Yet a
large--perhaps the _chief_ part of their duty is directly connected with
the enrolment and draft. The judgment of the remaining members of the
board would certainly be of some value in making these appointments, as
they are always residents of the district, and hence acquainted with the
peculiar wants of the service and the character of the applicants. The
duties of the commissioner should also be more definitely stated.
Special duties are assigned to the marshal and surgeon, but no further
definition of the commissioner's labor is given than that he is a member
of the board. Thus there is liability to a conflict of authority and a
shirking of responsibility, which could easily be avoided by more
explicit divisions of duty. The board system is undoubtedly a good one.
It gives _the people_ a larger representation in the business of
conducting a draft, tends to secure justice to all, and thus relieves
the popular prejudice and feeling of opposition to the law itself.
But why should not every board of enrolment throughout the country also
be a board of enlistment? The time is fast approaching when the bulk of
our present army will return home. It is important that as many of these
men be reenlisted as can be, with any new troops that may offer
themselves. The Government should avail itself of every opportunity for
making voluntary enlistments. And by having a recruiting office within
every district, convenient to every man's residence, a surgeon always at
hand to examine applicants, offering the authorized Government bounties,
much could still be done in this way toward keeping an army in the
field, without any additional expense or without in the least
interfering with the draft.
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