Named Entity Results, December 4th, 1861 AD

els, after the close of the war, can be safely left to the wisdom and patriotism of Congress. The Representatives of the people will unquestionably secure to the loyal slaveholders every right to which they are entitled under the Constitution of the country. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War. The abuse of negroes who had escaped from Rebel masters in Virginia and taken shelter within the lines of the Army of the Potomac, elicited the following: Department of State, Washington, Dec. 4, 1861. To Maj.-Gen. Geo. B. Mcclellan: General: I am directed by the President to call your attention to the following subject: Persons claimed to be held to service or labor under the laws of the State of Virginia, and actually employed in hosthe service against the Government of the United States, frequently escape from the lines of the enemy's forces, and are received within the lines of the Army of the Potomac. This Department understands that such persons, afterward coming into th

e to her Federal Marshal, but most disgraceful to the city and Nation, of seizing Blacks on the streets, immuring them in the jail, advertising them, and waiting for masters to appear, prove property, pay charges, and take the human chattels away. Mr. Lincoln's Marshal, Col. Ward II. Lamon, came with him from Jllinois, but was a Virginian by birth, and did not revolt at the abundant and profitable custom brought to his shop by the practice just depicted. Gen. Wilson, of Mass., early Dec. 4, 1861. called the attention of the Senate to this painful subject; saying that lie had visited the jail; and such a scene of degradation and inhumanity lie had never witnessed. There were persons almost entirely naked ; some of them without a shirt. Some of those persons were free; most of them had run away from disloyal masters, or had been sent there by disloyal persons, for safe keeping until the war is over. He thereupon proposed a discharge by joint resolve of all persons confined in th

Doc. 210. Mr. Saulsbury's resolutions. Offered in the U. S. Senate, Dec. 4, 1861. Whereas, the people of the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee, are in revolt against the Constitutional Government of the United States, and have assumed to secede from the Federal Union, to form an independent Government, under the name of the Confederate States of America; and Whereas, the Congress of the United States, approving the sentiments of the President in his annual message, that the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed; and believing that kind and fraternal feeling between the people of all the States is indispensable to the maintenance of a happy and prosperous Union, and being willing to manifest such feeling on their part to them, and that pence may be restored to a distracted country, and the Union and Constitution be preserved and maintained, a

Doc. 211. Gen. Phelps' proclamation. Headquarters Middlesex Brigade, ship Island, Mississippi, December 4, 1861. To the loyal citizens of the Southwest: Without any desire of my own, but contrary to my private inclinations, I again find myself among you as a military officer of the Government. A proper respect for my fellow-country-men renders it not out of place that I should make known to you the motives and principles by which my command will be governed. We believe that every State that has been admitted as a slave State into the Union since the adoption of the Constitution, has been admitted in direct violation of that Constitution. We believe that the slave States which existed, as such, at the adoption of our Constitution, are, by becoming parties to that compact, under the highest obligations of honor and morality to abolish slavery. It is our conviction that monopolies are as destructive, as competition is conservative of the principles and vitalities of r

Doc. 212. affair at Whippoorwill Bridge, Ky. December 4, 1861. The Louisville-Nashville Courier, of the 9th of December, gives the following details of the bridge-burning affair at Whippoorwill: A detachment of fifteen had been stationed at the bridge to guard it, of whom two were absent at the time of the attack. The Federals, fifty or sixty in number, under command of a Dutch Jew peddler named Netter, and among whom were several who had been raised in the neighborhood, made their appearance about daybreak Thursday morning. Four of the guard, who were on duty, and who were standing by a plank cabin, fired upon them, whereupon they received a volley of over one hundred rounds from Sharp's revolving rifles, killing two instantly and wounding another. Most of the shots were fired into the cabin, on the supposition that the rest of the guard were asleep in it, but fortunately they were in a cabin a little distance off. They were aroused by the firing, but by the time they wer

Doc. 213. Secretary Seward's letter. Contrabands in District of Columbia. Department of State, Washington City, December 4, 1861. To Major-General George B. McClellan, Washington: General: I am directed by the President to call your attention to the following subject: Persons claimed to be held to service or labor under the laws of the State of Virginia, and actually employed in hostile service against the Government of the United States, frequently escape from the lines of the enemy's forces and are received within the lines of the army of the Potomac. This Department understands that such persons, afterward coming into the city of Washington, are liable to be arrested by the city police, upon presumption, arising from color, that they are fugitives from service or labor. By the fourth section of the act of Congress approved August 6th, 1861, entitled An Act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes, such hostile employment is made a full and sufficien

Doc. 215. movements near Port Royal, S. C. December 4-6, 1861. Reports of Commodore Dupont. flagship Wabash, Port Royal harbor, S. C., December 4, 1861. sir: The apprehension of losing possession of the Bay of St. Helena, so exceedingly valuable for a harbor, for its proximity to Charleston, and for the command it secures of large rivers supplying interior communication with the State of South Carolina, has induced me to despatch a second expedition there, under Commander Drayton, December 4, 1861. sir: The apprehension of losing possession of the Bay of St. Helena, so exceedingly valuable for a harbor, for its proximity to Charleston, and for the command it secures of large rivers supplying interior communication with the State of South Carolina, has induced me to despatch a second expedition there, under Commander Drayton, with orders to hold the island until Gen. Sherman is prepared to assume military occupation of it, when he will transfer the fort to his troops. I have also despatched Commander C. R. P. Rogers to make a reconnoissance of Warsaw Inlet, in order to ascertain the position and force of the enemy's battery there — information which the Commanding-General has expressed to me is his desire to obtain before landing troops on Tybee Island. The department will have the goodness to observe that, in