Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2.

[33] charged the Government with making “special war” on the South, including the women and the children, “by carefully devised measures to prevent their obtaining medicines necessary for their cure,” with “cool and deliberate malignity, under pretext of suppressing an insurrection.” He spoke of “other savage practices which have been resorted to by the Government of the United States,” and cited the case of the prisoners taken with the pirate-ship Savannah, already referred to in this work.¹ After speaking of the annunciation at the seat of Government, that the States were subordinate to the National authority and had no right to secede, and that the President was authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus, “when,” as the Constitution says, “in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it,” he said: “We may well rejoice that we have severed all connection with a Government which thus tramples on all the principles of constitutional liberty, and with a people in whose presence such avowals could be hazarded.” He then spoke of the enthusiasm of the Southern people, their abundant offers of aid to the Confederacy, and the “almost unquestioning confidence which they display in their government during the impending struggle;” and he concluded his communication by saying: “To speak of subjugating such a people, so united and determined, is to speak in language incomprehensible to them. To resist attacks on their rights or their liberties, is with them an instinct. Whether this war shall last one, or three, or five years, is a problem they leave to be solved by the enemy alone; it will last till the enemy shall have withdrawn from their borders-till their political rights, their altars, and their homes, are freed from invasion. Then, and then only, will they rest from this struggle, to enjoy in peace the blessings which, with the favor of Providence, they have secured by the aid of their own strong hearts and sturdy arms.”

With a determination such as Davis expressed, the “Congress” made provision for the contest, and for creating that “United South” which had been proclaimed to the world. For the latter purpose it passed an act

Aug. 8, 1861.

which authorized the banishment from the limits of the “Confederate States” of every masculine citizen of the United States (with some exceptions named²) over fourteen years of age, who adhered to his Government and acknowledged its authority. The act prescribed as the duty of all courts of justice to cause the arrest of all Union men who did not proclaim their allegiance to the conspirators or leave the Confederacy within forty days, and to treat them as “alien enemies.” Another act

Aug. 31.

authorized the confiscation of every species of Aug 81. property within the limits of the Confederacy belonging to such “alien enemies” or absent citizens of the United States, with the exceptions mentioned. Various measures were adopted for the increase and efficiency of the army and navy, and for carrying on the immense financial operations of the so-called government.³ It was officially reported that there were two hundred