Tag Archives: commutation fee

No Scrooge

I know from the schedule that 150 years ago today draftees from the Town of Tyre in Seneca County, New York appeared in Auburn for their examinations. Here’s a comment from a Democrat newspaper from Seneca County in 1863: Mr. … Continue reading

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“tax ourselves”

In reviewing the Conscription Act of 1863, James M. McPherson writes that “Substitution was hallowed by tradition … The Republican architects of the draft law inserted commutation as a means of putting a cap on the price of substitutes … … Continue reading

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