Andrew Hunter, Prosecutor, at the Trial of John Brown, October 31, 1859

Contended that the code of Virginia defines citizens of Virginia as “all those white persons born in any other State of this Union, who may become residents here;” and that evidence shows without a shadow of a question that when Brown went to Virginia, and planted his feet at Harper's Ferry, he came there to reside, and to hold the place permanently. True, he occupied a farm four or five miles off in Maryland, but not for the legitimate purpose of establishing his domicil [sic] there; no, for the nefarious and hellish purpose of rallying forces into this Commonwealth, and establishing himself at Harper's Ferry, as the starting-point for a new government. Whatever it was, whether tragical, or farcial and ridiculous, as Brown's counsel had presented it, his conduct showed, if his declarations were insufficient, that it was not alone for the purpose of carrying off slaves that he came there. His “Provisional Government” was a real thing and no debating society, as his counsel would have us believe; and in holding office under it and exercising its functions, he was clearly guilty of treason. As to conspiring with slaves and rebels, the law says the prisoners are equally guilty, whether insurrection is made or not. Advice may be given by actions as well as words. When you put pikes in the hands of slaves, and have their master captive, that is advice to slaves to rebel, and is punishable with death.

SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 575; “The Virginia Rebellion. Trial of John Brown.” The New York Times, New York, New York, Tuesday, November 1, 1859, p. 1 for the date only.

Diary of William Howard Russell: Chapter XLII

I shall here briefly recapitulate what has occurred since the last mention of political events.

In the first place the South has been developing every day greater energy in widening the breach between it and the North, and preparing to fill it with dead; and the North, so far as I can judge, has been busy in raising up the Union as a nationality, and making out the crime of treason from the act of Secession. The South has been using conscription in Virginia, and is entering upon the conflict with unsurpassable determination. The North is availing itself of its greater resources and its foreign vagabondage and destitution to swell the ranks of its volunteers, and boasts of its enormous armies, as if it supposed conscripts well led do not fight better than volunteers badly officered. Virginia has been invaded on three points, one below and two above Washington, and passports are now issued on both sides.

The career open to the Southern privateers is effectually closed by the Duke of Newcastle's notification that the British Government will not permit the cruisers of either side to bring their prizes into or condemn them in English ports; but, strange to say, the Northerners feel indignant against Great Britain for an act which deprives their enemy of an enormous advantage, and which must reduce their privateering to the mere work of plunder and destruction on the high seas. In the same way the North affects to consider the declaration of neutrality, and the concession of limited belligerent rights to the seceding States, as deeply injurious and insulting; whereas our course has, in fact, removed the greatest difficulty from the path of the Washington Cabinet, and saved us from inconsistencies and serious risks in our course of action.

It is commonly said, “What would Great Britain have done if we had declared ourselves neutral during the Canadian rebellion, or had conceded limited belligerent rights to the Sepoys?” as if Canada and Hindostan have the same relation to the British Crown that the seceding States had to the Northern States. But if Canada, with its parliament, judges, courts of law, and its people, declared it was independent of Great Britain; and if the Government of Great Britain, months after that declaration was made and acted upon, permitted the new State to go free, whilst a large number of her Statesmen agreed that Canada was perfectly right, we could find little fault with the United States Government for issuing a proclamation of neutrality the same as our own, when after a long interval of quiescence a war broke out between the two countries.

Secession was an accomplished fact months before Mr. Lincoln came into office, but we heard no talk of rebels and pirates till Sumter had fallen, and the North was perfectly quiescent — not only that — the people of wealth in New York were calmly considering the results of Secession as an accomplished fact, and seeking to make the best of it; nay, more, when I arrived in Washington some members of the Cabinet were perfectly ready to let the South go.

One of the first questions put to me by Mr. Chase in my first interview with him, was whether I thought a very injurious effect would be produced to the prestige of the Federal Government in Europe if the Northern States let the South have its own way, and told them to go in peace. “For my own part,” said he, “I should not be averse to let them try it, for I believe they would soon find out their mistake.” Mr. Chase may be finding out his mistake just now. (When I left England the prevalent opinion, as far as I could judge, was, that a family quarrel, in which the South was in the wrong, had taken place, and that it would be better to stand by and let the Government put forth its [strength] to chastise rebellious children. But now we see the house is divided against itself, and that the family are determined to set up two separate establishments. These remarks occur to me with the more force because I see the New York papers are attacking me because I described a calm in a sea which was afterwards agitated by a storm. “What a false witness is this,” they cry; “see how angry and how vexed is our Bermoothes, and. yet the fellow says it was quite placid.”

I have already seen so many statements respecting my sayings, my doings, and my opinions, in the American papers, that I have resolved to follow a general rule, with few exceptions indeed, which prescribes as the best course to pursue, not so much an indifference to these remarks as a fixed purpose to abstain from the hopeless task of correcting them. The “Quicklys” of the press are incorrigible. Commerce may well be proud of Chicago. I am not going to reiterate what every Crispinus from the old country has said again and again concerning this wonderful place — not one word of statistics, of corn elevators, of shipping, or of the piles of buildings raised-from the foundation by ingenious applications of screws. Nor am I going to enlarge on the splendid future of that which has so much present prosperity, or on the benefits to mankind opened up by the Illinois Central Railway. It is enough to say that by the borders of this lake there has sprung up in thirty years a wonderful city of fine streets, luxurious hotels, handsome shops, magnificent stores, great warehouses, extensive quays, capacious docks; and that as long as corn holds its own, and the mouths of Europe are open, and her hands full, Chicago will acquire greater importance, size, and wealth with every year. The only drawback, perhaps, to the comfort of the money-making inhabitants, and of the stranger within the gates, is to be found in the clouds of dust and in the unpaved streets and thoroughfares, which give anguish to horse and man.

I spent three days here writing my letters and repairing the wear and tear of my Southern expedition; and although it was hot enough, the breeze from the lake carried health and vigor to the frame, enervated by the sun of Louisiana and Mississippi. No need now to wipe the large drops of moisture from the languid brow lest they blind the eyes, nor to sit in a state of semi-clothing, worn out and exhausted, and tracing with moist hand imperfect characters on the paper.

I could not satisfy myself whether there was, as I have been told, a peculiar state of feeling in Chicago, which induced many people to support the Government of Mr. Lincoln because they believed it necessary for their own interest to obtain decided advantages over the South in the field, whilst they were opposed totis viribus to the genius of emancipation and to the views of the Black Republicans. But the genius and eloquence of the Little Giant have left their impress on the facile mould of democratic thought; and he who argued with such acuteness and ability last March in Washington, in his own study, against the possibility, or at least the constitutional legality, of using the national forces, and the militia and volunteers of the Northern States, to subjugate the Southern people, carried away by the great bore which rushed through the placid North when Sumter fell, or perceiving his inability to resist its force, sprung to the crest of the wave, and carried to excess, the violence of the Union reaction.

Whilst I was in the South I had seen his name in Northern papers with sensation headings and descriptions of his magnificent crusade for the Union in the West. I had heard his name reviled by those who had once been his warm political allies, and his untimely death did not seem to satisfy their hatred. His old foes in the North admired and applauded the sudden apostasy of their eloquent opponent, and were loud in lamentations over his loss. Imagine, then, how I felt when visiting his grave at Chicago, seeing his bust in many houses, or his portrait in all the shop-windows, I was told that the enormously wealthy community of which he was the idol were permitting his widow to live in a state not far removed from penury.

“Senator Douglas, sir,” observed one of his friends to me, “died of bad whiskey. He killed himself with it while he was stumping for the Union all over the country.” “Well,” I said, “I suppose, sir, the abstraction called the Union, for which by your own account he killed himself, will give a pension to his widow,” Virtue is its own reward, and so is patriotism, unless it takes the form of contracts.

As far as all considerations of wife, children, or family are concerned, let a man serve a decent despot, or even a constitutional country with an economizing House of Commons, if he wants anything more substantial than lip-service. The history of the great men of America is full of instances of national ingratitude. They give more praise and less peace to their benefactors than any nation on the face of the earth. Washington got little, though the plundering scouts who captured Andre were well rewarded; and the men who fought during the War of Independence were long left in neglect and poverty, sitting in sackcloth and ashes at the doorsteps of the temple of liberty, whilst the crowd rushed inside to worship Plutus.

If a native of the British Isles, of the natural ignorance of his own imperfections which should characterize him, desires to be subjected to a series of moral shower-baths, douches, and shampooing with a rough glove, let him come to the United States. In Chicago he will be told that the English people are fed by the beneficence of the United States, and that all the trade and commerce of England are simply directed to the one end of obtaining gold enough to pay the Western States for the breadstuffs exported for our population. We know what the South think of our dependence on cotton. The people of the East think they are striking a great blow at their enemy by the Morrill tariff and I was told by a patriot in North Carolina, “Why, creation! if you let the Yankees shut up our ports, the whole of your darned ships will go to rot. Where will you get your naval stores from? Why, I guess in a year you could not scrape up enough of tarpentine in the whole of your country for Queen Victoria to paint her nursery-door with.”

Nearly one half of the various companies enrolled in this district are Germans, or are the descendants of German parents, and speak only the language of the old country; two-thirds of the remainder are Irish, or of immediate Irish descent; but it is said that a grand reserve of Americans born lies behind this avant garde, who will come into the battle should there ever be need for their services.

Indeed so long as the Northern people furnish the means of paying and equipping armies perfectly competent to do their work, and equal in numbers to any demands made for men, they may rest satisfied with the accomplishment of that duty, and with contributing from their ranks the great majority of the superior and even of the subaltern officers; but with the South it is far different. Their institutions have repelled immigration; the black slave has barred the door to the white free settler. Only on the seaboard and in the large cities are. German and Irish to be found, and they to a man have come forward to fight for the South; but the proportion they bear to the native-born Americans who have rushed to arms in defence of their menaced borders, is of course far less than it is as yet to the number of Americans in the Northern States who have volunteered to fight for the Union.

I was invited before I left to visit the camp of a Colonel Turchin, who was described to me as a Russian officer of great ability and experience in European warfare, in command of a regiment consisting of Poles, Hungarians, and Germans, who were about to start for the seat of war; but I was only able to walk through his tents, where I was astonished at the amalgam of nations that constituted his battalion; though, on inspection, I am bound to say there proved to be an American element in the ranks which did not appear to have coalesced with the bulk of the rude, and, I fear, predatory Cossacks of the Union. Many young men of good position have gone to the wars, although there was no complaint, as in Southern cities, that merchants' offices have been deserted, and great establishments left destitute of clerks and working hands. In warlike operations, however, Chicago, with its communication open to the sea, its access to the head waters of the Mississippi, its intercourse with the marts of commerce and of manufacture, may be considered to possess greater belligerent power and strength than the great city of New Orleans; and there is much greater probability of Chicago sending its contingent to attack the Crescent City than there is of the latter being able to despatch a soldier within five hundred miles of its streets.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, Vol. 1, p. 354-9

Edwin M. Stanton to Major-General Ambrose Burnside, May 8, 1863

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

Washington City, May 8, 1863.

Major-General BURNSIDE, Cincinnati:

In your determination to support the authority of the Government and suppress treason in your department, you may count on the firm support of the President.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 23, Part 2 (Serial No. 35), p. 316

Resolutions of the New York Democratic Committee, May 16, 1863

Resolved, That the Democrats of New York point to their uniform course of action during the two years of civil war through which we have passed, to the alacrity which they have evinced in filling the ranks of the army, to their contributions and sacrifices, as the evidence of their patriotism and devotion to the cause of our imperiled country. Never in the history of civil wars has a Government been sustained with such ample resources of means and men as the people have voluntarily placed in the hands of this Administration.

Resolved, That as Democrats we are determined to maintain this patriotic attitude, and despite of adverse and disheartening circumstances to devote all our energies to sustain the cause of the Union; to secure peace through victory and to bring back the restoration of all the States under the safeguard of the Constitution.

Resolved, That while we will not consent to be misapprehended upon these points we are determined not to be misunderstood in regard to others not less essential. We demand that the Administration shall be true to the Constitution; shall recognize and maintain the rights of the States and the liberties of the citizen; shall everywhere outside of the lines of necessary military occupation and the scenes of insurrection exert all its powers to maintain the supremacy of the civil over the military law.

Resolved, That in view of these principles we denounce the recent assumption of a military commander to seize and try a citizen of Ohio, Clement L. Vallandigham, for no other reason than words addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the course of the Administration and in condemnation of the military orders of that general.

Resolved, That this assumption of power by a military tribunal if successfully asserted not only abrogates the right of the people to assemble and discuss the affairs of government, the liberty of speech and of the press, the right of trial by jury, the law of evidence and the privilege of habeas corpus, but it strikes a fatal blow at the supremacy of the law and the authority of the State and Federal Constitutions.

Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States — the supreme law of the land — has defined the crime of treason against the United States to consist “only in levying war against them or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” and has provided that “no person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court.” And it further provides that “no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury except in cases arising in the land and naval forces or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger;” and further that “in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime was committed.”

Resolved, That these safeguards of the rights of the citizen against the pretensions of the arbitrary power were intended more especially for his protection in times of civil commotion. They were secured substantially to the English people after years of protracted civil war and were adopted into our Constitution at the close of the Revolution. They have stood the test of seventy-six years of trial under our republican system under circumstances that show that while they constitute the foundation of all free government they are the elements of the enduring stability of the Republic.

Resolved, That in adopting the language of Daniel Webster we declare “it is the ancient and undoubted prerogative of this people to canvass public measures and the merits of public men.” It is a “homebred right,” a fireside privilege. It had been enjoyed in every house, cottage and cabin in the nation. It is as undoubted as the right of breathing the air or walking on the earth. Belonging to private life as a right, it belongs to public life as a duty, and it is the last duty which those whose representatives we are shall find us to abandon. Aiming at all times to be courteous and temperate in its use except when the right itself is questioned we shall place ourselves on the extreme boundary of our right and bid defiance to any arm that would move us from our ground. “This high constitutional privilege we shall defend and exercise in all places — in time of peace, in time of war, and at all times. Living, we shall assert it; and should we leave no other inheritance to our children by the blessing of God we will leave the inheritance of free principles and the example of a manly, independent and constitutional defense of them.”

Resolved, That in the election of Governor Seymour the people of this State by an emphatic majority declare their condemnation of the system of arbitrary arrests and their determination to stand by the Constitution. That the revival of this lawless system can have but one result: to divide and distract the North and destroy its confidence in the purposes of the Administration. That we deprecate it as an element of confusion at home, of weakness to our armies in the field and as calculated to lower the estimate of American character and magnify the apparent peril of our cause abroad. And that regarding the blow struck at a citizen of Ohio as aimed at the rights of every citizen of the North we denounce it as against the spirit of our laws and Constitution and most earnestly call upon the President of the United States to reverse the action of the military tribunal which has passed a “cruel and unusual punishment” upon the party arrested, prohibited in terms by the Constitution, and to restore him the liberty of which he has been deprived.

Resolved, That the president, vice-president and secretary of this meeting be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to His Excellency the President of the United States with the assurance of this meeting of their hearty and earnest desire to support the Government in every constitutional and lawful measure to suppress the existing rebellion.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series II, Volume 5 (Serial No. 118), p. 654-6

Captain Charles Wright Wills: February 1, 1863

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Jackson, Tenn.,

February 1, 1863.

I'm on duty as “field officer of the day,” and have been temping around in the mud looking to policing, guards, etc., and just now a detail has come for me to go on picket to-morrow. I was only relieved from picket yesterday morning. We are very short of officers, having only 11 for duty in the regiment. All sick. D--n 'em, they ought to resign and let men draw the pay who do the work. I have seven men in the hospital now, one of whom is going to die. Poor fellow, how I do pity him. I never thought as much, even of my sick comrades in the 8th, as I do of my men when they get sick. James Colton is the one's name who is the sickest. He is a real good young man and has a wife. Lives in the west part of the country. Mine is the only company that has no deserters yet, and I don't believe I will have any. Half of these desertions are the fault of officers. I have been out this evening calling on a family named Stephens, living near our camp. They are strongly secesh, but very fine people. No girls in the family but a splendid looking young wife. I guess that we are cut out of that Vicksburg fight, though if this place is evacuated, there is a chance yet. That is the only one though, for all the troops except our brigade have left here. Some to Memphis, and I suppose, below. It makes our duty pretty heavy. Picket every third day, besides police, foraging, and fatigue and camp guard. But I always enjoy duty better than quiet camp life. I'm afraid this agitation North is going to play the d---1 with the army. The great body is loyal enough but can't help being discouraged and, in a degree, disappointed when treason is preached openly in the North and unrebuked. Confining a lot of those traitors would have an excellent effect on the soldiers; but I believe that Lincoln is almost afraid to try that again. If this regiment is paid off before there is the change in officers there should be, I'm afraid desertions will be very numerous. I begin to feel some of the old soldier's prejudice against the “forty-dollar man,” but I do believe we can, if properly officered, make a crack regiment. I tell you, between ourselves, that of the 30 line officers there are not more than six that are worth their salt. The others do 100 times more harm than good to the service. I modestly count myself one of the six, so that you can judge better what I think they are. I read Dick Oglesby's speech to-day. The sentiment is all right, but he can talk much better than that. Suppose he is out of practice. We are a little afraid of the result of the Vicksburg fight. If we get whipped I'd like to die there, for I believe if that army is whipped it will be annihilated; and the cause about lost, which little event I don't care to live to hear. You can't imagine how careful the commanders are here of secesh property. Well, if 'tis through the right motive, I say all right, and I guess it is, but it hurts me anyway. I can't help hoping that this town will be burned when evacuated, for it is the most intensely secession place of all. It first unfurled the Rebel flag in this State, and sticks to its colors nobly. It is rumored that Van Dorn is coming in this direction again. I do hope he will come here, for if we can drive him off, it would hurt the natives so much to see him whipped.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 151-3

Major-General John A. Dix to the Citizens of New York, August 17, 1863

Head-quarters, Department of the East, New York City,

August 17, 1863.

To the Citizens of New York:

The draft of men in this city to replenish the ranks of the army, in order to complete more speedily the suppression of the insurrection in the South, having, in consequence of forcible resistance to the execution of the law, been placed under my direction, as commanding officer of the forces of the United States in this Military Department, I have thought it not out of place to present to you some suggestions for your consideration as friends of the Union and of the good order of society.

The law under which the draft is to be made is for enrolling and calling out the National forces. It is founded on the principle that every citizen, who enjoys the protection of the Government and looks to it for the security of his property and his life, may be called on in seasons of great public danger to take up arms for the common defence. No political society can be held together unless this principle is acknowledged as one to which the Government may have recourse when its existence is in peril. There is no civilized country in which it is not recognized.

The law authorizing the draft has been persistently called a conscription law by those who desire to make it odious and defeat its execution. It is in no just sense a conscription like that which was put in force in the sixth year of the French Republic, and abandoned on the restoration of the Bourbons, on account of its oppressive exactions. It is a simple law for enrolling and calling into the service the arms-bearing population of certain ages, and differs in no essential principle from the law authorizing the Militia to be called out, excepting that in the latter case complete organizations are brought into the field. The object of the very provisions of the law which are most beneficial to individuals has been most grossly perverted. If a drafted man finds it inconvenient to serve, he is allowed to furnish a substitute, or to purchase his exemption from service by paying the smallest sum of money for which substitutes are ordinarily obtained. Both these provisions have the same purpose — to provide for cases of hardship; and if either were stricken out, these cases would be proportionably increased in number.

The draft about to be made is for one-fifth part of all persons between twenty and thirty-five years of age, and of the unmarried between thirty-five and forty-five. The entire class between eighteen and thirty-five was long since drafted in the seceded States; and the draft has recently been extended to embrace nearly the whole arms-bearing population. Compared with the burden they are sustaining ours is as nothing. The contest on our part is to defend our nationality, to uphold the institutions under the protection of which we have lived and prospered, and to preserve untarnished the proud memories of our history — brief, it is true, but full of high achievements in science, in art, and in arms. Shall we, in such a cause, shrink from labors and sacrifices which our misguided brethren in the seceded States are sustaining in the cause of treason and social disorganization? For the honor of New York let us take care that the history of this rebellion, more vast than any which has ever convulsed a nation, shall contain nothing to make our children blush for the patriotism of their fathers.

Whatever objection there may be to the law authorizing the draft, whatever defects it may have, it is the law of the land, and resistance to it is revolt against the constituted authorities of the country. If one law can be set at defiance, any other may be, and the foundations of all government may be broken up. Those who, in the history of political societies, have been the first to set themselves up against the law have been the surest victims of the disorder which they have created. The poor have a far deeper interest in maintaining the inviolability of the law than the rich. Property, through the means it can command, is power. But the only security for those who have little more than life and the labor of their own hands to protect lies in the supremacy of the law. On them, and on those who are dependent on them, social disorder falls with fatal effect.

The constitutionality of the law authorizing the draft has been disputed. Near the close of the year 1814, when the country was engaged in war with Great Britain, a similar law was recommended to Congress by the Government, to draft men to fill the ranks of the army, which was gallantly battling, as our armies are now, for the nation's honor and life. Madison, one of the great expounders of the Constitution, which he took a prominent part in framing, was President. Monroe, his successor, then acting both as Secretary of State and Secretary of War, addressed to the House of Representatives a lucid argument in support of the right of Congress to pass such a law. Alexander J. Dallas was Secretary of the Treasury; William Jones, Secretary of the Navy; Return J. Meigs, Postmaster-general; and Richard Rush, Attorney-general. The measure could not well have received a higher party sanction. All laws passed with the established legislative forms are valid until declared otherwise by judicial tribunals of competent jurisdiction. What would become of a people in critical emergencies if no law could be carried into effect until it had passed the ordeal of the courts? or if State or municipal authorities could arrest its execution by calling in question its conformity to the provisions of the Constitution? The President has promptly consented to have it tested by judicial interpretation; but while the car of victory is moving on, and treason is flying before it, God forbid that the State of New York or its constituted authorities should attempt to stay its progress until the judicial process can be consummated.

The accuracy of the enrolment in the city districts having been impeached, a revision was immediately ordered by the President, on a representation from the Governor of the State. But as the men are needed for immediate service, and as the correction of the returns requires time, the quota was ordered to be reduced in all the districts — in some more than half the whole amount — leaving the account for future adjustment. The reduction in the quota exceeds in proportion the alleged excess of the enrolment; so that no personal injustice can possible occur.

Under these circumstances no good citizen will array himself, either by word or deed, against the draft. Submission to the law in seasons of tranquillity is always the highest of political duties. But when the existence of the Government is in peril he who resists its authority commits a crime of the deepest turpitude. He is the voluntary instrument of those who are seeking to overthrow it, and becomes himself a public enemy. Moreover, resistance to the Government by those who are living under its protection, and arc indebted to it for the daily tenure of their property and their lives, has not even the palliation under which those who lead the insurrection at the South seek to shelter themselves—that they are acting under color of authority derived from Legislatures or conventions of the people in their respective States. With us resistance to the constituted authorities is both treason and lawless violence; and if there are any who thus combine to re-enact the scenes of cruelty and devastation by which this city has recently been dishonored, and to defeat by force of arms the execution of the paramount law of Congress, they will be treated as enemies of the country and mankind.

Returning among you from a distance, fellow-citizens, after more than two years of military service in the cause of the Union, to uphold which this city has, in all emergencies, stood forth with a manly patriotism worthy of her high position—having no feeling but to see her good name preserved without blemish, no wish but that she may continue, as she has ever been, the most Orderly of the great commercial towns of the age — I have ventured to address to you these suggestions, to exhort you to the maintenance of order, to obedience to the laws, and to the quiet pursuit of your accustomed avocations, while the draft is in progress.

Should these suggestions be disregarded by any among you, and renewed attempts be made to disturb the public peace, to break down the barriers which have been set up for the security of property and life, and to defeat the execution of a law which it is my duty to enforce, I warn all such persons that ample preparation has been made to vindicate the authority of the Government, and that the first exhibitions of disorder or violence will be met by the most prompt and vigorous measures for their repression.

John A. Dix, Major-general.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 88-91

Diary of Sarah Morgan: Saturday, August 2, 1862

I had thought my running days were over; so little did I anticipate another stampede that I did not notice the report of the attack that was prophesied for night before last, and went to bed without gathering my clothes. But to-day comes a hasty note from Charlie, telling us to leave instantly as General Breckinridge is advancing with ten thousand men to attack us, and at 12 M. yesterday was within thirty-four miles. He begged us to leave today; there would be trouble before to-morrow night. It was so earnest, and he asserted all so positively, that we are going to Phillie's this evening to stay a week, as they say eight days will decide. Ah, me! our beautiful town! Still I am skeptical. If it must be, pray Heaven that the blow comes now! Nothing can be equal to suspense. These poor men! Are they not dying fast enough? Will Baumstark have orders for an unlimited supply of coffins next week? Only Charlie's family, ours, and the Brunots know it. He enjoined the strictest secrecy, though the Brunots sent to swear Mrs. Loucks in, as she, like ourselves, has no protector. I would like to tell everybody; but it will warn the Federals. I almost wish we, too, had been left in ignorance; it is cruel to keep it to ourselves. I believe the Yankees expect something; “they say” they have armed fifteen hundred negroes. Foes and insurrection in town, assailing friends outside. — Nice time!

Our cavalry has passed the Amite. Poor Charlie has come all the way to the ferry landing on the other side to warn us. If we do not take advantage, it will not be for want of knowing what is to come. How considerate it was in him to come such a long way! I am charmingly excited! If I only had a pair of breeches, my happiness would be complete. Let it come! I lose all, but in Heaven's name let us have it over at once! My heart fails when I look around, but “Spit fire!” and have an end to this at once! Liberty forever, though death be the penalty.

Treason! Here lies my pass at my elbow, in which has been gratuitously inserted that “Parties holding it are considered to give their parole not to give information, countenance, aid, or support to the so-called Confed. S.” As I did not apply for it, agree to the stipulation, or think it by any means proper, I don't consider it binding. I could not give my word for doing what my conscience tells me is Right. I cross with this book full of treason. It “countenances” the C. S.; shall I burn it? That is a stupid ruse; they are too wise to ask you to subscribe to it, they just append it.

SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's Diary, p. 139-40

Francis Lieber to Senator Charles Sumner, August 4, 1865

New York, August 4, 1865.

I should have been in favor of strict justice, that is, death, for the worst, — not from revenge, but distinctly to stamp treason as treason, which has never yet been done in the United States, while in our country it is treason indeed. In fact, treason here is like those infamous conspiracies in the Middle Ages, of some bloodthirsty nobles — on a vast scale. But all this is out of the question. As to exile, we must not forget that we can only get at it by way of conditional pardon, not by a law; whence arises immediately the difficulty, what will you do with the traitors who do not apply for pardon, or who decline accepting it? In European countries, at least I believe in all European countries, a pardon is an official act – which the culprit cannot decline if he desires it. It is there as authoritative an act as the verdict of guilty. It has been decided differently in the United States, because, it is said, it implies an acknowledgment of guilt. Of course the matter would be still very difficult in case of death, for suppose a man sentenced to be hanged would not accept of pardon, he could not be executed. Be this as it may, in the present case of traitors, pardon cannot be forced upon a man. Now what is to be done with men of the worst kind who do not apply for pardon, like Hunter, and who decline your pardon on condition of exile? This is the only difficulty I see, and a very great one it seems to me. What if Mason and Slidell should quietly return and defy the Government? I really wish some six patriotic, calm, deep, and far-seeing men — some thorough lawyers, some statesmen, and judicious, plain citizens — could hold a consultation.

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 358

The Confiscation Act of 1862: July 17, 1862

AN ACT to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person who shall hereafter commit the crime of treason against the United States, and shall be adjudged guilty thereof, shall suffer death, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; or, at the discretion of the court, he shall be imprisoned for not less than five years and fined not less than $10,000, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; said fine shall be levied and collected on any or all of the property, real and personal, excluding slaves, of which the said person so convicted was the owner at the time of committing the said crime, any sale or conveyance to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States, or the laws thereof, or shall give aid or comfort thereto, or shall engage in, or give aid and comfort to, any such existing rebellion or insurrection, and be convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by the liberation of all his slaves, if any he have; or by both of said punishments, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That every person guilty of either of the offenses described in this act shall be forever incapable and disqualified to hold any office under the United States.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That this act shall not be construed in any way to affect or alter the prosecution, conviction, or punishment of any person or persons guilty of treason against the United States before the passage of this act, unless such person is convicted under this act.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That, to insure the speedy termination of the present rebellion, it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the seizure of all the estate and property, money, stocks, credits, and effects of the persons hereinafter named in this section, and to apply and use the same and the proceeds thereof for the support of the Army of the United States – that is to say:

First. Of any person hereafter acting as an officer of the army or navy of the rebels in arms against the Government of the United States.

Secondly. Of any person hereafter acting as President, Vice-President, member of Congress, judge of any court, cabinet officer, foreign minister, commissioner or consul of the so-called Confederate States of America.

Thirdly. Of any person acting as Governor of a State, member of a convention or Legislature, or judge of any court of any of the so-called Confederate States of America.

Fourthly. Of any person who, having held an office of honor, trust, or profit in the United States, shall hereafter hold an office in the so-called Confederate States of America.

Fifthly. Of any person hereafter holding any office or agency under the government of the so-called Confederate States of America, or under any of the several States of the said Confederacy, or the laws thereof, whether such office or agency be national, state, or municipal in its name or character: Provided, That the persons thirdly, fourthly, and fifthly above described shall have accepted their appointment or election since the date of the pretended ordinance of secession of the State, or shall have taken an oath of allegiance to, or to support the Constitution of, the so-called Confederate States.

Sixthly. Of any person who, owning property in any loyal State or Territory of the United States, or in the District of Columbia, shall hereafter assist and give aid and comfort to such rebellion ; and all sales, transfers, or conveyances of any such property shall he null and void; and it shall be a sufficient bar to any suit brought by such person for the possession or the use of such property, or any of it, to allege and prove that he is one of the persons described in this section.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That if any person within any State or Territory of the United States, other than those named, as aforesaid, after the passage of this act, being engaged in armed rebellion against the Government of the United States, or aiding or abetting such rebellion, shall not, within sixty days after public warning and proclamation duly given and made by the President of the United States, cease to aid, countenance, and abet such rebellion, and return to his allegiance to the United States, all the estate and property, money, stocks, and credits of such person shall be liable to seizure, as aforesaid, and it shall be the duty of the President to seize and use them as aforesaid or the proceeds thereof. And all sales, transfers, or conveyances of any such property after the expiration of the said sixty days from the date of such warning and proclamation shall be null and void; and it shall be a sufficient bar to any suit brought by such person for the possession or the use of such property, or any of it, to allege and prove that he is one of the persons described in this section.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That to secure the condemnation and sale of any of such property, after the same shall have been seized, so that it may be made available for the purpose aforesaid, proceedings in rein shall be instituted in the name of the United States in any district court thereof, or in any Territorial court or in the United States district court for the District of Columbia, within which the property above described, or any part thereof, may be found, or into which the same, if movable, may first be brought, which proceedings shall conform as nearly as may be to proceedings in admiralty or revenue cases; and if said property, whether real or personal, shall be found to have belonged to a person engaged in rebellion, or who has given aid or comfort thereto, the same shall be condemned as enemies' property and become the property of the United States, and may be disposed of as the court shall decree, and the proceeds thereof paid into the Treasury of the United States for the purposes aforesaid.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the several courts aforesaid shall have power to make such orders, establish such forms of decree and sale, and direct such deeds and conveyances to be executed and delivered by the marshals thereof where real estate shall be the subject of sale, as shall fitly and efficiently effect the purposes of this act, and vest in the purchasers of such property good and valid titles thereto. And the said courts shall have power to allow such fees and charges of their officers as shall be reasonable and proper in the premises.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the Army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and coming under the control of the Government of the United States, and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterward occupied by the forces of the United States shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offense against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States is authorized to employ as many persons of African descent as he may deem necessary and proper for the suppression of this rebellion, and for this purpose he may organize and use them in such manner as he may judge best for the public welfare.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States is hereby authorized to make provision for the transportation, colonization, and settlement, in some tropical country beyond the limits of the United States, of such persons of the African race, made free by the provisions of this act, as may be willing to emigrate, having first obtained the consent of the government of said country to their protection and settlement within the same, with all the rights and privileges of freemen.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the President is hereby authorized, at any time hereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such time and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the courts of the United States shall have full power to institute proceedings, make orders and decrees, issue process, and do all other things necessary to carry this act into effect.

Approved July 17, 1862.

SOURCE: SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 2 (Serial No. 123), p. 275-6

Wilder Dwight: Monday Morning, July 22, 1861

Harper's Ferry, Monday Morning, July 22, 1861.

War is a game, but you must hold a few cards to play it! Our column, which marched so proudly out of Martinsburg, is now melting away. The time of the regiments expires, and they go. This cripples our movement. Since I wrote you, Colonel Gordon has been in command here. The order under which he came stated, “You will organize the department for a military depot. Your regiment is selected because the general commanding wishes the town ‘placed, from the commencement, in a proper condition of military order and discipline.’ Once so, it can be easily retained.”

I have been very busy organizing the thing, under the Colonel. Just after I last wrote you, I established and posted the town guard, selecting for the guard-house the engine-house within the Arsenal enclosure, which was held by John Brown, and which is one of the few buildings left amid the general wreck. Then arrests were to be made of suspected men, pickets and outposts to be established, &c.

We started a regular post-office, selecting as postmaster a sergeant of Captain Savage's company, who was formerly postmaster of his native town.

Treason and conspiracy are all about us. We had quite a scene at our flag-raising the day after our arrival. The tall flagstaff on the Arsenal grounds had borne the secession rag for weeks. We wished to put our banner there. After several attempts to adjust the halliards, which failed, Sergeant Hill, of Company B, volunteered to climb the tree pole to its top and fasten the rope. This he did, amid the cheers, &c., of the people and soldiers I hope to hear to-day of the fall of Manassas, and then all will be well I am very well and very happy. To be well is a great blessing, for the water and fatigue combined take down a great many stronger men.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 54-5

Nassau W. Senior to John M. Forbes, November 20, 1861

13 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, November 20,1861.

My Dear Mr. Forbes, — I am going to republish my articles in Reviews; they will form about four volumes. Among them is one, called “European and American State Confederacies,” in which I consider whether the American Union be a national union, or a confederation, whether allegiance be due to the State, or to the Union, and I decide that it is a national union, and consequently that secession is rebellion and treason. Pray look at the article: you will find it in the number for January, 1846. But I admit that the question is one of difficulty, and that there are great authorities on each side. If my opinion on this legal question be wrong, if the Union be a mere treaty like the German Bund, every American owes allegiance to his own State, and if that State secede, he would be guilty of rebellion and treason if he did not secede too. Now Lord Russell did not feel competent to decide this difficult legal question — and I think that he could not decide it. Yet it is for not deciding it at once, and declaring the seceders rebels, that you have been abusing him and us for three months. I think that on consideration you will feel that the most certain means of destroying our sympathy with the North, and turning it towards the South, were your threats that as soon as you had settled the affair with the South you would turn on us and punish us, by war, for our want of sympathy.

One thing has tended much to embitter us, your different treatment of France and of us. The conduct of the two governments has been identical, but you have been as civil to France as you have been rude to us. Now I happen to know that the French feeling is with the South. They say that the New Orleans people are their brethren. They are all friends of slavery, and I have peculiar reasons for believing that Louis Napoleon proposed to our government to join him in breaking the blockade. You know that I have access to accurate sources of intelligence, and you may believe this. My only wish, from the time that the enormous armies and the military success of the South showed (at least it so seemed to me) that you might beat, but could not conquer her, has been for the termination of the contest, and as I think that loans to either party would tend to prolong it, I own that I hope that none will be made.

We hear little from the South, but the little which we do hear leads us to think that you are mistaken in believing that there is a strong Union party there. They seem to be as determined as you are.

Can you tell me anything of our Sault Ste. Marie prospects? I suppose that the war adjourns all sales.

Ever yours,

N. W. Senior.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 251-2

Robert E. Lee to Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, June 13, 1865

RICHMOND, June 13, 1865.

Lieut. Gen. U.S. GRANT,

Commanding Armies of the United States:

GENERAL: Upon reading the President's proclamation of the 29th ultimo, I came to Richmond to ascertain what was proper or required of me to do, when I learned that with others I was to be indicted for treason by the grand jury at Norfolk. I had supposed that the officers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia were, by the terms of their surrender, protected by the United States Government from molestation so long as they conformed to its conditions. I am ready to meet any charges that may be preferred against me. I do not wish to avoid trial, but if I am correct as to the protection granted by my parole, and am not to be prosecuted, I desire to comply with the provisions of the President's proclamation, and therefore inclose the required application, which I request in that event may be acted on.*

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

 R. E. LEE.

_______________

* The application was forwarded by General Grant to the President – See last paragraph of Grant to Lee, June 20, p. 1287

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 1275-6; John William Jones, Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 384

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant to Robert E. Lee, June 20, 1865

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,

Washington, June 20, 1865.

General R. E. LEE,

Richmond, Va.:

Your communications of date of the 13th instant, stating the steps you had taken after reading the President's proclamation of the 29th ultimo, with a view of complying with its provisions when you learned that, with others, you were to be indicted for treason by the grand jury at Norfolk; that you had supposed the officers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia were by the terms of their surrender protected by the United States Government from molestation so long as they conformed to its conditions; that you were ready to meet any charges that might be preferred against you, and did not wish to avoid trial, but that if you were correct as to the protection granted by your parole, and were not to be prosecuted, you desired to avail yourself of the President's amnesty proclamation, and inclosing an application therefor, with the request that in that event it be acted on, has been received and forwarded to the Secretary of War, with the following opinion indorsed thereon by me:

In my opinion the officers and men paroled at Appomattox Court-House, and since, upon the same terms given to Lee, cannot be tried for treason so long as they observe the terms of their parole. This is my understanding. Good faith, as well as true policy, dictates that we should observe the conditions of that convention. Bad faith on the part of the Government, or a construction of that convention subjecting the officers to trial for treason, would produce a feeling of insecurity in the minds of all the paroled officers and men. If so disposed they might even regard such an infraction of terms by the Government as an entire release from all obligations on their part. I will state further that the terms granted by me met with the hearty approval of the President at the time, and of the country generally. The action of Judge Underwood, in Norfolk, has already had an injurious effect, and I would ask that he be ordered to quash all indictments found against paroled prisoners of war, and to desist from the farther prosecution of them.

This opinion, I am informed, is substantially the same as that entertained by the Government. I have forwarded your application for amnesty and pardon to the President, with the following indorsement thereon:

Respectfully forwarded through the Secretary of War to the President, with the earnest recommendation that this application of General R. E. Lee for amnesty and pardon may be granted him. The oath of allegiance required by recent order of the President to accompany applications does not accompany this for the reason, as I am informed by General Ord, the order requiring it had not reached Richmond when this was forwarded.

 U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 1286-7

XXXVIIIth Congress -- First Session

WASHINGTON, May 19.

SENATE. – Memorials from the merchants of New York and Philadelphia, asking for a general bankrupt law, were presented.

Mr. Grimes offered a resolution that the Secretary of War report to the Senate the names of the persons appointed to the staffs of the different officers, where now employed on the staff, of what officer and by whose recommendation appointed.  Adopted.

Mr. Grimes introduced a bill for the relief of Robt. Small and others, (colored,) who recently delivered the rebel vessel Planter to Com. Dupont’s squadron.

The bill provides that the Planter, with all the cargo, appurtenances, &c, be appraised by a competent board of officers and that one-half the value thereof shall go to Rob’t Small, and his associates who assisted in the rescue of the Planter, with the provision that the Secretary of the Navy may invest the same in United States stocks.  The interest to be paid to Small and his associates, or heirs.  The bill was taken up and passed.

Mr. Wilson, of Mass., called up the resolution providing for the presentation of medals of honor to men who distinguishes themselves in battle. Passed.

Mr. Davis offered an amendment to the 3d section, which disqualifies persons guilty of offences named in the bill, such persons also forfeit all claims to citizenship.  Rejected – 12 against 26.

Mr. Powell moved to strike out the 11th section, which authorizes the President to employ and organize persons of African descent, as he may deem necessary, to suppress the rebellion.  Rejected – 11 against 25.

Mr. Henderson moved to strike out the first section and insert as a substitute, that any person hereafter convicted of treason shall suffer death or imprisonment, and forfeit all property during life.

The Confiscation bill was taken up, and Mr. Sumner proceeded to speak at length in favor of the principle of confiscation and emancipation of the slaves of rebels and urging the adoption of his substitute.

HOUSE. – Mr. Bingham, from the special committee of the House, reported articles of impeachment against West H. Humphreys, judge of the District Court of the United States for the several districts of Tennessee.  There are several separate charges in the name of the people of the United States, involving gross neglect of official duty, violation of the laws, endeavoring to excite revolt and rebellion, publishing the ordinance of secession of Tennessee, endeavoring to absolve the people from their allegiance, combining with Jeff. Davis and other evil minded persons to overthrow the authority of the United States, &c.; and demanding that Humphreys may be put to answer the high crimes and misdemeanors charged against him; and that proceedings be taken for his examination and trial, as may be agreeable to law and justice.  The report was agreed to.

On motion of Mr. Bingham a resolution was adopted appointing five managers to conduct the impeachment, and that the Senate be acquainted with the action of the House, with the view of concurrent action.  The House then went into committee of the whole, Washburn in the chair, and took up the navy appropriation bill.  Mr. Hutchins advocated the bill heretofore introduce by him, to equalized and reduce the various incongruous rates of postage.  He advocated two cents postage, the money order system, and the abolition of the franking privilege.

Mr. Richardson spoke against legislation, which discouraged Union sentiment, while the effort was making to place the negro on an equality with the whites.

Various minor amendments were discussed and adopted.  $48,000 was appropriated for rent and expenses of the Naval Academy at Newport.  The bill was finally reported to the House and passed.

Adjourned.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1862, p. 1

Treason In High Life

If the war for the Union fails its failure will probably be caused more by treason than by force of arms.  There is every reason to believe that the success of the rebellion hitherto has been secured almost wholly by treasonable communications from trusted men in our own ranks or employed in the management of military affairs.  Many such communications are known to have been made and many more are suspected to have been made, ever since the beginning of the war.  Again and again the Confederates have boasted of their previous knowledge of all the movements of our armies and many facts have proved their boasts true.  We have just learned a most astounding circumstance which may well make every patriot’s heart sink in dismay, and almost in despair.

An officer of high character has informed us that to his knowledge, on the day when the Pensacola ran the gauntlets of the rebel batteries and before the usual hour of her communicating the countersign of the day to our pickets opposite one of those batteries, the rebel pickets boastfully shouted the correct countersign across the river, and added: “The Pensacola is coming down to-night!”  What does this fact prove?  It appears that the countersigns which are sent from the War Department to our camps are made known to the rebels by traitors in confidential positions in or near that Department and that other information in reference to contemplated movements of our naval forces is likewise communicated to the enemy!  What is to be the end of all this?  Can there not be some purification of the Departments so as to save our country from the destruction that must otherwise result from such fearful treachery?  The depressing fact is known that preference for the Southern rebellion or base corruption, has led officers of Government to carry on unsuspected correspondence with the rebels to an extent unknown and undiscoverable.

Shall no effort be made to unmask these vile traitors?  If discovered shall we “swear them and let them go” or shall we rather hang them to the first lamp post?  If ever a crime deserved summary and extreme punishment, surely such a base betrayal of confidence as is shown by such acts should be most promptly and severely visited with the law’s heaviest penalties. – Whether prompted by love of the rebellion or by bribes offered by the enemy, or by a mercenary wish to prolong the war and profit by plundering the Government and the poor soldiers such treason – aggravated a thousand fold by the confidence reposed in the traitors – merits everlasting shame and contempt, and should receive such punishment – torture even – as will make the boldest forever shrink from following the base example. –{Washington Globe.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

Conspiracy Against the Government

In the Senate, March 25th, Mr. LATHAM said:

I have a resolution that I shall offer, and I beg the indulgence of the Senate while I make a brief preliminary statement, as I shall ask for its immediate consideration.  In the Boston Journal of Saturday evening, March 22, 1862, appeared the following article:

“TREASONABLE PLOT IN MICHIGAN. – The Detroit Tribune publishes a curious document revealing an attempt that in that State last fall to organize a league for the purpose of overthrowing the Federal Government.  This object is plainly avowed in a secret circular, which declares the purpose of the movement to be ‘to rise and unite if necessary, with the a--- (army) and the S----, (South,) overrun the N---- (North) like a hurricane, sweeping the A------------- (Administration) into eternity, or at least, driving them into complete and unconditional submission.’  The document is dated October 5, 1861, and says the league is doing a noble work in Maryland and among the soldiers at Fortress Monroe and that ‘President P----- (President Pierce) in his passage has drawn many brave and influential men to the league.’  The Tribune says the original of the document is now in the State Department at Washington, and that it led to the arrest and imprisonment of several persons in Fort Lafayette.  It was discovered that secret organizations existed in many towns in Michigan, and in numerous places in Canada West.”

This morning I received the following letter from ex-President Pierce:

CONCORD, N. H., March 24, 1862.

MY DEAR SIR:  I inclose a short notice from the Saturday evening edition of the Boston Journal, (March 22,) the substance of which it is quite probable you may have seen before.  Having originated in Michigan, and been reproduced in Boston, it can hardly be doubted that it has already secured a wide circulation.

The subject is not new to me.  It was the occasion of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and myself as early as December last.  I thought it reasonable to suppose, at the close of that correspondence, that the matter would cease to attract notice.

This expectation not having been realized, and the offensive charge alleged to be based upon a document, the original of which “is now in the State Department at Washington,” having been revived and extensively published, will you do me the favor to introduce in the Senate a resolution calling for the correspondence to which I have referred.

It will strike you, I am sure, both upon public and personal grounds, that such imputations should not be permitted thus to circulate unchallenged, especially when an answer to them, at least so far as I am concerned, has been for months upon the files of the first Department of the Government.

I am, very truly, your friend, &c.,

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

Hon. MILTON S. LATHAM, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

Mr. President, I shall offer the resolution in my hand, and I trust the Senate will permit its consideration now, for I deem it nothing more than proper not only to this distinguished individual, but to the country.  That the truth in relation to this charge should be known, and if a malignant and base calumny, that it should be branded as such:

            Resolved.  That the Secretary of State be requested to transmit to this body copies of any correspondence which may have taken place between Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Hon. Franklin Pierce, ex-President of the United States having reference to a supposed conspiracy against the Government.

Mr. CHANDLER.  Mr. President –

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator will allow the Chair first to ascertain whether there is any objection to the consideration of the resolution.

Mr. CHANDLER.  I wish to make some remarks in regard to the resolution.

The VICE PRESIDENT.  They are not in order unless the resolution is before the Senate.

Mr. HOWARD.  I hope there will be no objection to it.

Mr. CHANDLER.  A copy of that letter was furnished by me to the State Department, I think as early as November last, and it has been in my hands since the 7th or 8th day of October.  I should desire to read to the Senate the whole of the letter which that is an extract, but it is at my room, and I have not got it with me at this time.  The organization was most treasonable and infamous; it was wide spread; and it received the attention of the State Department, as I think it should have done.  The writer of that identical article – a Dr. Hopkins – was on his way to accept a commission as surgeon in the Federal Army when he was arrested and sent to Fort La Fayette.  About that time “the Knights of the Golden Circle,” as I was informed and believe, came to the resolution that they would be more patriotic than anybody else; that they would rush into the Federal army; that they would put men, if possible, in every regiment of the Federal army; and to my certain knowledge, they did succeed in getting a large number of the worst traitors in the United States into the Federal army; and they are there now.  This man Hopkins acknowledged the writing of this letter, but undertook to call it a joke.  Well, sir, it was a pretty serious joke.  I have, perhaps, more information than it is necessary for me to divulge at this time in reference to this matter.

Mr. LATHAM.  I do not wish to gainsay anything the gentleman has said.  What I wish, and what I feel is due to the Government and the country is to know whether a person who has filled the highest office within the gift of the American People, an ex-President of the United States, was in any manner connected with such an organization.  It is due to him, and it is due to the country, that it should be known whether such is the fact; and that is simply the object of my resolution.

Mr. HOWARD.  I am very glad, Mr. President, that the Senator from California has presented this resolution.  I think it is alike due to ex-President Pierce and to the country that the facts, so far as they are attainable at the State Department, should be obtained by the Senate and spread out before the country.  I do not undertake to say, nor to intimate, that the papers to which allusion is made by the Senator from California, will in any way implicate ex-President Pierce.  I do not know how that may be; I will not undertake to say.  That there is such a letter has been referred to by my colleague is certainly true; for I have seen the original with my own eyes; or that which is called the original.  I believe, however, that the resolution of my friend from California does not require a copy of that particular letter – the letter of Dr. Hopkins.  I would inquire of him whether it is broad enough to cover that letter.  It calls simply for any correspondence that may have taken place between ex-President Pierce and the State Department, and I think stops there; but I may be mistaken.

Mr. LATHAM.  At the suggestion of the Honorable Senator from Michigan, I will amend my resolution, so as to add at the conclusion of it, “and all other papers relating to the same.”

Mr. HOWARD.  I hope that amendment will be made, so that we may have all the documents before the Senate.  I will go further. – I do not know that my friend form California will – and suggest to him to extend his resolution so far as to require the production of any written or printed document in the possession of the executive department of this Government relating to the organization and purpose of a secret combination known commonly as the Knights of the Golden Circle.  I will not move such an amendment now myself; but I suggest it to him, and if he will move it, I shall be very glad to have him do that also.

Mr. LATHAM.  I think the resolution is broad enough as it is.  That might involve matters which the State Department might not deem conducive to the public interest to lay before this body.  I should certainly vote for such a resolution if that were brought in independently of my own; but I think it is embarrassing the resolution I now offer.

Mr. HOWARD.  I will not offer it myself, I am quite satisfied with the extent of the resolution as amended by my friend from California.  I hope it will pass.

Mr. CHANDLER.  Will the Secretary read the resolution as it now stands.

The Secretary read it as follows:

            Resolved.  That the Secretary of State be directed to transmit to this body copies of any correspondence which may have taken place between Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Hon. Franklin Pierce, ex-President of the United States, having reference to a supposed conspiracy against the Government, and all other papers relating to the same.

The resolution was agreed to.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2