Resolved, That the Committee on Judiciary be instructed to inquire into and report whether an officer of the army of the United States, acting under the authority of that Government, can be made liable and punished as a criminal for the violation of the criminal laws of a State, by a State tribunal, when turned over to State authorities by order of the President. Mr. Yancey said he was in favor of retaliation, but inasmuch as that involved "counter retaliation," and jeoparded the lives of officers, it was well to consider whether, on the whole, the retaliatory measures recommended had better be adopted. Mr. Yancey said that this counter retaliation had already commenced, and that Confederate officers are already "suffering inconvenience" from it. He was sure, however, that even though the proposition of President Davis was adopted, there would be no retaliation, for, he added: When these officers shall be turned over to State tribunals, under the judgment of these State tribunals they will be declared as not liable, as criminals, to the State laws. We recognize the United States as a public enemy, and public enemies are not liable, in my opinion, to the criminal laws of the country with which they are at war. *** If amenable to one State law, he is amenable to all State laws; and surely it would not be held for a single moment that an officer of the United States would be held liable to the law of trespass. In my opinion, no one law is more sacred than another law, and the very same principle of construction, which would make him liable for exciting an insurrection, would make him amenable to all other laws of the State which would be violated by him in the conduct of war. Mr. Yancey then proceeded to meet the argument that the United States were violating the law of nations, and very distinctly took the ground that the public enemy might stir up an insurrection or do any act to weaken the power of his foe without violating the law of nations or military law. Mr. Yancey was willing to have the policy established that every officer of the enemy shall be killed in the field of battle, but he thought it was the duty of the Confederate Government to take the matter in hand, and not to shift the responsibility upon the local laws of the separate States. The following are the joint resolutions as adopted: Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, in response to the message of the President, transmitted to Congress at the commencement of the present session, That, in the opinion of Congress, the commissioned officers of the enemy ought not to be delivered to the authorities of the respective States, as suggested in the said message: but all capfives taken by the Confederate forces ought to be dealt with and disposed of by the Confederate Govern ment. Sec. 2. That, in the judgment of Congress, the proclamations of the President of the United States, dated respectively September twenty-second, eighteen hundred sixty-two, and January first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and the other measures of the Government of the United States and of its authorities, commanders, and forces, designed or tending to emancipate slaves in the Confederate States or to abduct such slaves, or to incite them to insurrection, or to employ negroes in war against the Confederate States, or to overthrow the institution of African slavery and bring on a servile war in these States, would, if successful, produce atrocious consequences, and they are inconsistent with the spirit of those usages which in modern warfare prevail among civilized nations; they may, therefore, be properly and lawfully repressed by retaliation. Sec. 3. That in every case wherein, during the present war, any violation of the laws and usages of war among civilized nations shall be, or has been, done and perpetrated by those acting under the authority of the Government of the United States, on the persons or property of the citizens of the Confederate States, or of those under the protection or in the land or naval service of the Confederate States, or of any State of the Confederacy, the President of the Confed erate States is hereby authorized to cause full and complete retaliation to be made for every such violation, in such manner and to such extent as he may think proper. Sec. 4. That every white person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as such, who, during the pres ent war, shall command negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Confederate States, or who shall arm, train, organize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service against the Confederate States, or who shall voluntarily aid negroes or mulattoes in any military enterprise, attack, or conflict in such service, shall be deemed as inciting servile insurrection, and shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the discretion of the court. Sec. 5. Every person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as such in the service of the enemy, who shall, during the present war, excite, attempt to excite, or cause to be excited servile insurrection, or who shall incite or cause to be incited a slave to rebel, shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished, at the discretion of the court. Sec. 6. Every person charged with an offence punishable under the preceding resolutions shall, during the present war, be tried before the military court at tached to the army or corps by the troops of which he shall have been captured, or by such other military court as the President may direct, and in such manner, and under such regulations as the President shall prescribe, and, after conviction, the President may commute the punishment in such manner and on such terms as he may deem proper. gaged in war or be taken in arms against the ConfedSec. 7. All negroes or mulattoes who shall be enerate States, or shall give aid or comfort to the enemies of the Confederate States, shall, when captured in the Confederate States, be delivered to the authorities of the State or States in which they shall be captured, to of such State or States. be dealt with according to the present or future laws The section of the conscription law which exempted one person as owner or overseer of each twenty negroes was repealed. A resolution was adopted in favor of free navigation of the Mississippi river, as follows: Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the Confederate States again repeat the principles above set forth, and declare the free navigation of the Mississippi river to be the natural right of the people of all the States upon its banks, or upon the banks of its navigable tributaries. In the House, on the 3d of March, a resolution was adopted to inquire into the expediency of repealing the resolutions declaring that a neutral flag covers an enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband goods. A bill, introduced into the Senate, placed all telegraph lines under the control of the Postmaster-General. A tax bill was also passed at this session, which levied a tax of eight per cent, on the value of all naval stores, salt, wines, spirituous liquors, tobacco, manufactured or unmanufactured, cot ton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, syrups, rice, and other agricultural productions. Bankers were taxed $500; auctioneers $50, and 24 per cent. on the gross amount of their sales; wholesale liquor dealers were taxed $200, and 5 per cent. of their gross sales; retail liquor dealers pay $100 and 10 per cent. of gross sales; distillers pay $200 and 20 per cent. of gross sales; hotels and eating houses pay according to the yearly retail of the property, from $800 a year down to $30; theatres pay $500 and 5 per cent. of gross receipts; tobacconists pay $50 and 5 per cent. of gross sales; billiard rooms pay $40 for each table; butchers and bakers pay $50 and 1 per cent. of gross sales; peddlers pay $50 and 24 per cent. of sales; photographers, lawyers, apothecaries, doctors, and confectioners pay $50 each, with a tax on all but lawyers and doctors of 2 per cent. of sales. Incomes are taxed as follows: over $500 and under $1,500 a year, 5 per cent.; over $1,500 and less than $3,000 a year, 5 per cent. on the first $1,500 and 10 per cent. on the rest; over 3,000 and less than $5,000, 10 per cent.; over $5,000 and less than $10,000, 12 per cent.; over $10,000, 15 per cent. The following section related to farmers: SEC. 11. Each farmer and planter in the Confederate States, after reserving for his own use fifty bushels of sweet potatoes and fifty bushels of Irish potatoes, one hundred bushels of corn or fifty bushels of wheat produced in the present year, shall pay and deliver to the Confederate Government, of the products of the present year, one-tenth of the wheat, corn, oats, rye, buckwheat, or rice, sweet and Irish potatoes, and of the cured hay and fodder; also, one tenth of the sugar, molasses made of cane, cotton, wool, and tobacco; the cotton ginned and packed in some secured manner; the tobacco shipped and packed in boxes, to be delivered by him on or before the first day of March in the next year. Each farmer or planter, after reserving twenty bushels of peas or beans, but not more than twenty bushels of both, for his own use, shall deliver to the Confederate Government, for its use, one tenth of the peas, beans and ground peas produced and gathered by him during the present year. An act was also passed adopting a new flag. red union, the latter crossed diagonally, with It consisted of a white ground with a bright two blue stripes with white stars on the stripe. The law directed it to be hoisted for the first time on all ships and forts, on the first day of July. The steamer Atlanta, when she advanced to attack the Weehawken and Nahant, hoisted it in anticipation of the day appointed, but instead of floating in triumph, it was hauled down in defeat. It Congress also passed an Impressment bill, the design of which was to protect the holders of property seized by the Government. provided that compensation should be determined, in the case of producers, by two or three impartial and loyal citizens of the vicinage, and in the case of non-producers, by two commissioners in each State-one appointed by the President, the other by the Governor. Soon after the passage of this bill, a case of impressment occurred in Virginia-of hay or corn-and the appraisers put on a most exorbitant price. Acting thus on the presumption that citizens would invariably extort from the Government exorbitant prices, Congress passed a supplementary bill, providing that in case the impressing officer did not approve the award of the appraisers, he should so endorse on the appraisement, and turn the matter of price over to be settled by the State Impressment Commissioners. As these commissioners fixed prices every sixty days, or oftener, for a whole State, their prices would most probably be always either too much or too little for some articles in the various districts of a large State. Under the supplementary bill instructions were issued from the War Department at Richmond, prohibiting impressing officers from approving any appraisement in excess of the schedule price fixed by commissioners for a whole State. Thus the principle of adjusting compensation by the arbitrament of impartial citizens of the vicinage-a most important feature of the Impressment bill-was virtually abandoned. This impressment was enforced at the same time that the produce tax was collected, and caused much dissatisfaction. On the 7th of December, Congress convened again at Richmond. In the Senate, Mr. Simms, of Kentucky, and Mr. Clark, of Missouri, offered resolutions and bills against permitting substitutes to be employed any longer in the army, The proposition was, that the Government should return the substitute money, and require all to do their duty. The House adopted a resolution for a joint committee to consider the currency, and report speedy measures for action. In the House, on the 9th, Mr. Foote, of Tennessee, offered a resolution instructing the appropriate committee diers. He urged the question at some length, to provide for the increase of the pay of solassuming that no action in regard to the cur the soldier in refusing him an equable compenrency would fully restore it to its nominal value, and that, therefore injustice was done sation. He contended that the President was pay, from opposed to the increase of the soldiers' the fact that he stated in his message that the suggested action upon the currency would obviate its necessity, by approximating the nominal value of the money. He wanted the whole value secured. ident from the imputation, and argued at some Mr. Gartrell, of Georgia, vindicated the Preslength, in order to show that the increase of the pay of the soldier was one of the President's most eager wishes. The resolution was lost. Mr. Foote: Resolved, That said committee be instructed to inquire whether there be any ground for the allegation otherwise, that the prisoners of war detained by us made by the enemy, in formal official letters and in custody have been refused adequate supplies of a wholesome and nutritious character, at any time, and report the result of the inquiry herein, in order that not a moment should be lost in vindicating the honor of our own Government in regard to this solemn and interesting matter, and that no plausible pretext shall remain for the maltreatment of our own valuable soldiers, now retained in Northern prison houses upon the plea of needful retaliation. In explaining and urging this resolution upon the Committee of the Whole, Mr. Foote said that his design was to investigate facts, and he had a few to offer; not to give information to the enemy, but to give information to this House, and to the country, that the honor of the country may be protected. A certain commissary-general, who was a curse to our country, had been invested with authority to control the matter of subsistence. This man has placed our Government in the attitude charged by the enemy, and has attempted to starve the prisoners in our hands! Here Mr. Foote read a letter from the quartermaster for the prisons, Capt. J. Warner, addressed to Gen. Winder, and placed on the record at Col. Ould's office, which stated that he (Capt. Warner) had, from the 1st to the 20th of the last month, been able to obtain meat for the prisoners in a very irregular and meagre manner from the depart ment, and that for six days only of the period was he able to obtain a regular supply; for twelve days the supply was irregular and inadequate, and for eight days they got none at all. This commissary-general, who, he was told (continued Mr. Foote), was a sort of pepper doctor down in Charleston, and he must say, looking as like a vegetarian as his practice would indicate, had actually made an elaborate report to the Secretary of War, showing that, for the subsistence of a human Yankee carcass, a vegetable diet was the most proper that could be adopted. He had other facts which he could bring forward, in addition to this, to show that this Northrop should be turned out. For the honor of the country he should be ejected at once. The vote was then taken on the resolution, and it was lost. In the Senate, on the 11th, Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, offered a resolution that the state of the country demanded that the laws should, without delay, be passed declaring every male citizen in the military service; to repeal the laws authorizing substitutes; to authorize the President to issue his proclamation commanding all foreigners to leave the country, in sixty days, or to take up arms; to regulate details for necessary civil pursuits; to levy direct taxes; to make Confederate notes a legal tender after six months; to prohibit the trade in gold and silver and bank notes and United States Treasury notes during the war, or to prohibit blockade running, under heavy penalties, and to declare these laws war measures, and make those violating them amenable only military courts. Mr. Wigfall, of Texas, offered a resolution instructing the Military Committee to inquire into and report upon the treatment by the military authorities of prisoners of war, which was agreed to. Mr. Phelen, of Mississippi, introduced a bill which was referred to the Finance Committee and ordered to be printed, providing for the issue of $500,000,000 of coupon bonds in sums not less than five hundred dollars, payable in twenty years, and bearing interest of six per cent., payable semi-annually. The coupons when due to be a legal tender for all debts due in dollars or other money, and a refusal to accept the same when tendered to act as a discharge to the indebtedness in payment of which they are offered. Mr. Holcombe offered a resolution that the Special Committee on the Currency consider the expediency of requesting the State Banks of the Confederacy to loan their respective reserves to the Confederate Government. Mr. Sparrow, of Louisiana, from the Military Committee, reported back the following bill, with the recommendation that it pass: The Congress of the Confederate States do enact, that no person liable to the military service shall hereafter be permitted or allowed to furnish a substitute for such service, nor shall any substitute be received, federate States; and that all laws heretofore passed enlisted, or enrolled in the military service of the Conpermitting or allowing persons liable to military ser vice to furnish substitutes for the same, or authoriz ing the acceptance, enlistment, or enrolment of any substitute in the military service, be and the same are hereby repealed. Mr. Wigfall moved to strike out the last clause of the bill, which being rejected, the bill was passed and sent to the House. In the House, Mr. Foote offered several bills, among them one for the repeal of the existing substitute law, and one for the increase of the pay of soldiers. They were referred. He also introduced several resolutions, one requesting the President to withdraw all diplomatic agents from such foreign Governments as have not recognized the Confederacy, before the first day of February next, and to dismiss all foreign consuls in the country. Mr. Foote also introduced a resolution in regard to unreasonable searches and seizures. Also a resolution that the Judiciary Committee inquire into the expediency of so amending the present law with reference to the exchange of prisoners of African descent as to distinguish between those who were free when the war commenced, and those who are recog nized as slaves by the laws of the Confederate States. Agreed to. On the 18th, Mr. Goode, of Virginia, offered a resolution instructing the Committee on the Judiciary to inquire into the expediency of so amending the act to regulate impressments, as to relieve sufficient bread and provisions to supply the wants of the non-producers of the country. Mr. Goode said that the agents of the commissary and quartermaster departments have been recently going all over the country, and where they could not go themselves, had written communications, notifying all producers that their whole surplus was impressed, and forbidding them to move it. The question was, what are all the non-producers the large number of persons residing in cities-the mechanics, the wives and children of our soldiers, the vast number of refugees who were driven from their homes by the enemy-what were these to do? As an instance of the great injustice of the system, he stated that he knew of a mill in which all the toll corn had been impressed by the commissary agent at the depot, who knew at the time that twenty or thirty families were supplied by that mill, and he impressed it, simply because it was convenient to the depot, and he was too lazy to go some distance further and obtain supplies from a place which could afford to give them. Mr. Goode represented, as a part of his district, the little county of Carroll, which had sent into the field eleven hundred volunteers out of twelve hundred voters. It had not furnished a single conscript, and but three substitutes, and contained only one hundred and fifty slaves. Almost all of the laboring population, therefore, consisted of the old men, the women and boys; and if the producer was not allowed to furnish his poor neighbor with bread and meat, what was he to do? He knew and admitted the necessity of feeding the army; but by so doing he could not admit the necessity of starving the country. He had been told that there were oceans of corn" in the State of Georgia; if so, why was it not brought here? Could not the Government regulate its own transportation? He could not say that he knew the remedy for the evil, but it was his opinion that a change in the commissary department would be very beneficial. On the 21st, Mr. Miles, of S. C., offered the following bill, which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs: A bill to be entitled an Act to continue in the service all troops now in the service of the Confederate States. SEC. 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, that all musicians, privates, and non-commissioned officers now in the armies of the Confederate States, by virtue of volunteering, enlistment, or conscription into the military service of the Confederate States, be and the same are hereby retained in said service for and during the existing war with the United States, and no longer. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That all troops so retained in service shall continue to serve in the com panies, battalions, squadrons, batteries, and regiments in which they now are, until transferred, detailed, exempted or discharged in accordance with existing laws and regulations, or such laws and regulations as may hereafter be passed and adopted with reference to transfers, details, exemptions, or discharges in the armies of the Confederacy. Mr. Gartrell, of Ga., offered an amendment to allow the troops so retained in service to elect their company and field officers. Mr. Read, of Ky., offered an amendment to allow the troops from Kentucky to mount themselves and become part of the cavalry. The amendments were ordered to be sent to the committee with the original bill. Mr. Foote, of Tennessee, rose to a personal explanation. He had seen in the papers extracts from Northern papers, reporting him as having said that our Government officials were trying to starve Federal prisoners. He had made no such statement, but had merely offered a resolution looking to an inquiry into the subject, and had presented papers to show that there had been some irregularity in feeding them, and the Committee on Quartermas ter and Commissary Departments were now engaged in a strict investigation of the subject. Mr. Hilton, of Fla., from the Committee on Military Affairs, presented the following bill which was ordered to be printed: Whereas, Through frauds perpetrated on the Gov. ernment under the clause of the act approved April 16th, 1862, which granted the privilege that persons not liable to military duty might be received for those who were, our armies have been deprived of the services of men necessary for the public defence, therefore, SEC. 1. The Congress of the Confederate States do enact, That, in all cases where substitutes received under the provision of the above (or any other) law have deserted, or shall hereafter desert, the obligation of the principal shall revive upon the desertion of the substitute being established under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of War. SEC. 2. In all cases where a substitute has proved unfit for the discharge of the ordinary duties of a soldier, by reason of physical or mental incapacity exist. ing at the time he was received as a substitute, the ob ligation of the principal shall revive upon such incapacity being established and attested under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of War. SEC. 3. In all cases where a man who is a substitute would be liable to enrolment for military service under existing or future laws, if he were not already in the army, the principal is hereby declared to be sub ject to such enrolment. in the House prohibiting every person from On the 24th, a bill was unanimously passed dealing in the paper currency of the United States. The following bill was passed by a vote of 52 ayes to 13 noes: try, it requires the aid of all who are able to bear arms; Whereas, In the present circumstances of the coun The Congress of the Confederate States do therefore enact, That no person shall be exempted from military service by reason of having furnished a substi shall be so construed as to relieve a substitute from tute. Provided, That nothing in the foregoing clause any obligation or liability contracted or assumed by him as such substitute. But this act shall not be conto military service, have, nevertheless, put in substistrued so as to affect persons who, though not liable tutes. In the Senate, on the 30th, Mr. Phelan, of Miss., presented joint resolutions of the General Assembly of Mississippi, which were referred to the Military Committee. The resolutions severally provide that Congress be requested to repeal that portion of the Conscript act authorizing substitution in the army, to take into consideration the practicability of using negro men in the service as teamsters, &c., and to appoint an agent, or agents, on the part of the Confederate States, to visit different portions of the State of Mississippi for the purpose of auditing, adjusting, and paying off certificates and receipts given persons for provisions and other property impressed by the Confederate Government. The Senate then resumed consideration of the House bill to put an end to the exemption of persons who have furnished substitutes, the pending question being on the adoption of the amendment of Mr. Maxwell, of Florida, excepting those engaged in agricultural pursuits whose substitutes have not deserted. Mr. Hill favored the amendment. There was a great clamor to put everybody in the army. The ranks of the army certainly required filling up, but they were thin, not because the muster rolls were not full, but because the men on the muster rolls were not in the ranks. Absenteeism was the greatest vice of the day, We lost the battle of Missionary Ridge because of absenteeism. Officers of that army were absent who were as well as he was. He could give the names of some of these officers, but not all of them, as they were too numerous. But if any one of them ever come before the Senate for promotion, and he knew it, he would mention the facts and vote against him. Gen. Bragg had stated in his report that two thirds of his army were absent. All of them were, probably, not on sick furloughs. Many of them were, no doubt, engaged on provost duty. It had come to this, that every little village in the country must have a provost and provost guard, who, as far as his own observation went, were a great deal more active in annoying citizens than in arresting deserters. The army was discontented with the Substitute law because most of those who had put in substitutes had set themselves down in towns and amassed fortunes out of the necessities of the country. If they had betaken themselves to some occupation useful and necessary to the country, this discontent would not have arisen. To exempt from the operation of this act men who were engaged in producing food for the support of the army and the country would certainly be agreeable to the army. He therefore favored the amend ment. Mr. Wigfall said he wished to say a few words, not to influence the mind of the Senate, for he was satisfied the Senate had made up their minds. This matter of substitutes was one which might have once been defended, but now it seemed to him that the bill abolishing all substitution ought to pass unconditionally. It was absolutely necessary that every soldier in the army should remain there, under the present organization, without any change of company, battalion, or regiment. The statu que must be preserved. We could not afford to disorganize the army. Incompetent offiers must be gotten rid of by examining boards. He meant what he said, and had said what he meant. The army and the country had been talked of in a manner calculated to produce confusion. The army was the country, and the country was the army. We were engaged in such a conflict as the world never saw. By a misnomer we spoke of "this revolution," and compared it with the revolution of '76. There was no comparison whatever. If we had failed then we should still be under the best government the world had then seen. We should have been under a government which reserved to us the trial by jury, &c. A half dozen persons, if so much, would have been executed, and there would have been an end of it. But if we failed now? Has any man in or out of the army, considered what subjugation and confiscation mean-what is comprehended and signified by these terms? Confiscation means to have no house to cover the head; no bed whereon to lie; to have nothing. Subjugation means a negro guard in every house and a provost marshal at every cross road; with no right to visit a neighbor; no right to visit the house of God without a permit from a Yankee provost marshal to be handed to a negro guard. Senators should recollect that there was discontent in the army. He believed that this discontent was groundless, but still it existed. It had been said upon the floors of Congress that there had been discrimination in favor of certain classes, and this had produced dissatisfaction. Those who had fought under the suns of July and August, and under the frosts of October and November, and were not yet buried, were discontented that their rich neighbors were not in the army to share their lot with them. The soldiers in the army were content to remain there; but they insisted that their rich neighbors should be there also. There had been reasons for the exemption of some and the permitting of others to furnish substitutes. Those reasons were that some men could do more good, could benefit the country and the cause more, out of the army than in it. We were obliged to have merchants, tailors, shoemakers, and blacksmiths. But when the bill passed permitting substitutes, what was the result? It was the fashion to talk about the bone and sinew of the country, and to speak of the planters and farmers as having all of the religion, cultivation, education, and patriotism of the country. Talk of speculators, extortioners and Dutch Jews! The farmers have been the worst speculators, extortioners, and Dutch Jews of this war. Has the population of the South changed? No. Have the Yankees driven out the people from their lands, and put into their places the Dutch and Irish with whom they have threatened to colonize the conquered States? No. These are the people of the South who are fighting for their liberties or getting other people to fight for them. And, singular to say, they think a great deal more of their negroes than of their sons and brothers. A gentleman of his acquaintance had, last summer, met a negro on the cars coming to Richmond to work on the batteries. The |