Page images
PDF
EPUB

Branch, Clopton, Colyar, Cruickshank, Darden, Echols, Farrow, Foster, Gaither, Garland, Hanley, Herbert, Holden, Lumpkin, Lester, Marshall, Menees, Miles, Simpson, J. M. Smith, W. E. Smith, Smith, (Ala.,) Smith, (N. C.,) Wickham. Witherspoon-31.

NAYS-Messrs. Aiken, Barksdale, Batson, Blanford, E. M. Bruce, H. W. Bruce, Chilton, Chrisman, Clark, Cluskey, Conrad, Conrow, Dickeuson, Dupre, Elliott, Ewing, Funsten, Gholson, Goode, Hartridge, Hatcher, Holliday, Johnson, Keeble, Kenner, Lyon, Machen, Norton, Perkins, Pugh, Sexton, Shewmake, Snead, Swan, Triplett, Vest, Villere, Welsh, Wilkes, Mr. Speaker-41.

1865, March 15-The House passed a bill-yeas 36, nays 32-suspending the privilege, but the Senate-yeas 6, nays 9-at first refused to concur, but subsequently passed it, as follows: Whereas the Confederate States are invaded, and the public safety requires a suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus,

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is hereby suspended until otherwise provided by law, in all cases of arrest or detention by order of the President, the Secretary of War, or the general officer commanding the Trans-Mississippi Military Department.

SEC. 2. Until otherwise provided by law, the said privilege shall be suspended for sixty days from the time of arrest, in every case of arrest or detention by order of a general officer commanding an army, or a military department or district.

SEC. 3. Every such order shall be in writing, signed by the officer making the same, and shall name or describe the person to be arrested or detained.

SEC. 4. No military officer, detaining a person by virtue of any such order, shall be compelled, in answer to any writ of habeas corpus, to appear in person, or to return the body of the person so detained; but upon his certificate, under oath, that such person is detained by him under such an order, accompanied with a copy of the order, further proceedings under the writ shall cease and remain suspended according to the provisions of the preceding sections.

FINANCIAL.

1865, March 17-A law was enacted "to raise coin for the purpose of furnishing necessary supplies to the army," which imposes a tax of twenty-five per cent. on coin in the hands of individuals or banks in excess of $200, and authorizing in lieu thereof a loan from the banks, to the extent of $2,000,000, if made by the 17th of April. A supplementary act commuted this tax where the owners of coin would exchange it for cotton at the rate of fifteen cents per pound. Before March 28, the State of Virginia advanced $300,000 in coin for the use of the Commissary Department, for which an order was signed by the rebel Secretary of the Treasury for 2,000,000 pounds of cotton, "with the right to export the same free of all conditions except the payment of the (export) duty of seventy-five cents per pound." About that time, William W. Crump, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, was sent to the banks of North and South Carolina and Georgia, to negotiate for their share of the loan. These facts are obtained from official documents found in Richmond, and published recently in the New York and other papers.

GENERAL MILITIA LAW.

In November, 1864, Mr. Pool proposed these in the Senate:

Resolved, That five commissioners be appointed by this General Assembly, to act with Commissioners from the other States of the Confederacy as a medium for negotiating a peace with the United States

Resolved, That each of the other States of the Confederacy be requested to create a similar commission, with as little delay as practicable, and to co-operate with North Carolina in requesting of President avis, in the name of these sovereign States, that he tender the United

States a condition for negotiating a peace through the me

dium of these commissioners.

Resolved, That the Governor make known to each of the other States of the Confederacy this action of the General Assembly of North Carolina, and endeavor to secure their co-operation.

Resolved, That whenever any five States shall have responded by the appointment of commissioners, the Governor shall communicate the proceeding officially to President Davis, and request his prompt action upon the proposition. In December, resolutions were introduced recommending the appointment of a delegation from that body to represent all parts of the State, to proceed to Washington to secure terms of eace. Laid over.

The following is the report of a majority of the Committee of the North Carolina Legislature, to whom were referred a series of resolutions entitled "resolutions to initiate negotiations for an honorable peace :"

Houses," to which were referred Senate resolutions No. 4, The majority of the "joint select committee of the two entitled "resolutions to initiate negotiations for an honoramendment, and recommend that they pass. able peace," report the same back to the Senate without

effort is being made to increase and strengthen the army The majority of the committee believe that while every by the most severe drain upon the people, for men and means, these extreme requirements should be accompanied by some manifestations of an effort and desire to secure an honorable peace by all other legitimate measures.

Commissioners heretofore tendered have been refused by the United States upon the pretext that their reception as preliminary, and that in case of a failure to agree upon would imply a recognition of the Confederate Government, a treaty such recognition would nevertheless stand. These resolutions seek to remove this objection by appointing commissioners on the part of the States, whose civil existence and authority have never been denied; but, at the same time, to make their tender and all powers dependent on the action and adoption of the President. It is not proposed that these commissioners derive any powers from the States, but only that they be tendered by the President for a peace conference, he giving to them such powers and instructions as he may deem necessary and proper.

JOIN POOL, Chairman.
A. C. COWLE.
D. F. CALDWELL.

1865, January 11-In the House of Commons, Mr. SHARPE introduced the following resolutions:

Resolved, That State sovereignty is the principle on which North Carolina and the other States withdrew from the United States Government; and, therefore, the States comprising the Southern Confederacy are sovereigns, and that and subject to their control. the Confederate Government is only the agent of the States,

Resolved, further, That the States in their sovereign capacity have the right to take up the question of peace or war, and settle it without consultation with the President of the Southern Confederacy or of the so-called United

The general militia law recommended above States. is said to have been passed.

CHANGE IN MR. DAVIS'S CABINET.

Secretary of War-John C. Breckinridge appointed, January 6, 1865, in place of James A. Seddon, resigned.

[blocks in formation]

On motion of Mr. CRAWFORD, of Rowan, these resolutions were laid on the table-ayes 52, nays 50.

January 19-In the House of Commons, Mr. HANES submitted a preamble and resolution on the subject of a general convention of the Confederate States, the former attributing oppressive and unconstitutional laws, which have been passed from time to time, to irresponsible representatives from States which have no constit

uents upon whom the laws passed by them can | tirely opposed to the resolutions, I will consent to withdraw operate; the latter reading as follows:

Resolved, That the joint select Committee on Confederate Relations be instructed to frame and bring in a bill forthwith, calling a convention of the people of this State, or submitting the question to them, so as to enable them to assemble in convention should a majority of them desire to do so, for the purpose of so amending the Constitution as to provide that hereafter the representatives of any State or States whose territory is in the hands of the enemy, so that the Confederate laws cannot be enforced therein, shall not, during the continuance of such occupation by the enemy, be permitted to vote upon any question of legislation, but shall have only such rights as are allowed to delegates in the territories of the Confederate States, and of considering such other amendments as said three States shall concur on suggestion.

Resolved, further, That State sovereignty being the principle on which North Carolina and other States withdrew from the Federal Union, the States comprising the Southern Confederacy are sovereigns, and the Confederate Government is only their agent and subject to their control, and the States in their sovereign capacity in general convention assembled have a right to negotiate peace with the Government of the United States without consultation with the President of the Confederate States.

Mr. HANES followed in a long argument in support of his resolutions, at the close of which, on motion of Mr. PERSON, they were laid upon the table-yeas 58, nays 39.

Mr. SMITH, of Johnston, introduced a bill to call a convention of the people, which passed its first reading and was referred to the Judiciary Committee. It declares that the present condition of the country demands that the sovereign people of this State should assemble in convention to effect, if possible, an honorable termination of the present war, and provides that an election shall be held on the 13th of February, 1865, the vote to be "convention," or "no convention;" that if the majority of the votes cast be for the convention, such convention shall be held in the city of Raleigh on the second Monday of March, and consist of one hundred and twenty delegates.

VIRGINIA.

[From the Richmond Examiner, Jan. 13.] 1865, January 12-In the House of Delegates, Mr. MILLER introduced a long series of peace resolutions for the appointment of five commissioners, and to declare for an armistice, a national convention, and an honorable peace through State action. The following debate took place: Mr. TOMLIN moved to indefinitely postpone.

Mr. MILLER. I would ask the yeas and nays on that motion. I hope the House will come to the record on this question. I do not commit the House in this proposition to the policy of reconstruction, to which I am opposed, as is to be seen by the resolutions. The question is an important one, and its discussion now was not contemplated. I think it would be more appropriate to consider it in secret session.

Mr. PENDLETON. I hope the gentleman from King William [Mr. Tomlin] will modify his motion to the simple proposition to lay the preamble and resolution on the table. There are some things in the resolutions I am not prepared to vote against; such, for instance, as that which proposes to mitigate the horrors of war. But, at the same time, I denounce the cardinal objects of the resolutions as foreign to the honor, welfare, and dignity of Virginia, putting, as it does, the State in a revolutionary position, severing her connection from that of the Confederate States. The proposition is, in fact, that she secedes.

Mr. MILLER. The gentleman is mistaken as to any such proposition being in them.

Mr. PENDLETON. I would be glad, then, if the gentleman will state their meaning. To my mind they are firebrands, thrown into our midst at one of the closest and most critical periods of the war, and I denounce them as unworthy of Virginia; yet I prefer that they be laid upon the table, in order to see what in them is good and what evil, and to see if the good may not be put to some account, and the bad, which forms the spirit of them, and for which I denounce them, eliminated.

Mr. MILLER. Upon conference with gentlemen not en

them.

[Numerous objections to permit their withdrawal were made, and the expression "dispose of them at once and forever" was repeated in various parts of the House.]

Mr. ANDERSON. If this was the first movement of the kind which that gentleman [Mr. Miller] has made in this House, I would consent to let him withdraw his resolu tions. But a year ago he threw a similar firebrand into this House; and when the motion was made to dispose of it, as is proposed to dispose of this, even the gentleman himself [Mr. Miller] did not have the hardihood to vote ugainst its indefinite postponement. His name cannot be found, sir, on record against the postponement of his own proposition. What is his object now, after his first effort met with such a signal repulse that he himself shrank from resistance? These resolutions are similar and responsive to propositions which have been made in other States by the party which, under the cloak of peace, are attempting to destroy the Confederacy. Every man who, under the cloak of peace, comes forward with propositions of that kind, must be viewed as prepared to submit. Yes, sir, submit. For there can be no other terms. The Secretary of State of the United States has said that the South can only have peace by laying down its arms; and as to this favorite proposition of State conventions, he, the United States Secret ry, has said, we cannot open communications with you, because we would sacrifice our position in regard to your doctrine of the superiority of State sovereignty over the Constitution of the United States. It is important to act promptly in this matbelieve, treasonable party. ter, and to give no countenance to this mischievous, and, I

The yeas and nays being called, the motion to indefinitely postpone was adopted. Yeas, 101; nays, 2-Messrs. Miller of Lee, and Smith of Russell.

January 20-In the House of Delegates Mr. DOUGLAS offered the following joint resolutions:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Delegates of Fir ginia in General Assembly convened, That the State of Virginia, having entered into the present contest with the United States, and made common cause with the confederates to uphold and defend their rights and liberties from a common danger, is ready and anxious for the return of peace whenever the same can be obtained on terms honorcalculated to secure for all time the precious objects for able and just alike to herself and them, and in a manner which we are contending.

Resolved, That the Legislature, representing the senti ment of Virginia, desires the constitutional department of the confederate government to avail itself of every favora ble indication to negotiate for terms of peace; yet we solemnly deprecate any irregular action in the premises, either in the shape of a congressional commission, or other way, as revolutionary and dangerous in character, violative of the faith mutually pledged by the States to each other in the adoption of the confederate constitution, by distracting and dividing the minds of the people, to weaken our power of resistance, disintegrate these States, and place the people of this State especially at the mercy of the common enemy.

Mr. MARSHALL moved that the rules be suspended in or der that the resolutions might be placed on the secret cal endar. He thought the resolutions should be considered in secret session. In reference to these resolutions he had something to say which he would not like to say in open session.

Mr. DOUGLAS opposed the motion to place the resolutions on the secret calendar. Such a disposition of them would defeat the object which he had in view. He wished to see the resolutions adopted, and go forth as the views of this Legislature. He desired to put his heel on every irregular attempt to negotiate terms of peace either in the shape of a congressional commission, by separate State action, or otherwise. Such schemes, in his estimation, would lead to disintegration of States and the overthrow of the government which the people have instituted.

a

should be considered in secret session. Mr. ARMSTRONG thought it best that the resolutions

Mr. COLLIER was in favor of discussing the resolutions in open session. He wanted the people to know what their representatives were doing, and what were our opinions. The motion to suspend the rule with a view of transferring the resolutions to the secret calendar was disagreed to, and it was laid aside.

January 26 In the House of Delegates,

Mr. SMITH, of Russell, sent to the clerk's desk and cansed to be read a series of resolutions deploring the war and looking to the attainment of peace by the arbitrament of diplomacy and negotiation, the sword having failed. The

resolutions, after much discussion, were indefinitely postponed.

March 9-In the House of Delegates, the following debate occurred on the proposition for a State Convention:

On motion to suspend the rules for the reconsideration of the vote by which the bill conferring conventional power upon the General Assembly was lost, Mr. HUNTER, of Berkeley, obtained the floor in opposition to the proposition to reconsider the vote.

The discussion already had upon the subject had had, he thought, dangerous and pernicious effects. He hoped the vote would not be reconsidered; that the bill would be left to sleep the sleep of death. Mr. BUFORD, of Pittsylvania, hoped the House would arraign itself upon the question fair and square without prejudice; he thought no harm could come of a Convention. The time might come when legislators would not find themselves behind the people in this matter. He was willing to trust the people and the people should be willing to trust their legislators. Mr. SHEFFEY, (Speaker,) with Mr. Kelley in the Chair, spoke in opposition to the motion to reconsider the vote by which the bill to clothe the Constitutional Assembly with constitutional powers was lost. If two evils were proposed, he would choose the least-the straight-out Convention. He did not understand that there was to be any difference in powers to be conferred upon either body. True, the legislature could not touch the bill of rights nor unite the powers of legislature, executive and judicial. If anything was contemplated by a convention, it was looking to the severance of Virginia's connection with the Confederacy and opening of new and separate negotiations with the treatymaking power of the North. Once open this flood-gate and you will let loose a current that will sweep with desolation

the last hope of freedom from this continent. Had we not

rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of? How long will it be after this convention is called before a cry will go forth and reconstruction or no reconstruction become the watchword of these dangerous times? No harm to trust the people, as gentlemen say, but it is a terrible harm for Virginia to lead off in the expression of distrust for the general government. People will say, if the army will say it, that Virginia is preparing to cast loose from the body of her Confederate Union. Our enemy will say that Virginia is preparing to leave the sinking ship and to take to her jolly-boat. The speaker never would with his voice advocate a call for a convention, legislative or straight-out. If other States fly madly from their sphere like erratic rockets to blaze a while, and then die out in eterual night forever, let them fly; but let Virginia be one of those calm, fixed stars, veiled sometimes in cloud and tempest, but indestructible as the firmament from which it shines. Virginia must never perish thus.

Mr. STAPLES, of Patrick, interrupting the Speaker, appealed to the House. He had never said that a convention was to prepare Virginia for the dissolution of her copartnership in the Confederate Union.

Mr. SHEFFEY, Continuing, said it was now too late to do this thing. The ship of State is upon the rapids, and if the helmsman cannot guide the ship she must be dashed to pieces. It was no time now to change front; no time to seek a hiding-place from the tempest of war. If we are to sink, let us sink where we stand, and go down with our ship with one triumphant shout of defiance, with the flag of Virginia-" Sic Semper Tyrannis "-floating over

[ocr errors]

Mr. BURWELL, of Bedford, was going to stick to the ship till she struck or run ashore; then he would build a raft of the fragments and see what could be done. He favored a convention, vested in the Legislature.

Mr. ROBERTSON, of Richmond, said that only when our armies were overthrown, the Confederacy torn limb from limb and State from State, would he give his vote or consent to go into convention. Even up to to the last extremiity, the honor and integrity of Virginia demanded that she should stand firm. If legislators be of the opinion that a convention is demanded, they should withdraw themselves from the possible imputation of being candidates for its membership.

Mr. STAPLES obtained the floor, when Mr. BOULDIN called for the order of the day. The consideration of the tax bill and the question under debate was postponed, and a resolution from the Senate extending the session twentytwo days from Tuesday next taken up.

ALABAMA.

November, 1864-This preamble and resolution were submitted by Mr. PARSONS and debated:

Whereas ABRAHAM LINCOLN, as President of the United States, and commander-in-chief of the army and navy

[blocks in formation]

these States as a basis:

And whereas, at a recent Convention held in the city of Chicago, a numerous and powerful party has declared its willingness, if successful, to stop fighting and open nego tiations with us on the basis of the Federal Constitution as it is, and the restoration of the Union under it: now, therefore

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama in General Assembly convened, That we sincerely desire peace. If the aforesaid party is successful, we are willing and ready to open negotiations for peace on the basis indicated in the platform adopted by said Convention-our sister States of this Confederacy being willing thereto.

For further action, see page 456.

GEORGIA.

In November, 1864, these resolutions were offered by Mr. LINTON STEPHENS:

The General Assembly of the State of Georgia do resolve that the independence of the Southern Confederate States of America, based upon the constitutional compact between the sovereign States composing the Confederacy, and maintained through nearly four years of gigantic war, justly claims from the world its recognition as a rightful fact. 2. That all the States which composed the late American Union, as well those embraced within the present United States as those embraced within the Southern Confederacy, are what the original thirteen States were declared to be by our fathers of 1776, and acknowledged to be by George the Third of England-independent and sovereign; no as one political community, but as States, each one of them constituting such a "people" as have the inalienable right to terminate any Government of their former choice, by withdrawing from it their consent, just as the original thirteen States, through their common agent, acting for and in the name of each one of them, by the withdrawal of their consent, put a rightful termination to the British Government, which has been established over them with their consent.

3. That the sovereignty of the individual States is the only basis of permanent peace on the American continent, and will, if the voice of passion and war can once be hushed, and reason allowed to resume her sway, lead us to an easy and lasting solution of all the matters of controversy involved in the present lamentable war, by simply leaving all the States free to form their political associa tions with one another, not by force of arms, which excludes the idea of "consent," but by a rational consideration of their respective interests growing out of their natural considerations.

4. That as the very point of controversy in the present war is the settlement of the political association of the States, no treaty of peace can be perfected consistently with the sovereignty of the individual States, without State action on the part of at least those States whose preference may justly be regarded as doubtful, and have not yet been expressed through the appropriate organs; and therefore opposition to all State co-operation in perfecting a peace cannot be consistent with a desire for its establishment on a basis of the sovereignty of the States.

5. That we hail with gratification the just and sound sentiment coming from a large and growing party in the North, that all associations of these American States must be voluntary, and not forcible, and we give a hearty response to their proposition to suspend the conflict of arms, and hold a convention of States to inaugurate a plan for permanent peace.

6. That the appropriate action of such a convention would be not to perform any agreement or compact between States, but only to frame and propose a plan of peace; and the assembling of such a convention, for such a purpose, would be relieved from all possible constitutional objection by the consent of the two Governments; and with such consent, the proposed Convention would but act as com

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

RESULT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1864.

[This table includes the Home Vote and the Army Vote.]

[blocks in formation]

*In Wisconsin, 3,163 votes for Lincoln, and 1,729 votes for McClellan electors were rejected for informality, and 418 scattering votes were cast, so that the total vote should have been 148,749.

This State was entitled to three electors, but one dying before the canvass was concluded, but two votes were cast in the Electoral College.

In Vermont, a large army vote was returned too late to be counted.

In the camps of Kentucky soldiers within that State, the army vote was included in the general canvass.
No army vote was received until too late for the canvass.

The Kansas soldiers' vote was 2,867 for Lincoln and 543 for McClellan; not canvassed on account of being received too late.

President LINCOLN's estimate, page 558, was but 129 less than the exact result!

« PreviousContinue »