CONGKESS, CC^TEDERATE. 



269 



governed, dissolved the compact which united them to 

 the Northern States, and withdrew from the Union 

 created by the Federal Constitution ; and whereas, the 

 Government of the United States, repudiating the 

 principles on which its founders, in their solemn ap- 

 peal to the civilized world, justified the American Rev- 

 olution, commenced the present war to subjugate and 

 enslave these States under the pretext of repressing 

 rebellion and restoring the Union; and whereas, in 

 the prosecution of the war for the past seventeen 

 months, the rights accorded to belligerents by the 

 usages of civilized nations have been studiously denied 

 to the citizens of these States, except in cases where 

 the same have been extorted by the apprehension of 

 retaliation^ or by the adverse fortune of the war ; and 

 whereas, from the commencement of this unholy in- 

 vasion to the present moment, the invaders have 

 inflicted inhuman miseries on the people of these 

 States, exacting of them treasonable oaths, subjecting 

 unarmed citizens, women, and children to confiscation, 

 banishment and imprisonment ; burning their dwell- 

 ing houses, ravaging the land, plundering private 

 property ; murdering men for pretended offences ; 

 organizing the abduction of slaves by government 

 officials and at government expense ; promoting servile 

 insurrection, by tampering with slaves, and protect- 

 ing them in resisting their masters ; stealing works 

 of art and destroying public libraries ; encouraging and 

 inviting a brutal soldiery to commit outrages on 

 women by the unrebuked orders of military command- 

 ers, and attempting to ruin cities by filling up the 

 entrances to their harbors with stone : And, whereas, 

 in the same spirit of barbarous ferocity the Govern- 

 ment of the United States enacted a law, entitled " An 

 act to suppress insurrection, to prevent treason and 

 rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, 

 and for other purposes," and has announced by a 

 proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln, the Presi- 

 dent thereof, that in pursuance of said law, "on the 

 1st of January, 1SOS, all persons held as slaves within 

 any State, or designated part of a State, the people 

 wh'ereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, 

 shall be thenceforward and forever free," and has, 

 thereby, made manifest that this conflict has ceased to 

 be a war as recognized among civilized nations, but 

 on the part of the enemy has become an invasion of an 

 organized horde of murderers and plunderers, breath- 

 ing hatred and revenge for the numerous defeats sus- 

 tained on legitimate battle fields, and determined, if 

 possible, to exterminate the loyal population of these 

 States, to transfer their property to their enemies, and 

 to emancipate their slaves, with the atrocious design 

 of adding servile insurrection and the massacre of 

 families to the calamities of war; and, whereas, justice 

 and humanity require this Government to endeavor to 

 repress the lawless practices and designs of the enemy 

 by inflicting severe retribution : Therefore, the Con- 

 federate States of America do enact, 



1. That on and after the 1st of January, 1863, all 

 commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the 

 enemy, except as hereinafter mentioned, when cap- 

 tured", shall be imprisoned at hard labor, or otherwise 

 put at hard labor, until the termination of the war, or 

 until the repeal of the act of the Congress of the Unit- 

 ed States, herein before recited, or until otherwise 

 determined by the President. 



2. Every white person who shall act as a commis- 

 sioned or non-commissioned officer, commanding ne- 

 groes or mulattoes against the Confederate States, or 

 who shall arm, organize, train, or prepare negroes or 

 mulattoes for military service, or aid them in any mili- 

 tary enterprise against the Confederate States, shall, if 

 captured, suffer death. 



3. Every commissioned or non-commissioned officer 

 of the enemy who shall incite slaves to rebellion, or 

 pretend to give them freedom, under the aforemen- 

 tioned act of Congress and proclamation, by abducting, 

 or causing them to be abducted, or inducing them to 

 abscond, shall, if captured, suffer death. 



4. That every person charged with an offence under 

 this act shall be tried by such military courts as the 



President shall direct ; and after conviction, the Presi- 

 dent may commute the punishment, or pardon un- 

 conditionally, or on such terms as he may see fit. 



5. That the President is hereby authorized to resort 

 to such other retaliatory measures as in his judgment 

 may be best calculated to repress the atrocities of the 

 enemy. 



Mr. Phelan, of Mississippi, submitted a mi- 

 nority report from the same committee, in the 

 form of a lengthy preamble, and the following 

 resolution : 



JBe it resolved, &c., That from this day forth all rules 

 of civilized warfare should be discarded in the future 

 defence of our country, our liberties and our lives, 

 against the fell design now openly avowed by the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States to annihilate or enslave 

 us : and that a war of extermination should henceforth 

 be waged against every invader whose hostile foot 

 shall cross the boundaries of these Confederate States. 



Mr. Hill, of Georgia: I must be allowed to 

 say for myself that I regard the proclamation 

 of Mr. Lincoln as a mere Irutum fulmen, and 

 so intended by its author. It is to serve a tem- 

 porary purpose at the Xorth. I fear we are 

 dignifying it beyond its importance. As the 

 Senate has concluded to notice it, I am in favor 

 of the simplest and most legal action. We 

 must confine our action within the line of right, 

 under the laws of nations. In my opinion we 

 have the right to declare certain acts as crimes, 

 being in conflict with civilized war, and the 

 actors as criminals; and a criminal, though a 

 soldier, is not entitled to be considered a pris- 

 soner of war. While, therefore, I approve 

 the general idea to treat persons guilty of 

 certain acts as criminals, contained in the bill 

 reported by the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. 

 Semmes), and agreed to that report as being 

 the one most favored by the majority of the 

 committee, I also, in accordance with the 

 understanding of the committee, propose the 

 following bill, and ask that it be printed for the 

 consideration of the Senate : 



1. That if any person singly, or in organized bodies, 

 shall, under pretence of waging war, kill or maim, or 

 in any wise injure the person of any unarmed citizen 

 of the Confederate States, or shall destroy, or seize, or 

 damage the property,. or invade the house or domicil, 

 or insult the family of such unarmed citizen; or shall 

 persuade or force any slave to abandon his owner, or 

 shall, by word or act, counsel or incite (o servile in- 

 surrection within the limits of the Confederate States, 

 all such persons, if captured by the forces of the Con- 

 federate States, shall be treated as criminals and not 

 as prisoners of war, and shall be tried by a military 

 court, and, on conviction, suffer death. 



2. That every person pretending to be a soldier or 

 officer of the United States, who shall be captured on 

 the soil of the Confederate States, after the 1st day of 

 January, 1863, shall be presumed to have entered" the 

 territory of the Confederate States with intent to incite 

 insurrection and abet murder, and unless satisfactory 

 proof be adduced to the contrary, before the military 

 court before which the trial shall be had, shall suffer 

 death. This section shall continue in force until the 

 proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated at 

 Washington, on the 22d day of September, 1862, shall 

 be rescinded, and the policy therein announced shall 

 be abandoned, and ho longer. 



Mr. Clark, of Missouri, read a preamble and 

 resolution embracing his views on the subject 

 under consideration. The resolution proposed 



