conscripts under the act passed at the least session of Congress has been apportioned. For that purpose I proceeded to Washington and conferred upon the subject with the President, and also with the Provost-Marshal-General. It gives me great pleasure to state that both of these gentlemen manifested an earnest desire to give all the information in their power, and they also expressed their wishes and their determination that the draft should be made, as far as possible, just, fair, and equitable in every respect.

I handed to Colonel Fry your note requesting a written statement of the rule by which the draft was made, and received in reply the letter to you which is herewith delivered.* So far as the draft has yet been ordered, the apportionment to each district and State is independent of every other district and State. It has been ordered in all the Eastern and Middle States. With the exception of New York and Rhode Island, all of these States are claimed at the War Department to be in arrear in the furnishing of volunteers under the calls made by the President previous to the passage of the conscription act. The Western States are not in arrear, but I believe the draft in these States is delayed until it is settled whether, under the conscription act, the equalization of the call for conscripts which the President is required to make, taking "into consideration the number of volunteers and militia" heretofore furnished, shall be upon the basis of the whole population or of the male population. In the Eastern and Middle States, most of which are in area, the female population exceeds the male; but in the Western States the male population is largely in excess of the female.

The draft ordered in each district is based upon the enrollment in that particular district. The number of conscripts required is 20 per cent, or one-fifth, of the whole number enrolled in the district in the first class. Besides this, 50 per cent. additional, or one-tenth of the number enrolled in that clads, is to be drawn to supply the places made vacant by exemptions. This rule is distinctly stated in the letter of Colonel Fry, and is the rule by which the draft if made. It will be seen that it rests the fairness and correctness of the draft entirely upon the enrollment, or, in other words, upon the competency, honesty, and fidelity of the enrolling officers.

It is now conceded by the Federal Administration that this State has more than supplied its quotas under all previous calls for volunteers. It is due to the people of this State and to the War Department to record the fact that the latter has rendered to our State this measure of justice. If I remember rightly the excess accorded to us is 4,695, which is credited to the several districts on account of the draft, but I believe the total of the credits is slightly less-say a total of 4,500. I am informed by General Sprague, the adjutant-general of the state, that this is at least 15,000 less than the credit justly due to us.

The following table, which is made up by Congressional districts, shows for each districts the total number of persons enrolled in the district in the first class, which by the conscription act should consist only of citizens, and aliens who have taken the incipient step to citizenship, and who are between twenty and thirty-five years of age, and, if unmarried, between thirty-five and forty-five. It also shows the credit to the district on account of the allowance to the State for excess of volunteers, the number of conscripts required, and the

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*See July 28, p. 584.

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41 R R-SERIES III, VOL III