Our Civilian Army

The revival of interest in the maintenance of an effeetive militia flnds striking expression In the interstate drill this week at Washington. The difficulties experienced in organizing the affair show how badly our militia svsteiu had decayed. and as sometbine of a guide f or the future we may well review our past experfence; for it is a pleasing f act that frora the very beginning America has been the land of the militia and 'the volunteer. It is a very safe estímate that of the "millions who have fought for their homes or government since the first settlement. not one in twenty was a drafted man or regular soldier. In fact, the elabórate militia system of our early history had its origin in a jealousy of standing armies- a very wholesome jealousy, inherited from England and intensifled by our peculiar conditions. At the beginning the settlers volunteered to fight the Indians; every able bodied man was a soldier, if need arose, and the colonial militia was generally kept in effective condition. But the revolutionary war subjected them to much ridicule; they were not fit to meet the British regulara, and immediately after the peace a vigorous reform was inaugurated. The congress of 1792 passed a very stringent act for enrolling every able bodied man bet ween the ages of 18 and 45; every man was to own nis gun and equipments and keep them in good order, and they were exempt from seizure for debts and taxes. The whisky insurrection was suppressed by the militia thus organized. Feb. 28, 1795, congress authorized the president to cali into action any part of this militia either to defend the country, suppress insuiTection or assist officials in enforcing the law where the criminal combination was too great for the ordinary posse comitatus. AU the states have adopted this provisión, and instances of its employment have been painfully frequent sinco 1873. This country opened with a reaJly valuable militia force. Great pride was taken in its efficiency, and men of wealth and social standing gained promotion in the militia with as much enthusiasm as do offieers in the regular army. But alter the second war with Great Britain the system begon to decay. The Federalist writers and orators ridiculed the militiaraen meroilessly; in a few instances during the war they refused to march, and the feeling was insidiously cultivated, especially in the north and east, that the whole was a ridiculous burlesque. But in the south and west pride in the militia long survived, probably becauae the volunteers of those sections had won some bright honors in the field. If any man objected, he was pointed to Tippecanoe and New Orleans as conclusive proof of what volunteer militia cnnlil da Th anmial "muster day" in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and piiuois, and perhaps other states, was a time of trabounded hilarity, íncreasing from year to year tul the assumed the character of the Roman SiUurnalia. It was taken by consent that ordinary law was suspended. AU laborera, slaves included, had holiday without loss of pay ; , no one was fined for flghting, 5 ing o r gettine druuk on that dsy, ■ c de leon. and not infrequently the majority did get drank after the muster closed. And thus the system wore out in all the northern states. It ha been asserted by well informed officials that the three great states of tha northwest dld not contain 5,000 well drllled men on the 15th of April, 1861. The fact that Ellswortb's Zouaves cuuld ejecute every movement In drill and manual esoited timazenient in 1600. But in the aouth looal conditione oaused the mültia systein to be retainsd in soma vigor; and commenting ou this, there was nnlveral predictlon In the north that the militia would thereafter be kept well organized. This prophecy was singularly falsifled. The organization decayed much more rapidly after our civil war than after 1815; and in the average town of two or three thousand it is difflcult to get 100 drilled and nniformed men for a Fourth of July parade. This condition is feit to be dangerous and disgraceful, and many states are now taking vigorous measures to reorganize their militia. Acting on questions arising in 1813-15, the supreme court decided that the president had the right to cali out, act as commander in chief and name the general officers for the militia of the states, and the right has never since been questioned. Congress, however, flxed the conditions very carefully by the law of July 17, 1862, and the right of governors of states to appoint all offlcers below the rank of brigadier general is now flxed. In practice the enlisted men elect the flrst set of line offlcers, and thereafter promotion supplies vacancies. And flnally the supreme court (in Martin v. Mott, 12 Wheaton, 19) declared the right of the president to decide finally and conclusively whether the militia should be summoned, and place them under federal offlcers ranking their own. It is worth noting, however, that the revived militia trystem in nearly all the states differs from the old system in this: the troops are not enrolled and placed in infantry, artillery or cavalry by the state; they volunteer under a general law, oreanize on their own motion.