The number to be drafted, thus ascertained, should be charged to the particular State, and then the amount due to, or due from, that State on the account of former service should be added to our subtracted from that number. The balance is that which is due from the State in question, and when balances are thus made up for all the States the amount of service will be equally distributed according to law.

The statute also requires that the enrollment districts into which the States are to be divided should be equalized among themselves. This may be effected upon the same principles as above stated. The number of men to be furnished by any one district bears the same proportion to the number to be furnished by the State, as the number of men enrolled in that district bears to the whole number enrolled in the State.

The only means provided by the statute to enable the President to equalize the draft among the several districts is by reference to the numbers therein respectively enrolled. There being no census of Federal population for either of these districts or sub- districts, and no authority given to the President to take a census thereof, it is obviously the intent of Congress that the enrollment itself should be the basis for equalizing the draft among districts. The statute of 1863 prescribes no particular mode of equalizing the numbers of troops among the several States, and though the President is therefore left to his own discretion as to the mode of carrying the law into effect, yet he is certainly justified in taking the same mode of equalizing the draft among the States as is prescribed for equalizing it among the several districts; and whatever mode he adopts by which the law is carried into effect, his decision is final as to the assignment of quotas.

A difficulty arose in the practical administration of this statute from the circumstances that troops were required for service before the enrollment could be completed in all the States, and it was impossible for them to ascertain definitely the exact quota of each State and district prior to the completion of the enrollment. To obviate this difficulty,and to avoid the danger of having the Army depleted while in the presence of the enemy, it was deemed proper to divide the first draft into two parts, or to call out only a portion of the first draft, with a view of completing the equalization of the draft as a whole, after the enrollment should have been completed. The second part of the first draft, therefore, yet remains to be completed, and it becomes necessary, therefore, to give each State credit in the above-mentioned account for all troops furnished under the first part of the aforesaid draft, and the balance of the first draft will be all that will now be due on that draft from each State respectively.

After the first section of the draft was drawn, and before the quotas for the last section thereof can be assigned, a new element has been introduced which must now be taken into account. The Government has authorized volunteers to be enrolled who have received bounties and who are to be credited to the States as part of their respective quotas in the same manner as though such volunteers had been furnished under the draft.

By observing these principles and methods of calculation the requisitions of the law in ascertaining the quotas of each State will, I think, be substantially complied with.

I subjoin a tabular form of making out the account of each State for more convenient reference.

WILLIAM WHITING,

Solicitor of the War Department.

Name of the State.

Dr. 1. Amount of service to equalize the accounts between or CR.

the States prior to March 3, 1863, taking into view the number of men, period of service, and population of State

as compared with all the States to be enrolled............

Dr. 2. Amount of service due from said State as estimated as for

the entire draft.........................................

3. Amount of service received from the first section of the draft from said State.................................. CR.

4. Amount of service of volunteers under the President's

last call............................................... CR.

The balance will show the amount of service due on the second part of the draft which the President should assign as a quota now to be drawn for.

JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.