Confederate Congress.
Wednesday, October 1, 1862.
Senate.--The Senate met at 11 o'clock A. M.,
Mr. Hunter, of
Virginia, in the Chair.
Mr. Specrow, from the
Committee on Military Affairs, reported back a resolution of inquiry concerning persons holding commissions, and employed as clerks in the Departments, &c., together with the information called for by the same.
Laid on the table.
Mr. Hill, from the
Committee on Judiciary, reported a bill to establish a Court for the investigation of claims against the
Government.
Placed on the calendar, and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Semmes, from the Judiciary Committee, to which was referred a resolution in reference to the question of retaliation under
Lincoln's late proclamation of emancipation, presented the following as the report generally concurred in by the committee:
Whereas, these States, exercising a right consecrated by the blood of our Revolutionary forefathers, and recognized as fundamental in the
American system of Government, which is based on the consent of the governed, dissolved the compact which united them to the
Northern States and withdrew from the
Union created by the
Federal Constitution; and
whereas, the
Government of the
United States, repudiating the principle on which its founders, in their solemn appeal to the civilized world, justified the american Revolution, commenced the present war so subjugate and enslave these States, under the pretext of repressing rebellion and restoring the
Union; and
whereas, in the prosecution of the war for the past seventeen months the rights accorded to belligerents by the usages of civilized nations have been studiously denied to the citizens of these States, except in cases where the same have been extorted by the apprehension of retaliation and by the adverse fortune of the war; and
whereas, from the commencement of this unholy invasion to the present moment the invaders have inflicted inhuman miseries on the people of these States, exacting of them treasonable oaths, subjecting unarmed citizens, women, and children.
to confiscation, banishment and imprisonment; burning their dwelling-houses; ravaging the land; plundering private property murdering men for pretended offences; encouraging the abduction of slaved by Government officials and at Government expense; promoting servile insurrection by tampering with slaves and protecting them in resisting their masters; stealing works of art and destroying public libraries; encouraging and inviting a brutal soldiery to commit outrages on women by the no rebuked orders of military commanders, and attempting to ruin cities by filling up the on trance to their harbors with stone; and
whereas, in the same spirit of barbarous city the
Government of the
United States enacted a law entitled "An act to suppress insurrection and to prevent treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes;" and has announced by a proclamation issued by
Abraham Lincoln, the
President thereof, that in pursuance of said law, "on the 1st day of January, 1863 all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people where of shall be in rebellion against the
United States, shall be thenceforward and forever free," and has hereby made manifest that the conflict has ceased to be a war as recognized among civilized nations; and on the part of the enemy has become an invasion of an organized horde of murderers and plunderers breathing hatred and revenge for the numerous defeats sustained on legitimate battlefields, and determined if possible to exterminate the loyal population of these States, to transfer their property to their enemies, and to emancipate their staves with the atrocious design of adding servile in surjection and the massacre of families to the calamities of war; and
whereas, justice and humanity require this Government to endeavor to repress the lawless practice and designs of the enemy by inflicting severe retribution; Therefore,
The Congress of the Confederate States decoct.
- 1st.
That on and after the 1st day of January, 1863, all commissioned and non commissioned officers of the enemy, except as hereinafter mentioned, when captured, shall be imprisoned at hard labor, or otherwise put at hard labor, until the termination of the war, or until the repeal of the act of the Congress of the United States, hereinbefore recited, and until otherwise determined by the President.
- 2d Every white person who shall act as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer, commanding negroes or mulattoes against the Confederate States, or who thrall arm, organize, train, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service, or aid them in any military enterprise against the Confederate States, shall, if captured, suffer death.
- 3. Every commissioned or non-commissioned officer of the enemy who shall incite slaves to rebellion, or pretend to give them freedom under the aforementioned act of Congress and proclamation, by abducting them or causing them to be abducted, or inducing them to abscond, shall, if captured, suffer death.
- 4. That every person charged with an offence under this act shall be tried by such military court as the President shall direct, and, after conviction, the President may commute the punishment or pardon unconditionally or on such terms as he may see fit.
- 5.
That the President is hereby authorized to resort to such other retaliatory measures as in his judgment may be best calculated to repress the atrocities of the enemy.
Mr. Phelan, from the same committee, submitted the following as the minority report on the same subject
- 1.
that if any person, singly or in organized bodies, shall, under the pretence of waging war, kill or maim, or in any wise injure the person of any unarmed citizen of the Confederate States, or shall destroy, or sedge, of damage a property, or invade the House or domiell, or inst the family of such unarmed citizen; shall uade or any slave to abandon his owner, by word or act counsel or incite to servile instruction, within the limits of the Confederate Stat — all such persons, if captured by the forces other Confederate States, shall be treated as criminals, and not as prisoners of war, and shall be by a military court, and, on conviction, suffer death.
- 2. that every person pretender to be a soldier, or an officer of the United State, who shall be captured on the soll of the Confederate States after the 1st day of January, 1863, she be presumed to have catered the territory of the Confederate States with intent to incite insurrection and abet murder, and, unless satisfactory proof adduced to the contrary, before the military before which the trial shall be had, shall and death.
This section shall continue in force and the proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, died at Washington on the 22d of September, 186 shall be rescinded, and the policy therein announcer shall be abandoned, and no longer.
Mr. Hill said he considered proclamation of the
President of the
United States as a mere
brutum fulmen. of no practical effect and he doubted whether it was necessary to notice all.
Mr. Hill, from the same committee, presented the following Joint resolution in nation to the future prosecution of war with the
United States in connection with the other reports.
Insulted and oppressed by a long train of evils, and menaced by future pert under the
Government of the
United States, the separate sovereignties of the States, constituting the
Confederate States of America, dissolved the political connection existing between themselves and the other sovereignties composing the
United States, and organize a distinct Confederation.
Upon its formation a war most foul and unnatural was inaugurated for its destruction by the
Government from which we had separated, and upon the pretext that the
Government organized and thus created was not the choice and offering of the people inhabiting said States; but was a despotism erected by daring and ambitious demagogues, by whom the voice of the mass of our population was silenced, and their efforts to preserve the Federal Union paralysed and suppressed.
For nearly two years has this inhuman and unholy crusade been waged against us. Conscious of the unity of all classes of our people, relying upon its ultimate development inspired by the hope that our enemies would become conscious of the wickedness of their war fare and of the folly of attempting our subjugation averse to the dding of the blood, and with a sacred regard for human life, the
Confederate States have conducted their defence upon the most humane principles of civilized warfare; and under the goadings of wrongs and outrages perpetrated by our force, that might justly have invoked a policy of revengeful retaliation.--the pretence by which the war was originally sought to be justified has long since been dissipated, our enemies themselves being the judges; whilst the solemn consecration of our national temple has convinced the world that the blood and treasure of our common country have been unreservedly dedicated to its preservation.
But our reasonable hopes have been disappointed, our desire for peace has been spurned, our efforts to avoid human sacrifice unappreciated, our recognition refused, and our rights as an independent nation scouted and denied.
Was, unappeased and relentless, is still urged against us. The sufferings inflicted upon us by our foes have been almost intolerable.
Our country has been desolated, our homes violated our fields laid waste, our altars profaned, our property seized, consumed, or destroyed, our citizens arrested, outraged, murdered, whilst the hones of our bravest and best are soddening in the sun or bleaching upon the battle-field.
Our signal and repeated victories, and the generosity which has characterized our treatment of prisoners in this unequal struggle, so far from awakening the magnanimity of our adversaries or predisposing their hearts to peace, seem to engender towards us a more remorseless malignity, to invoke the creation of larger armies, and to inspire the construction and energize the preparation of more terrible engines of warfare with which to annihilate and subdue us; whilst the entire property of the
South, by an act of legislation, has been confiscated and forfeited to our foe. Infuriated by continual defeat, maddened by revengeful passion, and exasperated by despair, of effecting our subjugation through the modes of civilized warfare, our brutal foes at length seek to light in our land the baneful fires of servite war, by emancipating amongst us four millions of negro slaves, with the design of effecting an indiscriminate slaughter of all ages, sexes, and conditions, of our people.
A scheme so atrocious and infernal is unparalleled in the blackest and bloodiest page of savage strife, surpasses in cruelty the most signal despotism that ever disgraced the earth, and reveals the design of our enemy to be, regardless of the laws of God or man, the subjugation or the annihilation of the people of these
Confederate States.
We are thus confronted with the dire alternative of slavery or death, and must decide not only with reference to ourselves, but our posterity.
Extermination by the slaughter of a free people is preferable to their examination by subjugation.
The path of duty opens before us, and we now prepare to tread its dangerous track, obedient to the dread necessity by which we are impelled, and sustained by an unfaltering trust in that God who has thus far sheltered our infant Republic beneath the protecting shade of his Almighty wing; Therefore,
be it resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States. that from this day forth all rules of civilized warfare should be disregarded in the future defence of our country, and our liberty, and our lives, against the fell design now openly avowed by the
Government of the
United States, to annihilate or enslave us; and that a war of extermination should henceforth be waged against every invader whose hostile foot shall cross the borders of these
Confederate States.
Mr. Clark offered the following in the same connection:
‘
whereas, a long series of atrocities, utterly subversive of the principles of civilised warfare, have recently culminated in a proclamation of
President Lincoln, declaring that all slaves in the
Confederate States shall be emancipated and forever free from and after the 1st day of January next; and
whereas, it is the avowed and fiendish purpose of the
Government of the
United States, by this proclamation, vain and futile though it be, to add to the severities and sufferings of the war the unspeakable horrors of a servile insurrection, and the brutal massacre of the whole people of the
Confederate States without regard to age or sex; and
whereas, the past efforts of our Government to infuse into our enemies a sense of justice.
Decency, and humanity, have proved utterly inefficacious, and are likely to do so in the future; now, Therefore,
’
be it resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America, that it is the duty of the
Government and people to recognize the
Government of the
United States and such of the people therein as adhere to such Government, and countenance the brutal policy thereof, in the character in which they have elected to assume — that of a savage, relentless and barbarous foe; and that in the future conduct of this war it is the duty of the
Government of the
Confederate States neither to ask quarter for its soldiers nor extend it to the enemy, until an awakened or corrected sense or decency and humanity, or the sting of retaliation shall have impelled our enemies to adopt or practice the usages of war, which prevail among christian and civilized nations.
on motion of
Mr. Semmes, the documents were ordered to be printed and made the special order for to morrow; at 12 o'clock.
the resolution introduced by
Mr. Oldham, of
Texas asserting that the
Secretary of war has no to appoint Provost Marshals or invest them with authority over citizens not belonging to the army and no right to restrict the exercise of the jurisdiction of the civil Judicial tribunals of the States of this Confederacy, was taken up.
Mr. Semmes, of L submitted a substitute, asserting that
officer of the Confederate Government has such powers.
the substitute was discussed at great length and amended, but final action was deferred by the Senate resolving it self into secret to consider certain Executive communications.
House of Representatives.--
House met at 12 o'clock.
Mr. Lyons, by consent of the
House, introduced the following Joint resolutions:
whereas, Abraham Lincoln, finding that the people of the
Confederate States cannot be conquered in honorable and civilized war, has by a proclamation the most inhuman and atrocious which was ever issued by any man or power, processing to be civilized, endeavored to excite servile insurrection among us, with a view to subject to massacre not only our aged and infirm men, but our women and children, and has commanded the army and navy under his command to aid and abet him in his hellish work: Therefore,
- 1st. Resolved. That the people of the Confederate States be, and they are hereby exhorted to kill and destroy, by all the means in their power, every officer, soldier, and sailor of the Lincolnite army and navy who may be found within the Confederate States, unless he be a regular prisoner of war.
- 2d.
That after the first day of January, 1863, no officer of the Lincolnite army or navy ought to be captured alive, and if so captured, he ought to be immediately hung.
- 3d.
That every slave and free negro who shall, after the 1st day of January, 1863. slay, by any means, an officer, sailor, or soldier of the Lincolnite army or navy, upon satisfactory proof thereof, shall be entitled to a bounty of $20, and an annuity of $20 for life.
- 4th.
That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire whether any legislation be necessary to give effect to the foregoing resolutions, and that it have leave to report by bill or otherwise.
Referred to Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Foote, of
Tenn., submitted a memorial on our river defences, by
Gen. Henningson.
Referred to Committee on Naval Affairs, and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Foote also reported the following resolutions, which were referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs:
‘
Whereas, during the pending war between the
United States and the
Confederate States of America, the good people of
California and
Oregon, and of the various
Territories beyond the
Rocky Mountains, seem in general to have manifested but little disposition to take an active part in said war against their late fellow-citizens of the slaveholding States of the
South, influenced, as there is reason to believe, as well by a true regard for justice and humanity as by an enlightened sense of their own true policy; and
whereas, it is most manifest that the day is not far distant when the people beyond the
Rocky Mountains must inevitably become a separated and independent Republic, by force of circumstances of a geographical and permanent character impossible to be resisted, as was predicted by
Mr. Jefferson before the close of the last century, and by other distinguished American statesman, scarcely less sagacious, since that period; and
whereas, it is obvious that the States and Territories alluded to, by at once asserting their independence of the
Government of the
United States, would realize great and inestimable advantages, among which may be reckoned the following 1.
Relief from the taxation to which they are new subjected, amounting annually, as is supposed, directly and indirectly, to the sum of fifteen millions of dollars.
2. The exclusive control and enjoyment of their vast mineral treasures.
3. A permanent monopoly of the navigation of the
Pacific ocean, and the commerce of
China,
Japan, and the Indies; and
whereas, it is now well ascertained that far the most convenient route for communication by railway between the
Pacific and
Atlantic costs would be along aline extending through some half dozen or more of the most populous and wealthy States of this Confederacy, thus indicating a class commercial connection in future between the grand Confederacy which may be expected shortly to spring into existence along the
Pacific slope of this Continent, and the States of this Confederacy; Therefore.
’
Be it resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That — be appointed a committee on the part of the
House, and — on the part of the Senate, empowered to draft a suitable address to the good people of
California and
Oregon, and of the
Territories aforesaid, embodying the views herein presented, which address, after being agreed upon and subscribed by said joint committee on the part of the two Houses of Congress, shall be handed to the
President, who if he shall approve the same, shall be requested to transmit it to its proper place of destination, accompanied by such additional communication as he shall deem right and judicious, at as early period as practicable.
Resolved, farther. That it would be not at all improper to embody in said address a suggestion of the expediency of hereafter establishing a
League, offensive and defensive, between the
Confederate States of America and such of said States and Territories beyond the
Rocky Mountains as shall determine to assert their separate independence, embodying such stipulations in regard to future commercial intercourse as might prove mutually advantageous to the parties thereto.
Mr. Chilton, of Ala, submitted the following joint resolutions in relation to retaliation:
‘
Whereas, it is manifest that, despairing of the subjugation of the
Confederate States, or any of them, the
Congress and
President of the
United States have deliberately set about the work of inciting the slave population of these States to insurrection by declaring them emancipated from and after the first day of January, 1863, which action on the part of the said Congress and
President is in direct violation of the
Constitution they were sworn to support, in contravention of all law, human and divine, and has been resorted to for the diabolical purpose of involving the slaves and their owners, embracing innocent women and children, in one common ruin, and for the further purpose of maintaining themselves in power by catering to the fanatical spirit of Abolitionism; and
whereas, each of the States of this Confederacy have enacted laws punishing with death all persons engaged in inciting the slave population to insurrection or rebellion, and there is much stronger reason for inflicting this penalty upon persons who not only voluntarily conspire to perpetrate this horrible felony, but, in addition thereto, come to devastate our land, burn our dwellings, waste our substance, and murder our citizens: Therefore,
’
The Congress of the Confederate States do enact, That so long as the proclamation of
Abraham Lincoln, the
President of the
United States, dated the 22d day of September, 1862, proposing to emancipate the slaves of this Confederacy from and after the first day of January, 1863, shall remain unrevoked, all commissioned officers of the United States army who shall be seized, captured, taken, or arrested within the limits of this Confederacy after the said first day of January, 1863,shall be deemed and held voluntarily to have entered the
Confederate States for the purpose of maintaining said proclamation, and of bringing about the result thereby contemplated, of a servile insurrection; and the said officers shall in no wise be regarded or treated as prisoners of war, but as felons, and it shall be the duty of the
President to cause to be constituted a sufficient number of court-martial to try said offenders, and if condemned, to see that they are promptly executed by being hanged by the neck until they are dead.
2.
Resolved, That should said
Lincoln's proclamation continue unrevoked on the first day of January, 1863, the
President of these
Confederate States shall make a proclamation that he will cause these resolutions to be strictly enforced.
Mr. Russell, of
Va., moved to instruct the Committee of Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred the foregoing resolutions, to report in their stead a bill which he submitted, entitled an act to repress atrocities of the enemy.
He addressed the
House eloquently and at length in support of the bill, but in concluding withdrew his motion to instruct the committee.
Mr. Boteler, of
Va., offered a memorial on the subject of Treasury notes, which was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means.
Mr. Perkins of
La., Introduced a bill to regulate the pay of officers on furlough.
Referred to Committee in Military Affairs.
Mr. Miles, of
S. C., introduced a bill to authorize the establishment of camps of instructions, and the appointment of commandants of the same-- his bill was taken up and passed.
The
House then renewed the consideration of the special order, the Exemption bill of the Senate, which, after various amendments, was adopted, and sent to the Senate for its concurrence.
Mr. Conrad, of
La., from the
Committee, reported back from that committee the bill to prevent persons subject to enrollment to enlist in the marine corps.
The bill was considered and passed.
Mr. Rails, of
Ala., introduced a bill relating to the bounty of soldiers who entered the service for three years or the war. Referred.
Mr Foote, of
Tenn., moved that the
House reserve itself into secret session on a message from the
President and the motion was agreed to.
