United States Statutes at Large/Volume 1/5th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 57
[Obsolete.]
Chap. ⅬⅦ.—An Act supplementary to, and to amend the act, intituled “An act authorizing the President of the United States to raise a provisional army.”
Section 1. Volunteers to observe the rules be fixed by the President for training and disciplining them.
Ante, p. 558. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the companies of volunteers, and the members of each company, who shall be duly engaged and accepted by the President of the United States, and organized with proper officers commissioned by him, pursuant to the third section of the act, intituled “An act authorizing the President of the United States to raise a provisional army,” shall submit to, and observe such rules of training and discipline, as shall be thought Exempted from militia duty.necessary to prepare them for actual service; and which rules the President of the United States is hereby authorized to make and establish; and all such companies and volunteers are hereby exempted, until their discharge, or during the time of their engagement, as aforesaid, from all militia duty which is, or shall be required by the laws of the United States, or of any state, and from every fine, penalty or disability, which is or shall be provided to enforce the performance of any duty or service in the militia.
Sec. 2. President may appoint their field officers. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby authorized, by and with the consent of the Senate, or by himself in the recess of Congress, pursuant to the said act, to appoint and commission, as soon as he shall think it expedient, such and so many field officers as shall be necessary for the organizing and embodying in legions, regiments or battalions, any volunteer companies who shall engage, and shall be accepted, as aforesaid: and such field officers shall have authority, accordingly, to train and discipline such volunteer companies, pursuant to the rules therefor, which shall be established, as aforesaid: Provided, that no officer or volunteer, who shall be appointed, engaged or employed in any training or discipline, as aforesaid, shall be considered as in the pay of the United States, until called into actual service.
Sec. 3. President may authorize the sale to them of artillery, arms, &c. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States may authorize the sale, at a reasonable rate, sufficient to indemnify the United States, to any company of volunteers who shall be accepted as aforesaid, of such pieces of artillery, small arms and accoutrements, to be delivered from the public arsenals, as shall be found necessary for the equipment and training of such volunteers; or may loan the same.or may loan the same to them upon the receipts of their respective officers, to be accounted for, or returned, at the expiration of their engagement, or other discharge: And of such sales or loans, the necessary accounts shall be kept in the War department, and the money accruing, by any sale, shall be paid into the treasury of the United States; and the same shall be, and is hereby appropriated for the purchase of other artillery, arms and accoutrements, as the President of the United States shall direct.
Sec. 4. President may proceed to appoint such of the officers for the army of 10,000 men as may be more immediately requisite. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States may proceed to appoint and commission, in the manner prescribed by the said act, such and so many of the officers authorized thereby for the raising, organizing and commanding the provisional army of ten thousand men, as, in his opinion, the public service shall more immediately require; any thing which may be supposed in the said act, to the contrary hereof, notwithstanding: Provided, that the officers who shall be so appointed shall not be entitled to any pay, subsistence or other emolument, by reason of such commission, until they shall be respectively employed in the actual service of the United States: And provided, that the further raising of the said army shall not be authorized otherwise than as by the said act is provided.
Approved, June 22, 1798.