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Chapter 32: Confederate Congress.—The President's Message.—Horace Greeley.
In the absence of authorized reports of the debates in Congress which are unattainable, if they exist, I have from scrap books compiled excerpts to show the trend of public opinion, and appended
Mr. Davis's message in which he treats of the recommendations made by that body, some of which are indicated by the subjoined extracts.
Confederate Congress, August 23, 1862.
Resolution of thanks to
General J. C. Breckinridge and command for gallant conduct at the
battle of Baton Rouge; also resolution of thanks to
General Earl Van Dorn and command, and citizens of
Vicksburg, for their defence of that city.
“Several resolutions were offered in the
House looking to the doctrine of
lex talionis and the enlargement of the conscription.”
It was clear that these two matters would
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occupy the attention of Congress before other business could be entertained.
As to the conscription, the immediate extension of it to all persons capable of bearing arms between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five, is rendered absolutely necessary by the call for six hundred thousand troops by
Lincoln.
There can be little doubt that these six hundred thousand new men will be raised by the
Yankee Government by October 15th, at the farthest.
Confederate Congress, August 18th.
“
Mr. Foote, of
Tennessee, offered a bill for retaliatory purposes.
Referred to Committee on Military Affairs.
(It recites that the enemy refused to treat our partisan soldiers as prisoners, and have also punished innocent private citizens for their acts.
It provides that an officer who may have ordered such atrocities is to be put to death, if captured.”
An equal number of prisoners (officers to be preferred) taken from the enemy, to suffer the fate inflicted on our captured soldiers or citizens.
Also a bill to regulate the treatment of prisoners.
It provides that any officer or private captured by our army, who shall have committed any offence pronounced felonious by the laws of the
Confederacy or any State, shall be delivered up for trial.
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Also, a bill to punish negroes in arms.
(It provides that Federal armies incongruously composed of
white and
black shall not be held entitled to the privileges of war, or to be held entitled to be taken prisoners.
Of such as may be captured, the negroes shall be returned to their masters or publicly sold, and their commanders to be hung or shot, as may be most convenient.)
Mr. Curry reported that the committee, of which he was chairman, had waited on the
President, who said that he would communicate a message to the
House immediately.
Mr. Foote, resuming, also offered a bill to retaliate for the seizing of citizens by the enemy.
(It provides that of the prisoners held by us, a number equal to that of the citizens seized shall be held as hostages for their safety, and subjected to like treatment; any officers, civil or military, concerned in their seizure, shall be imprisoned during the war.) -
President's Message, August 18, 1862.
... The moneyed obligations of the Confederate Government are forged by citizens of the
United States, and publicly advertised for sale in their cities, with a notoriety which sufficiently attests the knowledge of their Government; and its complicity in the crime is further evinced by the fact that the soldiers of the invading armies are found
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supplied with large quantities of these forged notes, as a means of despoiling the country people by fraud out of such portions of their property as armed violence may fail to reach.
Two, at least, of the
Generals of the
United States are engaged, unchecked by their Government, in arming and training slaves for warfare against their masters, citizens of the
Confederacy.
Another has been found of instincts so brutal as to invite the violence of his soldiery against the women of a captured city.
... Retaliation in kind for many of them is impracticable, for I have had occasion to remark in a former message that,
1 under no excess of provocation, could our noble-hearted defenders be driven to wreak vengeance on unarmed men, on women, or on children. But stern and exemplary punishment can and will be meted out to the murderers and felons who, disgracing the profession of arms, seek to make public war the occasion for the commission of the most monstrous crimes.
... The report of the
Secretary of the Treasury will exhibit in detail the operations of that department.
It will be seen with satisfaction, that the credit of the
Government
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securities remains unimpaired, and that this credit is fully justified by the comparatively small amount of accumulated debt notwithstanding the augmentation of our military operations.
... Within a recent period we have effected the object so long desired of an arrangement for an exchange of prisoners, which is now being executed by delivery at the points agreed upon, and which will, it is hoped, speedily restore our brave and unfortunate countrymen to their places in the ranks of the army, from which, by the fortunes of war, they have been for a time separated.
The details of the arrangement will be communicated to you in a special report, when further progress has been made in their execution.
The report of the
Postmaster-General discloses the embarrassments which resulted in the postal service from the occupation by the enemy of the
Mississippi River and portions of the territory of the different States.
The measures taken by the Department for relieving these embarrassments as far as practicable, are detailed in the report.
It is a subject of congratulation, that during the ten months that ended on March 3d last, the expenses of the Department were largely decreased, while its revenue was augmented,
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as compared with a corresponding period ending on June 30, 186 , when the postal system was conducted under the authority delegated to the
United States.
made the following comments on
President Davis's message, 1862:
If any fault has been found with the late message, save by those who cannot think that the South can do any right or the North any wrong, it is that it speaks almost too coldly and indifferently of the glorious achievements of this summer's campaign-achievements which would have wrung an ample meed of praise from the haughtiest and most reserved of European statesmen.
There is a Roman, almost a stoical, sternness in the manner in which the Confederate President accepts, as matters of course, the victories which have saved the capital; and the army might almost be disappointed did it not know how thoroughly a ruler, himself a distinguished soldier, appreciates the exploits which have signalized the soldiership of the South.
Never was anything further removed from bombast or boastfulness than the language in which Mr. Davis announces triumphs which would have excited enthusiasm even in phlegmatic England, and done honor to the veteran armies of France.
Mr. Davis's temper does not fail him,
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even when he has to speak of the wanton barbarities suffered by the districts that have been visited by the invaders, and of the unexampled outrages on the laws of civilized warfare which reflect such signal infamy on the Federal army and on the Federal Government.
He speaks strongly, no doubt, but in terms of just and measured reprobation, of the crimes which have rendered a cause, bad to begin with, utterly detestable in the eyes of the civilized world.
