In his speech at Faneuil Hall, October 6, 1862,[138] Mr. Sumner justified an appeal to the slaves. In the Senate, February 9, 1863, he introduced the following bill, providing for the enlistment of slaves and others of African descent, which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, and ordered to be printed. * * * * * A Bill to raise additional Soldiers for the Service of the United States. _Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled_, That each and every able-bodied male person of the age of eighteen years and under forty-five years, made free by the Act of Congress, approved August sixth, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, entitled “An Act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,” or the Act of July seventeenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled “An Act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of Rebels, and for other purposes,” or by Proclamations of the President of the United States, dated September twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and January first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, respectively, or by any other legal and competent authority exercised in suppressing the present Rebellion, shall severally be forthwith enrolled as a military force of the United States by the commanding officer within whose department such persons shall be found, and they shall be organized, armed, equipped, and mustered into the service of the United States, to serve during the present war, to a number not exceeding three hundred thousand men. SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That the said military force shall be organized according to the regulations of the branch of service in which they may be designated to serve, and receive the same rations, clothing, and equipments as volunteers, and a monthly pay of seven dollars, to be paid one half at the end of each month, and the other half when discharged. They shall be officered by persons appointed and commissioned by the President, and governed by the rules and articles of war, and such other rules and regulations as may be prescribed by law. Each person so serving as a non-commissioned officer or private in such military force of the United States shall be entitled to receive, upon his discharge, ten acres of land, and each person so serving as a commissioned officer shall be entitled to receive twenty-five acres, the same to be located upon any lands confiscated during the present Rebellion, and not reserved by the Government for public use; the land so located to be occupied only as a homestead by the person entitled to receive the same, and his family.