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MARTIAL LAW.

March 1, 1862-JEFFERSON DAVIS President, "by virtue of the power vested in him by law to declare the suspension of the privileges of the writ of Habeas Corpus in cities threatened with invasion," proclaimed that martial law was extended over Richmond and the adjoining country to the extent of ten miles. He prohibited all distillation of spirituous liquors, and directed that the distilleries be forthwith closed and the establishments for the sale thereof closed. Many Union men were arrested at once and imprisoned.

April 8, 1862, DAVIS issued a proclamation extending martial law over East Tennessee and suspending all civil jurisdiction and the writ of Habeas Corpus. Col. W. M. Churchwell was made provost marshal and was charged with the execution of the proclamation.

May 3, 1862, DAVIS issued a like proclamation with reference to the counties of Lee, Wise, Buchanan, McDowell, and Wyoming in Virginia, under the command of Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall.

August 14, 1861, DAVIS issued this

PROCLAMATION OF BANISHMENT: Whereas, the Congress of the Confederate States of America dil, by an act approved on the 8th day of August, 1861, entitled "An act respecting alien enemies," make provision that proclamation should be issued by the President in relation to alien enemies, and in conformity with the provisions

of said act:

Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, do issue this my proclamation: and I do hereby warn and requiro every male citizen of the United States, of the age of fourteen years and upwards, now within the Confederate States, and adhering to the Government of the United States, and acknowledging the authority of the same, and not being a citizen of the Confederate States, to depart from the Confederate States within forty days from the date of this proclamation. And I do warn all persons above described, who shall remain within the Confederate States after the expiration of said period of forty days, that they will be treated as alien enemies.

Provided, however, That this proclamation shall not be considered as applicable, during the existing war, to citizens of the United States residing within the Confederate States with intent to become citizens thereof, and who shall make declaration of such intention in due form, acknowledging the authority of this Government; nor shall this proclamation be considered as extending to the States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, the District of Columbia, the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Indian Territory south of Kansas, who shall not be chargeable with actual hostility or other crime against the public safety, and who shall acknowledge the authority of the Government of the Confederate States.

And I do further proclaim and make known that I have established the rules and regulations hereto annexed in accor Lance with the provisions of said law.

and fathers, either in East Tennessee or in the Lincoln Gov. ernment. W. M. CHURCHWELL,

Colonel and Provost Marshal.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 23, 1862.

STRENGTH OF THE REBEL ARMY.

1864, Jan. 30.-In debating the bill to repeal the Substitute Exemption bill, Mr. Wm. N. H. Smith, of North Carolina, said, the "Confedrates" had at this time four hundred thousand men on their muster roll "of whom probably one half were not there, and it was well known we were unable to feed the fractional part who were, in the field."

The Richmond Whig of Jan. 1, 1864, alluding to the passage of the above named bill, has these comments:

We wish at this time only to make some passing com

ments upon the tone manifested in Congress in the debates upon this measure. A Senator (Mr. Orr of S. C.,) among other objections to the passage of the bill gravely questioned its legality.

will be great difficulty in executing it, by reason of the de"If the pending bill becomes a law," said Mr. O., "there cisions of the Courts in several of the States. We must ac quiesce in the decisions of the Courts, or resort to measures which he was not prepared for." A Senator from Missouri (Mr. Clark,) representing a constituency wholly beyond the action and control of our laws, replied, in urging its passage, that "in regard to the action of the Courts, steps may and should be taken to remove the subject beyond their jurisdiction." The Senator from Mississippi, (Mr. Brown,) goes further: "We should not defer our legislation to consult the views of every State Judge-to ascertain whether he will overthrow it or not by his judicial decision. We have high duties to perform. Let us perform them without reference to State Judges. There was a remedy against the interference of the Courts, in the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus."

The vote of Congress upon this measure shows to what extent the provisions of the Constitution are getting to be disregarded in the Legislative branch, and how far revolu tionary sentiment already prevails in that body. The strength of the popular respect for our Government, and the good sense of the quiet masses, may for the moment allow such declarations to pass without disturbance. The little respect in which substitute men are held may influence a temporary acquiesence in them. But the intelligent and ardent lover of his country cannot witness such proceedings with indif ference, nor will he, with submission.

There is as much patriotism and intelligence out of the halls of Congress as in it, and the tendency of the legisla tive and executive declarations so far this session to a subversion of the liberties of the country and a military despotism is already sowing the seeds of a counter revolution. Our people claim it as their right, as the duty of the General Government to insure to them, as the basis of the compact by which they have associated together, that the Confederacy is but a community of sovereign States. They look to the Constitution as the supreme law of the Confederacy. They regard it as among the blessings for which they are indebted to their ancestry that they transmitted to us a written Constitution. It received the plighted faith of our fathers. It is the hope of our posterity. To argue questions outside or above it is but to assail the cause of law, of right, and order.

Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate
States of America, at the city of Richmond, on the 14th day Meeting of the Thirty-Seventh Con-

of Angust, A. D. 1861.

By the President:

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

R. M. T. HUNTER, Secretary of State.

TO THE DISAFFECTED PEOPLE OF EAST TENNESSEE.

The undersigned, in executing martial law in this Department, assures those interested who have fled to the enemy's lines, and who are actually in their army, that he will welcome their return to their homes and families; they are of fered annesty and protection if they come to lay down their arms and act as loyal citizens within the thirty days given them by Maj. Gen. E. KIRBY SMITH to do so.

At the end of that time, those failing to return to their homes and accept the amnesty thus offered, and provide for and protect their wives and children in East Tennessee, will have them sent to their care in Kentucky, or beyond the Confederate State lines, at their own expense.

All that leave after this date, with a knowledge of the above facts, will have their families sent immediately after them.

gress.

The first session began July 4, 1861, and closed August 6, 1861. The second session began December 2, 1861, and closed July 17, 1862.

The third session began December 1, 1862, and closed March 4, 1863.

MEMBERS OF THE THIrty-Seventh CONGRESS,
MARCH 4, 1861, тO MARCH 4, 1863.
HANNIBAL HAMLIN, of Maine, President.
John W. Forney, of Pennsylvania, Secretary.
SENATORS.

MAINE-Lot M. Morrill, William P. Fessen

den.

NEW HAMPSHIRE - John P. Hale, Daniel

The women and children must be taken care of by husbands Clark.

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VERMONT-Solomon Foot, Jacob Collamer. E. Lansing, Ambrose W. Clark, Charles B. MASSACHUSETTS-Charles Sumner, Henry

Wilson.

RHODE ISLAND-James F. Simmons,* Henry B. Anthony.

CONNECTICUT-James Dixon, Lafayette S.

Foster.

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Sedgwick, Theodore M. Pomeroy, Jacob P. Chamberlain, Alexander S. Diven, Robert B. Van Valkenburgh, Alfred Ely, Augustus Frank, Burt Van Horn, Elbridge G. Spaulding, Reuben E. Fenton.

NEW JERSEY-John T. Nixon, John L. N. Stratton, William G. Steele, George T. Cobb,

NEW YORK-Preston King, Ira Harris.
NEW JERSEY John R. Thomson,* John C. Nehemiah Perry.
Ten Eyck.

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KANSAS-James H. Lane, Samuel C. Pomeroy.

REPRESENTATIVES.

GALUSHA A. GROW, of Pennsylvania, Speaker. Emerson Etheridge, of Tennessee, Clerk.

MAINE-John N. Goodwin, Charles W. Walton,* Samuel C. Fessenden, Anson P. Morrill, John H. Rice, Frederick A. Pike.

NEW HAMPSHIRE-Gilman Marston, Edward H. Rollins, Thomas M. Edwards.

VERMONT-E. P. Walton, Jr., Justin S. Morrill, Portus Baxter.

MASSACHUSETTS-Thomas D. Eliot, James Buffinton, Benjamin F. Thomas, Alexander H. Rice, William Appleton,* John B. Alley, Daniel W. Gooch, Charles R. Train, Goldsmith F. Bailey, Charles Delano, Henry L. Dawes. RHODE ISLAND-William P. Sheffield, George H. Browne.

*

CONNECTICUT-Dwight Loomis, James E. Eng. lish, Alfred A. Burnham,* George C. Wood

ruff.

NEW YORK-Edward H. Smith, Moses F. Odell, Benjamin Wood, James E. Kerrigan, William Wall, Frederick A. Conkling, Elijah Ward, Isaac C. Delaplaine, Edward Haight, Charles H. Van Wyck, John B. Steele, Stephen Baker, Abraham B. Olin, Erastus Corning, James B. McKean, William A. Wheeler, Socrates N. Sherman, Chauncey Vibbard, Richard Franchot, Roscce Conkling, R. Holland Duell, William See memorandum at end of list.

PENNSYLVANIA-William E. Lehman, Charles J. Biddle,* John P. Verree, William D. Kelley, William Morris Davis, John Hickman, Thomas B. Cooper,* Sydenham E. Ancona, Thaddeus Stevens, John W. Killinger, James H. Campbell, Hendrick B. Wright, Philip Johnson, Galusha A Grow, James T. Hale, Joseph Baily, Edward McPherson, Samuel S. Blair, John Covode, Jesse Lazear, James K. Moorhead, Robert McKnight, John W. Wallace, John Patton, Elijah Babbitt.

DELAWARE-George P. Fisher.

MARYLAND-John W. Crisfield, Edwin H. Webster, Cornelius L. L. Leary, Henry May, Francis Thomas, Charles B. Calvert.

VIRGINIA-Charles H. Upton,* William G. Brown, John S. Carlile,* Kellian V. Whaley, Joseph Segar.*

OHIO-George H. Pendleton, John A. Gurley, Clement L. Vallandigham, William Allen, Jas. M. Ashley, Chilton A. White, Richard A. Harrison, Samuel Shellabarger, Warren P. Noble, Carey A. Trimble, Valentine B. Horton, Samuel S. Cox, Samuel T. Worcester, Harrison G. Blake, Robert H. Nugen, William P. Cutler, James R. Morris, Sidney Edgerton, Albert G. Riddle, John Hutchins, John A. Bingham.

KENTUCKY-Henry C. Burnett, James S. Jackson,* Henry Grider, Aaron Harding, Chas. A. Wickliffe, George W. Dunlap, Robert Mallory, John J. Crittenden, William H. Wadsworth, John W. Menzies.

TENNESSEE-Horace Maynard, Clements, George W. Bridges.*

*

Andrew J.

INDIANA-John Law, James A. Cravens, W. McKee Dunn, William S. Holman, George W. Julian, Albert G. Porter, Daniel W. Voorhees, Albert S. White, Schuyler Colfax, William Mitchell, John P. C. Shanks.

ILLINOIS-Ellihu B. Washburne, Isaac N. Arnold, Owen Lovejoy, William Kellogg, William A. Richardson,* John A. McClernand,* James C. Robinson, Philip B. Fouke, John A. Logan.*

MISSOURI-Francis P. Blair, Jr., James 8. Rollins, John B. Clark,* Elijah H. Norton, John W. Reid, John S. Phelps,* John W. Noell.

MICHIGAN-Bradley F. Granger, Fernando C. Beaman, Francis W. Kellogg, Rowland E. Trowbridge.

IOWA-Samuel R. Curtis,* William Vandever. WISCONSIN-John F. Potter, Luther Hanchett,* A. Scott Sloan.

CALIFORNIA-Timothy G. Phelps and Aaron A. Sargent, qualified Dec. 2, 1861; and Frederick F. Low, (now Governor,) June 3, 1862. MINNESOTA-Cyrus Aldrich, William Windom. OREGON-Andrew J. Thayer.* KANSAS-Martin F. Conway.

*See memorandum at end of list.

MEMORANDUM OF CHANGES.

MISSOURI 1862, January 21, Thomas L.

The following changes took place during the Price succeeded John W. Reid, expelled DeCongress:

IN SENATE.

RHODE ISLAND-1862, Dec. 1, Samuel G. Arnold succeeded James F. Simmons, resigned. NEW JERSEY-1862, Dec. 1, Richard S. Field succeeded, by appointment, John R. Thomson, deceased Sept. 12, 1862. 1863, Jan. 21, James W Wall succeeded, by election, Richard S. Field.

MARYLAND-1863, Jan. 14, Thomas H. Hicks, first by appointment and then by election, succeeded James A. Pearce, deceased Dec. 20, 1862. VIRGINIA-1861, July 13, John S. Carlile and Waitman T. Willey, sworn in place of Robert M. T. Hunter and James M. Mason, withdrawn and abdicated.

KENTUCKY-1861, Dec. 23, Garrett Davis succeeded John C. Breckinridge, expelled December 4.

INDIANA-1862, March 3, Joseph A. Wright succeeded Jesse D. Bright, expelled Feb. 5. 1863, Jan. 22, David Turpie superseded, by election, Joseph A. Wright.

cember 2, 1861; 1862, January 20, William A. Hall succeeded John B. Clark, expelled July 13, 1861; 1862, May 9, John S. Phelps qualified. lowA-1861, December 2, James F. Wilson succeeded Samuel R. Curtis, resigned August 4, 1861.

WISCONSIN 1863, January 26, Walter D. McIndoe succeeded Luther Hanchett, deceased November 24, 1862.

OREGON 1861, July 30, George K. Shiel succeeded Andrew J. Thayer, unseated. LOUISIANA-1863, February 17, Michael Hahn qualified; 1863, February 23, Benjamin F. Flanders qualified.

President Lincoln's First Message,
July 4, 1861.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and

House of Representatives :

Having been convened on an extraordinary Occasion, as authorized by the Constitution, your attention is not called to any ordinary

ILLINOIS-1863, Jan. 30, William A. Richard-subject of legislation. son superseded, by election, O. H. Browning. At the beginning of the present Presidential MISSOURI-1862, Jan. 24, R. Wilson suc- term, four months ago, the functions of the ceeded Waldo P. Johnson, expelled Jan. 10. Federal Government were found to be generally 1862, Jan. 29, John B. Henderson succeeded suspended within the several States of South Trusten Polk, expelled Jan. 10. Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, excepting only those of the Post Office Department.

MICHIGAN-1862, Jan. 17, Jacob M. Howard succeeded K. S. Bingham, deceased Oct. 5, 1862. OREGON 1862, Dec. 1, Benjamin F. Harding succeeded Edward D. Baker, deceased Oct.

21, 1862.

IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

MAINE-1862, December 1, Thomas A. D. Fessenden succeeded Charles W. Walton, resigned May 26, 1862.

MASSACHUSETTS-1862, December 1, Amasa Walker succeeded Goldsmith F. Bailey, deceased May 8, 1862; 1861, December 2, Samuel Hooper succeeded William Appleton, resigned. CONNECTICUT-1861, December 2, Alfred A. Burnham qualified.

PENNSYLVANIA-1861, December 2, Charles J. Biddle qualified; 1862, June 3, John D. Stiles succeeded T. B. Cooper, deceased April 4, 1862. VIRGINIA-1861, July 13, John S. Carlile resigned to take a seat in the Senate; 1861, December 2, Jacob B. Blair succeeded John S. Carlile, resigned; 1862, February 28, Charles H. Upton unseated by a vote of the House; 1862, May 6, Joseph Segar qualified.

Within these States, all the forts, arsenals, dock-yards, custom-houses, and the like, including the movable and stationary property in and about them, had been seized, and were held in open hostility to this Government, excepting only Forts Pickens, Taylor, and Jefferson, on and near the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, South Carolina. The forts thus seized had been put in improved condition; new ones had been built, and armed forces had been organized, and were organizing, all avowedly with the same hostile purpose.

The forts remaining in the possession of the Federal Government in and near these States were either besieged or menaced by warlike preparations, and especially Fort Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-protected hostile batteries, with guns equal in quality to the best of its own, and outnumbering the latter as perhaps ten to one. A disproportionate share of the Federal muskets and rifles had somehow found their way into these States, and had been seized to be used against the Government. AcKENTUCKY-1862, December 1, George H. cumulations of the public revenue, lying within Yeaman succeeded James S. Jackson, deceased; them, had been seized for the same object. The 1862, March 10, Samuel L. Casey succeeded navy was scattered in distant seas, leaving but Henry C. Burnett, expelled December 3, 1861. a very small part of it within the immediate TENNESSEE-1861, December 2, Horace May-reach of the Government Officers of the Fednard qualified; 1862, January 13, Andrew J. Clements qualified; 1863, February 25, George W. Bridges qualified.

ILLINOIS-1861, December 12, A. L. Knapp qualified, in place of J. A. McClernand, resigned; 1862, June 2, William J. Allen qualified, in place of John A. Logan, resigned; 1863, January 30, William A. Richardson withdrew to take a seat in the Senate.

eral army and navy had resigned in great numbers; and of those resigning a large proportion had taken up arms against the Government. Simultaneously, and in connection with all this, the purpose to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed. In accordance with this purpose an ordinance had been adopted in each of these States, declaring the States, respectively, to be separated from the National Union.

A formula for instituting a combined govern- | mated. This could not be allowed. Starvation ment of these States had been promulgated; was not yet upon the garrison; and ere it would and this illegal organization, in the character of Confederate States, was already invoking recognition, aid, and intervention from foreign Powers.

ones.

Finding this condition of things, and believing it to be an imperative duty upon the in coming Executive to prevent, if possible, the consummation of such attempt to destroy the Federal Union, a choice of means to that end became indispensable. This choice was made, and was declared in the inaugural address. The policy chosen looked to the exhaustion of all peaceful measures before a resort to any stronger It sought only to hold the public places and property not already wrested from the Government, and to collect the revenue; relying for the rest on time, discussion, and the ballot-box. It promised a continuance of the mails, at Government expense, to the very people who were resisting the Government; and it gave repeated pledges against any disturbance to any of the people, or any of their rights. Of all that which a President might constitutionally and justifiably do in such a case, everything was forborne without which it was believed possible to keep the Government on foot.

This

be reached Fort Pickens might be re-inforced. This last would be a clear indication of policy, and would better enable the country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as a military necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for the landing of the troops from the steamship Brooklyn into Fort Pickens. order could not go by land, but must take the longer and slower route by sea. The first return news from the order was received just one week before the fall of Fort Sumter. The news itself was that the officer commanding the Sabine, to which vessel the troops had been trans ferred from the Brooklyn, acting upon some quasi armistice of the late Administration, (and of the existence of which the present Adminis tration, up to the time the order was dispatched, had only too vague and uncertain rumors to fix attention,) had refused to land the troops. To now reinforce Fort Pickens, before a crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter, was impossible-rendered so by the near exhaustion of provisions in the latter named fort. In precaution against such a conjuncture the Government had, a few days before, commenced preparing an expedition, as well adapted as might be, to relieve Fort Sumter, which expedition On the 5th of March (the present incumbent's was intended to be ultimately used, or not, acfirst full day in office) a letter of Major Ander-cording to circumstances. The strongest antison, commanding at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th of February, and received at the War Department on the 4th of March, was, by that Department, placed in his hands This letter expressed the professional opinion of the writer that reinforcements could not be thrown into that fort within the time for his relief, rendered necessary by the limited supply of provisions, and with a view of holding possession of the same, with a force of less than twenty thousand good and well-disciplined men. This opinion was concurred in by all the officers of his command, and their memoranda on the subject were made enclosures of Major Anderson's letter. The whole was immediately laid before Lieut. General Scott, who at once concurred with Major Anderson in opinion. On reflection, however, he took full time, consulting with other officers, both of the army and the navy, and, at the end of four days, came reluctantly, but decidedly, to the same conclusion as before. He also stated at the same time that no such sufficient force was then at the control of the Gov-less themselves, by resisting so much, should ernment, or could be raised and brought to the ground within the time when the provisions in the fort would be exhausted. In a purely military point of view this reduced the duty of the Administration in the case to mere matter of getting the garrison safely out of the fort.

cipated case for using it was now presented; and it was resolved to send it forward. As had been intended in this contingency, it was resolved to notify the Governor of South Carolina that he might expect an attempt would be made to provision the fort; and that if the attempt should not be resisted there would be no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition, with out further notice, or in case of an attack upon the fort. This notice was accordingly given; whereupon the fort was attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expedition.

It is thus seen that the assault upon and reduction of Fort Sumter was, in no sense a matter of self-defence on the part of the assailants. They well knew that the garrison in the fort could, by no possibility, commit aggression upon them. They knew-they were expressly notified-that the giving of bread to the few brave and hungry men of the garrison was all which would on that occasion be attempted, un

provoke more. They knew that this Government desired to keep the garrison in the fort, not to assail them, but merely to maintain in visible possession, and thus to preserve the Union from actual and immediate dissolutiontrusting, as hereinbefore stated, to time, disIt was believed, however, that to so abandon cussion, and the ballot-box for final adjustment; that position, under the circumstances, would and they assailed and reduced the fort for prebe utterly ruinous; that the necessity under cisely the reverse object-to drive out the viswhich it was to be done would not be fully un-ible authority of the Federal Union, and thus derstood; that by many it would be construed as a part of a voluntary policy; that at home it would discourage the friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to the latter a recognition abroad; that in fact it would be our national destruction consum

force it to immediate dissolution. That this was their object the Executive well understood; and having said to them, in the Inaugural Address, "you can have no conflict without being

*See page 113.

yourselves the aggressors," he took pains not | only to keep this declaration good, but also to keep the case so free from the power of inge. nious sophistry as that the world should not be able to misunderstand it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances, that point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of the Government began the conflict of arms, without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort sent to that harbor years before for their own protection, and still ready to give that protection in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, they have forced upon the country, the distinct issue:"Immediate dissolution or blood."

And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a Constitutional Republic or Democracy-a government of the people by the same people-can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration according to organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this case, or on any other pretences, or arbitrarily without any pretence, break up their Government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: "Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakDess ?" "Must a Government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?"

So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation.

The call was made, and the response of the country was most gratifying, surpassing in unamimity and spirit the most sanguine expectations. Yet none of the States commonly called slave States, except Delaware, gave a regiment through regular State organization. A few regiments have been organized within some others of those States by individual enterprise, and received into the Government service. Of course, the seceded States, so called, (and to which Texas had been joined about the time of the inauguration,) gave no troops to the cause of the Union. The border States, so called, were not uniform in their action; some of them being almost for the Union, while in others-as Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas-the Union sentiment was nearly repressed and silenced. The course taken in Virginia was the most remarkable, perhaps the most important. A Convention, elected by the people of that State to consider this very question of disrupting the Federal Union, was in session at the capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. To this body the people had chosen a large majority of professed Union men. Almost immediately after the fall of Sumter, many members of that majority went over to the original disunion minority, and, with them, adopted an ordinance for withdrawing the State from the Union. Whether this change was wrought by their great approval of the assault upon Sumter, or

their great resentment at the Government's resistance to that assault, is not definitely known. Although they submitted the ordinance, for ratification, to a vote of the people, to be taken on a day then somewhat more than a month distant, the Convention, and the Legislature, (which was also in session at the same time and place,) with leading men of the State, not members of either, immediately commenced acting as if the State were already out of the Union. They pushed military preparations vigorously forward all over the State. They seized the United States armory at Harper's Ferry, and the navy-yard at Gosport, near Norfolk. They received-perhaps invited-into their State large bodies of troops, with their warlike appointments, from the so-called seceded States. They formally entered into a treaty of temporary alliance and co-operation with the so-called "Confederate States," and sent members to their Congress at Montgomery. And, finally, they permitted the insurrectionary Government to be transferred to their capital at Richmond

The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders; and this Government has no choice left but to deal with it where it finds it. And it has the less regret, as the loyal citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. Those loyal citizens this Government is bound to recognize, and protect, as being Virginia.

In the Border States, so-called-in fact, the Middle States-there are those who favor a policy which they call "armed neutrality;" that is, an arming of those States to prevent the Union forces passing one way, or the disunion the other, over their soil. This would be disunion completed. Figuratively speaking, it would be the building of an impassable wall along the line of separation; and yet not quite an impassable one; for, under the guise of neutrality, it would tie the hands of the Union men, and freely pass supplies from among them to the insurrectionists, which it could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke it would take all the trouble off the hands of secession, except only what proceeds from the external blockade. It would do for the disunionists that which, of all things, they most desire-feed them well, and give them disunion without a struggle of their own. It recognizes no fidelity to the Constitution, no obligation to maintain the Union; and while very many who have favored it are doubtless loyal citizens, it is, nevertheless, very injurious in effect.

Recurring to the action of the Government, it may be stated that, at first, a call was made for seventy-five thousand militia; and rapidly following this, a proclamation was issued for closing the ports of the insurrectionary districts by proceedings in the nature of blockade. So far all was believed to be strictly legal. At this point the insurrectionists announced their purpose to enter upon the practice of privateering.

Other calls were made for volunteers to serve three years, unless sooner discharged, and also for large additions to the regular army and navy. These measures, whether strictly legal or not, were ventured upon, under what ap

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