The Confederate Records Of The State Of Georgia Volume 3

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... the time of the last call for twelve regiments, concurring in this view, and recognizing this right of the State. And it is proper that I should remark that the State has, in each case, been permitted to exercise this right, when the troops entered the service in compliance with a requisition upon the State for "organized bodies of troops." The right does not stop here, however. The Constitution does not say the State shall appoint the officers while the organizations may be forming to enter the service of the Confederacy but while they "may be employed in the service of the Confederate States." Many thousands are now so employed. Vacancies in the different offices are frequently occurring by death, resignation, etc. The laws of this State provide how these vacancies are to be filled and it is not to be done by promotion of the officer next in rank, except in a single instance, but by election of the regiment, and commission by the Governor. The right of the State to appoint these officers seems to be admitted, and is, indeed, too clear to be questioned. The Conscription Act, if it is to be construed according to its language, and the practice which your Generals are establishing under it, denies to the State the exercise of this right, and prescribes a rule for selecting all officers in future, unknown to the laws of Georgia, and confers upon the President the power to commission them. Can this usurpation (I think no milder term expresses it faithfully) be justified under the clause in the Constitution which gives Congress power to "raise armies?" and is this part of the Act constitutional? If not, you have failed to establish the constitutionality of the Conscription Act. The 14th paragraph of the 9th Section of the 1st Article of the...