en the army is small and volunteers are abundant. But
when the ordinary methods fail to fill up the ranks, decimated by actual
war, when the honor and perpetuity of a nation depend upon a
conscription of its citizens, then comes the tug of war, and many
legislatures have failed in their deliberations on this subject. In the
first place, a Conscription Act is opposed to popular prejudice.
Compulsory service of any kind, except for punishment, is contrary to
our ideas of personal freedom. We believe in the sovereign privilege of
doing what we please, and declining to do what we do not please, to its
fullest possible extent. We love to tell our neighbors that we have no
standing army to defend our national honor, but that it reposes safely
on the _voluntary_ patriotism of the people. We may admit the
_necessity_ for a Conscription Act--may confess its justice and
impartiality; but few men who are liable to fall into its pitiless
clutches, can speak of such an act without a shrug of uneasiness or a
wicked expression of anger. Again, it must be universal in its
application. It must meet all classes and conditions of society; must be
adapted to all shades of religious and political belief; must be
inflexible as Justice on his throne, yet tender and sympathetic as a
mother to her child. It must take into consideration different branches
of industry, and the fields of one section must not be depleted of
husbandmen that those of another may be filled with warriors.

The act of March 3d meets these difficulties more successfully, perhaps,
than any previous act, whether of a State or National Legislature. It is
based upon the broad and well-admitted maxim, that every citizen owes
his personal service to the Government which protects him. But while the
Government impartially demands this service, the law provides for the
exemption of those who would suffer by the unqualified enforcement of
this demand.

Many persons outside of the specified limits of age, are physically able
to do military service. But, _as a class_, it would have been cruel and
impolitic to have forced men into a service which would have wrecked
health and happiness for life, or, by a short and swift passage through
the military hospitals, have shuffled them into premature graves. Few
men under twenty-five have the power of endurance necessary for a long
and wearisome campaign. The muscles are not sufficiently knit and
hardened for the service, nor the constituti