people, secessionists and anti-secessionists, loyal and disloyal, combatants and non-combatants, old men, women, and children, the decrepit, and the non compos mentis, all whom they cannot abolitionize, and to distribute the lands of the subjugated people among their followers, as was done by the Roman conquerors of their own countrymen; to proclaim a mock freedom to the slaves, but by military power to take possession of the freedmen, and work them for their own profit; to do all this, and also to enslave the white man, by trampling under foot the Constitution and laws of the United States and the States, by the power of a subsidized army, and, lest it should falter, by hundreds of thousands of negro janizaries, organized for that purpose by the Secretary of War and the Adjutant General. The first and paramount object of the conservatives is to preserve their own liberties by saving the Union, the Constitution, and the laws from utter and final overthrow by the destructives, not themselves to be enslaved under the pretext of giving a fictitious freedom to the negro, and to restore and perpetuate the Union, and to bring back the people in revolt by renewed and sufficient guarantees of all their constitutional rights. There is no choice left to any man but to be a destructive or a conservative.

January 7-Mr. CARLILE offered these resolutions:

Resolved, That the Government of the United States, in the language of Mr. Webster, is "the result of compact be tween the States," each State for itself adopting for its government the Constitution of the United States.

2. That the people of each State adopted for their government the Constitution of the United States, in the same way as they adopted their State constitution.

3. That the Constitution of the United States was not binding, nor had it force or effect in any State until it was ratified and adopted by the people thereof, as is evidenced by the fact that the people of North Carolina were not bound by it, nor was North Carolina a member of the Union created by it, for some time after the Government had been organized under it, and after it had been ratified by eleven other States.

4. That the Government created by the Constitution of the United States is "neither wholly national nor wholly federal. Were it wholly national, the supreme and ultimate authority would reside in the majority of the people of the Union, and this authority would be competent at all times, like that of a majority of every national society, to alter or abolish its established government. Were it wholly federal, on the other hand, the concurrence of each State in the Union would be essential to every alteration that would be binding on all." The mode provided by the Constitution for its amendment "is not founded on either of these principles "In requiring more than a majority, and particularly in computing the proportion by States, not by citizens, it departs from the national and advances towards the federal character. In rendering the concurrence of less than the whole number of States sufficient, it loses again the federal and partakes of the national character." The Government created by the Constitution of the United States, therefore, is neither a national nor a federal government, "but a composition of both." "In its foundation it is federal, not national; in the sources from which the ordinary powers of the Government are drawn, it is partly federal and partly national; in the operation of these powers it is national, not federal; in the extent of them it is federal, not national."

5. That it is essential to the preservation of the Government created by the Constitution that the military should be subordinate to the civil power, and that such was the intention of the founders of the Government is evidenced by the fact that the President was made Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy.

6. That Congress alone can declare what are crimes against the United States, and can alone legislate for the punishment thereof. That it is not competent for the President, in any character, or for any military commander, to re strict the right of suffrage in any State, or to impose conditions precedent to the exercise thereof; nor can the will or judgment of the President enlarge his powers beyond what are conferred by the Constitution.

7. That all the powers of the General Government are derived from the Constitution; that the Constitution of the United States confers power, and the Constitutions of the several States limit power; that the General Government can only exercise such powers as are conferred by the Constitution of the United States; that but for the State Constitutions each State, within its own jurisdiction, could exercise all governmental power.

8. That Governments are instituted for the protection of minorities, the chief objects being to secure to the citizen his right to personal liberty, and to protect him in the possession and enjoyment of his private property.

9. That there is no such power as "the war power"

known to the Government of the United States, outside of the powers conferred by and enumerated in the Constitution of the United States. 10. That the Government of the United States enforces obedience to the Constitution and laws, as do the State Governments, by acting directly upon the citizens; that it cannot create a State Government or a State Constitution, or alter one; that it has no right to interfere, directly or indirectly, to alter, abolish, or procure a change in the Constitution of any State, but is bound to protect existing Constitutions in each and every State from any attempt to substitute for them a Government not republican in form, and cannot act against States or political communities as such, but is confined in its action to the punishment of persons, there being no right of eminent domain in the Government of the United States, the soil of each State belonging to it and the people thereof.

11. That any attempt on the part of the Government of the United States, or any department thereof, to destroy the State Governments, and substitute for them Territorial or any other form of Government, would be an exercise of arbitrary and usurped power, destructive to the liberties of the people, violative of the Constitution, and an overthrow of the Government created by it.

12. That it is the duty of the servants of the people to whom the administration of the Government is intrusted, and to whom its powers have been confided, to put down rebellion against its authority whenever organized, to the end that the law-abiding citizen may be protected in the enjoyment of the blessings the Government was designed to confer; that, if necessary to this end, the whole military and naval power of the Government can and should be used, not against the States as such, nor in a war against populations and homes, but against the citizens and persons so resisting the authority of the Government and defying its power.

13. That the whole millitary power of the Government should be directed against the armies of the Confederates, and that, until they are broken and dispersed, there can be no peace upon the basis of a re-union of the States.

Feb. 8-Mr. SUMNER offered these resolutions:

Resolved, That, in order to determine the duties of the national Government at the present moment, it is of the first importance that we should see and understand the real character of the contest which has been forced upon the United States, for a failure truly to appreciate this contest must end disastrously in a failure of those proper ef forts which are essential to the re-establishment of unity and concord; that, recognizing the contest in its real character, as it must be recorded by history, it will be apparent beyond controversy, that this is not an ordinary rebellion, or an ordinary war, but, that it is absolutely without precedent, differing clearly from every other rebellion and every other war, inasmuch as it is an audacious attempt, for the first time in history, to found a wicked power on the corner-stone of slavery; and that such an attempt having this single object-whether regarded as rebellion or as war

is so completely penetrated and absorbed, so entirely filled and possessed by slavery, that it can be justly regarded as nothing else than the huge impersonation of this crime, at once rebel and belligerent, or in other words, as slavery in arms.

2. That, recognizing the unquestionable identity of the rebellion and of slavery, so that each is to the other as another self, it becomes plain that the rebellion cannot be crushed without crushing slavery, as slavery cannot be crushed without crushing the rebellion; that every forbearance to the one is a forbearance to the other, and every blow at the one is a blow at the other; that all who toler ate slavery tolerate the rebellion, and all who strike at slavery strike at the rebellion; and that, therefore, it is our supremest duty, in which all other present duties are con tained, to take care that the barbarism of slavery, in which alone the rebellion has its origin and life, is so utterly trampled out that it can never spring up again anywhere in the rebel and belligerent region; for leaving this duty undone nothing is done, and all our blood and treasure have been lavished in vain.

3. That in dealing with the rebel war the National Government is invested with two classes of rights-one the rights of sovereignty, inherent and indefeasible everywhere within the limits of the United States, and the other the rights of war, or belligerent rights, which have been soperinduced by the nature and extent of the contest; that, by virtue of the rights of sovereignty, the rebel and bellig erent region is now subject to the National Government as its only rightful Government, bound under the Constitu tion to all the duties of sovereignty, and by special mandate bound also "to guarantee to every State a republican form of government, and to protect it against invasion;" that, by virtue of the rights of war, this same region is subject to all

nor does any such combination, levying of war, or attempt ed withdrawal amount to any destruction, forfeiture, or abdication of the right of those who at any time acknowledge allegiance and render obedience to the United States to administer, amend, or establish a State government.

2. That a formal return or readmission of any State to the Union is not necessary. It is sufficient that the people, or those who are loyal in any State, and qualified by the election laws thereof in force before the rebellion, shall at any time resume the functions of a State government compatible with the Union and with the Constitution and laws of the United States, and doing this is sufficient evidence of loyalty for the purpose of doing it.

3. That all questions touching property-rights and inter ests arising out of confiscation and emancipation, and the effect of any law, proclamation, military order, or emergency of war, or act of rebellion, upon the title to any property, or upon the status of any persons heretofore held to service or labor in any State, are left for the judicial determination of the courts of the United States.

4. That the whole power of the nation is pledged for the suppression of the rebellion, the execution of the laws, the defense of loyal citizens in any State, the territorial integrity of the Republic, and the nationality of the Constitu

tion.

5. That nothing herein contained shall be construed to abridge or lessen any valid defense, or as waiving the right of the Government to inflict punishment; the purpose being to declare the nullity of secession as a State ordinance, to define the objects of the war, and to express the sense of Congress as to the proper mode of restoring harmonious rolations between the Government and certain of the States and the disaffected people thereof.

Subsequently, December 21, he offered these resolutions, being, in part, a modification of the others, upon which he addressed the House, January 12, 1864:

Resolved, That a conspiracy of persons combined together, and assuming the name of a State, or a confederation of States, for levying war upon the United States, or for withdrawing such States from the Union, does not extinguish the political franchises of the loyal citizens of such States: and such loyal citizens have the right, at any time, to administer, amend, or establish a State government without other condition than that it shall be republican in

form.

2. That a formal return or readmission of any State into the Union is not necessary. It is sufficient that the people, or those who are loyal in any State, and qualified by the election laws thereof in force before the rebellion, shall, at any time, resume the functions of a State government compatible with the Union, and with the Constitution and laws of the United States; and doing this is sufficient evidence of loyalty for the purpose of doing it.

|mation, whereby all persons heretofore held as slaves in such States and parts of States have been declared free, has had the effect to increase the power of the Union and to diminish the power of its enemies; that the freedom of surb persons was desirable and just in itself, and an efficient means by which the Government was to be maintained and its authority re-established in all the territory and over all the people within the legal jurisdiction of the United States; that it is the duty of the Government and of loyal men everywhere to do what may be practicable for the enforcement of the proclamation, in order to secure in fact as well as by the forms of law the extinction of slavery in such States and parts of States; and finally, that it is the paramount duty of the Government and of all loyal men to labor for the restoration of the American Union on the basis of freedom.

And this House does further declare, That a State can exist or cease to exist only by the will of the people within its limits, and that it cannot be created or destroyed by the external force or opinion of other States, or even by the judgment or action of the nation itself; that a State when created by the will of its people can become a member of the American Union only by its own organized action and the concurrent action of the existing National Government; that when a State has been admitted to the Union, no vote, resolution, ordinance, or proceeding, on its part, however formal in character or vigorously sustained, can deprive the National Government of the legal jurisdiction and sovereignty over the territory and people of such State which existed previous to the act of admission, or which were acquired thereby; that the effect of the so-called acts, resolutions, and ordinances of secession adopted by the eleven States engaged in the present rebellion is, and caa only be, to destroy those political organizations as States, while the legal and constitutional jurisdiction and authoriy of the National Government over the people and territory organized into States only by the will of the loyal people remain unimpaired; that these several communities can be expressed freely and in the absence of all coercion; that States so organized can become States of the American Union only when they shall have applied for admission and their admission shall have been authorized by the existing National Government; that when a people have organized a State upon the basis of allegiance to the Union, and ap plied for admission, the character of the institutions of such proposed State may constitute a sufficient justification for granting or rejecting such application; and inasmuch as experience has shown that the existence of human slavery is incompatible with a republican form of Government in the several States or in the United States, and inconsistent with the peace, prosperity, and unity of the nation, it. the duty of the people and of all men in authority to resist the admission of slave States wherever organized within the jurisdiction of the National Government.

1864, March 14-Mr. WILLIAMS offered these

rule:

United States.

The House refusing to second the demand for the previous question on their passage, they were, on motion of Mr. LOVEJOY, referred to the Select Committee on the Rebellious States. Feb. 16-Mr. BOUTWELL proposed these resolutions:

Resolved, That the Committee on the rebellious States be instructed to consider and report upon the expediency of recommending to this House the adoption of the following Declaration of Opinions:

In view of the present condition of the country, and especially in view of the recent signal successes of the national arms, promising a speedy overthrow of the rebellion, this House makes the following declaration of opinions concerning the institution of slavery in the States and parts of States engaged in the rebellion, and embraced in the proclamation of emancipation issued by the President on the 1st day of January, A. D. 1863; and also concerning the relations now subsisting between the people of such States and parts of States on the one side and the American Union on the other.

and the rebel States constitutes a condition of public war, Resolved, That the existing relation between the Union with all the consequences attaching thereto under the law of nature and of nations.

2. That the appeal of the rebel States from the jurisdic tion of the ordinary tribunals established by the Constitution to the arbitrament of the sword has not, however, with which, in conferring the war power on the General Govern drawn the case beyond the purview of the Constitution, ment, has made the law of war the rule of conduct in the prosecution and adjustment of the pending controversy. the solemn recognition thereof in the proclamation made 3. That while the rebel States are, by that law and by by the President of the United States on the 16th of August, A. D. 1861, under and in pursuance of the authority con ferred on him by the act of Congress of the 13th of July of tween their citizens and those of the loyal States, in the the same year, interdicting all commercial intercourse beattitude of belligerents, and outside of the Union as States, by construction of law as well as in point of fact, and have thereby either abdicated or forfeited their rights to mem bership therein, the jurisdiction and powers of the Govern ment over their territory and citizens continue unimpaired, and the latter are still amenable to the law and the judicial tribunals of the United States for their treason and other crimes against the same

5. That the occupation of these States by the armed forces of the United States, either under military commanders or provisional Governors appointed by the Executive, resting for its lawfulness upon the condition of insurrection existing therein, is a purely military one, and ought to determine with the necessity which produced it.

6. That as soon as the rebellion is suppressed in any of the revolted States, by the reconquest and occupation thereof by the armies of the United States, and the same are so tranquilized as to furnish adequate assurance against the recurrence of disturbance therein, it will become the duty of the President to communicate the fact to Congress in order that it may take the proper measures for the reorganization of the civil governments and the re-establishment of the civil functionaries therein, and prescribe such terms as it may deem wise and proper and consistent with the public safety for the readmission of those districts as States of this Union.

7. That it is the exclusive right of the legislative power of the Government to say upon what terms those Territories shall be allowed to return to the Union; and that in the adjustment of the existing controversy in the Government ad interim of the reconquered territory, and in the arrangement of the terms of reorganization and readmission, it will be entirely within their competency to punish the treason of individuals and provide indemnity for the expenses of the war and security against any future outbreak of the like kind by removing its causes and confiscating absolutely the property and estate of the guilty authors and abettors

thereof.

Rebel Views of "Reconstruction." 1861.

By JEFFERSON DAVIS, February 16, 1861, at Montgomery:

The time for compromise has now passed, and the South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her smell southern powder and feel southern steel if coercion is persisted in. He had no doubts as to the result. He said we will maintain our rights and Government at all hazards. We ask nothing, we want nothing; we will have no complications. If the other States join our confederation they can freely come in on our terms. Our separation from the old Union is now complete. No compromise, no reconstruction is now to be entertained.

By WALTER BROOKE, of Mississippi, in "Confederate" Provisional Congress, March 5, 1861, quoting Davis and Stephens:

These men have long since given up all hope of receiving satisfaction from the General Government, and the entire people of Mississippi stand to-day upon the same platform. I am authorized, I think, to speak their sentiments on this floor, from the information I am daily receiving. I do not believe that there is a man in Mississippi who desires a reconstruction of this Government, or who will not fully indorse the sentiments uttered by you, Mr. President, that "the separation is perfect, complete, and perpetual," and likewise the sentiments of our distinguished President of the Confederate States, when he declared that "a reconstruction is neither practicable nor desirable."

T. R. R. COBB, of Georgia, a member of the Provisional Congress, spoke at Atlanta on reconstruction:

I am against it now and forever. What have we worked for? Simply a new Constitution? No! we sought to be relieved of the North because they were fleecing us; giving fishing bounties and otherwise squandering the public treasure, and filling their pockets from our labors. I would not unite with them if they were to bind themselves in amounts more than they were worth, and give me a distress warrant to sell them out. I wish the people of Georgia to say-this shall be a slaveholding confederacy, and nothing else.

JEFF. DAVIS, in his message of November, 1861, says:

If, instead of being a dissolution of a league, it were indeed a rebellion in which we are engaged, we might find ample vindication in the course we have adopted in the scenes which are now being enacted in the United States. Our people now look with contemptuous astonishment on those with whom they have been so recently associated. They shrink with aversion from the bare idea of renewing such a connection.

JOINT RESOLUTIONS OF GEORGIA,
DECEMBER 11, 1861.

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of Georgia, in General Assembly met, That it is the sense of

this General Assembly that the separation of those States now forming the Confederate States of America from the United States is, and ought to be, final and irrevocable; and that Georgia will, under no circumstances, entertain any proposition from any quarter which may have for its object a restoration or reconstruction of the late Union, on any terms or conditions whatever.

Resolved, That the war which the United States is waging upon the Confederate States should be met on our part with the utmost vigor and energy, until our independence and nationality are unconditionally acknowledged by the United States.

Resolved, That Georgia pledges herself to her sister States of the Confederacy that she will stand by them throughout the struggle; she will contribute all the means which her resources will supply, so far as the same may be necessary to the support of the common cause, and will not consent to lay down arms until peace is established on the basis of the foregoing resolutions. WARREN AIKEN, Speaker of the House of Representatives. L. CARRINGTON, Clerk of the House of Representatives. JOIN BILLUPS, President of the Senate.

JAMES M. MORLEY, Secretary of the Senate.
Approved December 11, 1861.

JOSEPH E. BROWN, Governor. See Roger A. Pryor's declaration at Charleston, page 112.

1862.

Feb. 3-The Congress adopted this preamble and resolution unanimously:

Whereas, the United States are waging war against the Confederate States, with the avowed purpose of compelling the latter to re-unite with them under the same constitution and government; and whereas, the waging of war with such an object is in direct opposition to the sound republican maxim, that "all government rests upon the con sent of the governed," and can only tend to consolidation in the General Government, and the consequent destruction of the rights of the States; and whereas, this result being at tained, the two sections can only exist together in the relation of the oppressor and the oppressed, because of the great preponderance of power in the Northern section, coupled with dissimilarity of interests; and whereas, we the representatives of the people of the Confederate States, in Congress assembled, may be presumed to know the sen timents of said people, having just been elected by them:

Therefore be it

Resolved, That this Congress do solemnly declare and publish to the world that it is the unalterable determination of the people of the Confederate States (in humble reliance upon Almighty God) to suffer all the calamities of the most protracted war, but that they will never, on any terms, politically affiliate with a people who are guilty of an invasion of their soil and the butchery of their citizens.

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE, announcing himself a candidate in the Eleventh District of Kentucky for the permanent "Confederate" Congress, at the election held Jan. 22, said:

I am utterly opposed to a reconstruction of the old Government, or any measure which in the remotest degree tends in that direction. For one, I shall never consent that peace shall be made until the very last of all the ene mies of our liberty shall be driven, not only from our hallowed soil, but from every foot of territory which, by its geographical position, naturally belongs to the South. God grant that the day may not be far distant when Kentucky will arise, free and disenthralled, and assume her true po sition as one, the fairest, among the sisters of the South.

ALEXANDER R. BOTELER, of Virginia, about the same time said the same thing:

In regard to the canvass for Congress, I have been studiously silent, as I have a special repugnance to whatever may seem like thrusting myself on the public; but you can say for me that I have consented to become a candidate, which I suppose will be sufficient. In doing so, however, it is but proper that I should say that, having done all that I could, consistent with self-respect, to preserve the Union upon its original basis of constitutional equality, I am equal. ly resolute in my determination to resist all attempts, should any be made, for its restoration; being unalterably opposed to reconstruction, at any time or on any terms. This much is due to the people that I should make known before the election, so that they may be aware of the course I shall pursue, if elected.

In the winter of 1862, GEORGE N. SANDERS, in his letter to "Governor Seymour, Dean Rich