"The great State of New York has taken a stand that says [to the Hartford Convention], thus far shalt thou go and no farther." And at page 123, same volume: "The Legislature adjourned on the 24th of October, after passing several acts of great importance. Among them is an 'act to raise twelve thousand men, to be paid, fed, and subsisted by the United States.' The men are to be raised by an equal classification, and are intended as a permanent force to relieve the militia," etc.

Thus it will be seen that the draft, which was proposed in Congress and adopted in New York, and which was denounced by the Federalists as a conscription, as unconstitutional, arbitrary, and tyrannical, had the support of Madison, Monroe, Tompkins, Van Buren, and other great men of the Democratic party; and had not the treaty of peace concluded at Ghent in December, 1814, put an end to the war, there is little doubt that this mode of replenishing the army would have been adopted in Congress, as it was in New York.

The course of those who are denouncing and resisting the measure now, in nearly the same manner and the same language as that in which the Federalists denounced it and its authors, Madison, Monroe, and Tompkins, is in great danger of placing the Democracy of the country in a position of open hostility to the Government and to one of its leading war measures. If this course is persisted in and sustained by the great body of the party, its downfall is certain. The danger can only be averted by an honest and unqualified support of the war. It is not enough to pass patriotic resolutions and declarations of principle. These are a mere deception unless they are followed up by consistent acts, and by putting forward as representative men those who have given evidence in their conduct that their hearts are in the great struggle in which the country is engaged for the preservation of its life. If this be not done, the Democracy will inevitably draw down upon itself the popular distrust which fell upon the Federal party at the close of the war of 1812, and rendered its resuscitation impossible. Into this abyss I will not consent to be dragged down. I have been all my life a member of the Democratic party. Its principles, as proclaimed by Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson, have always been, and ever will be, my guides; and while I do not deem it compatible with my military duties to take an active part in political con

tests, I shall do all in my power to rescue the party from the destruction with which it is menaced by the impolicy, the partisan spirit, and the want of patriotism by which some of its leading men are actuated, and to rally it, so far as my humble efforts avail, to the support of the Government and the preservation of the Union. If it cannot be saved, I will not be an agent in its downfall. But if it is doomed to succumb to the influence of unfaithful leaders and pernicious counsels, my hope still is, that the great body of its members will, before it is too late, reassert its ancient principles, and, combining with the conservative elements of the country, will resume its proper influence in the conduct of public affairs, and guide us, as in the better days of the Republic, under the sacred banner of constitutional liberty and law, in our majestic march to prosperity and power. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX.

Messrs. MATT. H. CARPENTER, LEVI HUBBELL, C. D. ROBINSON.

The Hartford Convention and the Draft.

The address and resolutions of the Hartford Convention (referred to at Vol. II., page 92) are dated January 4th, 1814, and the following extract relates to the subject of the draft:

"The power of compelling the militia and other citizens of the United States, by a forcible draft or conscription, to serve in the regular armies, as proposed in a late official letter of the Secretary of War,* is not delegated to Congress by the Consti

*The Report referred to in the text contains the following passage: "The idea that the United States cannot raise a regular army in any other mode than by accepting the voluntary service of individuals, is believed to be repugnant to the uniform construction of all grants of powers, and equally so to the first principles and first objects of the Federal compact. An unqualified grant of power gives the necessary means to carry it into effect. This is a universal maxim, which admits of no exception. Equally true is it that the conservation of the State is a duty paramount to all others. The commonwealth has a right to the service of all its citizens; or, rather, the citizens composing the commonwealth have a right, collectively and individually, to the service of each other to repel any danger which may be menaced. The manner in which the service is to be apportioned among the citizens and rendered by them are objects of legisla tion."- JAMES MONROE'S Report, as Secretary of War, October 17, 1814; Niles's "Annual Register," vol. vii., p. 138.

tution, and the exercise of it would be not less dangerous to their liberties than hostile to the sovereignty of the States. The effort to deduce this power from the right of raising armies is a flagrant attempt to pervert the sense of the clause in the Constitution which confers that right, and is incompatible with other provisions in that instrument. The armies of the United States have always been raised by contract, never by conscription, and nothing more can be wanting to a Government possessing the power thus claimed to enable it to usurp the entire control of the militia, in derogation of the authorities of the State, and to convert it by impressment into a standing army." -NILES'S Annual Register, vol. vii. (1814-'15).

IX.

(Vol. II, page 115.)

New York, December 15, 1864.

MY DEAR GENERAL,-May I ask you for two copies of your General Order No. 97 (I mean the order you issued in consequence of the decision of the Canadian judge releasing the robber-rebels).

I desire to paste your order in my Schedarium Juris Gentium. Let me hope that you will excuse the trouble I give you. Perhaps I ought to add that I desire the copies of your Order only if you have your Orders printed in the usual 8vo form; otherwise I can cut it out of the papers, which is, however, the thing I do not like.

One copy I desire to send to Heffter-the greatest international jurist on the continent of Europe.

With the highest regard, your obedient servant,

FRANCIS LIEBER

(No. 48 East 34th Street).

Major-general Dix, etc., etc., etc., New York.

II-23

X.

(Vol. II., page 181.)

Communication from the Governor, transmitting a Report from the Comptroller in regard to the Sinking Funds.

To the Legislature:

State of New York, Executive Chamber,
Albany, January 28, 1874.

I have the honor to transmit herewith a communication from the Comptroller in regard to the sinking funds set apart by the Constitution, and sacredly pledged to pay the interest and redeem the principal of the State debts. I cannot too strongly commend the facts and suggestions contained in this communication to your attention. They concern the proper administration of the financial department of the Government, and the preservation of the good faith of the State toward the public creditors.

I have referred to this subject in both my Messages to the Legislature, and more particularly in the one which I had the honor to make to you at the commencement of your present session. In the financial statement presented to me when I was preparing it the aggregate amount of the several sinking funds was set down at $15,594,901 05. On inquiry in what manner these funds had been set apart, as required by the Constitution, I found that nearly two-thirds of the amount existed only on paper, and that the moneys belonging to them had been consumed in defraying the current expenses of the Government, in direct violation of the constitutional requirement and of the plighted faith of the State. The communication of the Comptroller explains the manner in which this failure to fulfil a high constitutional obligation has been caused, and points out the only mode in which the obligation can now be complied with. I do not doubt that it is his duty, under the higher law of the Constitution, to invest all moneys raised by taxation for these funds as rapidly as they come into his hands, instead of expending them to meet legislative appropriations, and to leave the latter unpaid until other means are provided for them. In my first annual Message I assumed that, as sinking funds were, in their nature, a solemn pledge of faith to creditors for the payment of the debts due to them, to borrow money on the credit

of those funds for other purposes, to make them the subject of any other pledge, or to make even a temporary use of the moneys or securities of which they consisted, was a clear violation of the pledge originally given. Farther reflection has confirmed my confidence in the correctness of this conclusion.

Some years ago there were uninvested moneys belonging to the capital of the general fund debt sinking fund, and these moneys were used to meet current expenditures. Since that time the Legislature has, in repeated instances, authorized the Comptroller to invest surplus moneys belonging to the capital of the sinking funds in taxes thereafter to be collected, and to apply these moneys to meet appropriations made by the same act. An investment in a tax does not convey a very definite conception of the financial measure intended. In plain terms, it is an expenditure of money to be replaced at a future time by taxation. But, in point of fact, when the authority to invest was given to the Comptroller, in the instances referred to, there were no surplus moneys in existence to be invested or expended, and the result has been that the principal of the sinking funds has been invaded and consumed, as already stated.

The largest deficiency is in the sinking fund of the bounty debt. This debt was contracted under section 11 of title 7 of the Constitution. The sinking fund to extinguish it was created by chapter 325 of the laws of 1865, and the money provided for it became, by virtue of the section referred to, applicable to the repayment of the debt, and "to no other purpose whatever." Like the sinking funds of the general and canal fund debts, it is inviolable, and can only be invaded and consumed through an infraction of the constitutional requirement.

The act, chapter 448 of the laws of 1867, amending that of 1865, requires the Comptroller to invest the proceeds of the annual tax authorized to be levied for this sinking fund, from time to time, as it can be judiciously done, in the bonds authorized to be issued under that act, "or in any of the stocks issued by this State or the United States." The requirement of the Constitution setting apart the sinking funds for the payment of the State debts, and the requirement of the law in regard to the bounty debt sinking fund, are in accord, and a failure to make the investment prescribed by the latter would involve a violation of both.