Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 17, 1865

Frosty morning, after a rain last night.

We have no authentic war news this morning, from any quarter. Congress is at work in both Houses on the Negro bill. It will pass, of course, without some unforeseen obstacle is interposed.

A letter from Gen. Lee to Gen. Wise is published, thanking the latter's brigade for resolutions recently adopted, declaring that they would consent to gradual emancipation for the sake of independence and peace. This is a strong indication (confirmatory) that Gen. Lee is an emancipationist. From all the signs slavery is doomed! But if 200,000 negro recruits can be made to fight, and can be enlisted, Gen. Lee may maintain the war very easily and successfully; and the powers at Washington may soon become disposed to abate the hard terms of peace now exacted.

How our fancies paint the scenes of peace now which were never appreciated before! Sitting by our cheerless fires, we summon up countless blessings that we could enjoy, if this war were only over. We plan and imagine many things that would be bliss to us in comparison with the privations we suffer. Oh, what fine eating and comfortable clothes we shall have when we enjoy another season of repose! We will hunt, we will "go fishing," we will cultivate nice gardens, etc. Oh for peace once more! Will this generation, with their eyes open, and their memories fresh, ever, ever go to war again?

There is a dark rumor that Columbia, S. C., has been taken possession of by the enemy; but I hardly believe it, for Gen. Beauregard would fight for it.

Gen. Beauregard telegraphs from Columbia, S. C., yesterday, that Gen. Pillow proposes to gather troops west of that point, and Gen. B. approves it. The President hesitates, and refers to Gen. Cooper, etc.

Eleven o'clock A.M. Raining again; wind east.

Mr. Hunter looks rather cadaverous to-day; he does not call on the new Secretary often.  Gen. B. is a formidable rival for the succession—if there should be such a thing.

To-day my son Thomas drew his rations. I have also had another load of coal from Lieut. Parker, C. S. N., out of his contract, at $30, a saving of nearly $100! that will take us through the winter and spring. We also bought another bushel of black beans at $65.

Alas! we have news now of the capture of Columbia, S. C., capital of the State. A dark day, truly! And only this morning—not three short hours ago—the President hesitated to second Beauregard's desire that Gen. Pillow—although not a "red tapist"—should rouse the people to the rescue; but Gen. Cooper must be consulted to throw obstacles in the way! This will be a terrible blow; and its consequences may be calamitous beyond calculation. Poor South Carolina! her day of agony has come!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 424-5

Stephen Duncan to Mrs. Mary Duncan, August 25, 1863

Natchez.

August 25th

1863

My Dear Mary

I trouble you with a line on the subject of our affairs, hoping that you may be able to communicate the substance to some person or persons having influence with the U. S. Govmt.— In the first place — allow me to say I have no cause of complaint against President Lincoln's Proclamation as a War Measure. All Goverments must possess the right & the power of self-preservation, — & to use all means & measures calculated to secure this end. The President, therefore, had the right to proclaim freedom to the slaves — if he deemed the exercise of the right necessary & essential to the suppression of the Rebellion — but — I think there is just ground of complaint against its indiscriminate application to friends as well as enemies & it is unfortuneately too true that its injurious effects are felt certainly by three friends (& probably five) where two enemies suffer. This is hard because the friends were powerless against the numbers opposed to them. It is further hard — because the Confiscation Act is less [incessing?] in its destruction. It discriminates, & only operates on those found in actual rebellion with officers or soldiers in the Rebel ranks or those holding civil offices under the Rebel Gov^mt. If possible — this great grievance should be remedied. It furnishes a strong argument against the U. S. Gov^mt — which the secessionists do not fail to use, — & use freely. Why would not the President allow the Army officers commanding districts — to exercise a sound discretion in bringing the Proclamation to bear on the inhabitants of their respective districts? But again — there is a strong & daily increasing desire to return to the Union, — under a pledge to the adoption of a gradual system of emancipation. Efforts are now making to bring this about.— Already the converts are numerous — very numerous, & among those — too — most actively engaged on the secession side. All that is now wanting to give success to this movement is some official assurance that the rights of property holders (of any description) will be recognized on our return to the Union with the pledge on our part that immediately thereon a system of gradual emancipation shall be adopted by our State Legislature — on just & equitable terms (without compensation in money, but liberal terms as to time.) Can the Gov^mt ask more than this? Could the people of the Northern & Western States desire more? Would it not be infinitely (& to all intents & purposes) better for them than Emancipation under the Proclamation? The people of the U. S. Gov^mt cannot be benefitted by the total & sudden prostration of our productive powers! by the extinction of our entire prosperity. If we are to live again under one Union & one Gov^mt — we must live in mutual dependence on each other. Taxes for the payment of the Gov^mt debt cannot be collected from a people utterly ruined. The sudden emancipation of our slaves would so reduce the value of the lands — that the fee simple would not sell for as much as could & would be collected from the people when in the enjoyment of their rights as slaveholders. But — is it not important to bring back as speedily as possible the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, & Tennessee? How long after would it be before Alabama, Georgia, Florida, & North Carolina would follow the example? I cannot think otherwise than that the Gov^mt of the U. S. ought at once (& without a months delay) to invite the people of these States to return to the Union. It wants but some assurance that they will be treated as the Prodigal Son (so beautifully illustrated in the Scriptures) & they will gladly manifest their penitence if they can be assured that their acknowledgment will not be spurned & scorned: (signed) Stephen Duncan.

SOURCE: Papers of Abraham Lincoln at the Library of Congress, Accessed October 27, 2021

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 29, 1863

A dispatch from Gen. Johnston, dated 27th inst, says fighting at Vicksburg had been in progress ever since the 19th instant, and that our troops have been invariably successful in repulsing the assults. Other dispatches say the uuburied dead of the enemy, lying in heaps near our fortifications, have produced such an intolerable stench that our men are burning barrels of tar without their works.

But still all is indefinite. Yet, from the persistent assaults of the enemy it may be inferred that Grant is inspired with the conviction that it is necessary for him to capture Vicksburg immediately, and before Johnston collects an army in his rear. A few days may produce a decisive result.

Hon. E. S. Dargan, Mobile, Ala., writes that it is indispensable for our government to stipulate for aid from Europe at the earliest moment practicable, even if we must agree to the gradual emancipation of the slaves. He says the enemy will soon overrun the Southwestern States and prevent communication with the East, and then these States (Eastern) cannot long resist the superior numbers of the invaders. Better (he thinks, I suppose) yield slavery, and even be under the protection of a foreign government, than succumb to the United States.

The enemy, wherever they have possession in the South, have adopted the policy of sending away (into the Confederate States) all the inhabitants who refuse to take the oath of allegiance. This enables them to appropriate their property, and, being destitute, the wanderers will aid in the consumption of the stores of the Confederates. A Mr. W. E. Benthuisen, merchant, sent from New Orleans, telegraphs the President for passports for himself and family to proceed to Richmond. The President intimates to the Secretary of War that many similar cases may be looked for, and he thinks it would be better for the families to be dispersed in the country than congregated in the city.

The following are the wholesale prices to-day:

“produce, provisions, etc. – The quotations given are wholesale. Wheat-nothing doing – we quote it nominal at $6.50 to $7; corn, very scarce, may be quoted at $9 to $10; oats, $6 to $6.50 per bushel; flour-superfine, $32, extra, $34, family, $37 per barrel; corn-meal, $11 per bushel; bacon, hoground, $1.45 to $1.50 – a strictly prime article a shade higher; butter, $2.50 to $3 per pound; lard, $1.50 to $1.60; candles, $2.75 to $3 for tallow, $5 for adamantine; dried fruit-apples, $10 to $12, peaches, $15 to $18 per bushel; eggs, $1.40 to $1.50 per dozen; beans, $18 to $20; peas, $15 to $18 per bushel; potatoes, $8 to $10 per bushel; hay and sheaf-oats, $10 to $12 per cwt.; rice, 18 to 20 cents per pound; salt, 45 to 50 cents per pound; soap, 50 to 60 cents per pound for hard country.

leather. — Market unsettled. We quote as follows: Sole, $3.50 to $4 per pound; harness, $1 to $1.25; russett and wax upper, $5 to $5.50; wax kip skins, $6 per pound; calf skins, $300 to $325 per dozen.

liquors. — We continue to quote apple brandy at $23 to $25; whisky, $28 to $32; French brandy — common, $45, genuine, $30 per gallon.

groceries. — Brown sugar, $1.40 to $1.55 per pound — no clarified or crushed offering; molasses, $10.50 to $11 per gallon; coffee, $3.75 to $4 per pound; tea, $8.50 to $10 per pound.”

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 335-6

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Thursday, March 27, 1862

A wintry morning — snow two or three inches deep, ground frozen; the ninth day since this equinoctial set in. P. M. The sun came out bright and warm about 9 A. M.; the snow melted away, and before night the ground became [began] to dry off so that by night we had a very fair battalion drill.

News of a battle near Winchester in which General Shields was wounded. Union victories. I am gradually drifting to the opinion that this Rebellion can only be crushed finally by either the execution of all the traitors or the abolition of slavery. Crushed, I mean, so as to remove all danger of its breaking out again in the future. Let the border States, in which there is Union sentiment enough to sustain loyal State Governments, dispose of slavery in their own way; abolish it in the premanently disloyal States, in the cotton States — that is, set free the slaves of Rebels. This will come, I hope, if it is found that a stubborn and prolonged resistance is likely to be made in the cotton States. President Lincoln's message recommending the passage of a resolution pledging the aid of the general Government to States which shall adopt schemes of gradual emancipation, seems to me to indicate that the result I look for is anticipated by the Administration. I hope it is so.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 218-9

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to John L. Motley, March 8, 1862

Boston, March 8, 1862.

My Dear Motley: I have been debating with myself whether to wait for further news from Nashville, the Burnside expedition, Savannah, or somewhere, before writing you, and came to the conclusion that I will begin this February 24, and keep my letter along a few days, adding whatever may turn up, with a reflection thereupon. Your last letter, as I told you, was of great interest in itself, and for the extracts it contained from the letters of your correspondents. I lent it to your father and your brother Edward, and a few days ago to William Amory, at his particular request. Calling on old Mr. Quincy two days ago, we talked of you. He desired me most expressly and repeatedly to send his regards and respects. I think I am pretty near the words, but they were very cordial and distinguishing ones, certainly. He takes the greatest interest in your prosperity and fame, and you know that the greatest of men have not many nonagenarian admirers. It is nine weeks, I think, since Mr. Quincy fell and fractured the neck of the thigh-bone, and he has been on his back ever since. But he is cheerful, ready to live or die; considers his later years as an appendix to the opus of his life, that he has had more than he bargained for when he accepted life.

As you might suppose it would be at ninety, though he greatly rejoices at our extraordinary successes of late, he does not think we are “out of the woods,” as he has it, yet. A defeat, he thinks, would take down our spirits as rapidly as they were raised. “But I am an old man,” he says, “and, to be sure, an old man cannot help seeing the uncertainties and difficulties which the excitable public overlooks in its exaltation.”

Never was such ecstasy, such delirium of excitement, as last Monday, a week ago to-day, when we got the news from Fort Donelson. Why, — to give you an instance from my own experience, — when I, a grave college professor, went into my lecture-room, the class, which had first got the news a little before, began clapping and clapping louder and louder, then cheering, until I had to give in myself, and flourishing my wand in the air, joined with the boys in their rousing hurrahs, after which I went on with my lecture as usual. The almost universal feeling is that the rebellion is knocked on the head; that it may kick hard, even rise and stagger a few paces, but that its os frontis is beaten in.

The last new thing is the President's message, looking to gradual compensated emancipation. I don't know how it will be received here, but the effect will be good abroad. John Stuart Mill's article in “Fraser” has delighted people here more than anything for a good while. I suppose his readers to be the best class of Englishmen.

Yours always,

O. W. H.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 246-8

Abraham Lincoln’s Message to Congress, March 6, 1862

March 6, 1862.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:

Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave States north of such part will then say, “The Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section.'” To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more northern shall by such initiation make it certain to the more southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say “initiation” because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view any member of Congress with the census tables and Treasury reports before him can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the General Government sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them.

In the annual message last December I thought fit to say '”the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed.” I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle must and will come.

The proposition now made (though an offer only), I hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it in the present aspect of affairs.

While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

SOURCE: James D. Richardson, Editor, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume 8, p. 3269-70

The President on Emancipation.

If proof were wanting of the patriotic ardor of the President for the peace and well being of the country, it would be found abundantly in the message sent yesterday to Congress. Mr. Lincoln appreciates the infinite difficulty of the Slavery question. He evidently despairs of prostrating the institution by force of the war-power; he looks to its existence in full vigor, throughout the Gulf States at least, when the war shall have ended. The utmost reach of his practical dealing with the subject is to strip it of political influence in National affairs. To effect this capital object, there is certainly no way so sure as to destroy the identity of interest between Border Slave States and those at the southward; and this object the President's suggestion proposes to attain. It takes the form of a joint resolution submitted to the consideration of Congress. The possibility of one or more States discovering the impolicy of retaining slave-labor is assumed. To such the joint resolution offers pecuniary aid in the task of emancipation, by engaging to pay a sum prefixed for each enslaved negro set at liberty. This bounty the President evidently believes will turn the scale in favor of freedom. Satisfied of the good faith of the National Government in its professions of non-intervention in the legislation of the States, the States will be ready to look favorably upon a plan which, while it makes the merit of the act of emancipation their own, throws the cost elsewhere. And as the plan is adopted, one after another of the northerly Slave States will array themselves on the side of the free communities of the North.

In considering the Presidential project, a number of difficulties will no doubt suggest themselves to Congress. Any State disposed to part with its negroes will naturally offer them in the best market. The extreme South, in the supposition raised by Mr. Lincoln that Slavery will there retain all its vitality, will compete with the North in the purchase of the discarded labor; and must of necessity offer prices which the North will be unable to pay. When peace shall be restored -- always assuming the President to be right in regard to Slavery in the Gulf States – Kentucky will be able to get $130,000,000 for her negroes at the South, while the North, presupposing the round price of $200 – the highest rate heretofore named, and considered practicable – would be able to offer only one-third of that amount. If by an act of gradual emancipation Kentucky is thus able at any moment to get the larger sum for her slaves, what temptation to the passage of such an act will be the offer of the smaller? Congress will also have to weigh well that incessantly recurring question, what shall be done with the negroes when freed? Their freedom in any border State will no doubt be followed by their expulsion. Even from Illinois, Mr. Lincoln's immediate State, the blacks are about to be expelled. Will it not be necessary for the National Government to provide also for their removal from the country, and their colonization and christianization in a new and distant home? And will not this cost, added to the other, constitute a total from which the country, already startled at the coming terror of war taxation, will draw back appalled ? We fear that the Presidential plan will not achieve the good for which it is so patriotically designed. It will not induce any Slave State to discard Slavery; it will not, therefore, weaken any of the ties between the collective Slave States. It will offer no sufficient reason for departing, even in appearance, from the doctrine that, with Slavery in the States, the National Government has no concern whatever. It will be attended with an expense too overwhelming to be regarded favorably by a people who have already upon their shoulders the burden present and prospective of a debt of several thousands of millions – a burden placed there by Slavery. But let the plan have full discussion; let it also have full credit, as evidence that the Government contemplates no forcible interference with the institutions of any State, rebellious or loyal, and desirable good may grow out of it.

– Published in The New York Times, March 7, 1862

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, March 8, 1862

Shady Hill, 8 March, I862.

As I sit down to thank you for the note that came to me this morning, Jane is reading it aloud to Longfellow, and interrupts me to ask explanations. All you say is very interesting. But can I quite agree with you in confidence in Mr. Lincoln's instincts? His message on Emancipation¹ is a most important step; but could anything be more feebly put, or more inefficiently written? His style is worse than ever; and though a bad style is not always a mark of bad thought, — it is at least a proof that thought is not as clear as it ought to be.

How time brings about its revenges! I think the most striking incident of the war is the march of our men into Charlestown singing the John Brown psalm, "His soul is marching on."

As for Lincoln's suggestions, I am sure that good will come of them. They will at least serve to divide opinion in the Border States. But I see many practical objections to his plan; and I doubt if any State meets his propositions with corresponding action.

The “Tribune” is politic in its burst of ardour. Let us make out the message to be more than it is, — and bring the President up to our view of it. . . .

_______________

¹ The special message urging "gradual abolishment of slavery" was sent to Congress March 6.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 252-3

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Mead, July 26, 1864

Headquarters Army oF The Potomac, July 26, 1864.

I consider the peace movement in Canada, and the share Horace Greeley had in it, as most significant. The New York Times of the 23d has a most important article on the President's “To whom it may concern” proclamation, in which it is argued that Mr. Lincoln was right to make the integrity of the Union a sine qua non, but not to make the abandonment of slavery; that this last is a question for discussion and mutual arrangement, and should not be interposed as a bar to peace negotiations.

It is a pity Mr. Lincoln employed the term “abandonment of slavery,” as it implies its immediate abolition or extinction, to which the South will never agree; at least, not until our military successes have been greater than they have hitherto been, or than they now seem likely to be. Whereas had he said the final adjustment of the slavery question, leaving the door open to gradual emancipation, I really believe the South would listen and agree to terms. But when a man like Horace Greeley declares a peace is not so distant or improbable as he had thought, and when a Republican paper, like the Times, asserts the people are yearning for peace, and will not permit the slavery question to interpose towards its negotiations, I think we may conclude we see the beginning of the end. God grant it may be so, and that it will not be long before this terrible war is brought to a close.

The camp is full of rumors of intrigues and reports of all kinds, but I keep myself free from them all, ask no questions, mind my own business, and stand prepared to obey orders and do my duty.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 215-6

Diary of Salmon P. Chase: Tuesday, July 22d, 1862

This morning, I called on the President with a letter received some time since from Col. Key, in which he stated that he had reason to believe that if Genl. McClellan found he could not otherwise sustain himself in Virginia, he would declare the liberation of the slaves; and that the President would not dare to interfere with the Order. I urged upon the President the importance of an immediate change in the command of the Army of the Potomac, representing the necessity of having a General in that command who would cordially and efficiently cooperate with the movements of Pope and others; and urging a change before the arrival of Genl. Halleck, in view of the extreme delicacy of his position in this respect, Genl. McClellan being his senior Major-General. I said that I did not regard Genl. McClellan as loyal to the Administration, although I did not question his general loyalty to the country.

I also urged Genl. McClellan's removal upon financial grounds. I told him that, if such a change in the command was made as would insure action to the army and give it power in the ratio of its strength, and if such measures were adopted in respect to slavery as would inspire the country with confidence that no measure would be left untried which promised a speedy and successful result, I would insure that, within ten days, the Bonds of the U. S. — except the 5-20s. — would be so far above par that conversions into the latter stock would take place rapidly and furnish the necessary means for carrying on the Government. If this was not done, it seemed to me impossible to meet necessary expenses. Already there were 10,000,000 of unpaid requisitions, and this amount must constantly increase.

The President came to no conclusion, but said he would confer with Gen. Halleck on all these matters. I left him, promising to return to Cabinet, when the subject of the Orders discussed yesterday would be resumed.

Went to Cabinet at the appointed hour. It was unanimously agreed that the Order in respect to Colonization should be dropped; and the others were adopted unanimously, except that I wished North Carolina included among the States named in the first order.

The question of arming slaves was then brought up and I advocated it warmly. The President was unwilling to adopt this measure, but proposed to issue a proclamation, on the basis of the Confiscation Bill, calling upon the States to return to their allegiance — warning the rebels the provisions of the Act would have full force at the expiration of sixty days — adding, on his own part, a declaration of his intention to renew, at the next session of Congress, his recommendation of compensation to States adopting the gradual abolishment of slavery — and proclaiming the emancipation of all slaves within States remaining in insurrection on the first of January, 1863.

I said that I should give to such a measure my cordial support; but I should prefer that no new expression on the subject of compensation should be made, and I thought that the measure of Emancipation could be much better and more quietly accomplished by allowing Generals to organize and arm the slaves (thus avoiding depredation and massacre on the one hand, and support to the insurrection on the other) and by directing the Commanders of Departments to proclaim emancipation within their Districts as soon as practicable; but I regarded this as so much better than inaction on the subject, that I should give it my entire support.

The President determined to publish the first three Orders forthwith, and to leave the other for some further consideration. The impression left upon my mind by the whole discussion was, that while the President thought that the organization, equipment and arming of negroes, like other soldiers, would be productive of more evil than good, he was not willing that Commanders should, at their discretion, arm, for purely defensive purposes, slaves coming within their lines.

Mr. Stanton brought forward a proposition to draft 50,000 men. Mr. Seward proposed that the number should be 100,000. The President directed that, whatever number were drafted, should be a part of the 3,000,000 already called for. No decision was reached, however.

SOURCE: Robert B. Warden, An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 440; Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 47-9.

Proclamation by the President of the United States

WASHINGTON, May 19.

WHEREAS, There appears in the public prints what purports to be a proclamation of Maj. Gen. Hunter; and whereas, the same is producing some excitement and misunderstanding, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, Prest. Of the U. S., proclaim and declare that the Government of the United States had no knowledge or belief of an intention on the part of Gen. Hunter to issue such a proclamation, nor has it yet any authentic information that the document is genuine; and further, that Gen. Hunter, nor any other commander or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States to make proclamation declaring the slaves of any State free; and that the supposed proclamation now in question, whether genuine or false, is altogether void, so far as respects such declaration. – I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any State or States free, and whether at any time or in any case, it shall have been a necessity, indispensable to the maintainance [sic] of the Government to excise such supposed power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field. – There are not only different questions from these of police regulations in armies and camps.

On the 6th day of March last, by a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint resolution to be substantially as follows:

Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such States in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an authentic, definite and solemn proposal of the nation to the States and people most interested in the subject matter.  To the people of these States now, I earnestly appeal.  I do not argue.  I beseech you to make the arguments for yourselves.  You cannot, if you would be blind to the signs of the times.  I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them ranging, if it may be, far above personal and party politics.  This proposal makes common cause for all, and common object, casting no reproaches upon any.  It acts not like the Pharisee.  The changes it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven – not rending or wrecking anything.  Will you not embrace this opportunity.  So much good has not been done by one effort in all past time, as in the Providence of God it is now your high privilege to do.  May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be annexed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 19th day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States, the eighty-sixth.

(Signed)

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WM. H. SEWARD, Sec’y of State.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 2

Arrival of the Niagara – Foreign News

HALIFAX, May 14.

The Niagara, Capt. Stone, from Liverpool and Queenstown 4th, arrived this evening.

GREAT BRITAIN. – Vague rumors of the threatened intervention in America continue in circulation, and the dullness and decline in cotton is attributed to them.

The Paris correspondent of the Daily News, writing on the 1st, says it is positively stated to-day in official circles, that the French and English Ministers at Washington have received identical instructions to attempt a moral intervention, exclusive of any idea of forcible intervention, in the hope of putting an end to the war.

The Paris correspondent of the Independence Belge reiterates the statement relative to the contemplated intervention of France and England for re-establishment in the most absolute manner, and has reason to believe the project will soon be made known officially to the public.  It is said certain conditions will be imposed on the South, having for its object the gradual emancipation of the slaves.

The Times publishes a letter from Mr. Russell, explaining the difficulties thrown in his way by Secretary Stanton when he sought to visit the British Man-of-war.  He says the difficulties amounted to prohibition, and thinks Secretary Stanton would order away the Rinaldo if be.  Russell Further says: “In conclusion, I may be permitted to add that I have received assurances that Gen. McClellan has expressed himself strongly, in reference to Secretary Stanton’s conduct to himself in the matters, and that he and his staff have been kind enough to declare to my friends how deeply they regret my absence from their command.”

On the 2d, Sir G. C. Lewis said the House could soon have ample opportunity to discuss the question of defences, as it would be his duty shortly to ask leave to bring in a bill for another loan for national defences.

Mr. Maguire called attention to the distress in the common manufacturing districts, and reported deaths from starvation in Ireland.  He asked what the Government intended doing.

Sir Robert Pool admitted that distress did exist to some extent, but the accounts were greatly exaggerated.

The Times says that England has withdrawn her stake in the military part of Mexican enterprise, and will get redress for the past and guarantees for the future.

Italians in Paris believe that Rome will be occupied soon by Piedmontese troops.

The Paris Constitutionel asserts that the re-call of Gen. Guyon won’t change French policy in Rome.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

The Resuscitation of the Democratic Party

There is a conviction in the public mind that the war is drawing toward a close – that the events of a few weeks, lying immediately before us will deprive the rebellion of its life, and bring us to a point where no question can be made of the final restoration of national unity.  Under this conviction, certain ambitious men formerly connected with the Democratic party, are sweeping and garnishing the old concern for the reception of the renegades who polluted it, and went off to try housekeeping on their own account.  There is really an attempt in progress to resuscitate the Democratic party – a sort of indecent haste, while battles are pending and only one question is really before the people, to pull off gloves and be ready to take the hand of treason the moment the sword and musket are knocked from its grasp.  The basis for a reunion of the old fragments of the party, still lying around loose at the North, appears to be opposition to the emancipation message of the president and the endorsal of it by Congress.  In this, they have the sympathy and the characteristic co-operation of the Border State men, who seem to have abated none of the arrogance of these times when slavery was not convicted of high treason, and its friends were not hunted from fort to fort and field to field like felons.

Gentlemen, do not be in a hurry.  There will be time enough for these little operations after the last Union soldier is decently buried.  There are battles to be fought yet.  There are thousands of lives to be expended.  There are great conflicts yet to take place by land and sea, in which the blood of noble men is to be poured out like water.  There is to be wailing in myriad homes, over fathers and brothers and lovers slain.  The dirges are to be played yet, and the bells to be tolled.  Do not be in a hurry.  It is possible that, if you wait until you see how much this beautiful institution of slavery, which you propose to patronize, costs the nation, – how much treasure it swallow, and how many lives it sacrifices of men whose worst crime is love of country, you will change your mind.  It is possible that emancipation will not seem so black a scheme a year hence as it does now, even to yourselves, and it is very probable that the people will regard it very differently from those who have axes to grind.

There is a certain class of men, all over the North – we have them even in Massachusetts – who have been educated in the belief that there is a degree of sacredness about the institution of slavery which really pertains to no other institution.  Even to-day, while the whole military and naval power of the country is roused to the effort of loosing the grasp of the slave power upon its throat, there are men not wholly idiots, or consciously traitors, who think and speak tenderly of “the rights of slavery.”  They would not object to taking the horse of a slave holding rebel, or a barn full of hay, or a thousand barrels of flour – nay, they would not much object to taking the rebel himself and shutting him up in Fort Warren; but when we come to lay hands upon his nigger – when we talk of emancipating the poor fellow who has been held all his life in unrequited bondage – their hands are thrown up in holy horror. – It seems to them that slavery has a great many more rights under the Constitution than any other institution.  There would seem to be absolute insanity on this point.  Good God!  The institution of slavery to be treated tenderly by Northern men, on account of the sacredness of its right under a Constitution whose obligations it has shaken off!  Slavery is to be patronized, and emancipation in any form to be opposed by a Northern party that proposes to draw its support from a people decimated and fixed to keep slavery from destroying the Republic!

Well gentlemen, try it.  The Administration has taken its ground on this point, and the Republican party stands with it.  If slavery wants anything, even as favorable to itself as the emancipation message of the President, it has got to wind up this war in a very short space of time.  It has forfeited everything, and must forever remain, if it remain at all, simply a tolerated institution; and if men at the North wish to undertake the organization of a party based upon the old, unrestricted slave power, let them try it.  We assure them of one thing, as the result of this war, viz: that the republican principle of the restriction of the power and territory of slavery will be vindicated and established.

The American people, no matter what their political antecedents may have been, will never consent to see slavery extended over another foot of territory, will never consent to a predominance of the slave power in the national councils, will never consent to see slavery more than an unwillingly tolerated institution.  Respect for the Constitution, as it was framed by the fathers, is alone that which will give slavery a peaceful foothold in the States where it exists.  The policy of this nation, dating from that moment of the issue of President Lincoln’s message, is to be for freedom, and not for slavery.  The Government forever changes front on this question.  It says that the abolition of slavery is something to be desired.  It opens facilities and points out means for its abolition by emancipation.  Here stands the Administration and here the party that placed it in power.

Now if the democrats in Congress and around Washington wish to confront this attitude of the Government, let them try it.  Let them start their old machine, and advertise that it is to operate against the emancipation of the slaves in the mode suggested by the President; and the country will grind them to powder.  The country has learned something if they have not, and will in time teach them what they do not know.  While we think it would be well for them to wait a little, we do not make the request on account of the Government, the republican party, or ourselves.  The experiment may as well be tried first as last, and the rebels at the South and their sympathizers at the North whipped out at the same time.  We simply warn them that the reign of the slave power in this country is ended, and that any party which undertakes to stand upon the old ground of the democratic party, will be doomed from the start. –{Springfield Republican.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 3

To The Public

In the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing ‘THE LIBERATOR’ in Washington city; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference.  Since that time, the removal of the Genius of Universal Emancipation to the Seat of Government has rendered less imperious the establishment of a similar periodical in that quarter.

During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free states – and particularly in New England – than at the south.  I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave owners themselves.  Of course, there were individual exceptions to the contrary.  This state of things afflicted, but did not dishearten me.  I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty.  That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe – yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free!  Let southern oppressors tremble – let their secret abettors tremble – let their northern apologist tremble – let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.

I deem the publication of my original Prospectus* unnecessary, as it has obtained a wide circulation.  The principles therein inculcated will be steadily pursued in this paper, excepting that I shall not array myself as the political partisan of any man.  In defending the great cause of human rights, I wish to derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties.

Assenting to the ‘self-evident truth’ maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, ‘that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights – among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population.  In Park-street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition.  I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity.  A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in September 1829.  My conscience is now satisfied.

I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity?  I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice.  On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation.  No! no!  Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.  I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.  The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective, and the precipitancy of my measures.  The charge is not true.  On this question my influence, --- humble as it is, --- is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in the coming years --- not perniciously, but beneficially – not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right.  I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard ‘the fear of man which bringeth a snare,’ and to speak this truth in its simplicity and power.  And here I close with this fresh dedication:

‘Oppression!  I have seen thee, face to face,

And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow;

But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now–

For dread to prouder feelings doth give place

Of deep abhorrence!  Scorning the disgrace

Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow,

I also kneel – but with far other vow

Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base:–

I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins,

Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand,

Thy brutalising sway – till Afric's chains

Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land,–

Trampling Oppression and his iron rod:

Such is the vow I take – SO HELP ME GOD!’

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

BOSTON, January 1, 1831.

__________

* I would here offer my grateful acknowledgments to those editors who so promptly and generously inserted my Proposals.  They must give me an available opportunity to repay their liberality.

– Published in The Liberator, Boston Massachusetts, Saturday, January 1, 1831, p. 1

Signs Of The Times

You Cannot, if you Would, be Blind to the Signs of the Times.

– {President Lincoln.

COMMENTS OF THE CONSERVATIVE PRESS ON PRESIDEN’T LINCOLN’S LAST PROCLAMATION.

From the New York Herald, May 21^st.

But having disposed of General Hunter, President Lincoln proceeds to give his views on the emancipation question, in an earnest appeal and a solemn warning to the Slave States, and especially to those known as the border Slave States.  He urges them to adopt the system of compensated emancipation offered by Congress, he tells them that they ‘cannot be blind to the signs of the times’ and that he devoutly hopes that “the vast future will not have to lament” their neglect of ‘this golden opportunity.’  These are words of solemn import and the deeply interested people of the border Slave States cannot take them too soon or too seriously into practical consideration.

President Lincoln, at Washington, is in the best possible position to see how this war is operating upon slavery in the border Slave States.  To see it, he has only to look out upon Pennsylvania avenue from a window of the White House at any hour of the day, and the gangs of contrabands passing up and down from Maryland and from the rear of our advancing armies in Virginia will tell the story.  Thus the institution of slavery may be said to be already substantially removed from all those counties in which be in the rear of our Virginia armies. – But if the suppression of this rebellion shall require the continued march of our armies until they penetrate the heart of the cotton States, is it not altogether probable that this continually increasing stampede of Southern slaves will become absolutely overwhelming against this institution, and especially in the border slave states.

There can be not the shadow of a doubt that the president at all events is most solemnly impressed with the duty and the responsibilities now devolving upon the border Slave States in reference to their disturbed and demoralized institution of slavery and we submit therefore, to the immediate attention to the saving alternative of President Lincoln’s policy of voluntary, gradual and compensated emancipation.

From the N. Y. World.

It is somewhat surprising that the Border States should not have manifested more interest in the counsels of the President.  It is now two months and a half since his first paper on the subject.  It cannot be said that the prospects of slavery have improved during that time.  On the contrary, it has notoriously been losing ground. – The abolition of the system forever in the District of Columbia, the almost unanimous vote of Western Virginia in favor of emancipation, the growing restlessness of the slave population throughout the Border States, the growing likelihood that a comprehensive system of confiscation will be applied which must necessarily carry with it a very extensive liberation of slaves and an increasing chance that the Gulf States by their contumacy, even when overcome by arms may drive the Government in spite of itself to the absolute, summary destruction of the great primal cause of all the trouble, are patent facts which ought to convince the border States that delay is dangerous.  It is very easy for them to flatter themselves that somehow, events may shape themselves so that they can yet hold on to their cherished institution.  We all know how the strong wish affects the judgment.  But self deception in this matter may prove a pretty costly mistake.  If the Border States wait until their slaves become worthless, they cannot expect that the General Government will pay anything for their liberation.  They would be already liberated in fact.  When slaves have no market value the institution is at an end.  And it is very certain that if general emancipation in the cotton States were once actually fixed upon and proclaimed by the Government, the preservation of the institution in the border States would speedily become an impossibility.  The whole system would become thoroughly unsettled.  The border State slaves would be possessed with new visions of the liberty their Southern brethren were enjoying, thousands would run for the more favored parts of Dixie and those who did not would be utterly unfitted for steady work.  The masters, amid the troubles of the present and before the uncertainties of the future, would soon lose all heart, and slave property would become a profitless burden.  The slave in Baltimore or in Nashville or in Richmond, instead of rating at three hundred dollars, the present Government allowance, would not be worth fifty.  But if matters come to that pass it will be too late to expect any help whatever from the Government.  That which has merely a nominal value will never be paid for in Federal money.  If the border States choose to delay in hope that all may go well with their cherished institution, they must be content to take the chances and not complain if they finally lose it, without a dollar from the Federal treasury to lighten the sacrifice.  If they are wise, they will see themselves against all such liabilities by heeding the President’s counsels in time.

From the New York Times.

These are weighty, solemn, momentous words. – The heart out of which they flow feels all the magnitude of the issues they involve, and is equal to the grandeur of the responsibilities they imply.  It is, as Mr. Lincoln justly says, impossible for the people of the southern States to be “blind to the signs of the times.”  Consciously or unconsciously they have been brought into a contest with the National Government which involves inevitably the fate of slavery – the very existence of their social and civil institutions.  If they persist in this mad contest with a fixed and stable government having a recognized place among the civilized nations of earth representing twenty millions of people among the proudest most intelligent and most high spirited resources and only stimulated by disaster to new efforts and new conquests, they simply rush upon their own destruction.  There is no instance in history where any form of society however sanctified by time, or the affections of mankind, has survived a contest with the advancing spirit of a progressive age.  The South call us of the North fanatics but in that very fanaticism, if they were wise, they would discern the utter helplessness of the warfare they wage upon us.  It was fanaticism in England which beheaded the King and extinguished the throne, and rooted out of the English heart from the sentiments of civil affections which had grown there longest and taken deepest hold on the public mind.  It was the fanaticism of democracy which crushed all the institutions of the middle ages on the soil of France and drenched its fields in the blood of all who opposed its resistless sweep. – Suppose the people of the South once array against slavery the full fanaticism of the United States backed by the sympathy and the sentiment of the Christian world.  Can they see for themselves any other result than utter and remediless ruin?

Up to the present time the contest of the government with the rebellion which assailed its existence has been conducted with the most scrupulous regard to the rights of the South under the Constitution they are seeking to destroy. – This has not been done thoughtlessly or without a purpose.  It has been in pursuance of a plan deliberately formed by the government, and carried forward with a steady single minded disregard of all opposition  from friends and foes which may challenge universal admiration.  The President has from the beginning regarded this rebellion as a conspiracy, the work of leading selfish and wicked men who have obtained temporary control of the resources, the prejudices, the passions of the Southern people and are using them for the destruction of the Union.  He believes that, if this assumption is correct the Union can be restored whenever the military power which these leaders have marshaled on their side can be broken – and whenever the great mass of the Southern people shall come to see the falsity of the pretexts by which they have been misled.  He has based his policy therefore, on strict constitutional right – on magnanimity toward the great body of those who have been drawn into rebellion.  He has refused to countenance or tolerate any violation of their rights, any wanton trespass upon their property, any disturbance of the evils which their own acts have brought upon them.  Not a spy has yet been hung – not a deserter has yet been shot – not a traitor has yet been even tried by the national Government.  The history of the world will be sought in vain for a parallel to this magnanimous forbearance.

Clearly enough, this policy is experimental.  It is so regarded by the government.  If the people of the South are open to arguments and influences of this kind, then this is the policy by which the Union may be best restored.  It leaves behind it less of resentment, less of hatred, less of heart-burning, less of all the social passions which are least compatible with a peaceful and prosperous Union.  The government does well to give it full and effective trial.

If the experiment succeeds, Republican civilization will have achieved the noblest of all the conceivable triumphs.  The President has evinced the highest possible elevation of character, the largest and most statesmanlike sagacity, in carrying forward this experiment to its final and decisive test.  The end is close at hand.  Two more battles will end the first campaign. – If the Federal troops gain Richmond and Corinth, the military power of the Confederacy will be broken.  Its inability to maintain a de facto government against the United States will have been demonstrated, and it will then remain to be seen whether the great mass of the Southern people will accept this result as decisive, and respond to the invitation of the Federal Government to resume their position under the constitution as members of the Union or not.

Indications are not wanting that they will persist in the contest – that they will give themselves up wholly to the dominion of passion, and frenzied lust of power, and rush upon the ruin they have so much invoked.  If they do, they will find nothing standing between them and the “fanaticism” they affect to despise.  They must prepare to meet the fullness of its fury, and to perish under is burning breath.  The authority of the Government of the United States will be maintained over every foot of every Southern State, at whatever cost to those who may resist it, and if slavery stands in the way, it will be extinguished even if it be in the blood of those who make it their shield.

The people of the south have just the alternative offered them by the proclamation of President Lincoln.  If they choose to take upon themselves the task initiating their deliverance from slavery, they can have the aid of the General Government in protecting them from the evils and inconveniences which such an effort may cost. – If they refuse and persist in rebellion, they will find themselves utterly crushed under the power which they defy.

From the Boston Journal.

His appeal to the people of the border States is timely and solemn, and well will it be for them, and for all of us, if it is heeded in season.  Shall we remain “blind to the signs of the times?”  How comes it that every officer, as he engages in the active work of suppressing this rebellion on its own ground, drifts manifestly in the direction of Gen. Hunter’s conclusions, and never the other way?  Few, indeed, let us say, thankfully, reach such a radical and reckless extreme, but all (though many are themselves insensible of it) are tending, along the same route and the people are abreast of the army.  We may deplore, we may dread this sign of the times, but it is fearfully distinct in the political sky, and as wise men we should have regard to it.  The President from his high ground of observation is oppressed with the weight of the future, and is earnestly imploring the counsels of his countrymen.  His eye is single and his heart is pure, and we sincerely trust that his entreaties may not be made light of.  At this suggestion, a just and generous proposal has been made to the people of the border States, thro’ the acceptance of which, as he says, a grand and salutary change will come as gently as the dews of heaven.  If neglected the responsibility of what may happen will not rest upon him nor upon his loyal countrymen.

Washington Correspondence Forney’s Press.

It is to be hoped, however, that Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation, disavowing Gen. Hunter’s order, will at last awaken the border States to a sense of their true condition.  He disavows that order, but in doing so he brings them back to his emancipation policy and tells them that they cannot, if they would, ‘be blind to the signs of the times.’  And what are these signs of the times?  They are the indications of a wide spread change of public opinion on the subject of slavery, a change which extends to hundreds of thousands of men in the free States who have heretofore supported the South, and that has reached the hears of nearly all the Democrats in the army of the Union.  The rebels themselves contribute to swell public opinion against slavery by their inhuman barbarities, and the slaves, as if conscious that their hour is come are declaring themselves free in most of the slave states.  The border States, when they see Mr. Lincoln restraining and rebuking an officer for an order which has given the greatest encouragement to his own political friends should at least manifest such an appreciation of his course as will show that they are no longer insensible to the signs of the times.

In my letter of yesterday I anticipated the step that the President has now taken.  He owed it, probably, to consistency, and to his understanding of his own obligations, to issue this proclamation and you will perceive that, while denying the right of any officer of the army to issue such an order he reserves to himself of the exercise of all these powers.  The great question involved in the decree of Gen Hunter becomes momentous when considered apart from its mere political aspect.  Regarded as a sanitary measure it may force itself upon the Government at any moment.  Thousands of our best citizens are now enrolled in the army in the cotton States subjected to the dangers and disease of a climate to which they are unaccustomed.  In South Carolina they are surrounded by a population nearly universally disloyal.  In New Orleans they may soon become the victims of a fatal epidemic and should General Halleck defeat the rebels before Corinth, his columns will press forward into the lowlands of Mississippi and Alabama.  It is a painful fact that treason continues to flourish in the seceded States in spite of the victories of our arms.  What if in order to punish this treason and to protect the white men of the free States now in the far South the alternative of using the energies of the manumitted blacks should be presented to our civil authorities?  This remedy may be imperatively pressed upon us at any moment and I believe that when the hour comes the President will not hesitate to do his duty and in doing it his proclamation of yesterday is the best proof that he will act from the purest and most patriotic motives and that the civilized would will sustain him in taking this step.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 4

37th Congress - First Session

WASHINGTON, May 28. – HOUSE. – Mr. PORTER moved to postpone till Wednesday next the motion made by him yesterday, to reconsider the vote by which the House on Monday rejected the bill to confiscate the slaves of rebels.

Mr. HOLMES moved to lay Mr. PORTER’S motion on the table.

Mr. BLAIR moved a call of the House.  Disagreed to by three majority.

Mr. EDWARDS moved the House adjourn. – Negatived nearly unanimously.

Mr. POTTER moved a call of the House. – Negatived by 18 majority.

Mr. HOLMES’ motion to lay that of Mr. Potter’s to postpone on the table, was disagreed to – 59 to 73.

Mr. PORTER’S motion was adopted.

The Speaker said that the motion to reconsider the vote by which the motion to reconsider the vote by which the bill to confiscate the slaves of rebels was rejected can, as a privileged question, be taken up next Wednesday, immediately after the reading of the journal.

The House went into Committee on the Whole on the Senate Bill to collect direct tax in insurrectionary districts and for other purposes.

Several amendments were made for perfecting the arrangement for carrying the act into effect.

The bill passed 19 to 11.

It provides for the appointment of a board of tax commissioners to enter upon the duties of their office, wherever the commanding General of the forces of the United States entering into any insurrectionary state or district, shall have established the authority throughout any parish, district our county of the same in all cases where the owner of the land shall not pay the proportion of the tax and consequent expenses the property is to be sold.

Provisions to be made for the redemption of land if it be shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioners that the owner has not taken part in or in any manner aided or abetted the rebellion, and that for reason of the rebellion he has been unable to pay the tax.  In cases of owners having left their land to join the rebel cause the United States shall take possession and may lease them to the civil authorities established.

The people of the State shall elect a Legislature and State officers, who shall take the oath to support the federal Constitution.

The board of Commissioners may, under the direction of the President instead of leasing the lands vested in the U. S. cause the same to be subdivided and sold to any loyal citizen or any person who shall have faithfully served in the army, navy or marine corps.  The preemption principle is also granted in the bill.

HOUSE – The remainer of the House proceedings previous to adjournment unimportant.

SENATE – The vice President presented a message from the President in reply to the resolution concerning arrests in Kentucky saying that it was not compatible with the public interests to furnish such information at present.

The bill making an appropriation for an authorizing payment of certain bounties was taken up and passed.

Mr. HARRIS presented a number of petitions for a bankrupt act.

Mr. WILLEY presented a memorial from the Legislature of Virginia in relation to a division of that State, and also the constitution adopted by the people within the proposed limits was taken up.

Mr. WILKINSON spoke against it as injurious to the new State tending to increase land speculation and preventing many of the benefits of the Homestead bill.

At ten o’clock the tax bill was taken up, the question being on Mr. Wilson’s amendment to strike out the license to retail liquor dealers.

The bill donating land for the benefit of colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

WASHINGTON, May 28. – SENATE – Various amendments were rejected by 27 majority.

Mr. SUMNER offered an amendment taxing persons claiming service or labor for life of any such person the sum of ten dollars each.

After a discussion he modified it by making it read five dollars each for persons held by corporations, societies, or persons but such persons not to be sold to pay said tax.

Mr. SHERMAN offered a substitute for Mr. Sumner’s amendment to tax cotton one cent per pound.  Rejected 15 to 22.

Mr. HICKMAN offered an amendment that the tax is not to be collected in States where a gradual emancipation system is in force.

Pending the question the Senate adjourned.

WASHINGTON, May 29 – HOUSE – The Speaker laid before the House a communication from C. W. Wallen stating that he is about to accept and enter upon the office of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine, and resigning his seat as a member of the House.

Mr. POTTER, from the committee on Public Lands reported back the Senate Bill establishing a Land Office in Colorado Territory.  Passed.

The House passed by 94 against 37, the bill declaring as the census of California has never been taken till the year 1860 and as it appears that said Sate had a sufficient population to entitle her to three Representatives, under the supposition that California was entitled to the same and as direct taxes have been apportioned to be paid by her under the census of 1860 therefore she be allowed three Representatives instead of two until the beginning of next Congress.

Mr. HICKAMN, from the Committee on Judiciary reported a bill for the effectual suppression of the slave trade.  Giving Consuls and Agents on the coast of Africa certain judicial powers in order that the proceedings may be by them instituted against vessels engaged in the trade.  The persons concerned to be tried in this country.

The bill passed – 63 against 45.

The bill dividing Pennsylvania into two Judicial Districts and providing for holding a district court at Erie passed.

The House renewed the consideration of the bill appropriating $75,000 for the purchase of Douglas Hospital.

Mr. WOODROOF while declaring himself in favor of prosecuting the war to restore the authority of the United States said he should not support the confiscation and emancipation bills.  He regarded them as unconstitutional.  The advocates of extreme measures seemed to be giving aid to the enemy and pursuing a course more calculated to destroy the Union than that of the rebels themselves.

Debate of the bill rejected.  Adjourned.

SENATE – Mr. WILLEY called up the memorial of the Legislature of Virginia with reference to the division of the State and requesting the Senators and Representatives to use their influence for the admission of the new State of West Virginia.  He referred to the manner to which the allegiance of the State was transferred to the rebellion – in secret session and without consulting the people, and to the people of Northwestern Virginia [remaining] loyal to the Union and forming a separate Government.  He claimed that this feeling for a division of the State was nothing new – it had been frequently urged by the people of the State.  Reason and justice are [in] favor of it.  There is sufficient number of inhabitants and Western Virginia was completely divided from the Eastern half by the Allegheny Mountains.  Nature seems to have divided the two and evidently demand a separation.  There has never been but little commercial intercourse between Western and Eastern Virginia and the social institutions and habits of both indicate a separation.  Slavery cannot exist in Western Virginia and why should the people of that section be compelled to be subject to a system of laws calculated for slavery which exists in Virginia.  The geographical position, climate, natural productions and moral and religious sentiments of the people absolutely forbid the existence of slavery in Western Virginia.

He contended that the proposed State was rich in minerals and other resources and would make a wealthy and prosperous State.  The memorial was referred to the committee on Territories.

The tax bill was then taken up – the question being on Mr. Henderson’s amendment that the proposed tax on slaves shall not be levied on any State which has adopted the system of gradual emancipation, yeas 15, nays 20.

Mr. FESSENDEN’S amendment reducing the tax on slaves to two dollars was adopted.

After debate Mr. SUMNER’S amendment as amended was rejected by 14 against 22.

Executive Session.  Adjourned.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 3