from his familiarity with all the points in dispute, his views may command attention. He denounced Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation, and declared that the war must be fruitless in every thing except a harvest of woe; and, addressing himself to the question, What should be done in this fearful extremity? he said: "From the beginning of this struggle to the present moment my hope has been in moral power. There it reposes still. . . . . Through peaceful agencies, and through such agencies alone, can we hope to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity—the great objects for which, and for which alone, the Constitution was formed. If you turn round and ask me, What if these agencies fail? what if the passionate anger of both sections forbids? what if the ballot-box is sealed? Then, all efforts, whether of war or peace, having failed, my reply is, You will take care of yourselves, with or without arms, with or without leaders. We will, at least, in the effort to defend our rights as a free people, build up a great mausoleum of hearts, to which men who yearn for liberty will in after years, with bowed heads and reverently, resort as Christian pilgrims to the sacred shrines of the Holy Land." The hopelessness To those who earnestly desired peace, but were not swayed by the frenzy of partisanship, the ex-Presof reconciliation. ident's speech was a deep disappointment. It was only too plain that his figurative language was with out precise meaning, and that, in fact, he had nothing adequate to recommend. The scornful language of the Confederates, from their President downward, proved unmis takably that they were no longer to be lured by the hope of political spoils. They had higher expectations, and more magnificent plans of their own. "The Yankees ought to know by this time what we mean. Democrats or Lincolnites, we hate them all alike. We are not going to submit to a lecherous union with either. We despise equally the Black Republican Abolitionist and the Copperhead polit ical trickster. We hold at an equal value the threats of III.-E E the one and the fawning humbuggery of the other. Sharp at a trade, let them understand unmistakably that we have nothing to swap, least of all have we any intention of swapping ourselves. They must carry their vile wares to some other market." Notwithstanding the hopelessness of reconciliation, the Action of the Peace party against the government. Peace party were determined so to embarrass the government as to compel it to stop the war. They clamored against the emancipation of the slaves, protested against the conscription and the enlistment of negroes, inveighed against military arrests and war appropriations, and raised an outcry at the invaded liberty of the press. The newspapers of both parties were filled with discussions on these different points, and, as might be anticipated, they were the prominent topics of Congressional debates. The assembling The 37th Congress opened its second regular session on the 1st of December, 1862. Compared with of Congress. the preceding session, its political character was unchanged. In his message the President spoke of the treaty with Great Britain respecting the slave-trade, of African colonization, the condition of the Territories, the financial state of the country, the Atlantic Telegraph, the Pacific Railroad. He recommended the passage of a constitutional amendment providing for the compensated emancipation of slaves. Movements respecting the suspension On the first day of the session, Mr. Cox, of Ohio, offered a resolution in the House declaring that all arrests previously made by the United States. of the habeas corpus. authorities of citizens in states where there was no insurrection were unwarranted by the Constitution, and a usurpation of power. A similar resolution was offered in the Senate. It was asserted that the right to suspend the habeas corpus does not include the right to make arrests. The Constitution of the United States had prescribed that "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion and invasion, the public safety may demand." The suspension was thus authorized, but it was not expressly determined by whom it should be made. We have seen that Lincoln, on the 27th of April, 1861, had ordered Scott to suspend the writ on the military line between Philadelphia and Washington, and on the 10th of the following month had given similar orders to the commander on the Florida coast (vol. ii., p. 31). A bill passed the House, by a vote of 90 to 45, indemAuthority given for nifying the President and his subordinate of such suspension. ficers for suspending the habeas corpus, and for all acts done in pursuance thereof. It was amended in the Senate. It authorized the President to suspend the habeas corpus in any case throughout the United States. It made provision for the protection of persons arrested, and provided that an order of the President should be a sufficient defense in prosecutions for arrests made under that order. It also prescribed the means by which the defendant might have his case adjudicated in the courts. digham. This subject of arrests was the source of much trouble. The case of Vallan- On the 13th of April General Burnside is sued an order at Cincinnati for the punishment of spies and traitors. Mr.Vallandigham, a leading Democrat in Ohio, who had made himself conspicuous by his opposition to the government, was arrested by Burnside, and charged with publicly expressing sympathy for those in arms against the government of the United States, and declaring disloyal sentiments and opinions, with the object and purpose of weakening the power of the govern ment in its efforts to suppress an unlawful rebellion. He was tried by a military commission, found guilty, and condemned to close confinement in some fortress of the United States, there to be kept until the close of the war. Accordingly, Burnside ordered him to be sent to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor. The President, however, com muted the punishment, and ordered the prisoner "to be sent beyond our military lines, and, in case of his return within our lines, he be arrested and kept in close custody for the term specified in his sentence." He passed into the hands of Bragg, who sent him to Richmond, and thence he went to Canada. He returned home toward the close of the war, but was not molested. On the 15th of the following September the President The habeas corpus proclaimed a general suspension of the habeas corpus, to continue throughout the du suspended. ration of the Rebellion. Debates on the Act. The Confederate Congress, in April, 1862, passed a Conscription Act, forcing into their army all white males between 18 and 35, not even excluding those who had already enlisted for shorter terms. The national government was compelled to take similar measures, though with much reluctance. The drain of men to the army had raised the price of labor, which was still farther enhanced by the depreciation of the cur rency. Enthusiasm, which had once supplied volunteers, had died out, and thousands who claimed the privilege of voting refused military service. The Conscription Bill was resisted in the Senate as "despotic, and as conferring more power on the President than belongs to any despot in Europe or any where else." An attempt was made to postpone it, but was unsuccessful; 11 Democrats voted for postponement; there were 35 votes, including that of ev ery Republican present, against it. The bill passed the Senate, the yeas and nays not having been called. In a very able speech, Mr. Wilson presented to that body the true issue. He said: "The issue is now clearly presented to the country for the acceptance or rejection of the American people—an inglorious peace with a dismembered Union and a broken nation on the one hand, or war fought out until the rebellion is crushed beneath its iron heel. Patriotism, as well as freedom, humanity, and religion, accepts the bloody issues of war rather than peace purchased with the dismemberment of the Republic and the death of the nation. If we accept peace, disunion, death, then we may speedily summon home again our armies ; if we accept war until the flag of the Republic waves over every foot of our united country, then we must see to it that the ranks of our armies, broken by toil, disease, death, are filled again with the health and vigor of life. To fill the thinned ranks of our battalions we must again call upon the people. The immense numbers already summoned to the field, the scarcity and high rewards of labor, press upon all of us the conviction that the ranks of our wasted regiments can not be filled again by the old system of volunteering. If volunteers will not respond to the call of the country, then we must resort to the involuntary system.' Act for enrolling national forces. An act was accordingly passed for the enrolling and calling out the national forces. The vote in and calling out the the House, on the 25th of February, was 115 to 49. It became a law on the 3d of March. It provided for the enrollment by national officers of all able-bodied male citizens, irrespective of color, including aliens who had declared their intention to become naturalized, between the ages of 18 and 45; those between 20 and 35 to constitute the 1st class, all others the 2d. The President was authorized, on and after July 1st, to make drafts at his discretion of persons to serve in the national armies for not more than three years, any one drafted and not reporting to be considered as a deserter. Persons drafted might furnish an acceptable substitute, or pay $300, and be discharged from farther liability under that draft. The bill authorized special exemptions in certain cases, such as certain heads of executive departments, gov ernors of states, the only son of a widow depending on his labor for support, the father of dependent motherless chil dren under twelve years of age, etc. In accordance with this act, the enrollment was soon made, and in May a draft of 300,000 men ordered. In the House a bill was passed, by a vote of 83 to 54, Enlistment of col- authorizing the President" to enroll, arm, and ored volunteers. equip, and receive into the land or naval serv ice of the United States, such numbers of volunteers of Af |