execute the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, we immediately hoist the black flag, and proclaim a war of extermination against all invaders of our soil."

Mr. Phelan, of Mississippi, said that he "was always in favor of conducting the war under the black flag; if that flag had been raised a year ago, the war would be ended now."

October 1st, 1862, the Judiciary Committee of the Confederate Congress, made a report and offered a set of resolutions upon the subject of President Lincoln's proclamation, from which the following are extracts:

"2. Every white person who shall act as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer, commanding negroes or mulattoes against the Confederate States, or who shall 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, or causing them to be abducted, or inducing them to abscond, shall, if captured, suffer death."

Senator Hill, of Georgia, introduced the following resolution in the Confederate Congress:

"That every person pretending to be a soldier or officer of the United States, who shall be captured on the soil of the Confederate States, after the 1st day of January, 1863, shall be presumed to have entered the territory of the Confederate States with intent to incite insurrection and abet murder; and unless satisfactory proof be adduced to the contrary, before the military court before which the trial shall be had, shall suffer death. This section shall continue in force until the proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated at Washington on the 22d day of September, 1862, shall be rescinded, and the policy therein announced shall be abandoned, and no longer."

The Confederate Congress finally left the subject to

President Davis.

A general exchange of prisoners under the recognized rules of war was soon after affected, and the war progressed without the black flag of the Democracy of the South, save at Fort Pillow and a few other places.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX
TILBEN FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER XXIX.

POLITICAL PARTIES.-WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.-FEDERAL AND ANTIFEDERAL PARTIES.-FIRST "DEMOCRATIC CLUBS."-FRIENDS OF ROBESPIERRE-WASHINGTON CONDEMNS THE JACOBIN CLUBS.-FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION IN AMERICA.-ORIGIN OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.-FIRST CALLED REPUBLICAN.-NATIONAL REPUBLICANS.-ORIGIN OF THE WHIG PARTY.-REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS.-THEIR PRINCIPLES AND PRAC

TICES.

THE first few years of American nationality was not characterized by any well-defined opposite political organizations. The battle between the British troops at Lexington, the subsequent battle of Bunker Hill, and the war that followed, brought forth the energies of the colonists in an offensive and defensive struggle, which left but little time for the organization of political parties. The Declaration of Independence, issued July 4th, 1776, served to unite the people for two years, until the 9th day of July, 1778, at which time the Articles of Confederation were adopted, uniting the thirteen Colonies in a Confederation for mutual protection, under which the civil and military affairs of the Colonies were conducted for a period of nine yearsuntil the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, September 17th, 1787. Up to this period, but little division of political sentiment had been manifested among the people; but in the Convention that framed the Constitution, a marked political feeling developed itself.

Under the Articles of Confederatian the union of the Colonies was as binding as it is to-day by any clause of the Federal Constitution.