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despotism, sparing neither life nor property-if | informed that these provisions were to be sent she wishes the streets of her towns and cities for to-night (July 14) by some person who was grown with grass, and the steamboats of her riv- to convey them and the negroes on the plantaers to lie rotting at her wharves, then let her join tion to the Southern army. On this representhe Southern Confederacy; but if she would have tation, he took into possession three horses, and the bright waters of that river flow on in their the negroes harnessed up one four-mule team gladness-if she would have her harvests peace- to a wagon, and one two-inule team to a wagon, fully gathered to her garners-if she would and got in, to the number of ten, of their own have the lullabies of her cradles and the songs accord, and drove to my camp. of her homes uninvaded by the cries and terrors of battle-if she would have the streets of her towns and cities again filled with the hum and throngs of busy trade, and her rivers and her shores once more vocal with the steamer's whistle, that anthem of a free and prosperous commerce, then let her stand fast by the Stars and Stripes, and do her duty, and her whole duty as a member of this Union. Let her brave people say to the President of the United States: "You are our chief magistrate; the Government you have in charge, and are striving to save from dishonor and dismemberment, is our Government; your cause is indeed our cause; your battles are our battles; make room for us, therefore, in the ranks of your armies, that your triumph may be our triumph also." Even as with the Father of us all I would plead for salvation, so, my countrymen, as upon my very knees, would I plead with you for the life, aye for the life, of our great and beneficent institutions. But if the traitor's knife, now at the throat of the republic, is to do its work, and this Government is fated to add yet another to that long line of sepulchres which whiten the highway of the past, then my heartfelt prayer to God is, that it may be written in bistory, that the blood of its life was not found upon the skirts of Kentucky!

Doc. 91.

REPORT OF COL. DAVIES. HEAD-QUARTERS, 2D BRIGADE, 5TH DIVISION, ALEXANDRIA, July 14, 1861. To Col. Miles, Commanding 5th Division Troops, Department of Northeastern Virginia. SIR:-In pursuance of your verbal order of yesterday, I made a reconnoissance on the Fairfax road, seven miles out, and on the Richmond road about ten miles, and on the Mount Vernon road as far as Mount Vernon. The pickets on the Fairfax road captured a newly-painted ambulance, containing a set of harness and two bags of buckwheat. On the curtain, on the inside, was distinctly written in pencil, "John Hughes, Fairfax." The picket on the Richmond road saw three horsemen, who, by a dexterous turn, evaded a shot from the picket. The picket on the Mount Vernon road, in its diligence, discovered, on the premises of one John A. Washington, formerly a resident and still an occupant of a large estate near Mount Vernon, what was supposed to amount to eight thousand pounds of bacon, and seventy-five barrels of fish. The officer in charge of the picket was

Deeming the transaction of sufficient consequence to merit my individual attention, and supposing that I might capture the force sent to convey these provisions away, I immediately ordered out three companies of the 10th Regiment, and, taking the two teams referred to and two others, proceeded to capture the provisions and bring them to camp. On arriving at the plantation I proceeded to make inquiry and ascertain if such an amount of provisions was really upon the place. I could not find any thing like the quantity of bacon-not more than sufficient, in iny judgment, to carry on the operations of the plantation, whatever might have been there in the morning; but I found twenty-five barrels more fish (one hundred in all) than were at first represented. On looking the whole matter over, whatever may be my individual views as to the confiscation of the property of rebels, who are using it and its income to overthrow the Government, I considered that the case was not sufficiently plain to authorize me to retain the mule teams, or seize upon the fish and bacon, although their owner is well known to be an officer high in rank in the rebel army, and now in active command.

As to the negroes, there being no law or orders directing ine either to cause them to remain at home or to prevent them from volunteering to do team duty in my brigade, I shall allow them to remain until otherwise directed. I, however, have placed a guard over the provisions, the mules, and the wagons on the estate, and shall await your orders for their disposition. THOMAS A. DAVIES,

Colonel Commanding 2d Brigade, 5th Division
Troops, N. E. Army, Virginia.

Doc. 92.

MOVEMENT ON BUNKER HILL.

BUNKER HILL, Berkeley Co., Va., July 16, 1861. GEN. PATTERSON moved, with his whole column, except two regiments, early yesterday morning to this place, where it is now encamped, ten miles from Martinsburg and twelve from Winchester. The army marched in two columns, one composed of the First Division, Major-General Cadwalader, and the Second Division, Major-General Kiem commanding; and the other of the Seventh and Eighth Brigades, Cols. Stone and Butterfield forming a Third Division, Major-General Sandford commanding. The First and Second Divisions came by the turnpike, and the Third by the old dirt roadboth roads converging at this point. The troops

and wagons of the Third Division formed a column over five miles long, and the other column was seven or eight miles long, the van reaching here before the rear guard had got far out of Martinsburg. The army marched in different order from that of the column coming from Williamsport to Martinsburg, when the wagons accompanied their own brigades; on this occasion they were all kept in the rear, protected only by a smali rear guard of infantry and cavalry. The Philadelphia City Troop were the rear guard of the column of the First and Second Divisions. Although the van of the army reached here before noon, the rear did not get into camp till long after dark. The whole force forms, probably, the largest body ever concentrated in one army in America. The column on the turnpike was seven or eight miles long, and that on the dirt road over five. As the troops filed out of the camps at Martinsburg and formed in long, dense columns on the roads, with bands playing and colors flying, the scene was well calculated to gratify the pride and patriotism of the North, and to make treason and rebellion quail in the South.

Those hosts of soldiers-not "Northern mercenaries," as traitors have insolently called them, but Northern freemen-were marching forward in serried ranks, all animated by one sentiment and one purpose-the love of country, a broad national sentiment, with no mean sectional or State limits, and the firm resolve to conquer or die. Such an army, so inspired and so determined, could only impress friends with joy and pride, and foes with fear.

scouting and have so many friends in the country. They have no tents, and camp under brushwood; and in one instance, only a few days ago, they robbed a farmer of the crop he had just cut by covering their camps with wheat-sheaves. We noticed a number of their old encampments near the road in coming here, some six or seven thousand men, under Gen. Jackson, having been in this neighborhood until ten days ago, when they retired to Winchester on a false alarm that Patterson was coming. -New York Tribune, July 20.

Doc. 93.

GEN. HURLBURT'S PROCLAMATION.
JULY 15, 1861.

To the Citizens of Northeast Missouri :— FALSE and designing men, seeking the overthrow of a Government which they have known by its benefits and comforts, have so misled the minds of many of you, that armed opposition to the Constitution and the laws has, in many parts of your country, become the fashion of the times. It becomes my duty, as commanding a portion of the Government troops now in service in your section, to warn you that the time for toleration of treason has passed, and the man, or body of men, who venture to stand in defiance of the supreme authority of the Union, peril their lives in the attempt. It is a question now of free govern ment under the Constitution your fathers made, or of no government. You must make your choice to obey, maintain, and support the Union which has given you every element of prosperity you have, or to deliver yourselves by your own folly into the hands of an irresponsible mob, excited by passion, crazy with prejudice, unable and unwilling to protect your Between the village of Darksville and Bunker lives, your property, or your reputation. If Hill the cavalry of the enemy, in command of you choose on your own free will to put Col. Stuart, made their appearance. The Rang-yourselves into this position, if you will delibers opened upon them, but they were too far off for their fire to be effective, and the troopers scattered and scampered off. At this place the whole squadron, some six or seven hundred, made a show of fight, and the Rhode Island Artillery threw a few shot and shell among them, when they again scampered. Our cavalry followed and overtook some of them, killing one sergeant, taking prisoners one captain, one lieutenant, and three privates, and capturing six horses. Three men were also killed by a shell, and carried off the ground by the rebel cavalry. There was no loss or damage on our side.

The head of the column moving on the turnpike was Col. Thomas's Brigade, a detachment of the Second United States Cavalry, a section of the Rhode Island Battery, and McMullin's Rangers, acting as skirmishers, forming the advance guard.

The rebel troopers had their camp a little beyond Bunker Hill, and were taken so completely by surprise that they lost their cooking utensils and a dinner just preparing, such as it was-corn bread and bacon. It seems singular that our whole army could move so near to their camp without their being apprised of its advance, when they usually keep up an active

erately call down upon yourselves and your neighbors the curse of war, if you will compel the Executive power of the nation to put in motion among you the terrible machinery of the military service, remember when the blow comes that you have compelled it to descend upon you. Without your wrongful acts this would not be. Your peaceful and prospective pursuits would go on as usual, and your country would be free from armed occupation, as it was when you were loyal to the nation, as it is now wherever the idea of secession has not cursed the country. There is one simple and easy remedy for this state of things, and that remedy is in your hands; it is a return to the old habits of trust, confidence, and affection for the Union, to the old peaceful times when every man was protected by the law, and loved the law for the blessings it conferred. Thus much of warning and advice to those who have been swept along with this tide of evil influence. The character of the resistance

which has been made is in strict conformity with the source from which it originates. Cowardly assassins watch for opportunities of murder, and become heroes among their associated bands by slaughtering by stealth those whom openly they dare not meet. This system, unknown to civilized warfare, is the natural fruit that treason bears. The process of criminal courts administered in disaffected neighborhoods, will not cure this system of assassination, but the stern and imperative demand of military necessity, and the duty of self-protection, will furnish a sharp, decisive, and rapid remedy in the summary justice of a court-martial. Men who have forsworn themselves by treason will be ready to commit perjury again as the means of escape from merited captivity; and when the mistaken lenity of officers permits them to go free upon their renewed oath, they openly boast that they never meant to keep it, and thus truth and honor are merely by-words where the sentiment of loyalty has failed. But I am slow to believe that this old sentiment of patriotism has utterly died out. I believe that there are yet many who reverence and love the Union, and stand by the old flag that has never known dishonor. To all such I am authorized to say that the United States will extend to every one full and complete protection and support; but they, as lovers of the Union, must express by words and by acts, that love and regard. They must organize themselves, and take their part and share in reconstructing the frame of society. They must make their sympathy known by their actions, if they seek to be of use in these times of trial. No peaceable citizen who remains in the discharge of his ordinary duties shall be molested by troops under my command with impunity, but so far as the power vested in me is concerned, he shall be fully protected. Those, on the contrary, who neglect their private offices to do mischief to the common country, to instigate sedition, and to promote rebellion, must take the consequences which their acts draw upon them; for, as treason is the highest of crimes-as it volves every other crime-as it is in this country not only a crime against the Government, but against civilization and the hope of the world-it needs, and must have, peremptory and effective chastisement, that will follow as inevitably as fate. I therefore call upon all citizens of Northeastern Missouri to devote themselves to their ordinary business pursuits; to all irregular and unlawful assemblies to lay down arms, if taken up against the Government, and to be fully assured that the United States, though preferring a quiet and uniform obedience to the laws, is yet ready and abundantly able to enforce compliance, and to inflict, if it be necessary, the extreme penalty on all active and known traitors.

STEPHEN A. Hurlburt,

Doc. 94.

SPEECH OF J. C. BRECKINRIDGE, IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, JULY 16, 1861. MR. BRECKINRIDGE (Ky.) proceeded to speak at length in opposition to the resolution. He said, under ordinary circumstances he might content himself simply with a vote, but now he thought it required to give expression to his views. It was proposed, by resolution, to declare the acts of the President approved. The resolution, on its face, seems to admit that the acts of the President were not performed in accordance with the Constitution and laws. If that were the case, then he would be glad to have some reason assigned, showing the power of Congress to indemnify the President for a breach of the Constitution. He denied that one branch of the Government can indemnify public officers in another branch for violation of the Constitution and laws. The powers conferred on the Government by the people of the States are the measures of its authority. These powers are confided in different departments, and their boundaries are determined. The President has rights and powers conferred, and the legislative department its powers, and the judicial department its powers, and he denied that either can encroach on the other, or indemnify the other for usurpations of the powers confided by the Constitution. Congress has no more right to make constitutional the unconstitutional acts of the President than the President to make valid the act of the Supreme Court encroaching on the executive power, or the Supreme Court to make valid an act of the executive encroaching on the judicial power.

The resolution substantially declares that Congress may add to the Constitution or take from it in a manner not provided by that instrument; that her bare majority can, by resolution, make that constitutional which is unconstitutional by the same authority; so, in whatever view, the power granted by this resoin-lution is utterly subversive of the Constitution. It might be well to ask if the President had assumed power not conferred. He should confine himself to the acts enumerated in the resolution-acts which he declared to be usurpations on the part of the executive; and, so far from approving the acts, he thought this high officer should be rebuked by both houses of Congress. The President had just established blockades. Where is the clause in the Constitution which authorizes it? The last Congress refused to confer authority, and by what authority did the President do it after they refused? The Constitution declares that Congress alone has power to declare war, yet the President has made war. In the last session the Senator from Illinois (Douglas) delivered a speech, on the 15th of March, which he would read. He then read an extract of Mr. Douglas's speech, declaring that the President had

Brig. Gen. U. S. Volunteers.

no right to make a blockade at New Orleans | Congress, and, in the long debates which folor Charleston more than at Chicago. He also lowed, there was not the least intimation that read from a speech of Daniel Webster, delivered the power belonged to the executive. I then in 1832, declaring that General Jackson had no point to the Constitution and ask Senators from right to blockade Charleston. He said he ap- what clause they deduce the right, by any fair proved these sentiments, uttered by these emi-construction of the instrument itself, what part nent statesmen, who were formerly regarded as confers the power on the President? Surely sound, and thought the time would again come not that clause which enjoins him to take care when it world not be thought treason to main- of the Constitution and the laws, and faithfully tain them. The resolution proceeds to approve to execute them. The most eminent commenthe act of the President enlisting men for three tators of the Constitution declare it to be a and five years. By what authority of the Con- legislative right. The opinion of the present stitution and law has he done this? The power Chief-Justice, which has never been answered, is not in the Constitution, nor granted by law. makes all further argument idle and superTherefore, it must be illegal and unconstitu- fluous; and one of the worst signs of the times tional. Again, the President, by his own will, is the manner in which that opinion has been has added immensely to the army, whereas the received. A subordinate military officer in BalConstitu says Congress only have power to timore arrests a private citizen and confines raise artes. He has also added to the navy him in a fortress. His friends get a writ of haaga, st the warrant of the Constitution. These beas corpus, but it cannot be executed. The act are not defended on constitutional or Chief-Justice then gives an opinion, which is legal grounds, and Mr. Breckenridge pronounc- commended, not only by the profession of ed them usurpations. which he is so great an ornament, but by all This resolution goes on to recite that the Pri trioughtful men in the country. The newspadent has suspended the writ of habeas corpus, pers of the country, and the men excited by and proposes to ratify and make that valid. violent passions, have denounced the ChiefWe have a great deal to talk about rights-the Justice, but have not answered his opinion. rights of States, the rights of individuals, and There it stands, one of those productions which some of them have been said to be shadowy will add to his renown. The abuse of the and imaginary, but the right of every citizen press, and the refusal to respect just authority, to be arrested only by a warrant of law, and and the attempt to make that high judicial offihis right to have his body brought before a cer odious, will yet recoil on these men. I judicial authority, in order that the grounds of honor him for the courage with which he did that arrest may be determined on, is a real his duty, as well as for the calm and temperate right. There can be no dispute about that. It manner in which he performed it. I am glad is the right of rights to all, high, low, rich, or he yet remains among us, a man so remarkable poor. It is especially the right of that class for his honored length of years, and his emiwhich bis Excellency, the President, calls plain nent public services, and for the rectitude of people. It is a right, the respect for which is a his private life, that he may be justly ranked measure of progress and civilization. It is a among the most illustrious Americans of our right that has been struggled for, fought for, day. You propose to make this act of the guarded by laws, and backed up in constitu- President valid without making a defence of tions. To have maintained it by arms, to have it, either on legal or constitutional grounds? suffered for it, then to have it established on What would be the effect? In thus approving foundations so immutable that the authority of what the President has done in the past, you the sovereign could not shake it, is the chief invite him to do the like in the future, and the glory of the British people, from whom we de- law of the country will lie prostrate at the feet rive it. In England the legislative power alone of the executive, and in his discretion he may can suspend that right. The monarch of Eng-substitute the military power for judicial authorland cannot suspend it. But the trans-Atlantic freemen seem to be eager to approve and ratify acts which a European monarch dare not perform. It needs no legal argument to show that the President dare not, cannot, suspend the writ of habeas corpus. I content myself with referring to the fact, that it is classed among the legislative powers by the Constitution. And that article conferring powers on the President touches not the question. I may add that upon no occasion has it ever been asserted in Congress, so far as I recollect, that this power exists on the part of the executive. On one occasion Mr. Jefferson thought the time had arrived when the writ might be suspended, but he did not undertake to do it himself, and did not even recommend it. He submitted it to

ity. Again, Mr. President, although there are few of us here who take the view of the Constitution by this right which I am advocating to-day, I trust we will not, under any circumstances, fail to protest in temperate but manly language against what we consider a usurpation of the President. Let me call the attention of the Senate briefly to other acts against which I protest in the name of the Constitution, and the people I represent. You have practically martial law all over this land. The houses of private citizens are searched without warrant of law. The right of the citizen to bear arms, is rendered nugatory by their being taken from him without judicial process, and upon mere suspicion. Individuals are seized without legal warrant, and imprisoned. The other day, since

Congress met, a military officer in Baltimore | newspaper office in that city, removed the was appointed a marshal of that city. Will any types, and declared that the paper should be man defend the act? Does it not override all no longer published, and gave, among other other law? Is it not substituting the rule of a reasons, that it was fabricating reports injumilitary commander for the laws of the land?rious to the United States soldiers in Missouri. What more authority has this officer to appoint a marshal for the city of Baltimore than he had to appoint a pastor for one of their congrega-ity tions, or a president for one of their banks? The Constitution guards the people against any seizure without a warrant of judicial authority. Has not the President of the United States, by one broad, sweeping act, laid his hands upon the private correspondence of the whole community? Who defends it, as conformable to the Constitution? I am told, sir, and if I had the power I would offer a resolution to inquire into it, in the name of the public liberties-I am told that at this moment, in the jail in this city, there are individuals who have been taken by military authorities from Maryland and other States, and now lie here and cannot get out, and in some instances they have actually been forgotten. I was told of one instanc, where a man was put in jail here and forgotten. His friends made application at one of the departments, and they looked into the case and found nothing against him, and he was discharged. But, in the rush of events, the very existence of this man, and the cause of his imprisonment, was forgotten. We may have this joint resolution to approve these acts and make them valid, but we cannot make them valid in fact. I know that Congress, in the exercise of its legislative functions, may appropriate money, but it has been expended by the President without warrant of law. But whatever unconstitutional act he may have committed cannot be cured by a joint resolution. It stands there, and will stand forever. Nor can this Congress prevent a succeeding Congress from holding any officer of the Government responsible for a violation of the Constitution. I enumerate what I regard as the usurpations of the executive, and against which I wish to record the protest of those who are unwilling to see the Constitution subverted, under whatever pretext, necessity, or otherwise. [Mr. B. then re-enumerated the several acts in the resolution, to which he had referred.] These great fundamental rights, sir, the sanctity of which is the measure of progress and civilization, have been trampled under foot by the military, and are being now trampled under foot every day in the presence of the two houses of Congress; and yet so great, on one side, is the passion of the hour, and so astonishing the stupid amazement on the other, that we take it as natural, as right, and as of course. We are rushing, sir, and with rapid strides, from a Constitutional Government into a military despotism. The Constitution says the freedom of speech and of the press shall not be abridged, yet, three days ago, in the city of St. Louis, a military officer with four hundred soldiers-that was his warrant went into a

Is there a Senator here, a citizen of this land, who will say that the slightest color of authorexists on the part of a military officer for depriving a citizen of liberty or property without a warrant of law, or to suppress the freedom of the press? And we are told by the same despatch that the proprietors of the paper submitted, and intended to make an appeal. To whom? To the judicial authorities? No, sir, but to Major-General Fremont, when he should reach St. Louis. The civil authorities of the country are paralyzed, and ctical martial law is being established all onio. he land. The like never happened in this try before, and it would not be tolerated in, any country in Europe which pretends to the lements of civilization and liberty. Geo.ge Washington carried the thirteen colonies through the war of the Revolution without martial law. The President of the United States could not conduct the Government three months without resorting to it. I presume every Senator has read the opinion of the ChiefJustice to which I have referred. I shall content myself with reading a few extracts, to present my opinions on the subject. [Mr. B. read from the closing part of Judge Taney's opinion.] Thus the President has assumed the legislative and judicial powers, and concentrated in his hands the executive, legislative, and judicial powers, which in every age have been the very evidence of despotism, and he exercises them to-day, while we sit in the Senate chamber, and the other branch of the Legislature at the other end of the capitol. Mr. President, what is the excuse-what is the justification,-necessity? I answer, first, that there was no necessity. Was it necessary to preserve the visible emblems of Federal authority here, that the Southern coast should have been blockaded? Did not the same necessity exist when Congress, at the last session, refused to pass the force bill? Was it necessary to the existence of the Union, till Congress should meet, that powers not conferred by the Consti tution should be assumed? Was there a necessity for overrunning the State of Missouri? Was there a necessity for raising the largest army ever assembled on the American continent, and for collecting the largest fleet ever collected in an American harbor? Congress may deem it was necessary in contemplation of a protracted struggle for the preservation of the Constitution and the Union. What I mean to say is, that there was none of that overruling necessity for present preservation which may apply to usurpations of the Constitution. In the case of the man in Maryland who was confined so long in Fort McHenry, was there any necessity of confining him, instead of turning him over to the civil authorities? The

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