Navigation of the Mississippi.
--The Treasury Department of the Southern Confederacy has issued circular instructions to the Collectors of the
Confederate States as to the performance of their duties in reference to vessels navigating the
Mississippi river.
As the regulations to be observed are of interest to a large portion of the country, we make the following extract from one of the circulars:
‘
"All boats coming from any port outside the limits of the
Confederate States, and lying upon the
Mississippi river, must come to at the port of
Norfolk, otherwise known as
Helm's Landing, in the
State of Mississippi, and there report the name of their vessel and captain, where they are from, and their point of destination, and exhibit to the custom officer full duplicates of their entire cargo.
It is also made the duty of said custom officer at the port of
Norfolk to board each vessel so entering the
Confederate States from any place above the limits of the
Confederacy, and to deliver to each vessel so boarded a certificate, as follows:
’
" 'Port of --,--day of--,18--.
" 'Permission is hereby given to land the goods described by — entries in this schedule, at the places designated therein.
' A. B., Revenue Officer.'
"Any goods not intended for delivery within the
Confederate States shall be allowed to pass free, the master being required to exhibit the manifest and a schedule in duplicate of all goods intended to be landed, their value, name of consignee, and point of destination."
These regulations are exciting opposition from the
Western States.
The following resolutions on the subject have been offered in the Legislature of Kentucky:
"
Whereas, This General Assembly is informed that certain persons, acting as a Congress of the Seceding States, have assumed power to obstruct and regulate the free navigation of the
Mississippi river by the citizens of this Union, to whom it belongs; Therefore be it
"
Resolved, by the General. Assembly of the Common-wealth of Kentucky, That
Kentucky, having as much right to the
Mississippi river, to its free, unobstructed navigation, as
Louisiana or any other State, and that right being of vital importance to her people, feels it her duty to herself and her sister States, at the earliest day, to make this, her most solemn; protest against any assumption of such power to control the navigation of that river, as utterly without right or proper authority, and as what she cannot and will not submit to.
"
Resolved, further, That the States in the
valley of the Mississippi be earnestly requested to unite with
Kentucky in this protest against the violation of a mutual right so vitally important to them all, and which their permanent interests forbid should ever rest in the discretion of any Government, save that under which they live.
"
Resolved, That the
Governor be requested to transmit copies of these resolutions to the Executives of the States aforesaid."
