Finsteret according to act of Congress AD 1960 by Jolson, Prydech in the clerk's office of the district court for the southern distria e A

ANOTHER CALL FROM LEE.

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Taking new resolution from the fate which our enemies intend for us, let every man devote all his energies to the common defence. Our resources, wisely and vigorously employed, are ample, and with a brave army sustained by a determined and united people, success, with God's assistance, cannot be doubtful. The advantages of the enemy will have but little value, if we do not permit them to impair our resolution. Let us then oppose constancy to adversity, fortitude to suffering, courage to danger, with the firm assurance that He who gave freedom to our fathers will bless the efforts of their children to preserve it."

assured that the soldiers who have so sent themselves without leave, shall suf long and so nobly borne the hardships fer such punishment as the court may and dangers of war, require no exhorta- impose, and no application for clemency tion to respond to the calls of honor and will be entertained. duty. With the liberty transmitted by their forefathers, they have inherited the spirit to defend it. The choice between war and abject submission is before them. To such a proposal brave men with arms in their hands can have but one answer. They cannot barter manhood for peace, nor right of selfgovernment for life or property. But justice to them requires sterner admonition to those who have abandoned their comrades in the hour of peril. The last opportunity is offered them to wipe out the disgrace and escape the punishment of their crimes. By authority of the president of the confederate States, pardon is announced to such deserters and men improperly absent as shall return to commands to which they belong within the shortest possible time, not exceeding twenty days from the publication of this order, at the headquarters of the department in which they may be. Those who may be prevented by the interruption of communications, may report within the time specified to the nearest enrolling officer, or other officer on duty, to be forwarded as soon as practicable, and upon presenting the certificate from such an officer, showing compliance with the requirement, will receive the pardon hereby offered those who have deserted to the service of the enemy, or who have deserted after hav- | ing been once pardoned for the same offence; and those who shall desert or absent themselves without authority, after the publication of this order, are excluded from its benefits. Nor does the offer of pardon extend to other of fences than desertion and absence without permission. By the same authority it is also declared that no general amnesty will be again granted, and those who refuse to accept pardon now offered, those who shall hereafter desert or ab

Another call of Lee was quite as significant of the growing weakness of the rebel ranks. He demanded of citizens any carbines, revolvers, pistols, saddles and other equipments of the kind which they might have in their possession, for the purpose of equipping an additional force of cavalry, an arm of the service of which the rebels had once greatly boasted, but in which their inferiority was now grossly apparent.

The question of arming the negroes for service in the war, after much discussion by the rebel press, the confederate authorities at Richmond, the governors of the rebel States, and the rebel congress, was finally determined in March by the passage of the following "Act to increase the military forces of the confederate States: The congress of the confederate States of America do enact, that in order to provide additional forces to repel invasion, maintain the rightful possession of the confederate States, secure their independence and preserve their institutions, the president be and he is hereby authorized to ask for and accept from the owners of slaves the services of such num

ber of able-bodied men as he may deem negroes as soldiers. I think the measexpedient, for and during the war, to ure not only expedient but necessary. perform military service in whatever The enemy will certainly use them capacity he may direct. Section 2. against us if he can get possession of That the general-in-chief be authorized them, and as his present numerical suto organize the said slaves into compa-periority will enable him to penetrate nies, battalions, regiments, and brig- many parts of the country, I cannot see ades, under such rules and regulations the wisdom of the policy of holding as the secretary of war may prescribe, them to await his arrival, when we may and to be commanded by such officers by timely action and judicious manageas the president may appoint. Section ment use them to arrest his progress. 3. That while employed in the service I do not think that our white population the said troops shall receive the same can supply the necessities of a long war rations, clothing, and compensation as without overtaxing its capacity and imare allowed to other troops in the same posing great suffering upon our people; branch of the service. Section 4. That and I believe we should provide reif, under the previous sections of this sources for a protracted struggle, not act, the president shall not be able merely for a battle or a campaign. In to raise a sufficient number of troops answer to your second question, I can to prosecute the war successfully, only say that, in my opinion, the neand maintain the sovereignty of the groes, under proper circumstances, will States and the independence of the make efficient soldiers. I think we confederate States, then he is hereby could, at least, do as well with them as authorized to call on each State, when- the enemy, and he attaches great impor ever he thinks it expedient, for her tance to their assistance. Under good quota of three hundred thousand troops, officers and good instruction, I do not in addition to those subject to military see why they should not become solservice under existing laws, or so many diers. They possess all the physical thereof as the president may deem qualifications, and their habits of obenecessary, to be raised from such classes dience constitutes a good foundation for of the population, irrespective of color, discipline. They furnish a more promin each State, as the proper authorities ising material than many armies of thereof may determine: Provided, that which we read in history, which owed not more than twenty-five per cent. of their efficiency to discipline alone. I the male slaves between the ages of think those who are employed should be eighteen and forty-five in any State freed. It would be neither just nor shall be called for under the provisions wise, in my opinion, to require them to of this act. Section 5. That nothing serve as slaves. The best course to in this act shall be construed to author- pursue, it seems to me, would be to call ize a change in the relation of the for such as are willing to come with the said slaves." consent of their owners. An impressment or draft would not be likely to bring out the best class, and the use of coercion would make the measure distasteful to them and to their owners. have no doubt that if congress would authorize their reception into service, and empower the president to call upon individuals or States for such as they are willing to contribute, with the con

The rebel General Lee had previously given this measure his support in a letter dated Headquarters C. S. armies, February 18, 1865, addressed to the Hon. E. Barksdale, House of Representatives, Richmond. "I have," says he, "the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th instant, with reference to the employment of

T

HUNTER ON ARMING SLAVES.

dition of emancipation to all enrolled, a sufficient number would be forthcoming to enable us to try the experiment. If it prove successful, most of the objections to the measure would disappear, and if individuals still remained unwilling to send their negroes to the army, the force of public opinion in the States would soon bring about such legislation as would remove all obstacles. I think the matter should be left, as far as possible, to the people and to the States, which alone can legislate as the necessities of this particular service may require. As to the mode of organizing them, it should be left as free from restraint as possible. Experience will suggest the best course, and it would be inexpedient to trammel the subject with provisions that might, in the end, prevent the adoption of reforms suggested by actual trial."

success.

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stated by R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, in the debate on the passage of the act in the rebel senate. "When we left the old Government," he said, "he had thought we had gotten rid for ever of the slavery agitation; that we were entering into a new confederacy of homogeneous States; but, to his surprise, he finds that this government assumes the power to arm the slaves, which involves also the power of emancipation. To the agitation of this question, the assumption of this power, he dated the origin of the gloom which now overspreads our people. They knew that if our liberties were to be achieved, it was to be done by the hearts and the hands of free men. It also injured us abroad. It was regarded as a confession of despair and an abandonment of the ground upon which we had seceded from the old Union. We had insisted that Congress had no right to interfere with slavery, and upon the coming into power of the party who it was known would assume and exercise that power, we seceded. We had also then contended that whenever the two races were thrown together, one must be master and the other slave, and we vindicated ourselves against the accusations of the abolitionists by asserting that slavery was the best and happiest condition of the negro. Now what does this proposition admit? The right of the central government to put the slaves into the militia, and to emancipate at least so many as shall be rap-cipate placed in the military service. It is a clear claim of the central government to emancipate the slaves. If we are right in passing this measure, we were wrong in denying to the old Government the right to interfere with the institutions of slavery and to emancipate slaves. Besides, if we offer slaves their freedom as a boon, we confess that we were insincere, were hypocritical, in asserting that slavery was the best state for the negroes themselves. He had been sincere in declaring that the cen

Attempts were at once made in Richmond to bring a body of negroes into the service. They do not appear, however, to have been attended with much Besides its inherent difficulties, the undertaking met with a doubtful support from leading politicians. The act, after having been rejected, was barely passed, and, under the failing fortunes of the confederacy, came too late, at least tor ender any appreciable aid to the army in Virginia. Its moral effect was to confirm the faith of the North, and pretty clearly suggest to the South that slavery itself must now rapidly perish. When General Lee wrote those who are employed should be freed," he admitted the whole question of the superiority of freedom. Governor Brown, of Georgia, in a message to his legislature about this time, expressed the inevitable result. "Whenever," said he, "we establish the fact that the negroes are a military people, we destroy our theory that they are unfit to be free. When we arm the slaves we abandon slavery." The consequences of the policy were still more strongly