268 



CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



the House bill had authorized the President to 

 make a requisition upon the Governors of the 

 States for the troops needed. Is it proper, at a 

 time like this, to create dissension and collision 

 in any State of this Confederacy ? Where 

 could be the ejections to this feature of the bill ? 

 He would always sustain the Government, but 

 there had always been dissension upon the con- 

 script law. In the State of Georgia it had been 

 declared null and void because it was uncon- 

 stitutional. He had no doubt but if the Presi- 

 dent were to make requisitions upon the Gov- 

 ernors they would be complied with. He could 

 tell gentlemen now there was danger of dissen- 

 sion between the Government and States in 

 this Confederacy. He hoped it could be avoid- 

 ed, but he greatly feared it would come. There- 

 fore he appealed to the House to reconsider the 

 vote by which they passed the Senate bill. 



Mr. Foote said that he was very happy that 

 the gentleman from Georgia had found that 

 opportunity to address the House, which the 

 gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Boteler) had so 

 ungraciously refused him. The House had been 

 informed by a member of the state of things in 

 the State of Georgia. That member had said 

 that there was danger of a collision between 

 the States and the Confederate Government. 

 He would tell the House that a similar state of 

 things existed elsewhere. There have been 

 facts reported which showed it. "Why should 

 the House be restricted to the edict, and be dic- 

 tated to as to what course it should pursue by 

 a party of consolidationists in the other legisla- 

 tive branch of the Government ? Mr. Foote 

 said that he spoke of some who were then out- 

 side of the hall, and not in the other branch of 

 the Government. It was well known that 

 some time since he had emphatically declared, 

 in unequivocal language, that there was danger 

 existing, and now they had it from the lips of a 

 high-toned gentleman from Georgia, making 

 magnanimous disclosures in relation to the con- 

 dition of the country, and appealing to them 

 not to involve this country in civil war. By 

 the bill of the House the country would have 

 been quieted, and an abundance of soldiers 

 procured for the war. Let all the consolida- 

 tion men of this day, and all the federalists of 

 the old Government cry out ; let all those who 

 have been enemies of State rights, and those 

 who voted against paying back the fine of Gen. 

 Jackson, all consolidationists and federalists, 

 utter their sentiments in a voice of thunder ; let 

 them come on, he was done, he had had his 

 say ; he had expressed his opinion, and called 

 the question. 



The House refused to reconsider yeas 24, 

 nays 53. 



Subsequently an exemption act was passed. 

 It exempted the police for sections of country 

 which have dense negro populations ; also, edit- 

 ors and such helps as they require in their busi- 

 ness ; also, the employes of transportation and 

 telegraph companies, ministers of the gospel, 

 physicians, shoemakers, tanners, blacksmiths, 



wagon makers and millers ; also, superintend- 

 ents and employes in hospitals, wool, cotton, 

 and paper mills, employes of the government 

 works, overseers of plantations, and one man 

 to every five hundred head of cattle. The ex- 

 emption act, passed April 21st, was repealed. 



Several propositions under the form of bills, 

 were introduced into the Senate respecting re- 

 taliatory measures. These propositions were 

 brought forward in consequence of the procla- 

 mation of President Lincoln, issued on the 22d 

 of September, declaring that on the 1st of Jan- 

 uary ensuing an emancipation proclamation 

 would be issued. The subject came up for 

 the first time on the 29th of Sept., when Mr. 

 Semmes, of Louisiana, offered the following 

 resolution : 



Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States, 

 That the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, President 

 of the United States of America, issued in the city of 

 Washington, in the year 1862, wherein he declares 

 " that on the first day of January, in the year of our 

 Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State, 

 or designated parts of a State, whereof the people shall 

 be in rebellion against the United States shall be hence- 

 forth and forever free, " is levelled against the citizens 

 of the Confederate States, and as such is a gross viola- 

 tion of the usuages of civilized warefare, an outrage 

 on the rights of private property, and an invitation to 

 an atrocious servile war, and therefore should be held 

 up to the execration of mankind, and counteracted by 

 such retaliatory measures as in the judgment of the 

 President may be best calculated to secure its with- 

 drawal or arrest its execution. 



Mr. Clark, of Missouri, moved that the reso- 

 lution be referred to the Committee on Foreign 

 Affairs. He was in favor of declaring every 

 citizen of the Southern Confederacy a soldier, 

 authorized to put to death every man caught 

 on our soil in arms against the Government. 



Mr. Semmes, of Louisiana, said that the reso- 

 lution had not been drawn without reflection. 

 The question of retaliation was exclusively an 

 Executive one, to be regulated by circum- 

 stances. But it was proper that the legisla- 

 tive department of the Government should ex- 

 press its approval of the retaliation contem- 

 plated by the resolution. 



Mr. Henry, of Tennessee, said that the reso- 

 lution did not go far enough. He favored the 

 passage of a law providing that, upon any at- 

 tempt being made to execute the proclamation 

 of Abraham Lincoln, we immediately hoist the 

 " black flag," and proclaim a war of extermina- 

 tion against all invaders of our soil. 



Mr. Phelan, of Mississippi, said that he had 

 always been in favor of conducting the war 

 under the " black flag." If that flag had been 

 raised a year ago the war would be ended now. 



Mr. Burnett, of Kentucky, moved that all of 

 said resolutions be referred to the Committee 

 on the Judiciary. This was agreed to. 



Subsequently, on the 1st of October, a major- 

 ity of the Judiciary Committee made a report 

 recommending the passage of the following bill : 



Whereas, these States, exercising a right consecrat- 

 ed by the blood of our Revolutionary forefathers, and 

 recognized as fundamental in the American system of 

 government, which is based on the consent of the 



