SEARCH
0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Prev | Current Page 784 | Next

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

"The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government"

'
"This argument appears to me unsound. _All_ the powers of
Congress are enumerated in one section, and the three paragraphs
quoted can no more control each other by reason of their
location in the same section than they can control any of the
other paragraphs preceding, intervening, or succeeding. So far
as the subject-matter is concerned, I have already endeavored to
show that the armies mentioned in the twelfth paragraph are a
subject-matter as distinct from the militia mentioned in the
fifteenth and sixteenth as they are from the navy mentioned in
the thirteenth. Nothing can so mislead as to construe together,
and as a whole, the carefully separated clauses which define the
different powers to be exercised over distinct subjects by the
Congress.
"But you add that, 'by the grant of power to Congress to raise
and support armies without qualification, the framers of the
Constitution intended the regular armies of the Confederacy, and
not armies composed of the whole militia of all the States.'
"I must confess myself somewhat at a loss to understand this
position. If I am right that the militia is a body of enrolled
State soldiers, it is not possible in the nature of things that
armies raised by the Confederacy can 'be composed of the whole
militia of all the States.' The militia may be called forth in
whole or in part into the Confederate service, but do not
thereby become part of the 'armies raised' by Congress.


Pages:
772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796