Conscription

Conscription, known in the United States as “the draft,” is the act of compelling citizens into military service.Long used in Europe as a means of raising armies quickly and cheaply, it was not employed in the United States until the Civil War, when both sides introduced conscription to fill their manpower needs. In the North, the Conscription Act of March 1863 exempted men who could hire a substitute or pay a three‐hundred–dollar fee. These provisions stirred growing protest that culminated in the New York City Draft Riots of 13–16 July 1863. For four days, until federal troops restored order, rioting Irish immigrants targeted the city's elite as well as African Americans, whom they blamed for the war. As a result, the Conscription Act was amended to limit exemptions to conscientious objectors opposed to military service on moral or religious grounds. The Confederacy experienced analogous problems with its conscription law, adopted in April 1862, which favored wealthy slave owners.

Upon U.S. entry into World War I, Congress passed the Selective Service Act of 1917, which required all male citizens between twenty‐one and thirty years of age (later changed to eighteen and forty‐five) to register for military service. Over 2.8 million males were drafted in 1917–1918. Only men with a verified family hardship, the physicially disabled, and conscientious objectors were exempt.

Conscription was again imposed on the eve of World War II, with the Selective Service Act of 1940. Although not initially popular, this first peacetime draft facilitated rapid military mobilization after the U.S. declaration of war in December 1941. More than ten million males were drafted between 1940 and 1947. Once again, the only exemptions were for family hardship, disability, or conscientious objection to war. Owing to the manpower needs of U.S. occupation forces in Germany and Japan, and to the beginnings of the Cold War, conscription continued after the war's end. It was further extended by the Universal Military Training and Service Act of June 1951, a congressional response to the Korean War, which was periodically extended thereafter. The Vietnam War prompted passage of the Military Selective Service Act of 1967, which differed from its predecessors in permitting educational deferments for males between the ages of eighteen and twenty‐six. The social inequality of this provision, combined with the growing unpopularity of the war, caused riots and demonstrations. This act expired in 1973, and in 1974 President Gerald Ford granted clemency to many thousands of Vietnam Era draft resisters, provided they took an oath of allegiance and performed two years of public service. Draft registration resumed in 1980 for all males when they reached the age of eighteen, but at least through the end of the century, no inductions were needed.
See also Confederate States of America; Draft Riots, Civil War; Military, The.

Bibliography

George Q. Flynn , The Draft, 1940–1973, 1993.

Christopher Clark