274 



CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



counterfeiters of treasury notes. It provides 

 that if such notes are introduced by officers, 

 soldiers, and others of the United States, the 

 offender shall be deemed guilty of felony, and 

 suffer death on conviction in any military court. 



Mr. Clay said he hoped senators would give 

 this bill the attention it deserved. The enemy, 

 by counterfeiting our currency, had aimed one 

 of their deadliest blows at our cause. They 

 had boldly advertised these counterfeits for sale, 

 and among their dead, who fell in battle, it was 

 rare to find one who had not upon his person 

 more or less of spurious Confederate treasury 

 notes. The faith in our currency of some of 

 the loyal inhabitants of the Confederacy had 

 already been impaired by the quantity of coun- 

 terfeits which had found their way into circu- 

 lation. Some law to repress this counterfeit- 

 ing by the enemies of the Confederacy, by pro- 

 viding for their speedy punishment, should be 

 passed. Mr. Clay moved to amend the bill by 

 providing that persons charged with passing 

 counterfeit notes, shall be tried by any military 

 court or military commission, as provided by a 

 law of Congress, instead of by the slower and 

 more cumbrous mode of trial by court martial. 



In the House of Representatives, Mr. Foote, 

 of Tennessee, offered the following joint reso- 

 lution proposing to send a commissioner to 

 Washington empowered to propose terms of 

 just and honorable peace : 



Be it enacted by the Congress of the Confederate 

 States of America, That the signal success with which 

 Divine Providence has so continually blessed our arms 

 for several months past would fully justify the Confed- 

 erate Government in despatching a Commissioner or 

 Commissioners to the Government at Washington City, 

 empowered to propose the terms of a just and honor- 

 able peace. 



Mr. Holt, of Georgia, asked the consent of 

 the House to offer the following substitute for 

 the resolution : 



The people of the Confederate States are, and have 

 been from the beginning, anxious that this war with 

 the United States should be conducted with the sense 

 established by the rules of civilized and Christian na- 

 tions, and have, on their part, so conducted it, and the 

 said people ardently desire that said war should cease 

 and peace be restored, and have so announced from the 

 beginning : therefore, 



Sesolved, That, whenever the United States Gov- 

 ernment shall manifest a like anxiety and a like desire 

 it shall be the duty of the President of the Confederate 

 States to appoint Commissioners to treat and ne- 

 gotiate with the said United States Government upon 

 said subjects, or either of them. 



On motion of Mr. Kenan, of Georgia, the res- 

 olution and substitute were laid upon the table 

 yeas 59, nays 26. 



On the 9th of October, Elias C. Boudinot 

 was admitted to a seat in the House as a dele- 

 gate from the Cherokee Nanon of Indians. 



A bill was introduced into the House as a 

 tax measure which proposed to collect for the 

 support of the government and the defence of 

 the country, one fifth the value of all the wheat, 

 corn, rice, rye, oats, potatoes, hemp, flax, peas, 

 beans, barley, hay, wool, rosin, tar, pitch, tur- 



pentine, cotton, sugar, molasses, and tobacco 

 produced in the Confederate States during the 

 previous year ; also one fifth the value of the 

 increase of the horses, asses, cattle, sheep, 

 swine, and also one fifth of the yearly incomes. 

 Upon the collection of the tax a receipt was 

 to be given, which should be exchangeable for 

 income tax bonds bearing 6 per cent, interest. 

 This bill was regarded as a forced loan, and 

 failed to pass. 



An act was passed making appropriations for 

 the support of the government for the month 

 of January, 1863, and for certain deficiencies 

 and other purposes therein mentioned. Among 

 the appropriations made by this act were the 

 following : For the ordnance service, $2,500,- 

 000; pay of the army, $18,660,189; transpor- 

 tation of troops, &c., $7,464,075 ; subsistence 

 of prisoners of war, &c., $200,000 ; bounty of 

 fifty dollars to soldiers, $3,000,000; medical 

 and hospital supplies, $400,000; to pay deficit 

 in the post office department, $800,000 ; for de- 

 ficiencies in the quartermaster's department, 

 $39,000,000 ; interest on the public debt, for the 

 month of January, 1863, $2,500,000 ; subsist- 

 ing the army for the month of January, 1863, 

 $6,571,672 91. The aggregate sum appropria- 

 ted by it was nearly $85,000,000. 



A bill entitled "An act to provide for raising 

 and organizing, in the States of Kentucky and 

 Missouri, additional forces for the provisional 

 army of the Confederate States," Avith a recom- 

 mendation that the House concur in the amend- 

 ments which authorize the President to appoint 

 general and field officers for the organization 

 of such troops, was also taken up in the House 

 and passed. 



In the Senate, on Oct. 11, the House bill 

 to reduce the rate of interest on the funded 

 debt of the Confederate States was passed, 

 with an amendment fixing the rate of interest 

 on the new issue of bonds at 7 per cent, in- 

 stead of 6 per cent. A proviso was also added 

 renewing the authority to issue 6 per cent, re- 

 convertible bonds. A House bill to relieve the 

 army of incompetent and disabled officers was 

 also passed. 



In the House, on Oct. 11, the Senate bill 

 to punish and repress the importation of coun- 

 terfeit treasury notes was passed, with an 

 amendment. A substitute for the Senate bill 

 fixing the seal of the Confederate States was 

 adopted. 



An act was also passed authorizing the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury to issue copper coins of 

 the denomination of five, ten, and twenty-five 

 cents to the amount of five millions of dollars, 

 and appropriating $200,000 to carry the act 

 into effect. 



Some change in the members of Congress 

 took place near the close of this session. Chas. 

 J. Jenkins was elected from Georgia to fill the 

 vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Gen. 

 Toombs. Samuel A. Miller was elected to fill 

 the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of 

 A. G. Jenkins, of Virginia. 



