1846.

No. 13.

Report of Committee on Militia accompanying title 33 of the Revision.

The committee on militia to whom was referred that portion of the governor's annual message which relates to the militia, and also a resolution of instructions to abolish militia trainings and musters, and provide for the encouragement of volunteer, companies, beg leave to report the accompanying bill in accordance with said recommendation and instructions.

Your committee are aware that there is perhaps nothing in the routine of legislation more difficult than the enactment of a popular and efficient militia law, but they confidently believe that the bill introduced contains the only basis upon which a useful, permanent and practical system can be effected. It provides for a volunteer uniform militia, by taxing every individual liable to do military duty, the sum of fifty cents, and the appropriation of the fund thus created for the use and benefit of the volunteer militia aforesaid, leaving it optional with any person to enrol himself as a member of a volunteer company, subject to all the rules and provisions contained in said bill for the government and regulation of the same. It provides for the more effectual enrollment of the militia by making it the duty of the township assessors to enrol every person liable to do duty under a heavy penalty and at the same time provides for the compensation of said township officers.

It is a lamentable fact, that through the want of an efficient and thorough enrolment, the state has lost a large quantity of the arms annually distributed by the general government. In the opinion of your committee, this defect is amply remedied by the provision just alluded to courts martial are abolished, and the whole routine as laid down in the old system, is changed for what your committee deem a more simple method, and at the same time stringent, and more in accordance with the progressive spirit of the age; making the system as republican as compatible with the necessarily arbritary nature of

military government and discipline. A provision is also inserted making it the duty of the Quartermaster General, to supervise, under control of the Commander-in-Chief, the arms that may be issued to the volunteer companies, preventing the injury and destruction of the same; also requiring the commissioned officers to give bonds for the safe keeping and return of the same whenever demanded. Thus, making the remedy more effectual than any préexisting, for the safe keeping of the public property. The committee have condensed a law for the regulation of the entire body of the militia in accordance with laws of Congress, which is only operative in case of actual necessity, such as hostility with a foreign power, insurrection or invasion, calling out the entire mass or as much thereof as may be necessary under the order of the commander-in-chief.

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If the requirements of the constitution of the United States and of this state are regarded as at all binding, there is no alternative but to provide suitable laws to carry their provisions into effect; and your committee are at loss to discover any method by which a system can be digested, bearing with so little hardship upon the people, and at the same time so useful for the encouragement of the military art. It is not necessary to investigate the evils and abuses of the present system, they are too apparent, and any effort to enforce its execution has been proved, in most instances, to have utterly failed. A long peace and consequent exemption from the peril and glory of warlike achievements have made the system little else than a grand farce, the actors of which often excite more ridicule than any personification of rela or fictitious life. That the position of our state, exposed as it would be, in case of collision with a foreign power bordering upon us, re quires a radical reform, and new impetus to be given to our military organization, none can deny; besides, in times of peace, the militia (through volunteer companies,) is the only reliable resort to appeal to in case of those emergencies which sometimes arise in the best ordered governments. Should there be a prospect of war, a great competition would prevail for posts of honor and rank; those who have done the most to bring the militia into discredit would be the first to aspire to the highest station, and would seek promotion over those who in time of peace have given evidence that we should be prepared for any emergency.

By the imposition of a direct tax the constitutional impediment * is obviated, while the same result is obtained; indeed, it is believed that this is the most effectual and convenient manner of causing the collection thereof and inducing the voluntary enrollment of those who are liable to duty in the uniform active militia. Your committee may add without fear of successful contradiction, that the principles of the system which they introduce have been found by experiment to have been eminently practicable in the states where they have been adopted, and that in those states only exist a beneficial and well adapted military code.

All experience has shown that patriotism and military ardour alone, except in cases of actual hostilities, are but idle words. Even in large cities, where every incentive exists for display and enthusiasm, it is too often the case that volunteer companies decline, and are often disbanded on account of the heavy expense to which they are subject. Is it not evident, that communities should equally bear the burden of expense for their own protection? If the organic law of the land is to be at all carried out, and if a system at once simple, and carrying with it, the elements of its own success is to be adopted, your committee deem that it can only be done in the manner proposed in the accompanying bill. From the limited time allotted to prepare an entire new digest, and to reconcile the many parts of an act embracing so much detail, and so complex, a perfect system, cannot be expected, yet it is believed, if faults exist, they can, in the review to which the bill is to be subjected, be pointed out and corrected.

ISAAC D. TOLL, Chairman of Committee on Militia.

Detroit, May 7th, 1846,

* Article 10, section 4 of the Constitution provides that all monies paid by persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, shall be applied for the use of township libraries, thus leaving no alternative except that of direct taxation for raising and support of a military fund.

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