I
discover nothing to confine Congress to waging war within the
limits of the Confederacy, nor to prohibit offensive war. In a
word, when Congress desires to raise an army, and passes a law
for that purpose, the solitary question is under the eighteenth
paragraph, viz., 'Is the law one that is necessary and proper to
execute the power to raise armies?'
"On this point you say: `But did the necessity exist in this
case? The conscription act can not aid the Government in
increasing its supply of _arms_ or _provisions_, but can only
enable it to call a larger number of men into the field. The
difficulty has never been to get _men_. The States have already
furnished the Government more than it can arm,' etc.
"I would have very little difficulty in establishing to your
entire satisfaction that the passage of the law was not only
necessary, but that it was absolutely indispensable; that
numerous regiments of twelve months' men were on the eve of
being disbanded, whose places could not be supplied by raw
levies in the face of superior numbers of the foe, without
entailing the most disastrous results; that the position of our
armies was so critical as to fill the bosom of every patriot
with the liveliest apprehension; and that the provisions of this
law were effective in warding off a pressing danger.
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