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CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



sustained foi necessary purposes, such as as- 

 sistance to weak churches and theological stu- 

 dents, and other objects determined by the 

 Synod Commission for local and general in- 

 terests. 



CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. All im- 

 portant debates in the Congress at Richmond 

 were conducted in secret session. Some pro- 

 ceedings in each House commenced in public 

 session are reported ; as soon, however, as the 

 debate assumed a special importance, it was 

 continued only in a secret session. The session 

 which commenced in November, 1863, ad- 

 journed in February, 1864. The state of the 

 army, and the conduct of the war, were the 

 chief subjects of debate at this session. 



In the Senate, Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, urged 

 the following views : The two greatest needs 

 of the country were to strengthen the army 

 and improve the currency. If the legislative 

 branch of the Government and the executive 

 power will give themselves entirely to the 

 country, these results may in a short time be 

 accomplished. The question which addresses 

 itself most earnestly to our consideration is 

 simply this : " Shall the Confederacy stand or 

 fall ? " If it is to stand, the pedestal must be 

 built with all our hearts. All criminations and 

 recriminations, and differences between the dif- 

 ferent branches of the Government, must cease. 

 We must determine to stand together in one 

 common defence, or fall together in the com- 

 mon grave. Our success is certain if the pa- 

 triotism of the people holds out to the end. Our 

 chief reliance in this contest is in the hearty 

 and earnest patriotism of the people. He had 

 this settled conviction that when the States 

 conceded the war-making power to the control 

 of the Government, they gave every incidental 

 power to make the main power effective. The 

 framers of the Constitution were fully vindi- 

 cated from the absurdity of getting us into a 

 war, and then trammelling us so that we could 

 not conduct it successfully. He first proposed 

 to strengthen the army by declaring every 

 white male person residing in the Confederate 

 States, and capable of bearing arms, to be in 

 the military service. He proposed to take all, 

 without reference to age or occupation ; to 

 make but one inquiry, " Is he capable of bear- 

 ing arms ? " "Whether he be Jew or Gentile, 

 Christian or infidel, if he is capable of bearing 

 arms, he should be put into the army. "What 

 is it that has brought disaster upon us ? "Where 

 we have sowed we have not been prepared to 

 reap. If the whole military power of this 

 Confederacy had been at Manassas, the war 

 would have been ended soon after its com- 

 mencement. We wasted the first year of the 

 war by keeping handfulls of men in the army. 

 We wasted the second year of the war by only 

 conscripting those between the ages of eighteen 

 and thirty-five. We stand to-day with an army 

 too weak to reap when the harvest is ready for 

 the sickle. Shall we go on blundering to the 

 end of the chapter, or concentrate our military 



strength and hurl it like an avalanche against 

 the enemy? Is it not better to make short, 

 speedy work of the whole matter ? Cease thig 

 system of killing off your armies by detail. 

 What rivers of blood have been caused to flow 

 by the fatal error that we were to have a short 

 and cheap war. We now see the necessity of 

 enlarging the army, and shall we not say to 

 men of every profession, " If you are capable 

 of taking up arms, you must do it." He would 

 include the President, members of Congress, 

 and governors of States in this call. Talk not 

 of " invading the rights of the States." The 

 best mode of preserving the rights of a State 

 is to defend the State from a ruthless enemy. 

 Better invade the rights of a State by calling 

 out all arm-bearing citizens, than dispute over 

 constitutional quibbles whilst the Yankee army 

 wrests the whole State from your possession. 

 He was not unaware that provisions must be 

 produced. The army and the people at ho.me 

 must be fed and clothed, munitions of war must 

 be made, &c. But when you have taken every 

 man capable of bearing arms, how many would 

 be left out to take charge of all these things ? 

 He calculated them by hundreds of thousands, 

 and if they are not sufficient to carry on tho 

 necessary home pursuits, his fourth proposition 

 provided for the detail of such other persons 

 as will be " absolutely needed in civil pursuits." 

 He also proposed to repeal all laws granting 

 exemptions and allowing substitutes, and he 

 would take occasion to express his thanks to 

 the House of Representatives for making a 

 clean sweep of the substitute law, which had 

 sown the seeds of discord and dissension from 

 the Potomac to the Rio Grande. He was for 

 putting in the army th^se substitute gentlemen 

 who were strutting about the country in bor- 

 rowed plumage, knowing no more about setting 

 a squadron in the field than a spinster. Next 

 to the substitute law, the exemption law has 

 given more dissatisfaction than any other meas- 

 ure of Congress. What crowds the saloons, 

 hotels, and theatres, like boxes of red herring, 

 and fills up all the avenues of travel with men 

 capable of bearing arms ? Why is it that tho 

 streets of Richmond are crowded with athletic 

 young men ? Why is it so all over the Con- 

 federacy ? First, the fatal error of Congress hi 

 passing these laws ; second, the mal-adminis- 

 tration of those laws. The remedy is in sweep- 

 ing them from the statute books. Have neither 

 exempts nor substitutes. Do this, and you clear 

 the streets, close the theatres, inspirit and re- 

 cruit the army, and secure victory where you 

 have defeats. Our flag will no longer trail in 

 the dust, but will wave in triumph over the 

 foe. Refuse to do these things, and the hearts 

 of your soldiers will grow weak. He expressed 

 his cordial concurrence hi the views of the Sec- 

 retary of War on the substitute question, and 

 argued at some length to show that no contract 

 existed between the Government and those who 

 had employed substitutes. 



He next discussed his proposition authorizing 



