Mandatory Military Service in the United States Research Paper

Mandatory Military Service in the United States - Research Paper Example destination III. References Abstract A mediocre interpretation of the word mandatory will be obligatory or compulsory. The Mandatory Military Service of America carries proscribed compulsory enrollment and induction into its services as part of its functions. With reference to the Legal Dictionary, enrollment is done through conscription also known as outline. However, draft and conscription are two different concepts. Conscription is the compulsory induction of individuals into the armed forces, as compared to draft which is the procedure by which quite a little are conscripted. Men within a certain age group must register with the Selective Service for possible conscription, but this concept was suspend by 1973. According to this said source, conscription typically involves individuals who are deemed fit for military service. At times governments have instituted universal military service in which all men o r people of a certain age are conscripted. Some American colonies employed conscription. During the Revolutionary War, the American government use selective, temporary conscription to fill the ranks of its military. Congress passed the Selective Draft Act (40 Stat. 76). The act created a government office to oversee conscription. It also authorized local anaesthetic draft boards to select eligible individuals for conscription. The following year, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of conscription, noting that Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the power to raise and support Armies. Presidential potentiality to conscript individuals into the U.S. armed forces ended in 1973. No individual has been conscripted into the military since then. Inception of the draft The idea that members of a community have a calling to defend it is as old as civilization itself. In a free society like ours, forcing citizens to fight involves conflicting notions of civic duty, indi vidual immunity and equality. Although America has relied on an all-volunteer military for most of its history, it was forced to draft men to fight the civil war and the wars of the 20th century. (Cited from Paul Ruschmann, Mandatory Military Service) George capital of the United States was the first of a function of presidents to propose compulsory military training for all men. Every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government, not only owes a proportion of his property but also some of his personal services for the defense of it, and consequently that the citizens of Americashould be borne on militia rolls. Despite his proposal, his advice was overlook and the all-volunteer militia remained. However, at the time of the civil war, there was enough man power to go to battle. The Confederacy which had a much smaller population than the center authorized a draft. The next year, lawmakers followed suit. Despite attractive bonus packages, the Military was not attracting enough persons to raise an army strong enough to win the war. With the draft laws conceived by the Union and the Confederacy, they allowed a man to hire a substitute to fight for him. During that era, that was the most intelligent means of exempting men engaged in inbred civilian occupations. The law also exempted a man from serving by paying a $300 commutation fee to the government. Many Northerners complained that the civil was a rich mans war and a poor mans fight and anti-draft violence broke out in a number of cities. The worst unrest occurred in New York City, where anti-draft protests