644 



SLAVES. 



Government. A correspondence ensued be- 

 tween the President and Gen. Fremont, which 

 is explained in tho following letter from the 

 former to the latter : 



WASHINGTON, D. C., September 11, 1861. 

 MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT: 



SIR : Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of the 2d 

 inst., was just received. Assured that you upon the 

 ground could better judge of the necessities of your 

 position than I could at this distance, on seeing your 

 proclamation of August SO, I perceived no general ob- 

 jection to it; the particular clause, however, in rela- 

 tion to the confiscation of property and the liberation 

 of slaves appeared to me to be objectionable in its non- 

 conformity to the act of Congress, passed the 6th of 

 last August, upon the same subjects, and hence I wrote 

 you expressing my wish that that clause should be 

 modified accordingly. Your answer just received ex- 

 presses the preference on your part that I should make 

 an open order for the modification, which I very cheer- 

 fully do. It is therefore ordered that the said clause 

 of said proclamation be so modified, held and construed 

 as to conform with, and not to transcend, the provi- 

 sions on the same subject contained in the act of Con- 

 gress entitled "An act to confiscate property used for 

 insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, 

 and the said act be published at length with this or- 

 der. Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. 



The views of the Government were still fur- 

 ther enforced by a letter of instructions from 

 the Secretary of War to General T. W. Sher- 

 man, commanding the expedition against Port 

 Royal, South Carolina. This letter is dated 

 October 14th, and thus proceeds : 



" In conducting military operations within 

 States declared by the proclamation of the 

 President to be in a state of insurrection, you 

 will govern yourself, so far as persons held to 

 service under the laws of such States are con- 

 cerned, by the principles of the letters addressed 

 by me to Major-General Butler on the 30th of 

 May and the 8th of August, copies of which 

 are herewith furnished to you. As special di- 

 rections, adapted to special circumstances, can- 

 not be given, much must be referred to your 

 own discretion, as Commanding General of the 

 expedition. You will, however, in general avail 

 yourself of any persons, whether fugitives from 

 labor or not, who may offer themselves to the 

 National Government ; you will employ such 

 persons in such services as they may be fitted 

 for, either as ordinary employees, or, if special 

 circumstances seem to require it, in any other 

 capacity, with such organization, in squads, 

 companies, or otherwise, as you may deem most 

 beneficial to the service. This, however, not 

 to mean a general arming of them for military 

 service. You will assure all loyal masters that 

 Congress will provide just compensation to 

 them for the loss of the services of the persons 

 so employed. It is believed that the course 

 thus indicated will best secure the substantial 

 rights of loyal masters, and the benefits to the 

 United States of the services of all disposed to 

 support the Government, while it avoids all in- 

 terference with the social systems of local insti- 

 tutions of every State, beyond that which in- 

 surrection makes unavoidable, and which a 

 restoration of peaceful relations to the^ Union, 



under the Constitution, will immediately re- 

 move." 



In a proclamation to the inhabitants of South 

 Carolina, issued on the 8th of November, after 

 landing his force at Port Royal, the 'General 

 thus described his purpose so far as related to 

 the slaves : " We have come among you with 

 no feelings of personal animosity, no desire to 

 harm your citizens, destroy your property, or in- 

 terfere with any of your lawful laws, rights, or 

 your social and local institutions, beyond what 

 the causes herein briefly alluded to may render 

 unavoidable." 



Again he says : " We have come among you 

 as loyal men, fully impressed with our constitu- 

 tional obligations to the citizens of your State. 

 Those obligations shall be performed as far as 

 in our power ; but be not deceived : the obliga- 

 tion of suppressing armed combinations against 

 the constitutional authorities, is paramount to 

 all others. If, in the performance of this duty, 

 other minor but important obligations should 

 be in any way neglected, it must be attributed 

 to the necessities of the case, because rights de- 

 pendent on the laws of the State must be neces- 

 sarily subordinate to military exigencies created 

 by insurrection and rebellion." 



Again, on the 17th of November, the General 

 commanding at Baltimore, John A. Dix, being 

 about to send a force into the counties of Acco- 

 mac and Northampton, Virginia, issued a proc- 

 lamation to the inhabitants, in which he thus 

 states the instructions to the troops : " Special 

 directions have been given not to interfere with 

 the condition of any persons held to domestic 

 service, and in order that there may be no 

 ground for mistake or pretext for misrepresenta- 

 tion, commanders of regiments and corps have 

 been instructed not to permit any such persons 

 to come within their lines." 



In the Western Department of the army, 

 after the retirement of Gen. Fremont, an order 

 was issued by the commanding officer, General 

 Halleck, prohibiting fugitives from entering the 

 lines of the camps of the army. This order was 

 strictly enforced. 



The views expressed in the letter of the 

 President to Gen. Fremont, in the letters of 

 the Secretary of War, and in the proclamations 

 of the Generals, must be regarded as explaining 

 the position of the Government relative to this 

 class of persons held to service or labor. This 

 position was based upon the section of the Con- 

 fiscation Act of Congress, passed August 6th. 

 Although called a u Confiscation Act," it cer- 

 tainly has not that effect on slaves. Confisca- 

 tion is the forfeiture of property for the benefit 

 of the public treasury. But no such intention 

 is disclosed in this act. The slave is described 

 in constitutional language as "a person claimed 

 to be held to labor or service under the law of 

 any State "; and it is declared that when he is 

 permitted, by the person making this claim, to 

 be employed in any military or naval service, 

 the claim shall be forfeited. The claim is not 

 forfeited to the Government, nor does it pass 



