sion, the only way to permanent peace and prosperity, is through national repentance.

At a convention of loyal ministers and laymen of the Holston Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church Sonth, held at Knoxville on August 17, 1864, it was resolved that the loyal members of the Conference have a just claim to all the church property; that they really constitute the Southern Methodist Church within the bounds of the Holston Conference; that they propose, at the earliest day practicable, to transfer the same to the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States; and that the ministers be instructed to propose to their congrega tions to go en masse to the Methodist Episcopal Church in Conference one hundred and twenty preachers known to be loyal, and forty others supposed to be true to the Union; and it is thought, therefore, that the work of reconstruction will be easily accomplished.

the United States. There are in the bounds of the Holston

The Cumberland Presbyterians of the rebellious States, though very numerous, have never succeeded in effecting a separate church organization. The delegates from East Tennessee, at the General Assembly of the present year, voted with the majority for resolutions demanding the cessation of slavery in both Church and State.

WESLEYAN METHODIST. GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CONNECTION, 1864.

June 1-The body met at Adrian, Michigan. June 4-The Report of the Committee on the State of the Country, Revs. W. H. Brewster and A. Crooks, and E. Starbuck, layman, was adopted, as follows:

Meeting as we do, a national body, at a time when a civil war of unequalled magnitude, and fraught with consequences, not only to this nation, but the world, without a parallel, is raging; when the telegraphic wires stretching through this vast republic seem so many nerves of sensation uniting us with the fields of conflict where the nation's life seems to depend upon success, or defeat, we should be justly charged with indifference-with want of patriotism, did we give no expression of views and feelings upon the subject.

We desire humbly and gratefully to confess that, as a nation, we are in the hands of a merciful and just God, who is dealing with us in the way of judgment for our sins, tempered with mercy, extorting from the nation the confession, "How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out."

He who does not see that God is dealing with this nation, is blind indeed. So striking are the evidences of the Divine hand-so has God conducted us and overruled the plans and purposes of men, bringing about results we all desired but which we should have failed to achieve had our wished for success in the earlier struggles been realized, that in our reverses, not less than in our victories, we recognize the unsearchable wisdom, justice and goodness of God. His justice afflicts us, that we may humble ourselves and repent of our sins, and be willing to surrender the hateful cause of this rebellion, while his mercy spares us, that we may yet be a people to his praise.

We rejoice, that contrary to the wishes of the President -in spite of political parties-in spite of the influence of the border States, the war has become a war for freedom on the one hand, and for the establishment of slavery on the other; and before the nations of the earth, and before God we are obliged to accept this issue. We bow with adoring wonder before the sublinity and grandeur of the onward sweep of Divine Providence in the events now transpiring among us.

We recognize with gratitude to Almighty God the remarkable change of national sentiment upon the subject of slavery, and the rights of colored persons. "It is the Lord's doings and marvelous in our eyes," and one of those results reconciling us to the sacrifices of life, and the other evils incident to this war. Every blow struck by the Union army, is a blow for liberty, every victory over the rebels, is a victory in behalf of liberty; and the advance of our army, is the onward march of freedom into the heart of despotism, and our success is a triumph in behalf of liberty for all races of men.

Resolved, That the war being a judgment of God upon

Resolved, That we accept vil war in the course of Divine Providence as a result of national crimes, while its horrors of bloodshed and savage cruelty have deepened our purpose to labor and pray for that period when the nations of the earth shall learn war no more.

Resolved, That in the spirit of patriots and christians, we affirm for ourselves and our churches, our unqualified loyalty to the Government, and our readiness to endure and make all the sacrifices necessary to the overthrow of the rebellion, and the destruction of slavery, its guilty W. H. BREWSTER, ADAM CROOKS, EDWARD STARBUCK, Committee.

cause.

Rev. J. Watson, voting against, in brief remarks stated that he was opposed to war at any time.

June 7-The Report of the Committee to draft an address to the President of the United States-Revs. W. H. Brewster, Henry Norton, and W. W. Lyle, and Joseph Parrish, and C. G. Case, laymen-was adopted as follows:

ADRIAN COLLEGE, ADRIAN, MICH., June 6, 1864. To His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the Uni ted States:

The General Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America, convened at Adrian, Michigan, in its Quadrennial Assembly deems it fit and proper in its as80ciated capacity, to extend to you its christian greeting.

laymen, we desire to say to you as the Chief Magistrate of

And first of all, as an assembly of christian ministers and the Nation," May grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ rest upon you." In common with all the truly loyal of our citizens we have felt the deepest interest in the great struggle now going on to maintain the integrity of the nation, and to protect and perpetuate those institutions of freedom so dear to every American heart, and which have been threatened by the wicked rebellion which now rages. And we have not ceased to pray that God, in his adorable Providence, would not only incline the hearts of his people to true repentance on account of our national sins, and especially of the great sin of the nation, human bondage; but that He would graciously vouchsafe to our army and navy such victories over armed traitors as that this most wicked and causeless of rebellions might be speedily crushed, and the nation be restored to peace and tranquillity. Aside from the general principles of loyalty and genuine patriotism, there are very special reasons why we, as a connection of christian churches, should be more than ordinarily interested in our country's severe struggle for the maintenance of righteous govern

ment.

Taking as one of the cardinal truths of christianity, that God hath made of one blood all nations of men that dwell ou the face of the earth, and being convinced that it was a duty we owed to God and humanity to protest by word and deed against the fearful crime of American slavery, which was sanctioned and protected by the leading christian denominations of the land!

The denomination which we represent, and which is known as the "Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America," organized twenty-one years ago. Holding with a firm grasp the doctrines of grace taught by the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which we seceded on account of her then notoriously pro-slavery principles and practice. We differed from the church of our early choice only on matters of ecclesiastical polity, and the great distinctive principle of holding no fellowship with the slaveholder, his aider, or apologist.

During these twenty-one years no slaveholder, nor sympathizer with slavery, has ever been received into the men bership of our churches, and since this wicked rebellion has raged, a single disloyal Wesleyan Methodist has been unknown throughout our entire connection.

We have watched with anxious solicitude and prayerful interest the course which you, as the Chief Executive of the nation, have pursued in these days of commotion and bloodshed. And realizing the unspeakable importance of the issues at stake, and the difficulties by which your administration has been surrounded, and the conflicting elements that have conspired to trammel or thwart some of the most obviously correct, and, as the results show, the wisest and most successful measures you have from time to time adopted to crush the rebellion; we have not withheld from you our heartfelt sympathy, nor ceased to pray that

great satisfaction to know that on the breaking out of the pro-slavery rebellion, the position we had occupied for twenty years is the one the government and the nation has been compelled to assume, so that when they wheeled to face the foe we found ourselves already in line, without having to right about face.

We thank you for your edict of emancipation. We thank you in the name of that God who has revealed himself as the friend, and protector, and avenger of the poor and needy. We thank you in the name of the millions of the oppressed of our land. We thank you in the name of universal humanity, and we only regret that that document, noble as it is, is too partia' and discriminating in favor of those States, and parts of States not in open rebellion, but whose treason against God's moral government only the more clearly shows that their treasonable proclivities are but scarcely concealed; and their protestations of loyalty are but for the basest and most selfi-h of purposes.

That you. Sir, may be guided by more than humon wisdom in your onerous and responsible position, and that every spiritual and temporal blessing may be yours, that our noble soldiers and sailors, so heroically and nobly fight- | ing the battles of liberty may be abundantly successful, and that that day may speedily dawn when the bow of peace shall again be seen in our heavens, and we be a united and happy people, with the dear old flag waving over a redeemed and regenerated nation, is our earnest and devout prayer.

With feelings of the highest esteem and regard. tendered you by this Conference, the undersigned are authorized in Its behalf to sign and forward to you this epistle.

Respectfully, &c.,

LUTHER LEE, President.

JOHN MCELDOWNEY, Secretary. Same day-The report of the committee to draft an Address to the Churches-Luther Lee, D. D., Revs. W. W. Crane and M. Q. McFarland-was adopted, as follows:

To the members of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America, the General Conference in session at Adrian, Michigan, June, 1864, sendeth greeting: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It gives us great pleasure to be able to assure you that our coming together has been in peace, and that we have been much refreshed in meeting once more as your representatives, to take each other by the hand of christian fellowship, and to look upon each others' faces once more in the flesh, many of us having long been endeared to each other, in common with you, by e mmon labors, sacrifices, and sufferings in the cause of God and humanity.

The times are portentous, and wrath has fallen upon our beloved country, fearful in extent, though it be less than our national sins deserve.

The fearful evil of slavery, which our nation so long cherished in its bosom, has at last stung it like a viper, and convulsed our whole commonwealth. This evil has culminated in rebellion and war, which has filled our land with weeping and sorrow for the thousands slain. But amid the evils that oppress us, our confidence remains unshaken in the Providence of God, as all-wise, gracious, and efficient; and we exhort you all to maintain the same confidence, as we trust you have done, and will continue to do. It is no doubt a consolation to you, as it is to us, to know that we foresaw these evils as the probable retribution for the national sin of slavery, and faithfully warned our fellow-citizens of the same, and did what we could to remove the evil and avert the gathering storm; but our words were not heeded, only so far as to be requited with opposition, slander, hatred, and persecution; yet all we suffered is now more than compensated in knowing that we did our duty in the premises: that as a denomination we never had a slaveholder in our communion, and never d.sgraced the religion we profess by giving its sanction in any form or degree to the crime of human bondage, and

The war has very materially impeded our religious progress, it having made large drafts upon our membership, and even taken numbers of our ministers for the defence of our common country against the most wicked rebellion and war that ever disgraced humanity. The excitement which has pervaded the public mind has also diverted attention from the subject of religion, and tended to render the moral power of the ministry and churches unavailing for the promotion of revivals; yet we have reason to thank God and take courage in view of the progress that has been made. We have been favored with many gracious revivals, which have resulted in the enlargement of some of the churches and in the organization of new ones, and in the erection of new houses of worship. Our progress, if not rapid, has been steadily onward, and we have been strengthened in all the elements that give efficiency to our connection; and we are most happy to be able to state that since our last quadrennial gathering, we have been blessed with greater internal peace and harmony than has marked any former period of our history. We cannot forbear to congratulate you in regard to two achievements of the last

four years.

*

5. The missionary cause is the last object we will name as presenting special claims to your benevolence. This is very important in our circumstances, as we have many feeble churches, who must receive help from stronger churches, or soon be erased from our records.

This aid can be most effectually rendered through a well devised home missionary system, into which we exhort all the churches to enter with zeal and large benevo lence.

There is yet another field of missionary enterprise, calling loudly for our most enlarged christian benevolence. It is the freedmen of the southern States. These victims of oppression are now being thrown upon their own resources by the convulsions of the war, and demand aid, which they must have or suffer, if not perish. Voluntary emancipation upon the soil by slaveholders, would have been attended by far less evil consequences, as then the resources of the country would not have been imp ired, and they would have found employment in the fields of their former bondage. But the war has desolated the country, consumed its supplies of food and clothing, while the slaves have broken away and rushed by thousands to our lines for protection, in the most destitute and pitiable condition. We may suppose that Government is now doing what it can to elevato their condition, but that is not sufficient to meet their circumstances; they need not only food and clothing, but advice, instruction, schools, and the gospel in its purity, which they have never had. It will require years of be nevolent effort to elevate this degraded people, after so many generations of dark bondage, and it is a work which must be done, not by Government but by religions communities, and while others enter into it with zeal, let us not be found wanting.

And now, brethren, remember that we have a great work to do, and that time is short. Years rush along, and hasten us all onward to our final account. Up, then, and be at the appropriate work of life, which is not to hoard up a little of this world for others to quarrel over when we are gone, but to do good, to bless mankind, to spread the gospel of salvation, to glorify God here in our bodies and our spirits, which are his, and to win a throne and a crown of glory in immortality. Remember that it is in this life that eternal destinies are settled; it is on the moral battle-fields of earth that immortal crowns, and thorns, and kingdoms are won. The day of judgment will declare our destiny, and mete out our reward; but here amid the activities of life, we determine for ourselves what they shall be. May the God of all truth and grace administer unto you abun dantly the aid and consolation of the Holy Spirit, and fill you with zeal, and love, and power to do His will, and make

Volunteers: First Lieutenant George Banman, 22d Wisconsin Volunteers; and which convened at Murfreesboro', Tennessee, September 14, 1863, pursuant to Special Orders, No. S, dated Post Headquarters, Murfreesboro', September 9, 163, was arraigned and tried

Robert Taylor, a citizen. CHARGE Murder."

Specification- In this: that he, the said Robert Taylor, a citizen of Coffee county, in the State of Tennessee, did beat a negro woman named Retter,' in such manner that she died from the effects of the wounds thus inflicted. This on or about the 31st day of August, 1863, at or near the residence of said Robert Taylor, about three miles from the town of Hillsboro', in Coffee county, Tennessee." To which charge and specification the accused, Robert Taylor, a citizen, pleaded "Not Guilty."

FINDING.The Commission having maturely considered the evidence adduced, finds the accused, Robert Taylor, a citizen, as follows:

Of the Specification, “Guilty."

Of the Charge, "Not Guilty as charged, but 'Guilty of manslaughter.""

SENTENCE-And the Commission does therefore sentence him, Robert Taylor, a citizen, "To be confined in the State Penitentiary for the period of five years."

II. The proceedings, findings, and sentence in the foregoing case having been approved by the Major General commanding the Department, and laid before the President of the United States, the following are his orders:

The testimony in the case, as found in the record, is brief and free from all discrepancy or contradiction. The prisoner, it seems, alleged that an amount of money had been stolen from him-how much was not stated-but there was no proof of any such theft, still less anything tending to connect with it the murdered woman, on whom his suspicious fell. Probably, however, from apprehension of punishment, this woman-whom he claimed to own-made an attempt to run away, was pursued by the prisoner and his neighbors, captured, and brought back. The prisoner then procured a rope, and, addressing himself to the bystanders, asked if there was any one present who could tie "a hang knot," when a man named Womack stepped forward and tied it. The prisoner then adjusted it around the neck of the woman, and, throwing it over the limb of a tree, in the sight of his own dwelling, where were his wife and daughters, the work of murder began. Finding that the woman protected herself by seizing the rope with her hands, it was slackened and her hands tied, and again she was drawn up so that her toes barely touched the ground, and in this position she was held by the prisoner until, from suffocation and exhaustion, her head fell on one side. Through the interposition of the prisoner's wite and the bystanders, the rope was then loosened, and an opportunity given the woman to revive. While this torture was going on, the prisoner declared his object to be to compel the woman to confess the theft charged upon her, but she stoutly denied any knowledge of the money alleged to have been lost. She was now taken by the prisoner to his tanyard, distant 200 or 250 yards, and was then stripped by him of all her clothes except her chemise. In the language of one of the witnesses, she was then confined by crossing her hands and tying them together, then putting them over her knees with a stick thrust under, holding them in that position." Thus pinioned, and lying alternately on her face and on her side, as the purposes of her tormentor required, for some two hours and a half, with brief intervals. she was whipped by the prisoner with a leather thong, two inches wide and three feet long, having a knot at the end. At the expiration of this time, "some neighbors present Baid they thought he had whipped her about enough for that time," and he thereupon desisted. She was then untied and assisted by one of the neighbors towards the kitchen, staggering and falling several times from exhaustion on the way. She succeeded, however, in reaching the kitchen, on the threshold of which she fell, in the presence of the prisoner's wife, and a few minutes thereafter expired.

The shameless character of the defence was in keeping

with the crime.

It was insisted in the defence that the woman's death was produced by some cold water, of which, in her heated and exhausted condition, she had drunk; and in attempted palation of the prisoner's murderous brutality, it was proved by several of his neighbors that he bore a good moral character, and clothed and fed his slaves well; and for bimself, he stated that he had once before, on a similar charge, given the woman even a worse whipping than that of which she died!

That a body of officers holding commissions in the Army of the United States, and acting under the responsibility of an bath, should deal thus lightly with so shocking a sacrifice of human life, cannot but excite sentiments of mingled Burprise and regret. Every circunstance surrounding the crime aggravates its euormity-among which may be

named the absence of all provocation; the prolonged tor ture to which the wretched sufferer was subjected, thus affording ample time for all human passion, had any existed, to have cooled; but above all, the sex and utter help. lessness of the bound and unresisting victim.

The President directs that the sentence, inadequate as it is, shall, except as to the place of confinement, be carried into execution, and Albany, New York, is designated as the Penitentiary where he shall be confined. But while doing so, he feels it incumbent upon him to call the attention of the Army, and especially of those charged with the adminis tration of military justice, to the insensibility displayed by this Commission, and to express the disapprobation with which it is regarded. The members of the Commission, in thus lightly dealing with one of the most revolting murders on record, have done no honor to themselves, and af forded an example which it is hoped will never again be witnessed in the service.

The prisoner will be sent, under proper guard, to Albany, New York, and delivered to the warden of the Penitentiary at that place, for confinement for the period of five years, in accordance with the sentence.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General.

CASE OF REV. FOUNTAIN EROWN, OF ARKANSAS. WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF MILITARY JUSTICE, May 24th, 1864.

To the PRESIDENT: In the case of Fountain Brown, a citizen of Arkansas, referred to this office by order of your Excellency, May 23d, 1864, the following report is respectfully submitted:

This is an application for the pardon of a man convicted by a military commission of selling into slavery, and running beyond the Union lines, colored persons who had been made free by the President's proclamation of emancipation. The facts proved are briefly these: The prisoner, who is a preacher and presiding elder of the Methodist Church, in the State of Arkansas, resided at or near Flat Bayou, and, at the date of the President's proclamation, held as slaves two families of negroes, numbering about ten persous, old and young, of both sexes These families consisted of-1st, Lucy and her husband, John, two children that she had by him, and two that she had by another person, supposed to have been one McAfee, a white man; and 2d, Delia, with her husband, Hortou, and two children, one by him and the other by an unknown father. After the occupation of the district, including Flat Bayou, by the Union forces, the prisoner informed these people, or at least the men, that they were free, and, if they wished, could leave-thus recognizing the proclamation and renouncing his claim to their services. They did not then leave him. In the course of last year, (1863,) the white man McAfee, who had been cohabiting with the woman Lucy, who was a light mulatto, frequently besought the prisoner to assist him in getting her and her children away with him to Texas. This arrangement the prisoner claims to have declined to enter into, on the ground that it was contrary to existing law. McAfee then proposed to buy them, but the prisoner refused to make the sale; yet, after much solicitation and the offer of seven thousand dollars for the lot, he finally yielded. The bargain was struck; he received four thousand dollars cash in hand, and the purchaser's promise to pay the balance; and McAfee carried off the women and children, eight in mumber, beyond the lines, and, as it is supposed, to Texas. One of the colored men, the husband of Lucy, left his wife at home on Monday morning, and, returning on Tuesday evening, found no trace of her or her children. Powerless to assert their rights, or ignorant of them, they had been abducted by McAfee, who abandoned his own wife at Flat Bayou, where she still resides.

The men both testify that their wives did not want to go away, and it would appear that they contemplated with aversion and terror the probability of being compelled by McAfee to accompany him.

It seems that the conscience of the prisoner, or his fear of the vengeance of the outraged law, would not let him rest. He made his appearance at the Headquarters at Pine Bluff, and, relating his story, solicited exemption from prosecution. He was, however, arraigned before a military commission for kidnapping and for selling into slavery per sons of African descent made free by the President's proc lamation, found guilty, and sentenced to confinement in a military prison for five years. Major General Steele, commanding the Department, approved the finding and sentence, and forwarded the proceedings for the action of the President, which has not yet been had.

In the opinion of this officer, it was not requisite that the confirmation of the President should be obtained; but, as it is presumable that the execution of the sentence will not commence until directed by him, it is expedient and

The pardon of the prisoner is now applied for by citizens of Arkansas, who sign a petition averring that he has subscribed the oath prescribed by the proclamation of amnesty, and has always heretofore been a good and influential man in the church and the community. The paper sets forth no other proof of loyalty. This petition is favorably recommended by Colonel Powell Clayton, commanding at Pine Bluff. It is presented by Mr. A. A. C. Rogers, who claims to be a member of Congress elect from the Second District of Arkansas, and who says that he believes the prisoner intended no wrong; that the act for which he was tried occurred soon after the Federal occupation of that section, "whilst all was confusion, doubt, and uncertainty;" that the husband and father of the negroes sold had been taken to Texas, the owner wanted the wife and children, they wanted to go, and the prisoner sold them, in ignorance of the nature of the offence. IIe adds that he thinks the pardon, if granted, would strengthen the good feeling of his district toward the government.

Mr. Rogers has fallen into several serious errors in his version of the case. He states that the husband and father of the negroes sold had been taken to Texas. So far from this being true, it is in evidence that the husbands of both the women are still at Flat Bayou; and so far from the woman Lucy wanting to go, her husband testifies that she begged him to remove her from the custody of the prisoner, and of McAfee, lest she should be taken away by force.

Besides, whether the wishes of the adults about going or remaining were consulted or not, it is a mockery of truth, as shallow as it is wicked, to attribute consent to the six helpless and mindless children, the oldest of whom was a boy of seven, and the youngest a baby but a few months old. It would require a rule of law as repugnant to reason as the extinct slave-code of Arkansas was revolting to humanity, to impute the exercise of volition to the unhappy little beings, whom his barbarous avarice, proving stronger than his sense of the obligations of law, human or divine, impelled a presiding elder of the Methodist Church to sell into a life of hopeless bondage in a distant State.

Moreover, whatever "confusion" may, as Mr. Rogers avers, have attended the advent of the Union troops at Flat Bayon, it does not appear to have unsettled the perceptions of the prisoner, who, so far from being in "doubt and uncertainty," as to the law by which he was bound, expressly told Mc Afee that a sale would be illegal, and only forgot his scruples and his renunication of the authority of a master, when the tempting bid of seven thousand dollars was finally offered.

The crime of the prisoner was a deliberate and wilful violation of law. It set at naught the proclamation of emancipation. It snatched two wretched females, free by that charter, away from their husbands and surrendered them to a thraldom of lust and violence, to end only with their lives. It consigned six unoffending children, free by that charter, to perpetual servitude, in a region deemed by the purchaser (who was also the father of at least two of them) safely remote from the influences of liberty and the restraints of law.

All the features of the offence are so brutal and so depraved, that to be abhorred they need only to be recited; but when it is considered that the perpetrator is a presiding elder of the Methodist Church of the State of Arkansas, a man, by his position and his pretensions, the exemplar of public and privato morality among the people around him, to whom multitudes looked up as their preceptor and spiritual guide, it must be admitted that the measure of his guilt is incomparably aggravated.

That a criminal of so deep a dye, who has been adjudged to suffer the abridgment of his liberty for five years, for depriving eight human beings of theirs forever, should (with the price of his guilt still in his pocket) ask a pardon from the government he has defied, seems an instance of effrontery scarcely paralleled even in the annals of the present rebellion.

The government, it is conceived, would be recreant to the principles which it has been forced by treason to inaugurate, if it were to treat their flagrant violation with lenity. The proclamation of emancipation is nothing, or it is an irrevocable decree of freedom to all within its terms.

It is a solemn law of the land, upheld by the inherent war-powers of a nation struggling for self-preservation, Banctioned by reason and sanctified by precious blood. Violations of it should be punished in proportion to the magnitude of their consequences, and the importance of sustaining it by warning examples.

The absence of prohibitory sanctions in the proclamation itself, furnishes no pretext for the misinterpretation which would exempt the prisoner from punishment for his crime. These persons stood before the law disenthralled of the shackles of slavery and absolutely free, and so the prisoner had recognized them to be. He, having, with a full

them, wilfully incurred all the penalties denounced against the most atrocious species of kidnapping.

The crime of the prisoner, by reason of his conspicuous social and religious position, has doubtless attracted the notice of a large number of the people of his State. His pardon, obtaining equal publicity, would, it is believed, bə taken by the traitorous adherents of slavery as a tacit official declaration that the Government did not seriously intend to maintain the most momentous and vital of its war measures, and that the President consented to be understood as permitting to pass into a mockery that proclamation upon which, on the 1st day of January, 1863, he solemnly invoked "the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

This is believed to be the first case in which a violation of the Proclamation of Emancipation has been brought to the notice of the President. It is deemed fortunate for the great purposes of justice that the proof is so strong and the circumstances so marked. The offender is a prominent personage; the victims young and weak; the sale made with full knowledge of the law and the rights of freedom it bestowed; the transaction notorious and basely mercenary. It is fit to be made a test case, in which the Government may distinctly re-assure the South of its unalterable pur pose to enforce the decree which it has deliberately promul gated. If, while the able-bodied freedmen, attracted and encouraged by that decree, are enrolling themselves as soldiers under the standard which they recognize as the symbol and the guaranty of freedom, and are exposing themselves to the perils of battle on the field, and to the horrors of massacre if captured, their late masters are suffered to sell and transport their helpless wives and children into renewed servitude, without encountering the inflexible severity of adequate punishment, the Government cannot fail to stand before the world dishonored by such breach of a faith which, on the part of the unhappy race with whom it has been plighted, is being everywhere bravely and loy ally kept with their blood. If the Government could pardon this outrage upon its laws, or mitigate its punishment, how can it forget the wretched victims of the crime? The conviction is fully entertained that the question of pardon or mitigation should not even be considered until these victims shall have been returned to within our military lines, and thus restored to the status of freedom which they there occupied. J. HOLT, Judge Advocate General Application denied and sentence approved. AUGUST 9, 1864.

A. LINCOLN.

CASE OF WEST BOGAN, OF ARKANSAS.
JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL'S OFFICE,
May 30, 1861

To the PRESIDENT:
West Bogan, a negro, was tried February 1st before a mil-
itary Commission, sitting at Helena, Ark., on the charge of
"murder."

In this that the said West Bogan on or about the 15th of December, 1863, killed Munroe Bogan, a citizen of Phillipe Co., Arkansas, by striking him with an axe upon the head and neck.

The court found him guilty and sentenced him to be hung; General Buford approves the findings and sentence, and recommends that it be commuted to imprisonment at hard labor in some Northern penitentiary for such length of time as the Commanding General shall judge proper. Gen. Steele suspends execution in consequence of this sug gestion, and forwards the proceedings for the action of the President.

The proceedings were strictly regular. The evidence showed that prisoner was and had long been a slave of Munroe Bogan, the deceased, and was still held by him as such despite the Proclamation of Emancipation. It was testified by numerous witnesses that prisoner was in general of an obedient and submissive nature, though when thwarted and irritated by oppression, reckless of what he did.

Ilis master, on the other hand, was shown to have been cruel and exacting, forcing his slaves by constant punishments, to labor night and day and frequently on Sundays, giving them no holiday or resting time, and, as one witness testified, whipping some one every day-and this last too, not as a passionate man might do, by snatching the first weapon at hand and with it punishing a fanlt, but with a deliberate coolness, as shown by his regularly sending for the driver with his whip, which denoted that his temper was fully under his control.

The homicide took place in the early morning, near the prisoner's quarters, and when he was on his way to his day's task. Of the immediate cause of the difficulty, there is no evidence; but Tom, a negro at work in an adjoining field, had his attention drawn to the struggle by hearing his master's call to him, and, on looking round,