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Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

"The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government"


"Now, if militia are not the citizens taken singly, but a body
created by law; if they are not troops; if they are no part of
the Army and Navy of the Confederacy, we are led directly to the
definition, quoted by the Attorney-General, that militia are 'a
body of soldiers in a State enrolled for discipline.' In other
words, the term 'militia' is a collective term meaning a body of
men organized, and can not be applied to the separate
individuals who compose the organization.
"The Constitution divides the whole military strength of the
States into only two classes of organized bodies: one, the
armies of the Confederacy; the other, the militia of the States.
"In the delegation of power to the Confederacy, after exhausting
the subject of declaring war, raising and supporting armies, and
providing a navy, in relation to all which the grant of
authority to Congress is _exclusive_, the Constitution proceeds
to deal with the other organized body, the militia; and, instead
of delegating power to Congress alone, or reserving it to the
States alone, the power is divided as follows, viz.: Congress is
to have power 'to provide for calling forth the militia to
execute the laws of the _Confederate_ States, suppress
insurrections, and _repel invasions_.'[197]
"'To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed
in the service of the Confederate States; _reserving_ to _the
States respectively the appointment of the officers_, and the
_authority of training the militia_, according to the discipline
prescribed by Congress.


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