CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



273 



had more influence upon the popular mind 

 than any other: and when Mr. Lincoln was 

 elected it was thought he was seeking not to 

 continue the Federal Government, but pervert 

 the Government, and to accomplish, through 

 Federal agency, what the Northern States had 

 already sought to do. That perfected the ar- 

 gument. 



I am not national, in one sense ; I am not 

 Federal in another, I am sure. I regard the 

 reserved rights of the States as much as any 

 other man, and will never seek to intrench 

 upon them. The powers I am sworn to exer- 

 cise I will exercise with strict reverence for the 

 purposes of the grant. I think if we would all 

 go to work in the exercise of delegated pow- 

 ers, and act instead of theorizing, we would ac- 

 complish more satisfactory results for the people. 

 Mr. Wigfall : I propose to answer the gen- 

 tleman, with the simple prefatory remarks, that 

 I am as much astonished at his recollection of 

 the facts as his avowal of principles. For a 

 senator to rise in this Confederate Congress, 

 within a few brief months after the nation has 

 been dissolved, and declare the Federal Gov- 

 ernment of the United States never trespassed 



upon our rights 



Mr. Hill : I never said that. 

 Mr. Wigfall : If you did not, you said some- 

 thing bearing a wonderful resemblance to it. 



Mr. Hill : I said the trespasses of the Fed- 

 eral Government were not the evils alleged by 

 the people in seceding ; it was not the trespasses 

 of the Government that influenced the people 

 to secede. I said it was the trespasses of the 

 Northern States in their faithlessness to the 

 common compact. I always held the Missouri 

 compromise was unconstitutional, and things 

 of that sort; but the Federal Government, as 

 such, did not commit these trespasses which 

 drove the people to secede. 



Mr. Wigfall : Well, I ask, if they had any 

 complaint against the judiciary? 

 Mr. Hill : None. 



Mr. Wigfall : I need not ask him about the 

 legislative branch, for he says we had no cause 

 of complaint here. ' Surely not." he says, ' for 

 you had a majority there." His language is plain 

 and unmistakable. Why, sir, in that Congress the 

 Black Republicans had an overwhelming major- 

 ity in the House against us, and a tie vote in the 

 Senate, with a Black Republican casting vote. 



Mr. Hill : It was not from any act of the 

 Supreme Court or of Congress, or of the Fede- 

 ral Executive, we seceded. I do not say they 

 always did right. I was utterly opposed to the 

 administration of Mr. Buchana'n. 



Mr. Wigfall : He forgets Congress passed a 

 law abolishing slavery in the District of Colum- 

 bia, declaring no slave should be sold there. 

 Mr. Hill : When did it j. 

 Mr. Wigfall : In 1850. 

 Mr. Hill : And the people expressly said they 

 would not secede on account of it. 

 ^ Mr. Wigfall : I do not know what Georgia 

 politicians said. 

 VOL. ii.-is 



Mr. Semmes : I call the gentleman to order. 

 The President : The gentleman will make no 

 remarks not pertinent to the issue. 



Mr. Wigfall : The senator asks if Andrew 

 Johnson is a traitor. He gets up and makes a 

 terrible to do about my denying the right of 

 taking up arms to resist tyranny, and trying to 

 hold men to their allegiance. I never denied 

 any such right. A man may change his alle- 

 giance, provided he does it in good time and 

 good faith. No man has ever asserted the 

 contrary and if it were not for the lax notions 

 of the senator about the organization of the 

 Government, and the patent, palpable errors he 

 has fallen into heretofore on this question, I 

 should be surprised at the attitude he assumes. 

 He asks when did Andrew Johnson become a 

 citizen of the Confederate States ? (I use that 

 term we are obliged always to use it the 

 meaning is, a citizen of Tennessee when it en- 

 tered the Confederate States.) He was a citi- 

 zen of Tennessee originally. When Tennessee 

 became one of the Confederate States he was 

 in the position of every other citizen of Ten- 

 nessee. He never disavowed his allegiance to 

 Tennessee : on the contray. he pretended to 

 represent her in the Federal Senate, and he 

 went back there, and pretended to be Gover- 

 nor. How was he released from his allegiance ? 

 Tennessee becoming one of the Confederate 

 States, he was obliged to give obedience to her 

 laws, or become amenable to indictment and 

 conviction for treason if he gave aid and com- 

 fort to the enemy, or levied war against 

 her. The Constitution the senator has relied 

 upon so confidently in support of his position 

 has also the clause, " We the People," equiva- 

 lent to saying we do not mean the people of 

 one single consolidated nationality, but the 

 people of the several States. 



Mr. Hill : I have never contended it was 

 consolidated. 



Mr. Wigfall : The other sentence I allude to 

 is in the second clause of the fourth article, in 

 which it says, "citizens of each State shall be 

 entitled to all the privileges and immunities of 

 citizens in the several States." &c. I don't 

 conceive any additional argument necessary to 

 combat the gentleman's most untenable position. 

 This debate was terminated by laying the bill 

 on the table. 



Subsequently Mr. Foote reported resolutions, 

 which were referred to Committee on Foreign 

 Affairs, to appoint a Joint Committee to ad- 

 dress the people of California, Oregon, and the 

 various Territories beyond the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, on the expediency of hereafter establish- 

 ing a league, offensive and defensive, between 

 such States and Territories and the Confederate 

 States. 



An act was passed to encourage the manufac- 

 ture of shoes and clothing for the army of the 

 Confederacy. It provides for bringing into the 

 country, duty free, of cards, card cloth, machin- 

 ery, and other articles necessary for the purpose. 

 * A bill was also introduced against foreign 



