282 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



great difference is made between the innocent 

 and the guilty. But hcrw can it be said that 

 the States are not at war ? Individuals do not 

 make war. Individuals may take life, but they 

 cannot make war. They cannot be recognized 

 as belligerents. War is made by chartered or 

 corporate communities, by nations or States. 

 " Phillimore, vol. 3, p. 101, sec. 09, says : 

 Nevertheless, as war is the conflict of societies, that 

 is, of corporate bodies recognizing and governed by 

 law in all their actions, &c. 



" On page 100, sec. G8, he says : 

 A war between private individuals, who are mem- 

 bers of a society, cannot exist. The use of force in 

 such a case is 'a trespass or violation of municipal 

 law, and not war. 



" The Supreme Court of the United States, 

 in the prize cases decided at its last session, 

 says: 



Hence, in organizing this rebellion, they have act- 

 ed as States claiming to be sovereign over all persons 

 and property within their respective limits, and as- 

 serting a right to absolve their citizens from their 

 allegiance to the Federal Government." 



Mr. Smith : " I do not exactly understand 

 the position of the gentleman, nor do I know 

 that the question which I propose to ask will 

 cause any difference in the result at which the 

 gentleman arrives ; but from the remarks al- 

 ready made by him, I desire to ask him this 

 question : whether he takes the ground that a 

 State, and not the individuals of a State, com- 

 mits the crime of treason against the Govern- 

 ment of the United States ? " 



Mr. Stevens : " I take the ground, sir, that 

 when you cannot punish them as traitors, you 

 can make war with them as belligerents. It is 

 not a question of punishing under the Consti- 

 tution, but outside of it. These men are ene- 

 mies, and we are treating them as enemies ; 

 and I have no doubt that, as States, they are 

 at war with us." 



Mr. Smith : " The question that I mean to 

 put directly, if the gentleman will allow me, is 

 this : whether the Government has power to 

 punish a State in its corporate capacity, and 

 not the citizens of a State as individuals ? " 



Mr. Stevens : " I mean to say that if a State, 

 as a State, makes war upon the Government 

 and becomes a belligerent power, we treat it as 

 a foreign nation, and when we conquer it we 

 treat it just as we do any other foreign nation. 

 That is my position, very distinctly." 



Mr. Smith : "I understand the rule of law 

 to be that a corporation has neither body nor 

 soul ; and therefore I would like to ask the 

 question whether we can punish a State which, 

 as a corporation, has neither body nor soul ? " 



Mr. Stevens : " If the gentleman be right, 

 how then could we punish Great Britain when 

 we make war upon her ? . If she has no soul to 

 be damned, she certainly has a body to be lost. 

 When we conquer her we shall take good care, 

 let ine tell the gentleman, that she shall be 

 properly punished, if Ave have any regard for 

 our people at all*" 



Mr. Bliss : " I ask the gentleman from Penn- 

 sylvania, if the seceded States are foreign gov- 

 ernments, what right we have to adjudicate 

 upon their private property." 



Mr. Stevens : " When we seize it as the 

 property of enemies during a war we have a 

 right to take it." 



Mr. Bliss: "And hold jurisdiction over the 

 soil of a foreign country ? " 



Mr. Stevens: "That is what I should call 

 amphibious action, which the gentleman will 

 understand from my remarks. 



All persons residing within this territory whose 

 property may be usea to increase the revenues of 

 the hostile power, are in this contest liable to be treat- 

 ed as enemies, though not foreigners. 



" This seems to me to settle the question. 

 This may work a hardship on loyal men op- 

 posed to the war. But to escape the condition 

 of enemies they must change their domicile 

 leave the hostile State ; for I again repeat there 

 can be no neutrals in a hostile State. As the 

 United States are at war with an acknowledged 

 belligerent, with a foreign nation, and as such 

 war has abrogated all former compacts existing 

 between them, neither the United States nor 

 the Confederate States can, as against the 

 other, claim the aid of the Constitution or the 

 laws passed under it. If they still exist, the 

 slaveholder of South Carolina might claim the 

 aid of the fugitive slave law to regain his ab- 

 sconded slave. So Gen. Barksdale with others 

 was murdered, because he was shot down 

 without being tried and condemned according 

 to the provisions of the Constitution. 



" By the law of nations, the captain and 

 crew of a vessel are supposed to he standing 

 on the soil of the nation Avhose flag the ship 

 bears, although in distant seas. Those armed 

 vessels that belong to no nation and make Avar 

 are pirates. The Alabama and its felloAvs are 

 not treated as pirates, and must therefore be- 

 long to an acknowledged nation. That nation 

 is the Confederate States. But if the territory 

 of the Confederate States is our territory, then 

 he who treads the decks of the Alabama or 

 Florida stands on our soil, and plundering on 

 the high seas, is a pirate. We do not so treat 

 them until we have conquered the country held 

 by the Confederate States. Covered by the 

 confederate flag, it is a foreign country. When 

 Ave do conquer it, it is a conquered country. 

 Any other principle would render all our con- 

 duct inconsistent and anomalous. 



" If the rebel States are still in the Union I 

 see no reason why they should not elect the 

 next President of the United States. Any 

 number of them might meet and choose elec- 

 tors, who might cast their votes for President 

 and Vice-President, and demand that they 

 should be counted by Congress. Or if the 

 rebels decline to vote, then a hundred loyal 

 men, 'Avho are the State,' might meet and 

 choose electors. The feAv loyal men around 

 Fortress Monroe, or Norfolk, or Alexandria, 

 and a few cleansed patches in Louisana, being 



