Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of
the United States shall be authorized, whenever he shall deem it necessary,
during the present war, to call for such number of men for the military service
of the United States as the public exigencies may require.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the quota of
each ward of a city, town, township, precinct, or election district, or of a
county, where the county is not divided into wards, towns, townships,
precincts, or election districts, shall be, as nearly as possible, in
proportion to the number of men resident therein liable to render military
service, taking into account, as far as practicable, the number which has been
previously furnished therefrom: and in ascertaining and filling said quota
there shall be taken into account the number of men who have heretofore entered
the naval service of the United States, and whose names are borne upon the
enrolment lists as already returned to the office of the
provost-marshal-general of the United States.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That if the quotas
shall not be filled within the time designated by the President, the
provost-marshal of the district within which any ward of a city, town,
township, precinct, or election district, or county, where the same is not
divided into wards, towns, townships, precincts, or election districts, which
is deficient in its quota, is situated, shall, under the direction of the
provost marshal-general, make a draft for the number deficient therefrom; but
all volunteers who may enlist after the draft shall have been ordered, and
before it shall be actually made, shall be deducted from the number ordered to
be drafted in such ward, town, township, precinct, or election district, or
county. And if the quota of any district shall not be filled by the draft made
in accordance with the provisions of this act, and the act to which it is an
amendment, further drafts shall be made, and like proceedings had, until the
quota of such district shall be filled.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That any person
enrolled under the provisions of the act for enrolling and calling out the
national forces, and for other purposes, approved March third, eighteen hundred
and sixty-three, or who may he hereafter so enrolled, may furnish, at any time
previous to the draft, an acceptable substitute, who is not liable to draft,
nor at the time in the military or naval service of the United States, and such
person so furnishing a substitute shall be exempt from draft during the time
for which [such] substitute shall not be liable to draft, not exceeding the
time for which such substitute shall have been accepted.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted. That any person
drafted into the military service of the United States may, before the time fixed
for his appearance for duty at the draft rendezvous, furnish an acceptable
substitute, subject to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the
Secretary of War. That if such substitute is not liable to draft, the person
furnishing him shall be exempt from draft during the time for which such
substitute is not liable to draft, not exceeding the term for which he was
drafted; and, if such substitute is liable to draft, the name of the person
furnishing him shall again be placed on the roll, and shall be liable to draft
on future calls, but not until the present enrolmont shall be exhausted; and
this exemption shall not exceed the term for which such person shall have been
drafted. And any person now in the military or naval service of the United
States, not physically disqualified, who has so served more than one year, and
whose term of unexpired service shall not at the time of substitution exceed
six months, may be employed as a substitute to serve in the troops of the State
in which he enlisted; and if any drafted person shall hereafter pay money for
the procuration of a substitute, under the provisions of the act to which this
is an amendment, such payment of money shall operate only to relieve such
person from draft in filling that quota; and his name shall be retained on the
roll in filling future quotas; but in no instance shall the exemption of any
person on account of his payment of commutation money for the procuration of a
substitute, extend beyond one year; but at the end of one year, in every such
case, the name of any person so exempted shall be enrolled again, if not before
returned to the enrolment list under the provisions of this section.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That boards of
enrolment shall enroll all persons liable to draft under the provisions of this
act, and the act to which this is an amendment, whoso names may have been
omitted-by the proper enrolling officers; all persons who shall arrive at the
age of twenty years before the draft; all aliens who shall declare their
intentions to become citizens; all persons discharged from the military or
naval service of the United States who have not been in such service two years
during the present war; and all persons who have been exempted under the
provisions of the second section of the act to which this is an amendment, but
who are not exempted by the provisions of this act; and said boards of
enrolment shall release and discharge from draft all persons who, between the
time of the enrolment and the draft, shall have arrived at the age of
forty-five years, and shall strike the names of such persons from the
enrolment.
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That any mariner
or able or ordinary seaman who shall be drafted under this act, or the act to
which this is an amendment, shall have the right, within eight days after the
notification of such draft, to enlist in the naval service as a seaman, and a
certificate that he has so enlisted being made out, in conformity with
regulations which may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy, and duly
presented to the provost-marshal of the district in which such mariner or able
or ordinary seaman shall have been drafted, shall exempt him from such draft: Provided,
That the period for which he shall have enlisted into the naval service
shall not be less than the period for which he shall have been drafted into the
military service: And provided further, That the said certificate shall
declare that satisfactory proof has been made before the naval officer issuing
the same that the said person so enlisting in the Navy is a mariner by
vocation, or an able or ordinary seaman. And any person now in the military
service of the United States, who shall furnish satisfactory proof that he is a
mariner by vocation or an able or ordinary seaman, may enlist into the Navy
under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the President of the
United States: Provided, That such enlistment shall not be for less than
the unexpired term of his military service, nor for less than one year. And the
bounty-money which any mariner or seaman enlisting from the Army into the. Navy
may have received from the United States, or from the State in which he
enlisted in the Army, shall be deducted from the prize-money to which he may
become entitled during the time required to complete his military service: And
provided further, That the whole number of such transfer enlistments shall
not exceed ten thousand.
SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That whenever any
such mariner or able or ordinary seaman shall have been exempted from such draft
in the military service by such enlistment into the naval service, under such
due certificate thereof, then the ward, town, township, precinct, or election district,
or county, when the same is not divided into wards, towns, townships, precincts,
or election districts, from which such person has been drafted, shall be
credited with his services to all intents and purposes as if he had been duly
mustered into the military service under such draft.
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all
enlistments into the naval service of the United States, or into the Marine
Corps of the United States, that may hereafter be made of persons liable to
service under the act of Congress entitled “An
act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes,”
approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be credited to
the ward, town, township, precinct, or election district, or county, when the
same is not divided into wards, towns, townships, precincts, or election
districts, in which such enlisted men were or may be enrolled and liable to
duty under the act aforesaid, under such regulations as the
provost-marshal-general of the United States may prescribe.
SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the
following persons be and they are hereby exempted from enrolment and draft
under the provisions of this act and of the act to which this is an amendment,
to wit: Such as are rejected as physically or mentally unfit for the service,
all persons actually in the military or naval service of the United States at
the time of the draft, and all persons who have served in the military or naval
service two years during the present war and been honorably discharged
therefrom; and no persons but such as arc herein exempted shall be exempt.
SEC. 11. And be it further enacted. That section
third of the “Act
for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes,”
approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and so much of section
ten of said act as provides for the separate enrolment of each class, be, and
the same are hereby, repealed; and it shall be the duty of the board of
enrolment of each district to consolidate the two classes mentioned in the
third section of said act.
SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That any person
who shall forcibly resist or oppose any enrolment, or who shall incite,
counsel, encourage, or who shall conspire or confederate with any other person
or persons forcibly to resist or oppose any such enrolment, or who shall aid or
assist, or take any part in any forcible resistance or opposition thereto, or
who shall assault, obstruct, hinder, impede, or threaten any officer or other
person employed in making or in aiding to make such enrolment, or employed in
the performance, or in aiding in the performance of any service in anyway
relating thereto, or in arresting or aiding to arrest any spy or deserter from
the military service of the United States, shall, upon conviction thereof in
any court competent to try the offence, be punished by a fine not exceeding
five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding five years, or by both
of said punishments in the discretion of the court. And in cases where such
assaulting, obstructing, hindering, or impeding shall produce the death of such
officer or other person, the offender shall be deemed guilty of murder, and,
upon conviction thereof upon indictment in the circuit court of the United
States for the district within which the offence was committed, shall be
punished with death. And nothing in this section contained shall be construed
to relieve the party offending from liability, under proper indictment or
process, for any crime against the laws of a State, committed by him while
violating the provisions of this section.
SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the
Secretary of War shall be authorized to detail or appoint such number of
additional surgeons for temporary duty in the examination of persons drafted
into the military service, in any district, as may be necessary to secure the
prompt examination of all such persons, and to fix the compensation to be paid
surgeons so appointed while actually employed. And such surgeons so detailed or
appointed shall perform the same duties as the surgeon of the board of
enrolment, except that they shall not be permitted to vote or sit with the
board of enrolment.
SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the
Secretary of War is authorized, whenever in his judgment the public interest
will be subserved thereby, to permit or require boards of examination of
enrolled or drafted men to hold their examinations at different points within
their respective enrolment districts, to be determined by him: Provided, That
in all districts over one hundred miles in extent, and in such as are composed
of over ten counties, the board shall hold their sessions in at least two
places in such district, and at such points as are best calculated to
accommodate the people thereof.
SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That
provost-marshals, boards of enrolment, or any member thereof, acting by
authority of the board, shall have power to summon witnesses in behalf of the
Government, and enforce their attendance by attachment without previous payment
of fees, in any case pending before them, or either of them; and the fees
allowed for witnesses attending under summons shall be six cents per mile for
mileage, counting one way; and no other fees or costs shall be allowed under
the provisions of this section; and they shall have power to administer oaths
and affirmations. And any person who shall wilfully and corruptly swear or
affirm falsely before any provost marshal, or board of enrolment, or member
thereof, acting by authority of the board, or who shall, before any civil
magistrate, wilfully and corruptly swear or a affirm falsely to any affidavit
to be used in any case pending before any provost-marshal or board of
enrolment, shall, on conviction, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars,
and imprisoned not less than six months nor more than twelve mouths. The
drafted men shall have process to bring in witnesses, but without mileage.
SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That copies of
any record of a provost-marshal or board of enrolment, or of any part thereof,
certified by the provost-marshal, or a majority of said board of enrolment,
shall be deemed and taken as evidence in any civil or military court in like
manner as the original record: Provided, That if any person shall
knowingly certify any false copy or copies of such record, to be used in any
civil or military court, he shall be subject to the pains and penalties of
perjury.
SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That members of religious
denominations, who shall by oath or affirmation declare that they are
conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms, and who are prohibited from
doing so by the rules and articles of faith and practice of said religious
denominations, shall, when drafted into the military service, be considered
noncombatants, and shall be assigned by the Secretary of War to duty in the
hospitals, or to the care of freedmen, or shall pay the sum of three hundred
dollars to such person as the Secretary of War shall designate to receive it,
to be applied to the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers: Provided, That
no person shall be entitled to the benefit of the provisions of this section
unless his declaration of conscientious scruples against bearing arms shall be
supported by satisfactory evidence that his deportment has been uniformly
consistent with such declaration.
SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That no person of
foreign birth shall, on account of alienage, be exempted from enrolment or
draft under the provisions of this act, or the act to which it is an amendment,
who has at any time assumed the rights of a citizen by voting at any election
held under authority of the laws of any State or Territory, or of the United
States, or who has held any office under such laws or any of them; but the fact
that any such person of foreign birth has voted or held, or shall vote or hold,
office as aforesaid, shall be taken as conclusive evidence that he is not
entitled to exemption from military service on account of alienage.
SEC. 19. And he it further enacted, That all claims
to exemption shall be verified by the oath or affirmation of the party claiming
exemption to the truth of the facts stated, unless it shall satisfactorily
appear to the board of enrolment that such party is for some good and
sufficient reason unable to make such oath or affirmation; and the testimony of
any other party filed in support, of a claim to exemption shall also be made
upon oath or affirmation.
SEC. 20. And be it further enacted, That if any
person drafted and liable to render military service shall procure a decision
of the board of enrolment in his favor upon a claim to exemption by any fraud
or false representation practiced by himself or by his procurement, such
decision or exemption shall be of no effect, and the person exempted, or in
whose favor the decision may be made, shall be deemed a deserter, and may be
arrested, tried by court-martial, and punished as such, and shall be held to
service for the full term for which he was drafted, reckoning from the t hue of
his arrest: Provided, That the Secretary of War may order the discharge
of all persons in the military service who are under the age of eighteen years
at the time of the application for their discharge, when it shall appear upon
due proof that such persons are in the service without the consent, either
expressed or implied, of their parents or guardians. And provided further, That
such persons, their parents or guardians, shall first repay to the Government
and to the State and local authorities all bounties and advance pay which may
have been paid to them, anything in the act to which this is an amendment to
the contrary notwithstanding.
SEC. 21. And be it further enacted, That any person
who shall procure, or attempt to procure, a false report from the surgeon of
the board of enrolment concerning the physical condition of any drafted person,
or a decision in favor of such person by the board of enrolment upon a claim to
exemption, knowing the same to be false, shall, upon conviction in any district
or circuit court of the United States, be punished by imprisonment for the
period for which the party was drafted.
SEC. 22. And be it further enacted, That the fees of
agents and attorneys for making out and causing to be executed any papers in
support of a claim for exemption from draft, or for any services that may be
rendered to the claimant, shall not, in any case, exceed five dollars; and
physicians or surgeons furnishing certificates of disability to any claimant
for exemption from draft shall not be entitled to any fees or compensation therefor.
And any agent or attorney who shall, directly or indirectly, demand or receive
any greater compensation for his services under this act, and any physician or
surgeon who shall, directly or indirectly, demand or receive any compensation
for furnishing said certificates of disability, and any officer, clerk, or
deputy connected with the board of enrolment who shall receive compensation from
any drafted man for any services, or obtaining the performance of such service
required from any member of said board by the provisions of this act, shall be
deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall, for every
such offence, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, to be recovered upon
information or indictment before any court of competent jurisdiction, one-half
for the use of any informer who may prosecute for the same in the name of the
United States, and the other half for the use of the United States, and shall
also be subject to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, at the
discretion of the court.
SEC. 23. And be it further enacted. That no member of
the board of enrolment, and no surgeon detailed or employed to assist the board
of enrolment, and no clerk, assistant, or employee of any provost-marshal or
board of enrolment, shall, directly or indirectly, be engaged in procuring or
attempting to procure substitutes for persons drafted, or liable to be drafted,
into the military service of the United States. And if any member of a board of
enrolment, or any such surgeon, clerk, assistant, or employee, shall procure,
or attempt to procure, a substitute for any person drafted, or liable to be
drafted, as aforesaid, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall,
upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment not less than thirty days, nor
more than six months, and pay a fine not less than one hundred, nor more than
one thousand dollars, by any court competent to try the offence.
SEC. 24. And be it further enacted. That all
able-bodied male colored persons, between the ages of twenty and forty-five
years, resident in the United States, shall be enrolled according to the provisions
of this act, and of the act to which, this is an amendment, and form part of the
national forces; and when a slave of a loyal master shall be drafted and
mustered into the service of the United States, his master shall have a
certificate thereof, and thereupon such slave shall be free; and the bounty of
one hundred dollars, now payable by law for each drafted man, shall be paid to
the person to whom such drafted person was owing service or labor at the time
of his muster into the service of the United States. The Secretary of War shall
appoint a commission in each of the slave States represented in Congress,
charged to award to each loyal person to whom a colored volunteer may owe
service a just compensation, not exceeding three hundred dollars, for each such
colored volunteer, payable out of the fund derived from commutations, and every
such colored volunteer on being mustered into the service shall be free. And in
all cases where men of color have been heretofore enlisted or have volunteered
in the military service of the United States, all the provisions of this act,
so far as the payment of bounty and compensation are provided, shall be equally
applicable as to those who may be hereafter recruited. But men of color,
drafted or enlisted, or who may volunteer into the military service, while they
shall be credited on the quotas of the several States, or subdivisions of
States, wherein they are respectively drafted, enlisted, or shall volunteer,
shall not be assigned as State troops, but shall be mustered into regiments or
companies as United States colored troops.
SEC. 25. And be it further enacted, That the
fifteenth section of the act to which this is amendatory be so amended that it
will read as follows: That any surgeon charged with the duty of such
inspection, who shall receive from any person whomsoever any money or other
valuable thing, or agree, directly or indirectly, to receive the same to his
own or another's use, for making an imperfect inspection, or a false or
incorrect report, or who shall wilfully neglect to make a faithful inspection
and true report, and each member of the board of enrolment who shall wilfully
agree to the discharge from service of any drafted person who is not legally
and properly entitled to such discharge, shall be tried by a court-martial,
and, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not less than three hundred
dollars and not more than ten thousand dollars, shall be imprisoned at the
discretion of the court, and be cashiered and dismissed the service.
SEC. 26. And be it further enacted. That the words “precinct”
and “election district,” as used in this act, shall not be construed to require
any subdivision for purposes of enrolment and draft less than the wards into
which any city or village maybe divided, or than the towns or townships into
which any county may be divided.
SEC. 27. And be it further enacted, That so much of
the act entitled “An
act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes,”
approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, as may be inconsistent
with the provisions of this act, is hereby repealed.
Approved, February 24, 1864.
SOURCE: The Reports of
Committees of House of Representatives for the Third Session of the Fifty-third
Congress, 1894-95, In Two Volumes, Report No. 1820, p. 6-11
