nitions of war to enable a down-trodden people to defend themselves, will not only give us that privilege, but will join us and help us in the work. The people of Kentucky love the Union; they love the Constitution; they have no fault to find with it; but in that State they have a duplicate to the Governor of ours. When we look all around, we see how the Governors of the different States have been involved in this conspiracy-the most stupendous and gigantic conspiracy that was ever formed, and as corrupt and as foul as that attempted by Catiline in the days of Rome. We know it to be so. Have we not known men to sit at their desks in this chamber, using the Government's stationery to write treasonable letters; and while receiving their pay, sworn to support the Constitution and sustain the law, engaging in midnight conclaves to devise ways and means by which the Government and the Constitution should be overthrown? The charge was made and published in the papers. Many things we know that we cannot put our finger upon; but we know from the regular steps that were taken in this work of breaking up the Government, or trying to break it up, that there was system, concert of action. It is a scheme more corrupt than the assassination planned and conducted by Catiline in reference to the Roman Senate. The time has arrived when we should show to the nations of the earth that we are a nation capable of preserving our existence, and give them evidence that we will do it. I have already detained the Senate much longer than I intended when I rose, and I shall conclude in a few words more. Although the Government has met with a little reverse within a short distance of this city, no one should be discouraged and no heart should be dismayed. It ought only to prove the necessity of bringing forth and exerting still more vigorously the power of the Government in maintenance of the Constitution and the laws. Let the energies of the Government be redoubled, and let it go on with this war-not a war upon sections, not a war upon peculiar institutions anywhere; but let the Constitution and the Union be its frontispiece, and the supremacy and enforcement of the laws its watchword. Then it can, it will, go on triumphantly. We must succeed. This Government must not, cannot fall. Though your flag may have trailed in the dust; though a retrograde movement may have been made; though the banner of our country may have been sullied, let it still be borne onward; and if, for the prosecution of this war in behalf of the Government and the Constitution, it is necessary to cleanse and purify the banner, I say, let it be baptized in fire from the sun and bathed in a nation's blood! The nation must be redeemed; it must be triumphant. The Constitution-which is based upon principles immutable, and upon which rest the rights of man and the hopes and expectations of those who love freedom throughout the civilized worldmust be maintained. Doc. 130. THE PEACE PROPOSITION. THE following is the Peace Proposition, offered by Mr. Cox, of Ohio, in the House of Representatives, on the 29th of July, 1861: Mr. Cox. I ask leave to offer the following resolution: "WHEREAS, it is the part of rational beings to terminate their differences by rational methods, and inasmuch as the differences between the United States authorities and the seceding States has resulted in a civil war, characterized by bitter hostility and extreme atrocity; and although the party in the seceded States are guilty of breaking the national unity and resisting the national authority; yet, "Be it resolved, First. That while we make undiminished and increased exertions by our navy and army to maintain the integrity and stability of this Government, the common laws of war, consisting of those maxims of humanity, moderation, and honor, which are a part of the international code, ought to be observed by both parties, and for a stronger reason than exists between two alien nations, inasmuch as the two parties have a common ancestry, history, prosperity, glory, Government, and Union, and are now unhappily engaged in lacerating their common country. Second. That, resulting from these premises, while there ought to be left open, as between two alien nations, the same means for preventing the war being carried to outrageous extremities, there ought also to be left open some means for the restoration of peace and union. Third. That, to this endthe restoration of peace and union on the basis of the Constitution-there be appointed a committee of one member from each State, who shall report to this House, at its next session, such amendments to the Constitution of the United States as shall assuage all grievances, and bring about a reconstruction of the national unity; and that, for the preparation of such adjustment and the conference requisite for that purpose, there be appointed a commission of seven citizens of the United States, consisting of Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, Millard Fillmore, of New York, Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, Martin Van Buren, of New York, Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, and James Guthrie, of Kentucky, who shall request from the socalled Confederate States the appointment of a similar commission, and who shall meet and confer on the subject in the city of Louisville on the first Monday of September next. And that the committee appointed from this House notify said commissioners of their appointment and function, and report their action to the next session as an amendment of the Constitution of the United States, to be proposed by Congress to the States for their ratification, according to the fifth article of said Constitution." Mr. Washburne, (interrupting its reading.) I object to the introduction of that resolution. | There is no longer a necessity for the President We have had enough of it read. Mr. Cox. I move to suspend the rules to enable me to introduce it. The reading of the resolution was resumed and completed. Mr. Potter. I wish to ask the gentleman from Ohio if he is willing to insert, among the proposed commissioners, the name of James Buchanan? (Laughter.) Mr. Cox. No, sir; not at all. I call for the yeas and nays on the motion to suspend the rules. The yeas and nays were ordered. to assume authority not granted when Congress is in session, with power to grant all needed authority. The Constitution makes ample provision for its own maintenance, and this rebellion can be put down in pursuance of the Constitution. Among other things, that instrument declares that Congress shall have power to declare war, to make rules concerning captures on land and water, to raise and support armies, and make rules for their government; to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union and suppress insurrection, and to make all the laws necessary for carrying Mr. Roscoe Conklin. I move that the House into execution these powers. The Constitution do now adjourn. The motion was not agreed to. The question was taken, [on the motion to suspend the rules,] and it was decided in the negative-yeas 41, nays, 85. Doo. 131. When also authorizes a suspension of the writ of ha- REMARKS OF MESSRS. TRUMBULL AND the declaration of war, or the calling forth the CARLILE militia to execute the laws or to suppress insurrection, all the incidents to war and hostilities necessarily and lawfully follow. How far it is necessary to destroy the persons of enemies or rebels, or to ravage and lay waste their country, must depend upon the necessities of the case, to be judged of by the political and not the judicial power of the Government. The Government is to decide when that which amounts to a rebellion exists, and to interfere to suppress it with all the incidents to such interference. The Supreme Court of the United States expressly says, in the case of Luther against Borden, 7 Howard 45, "Unquestionably a State may use its military power to put down an armed insurrection too strong to be controlled by the civil authority. The power is essential to the existence of every government, and essential to the preservation of order and free institutions." ON THE BILL TO SUPPRESS INSURRECTION, IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, JULY 30. MR. TRUMBULL said: The object of this bill is to confer certain powers on the military authorities in cases of insurrection and rebellion, and to regulate, as far as practicable, by law, the exercise of such powers; to provide for putting down this rebellion in a constitutional and legal manner. The rebellion having arisen during the recess of Congress, imposed on the President, who is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and whose duty it is to see that the laws are faithfully executed, the necessity of exerting his whole constitutional power to preserve the Constitution from overthrow and the Government from destruction. It may be that in the exercise of this high duty the President has assumed authority and done acts which no positive law directly authorized, Mr. Carlile (Va.) moved to strike out the but whatever he has done which was necessary eighth section, which provides that the military to preserve the Constitution and the Govern- commander cause suspected persons to be ment from destruction till Congress could be brought before him and administer the oath of convened and act, was not only not forbidden, allegiance, and on his refusal to take the oath but proper and right. On the great principle he may detain him as a prisoner. He said, of self-defence and self-preservation, I am pre- giving great power to the military commander pared to justify the Administration for all it has might do great injury. Men were disposed to done to save the republic from the blow which aid this effort to overthrow the Government wicked rebels were aiming at its very life, and and pay no attention to the oath. He was free which, unless warded off, might have been fatal to say, if he should be so unfortunate as to be to its existence. In such a case I care not taken prisoner by the enemies of his country, whether I can find in strict law the precise and could only preserve his life by taking the warrant for what has been done. The great oath, and if he believed it his duty to his counlaw of self-preservation overrides all others, and try and family to preserve his life, then he at such a time it is enough for me that the Ad- should not regard the oath as a binding obligaministration has acted in good faith for the tion, morally or legally. He contended that the safety of the State, without unnecessary en- President is justified in what he has done in croachments on the rights of the citizen. When suspending the writ of habeas corpus. It was Congress meets, it becomes its bounden duty to rebellion to overthrow republican institutions clothe the Executive with all the powers neces- to preserve any peculiar institution. In regard sary to save the Government from overthrow. I to arrests, he said there were to-day many of GEN. BUTLER ON THE "CONTRABAND." HEAD-QUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War : SIR: By an order received on the morning of the 26th July from Major-General Dix, by a telegraphic order from Lieut.-General Scott, I was commanded to forward, of the troops of this department, four regiments and a half, including Col. Baker's California regiment, to Washington, via Baltimore. This order reached me at 2 o'clock A. M., by special boat from Baltimore. Believing that it emanated because of some pressing exigency for the defence of Washington, I issued my orders before daybreak for the embarkation of the troops, sending those who were among the very best regiments I had. In the course of the following day they were all embarked for Baltimore, with the exception of some 400, for whom I had not transportation, although I had all the transport force in the hands of the quartermaster here, to aid the Bay line of steamers, which, by the same order from the Lieut.-General, was directed to furnish transportation. Up to and at the time of the order I had been preparing for an advance movement, by which I hoped to cripple the resources of the enemy at Yorktown, and especially by seizing a large quantity of negroes who were being pressed into their service in building the intrenchments there. I had five days previously been enabled to mount for the first time, the first company of light artillery, which I had been empowered to raise, and they had but a single rifled cannon, an iron six-pounder. Of course, every thing must and did yield to the supposed exigency and the orders. This ordering away the troops from this department, while it weakened the posts at Newport News, necessitated the withdrawal of the troops from Hampton, where I was then throwing up intrenched works to enable me to hold the town with a small force, while I advanced up the York or James River. In the village of Hampton there were a large number of negroes, composed in a great measure of women and children of the men who had fled thither within my lines for protection, who had escaped from maurauding parties of rebels who had been gathering up able-bodied blacks to aid them in constructing their batteries on the James and York Rivers. I had employed the men in Hampton in throwing up intrenchments, and they were working zealously and efficiently at that duty, saving our soldiers from that labor under the gleam of the mid-day sun. The women were earning substantially their own subsistence in washing, marketing, and taking care of the clothes of the soldiers, and rations were being served out to the men who worked for the support of the children. But by the evacuation of Hampton, rendered necessary by the withdrawal of troops, leaving me scarcely 5,000 men outside the Fort, including the force at Newport News, all these black people were obliged to break up their homes at Hampton, fleeing across the creek within my lines for protection and support. Indeed, it was a most distressing sight to see these poor creatures, who had trusted to the protection of the arms of the United States, and who aided the troops of the United States in their enterprise, to be thus obliged to flee from their homes, and the homes of their masters who had deserted them, and become fugitives from fear of the return of the rebel soldiery, who had threatened to shoot the men who had wrought for us, and to carry off the women who had served us, to a worse than Egyptian bondage. I have, therefore, now within the Peninsula, this side of Hampton Creek, 900 negroes, 300 of whom are able-bodied men, 30 of whom are men substantially past hard labor, 175 women 225 children under the age of 10 years, and 170 between 10 and 18 years, and many more coming in. The questions which this state of facts presents are very embarrassing. First, What shall be done with them? and, Second, What is their state and condition? Upon these questions I desire the instructions of the Department. The first question, however, may perhaps be answered by considering the last. Are these men, women, and children, slaves? Are they free? Is their condition that of men, women, and children, or of property, or is it a mixed relation? What their status was under the Constitution and laws, we all know. What has been the effect of rebellion and a state of war upon that status? When I adopted the theory of treating the able-bodied negro fit to work in the trenches as property liable to be used in aid of rebellion, and so contraband of war, that condition of things was in so far met, as I then and still believe, on a legal and constitutional basis. But now a new series of questions arises. Passing by women, the children, certainly, cannot be treated on that basis; if property, they must be considered the incumbrance rather than the auxiliary of an army, and, of course, in no possible legal relation could be treated as contraband. Are they property? If they were so, they have been left by their masters and owners, deserted, thrown away, abandoned, like the wrecked vessel upon the ocean. Their former possessors and owners have causelessly, traitorously, rebelliously, and, to carry out the figure, practically abandoned them to be swallowed up by the winter storm of starvation. If property, do they not become the property of the salvors? but we, their salvors, do not need and will not hold such property, and will assume no such ownership: has not, therefore, all proprietary relation ceased? Have they not the means by which the war is prosecuted, beside being the cause of the war; and if, in so doing, it should be objected that human beings were brought to the free enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, such objection might not require much consideration. become, thereupon, men, women, and children? | tuted the wealth of that State, and furnished No longer under ownership of any kind, the fearful relicts of fugitive masters, have they not by their masters' acts, and the state of war, assumed the condition, which we hold to be the normal one, of those made in God's image. Is not every constitutional, legal, and moral requirement, as well to the runaway master as their relinquished slaves, thus answered? I confess that my own mind is compelled by this reasoning to look upon them as men and women. If not free born, yet free, manumitted, sent forth from the hand that held them never to be reclaimed. Of course, if this reasoning, thus imperfectly set forth, is correct, my duty, as a humane man, is very plain. I should take the same care of these men, women, and children, houseless, homeless, and unprovided for, as I would of the same number of men, women, and children, who, for their attachment to the Union, had been driven or allowed to flee from the Confederate States. I should have no doubt on this question, had I not seen it stated that an order had been issued by General McDowell in his department, substantially forbidding all fugitive slaves from coming within his lines, or being harbored there. Is that order to be enforced in all military departments? If so, who are to be considered fugitive slaves? Is a slave to be considered fugitive whose master runs away and leaves him? Is it forbidden to the troops to aid or harbor within their lines the negro children who are found therein, or is the soldier, when his march has destroyed their means of subsistence, to allow them to starve because he has driven off the rebel masters? Now, shall the commander of a regiment or battalion sit in judgment upon the question, whether any given black man has fled from his master, or his master fled from him? Indeed, how are the free born to be distinguished? Is one any more or less a fugitive slave because he has labored upon the rebel intrenchments? If he has so labored, if I understand it, he is to be harbored. By the reception of which, are the rebels most to be distressed, by taking those who have wrought all their rebel masters desired, masked their battery or those who have refused to labor and left the battery unmasked? I have very decided opinions upon the subject of this order. It does not become me to criticize it, and I write in no spirit of criticism, but simply to explain the full difficulties that surround the enforcing it. If the enforcement of that order becomes the policy of the Government, I, as a soldier, shall be bound to enforce it steadfastly, if not cheerfully. But if left to my own discretion, as you may have gathered from my reasoning, I should take a widely different course from that which it indi cates. In a loyal State I would put down a servile insurrection. In a state of rebellion I would confiscate that which was used to oppose my arms, and take all that property, which consti Pardon me for addressing the Secretary of War directly upon this question, as it involves some political considerations as well as propriety of military action. I am, sir, your obedient servant, BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. Doc. 133. ATTACK ON FORSYTHE, MISSOURI, SPRINGFIELD, Mo., Wednesday, July 24, 1861. LAST Saturday 1,200 men were detailed, under Gen. Sweeney, to break up a secession camp located at Forsythe-a point about fifty miles south of this, and situated at or near the foot of the Ozark Mountains. Monday, at starting, we were thirty miles from Forsythe, having only made twenty miles in the two days previous, owing to heavy rains and the consequent almost impassable character of the mountain roads. However, the day was cool, and the men pushed forward with a vigor that brought them to their destination at 2 P. M. of the same day. Our command was composed of Companies C and D, Dragoons, under Capt. Stanley, a section of Capt. Totten's battery, under charge of Lieut. Sokalski, five hundred of the First Iowa regiment, under Lieut.-Col. Merritt, and a balance made up of mounted Kansas Volunteers, under Capt. Wood, and Second Kansas Infantry, under Col. Mitchell. Forsythe has been noted for some time as being the rendezvous of some four hundred secessionists, who drilled there, and made it the basis of a series of predatory operations upon the property of Union men living in the vicinity. They were said to be fortified in the Courthouse, and, by the character of the town, to an extent that would enable them to resist a much superior force. This fact or report, together with the one that they had plenty of arms, provisions, &c., determined Gen. Lyon to break them up. About three miles this side, ten men went forward to make a reconnoissance. A mile or so ahead they ran against three of the enemy's pickets-one of whom they captured, but the other two escaped and probably gave the alarm in the town. Companies C and D, under Capt. Stanley, and the Kansas Mounted Volunteers, under Capt. Wood, were ordered to charge immediately on the town, while the rest were directed to follow up in double-quick. The town is situated at the confluence of Swan Creek and White River, which protect it on its northwest and southwest sides, while to the east it is guarded by an almost inaccessible bluff, heavily timbered. The approach of the troops was from the north side-the Dragoons were to attack indirectly in front, the Kansas men to proceed to their right, and while some mounted Home Guards were detailed to the right of these, the Artillery was to take position a half mile or so from the town, on an eminence, supported on either side by the infantry. These dispositions made, the order "Forward" was given, and for the three miles the cavalry proceeded on a tremendous gallop, forded Swan Creek, and then taking intervals, dashed straight on the town. We were a little too late, but just in time to see about 150 secessionists break from all parts of the town, ford White River, and gain the woods beyond, or rush up the steep bluffs, where they disappeared in the timber. The party that forded White River took position among the trees and opened a sharp fire on the United States troops, but a hundred shots or so from the Sharpe's rifles of the Dragoons sent them flying towards the Arkansas border. Scarcely had they left, when the party which sought the shelter of the bluffs opened fire upon us, but Capt. Stanley and Lieut. M. J. Kelley, of Company C, dashed off with some fifty Dragoons, when they fled and were seen no more. About this time the artillery came up and opened on the Court House, which at the time was occupied by several of our own men, including the reporter of the Dubuque Times. Three shells were fired into it before the mistake was discovered. Fortunately, no one but the reporter was injured, and he only slightly, by being struck by a splinter in the back of the head. The artillery then turned its attention to the bluffs, and sent three charges of grape into a party of secessionists, who were evidently taking French leave of the section. They scattered all but three or four, who remained and probably will remain there till removed by their friends. In the Court House were found blankets, rifles, provisions, and clothing in large quantities. A large quantity of lead was recovered from a well into which it had been thrown, and, in addition, several horses and one or two prisoners were captured. Our loss was slight. Privates Wilthorne and Martin, Company D, Dragoons, were wounded slightly, and another man had a ball sent through his shoulder, and Capt. Stanley's horse was shot under him, and two other horses were slightly wounded. The secessionists lost five killed and ten woundedamong them was said to be Capt. Jackson, The command camped in the town Monday night, and Tuesday at noon commenced their march homewards, and will probably reach here by noon to-morrow. At Yellville, on the Arkansas border, there is said to be 1,000 secessionists, and at Camp Walker in the northwestern part of the State, 10,000, whose design is to retake Springfield, and from here march on St. Louis. GALWAY. -N. Y. Times, July 31. Doo. 134. BAPTIST CONVENTION OF S. C. THIS body closed its forty-first anniversary on the 28th of July, at Spartanburg Court House: Hon. J. B. O'Neall, President; Rev. Mr. Landrum, Vice-President; Rev. Mr. Breaker, Secretary; Prof. Judson, Treasurer. The aggregate membership of the churches throughout the State, represented in the Convention, is about sixty thousand; of whom one-third are colored. The objects of the Convention are Foreign and Domestic Missions, the Bible and the Sunday School cause, and Education, both Literary and Theological. A deep and prayerful solicitude for the success of our great national struggle marked all the religious exercises. On this subject, the following resolution, offered by Dr. W. Curtis, was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That in the present peculiar condition of our political affairs, it becomes us thus to assure our beloved country of our sympathies, prayers, and thanksgiving on her behalf; that so far as we can understand the remarkable openings and guidance of Divine Providence, we have but received, in almost every instance, the merciful blessings of our God, as approbation upon the plans our State and the Southern Confederacy have deemed it best to adopt-that now especially, in the unprecedented, vindictive, and deadly strife against us, to which those who but recently spoke of us as brethren are urging one another, we can but rejoice in the oneness of our brethren of this State, in prayer and effort to defend our homes, our liberties, and our churches; and encourage them to be assured, that, as hitherto, putting our faith in God, though each of us may have inuch to bear, yet the rod will not finally rest upon us, but that in this most wicked attack upon our otherwise peaceful homes, the wickedness of the wicked will return on their own heads. By special appointment of the Convention, a thanksgiving sermon was preached on Sunday morning, by Rev. Dr. Broaddus, of Greenville, from Psalm 44: 6. A collection was taken up at the close of the sermon for the relief of our sick and wounded soldiers, amounting to one hundred and thirty dollars; among which was found a handsome gold ring, the heart offering of some fair donor. It is an interesting fact, as illustrative of the extraordinary character of our army, that one of the churches of the Convention, in Spartanburg District, has no less than thirty-four of its members in our Southern army. In one of the companies from that district there are sixty members of the Baptist churches, and not one of those killed in the late battle. |