Chapter V  Pages: 53-54

The declaration of war against Great Britain occurred on June 18th, at which time our entire standing army was only 6,744, while the British regulars in Canada numbered less than 4,500 effectives. (1) Before any active operations could be undertaken, the conflicting organizations of our military establishment (2) had to be rectified, (3) and a modification in the law respecting the 30,000 volunteers (4) was made to permit the President to appoint all the company, field and general officers thereof. (5) The United States was accordingly deprived of the advantage which ought to have been taken of the enemy's weakness, and military action had to be superseded ad interim by military legislation. (6)

The wisdom of the Constitution in vesting in Congress the sole power to raise and support armies was strikingly demonstrated at the opening of hostilities, when the governors both of Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to furnish their quotas of militia. The former denied the right of the President or Congress to determine when such exigencies arise as to require the militia to be called out and claimed that "this right is vested in the commanders in chief of the militia of the several States." (7) The latter used virtually the same contention, and both raised the question as to whether the President had the right, even after the militia was ordered into the United States' service, to Assign Army Officers to command it.(8)

"As every citizen fit for military duty was incorporated in the militia, it is evident that Congress could not avail itself of the services of any militia organization, in opposition to the commands of the governor, without forcing its members to disobey orders. Nor could Congress accept the services of individuals, either as volunteers or regulars, without encouraging the crime of desertion, for the law made no exceptions in favor of citizens belonging to the military force of the United States.

"A partial repeal of the act of 1792 (9) was the only way in which Congress could have extricated itself from this dilemma. Such a course, however, would have amounted to a confession of the failure of that elaborate system of national defense, based upon the conversion of our people into a vast array of citizen soldiers. Nevertheless, it is a system under which any State or States not in sympathy with the purposes of the General Government, could successfully thwart the will of the nation.

"Under one particular form of government, and in a country of such vast extent, the possible lukewarmness or opposition of one or more of the States, makes it the more important that the whole war power of the nation should be wielded exclusively by the direct representatives of the States and of the people, in Congress assembled." (10)

FOOTNOTES (1-10) ON CHAPTER V THE WAR OF 1812 Pages: 53-54

1. James, Military Occurrences between Great Britain and the United States, I, p. 56.

2. Resulting from the laws of 1802, 1808 and 1811.

3. By the Act of June 26, 1812, which remodeled the regiments on the basis of ten companies each.__Callan, p.230.

4. Acts of February 24, 1807, and February 6, 1812.

5. Act of July 6, 1812. This force, although called "volunteers," would have been equivalent to a second Regular Army except for the limitation in the enlistment to one year. The measure failed and its only effect was to deter enlistments in the sole organization that would have been effective.

6. Had Congress at the beginning of the year declared that all men owed their country military service and raised the Army to 35,000 by volunteering or by drafting for service "during the war," such a force after six months' training could easily have occupied Canada and terminated the war in one campaign. Compare Upton, p.96.

7. Opinion delivered by Theophilus Parsons, Samuel Sewell, and Isaac Parker, the three judges of the Massachusetts Supreme Court to whom the Governor referred the matter.__American State Papers, I, p. 324.

8. Upton, p.97.
Hart, Formation of the Union, p. 215, says that "The general government had no means of enforcing its construction of the Constitution. It did, however, withdraw garrisons from the New England forts, leaving those States to defend themselves; and refused to send them their quota of the arms which were distributed among the States. This attitude was so well understood, that during the first few months of the war, English cruisers had orders not to capture vessels owned in New England. As the war advanced, these orders were withdrawn, and the territory of Massachusetts in the District of Maine was invaded by British troops. An urgent call for protection was then made upon the general government; but, even in this crisis, Massachusetts would not permit her militia to pass under the control of national military officers."

9. Pages 47-48.

10. Upton, pp. 97-98.