But whatever may be the powers of Congress on this subject, it is certain that there is no legislation now in force, providing for the "army," except by means of _voluntary enlistment_. The whole army of the United States is, at present, an army of _volunteers_; and all persons who are _volunteers_ are of the _army_, and not of the _militia_. To call them _volunteers_ does not take them out of the category of the _army_, or general military force of the United States. On the other hand, the _militia_, when in the service of the United States _as militia_, are not _volunteers_. They come by draft or conscription. This distinction is derived from England, to whom we are indebted for so much of our jurisprudence, and so many principles of constitutional law. We find from Blackstone (Vol. I. p. 412), that the English militia consists of "the inhabitants of the county, chosen by lot for three years." They are called "the constitutional security which the laws have provided for the public peace and for protecting the realm against foreign or domestic violence"; and "they are _not compellable to march out of their counties, unless in case of invasion or actual rebellion within the realm, nor in any case compellable to march out of the kingdom_." They are "officered by the lord-lieutenant, the deputy-lieutenants, and other principal landholders, under a commission from the crown." It will be observed, from this description, that there are four distinct elements in the English militia. 1. It is in its nature a draft or conscription. 2. It is local in its character. 3. It is officered by persons in the county. 4. It can be called out only on peculiar exigencies, expressly designated. In all these respects it is distinguishable from what is called the _army_ of England. Mr. Burke somewhere says that nearly half of the early editions of Blackstone's Commentaries found their way to America. The framers of our Constitution were familiar with this work, and they have reproduced all these four features of the English militia, substituting "State" for "county," and adopting even the peculiar exigencies when they are compellable to march "out of the State." Thus following Blackstone, they have recognized an "_army_" and a "_militia_," without any third or intermediate military body. This same distinction between the militia and army was recognized by Mr. Charles Turner, in the British Parliament, in a speech on the Bill for embodying the Militia, November 2, 1775. "The proper men," he says, "_to recruit and supply your troops_ are the scum and outcast of cities and manufactories: fellows who _voluntarily submit to be slaves_ by an apprenticeship of seven years are the proper persons to be military ones. But to take the honest, sober, industrious fellow from the plough is doing an essential mischief to the community, and laying a double tax."[206] [206] Hansard, Parl. Hist., Vol. XVIII. col. 846.