raising of money for the payment of bounties to volunteers since the passage of the act of 1863, under such guards and restrictions as may be thought necessary for protection against frauds and pretended claims.

In this connection, I wish also to call the attention of the Legislature to the question of the propriety of providing, by law, a uniform rule, by virtue of which bounties may hereafter be raised without the irregularities which have heretofore occurred, and without the necessity of another resort to an extra session.

It is extremely desirable that whenever bounties are offered, they should be uniform in amount throughout the State, in order that different localities may be prevented from a heated competition and bidding against each other, in a manner alike disastrous to themselves and the service, resulting in too many cases in downright deception and fraud, both upon the volunteers themselves and the towns, and cities from which they enlist. For this purpose, it has been thought best by many patriotic persons that bounties should be offered only by the State, and that the smaller municipal corporations should be entirely forbidden to do so. In this opinion I do not concur. After considerable observation and experience, I am convinced that no contrivance has yet been adopted which can compare in efficiency with the local bounty for procuring enlistments into the military service. The same amount of money offered in any other way, either by the State or General Government, will not begin to equal it, and the reason is obvious. When the people of a town, or ward of a city, are called together to con sider of the propriety of raising a bounty to fill the quota of that town or ward, a very great interest is awakened in the question at the very first step, and when it is finally determined to do so, and to assess the amount in some way upon the little community, the interest is so greatly enhanced that every individual of that community feels thoroughly committed to the project, and lends his utmost influence to accomplish it. This influence is worth even more than the money itself. Few will

enlist from a cold, lifeless community, no matter for the money that may be offered. But let the whole people rise up to cheer on those who enter the service of their country, offering generous bounties, not to buy an unwilling soldier, but as an earnest of hearty good will towards a gallant defender of a most right. eous cause, in which all the blood that is shed shall be sacred, and the case is "bravely altered." The ambitious, enthusiastic young men will go shouting with joy to the ranks, and take up their arms with the spirit of heroes.

In whatever laws may be enacted upon this subject, the object should be to aid the action of the people by giving legal force and validity to such measures as they may decide upon, as being most likely to accomplish their purpose. At the same time it will be wise to fix some well defined limits, beyond which it shall not be lawful to go to prevent inconsiderate rashness. In fixing such limits, care should be taken to avoid extremes. It is not only important that the object should be pursued with great enthusiasm and patriotic energy, but that it should at the same time be continuous and not transitory. The losses of the companies and regiments in the field are constantly and steadily occurring. The men drop out of the ranks one by one into the hospital. Large numbers of them never return to active duty, disappearing in the invalid corps, or being finally discharged to return to civil life. Their places in the ranks ought to be supplied by a steady influx of new re cruits. It is better every way that the number required to keep up the numbers of the Michigan regiments in the field should be obtained by a steady and constant recruitment of new men, than that all should have to be done in a period limited to a few days, and consequently by a spasmodic exhausting effort which will soon need to be repeated. Under the present system of credits to the sub-districts, any surplus is always carried forward, in fact the enrolment law requires that, and any town may, by a steady system of recruiting, keep its quota constantly filled, thus avoiding the extra expenses and effort

occasioned by haste and strong competition on the eve of a draft.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to the companies and regiments we have put in the field, and can repay it in no way so well as keeping their ranks full. It ought not to be considered a fulfillment of our whole duty merely to raise the quotas assigned us. It is a sacred obligation resting upon the people to sustain the troops in the field; and for this purpose it is essential that the action be unremitting and steadily sustained., When bounties are offered, the offer should be continued after the immediate exigency is past, thus providing a surplus to meet another call.

The State bounty which was provided by the act approved March 6th, 1863, was withdrawn soon after the late call was made. This action was rendered proper by two considerations: First, the war loan fund was insufficient in amount to pay it to so large a number of men as the call embraced; and secondly, because the United States Government had so largely increased its bounties, that its payment was considered unnecessary so long as those should continue to be paid.

It will be remembered that this State bounty was recommended in the message of a year ago to supply the place, to some extent, of the local bounties which it was apprehended would cease as soon as the draft then progressing was over, which proved to be the case. And this was for the purpose of preventing the entire abandonment of the recruiting service, which it also has accomplished. This is a case which is very likely to occur again, and I wish to reserve the amount still remaining in the war loan fund to be used when and where other bounties are withheld, or there is some especial reason for their being paid, as in the case of the veterans who reënlist, having never received any bounty from the State. The payment of this bounty was also c nfined y express words of the act, to those who should "enlist in a y regiment, battery or company heretofore mustered from this Ste n'o the mil tary service of the United States, or now [then] organizing in this State for

such service." The purpose of this was to encourage enlistments in the old regiments, and to discourage the formation of new ones, a policy which has now been adopted by the General Government. To prevent misconstruction, this act will require some slight amendment, more especially in regard to the dis cretion which was vested in the Executive. In its main object, however, I believe it to have been a very beneficial law, and trust it may be retained.

ENABLING SOLDIERS IN THE FIELD TO VOTE.

At your session a year ago, a bill passed the House of Representatives, providing for the exercise of the right of suffrage in our elections by our soldiers absent from the State in the service of the United States. This bill reached the Senate at the very heel of the session and failed, it was understood, for want of time to consider it. The subject was one of great importance and surrounded with grave doubts and difficulties.

Perhaps the minds of members were not altogether settled at that time as to the rightfulness or policy of such a law. The Constitutions of the States have all been framed without any view to such a condition of things as the present; and there has always been in this country, as in England, great jealousy of the army mingling in the affairs of civil administration. During the past year, however, very great consideration has been given to the subject in nearly all the loyal States. It has come into judgment before the highest tribunals of several of them, eliciting very learned and patriotic opinions from the judges, which have thrown great light upon it, and gone far to establish the legal principles which must guide all proper legislation in that direction.

That patriotism, justice and sound policy require the passage of such laws, wherever they can be constitutionally enacted, seems to be now generally agreed. The volunteer army of the United States is composed of the people of the United States. They have left their various occupations in civil life and taken up arms at the call of their country, not to become professional

soldiers, but to defend their country and government from destruction, and their homes and property from desecration and pillage. Not to renounce civil life and the pursuits of peace, but to establish, upon an enduring basis, the right to both, for themselves and their posterity. With a patriotism and courage worthy of everlasting remembrance they have periled everything, that their country and its free institutions may continue to exist. They are absent from the polls of the elections in their several towns and wards, beating back the power of a causeless and cruel rebellion in order that those very elections may be held in peace, and that the right to hold them and to have their results respected and obeyed shall continue forever. If these volunteer citizen soldiers should not have a voice in the civil administration of the government for which they fight, then it would be well to inquire who is worthy of it. Though soldiers, they have not ceased to be citizens and residents, nor is their stake less in the country than that of those who remain in peace at home. Surely, he who stands faithfully by his country in the shock of battle, may be safely trusted at the ballot box, though it should be carried to him at Vicksburg or Chattanooga.

Is it, then, within the constitutional powers of this Legislature, to enact a law granting the exercise of the right of suffrage elsewhere than in the town or ward where the voter is a resident? It is not a question of the right to vote, but only of the place where the ballot shall be received. No change of qualifications in the voter, nor in the manner of his exercising the right, will be required. All the case demands is the establishment of a poll for the reception of votes in or near the camps of the troops. No right of challenge will be denied, nor any safeguard which the utmost prudence may enact. If such power exists in your body, then by every consideration of justice and right let it be done; but if not, then however much we may regret it, we must not move a step in that direction, since they would not be fit to make laws who will not obey the