any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion, in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such excep· tions and at such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare; and whereas the conagressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon accords with well established judicial exposition of the pardoning power; and whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the United States has issued several proclamaand whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore tions, with provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves; engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective States:

ject? This question is beset with the conflict- | ing views that the step might be delayed too long or be aken too soon. In some States the elements for resumption seem ready for action, but remain inactive, apparently for want of rallying point-a plan of action. Why shall A adopt the plan of B, rather than B that of A? And if A and B should agree, how can they know but that the General Government here will reject their plan? By the proclamation a plan is presented which may be accepted by them as a rallying point, and which they are assured in advance will not be rejected here. This may bring them to act sooner than they otherwise would.

The objection to a premature presentation of a plan by the national Executive consists in the danger of committals on points which could be more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken to so shape the document as to avoid embarrassments from this source. Say. ing that, on certain terms, certain classes will be pardoned, with rights restored, it is not said that other classes, or other terms, will never be included. Saying that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified way, it is not said it will never be accepted in any other

to slaves and where rights of third parties have intervened, which that proclamation offers and secures.

The President's pardon of a person guilty of acts of rebellion will of course relieve that person from the penalties incurred by his crime, and, where an indictment is pending against him therefor, the production of the pardon signed by the President, or of satisfactory evidence that he has complied with the conditions on which the pardon is offered, (if he be not of the class excepted from the benefits of the proclamation,) will be a sufficient reason for discontinuing such criminal proceedings, and discharging him from cus

have all the while been maintained. And for the same
reason, it may be proper to further say, that whether
members sent to Congress from any State shall be ad-
mitted to seats constitutionally, rests exclusively with the
respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Execu-
tive. And still further, that this proclamation is intended
to present the people of the States wherein the national
authority has been suspended, and loyal State governments
have been subverted, a mode in and by which the national
and loyal State governments may be re-established within
said States, or in any of them; and, while the mode pre-
sented is the best the Executive can suggest, with his pres-tody therein.
ent impressions, it must not be understood that no other
possible mode would be acceptable.

Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the
eighth day of December, A. D. one thousand eight hun-
dred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the
United States of America the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

-

AMNESTY DEFINED.

By the President of the United States-A Proclamation. Whereas it has become necessary to define the cases in which insurgent enemies are entitled to the benefits of the Proclamation of the President of the United States, which was made on the 8th day of December, 1863, and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail themselves of those benefits: and whereas the objects of that proclamation were to suppress the insurrection, and to restore the authority of the United States: and whereas the amnesty therein provided by the President was offered with reference to these objects alone:

Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the said proclamation does not apply to the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed, are in military, naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under bonds or on parole of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States as prisoners of war, or persons detained for offences of any kind, either before or after conviction; and that, on the contrary, it does apply only to persons who, being yet at large and free from any arrest, confinement, or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the said oath with the purpose of restoring peace and establishing the national authority.

Prisoners excluded from the amnesty offered in the said proclamation may apply to the President for clemency, like all other offenders, and their application will receive due consideration.

I do further declare and proclaim that the oath prescribed in the aforesaid proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, may be taken and subscribed to before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or naval, in the service of the United States, or any civil or military officer of a State or Territory, not in insurrection, who by the law thereof may be qualified for administering oaths.

All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give certificates thereon to the persons respectively by whom they are made. And such officers are hereby required to transmit the original records of such oaths at as early a day as may be convenient to the Department of State, where they will be deposited and remain in the archives of the Government.

Nor is it less doubtful that a bona fide acceptance of the terms of the President's Proclamation, by persons guilty of acts of rebellion, and not of the excepted class, will secure to such persons a restoration of all the rights of property, except as to slaves and where the rights of third parties shall have intervened, notwithstanding such property may, by reason of those acts of rebellion, have been subject to confiscation under the provisions of the Confiscation act of of 6th August, 1861, chap. 60, and 17th July, 1862, chap. 195. For, without adverting to any other source of power in the President to restore or protect their rights of property, the 13th section of the act of 17th of July, 1862, authorizes the President at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions, and at such time and on such conditions, as he may deem expedient for the public welfare. It will hardly be questioned, I suppose, that the purpose of this section, inserted in a law mainly intended to reach the property of persons engaged in rebellion, was to vest the President with power to relieve such persons, on such conditions as he should prescribe, from the penalty of loss of their property by confiscation. Although the proceedings for confiscation under the acts of Aug. 6, 1861, and July 17, 1862, are in rem, against the property seized, yet, under both acts, the ground of condemnation is the personal guilt of the owner in aiding the rebellion. By the pardon and amnesty, not only is the punishment of that personal guilt remitted, but the offence itself is effaced, that being the special effect of an act of amnesty by the Government. Of course it arrests and puts an end to all penal proceedings founded thereon, whether they touch the persons or the property of the offender.

There is, therefore, no case of judicial proceedings to enforce the penalties of acts of rebellion which cannot be reached and cured by the constitutional or statutory power of the President to grant pardon and amnesty, whether those proceedings be against the person of the offender by criminal indictment or against his property under the confiscation acts referred to.

The President has accordingly directed me to instruct you that, in any case where proceedings have been commenced and are pending and undetermined in the District or Circuit Court of the United States for your district against a person charged with acts of rebellion, and not of the excepted class, whether they be by indictment or by seizure and libel of his property for confiscation, (the rights of other parties not having intervened,) you will discontinue and put an end to those proceedings, whenever the person so charged shall produce evidence satisfactory to you that he has, in good faith, taken the oath and complied with the conditions prescribed by the President's proclamation of the 8th December, 1863. Nor is it necessary that the evidence which he produces should be a deed of pardon signed by the President. It would be quite impossible for the President to furnish the multitudes who are now availing themselves of the bene fits of the Proclamation, and who are likely to do so here after, with his formal evidence of pardon. It will be suffi cient to justify your action if the party seeking to be relieved from further proceedings shall prove to your full satisfaction Done at the city of Washington, the 26th day of March, in that he has, in good faith, taken the oath and brought himthe year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-self within the conditions of pardon and amnesty set forth four, and of the independence of the United States the eighty- in the Proclamation. eighth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

The Secretary of State will keep a register thereof, and will, on application in proper cases, issue certificates of such records in the customary form of such certificates.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

By the President:"

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

CIRCULAR OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.

WASHINGTON, February 19, 1864-The following important circular letter has been addressed to United States District Attorneys:

If, in any case, you have good reason to believe that the oath has been taken for the mere purpose of obtaining the possession of personal property seized under the Confisca tion acts, with intent to remove it from the subsequent reach of the officers of the law, you will make report of the facts and reasons for your belief to this office before discontinuing the proceedings or restoring such property to the possession of the owner. Forfeitures under the fifth section of the act of 13th July, 1861, chapter 3, are not of the class reached by the President's Proclamation, for, under that act, the question whether the property seized is subject to forfeiture SIR: Many persons, against whom criminal indictments, depends upon the predicament of the property itself, and or against whose property proceedings under the confisca- not upon the general guilt or innocence of its owner. In tion laws are pending in the courts of the United States, this respect, forfeitures under that act have more resemgrowing out of the participation of such persons in the ex-blance to cases of prize of war, captured at sea as enemy's isting rebellion, have, in good faith, taken the oath pre- property than to proceedings under the acts of August, 1861, scribed by the proclamation of the President of 8th Decem-and July, 1862. Such forfeitures are enforced not so much ber, 1863, and have therefore entitled themselves to the full to punish the owner for disloyal acts as to prohibit compardon and restoration of all rights of property, except as mercial intercourse, and to weaken the public enemy, which

are always efficient instruments and legitimate effects of public war.

But although the remission of forfeitures ander the act of July, 1861, are thus not within the scope of the Proclamation of pardon, still ample power is conferred on the Secretary of the Treasury by the eighth section of that act to mitigate or remit all forfeitures and penalties incurred under the act. And it is not to be doubted that in all proper cases under that act, where the owner of the property, residing in the territory in rebellion, complies with the conditions of the Proclamation, the Secretary of the Treasury will exercise the power of remission of such forfeitures in the same spirit of generous forbearance and liberality which inspired and characterizes the Proclamation. Very respectfully, &c., TITIAN J. COFFEY, Acting Attorney General. To, United States District Attorney at

Other Proclamations of the Presi- COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH THE REBELLIOUS

dent.

THE BLOCKADE.

Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed therein conformably to that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United States: And whereas a combination of persons engaged in such insurrection have threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize the bearers thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels, and property of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged in commerce on the high seas,

and in waters of the United States:

And whereas an executive proclamation has been already issued, requiring the persons engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a militia force for the purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress in extraordinary session to deliberate and determine thereon:

STATES PROHIBITED.

Whereas, on the 15th day of April, 1861, the President of the United States, in view of an insurrection against the laws, Constitution, and Government of the United States, which had broken out within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and in pursuance of the provisions of the act entitled "An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose," approved February 28, 1795, did call forth the militia to suppress said insurrection and to cause the laws of the Union to be duly executed, and the insurgents have failed to disperse by the time directed by the President; and whereas such insurrec tion has since broken out and yet exists within the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas; and whereas the insurgents in all the said States claim to het under the authority thereof, and such claim is not disclaimed or repudiated by the persons exercising the functions of gov ernment in such State or States, or in the part or parts thereof, in which such combinations exist, nor has such insurrection been suppressed by said States:

Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and to the protection of the public peace, and the lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occupations, until Congress shall have assem-lina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Misbled and deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the same shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the law of nations in such case provided. For this purpose a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view to violate such blockade, a Vessel shall approach, or shall attempt to leave either of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the commander of one of the blockading vessels, who will indorse on her register the fact and date of such warning; and if the same Vessel shall again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize as may be deemed advisable.

And I hereby proclaim and declare that if any person, under the pretended authority of the said States, or under any other pretence, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. WASHINGTON, April 19, 1861.

OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA.

On the 27th of April, the following additional proclamation, extending the blockade, was issued:

Whereas, for the reasons assigned in my proclamation of the 19th instant, a blockade of the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, was ordered to be established: and whereas, since that date, public property of the United States has been seized, the collection of the revenue obstructed, and duly commissioned officers of the United States, while engaged in executing the orders of their superiors, have been arrested and held in custody as prisoners, or have been impeded in the discharge of their official duties, without due legal proces, by persons claiming to act under authority of the States of Virginia and North Carolina: An efficient blockade of the ports of those States will also be established.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, in pursuance of the act of Congress approved July 13, 1861, do hereby declare that the inhabitants of the said States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Caro sissippi, and Florida, (except the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany Mountains, and of such other parts of that State and the other States hereinbefore named as may maintain a loyal adhe sion to the Union and the Constitution, or may be from time to time occupied and controlled by the forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents) are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other States and other parts of the United States, is unlawful and will remain unlawful until such insurrec tion shall cease or has been suppressed; that all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, without the special license and permission of the President, through the Secretary of the Treasury, or proceeding to any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, by land or water, together with the vessel or vehicle conveying the same or conveying persons to or from the said States, with said exceptions, will be forfeited to the United States; and that, from and after fifteen days from the issuing of this proclamation, all ships and vessels belonging, in whole or in part, to any citizen or inhabitant of any of said States, with said exceptions, found at sea or in any port of the United States, will be forfeited to the United States; and I hereby enjoin upon all district attorneys, marshals, and officers of the revenue and of the military and naval forces of the United States, to be vigilant in the execution of said act, and in the enforcement of the penalties and forfeitures imposed or declared by it; leaving any party who may think himself aggrieved thereby to his application to the Secretary of the Treasury for the remission of any penalty or forfeiture, which the said Secretary is authorized by law to grant, if, in his judgment, the special circumstances of any case shall require such remission. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this sixteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth.

By the President:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. 1863, April 2-The PRESIDENT issued a proc

lamation modifying the above, and reciting his | Chandler, Collamer, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, reasons therefor:

And whereas experience has shown that the exceptions made in and by said proclamation embarrass the due enforcement of said act of July 13, 1861, and the proper regulation of the commercial intercourse authorized by said act with the loyal citizens of said States:

Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale. Harlan, Harris, Howe, John
son of Tennessee, King, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas,
Latham, Mc Dougall, Morrill, Rice, Sherman, Simmons,
Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilson-
33.
NAYS-Messrs. Breckinridge, Kennedy, Polk, Powell,
Saulsbury-5.

In HOUSE, the motion to strike from the bill the ratifying section, was lost-yeas 19, nays 74; as follows;

YEAS-Messrs. Allen, Ancona, George H. Browne, Calvert, Cor, Crisfield, Jackson, Johnson, May, Noble, Pendleton, James S. Rollins, Shiel, Smith, Vallandigham, Voorhees, Wadsworth, Ward, Webster-19.

Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do hereby revoke the said exceptions, and declare that the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties of Virginia designated as West Virginia, and except, also, the ports of New Orleans, Key West, Port Royal, and Beaufort, in North Carolina,) are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all commercial intercourse, not licensed and conducted as provided NAYS-Messrs. Aldrich, Alley, Arnold, Ashley, Goldin said act, between the said States and the inhabitants smith F. Bailey, Baxter, Beaman, Francis P. Blair, Samuel thereof, with the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of S. Blair, Blake, Buffinton, Cobb, Colfax, Frederick A. other States and other parts of the United States, is unlaw-Conkling, Conway, Covode, Diven, Duell, Dunn, Edwards, ful, and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall Eliot, Fenton, Fessenden, Frank, Goodwin, Granger, Gur cease or has been suppressed, and notice thereof has been ley, Haight, Hale, Hauchett, Harrison, Horton, Hutchins, duly given by proclamation; and all cotton, tobacco, and Julian, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, William Kellogg, Lanother products, and all other goods and chattels, wares, and sing, Leary, Loomis, Lovejoy, McKean, McKnight, Mcmerchandise coming from any of said States, with the exPherson, Mitchell, Moorhead, Anson P. Morrill, Justin 8. ceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, or Morrill, Olin, Pike, Porter, Alexander II. Rice, John H. proceeding to any of said States, with the exceptions afore- Rice, Riddle, Edward H. Rollins, Sedgwick, Shanks, said, without the license and permission of the President, Sheffield, Shellabarger, Sherman, Stevens, Benjamin F. through the Secretary of the Treasury, will, together with Thomas, Francis Thomas, Train, Trowbridge, Van Horn, the vessel or vehicle conveying the same, be forfeited to the Verree, Wail, Charles W. Walton, E. P. Walton, Albert S. United States. White, Windom, Worcester-74.

DECLARING BOUNDARIES OF THE INSURRECTION. Whereas, in and by the second section of an act of Congress passed on the 7th day of June, A. D. 1862, entitled An act for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary districts within the United States, and for other purposes," it is made the duty of the President to declare, on or before the 1st day of July then next following, by his proclamation,

in what States and parts of States insurrection exists:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that the States of South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and the State of Virginia, except the following counties: Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, Pleasants, Tyler, Ritchie, Doddridge, Harrison, Wood, Jackson, Wirt, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, Barbour, Tucker, Lewis, Braxton, Upshur, Randolph, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay, Nicholas, Cabell, Wayne, Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Webster, Fayette, and Raleigh, are now in insurrection and rebellion, and by reason thereof the civil authority of the United States is obstructed so that the provisions of the "Act to provide increased revenue from imports, to pay the interest on the public debt, and for other purposes," approved August 5, 1861, cannot be peaceably executed, and that the taxes legally chargeable upon real estate under the act last aforesaid, lying within the States and parts of States as aforesaid, together with a penalty of fifty per centum of said taxes, shall be a lien upon the tracts or lots of the same, severally charged, till paid.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and

caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

F. W. SEWARD, Acting Secretary of State.

PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS.

ACTS OF THE PRESIDENT APPROVED FIRST
SESSION, THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.

The bill then passed without a division.

African Slave Trade.

1862, April 7-A treaty was made between William H. Seward and Lord Lyons for the suppression of the African Slave Trade, which was ratified by the Senate, and announced by proclamation of the President, June 7, 1862, Article 1 of which is as follows:

The two high contracting parties mutually consent that those ships of their respective navies which shall be provided with special instructions for that purpose, as hereinafter mentioned, may visit such merchant vessels of the two nations as may, upon reasonable grounds, be suspected of being engaged in the African slave trade, or of having been fitted out for that purpose; or of having, during the voyage on which they are met by the said cruisers, been engaged in the African slave trade, contrary to the provi sion of this treaty; and that such cruisers may detain, and send or carry away, such vessels, in order that they may be brought to trial in the manner hereinafter agreed upon.

In order to fix the reciprocal right of search in such a manner as shall be adapted to the attainment of the object of this treaty, and at the same time avoid doubts, disputes, and complaints, the aid right of search shall be understood in the manner and according to the rules following:

First. It shall never be exercised except by vessels of war, authorized expressly for that object, according to the stipulations of this treaty.

Secondly. The right of search shall in no case be exercised with respect to a vessel of the navy of either of the two Powers, but shall be exercised only as regards merchant vessels; and it shall not be exercised by a vessel of war of either contracting party within the limits of a settlement or port, nor within the territorial waters of the other party.

Thirdly. Whenever a merchant vessel is searched by a ship of war, the commander of the said ship shall, in the act of so doing, exhibit to the commander of the merchant vessel the special instructions by which he is duly authorized to search; and shall deliver to such commander a cer tificate, signed by himself, stating his rank in the naval

1861, August 5-Congress passed a bill, the service of his country, and the name of the vessel he comthird section of which was as follows:

mands, and also declaring that the only object of the search is to ascertain whether the vessel is employed in the AfriThat all the acts, proclamations, and orders of the Presican slave trade, or is fitted up for the said trade. When dent of the United States after the 4th of March, 1861, the search is made by an officer of the cruiser who is not respecting the army and navy of the United States, and the commander, such officer shall exhibit to the captain of calling out or relating to the militia or volunteers from the merchant vessel a copy of the before-mentioned special the States, are hereby approved and in all respects legal- instructions, signed by the commander of the cruiser; and ized and made valid, to the same intent and with the same he shall in like manner deliver a certificate signed by himeffect, as if they had been issued and done under the pre-self, stating his rank in the navy, the name of the comvious express authority and direction of the Congress of the United States.

mander by whose orders he proceeds to make the search, that of the cruiser in which he sails, and the object of the search, as above described. If it appears from the search that the papers of the vessel are in regular order, and that it is employed on lawful objects, the officer shall enter in YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Browning, Carlile, the log-book of the vessel that the search has been made in

In SENATE, the bill passed-yeas 33, nays 5, as follows:

This veto was sustained by the following vote -the question being, "Shall the bill pass not-proof of the absence of power in the President and Senate withstanding the President's objections?"

INTERCEPTED "CONFEDERATE "9 DESPATCH UPON authority expressly delegated to Congress cannot be as