ARTICLE IV The present convention is concluded for a period of five years dating from the day of the exchange of its ratifications. Done in duplicate at the city of Washington, this fourth day of April, in the year 1908. ELIHU ROOT (Seal) JAMES BRYCE (Seal) Who are in the militia. Provision for call into federal service. CHAPTER XVII NATIONAL DEFENSE 125. The National Militia UNDER the Constitution, Congress is authorized to raise and support armies, provide and maintain a navy, to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia and calling the militia into federal service, and to make rules for the government of the land and naval forces and of the militia when in the service of the United States. The sole express restriction on this military power of Congress is the provision limiting appropriations to a term of not more than two years. The direction of the forces, however, is committed to the President as commander-in-chief. The ultimate resource for the defense of the nation is the entirc population of able-bodied males capable of bearing arms. This citizen army is organized by an important statute passed in 1903 and amended in 1908, from which two sections are given here. SEC. I. That the militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective States and Territories, and the District of Columbia, and every able-bodied male of foreign birth who has declared his intention to become a citizen, who is more than eighteen and less than forty-five years of age, and shall be divided into two classes the organized militia, to be known as the National Guard of the State, Territory, or District of Columbia, or by such other designations as may be given them by the laws of the respective States or Territories, and the remainder to be known as the Reserve Militia. . . . SEC. 4. That whenever the United States is invaded, or in danger of invasion from any foreign nation, or of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States, or the President is unable, with the regular forces at his command, to execute the laws of the Union, it shall be lawful for the President to call forth such number of the militia of the State or of the States or Territories or of the district of Columbia as he may deem neces1 See above, p. 177. sary to repel such invasion, suppress such rebellion, or to enable 126. The Organization of the Standing Army These sections from an act passed in 1901 to increase the efficiency of the permanent military establishment of the United States will serve to illustrate very well the elaborate fashion in which Congress must provide for the minutest details of the military organization: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the approval of this act the Army of the United States, including the existing organizations, shall consist of fifteen regiments of cavalry, a corps of artillery, thirty regiments of infantry, one Lieutenant-General, six major-generals, fifteen brigadiergenerals, an Adjutant-General's Department, an Inspector General's Department, A Judge-Advocate-General's Department, a Quartermaster's Department, a Subsistence Department, a Medical Department, a Pay Department, a Corps of Engineers, an Ordnance Department, a Signal Corps, the officers of the Record and Pension Office, the chaplains, the officers and enlisted men of the Army on the retired list, the professors, corps of cadets, the army detachments and band at the United States Military Academy, Indian scouts as now authorized by law, and such other officers and enlisted men as may hereinafter be provided for. . . . SEC. 2. That each regiment of cavalry shall consist of one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, three majors, fifteen captains, fifteen first-lieutenants; fifteen second-lieutenants, two veterinarians, one sergeant-major, one quartermaster-sergeant, one commissary sergeant, three squadron sergeants-major, two color sergeants with rank, pay, and allowances of squadron sergeant The army of the States. A regiment of cavalry. major, one band, and twelve troops organized into three squadrons of four troops each. . . . Each cavalry band shall be organized as now provided by law. Each troop of cavalry shall consist of one captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, one first sergeant, one quartermaster sergeant, six sergeants, six corporals, two cooks, two farriers and blacksmiths, one saddler, one wagoner, two trumpeters, and forty-three privates, the commissioned officers to be assigned from among those herein before authorized: Provided that the President in his discretion may increase the number of corporals in any troop of cavalry to eight and the number of privates to seventy-six, but the total number of enlisted men authorized for the whole Army shall not at any time be exceeded. [Here follow detailed provisions organizing the other branches of the Army of the United States.] 127. The Declaration of War The power to declare war is vested by the Constitution in Congress, and the following act illustrates the manner in which this power is exercised: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, First. That war be, and the same is hereby, declared to exist, and that war has existed since the 21st day of April, A.D. 1898, including said day, between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain. Second. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States to such extent as may be necessary to carry this act into effect. Approved April 25, 1898. 128. The Call for Volunteers Before the formal declaration of war on Spain, President McKinley, acting under a joint resolution and an act of Congress, issued this proclamation calling for volunteers: instructs Whereas a joint resolution of Congress was approved on the Congress 20th day of April, 1898, entitled "Joint resolution for the recog- the President nition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that to act. the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into effect;" and Whereas by an act of Congress entitled "An act to provide for temporarily increasing the military establishment of the United States in time of war, and for other purposes," approved April 22, 1898, the President is authorized, in order to raise a volunteer army, to issue his proclamation calling for volunteers to serve in the Army of the United States: for 125,000 volunteers. Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United The call States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws, and deeming sufficient occasion to exist, have thought fit to call forth, and do hereby call forth, volunteers to the aggregate number of 125,000 in order to carry into effect the purpose of the said resolution, the same to be apportioned, as far as practicable, among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia according to population and to serve for two years unless sooner discharged. The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the proper authorities through the War Depart ment. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 23d day of April, A.D. 1898, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-second. (Seal.) By the President: JOHN SHERMAN, WILLIAM MCKINLEY. Secretary of State. |