had enlisted without bounty, and recruits having but six or nine months or a year to serve, for which brief term they had received heavy bounties. In the adjustment, too, of the quota and credit accounts of the respective States the whole business would have been infinitely simplified, and innumerable obscurities and complaints avoided, if one uniform rule of three years" service had been adopted and enforced in all the States.

It would be easy to multiply arguments on the subject, but I will only add that, knowing long enlistments to be the true policy of the Government in time of war, and fully believing that, if begun in time, such policy could be practically carried out, it should by all means be the settled rule of enlistments in the future wars.

8. Resistance.-At the time I was ordered to take post in this city, as acting assistant provost-marshal-general of Illinois, no signal success had crowned the national arms, and the public mind was much depressed and in a state of feverish apprehension. Advantage was taken of this discouraging aspect of affairs by the enemies of the Government, and threats of resistance and defiance to the provisions of the enrollment act, then just passed, were freely made in various parts of the State, eliciting much uneasiness on the part of good men. Though not sharing in the fears that were entertained respecting the imminence of an actual outbreak, I deemed it prudent to enjoin upon my subordinates the exercise of great circumspection and forbearance and the careful avoidance of all unnecessary irritation while in the discharge of their duties. The measure about to be inaugurated by the Government was not only new and hitherto untried in this country, but one against which the people had conceived a most violent prejudice, and common sagacity dictated the pursuance of such a course as would allay the excitement and fears of the people and lead them gradually to a more rational view of the nature and necessity of conscription, while the inflexible purpose of the Government to enforce the law regardless of all opposition and menace was as the same time firmly exhibited.

Under instruction in harmony with the foregoing policy the work began and progressed rapidly and satisfactorily in almost every district. The disloyal elements of the State, which were not lacking in numbers or virulence, were awed by the calm strength and quiet determination exhibited by the Government, and shrank from open collision, while the friends of a stern prosecution of the war rapidly discarded their fears and prejudices and ranged themselves firmly on the side of the Government and its officers.

At a very early period after the work commenced an enrolling officer was assaulted and almost killed in the streets of Chicago; but the summary arrest and condign punishment of the miscreant settled the question at once in that city and distrluence upon the disaffected in other portions of the State.

At a later period more serious resistance was made in the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Districts, in each of which the aid of the military was at different times called to the assistance of the provost-marshals. One county of the Thirteenth District [Williamson] was obliged to be enrolled in the presence and by the aid of a company of cavalry, and a bitter and dangerous spirit was for a time manifested; but the certainty of invoking upon themselves the prompt and irresistible strength of the military arm dissuaded the insurgents from the hazards of actual collision, and the excitement gradually died away.