CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



259 



cipation, however remote, in stopping the on- 

 ward movement of our armies ; on the con- 

 trary, the President had allowed to the generals 

 in the field the most liberal discretion. They 

 alone are responsible for the deplorable non- 

 action of our forces. The speaker then pointed 

 out the advantages which, to his mind, might 

 have occurred to us, had a vigorous onward 

 movement been adopted immediately after the 

 battle of Manassas. And of such a movement 

 he was yet in favor ; he desired that the Yan- 

 kees shall be made to pay the whole expenses 

 of this war, that the commercial magnates of 

 New York, Boston, and Philadelphia be made 

 to unlock their strong boxes, and to indemnify 

 the South for losses which they had imposed 

 upon her. He desired, above all things, to drive 

 the enemy beyond our borders. All this he 

 would have, and nothing less. He desired to 

 show to the world, that which the adoption of 

 this resolution would express, that the Southern 

 people, far from being disheartened by re- 

 verses, are invigorated in their determination 

 to achieve their independence. Southern free- 

 dom, he contended, could have been achieved six 

 months ago had we pushed boldly forward. Had 

 we passed into Maryland heroic Maryland 

 rescued Baltimore and Annapolis, and cut off 

 the railroad communication with the North, 

 that independence which we must now purchase 

 with a vast expenditure of blood and treasure, 

 could have been secured to us at less than one 

 fourth of what the war has already cost us. 



Mr. Jenkins said, while listening to the gentle- 

 man's eloquent illustration of the art militaire, 

 there came across his mind the vision of a by- 

 gone scene. He referred to that scene related 

 in ancient history, when a philosopher of clas- 

 sic renown endeavored to prove to Hannibal 

 the error of his system of warfare. No doubt 

 he did it <juite as eloquently and as plausibly as 

 the philosopher from Tennessee had discoursed 

 here to-day. When the philosopher had de- 

 parted from the presence of Hannibal, a friend 

 asked him what he thought of his instructor. 

 The reply, said the speaker, is doubtless famil- 

 iar to all here. He had too much respect to 

 apply it directly to his friend from Tennessee, 

 whom the quotation fitted as nicely as a wed- 

 ding garment. 



Mr. Foote said he remembered well the quo- 

 tation alluded to, and in reply to the gentleman 

 from Virginia, would demand to know whether 

 he intended to apply it personally to him. If 

 so, he should make a special issue with the 

 gentleman upon it. 



Mr. Jenkins said he did not remember the 

 entire quotation, but if it contained aught which 

 could be deemed disrespectful, he here disclaim- 

 ed any intention of applying it to the gentleman 

 from Tennessee. 



Mr. Foote accepted the disclaimer, and said 

 that as the gentleman's memory was so defec- 

 tive, he would recite Hannibal's reply, which 

 was that the philosopher " was the greatest fool 

 he had ever seen." 



Mr. Boyce, of South Carolina, said : " He had 

 thought that we should proceed with all possi- 

 ble energy. We should have aimed at an offen- 

 sive warfare. All the slave States should be 

 included. In his opinion the war between the 

 North and the South might last a long time, 

 and that hostilities would exist forever. We 

 cannot afford to give np one inch of our South- 

 ern soil. The North now exceeds us to the 

 number of eighteen or twenty millions of white 

 people. We should have pursued, from the 

 very first, more of an aggressive policy, which 

 would have given a position to the Southern 

 States ; it would have encouraged our friends 

 and discouraged our enemies, and such a policy 

 had been indicated by our distinguished Presi- 

 dent from Mississippi, when on his way to be 

 inaugurated as President of the Provisional 

 Government that we should wage war on the 

 enemy's own ground. Mr. L. P. Walker, the 

 former Secretary of War, had said at an early 

 day that the flag of the South should float 

 shortly over the Capitol at Washington. He, 

 the speaker, had thought the expression unwise 

 at that time. We should have talked peace and 

 acted war ; used peaceful terms, but prepared 

 for active war. Audacity! audacity! audacity! 

 is the key to success. Make no show of fear ; 

 prosecute the war with great vigor. Talk of 

 risk have we not risked a revolution? and shall 

 we see it fail ? We should have pursued an 

 aggressive policy from the very first. The ene- 

 my at that time were unprepared ; they had 

 but 75,000 men, and most of them were holi- 

 day soldiers, and came South as to a sort of 

 Fourth of July celebration. The genius of 

 our policy should then have been action." 



Mr. Machen, of Kentucky, said : " I came 

 from a land which is now resonant with the 

 drum and fife of Yankeedom. Still I am not 

 in favor of adopting a new policy or of having 

 Congress dictate what shall be the disposition 

 of our forces with regard to the enemy. Con- 

 gress should not usurp the military power." 



Mr. Foote, rising, said : "I want to know if a 

 simple proposition is usurpation. If simply to 

 express an opinion is to be styled and consider- 

 ed usurpation, I want to go home." 



The resolution was laid on the table. 



In the Senate, the Committee on Military 

 Affairs reported a bill to indemnify the owners 

 of cotton, tobacco, military and naval stores, 

 or other property of any kind whatever which 

 might be of nse to the enemy, that should be 

 destroyed to prevent its capture. 



The bill was finally passed in the following 

 form: 



Be it enacted by the Congress of the Confederate 

 States of America, That it shall be the duty of all 

 military commanders in the service of the Confederate 

 States to destroy all cotton, tobacco, or other property, 

 that may be useful to the enemy, if the same cannot 

 safely be removed, whenever, in their judgment, the 

 said cotton, tobacco, and other property is about to fall 

 into the hands of the enemy. 



This cuts off all compensation to owners: It 



