718 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



supplied for the remainder of the year; and the 

 knowledge of this fact should suffice to insure the 

 adoption of the measures necessary to obtain this 

 moderate sum. 



The impressment law, as it now exists, prohibits 

 the public officers from impressing supplies without 

 making payment of the valuation at the time of im- 

 pressment. The limit fixed for the issue of treasury 

 notes has been nearly reached, and the Treasury 

 cannot easily furnish the funds necessary for prompt 

 payment; while the law for raising revenue, which 

 would have afforded means for diminishing, if not 

 removing, this difficulty, was unfortunately delayed 

 for several months, and has just been signed. In 

 this condition of things it is impossible to supply 

 the army, although ample stores may exist in the 

 country, whenever the owners refuse to give credit 

 to the public officer. It is necessary that this re- 

 striction on the power of impressment be removed. 

 The power is admitted to be objectionable, liable to 

 abuse, and unequal in its operation on individuals ; 

 yet all these objections must yield to absolute neces- 

 sity. It is also suggested that the system of valua- 

 tion now established ought to be radically changed. 

 The legislation requires, in such cases of impress- 

 ment, that the market price be paid ; but there is 

 really no market price in many cases, and then val- 

 uation is made arbitrarily and in a depreciated cur- 

 rency. The result is, that the most extravagant 

 prices are fixed, such as no one expects ever to be 

 paid in coin. None believe that the Government 

 can ever redeem in coin the obligation to pav fifty 

 dollars a bushel for corn, or seven hundred dollars a 

 barrel for flour. It would seem to be more just and 

 appropriate to estimate the supplies impressed at 

 their value in coin, to give the obligation of the Gov- 

 ernment for the payment of the price in coin, with 

 reasonable interest ; or, at the option of the creditor, 

 to return in kind the wheat and corn impressed, with 

 a reasonable interest, also payable in kind ; and to 

 make the obligations thus issued receivable for all 

 payments due in coin to the Government. What- 

 ever be the value attached by Congress to these sug- 

 gestions, it is hoped that there wul be no hesitation 

 m so changing the law as to render it possible to 

 supply the army in case of necessity for the impress- 

 ment of provisions for that purpose. 



The measure adopted to raise revenue, though 

 liberal in its provisions, being clearly inadequate to 

 meet the arrear of debt and current expenditures, 

 some degree of embarrassment in the management 

 of the finances must continue to be felt. It is to be 

 regretted, I think, that the recommendation of the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, of a tax on agricultural 

 income equal to the augmented tax on other in- 

 comes, payable in treasury notes, was rejected by 

 Congress. This tax would have contributed mate- 

 rially to facilitate the purchase of provisions and 

 diminish the necessity that is now felt for a supply 

 of corn. 



The measures passed by Congress during the ses- 

 sion for recruiting the army and supplying the addi- 

 tional force needed for the public defence nave been, 

 in my judgment, insufficient, and I am impelled by 

 u profound conviction of duty, and stimulated by a 

 sense of the perils which surround pur country, to 

 urge upon you additional legislation upon this 

 subject. 



The bill for employing negroes for soldiers has not 

 yet reached me, though the printed journals of your 

 proceedings inform me of its passage. Much benefit 

 is anticipated from this measure, though far less 

 than would have resulted from its adoption at an 

 earlier date, so as to afford time for their organ- 

 ization and instruction during the winter months. 



The bill for diminishing the number of exempts 

 has just been made the subject of a special message, 

 and its provisions are such as would add no strength 

 to the army. The recommendation to abolish all 

 class exemptions has not met your favor, although 



still deemed by me a valuable and important meas- 

 ure ; and the number of men exempted by a new 

 clause in the act thus passed is believed to'be quite 

 equal to that of those whose exemption is revoked. 

 A law of a few lines repealing all class exemptions 

 would not only strengthen the forces in the field, but 

 be still more beneficial by abating the natural dis- 

 content and jealousy created in the army by the ex- 

 istence of classes privileged bv law to remain in 

 places of safety while their fellow-citizens are ex* 

 posed in the trenches and the field. 



The measure most needed, however, at the present 

 time, for affording an effective increase to our mili- 

 tary strength, is a general militia law, such as the 

 Constitution authorizes Congress to pass by granting 

 to it power "to provide for organizing, arming, ana 

 disciplining the militia, and for governing such part 

 of them as may be employed in the service of the 

 Confederate States," and the further power "to 

 provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 

 laws of the Confederate States, suppress insurrec- 

 tions, and repel invasions." The necessity for the 

 exercise of this power can never exist if not in the 

 circumstances that now surround us. The security 

 of the States against any encroachment by the Con- 

 federate Government is amply provided for by the 

 Constitution, by "reserving to the States, respect- 

 ively, the appointment of the officers, and the au- 

 thority of training the militia according to the disci- 

 pline prescribed by Congress." 



A law is needed to prescribe not only how, and of 

 what persons, the militia are to be organized, but to 

 provide the mode of calling them out. If instances 

 be required to show the necessity of such general 

 law, it is sufficient to mention that, in one case, I 

 have been informed by the governor of a State that 

 the law does not permit him to call the militia from 

 one county for service in another ; so that a single 

 brigade of the enemy could traverse the State, and 

 devastate each county in turn, without any power 

 on the part of the Executive to use the militia for 

 effective defence; while in another State the Exec- 

 utive refused to allow the militia "to be employed in 

 the service of the Confederate States," in the absence 

 of a law for that purpose. 



I have heretofore, in a confidential message to the 

 two Houses, stated the facts which induced me to 

 consider it necessary that the privilege of the writ 

 of habeas corpus should be suspended. The convic- 

 tion of the necessity of this measure has become 

 deeper as the events of the struggle have been de- 

 veloped. Congress has not concurred with me in 

 opinion. It is my duty to say that the time has ar- 

 rived when the suspension of the writ is not simply 

 advisable and expedient, but almost indispensable to 

 the successful conduct of the war. On Congress 

 must rest the responsibility of declining to exercise 

 a power conferred by the Constitution as a means of 

 public safety, to be used in periods of national peril 

 resulting from foreign invasion. If our present cir- 

 cumstances are not such as were contemplated when 

 this power was conferred, I confess myself at a loss to 

 imagine any contingency in which this clause of the 

 Constitution will not remain a dead letter. 



With the prompt adoption of the measures above 

 recommended, and the united and hearty cooperation 

 of Congress and the people in the execution of the 

 laws and defence of the country, we may enter upon 

 the present campaign with cheerful confidence in the 

 result. And who can doubt the continued existence 

 of that spirit and fortitude in the people, and of that 

 constancy under reverses which alone are needed to 

 render our triumph secure ? What other resource re- 

 mains available but the undying, unconquerable re- 

 solve to be free ? It has become certain, beyond all 

 doubt or question, that we must continue this strug- 

 gle to a successful issue, or must make abject and 

 unconditional submission to such terms as it shall 

 please the conqueror to impose on us after our sur- 

 render. If a possible doubt could exist after the 



