270 



CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



to recognize the enemy as " savage, relentless, 

 and barbarous," and declares that it "is the 

 duty of the Government of the Confederate 

 States neither to ask quarter for its soldiers 

 nor extend it to the enemy until an awakened 

 or created sense of decency and humanity, or 

 the sting of retaliation, shall have impelled our 

 enemy to adopt or practise the usages of war 

 which prevail among Christian and civilized 

 nations." 



On the motion of Mr. Semmes, of Louisiana, 

 the several bills and resolutions were ordered 

 to be printed. 



The whole matter was finally disposed of on 

 the last day of the session by the passage of a 

 resolution, declaring that Congress would sus- 

 tain the President in such retaliatory measures 

 as he might adopt. (See PRISONERS, and PUB- 

 LIC DOCUMENTS.) 



In the Senate, on the Vth of October, the 

 bill to extend the operation of the sequestra- 

 tion act to all persons, natives of or residents 

 within any State of the Confederate States, 

 who have refused to submit themselves to the 

 constitution and laws of the Confederate States, 

 fee., was considered. 



A substitute proposed by the Committee on 

 the Judiciary was adopted. This substitute 

 provides that the President of the Seceded 

 States shall issue his proclamation ordering all 

 persons within the limits of those States who 

 adhere to the United States Government to 

 leave the Southern Confederacy within forty 

 days on pain of forfeiture of property. An- 

 other of its provisions is the granting of im- 

 munity to all persons adhering to the United 

 States Government who, within forty days, 

 should take the oath of allegiance to the South- 

 ern Confederacy. 



The following is a sketch of the debate on 

 this bill, which, however, failed to become a 

 law at this session : 



Mr. Clark, of Missouri, opposed the bill, be- 

 cause it would work a hardship upon good 

 citizens of the South, who had acquiesced in 

 the Yankee rule under duress, and were still 

 within the Yankee lines. If citizens of the 

 South could be given a fair chance to join our 

 cause and still adhere to the enemy, he would 

 be in favor of nailing them to the cross. 



Mr. Haynes, of Tenn., took the same views. 



Mr. Wigfall, of Texas, thought the bill enti- 

 tled to serious consideration. It was not clear 

 to him that it was entirely constitutional. 

 Citizens and residents of the States of the Con- 

 federacy who had afforded aid and comfort to 

 the enemy had been guilty of treason a crime 

 defined by the Constitution, and for which said 

 citizens were responsible to their States and to 

 the Confederate States. 



Mr. Hill, of Georgia, held that every citizen 

 had the right to elect with which Government, 

 that of the North or the South, he would side. 

 The Southern Government had the right to say 

 whether residents or citizens who did not take 

 sides with us but with the enemy, should leave 



its limits and go over to the territory of the 

 enemy. If a citizen has once elected to be a 

 citizen of one of the Confederate States, that 

 act makes him a citizen of the Confederacy, and 

 he cannot throw off his allegiance. It belongs 

 to the Confederate Government to define who 

 are alien enemies. These rules had prevailed 

 in all revolutions in England and in the Neth- 

 erlands. 



Mr. Wigfall said the gentleman was as much 

 mistaken as Abraham Lincoln or William H. 

 Seward if he thought this was a revolution 

 that we were subjects fighting against an estab- 

 lished Government. If we were we would 

 be entitled to the term " rebels." This is no 

 civil war. It is a war of some sovereign States 

 against other States. There was civil war in 

 Kentucky, where citizens of the same State. 

 were at war against one another. There was 

 no such thing as a citizen of the Confederate 

 States. No citizen owed allegiance to the 

 Confederate States. 



Mr. Hill held that the citizen did owe alle- 

 giance to the Confederate States. Gentlemen 

 might call it "obedience," but this was a sub- 

 limated theory. The States have formed a 

 Confederate Government, to which is delegated 

 the sovereign power to declare war, &c. The 

 citizen's first allegiance is due to his State, but 

 through the State he owes allegiance to the 

 Confederate Government. 



He held, however, that the people had a 

 right to choose their own Government. If this 

 were not so, then the United States had the 

 right to hang Gen. Buckner for proving false 

 to the allegiance he once owed to them. This 

 conclusion was inevitable. And the Confed- 

 erate States would have a right to hang An- 

 drew Johnson for violating an allegiance to the 

 Government to which he never admitted he 

 owed allegiance. 



Gentlemen, he said, may shake their heads 

 at the proposition as much as they please, but 

 when they deny it, they deny a fundamental 

 principle of the Government, and the people 

 who accept the contrary rule of action are drift- 

 ing on a rapid current into monarchy. You 

 come to the old exploded doctrine that a man 

 who once owes allegiance always owes allegi- 

 ance ; you deny the principle of expatriation in 

 toto ; you say a man shall render allegiance to 

 a Government even before he has promised it; 

 that no man has a right to choose his Govern- 

 ment ; and, finally, that Government does not 

 rest upon the consent of the governed. This 

 is monarchy. I deny that you can take a man 

 by the nape of the neck and force citizenship 

 down his throat. Citizenship is made up as 

 well of the consent of the individual as of the 

 Government. Neither party has a right to 

 violate it against the consent of the other, and 

 by that violation bind the other, unless it be 

 upon terms before agreed upon. You cannot, 

 therefore, hang a man as a traitor to a Govern- 

 ment that has been made without his con- 

 sent. 



