the United States on the Sd of March. 1863.
and have since that time been discharged,
are not therefore included in the first class
from which the first draft is intended 10
be made, and are therefore not now liable
to be called on by draft which is to be
made from that class Of the forces of the
United States under the jurisdiction Of this
Act"


Another decision is made regarding
what constitutes obstructions Of the Off
.cers making the enrolment to draft, and
the punishment therefor. All persons
who obstruet the enrolment, the meeting
Of the Board, or any other proceeding
which is preliminary or essential to the
draft, are guilty according to the act and
subject to the punishment Of hne not ex-
ceeding $500 or imprisonment not exceed
ing two years. There are many ways Of
causing obstruction without employing
physical force. The neglect or refusal to
do an act required by law to be done, may
itself be such an obstruction as to subject
the offender to arrest Suppose a person
to be found standing in a passage through
which the drafting officers are required to
enter into place designated by law as the
place Cor the draft; and suppose that his
standing in that place would prevent ac-
cess by those officers to the place of draft
If they request him to move away, and he
aegleeis or refuses to do so, for the purpose
Of preventing the draft, the non perform
anceo Of the act ofremoval would be of itself
an Construction of the draft, or Of an Off
Ger in the performance of his duty in rela-
tion to it"


Standing mute in civil courts is, under
certain circumstances, a punishable Of
fense; and so if person, with intent to
prevent the draft, refuses to give his true
name when lawfully requested 80 TO do by
an officer whose legal duty it is to ascertain
and enroll it, it is an obstruction of that
officer in the performance of one of his
duties IN relation to the draft. So also is
the giving of false names with the same
illegal intent and the offender will in
either case be subject to summary arrest
iby the Provost Marshal.