150 



CONFEDERATE STATES. 



against them when they have no opportunity 

 of being heard, and to impoverish them by 

 taking away the earnings of their industry and 

 applying it to other uses. * * * It would 

 be the most intolerable hardship for me, for a 

 citizen, at every quarter session to be obliged 

 to tell all he knows or suspects against his 

 neighbor. It is pretended that it is an inno- 

 cent proceeding. How can that be innocent 

 which calls upon one to commit a breach of 

 trust? * * * 



" It is an extraordinary stretch of power, in 

 an extraordinary time, when we are endeavor- 

 ing to make good before the world our right to 

 its respect as an enlightened people a people 

 capable of self-government, and of governing 

 themselves in a manner worthy of the civiliza- 

 tion and light of the age ; and this act, bor- 

 rowed from the darkest period of tyranny, is 

 dug up from the very quarries of despotism, 

 and put forth as our sentiments. They are not 

 my sentiments ; and sorry will I be if in this 

 sentiment I am solitary and alone. * * * 

 "With regard to that which requires the viola- 

 tion of professional confidence, he must be 

 better instructed before making up his mind 

 to the order of responsibility or not. There 

 are cases where it is dishonor or death and 

 death will certainly be chosen by every man 

 who deserves the name." (See S. CAROLINA.) 



All property in corporations, such as stock or 

 bonds of railroad companies, banks, &c., held 

 by citizens of the Northern States, was easily 

 traced out and very generally sequestrated. 

 Such property also as was the basis of mercan- 

 tile and commercial enterprise, was extensively 

 confiscated, but interests in estates, and that 

 class of property which passes through kindred 

 and friends, was extensively covered up. The 

 enforcement of the law gradually ceased with 

 the decline of that bitterness of spirit which 

 existed at the time of its passage. It was also 

 understood that, as a measure of severity against 

 Northern citizens, it would be of no avail. 

 "Where allegiance was given by a citizen, pro- 

 tection was due by the Government. Under this 

 principle the Government of the United States 

 would in justice be required to compensate its 

 citizens for their losses. A sequestration act 

 was passed by the Federal Congress. (See UNITED 

 STATES.) Its enforcement was temporary. 



On the 8th of July, while Colonel Porter was 

 reconnoitring for a camp for his brigade about 

 six miles from Arlington, on the Virginia side 

 of the Potomac, opposite Washington, Lieuten- 

 ant-Colonel Taylor, an officer in the Confed- 

 erate army, presented himself with a flag of 

 truce. He stated that he was the bearer of 

 despatches from the President of the Confed- 

 erate States to President Lincoln. He was 

 taken to the head-quarters at Arlington, and 

 at evening conveyed to Washington. His letter 

 was sent to President Lincoln, and the next 

 day he returned. No answer was given to 

 this communication, the contents of which 

 were as follows : 



EICHMOND, July 6, 1861. 

 To Abraham Lincoln, President and Commander-in- 



Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States : 



SIR : Having learned that the schooner Savannah, a 

 private armed vessel in the service and sailing under 

 a commission issued by authority of the Confederate 

 States of America, had been captured by one of the 

 vessels forming the blockading squadron off Charles- 

 ton harbor, I directed a proposition to be made to the 

 officer commanding that squadron for an exchange of 

 the officers and crew of the Savannah for prisoners of 

 war held by this Government, " according to number 

 and rank." To this proposition, made on the 19th ul- 

 timo, Captain Mercer, the officer in command of the 

 blockading squadron, made answer on the same day 

 that " the prisoners (referred to) are not on board of 

 any of the vessels under my command." 



It now appears, by statements made without contra- 

 diction in newspapers published in New York, that the 

 prisoners above mentioned were conveyed to that city, 

 and have been treated, not as prisoners of war, but as 

 criminals ; that they have been put in irons, confined 

 in jail, brought before the courts of justice on charges 

 of piracy and treason ; and it is even rumored that 

 they have been actually convicted of the offences 

 charged, for no other reason than that they bore arms 

 in defence of the rights of this Government, and under 

 the authority of its commission. 



I could not, without grave discourtesy, hare made 

 the newspaper statements above referred to the sub- 

 ject of this communication, if the threat of treating as 

 pirates the citizens of this Confederacy, armed for its 

 service on the high seas, had not been contained in 

 your proclamation of 19th April last ; that proclama- 

 tion, however, seems to afford a sufficient justifica- 

 tion for considering these published statements as not 

 devoid of probability. 



It is the desire of this Government so to conduct the 

 war now existing as to mitigate its horrors, as far as 

 may be possible ; and, with this intent, its treatment 

 of the prisoners captured by its forces has been marked 

 by the greatest humanity and leniency consistent with 

 public obligation. Some have been permitted to re- 

 turn home on parole, others to remain at large under 

 similar conditions within this Confederacy, and all 

 have been furnished with rations for their subsistence, 

 such as are allowed to our own troops. It is only 

 since the news has been received of the treatment of 

 the prisoners taken on the Savannah that I have been 

 compelled to withdraw these indulgences and to hold 

 the prisoners taken by us in strict confinement. 



A just regard to humanity and to the honor of this 

 Government now requires me to state explicitly that, 

 painful as will be the necessity, this Government will 

 deal out to the prisoners held by it the same treatment 

 and the same fate as shall be experienced by those 

 captured on the Savannah ; and if driven to the ter- 

 rible necessity of retaliation by your execution of any 

 of the officers or crew of the Savannah, that retaliation 

 will be extended so far as shall be requisite to secure 

 the abandonment of a practice unknown to the warfare 

 of civilized man, and so barbarous as to disgrace the 

 nation which shall be guilty of inaugurating it. 



With this view, and because it may not have reached 

 you, I now renew the proposition made to the com- 

 mander of the blockading squadron, to exchange for 

 the prisoners taken on the Savannah an equal number 

 of those now held by us, according to rank. 

 I am, sir, yours, <fec., 



JEFFERSON DAVIS, 



President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and 

 Navy of the Confederate States. 



In his message to Congress on the 20th of 

 July, President Davis refers to this despatch 

 sent to Washington, and after stating the rea- 

 sons upon which it was sent, thus proceeds : 



" To this end I despatched an officer under a 

 flag of truce to President Lincoln, and informed 



