Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[439] sketch it only remains for us to speak about two questions which occupied the attention of the government, of Congress, and of the public—the questions relating to retaliation and impressments. The importance which these two questions then assumed shows, without any comment, how critical the situation of the Confederacy had already become—how easy it was, despite the assurances of Mr. Davis, to foresee the impending exhaustion of its resources.

The President's message calling the attention of the Congress at Richmond to the Emancipation Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln contained one reflection which, with the exception of a few fanatics, no one could have taken in earnest. He invoked the commiseration of his fellow-citizens for the sad fate of those thousands of beings belonging to an inferior race, till then peaceful and contented with their life of labor, whom the proclamation would doom to certain destruction. Presuming that the only object of the Federal government was to kindle a servile war, he announced his intention of delivering thenceforth all prisoners with the rank of commissioned officers to the authorities of the various States, to be punished as accomplices in this crime. By promising compliance with the demands of the most noisy portion of the public for terrible retaliations, he was thus shrewd enough to shift the responsibility of their execution upon other shoulders. Notwithstanding its docility, the Congress did not humor this manoeuvre. It insisted, on the contrary, that the President should carry out this threat of retaliation in a direct manner, authorizing him to establish courts-martial in the armies for the purpose of summarily trying such officers of the enemy who should, by their exactions or their violence against non-combatants or prisoners, have acted in contravention of the ordinary rules of war, or who should have commanded colored soldiers or induced a servile insurrection. Negroes caught alone with arms in hand were to be given up to the local authorities, to be sold for the benefit of the latter. We will see presently that these orders, without being carried into effect by the Confederate government for fear of provoking new retaliations upon their own officers, interrupted the exchanges and exposed Union prisoners to cruel suffering.