The Senate having under consideration the bill for enrolling and calling out the national forces, Mr. Sumner moved as an amendment that clergymen or ministers of the Gospel be exempted from conscription. Then ensued brief comments. MR. POMEROY. They will fight. MR. MCDOUGALL. I will ask the Senator from Massachusetts to modify his proposition so as not to include the Methodist clergy, because they are a fighting clergy. MR. HOWARD. I think the loyal clergy are among the most fighting portion of our population, quite as reliable as any other. MR. WILSON. I do hope we are not to exempt lawyers, or clergymen, or any other class. MR. FESSENDEN. It is now provided in the bill that those who cannot go may be excused on paying a fine. Mr. Sumner followed. MR. PRESIDENT,--I would not have this proposition treated with levity. I do not say that it has been. Suffice it for me that I make it in sincerity, because I think the exception worthy of place in a permanent statute regulating the military system of our country. I shall not be led into debate, but you will let me declare my conviction that the proper duty of the clergyman, if he joins the army, is as chaplain, ministering to the sick, the wounded, the dying, and teaching the living how to die. At the same time, I can well understand that there may be occasions when another service will be required, or when an irresistible impulse may change the chaplain into the soldier. An eminent writer of our age, the late Lord Macaulay, has said positively that a clergyman should never fight. The motion which I make has no such extent. It simply proposes that the law shall not require him to fight. In former days bishops have worn coats of mail and led embattled forces, and there are many instances where the chaplain has assumed all the duties of the soldier. At the famous Battle of Fontenoy, where the French, under Marshal Saxe, prevailed over the united armies of England, Austria, and Holland, there was a British chaplain, with a name subsequently historic, who by military service acquired the title of “The Fighting Chaplain of Fontenoy.” This was the renowned Edinburgh professor, Adam Ferguson, author of the “History of the Roman Republic.” And only a few days ago I presented a petition for a pension from the widow of Rev. Arthur B. Fuller, chaplain, who fell fighting at Fredericksburg. But these instances are exceptional. Legislation cannot be founded on exceptions. In reply to other Senators, Mr. Sumner spoke again.