Conscription, Conscientious Objection, and Draft Resistance in American History is the definitive history of conscription in America. It is the first book ever to consider the entire temporal sweep of conscription from pre-Revolutionary War colonial militia drafts through the end of the Vietnam era. Each chapter contains an examination of that era’s draft law, the actual workings of the conscription machinery, and relevant court decisions that shaped the draft in practice. In addition, the book describes the popular opposition to conscription: organized and unorganized, violent and nonviolent, public and clandestine, legal and illegal. Using sources never before utilized by historians, including government documents obtained in Freedom of Information Act requests, the book demonstrates how anti-conscription sentiment has been far deeper than is popularly appreciated.
Jerry Elmer was a Vietnam-era draft resister and a national leader in the peace movement. Later, he was the only convicted felon in his class at Harvard Law School. He has published extensively on peace movements and legal issues.
"Elmer's narrative is clear and readable and could well serve as the basis for a university course on US conscription history and challenges to it. [...] It well deserves a place in the canon of American peace history." – Donald W. Maxwell, in:
Peace & Change (May 7th, 2024), p. 1-4
“Jerry Elmer is the right writer to tell the story. At the age of 18 during the U.S. war in Vietnam, he publicly refused to register for the draft […] Elmer not only describes the conscription laws of each period and the ways in which COs (conscientious objectors) and resisters were treated, he provides lawyerly analyses of the Supreme Court challenges in each era.” – Arnie Alpert, in:
Waging Nonviolence (December 1st, 2023)
“The book represents the first time anyone has presented the entire history of conscription in America, from pre-Revolutionary War militias through the end of the draft, in January 1973… original sources include government documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests, sources that have been disregarded or missed by earlier historians writing on these topics.” – Margaret E. Curran, in:
Rhode Island Bar Journal (November 2023)
"Elmer draws on his career as an attorney to argue his points as if he were trying to win a legal case. And he writes with passion. [...] The result is by far the most comprehensive and thorough book about conscription in the United States." – Robert Levering, in:
Friends Journal (June/July 2024)
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Background and Context
1 The United States Constitution
2 The Issue of Enumerated Powers
3 Civil War Conscription Antecedents
2 The Civil War: the Union
1 The Statute
2 Enrollment Refusal
3 Draft Refusal
4 Amendments to the Conscription Statute of 1863
5 Bounties
6 Conscientious Objectors
7 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute
8 Conclusion
3 The Civil War: the Confederacy
1 The First Confederate Conscription Statutes
2 General Responses to Confederate Conscription
3 New Conscription Statutes, December 1863–February 1864
4 Official State Exemptions
5 Armed Resistance
6 The March 1865 Statute
7 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute
8 Conclusion
4 World War I
1 The Statute
2 The Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918
3 Registration and Opposition to It
4 The Draft and Opposition to It
5 The Slacker Raids
6 Conscientious Objection
7 Draft Prosecutions during World War I
8 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute
9 Conclusion
5 World War II
1 The Statute
2 The Draft in Operation
3 Conscientious Objectors
4 Civilian Public Service
5 Controversies Regarding Civilian Public Service
6 Resisters
7 The End of the World War II Draft
8 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute
9 Conclusion
6 The Cold War and the Korean War
1 The 1948 Congressional Debate
2 The 1948 Conscription Statute
3 The 1950 Congressional Debate and Conscription Statute
4 The Doctors’ Draft (1950) and Other Draft Laws, 1951–63
5 The Draft in Operation
6 Conscientious Objectors
7 Resisters
8 National Service Board for Religious Objectors, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, and the National Council against Conscription
9 The 1948 Statute and Segregation in the Military
10 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute
11 Conclusion
7 The Vietnam War Era
1 Early Demonstrations and Preliminary Legal Skirmishes
2 The 1967 Conscription Statute
3 Nixon, the Lottery, and the End of the Draft
4 Evaders
5 Conscientious Objectors
6 Draft Resistance
7 The Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority and the Spock-Coffin Indictment
8 The Draft Board Raids
9 Prosecutions
10 Legal Cases Pertaining to the Conscription Statute
11 Conclusion
8 Conclusion
1 Channeling
2 Is the Draft Unconstitutional?
3 Is there a Constitutional Right to Conscientious Objection?
Select Bibliography
Index
This title will be of interest to history students, peace historians, general historians, legal historians, and lawyers.