tioned, the power attempted to be exercised here was neither of these. It was the power to remove an officer and destroy a regimental organization, the officer and the regiment being in the national service. If the Governor can do these or either of these things, he can remove all the officers and disband all the regiments from his State. And if one Governor can do so, all the Governors of the States possess the same power. Neither is there any limit of * * * time or place to its exercise. So that if the Governor of Kansas can sustain his assumption in this case, a combination of Governors might utterly disorganize an army in the face of the enemy it was called out to meet, or disband it entirely. If the power to do this or anything like it exists, it must be found in the Constitution, for the whole scope of the legislation of Congress is at war with it, being all founded on the assumption that the troops furnished from the States to the National Government are, when in its service, under the exclusive control of the President as Commander-in-Chief, subject to the rules for their organization, arming, discipline, and government which Congress may establish.

Giving to the constitutional reservations in favor of the States the most liberal construction which can be claimed for them, they confer no right on the State authorities to disturb the organization of militia or volunteer regiments in the national service, or to inferere in any way with the control which the President, under the national Constitution and laws, shall exercise over them.

Recognizing the constitutional reservation of the appointment of officers referred to, Congress, in the act of July 22, 1861, has provided that when vacancies occur in any of the companies of volunteers, the officers as high as captain shall be elected to fill them by the men of such companies, and when vacancies in the regiments occur above the rank of captain, they shall be filled by the votes of the commissioned officers of such regiment,and all officers so elected shall be commissioned by the respective Governors of the States, or by the President of the United States. but this does not by the remotest implication give to the Governor who may commission an officer the right to depose him when he is once elected, commissioned, and received into the service of the United States. By the section just quoted, the right to take away the commissions is, in a certain case, given to the commander of a separate department, or a detached army, with the approval of the President, but is in nowhere given to the Governor of a State,and, in my opinion, it does not exist.

That the Governors of the loyal States have, both personally and officially, rendered most valuable and effective service to the National Government in its efforts to suppress the present insurrection is well known, and this service, with many of them, has not ended when the troops of their States entered into the employment of the United States. For the devoted and patriotic labors of some of these Chief Magistrates in ministering to the weld will shine among the brightest incidents of the war. But these labors are in aid of the Government and with its approbation. They are performed, not because it is a legal duty imposed by Congress, or, in many instances, even by their respective States, but under the impulse of a generous humanity and patriotism. Of course, such assistance to the Government can afford no good pretext for any assistance with the organization or control of regiments mustered into the national service.

It seems hardly necessary to add that if the Fourth Regiment of Kansas Volunteers have been accepted and mustered into service