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nated depositary selected as aforesaid in sums not less than five dollars.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That from and after the first day of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, no private corporation, banking association, firm, or individual shall make, issue, circulate, or pay any note, check, memorandum, token, or other obligation, for a less sum than one dollar, intended to circulate as money or to be received or used in lieu of lawful money of the United States; and every person so offending shall, on conviction thereof in any district or circuit court of the United States, be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both, at the option of the court.

APPROVED, July 17, 1862.

No. 26. Militia Act

July 17, 1862

A BILL to amend the laws relating to the militia was introduced in the Senate, July 14, 1862, by Wilson of Massachusetts, from the Committee on Military Affairs and Militia, and passed the next day by a vote of 28 to 9. In the House, July 16, a motion to lay the bill on the table was rejected, the vote being 30 to 77, and the bill passed without a division.

REFERENCES.

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Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 597–600. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 37th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. On the use of negroes as soldiers see Rhodes, United States, IV, 333-336.

An Act to amend the Act calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections, and repel Invasions, approved February twenty-eight, seventeen hundred and ninetyfive, and the Acts amendatory thereof, and for other Purposes. Be it enacted. That whenever the President of the United States shall call forth the militia of the States, to be employed in the service of the United States, he may specify in his call the period for which such service will be required, not exceed

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ing nine months; and the militia so called shall be mustered in and continue to serve for and during the term so specified, unless sooner discharged by command of the President. If by reason of defects in existing laws, or in the execution of them, in the several States, or any of them, it shall be found necessary to provide for enrolling the militia and otherwise putting this act into execution, the President is authorized in such cases to make all necessary rules and regulations; and the enrolment of the militia shall in all cases include all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and shall be apportioned among the States according to representative population.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the militia, when so called into service, shall be organized in the mode prescribed by law for volunteers.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized, in addition to the volunteer forces which he is now authorized by law to raise, to accept the services of any number of volunteers, not exceeding one hundred thousand, as infantry, for a period of nine months, unless sooner discharged. And every soldier who shall enlist under the provisions of this section shall receive his first month's pay, and also twenty-five dollars as bounty, upon the mustering of his company or regiment into the service of the United States.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of filling up the regiments of infantry now in the United States service, the President be, and he hereby is, authorized to accept the services of volunteers in such numbers as may be presented for that purpose, for twelve months, if not sooner discharged. And such volunteers, when mustered into the service, shall be in all respects upon a footing with similar troops in the United States service, except as to service bounty, which shall be fifty dollars, one half of which to be paid upon their joining their regiments, and the other half at the expiration of their enlist

ment.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to receive into the service of the United States, for the purpose of constructing intrenchments, or performing camp service, or any other labor, or any military or naval service for which they may be found competent, persons of African descent, and such persons shall be enrolled and organized under such regulations, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws, as the President may prescribe.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That when any man or boy of African descent, who by the laws of any State shall owe service or labor to any person who, during the present rebellion, has levied war or has borne arms against the United States, or adhered to their enemies by giving them aid and comfort, shall render any such service as is provided for in this act, he, his mother and his wife and children, shall forever thereafter be free, any law, usage, or custom whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That the mother, wife and children of such man or boy of African descent shall not be made free by the operation of this act except where such mother, wife or children owe service or labor to some person who, during the present rebellion, has borne arms against the United States or adhered to their enemies by giving them aid and comfort.

APPROVED, July 17, 1862.

[The omitted sections deal with details of organization, trial by court-martial, &c.]

No. 27. Act admitting West Virginia

December 31, 1862

A MEMORIAL from the commissioners of West Virginia, setting forth the history of the formation of the State and praying for admission to the Union, was presented in the Senate May 31, 1862, and referred to the Committee on the Territories, who reported, June 23, a bill for the admission of West Virginia as a State. July 14, by a vote of 11 to 24, an amendment offered by Sumner, prohibiting slavery in the State, was rejected, and the bill, with further amend

ments, passed, the vote being 23 to 17. On the 16th, in the House, further consideration of the bill was postponed until December. December 10 the bill was taken up, read three times, and, by a vote of 96 to 57, passed. The bill was not presented to the President until the 22d. The proclamation announcing the compliance of West Virginia with the conditions of the act was issued April 20, 1863.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 633, 634. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 37th Cong., 3d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The memorial of the commissioners is Senate Misc. Doc. 99, 37th Cong., 2d Sess. See Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, VI, chap. 14.

An Act for the Admission of the State of "West Virginia" into the Union, and for other Purposes.

Whereas the people inhabiting that portion of Virginia known as West Virginia did, by a Convention assembled in the city of Wheeling on the twenty-sixth of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, frame for themselves a Constitution with a view of becoming a separate and independent State; and whereas at a general election held in the counties composing the territory aforesaid on the third day of May last, the said Constitution was approved and adopted by the qualified voters of the proposed State; and whereas the Legislature of Virginia, by an act passed on the thirteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, did give its consent to the formation of a new State within the jurisdiction of the said State of Virginia, to be known by the name of West Virginia, and to embrace the following named counties, to wit: Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, Tyler, Pleasants, Ritchie, Doddridge, Harrison, Wood, Jackson, Wirt, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, Barbour, Tucker, Lewis, Braxton, Upshur, Randolph, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay, Nicholas, Cabell, Wayne, Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mercer, McDowell, Webster, Pocahontas, Fayette, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, and Morgan; and whereas both the Convention and the Legislature aforesaid have requested that the new State should be admitted into the Union, and the Constitution aforesaid being republican in form, Congress doth hereby

consent that the said forty-eight counties may be formed into a separate and independent State. Therefore

Be it enacted . . ., That the State of West Virginia be, and is hereby, declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, and until the next general census shall be entitled to three members in the House of Representatives of the United States: Provided, always, That this act shall not take effect until after the proclamation of the President of the United States hereinafter provided for.

It being represented to Congress that since the Convention of the twenty-sixth of November, eighteen hundred and sixtyone, that framed and proposed the Constitution for the said State of West Virginia, the people thereof have expressed a wish to change the seventh section of the eleventh article of said Constitution by striking out the same and inserting the following in its place, viz.: "The children of slaves born within the limits of this State after the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be free; and that all slaves within the said State who shall, at the time aforesaid, be under the age of ten years, shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-one years; and all slaves over ten and under twentyone years shall be free when they arrive at the age of twentyfive years; and no slave shall be permitted to come into the State for permanent residence therein: " Therefore —

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That whenever the people of West Virginia shall, through their said Convention, and by a vote to be taken at an election to be held within the limits of the said State, at such time as the Convention may provide, make, and ratify the change aforesaid, and properly certify the same under the hand of the president of the Convention, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to issue his proclamation stating the fact, and thereupon this act shall take effect and be in force from and after sixty days from the date of said proclamation.

APPROVED, December 31, 1862.

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