to render military service, taking into account as far as practicable, the number which has been previously furnished therefrom; and in ascertaining and filling said quota there shall be taken into account the number of men who have heretofore entered the naval service of the United States, and whose names are borne upon the enrolment lists as already returned to the office of the provost-marshal general of the United States.

SEC. 3. [If quota is not filled by volunteers, draft to be made.]

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That any person enrolled under the provisions of the act . . [of March 3, 1863]. . ., or who may be hereafter so enrolled, may furnish, at any time previous to the draft, an acceptable substitute, who is not liable to draft, nor at the time in the military or naval service of the United States, and such person so furnishing a substitute shall be exempt from draft during the time for which [such] substitute shall not be liable to draft, not exceeding the time for which such substitute shall have been accepted.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That any person drafted into the military service of the United States may, before the time fixed for his appearance for duty at the draft rendezvous, furnish an acceptable substitute, subject to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War. That if such substitute is not liable to draft, the person furnishing him shall be exempt from draft during the time for which such substitute is not liable to draft, not exceeding the term for which he was drafted; and, if such substitute is liable to draft, the name of the person furnishing him shall again be placed on the roll, and shall be liable to draft on future calls, but not until the present enrolment shall be exhausted; and this exemption shall not exceed the term for which such person shall have been drafted. And any person now in the military or naval service of the United States, not physically disqualified, who has so served more than one year, and whose term of unexpired service shall not at the time of substitution exceed six months, may be employed as a substitute to serve in the troops of the State in which he enlisted;

and if any drafted person shall hereafter pay money for the procuration of a substitute, under the provisions of the act to which this is an amendment, such payment of money shall operate only to relieve such person from draft in filling that quota; and his name shall be retained on the roll in filling future quotas; but in no instance shall the exemption of any person, on account of his payment of commutation money for the procuration of a substitute, extend beyond one year; but at the end of one year, in every such case, the name of any person so exempted shall be enrolled again, if not before returned to the enrolment list under the provisions of this section.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That boards of enrolment shall enroll all persons liable to draft under the provisions of this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, whose names may have been omitted by the proper enrolling officers; all persons who shall arrive at the age of twenty years before the draft; all aliens who shall declare their intentions to become citizens; all persons discharged from the military or naval service of the United States who have not been in such service two years during the present war; and all persons who have been exempted under the provisions of the second section of the act to which this is an amendment, but who are not exempted by the provisions of this act; and said boards of enrolment shall release and discharge from draft all persons who, between the time of the enrolment and the draft, shall have arrived at the age of forty-five years, and shall strike the names of such persons from the enrolment.

[Sections 7-9 relate to the enlistment of seamen.]

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the following persons be and they are hereby exempted from enrolment and draft under the provisions of this act and of the act to which this is an amendment, to wit: Such as are rejected as physically or mentally unfit for the service, all persons actually in the military or naval service of the United States at the time of the draft, and all persons who have served in the military or naval service two years during the present war and been honorably discharged

therefrom; and no persons but such as are herein exempted shall be exempt.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That section third of the "Act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and so much of section ten of said act as provides for the separate enrolment of each class, be, and the same are hereby repealed; and it shall be the duty of the board of enrolment of each district to consolidate the two classes mentioned in the third section of said act.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That any person who shall forcibly resist or oppose any enrolment, or who shall incite, counsel, encourage, or who shall conspire or confederate with any other person or persons forcibly to resist or oppose any such enrolment, or who shall aid or assist, or take any part in any forcible resistance or opposition thereto, or who shall assault, obstruct, hinder, impede, or threaten any officer or other person employed in making or in aiding to make such enrolment, or employed in the performance, or in aiding in the performance of any service in any way relating thereto, or in arresting or aiding to arrest any spy or deserter from the military service of the United States, shall, upon conviction thereof in any court competent to try the offence, be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding five years, or by both of said punishments in the discretion of the court. And in cases where such assaulting, obstructing, hindering, or impeding shall produce the death of said officer or other person, the offender shall be deemed guilty of murder, and, upon conviction thereof upon indictment in the circuit court of the United States for the district within which the offence was committed, shall be punished with death. And nothing in this section contained shall be construed to relieve the party offending from liability, under proper indictment or process, for any crime against the laws of a state, committed by him while violating the provisions of this section.

SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That members of religious denominations, who shall by oath or affirmation declare that they are conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms, and who are prohibited from doing so by the rules and articles of faith and practice of said religious denominations, shall, when drafted into the military service, be considered non-combatants, and shall be assigned by the Secretary of War to duty in the hospitals, or to the care of freedmen, or shall pay the sum of three hundred dollars to such person as the Secretary of War shall designate to receive it, to be applied to the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers: Provided, That no person shall be entitled to the benefit of the provisions of this section unless his declaration of conscientious scruples against bearing arms shall be supported by satisfactory evidence that his deportment has been uniformly consistent with such declaration.

SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That no person of foreign birth shall, on account of alienage, be exempted from enrolment or draft under the provisions of this act, or the act to which it is an amendment, who has at any time assumed the rights of a citizen by voting at any election held under authority of the laws of any state or territory, or of the United States, or who has held any office under such laws or any of them; but the fact that any such person of foreign birth has voted or held, or shall vote or hold, office as aforesaid, shall be taken as conclusive evidence that he is not entitled to exemption from military service on account of alienage.

SEC. 24. And be it further enacted, That all able-bodied male colored persons, between the ages of twenty and forty-five years, resident in the United States, shall be enrolled according to the provisions of this act, and of the act to which this is an amendment, and form part of the national forces; and when a slave of a loyal master shall be drafted and mustered into the service of the United States, his master shall have a certificate thereof, and thereupon such slave shall be free; and the bounty of one hundred dollars, now payable by law for each drafted man, shall

be paid to the person to whom such drafted person was owing service or labor at the time of his muster into the service of the United States. The Secretary of War shall appoint a commission in each of the slave States represented in Congress, charged to award to each loyal person to whom a colored volunteer may owe service a just compensation, not exceeding three hundred dollars, for each such colored volunteer, payable out of the fund derived from commutations, and every such colored volunteer on being mustered into the service shall be free. And in all cases when men of color have been heretofore enlisted or have volunteered in the military service of the United States, all the provisions of this act, so far as the payment of bounty and compensation are provided, shall be equally applicable as to those who may be hereafter recruited. But men of color, drafted or enlisted, or who may volunteer into the military service, while they shall be credited on the quotas of the several states, or subdivisions of states, wherein they are respectively drafted, enlisted, or shall volunteer, shall not be assigned as state troops, but shall be mustered into regiments or companies as United States colored troops.1

SEC. 27. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, as may be inconsistent with the provisions of this act, is hereby repealed.

APPROVED, February 24, 1864.

No. 37. National Bank Act

June 3, 1864

THE beginning of the present national bank system is to be found in the act "to provide a national currency, secured by a pledge of United States

1 A joint resolution of March 30, 1867, suspended further proceedings under this section.