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of the States to certify what officers are necessary to the proper administration of the State Governments.

They contain a specific enumeration of the officers (Confederate & State) who shall be exempt. It is immaterial that it does not ap-pear whether the enrollment was made under the act of April 16^th or—Sep^t. 27. 1862, as his case for the reasons already given, falls un-der neither. Those acts fixed the status of every Citizen of the Confederate States. If between the ages of 18 & 35 years, at the time of the Call of the President & not of the class declared therein ex-empt, he was liable to military duty, under the former; if be-tween the ages of 35 & 45, at the time of such call, & not enbraced in the class exempt therein, he was liable to serve under the latter. I regard the appointment of enrolling officers as a convenient mode of ascertaining & separating the persons who are liable to ser-ve under those terms, from those who are not liable. They are the agents to execute the law. The ceremony observed by them, under the rules & regulations presented by the war Department, of collecting & placing in Camps of instruction those who are thus liable, in one sense, forms no part of the law, further than that those acts have vested in the Secretary of War are thereby to provide such rules & regulating as he thinks proper for their due execution. It is not competent for a party, owing service under either of these two acts of Congress, to claim the Benefit of an exemption only found in the act of 17^th. Feby 1864. And this, I think is true, even if his en-rollment was not made until after the passage of the latter. The exemptions apply exclusively to the particular acts in connec-tion with which they were adopted. If these principles be con-ceded, the conclusion is irresistable to my mind that Mr Ragsdale is not affected by the act of 17^th. Feby 1864, & that he is as much liable to military service now, as he was on the 15^th. Jany 1864, the date of his ^original^ enrollment.

In this argument I have gone a step farther than necessary in set-