Newspaper Page Text
k« Krlnii»«‘ rower* ol thr f'cafrdtnie
and mnlr «in*Trninrnl> in the
t'oodnel of lit* ur.
Speech of Wm. L. Yancey, Esq.,
pan the amendment oj the Exemption
Bid, proponed by Mr. Dortch, that Jus
> e$ <J thfgfPcacc should be liable to Con-
senption, made, in the Senate, Sept. 10th,
lbf>2.
Mr. President: The Senator from North
Carolina proposes that Justices of the
Peace, in the several States, shall be en
rolled as conscripts in the army of the
Confederate States, at the same time g : v-
iitg notice that he will offer other amend-
r meats, making other State officers liable
jSiro enrollment under the Conscript act.
{The Senators from Georgia [Mr. Hill.J
and from Mississippi [Mr. Phelan,] anti
from Kentucky [Mr. Sims], have support
ed that amendment, and have each assert
ed the power of Congress to enroll as con
script soldiers in the army, every officer
of a State, whether judicial, legislative or
executive, and. also, every officer under
rhe Qpufcderate Government, whether ju-
riicRT, legislative or executive, with but
a single exception, and that exception the
!’resident of the Confederate States. The
enrollment or exemption of a few thous
ands, filling the humble but useful office
bf a Justice of tbe Peace, can be of but
ittlc moment compared with tbe vast fun-
iamental change in the character of this
iovernment, which practical legislation
> ipon such principle must bring about.
Legislation upon the principles which
lave been thus distinctly avowed and elab-
•rately argued, would, in my opinion, ut-
oriy subvert tbe limited Constitutional
iovernment, which the people of the States
lave, been at so much pains to establish,
md have exhibited so much patriotic sac-
ilices and cnp’.py to defend ; and would
11 actually erect upon its ruins a purely
nilitary Government. So thinking, 1
liouid be unjust to all the principles upon
which 1 have acted in the past, and dere
lict to the duty I owe to the State which
I in part represent here, and to the oath 1
Lave taken to preserve and defend the Con
stitution, if I were to permit the avowal of
such doctrines to pass unchallenged. If
this amendment had been proposed and
passed upon without debate, Mr. President,
it might have thus become one of the facts
in legislative history of comparatively
small moment; and not justly held to be a
precedent. 13ut its introduction lias been
supported by grave and apparently mature
ly considered opinions of Senators from
three of thirteen States of the Confedera
cy—and Las led to a more lengthened and
(dignified debate than any other that has
occurred in this body since my connection
with it. Such a debate, upon such an is
sue, in my opinion, will mark the action of
tthe Senate upon it as one of the great
{landmarks in legislative construction of
{the Constitution; and as the question
passes into history its footprints will
lie -Travel v scrutinized and considered here
of tiie tribunals upon which it would be J ence so indefinite, he had declared, was of forth the militia to repel invasion
supposed the civil power could safely re- no more force in proviug the constitution-'
pose, Senators from several sovereign •; ality of a special measure than a similar
States are to be found who deliberately i reference, by its title, to any other writing
assert that Congress can suspend and su- Every power, claimed under the Constitu-
percede all civil governments, both Con- tion, must be established by special
federate and State; for they assert that | clauses; and in bis argument to show that
under the clauses giving Congress the pow- j Congress had power to exact military' ser-
er to declare and conduct the war, it can
coerce every officer as well as citizen of
State governments, and every officer of
the Confederate government, save the
President, to serve in the regular army of
the Confederate States as a soldier, so long
as it may see tit to carry on the war.
Mr. P resident, if there are any within
vice of a State officer, he had referred to
and in
such case the States would be bound to
send their militia in obedience to that
clearly delegated power.
There is another class of provisions in
the first article which the assumption of
such powers hy r Congress as are contended
for would reuder, null and destroy. '1 hese
Senators say distinctly that Oougress has
our land so misled as to desire to over-1 eral reference to the war power. I men
throw our present form of government j tion these coincidences between statesmen
and to establish upon its ruins a central ! of different and antagonistic governments
despotism, led by a dictator, they could j not. with a view of showing any common
not desire to have more effective aid in ac- j design to destroy public liberty, but to
complishing their unhallowed designs, i warn Senators lest, in their patriotic zeal
the special clauses, by which, he thought, j power to enroll every member of Congress
it was granted. ' i as privates in the army for three yeais or
Mr. Yancey—I have not, tben, misap- more. Let us see the effect. Tiie 1st ar-
prehended the Senator. lie reasserts un- tide provides that all legislative power
limited right of Congress to coerce every i shall be vested in Congress; that it shall
citizen. He only explains that he derives t meet once a year; that the House alone
it from special clauses, and not from gen- I shall impeach an officer, that the Senate
shall try impeachments; that members
than these Senators no doubt unremitting
ly lend to them. It is a most startling
fact, and history will record it as one of
the most strange in its annals, that in the
first Senate assembled under a Constitu
tion, which declares that it was formed
by- each State, “acting in its sovereign and
independent character,” to “establish jus
tice, insure domestic tranquility, and se
cure the blessings of liberty” to them
selves and the posterity of their people,
and in the first session of that Senate,
Senators could he found, in the name of
Liberty, to advocate the erection of the
military power into such a supremacy that
it would absorb and destroy all the State j
Governments, and all the legislative powei \
of the Confederate Government—thus se- !
curing to the sword an unchecked domin- I
to strengthen their Government in the
prosecution of the war, they lay the foun
dation for an eventual destruction of the
Government itself, and of all that vast
mass of personal and State rights which it
is the sole object of the war to secure and
to perpetuate. If the lessons of history,
teaching by example, are too weak to he
heard amidst the din of the conflict, sure
ly the more recent and striking examples,
punished by our enemies because of tlieir
effect upon the struggle, should cause Sen
ators to pause in any course which would
seem to justify those usurpations and to
stultify ourselves in pursuing the like line
of conduct.
If there is anything in our form of gov
ernment which checks the unlimited ex
pansion of the war power and receives
ion over a people who had seceded from | from its seizure the either State or Con-
the Lincoln usurpation, for the sole pur- federate civil rights—and Senators will
pose of preserving their liberties under
their several State GMWPrmnents. Strange,
too, that while thus severing their connec
tion with that Lincoln usurpation, on ac
count of the encroachments upou the
rights of the States, that in the early pro
gress of the contest for the sovereignty
of the States, and the rights of tlieir cit
izens, any intelligent man should be
persist in considering such checks and re
servations absurdities or weaknesses—let
them consider that thus it has been ma
turely ami considerately determined by
the States. Sufficient to every legislator
should it be that over the whole funda
mental policy' of our complex government
it is thus written. Enough for them should
be the wisest and most potent of all rea-
shall be free from civil or military arrests
—save for treason, felony or breach of the
peace; and that all hills for raising reve-
nho shall originate in the House. In ad
dition to all this there are nineteen distinct
powers specially' delegated to Congress in
that article, six of which relate to the war
power* To enroll members of Congress
in the army would destroy the legislative
branch of the government, and would
render Congress unable to exercise all
those powers and perform all those duties,
and would take from the people of the
States their voice in managing the Gen
eral Government, and would take from the
States the representation of their sover
eignty in this government, and would
place the revenue in the hands of the Ex
ecutive—would give the purse as well as
the sword. Further the suppression of
Congress, by enrolling it in the army r ,
right retained and reserved by the States.
1 read them:
“The enumeration in the Constitution
of certain rights shall not be construed to
deny or disparage others retained by the
people of the several States.
“The powers not delegated to the Con
federate States by' the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States are reserv
ed to the States respectively, or to the
people tboanotf.”
Now 1 put it to the Senate “Have not a
few specified rights as to the conduct of
the war power been so construed by the
Senators who have advocated this amend
ment as‘to deny or disparage’ the right
of State governments which was ‘retained
by the people of the several States/’ ”—
Lan those Senators deny that they have
done so? Have they not so construed the
few war powers as effectually to suppress
the judiciary, the Legislative and Execu
tive Departments of State governments,
if tlieir principles should he fnlly acted
upon by this Congress? Has any Senator
pretended that the power of legislation
upon domestic relations among citizens of
a State lias been delegated to Congress, or
has been prohibited to the States? Not
one. Then it is a reserved power to the
States respectively. And if a reserved
power, then, say s the Constitution, “You
shall not construe certain delegated rights
sons to deny or disparage that reserved
right.” Yet Senators here have, without
due reflection, I must suppose, done that
very prohibited thing.
1 have thus, Mr. President, performed
found, comprehending and approving the soiling—i/a est sc.ripta le.r—thus is the law
nature of the contest, who should follow, written, and thus we are sworn to observe
would destroy'the only' power which could j my task. 1 have shown that tbe construc-
impeach and try the Executive for usur- j tion'put by some Senators upon the war
paiiou. t power is utterly’ at variance with six of the
Let us now examine the 2d article. It seven articles of the Constitution, and if
provids that the President shall be elected j adopted and acted upon by Congress, will
by electors every' six years, chosen as the crush all civil power, destroy two out of
State Legislature may direct. It gives to the three great departments of the Gov-
hiin the power of appointment of officers eminent, namely: the legislative and judi-
suhject to confirmation or rejection by the , cial departments—will also destroy all the
Senate. He can make treaties by and State Governments and will erect the
with the advice and consent of the Sen- limited Constitutional Executive into an
ate. He shall give information of the absolute despotism—i pure military dic-
state of the Confederacy to Congress. He tatorship. As I have so often alluded to
shall be removed from office oil iinpeacli- , the Executive, I here take one occasion
ment. But these Senators say that Con- ‘to say that, though differing on some mat-
gress has the power to destroy the State i ters with the President, I have no fears
From the Petersburg [Va ] Expres*. of Sept. 27 Conrfnct of tk« War—af the
_ . „ .. >oith-Writer i. State*.
i>te from the North. _ .
, , ... c r ■ 1 The House Committee on Foreign af-
Through the kindness ot a friend, we p a j ra j iave made a majority and minority
are in possession of New York and j re p f , rt U p 0n (he resolutions lately intro-
Philadelphla papers of Tuesday last,! dneed iuto Congress touching.the conduct
September 23. We make the follow- j of the war and the tender of conciliatory
inc extracts:
his zeal to prosecute the war, tbe very it. But we are earnestlvadfured not to let! Legislatures, which, prescribes Use ap- of assuming unconstitutional power. Ed-
footsteps of that Lincoln despotism. Lin- the Constitution stand in our way', when
coin and Seward proclaimed that the war it is necessary to put every man in the
power, the same in the Federal as in the field in order to resist subjugation by’ the
Confederate Constitution, justified, the j Lincoln despotism, and that when the war
suppression of the municipal authorities of
Baltimore, and tlieir imprisonment in Fort
Lafayette. ’They thought the press was
too free in its criticisms upon their acts,
and they crushed its freedom, and impris
oned its editors. They thought that the
Judiciary should be subordinate to the
voluntarily to yield tlieir liberties and
tlieir Constitutional safeguards to the
war power, and they placed sentinels at j stealthy progress of legislative and execu-
the door of the residences of the Judges j tive usurpation towards the establishment
and disregarded their writs. They thought [ of a military dictatorship. When a peo-
tliat independent {State Governments were j pie have lost faith in the power of free
pointment of electors —has the power to
destroy the Senate, which ean reject Iiis
appointees, and which can reject his treat
ies and which can remove him from office
by impeachment; and when all this has
been done, the,re will be an executive,
without the check of the legislative pow-
•better fora free people to bo vanquished j ® r ’ without the fear ot the High Court of
in open combat with the invader, than ! impeachment an Executive to raise mon-
is over we can return to constitutional
government. Mr. President, I here sol
emnly state my conviction that it is far
ey at will—to put up ami pul down at
will—to make alliances with foreign pow
ers to maintain him in his one man power,
without consultation or drawback from
any quarter, and to keep his control of
government, as there will be no power in
stumbling blocks in their progress to mil- , government to defend tlieir liberties ami 1 e^i^ri'uce to elect his successor ana uispute
itary absolutism, and they imprisoned the ! lost that high courage and tried virtues
members of the Legislature of a sover
eign State.
. .. , , n , And what were his special pleas for this
,r as indicating the progess of this Gov- | effectual and rapid transformation of a con
stitutional government into a practical des
potism which did not allow its decrees to
fie questioned?
One plea was that so ardently advanced
by the Senator from Kentucky. (Mr.
Simms,) in defence of proposition to seize
and coerce an officer of the civil govern-
.uncut either in the march of a well un-
ie r rtood Constitutional policy, leading us
| on to an assured political and commercial
j greatness as a free people—or in that broad
and well-beaten path, from which the
wrecks of governments that for centuries
have stj-ewn it could not deter us, and
which leail£ to absolutism in (lie person of
some mighty and unscrupulous military
genius. This being the case, our decision
of this question is of the gravest impor
which can wrestle with danger and meet
with disasters with fortitude, and in cow
ardly’ search of case they discard the oner-
erous and trying duties of self govern
ment, and throw themselves and their all
into the arms of a vigorous despotism of
tlieir own choosing, in nine cases out of
ten that people are lost—lost forever* The
recuperative energy and virtue which
would he required to throw' off the shack
les which they had placed upon tlieir own
ment ot a State into the army of the Con-1 limbs, would be wanting, and they would
federacy—that it would he absurd to sup- i have to undergo ages of suffering before a
pose that the Constitution conferred upon 1 new race of men could be born, equal to a
ot tins question is or tne gravest impor- OoDgress the power to wage war, and yet task of such magnitude. No sir. Far
tarn.e—not only for to-da} but : prohibited it from forcing a State officer to j better, in every particular, if they are to
-and our action should be clearly defined , duty as soldier. j he governed by a despotism—if free con-
aiid leave no room for doubt as to our
views cf the relative dignity' and extent
of the civil and the war pow,er in this Gov
ernment.
Mr. President the question is not an ab
stract one, which can he postponed without
detriment. It presses upon yon as a
practical question, requiring legislative
solution. Signs are not lacking that the
war power is quietly usurping the powers j gaged, and the armies we are now raisin
ot both State and Confederate Govern- j and
governed by a despotism
Mr. Simms, of Kentucky.—The Consti- stitutional government is to he overthrown
tution no where gives Congress power to | —that it he overthrown by an open enemy;
raise ana support armies for the overthrow and if they’ are to be governed by a des-
of the State Governments, hut it does give i potism, that it be after being vanquished
this power to Congress “to protect each j in the conflict of arms. Virtues grow'by’
State against invasion.” The language j trial; tbe virtues of courage, of patriotism
of the C onstitution is, “Congress shall pro-1 of love of liberty, are not uprooted by the
tcct each of them (the States) against J triumph of an enemy, by defeat at the
invasion.” The war in which we aie en-
his term of office.
Let us examine the 3d article. It pro
vides that the judicial power shall be vest
ed in supreme and other courts, and that
the judges shall hold office during good
behavior—that they' shall preside over
civil and criminal trials of prescribed char
acter.
But these Senators declare that Con
gress has power to blot out that article—
to render it of no effect—to take the J edg
es from the bench and enroll them as sol-
ucated and living a strict constructionist,
I believe his heart sympathizes with liis
head, and that no more determined oppo
nent of military usurpation will he found
in the Confederacy. And what is the
reason urged lor this assumption of unlim
ited power? Necessity’—blood-covered,
liberty despoiling “necessity”—stained
with the crimes of ages, and yet dripping
with the fresher blood of a neighboring re
public, which, rflthough we may be at war
with, it may he no treason to wish it had
received a happier fate.
But, Mr. President, “necessity” can
hardly be urged at this time for the perpe
tration a heinous crime against our own
liberties—none more uupropitious for such
an excuse at this bright period in the his
tory* of the war. T hough hard pressed
in the spring, when surprised and unpre
pared, the wonderful recuperative energy
and ready* resources of tiie Southern peo
pie have raised and equipped an army in
the very* presence of three quarters of a
million ot armed and disciplined enemies;
and those armies have driven back theenp.-
niy from all tiie fortified holds on our bor-
Bii the President of the United States—a
Proclamation.
Washington, Sept. *22. 1SG2.—I,
Abraham Lincoln, President, of the
United States of America, and Com-
mander-in-Chief of the army and navy
thereof, do hereby proclaim and de
clare that hereafter as here the war wilt
prosecuted tor the object of practi- be
eally restoring the constitutional re
lation between the United States and
the people thereof in which States that
relation is, or may be, suspended or
disturbed; that it is my purpose, upon
the next meeting of Congress, to
again recommend the adoption ot a
practical measure tendering pecuniary
aid to the free acceptance or rejection
of all the slave States, so called, the
people whereof may not then be in
rebellion against the United States,
and which States may then have vol
untarily adopted or thereafter may
volunteerly adopt the immediate or
gradual abolishment of slavery within
their respective limits; and that the
effort? to colonize persons of African
descent, with their consent, upon the
previously obtained cousent ot the
governments existing there, will be
continued ; that on the first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
all persons held as slaves within any
State, or any designated part ot a
State, the people whereof shall then
be in rebellion against the United
States, shall be thenceforward and
forever free ; and the executive gov
ernment of the United States, inclu
ding the military and naval authority
thereof, will recognize and maintain
the freedom of such persons, and will
do no act or acts to repress such per
sons, or any of them, in any ellorts
they may make for their actual free-
measures to the inhabitants of the North
western States. W’e copy the report of
the majority, as its matter is both curious
and interesting—Examiner 26th.
The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to
whom was referred certain resolutions re
lating to the true policy ot the war, and
recommending to the President the issu
ance ot a proclamation touching the free
navigation of the Mississippi and its tribu
taries, and the opening of the market of
the South to the inhabitants of the North
western States, upon certain terms and
conditions, have had the same under con
sideration, and now report back said reso
lutions, with one or two slight amend
ment sand recommend that they he adopt
ed. The expediency of conducting the war
in which we are engaged with all possible
activity, and of carrying that war into the
enemy’s country, so soon as the same shall
be found practicable, is believed to be now
universally admitted by all enlightened
men who have given tlieir attention to the
subject. It is evident that we must rely
alone upon our own energies for success iu
the struggle of arms which is now in pro
gress. In the present condition of affairs
it is quite manifest that in order to bring
the sanguinary struggle in which we are
engaged to an early termination, it will
be necessary that every portion of our ar
my should be kept in a state of constant
readiness for active exertion, and that no
opportunity should be neglected of stri
king the forces of the enemy, wherever to
he found upon Southern soil, with that
boldness and heroic energy which are so
certain to secure to our arms the most sig
nal success. It is equally manifest that
the enemy will never be willing to desist
from tbe unjust and ferocious war which
they are now waging, until the evils and
inconveniences thereof shall have been
brought home fully to themselves. When
our valiant and disciplined armies (enhanc
ed in numbers and in strength, as if is
hoped they will shortly he,) shall have
once found their way to the heart of
the enemy’s country, and have inflicted a
just retaliation upon those who have so
ruthlessly ravaged our territories, pillaged
our towns, and desolated our homes, it is
O lilies ; aim UJC HILT tu.to III iy uuuvi iuui cuuimuu
or the. people thereof, shall on that \ the issuing of son
day be in good faith represented in the die President, a
Pnn,rr P « nf the United States bv i resolutions referrt
,. , ... , ... ders, ami have routed him on several well
diers, under military rule—to deprive them contested fields, and now ban- threatnin-
of the dignities and privileges of tlieir high ] y ovcr bis cai , ital and a]on | his und ®_
fended frontier. Y'et this is the hour
chosen for an onslaught upon the dearest
principles of the Southern people—upon
the chief principle for which they separa
ted from the government of the United
ments. AH history teaches us that, in
times of war, the more modest and less
showy civil powers of government yield
and shrink from the fierier hearing and
more pretentious and swelling demeanor
of the war power. And in our own case,
so great is the patriotic fervor of the peo
ple—so ardent tlieir devotion to the cause
—so unselfish their sacrifices of property,
of ease, aye, and of life itself in promo
tion of the common weal, that they are
loth to question any act that is designed to
advance the common interest, no matter
Low strange or startling to them as a mere
question ot power. And so far lias this
generous support of our armies gone, that
it requires some, moral courage to sustain
any who thinks it his duty to say, “vigi
lance is the price of liberty.” Hence
this generous confidence, while it may dc-
supporting are for that very purpose.
It the whole physical power of the Con-
fedeiacy he required fn the military ser
vice to successfully '‘protect the States
against invasion,” I hold that Congress
not only lias the power, hut that it is made
its highest duty by the Constitution it
self, to exercise that power to the full
extent demanded by the exigencies of the
occasion. I am therefore, for conscribing
magistrates into the military service, not
for the purpose of overthrowing the State
Goverument, hut for the purpose of pre
venting tlieir enslavement and overthrow
by a foreign invader.
For the Constitution to
’P , -
hand of a foe. The world’s history is full
of the noble truth—the stein, bloody,
practical truth which poetry has seized
and almost consecrated as its own, by rea
son of the amber of sweet numbers iu
which it has embalmed it—
“Freedom's battle once begnn,
Be<|ueatlied by bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled off, is ever won.”
There is hope for a people who are
crushed by superior power, in their brave
struggle for the right. There is no hope
fora people so destitute of courage and
virtue and wisdom as to flee to a despotism
to render their conflict with an invader the
easier. I, therefore, repudiate all idea
that we can safely abandon any of the
order more
declare that j safeguards of our liberties
“Congress shall protect each State against ! successfully to contend with our invaders,
invasion.” and then declare that it shall | Mb. Prksidk.xt : I have said that this
not have power to raise a sufficient mili
tary force to do it, is to say that the same
Constitution which declares that “Con-
ter many a watchtul patriot from doing I gress shall protect the States against in-
his whole duty, has actually been seized
upon as a defence by some who have vio
lated civil liberty in the exeicise of mil
itary power, and their acts justified be
cause tiie people are quiet.
But, Mr. President, this should not in
fluence Senators in their action here. Here
we act upon our solemn oaths to see to it
that the Republic suffers no detriment.
Here wc are. as watchmen to tell our con
stituents “what of the night.” Here we
vasion,” also, denies to Congress the pow
er to do the very thing it declares Con
gress shall do. Such a construction, I
hold, would he enough to stamp the in
strument an absurdity, and more than
enough to stamp its authors with a stupid
ity incapable of understanding’theif own
purpose.
Mr. Yancey continued. It seems, Mr.
President, that I did not misapprehend the
Senator. He repeats that such a limita-
are put upon our consciences, without fear j tion on the war power as will prevent the
or favor of the people, to do our duty— ■ the Government forcing an officer of a
our whole duty—not according to the
“general welfare.” nor to that other dan
gerous plea of all usurpers, “necessity”
hut according to the written law of the
Constitution, which lias been placed in our
hands as our only power of attorney to act
at all. Under such influences, as one of
tho'C watchmen, I say that there are al
ready signs that a change from a civil
government, with constitutionsl checks and
balances, to a military absolutism, is in
progress. 11 hat are the facts to sustain
go startling an assertion? I repeat a few
of them : A military commander of a de
partment had declared martial law in his
district and lias muzzled the free press
within it.
The first step towards despotism is in
variably to suppress that watchful friend
of civil libertv—a free press; and the next
is to suppiess the civil law, which would
rc«ctie a victim from lawless arrest, and
check all encroachments upon the people’s
rights.
Another military commander is solemn
ly charged, and it is a matter of enquiry
now, itfthis body, with having executed
a citizen without a trial, either under civil
or martial law. The 3ame commander
has superceded the municipal law of one
of our large cities, and substituted the law
of liis own military edict; has displaced
the authorities elected by the people, un
der the sovereign law of their State, and
has placed over them an officer of his own
choosing. And, as if these startling usur
pations wpre not sufficient to satisfy this
craving of the military to drive all civil
power into obscurity—in fact, to banish it
from the land—here in tbe Senate, tbe
chosen temple of State aovereignty, one
State government to serve in the army, is
an absurdity and a weakness of which the
framers of the Constitution could not be
guilty. Precisely the same reasoning, if
it can be called such, was used by Lin
coin, as to our right to secede from his gov
ernment—and in support of his assump
tion of power to suppress what lie called
disloyal municipalities and State Govern
ments, and to imprison judges and editors
of a free press. Another plea which Lin
coln used to support his numerous usurpa
tions and acts of tyranny, was that used
here, by* the Senator from Georgia—the
necessity of preserving the National Life
—as if there could he, in a free constitu
tional government, a National life that was
antagonistic to the sovereign l ights or life
of a free State or of a citizen of such
a State.
Another plea used by the authorities of
the Uuited States, in their internal war
upon the personal rights of their own cit
izens and upon the sovereign rights of
tlieir own States, was that so vehemently
urged here by the Senator from Mississip
pi (Mr. Phelan) in behalf of'his view that
this Congress can coerce into its armies all
the officers of the several States, and even
the members of this body, the supremacy
—the unlimited extent of the power ot
Congress over all others delegated by the
States or reserved by them in the conduct
of a war.
Mr. Phelan here disclaimed that he was
one of those who made a mere general re
ference to “the war power” in showing
the constitutionality of .any special meas
ure. On the contrary, he had disclaimed
any such general reference as dangerous in
principle and pointless as proof. A refer-
amendmeut and the principles upon which
it lias been supported, if carried into prac
tical legislation, will destroy both the
State and Confederate Governments, and
will erect the Executive into a military
dictatorship.
I now proceed to sustain that proposi
tion.
In considering this question, it must be
home in mind that this is not a consolida
ted Government; hut that the powers of
the Confederacy are limited because dele
gated, and that all the powers of gov
ernment are distributed hetweeen this and
the several State governments.
There are seven articles in the Confed
erate Constitution. 1 assert tlmt the ex
ercise of such a power by Congress will
destroy the provisions of six of these ar
ticles, and will thus destroy the various
powers delegated to Congress, and which
are necessary to make this a constitutional
civil government, and will leave the Ex
ecutive and war power without the checks
and balances so wisely provided to keep
these subordinate to the civil and leg
islative power.
In the first articles are provisions that
the Legislature of a State has power to
prescribe who shall be voters for members
of the House of representatives; and shall
choose members of the Senate, and pre
scribe the times, places and manner of
tlieir election; and that the State execu
tives shall issue writs of election to fill va
cancies in House of Representatives; and
which reserve to a State the right to keep
troops to resist invasion’ in time of war.
Every one of these provisions can, and
would he destroyed by Congress assuming
the powers contended for by the Senators
from Georgia (Mr. Hill) and from Missis-
ippi, (Mr. Fbelan) the power to place in
the army for three years the members of
the State Legislature and the Executive,
through whose action alone can Represen
tatives and Senators be elected, and the
power to enroll as conscripts the mil
itia officers of a State; and the militia,
when called out by a State to resist its in
vasion.
Texas has a regiment of rangers now
in her service to protect her borders; Vir
ginia lias a large body of her militia to pro
tect her insulted territory. In my opin
ion, Congress cannot touch a man of either
under the conscript law. although I be
lieve that Congress can provide for calling
office, no matter how irreproachable tlieir
life! The Chief Justice is required to
preside in the Senate, if the I’resident is
tried by impeachment. But, although the
President may have bribed members to
destroy the civil functions of government,
and may have unconstitutionally arrested
and forced State authorities and all Cou-
gress and the Judiciary into the army,
and, therefore, had assumed all the pow
ers of government, and he liable to be
tried for treason, there will he found no
11 use to impeach—no Senate to try him
—no Chief Justice to preside—ail be
forced, under the principles so recklessly
avowed here by the Senators from Geor
gia, [Mr. HiliJ from Mississippi, [Air. Phe
lan] and from Kentucky. |Mr. Simmes,] to
he under the mailed hand of a military
Dictator—that has grown under the plea
of “necessity,” and of the “unlimited na
ture of the war power.”
But to resume my review of the Consti
tution. Uudertbe 4th article, the Con
federate States guarantee to every State
a republican form of government, and
upon application of the Executive against
domestic violence. Under the principle
of these Senators, what becomes of this
valuable provision? The government of
the Confederate States so far from afford
ing that guarantee, has destroyed every
vestige of republicanism in both State
and General Government. It will have
destroyed the Legislature, the Executive,
and the Judiciary of each State—it will
have left a prey to anarchy, or .what Is
more probable, a province of a military and counteracted by such severe retalia-
iuler, governed by one of bis satraps, j tory measures as in the judgment of the
The spirit, the vitality, the essence of President may he the best calculated to
our republican system will, in every par-j secure its withdrawal or arrest its execu-
ticular have been effectually crushed. 1 tion.
And when in such an event, the citizen— j A resolution from the House, extending
not then, hut ouce the citizen of a free the session uutil Monday next, was con-
government—shall seek the sacred places j curred in.
where his State sovereignty was enshrin- : T he Senate bill to authorize the Presi-
ed, and shall find the Executive chair va- dent to accept and place in service certain
Regiments, etc., heretofore raised, though
composed ill part, of persons liable to con
scription. was passed.
In the House, the exemption hill was
further considered and amended so as to
exempt all persons employed on newspa-
States and upon which they have built up
this Southern Confederacy—the right to
preserve in fact the reserved rights of the
States—the right to resist tisuspatiou of
those rights by the federal government.
Mr. President, I have full faith in this
complicated and limited government to
carry us safely through this war. Its
strength however, lies in the most careful
! observance of the rights of each depart-
inent ^of the government, and of each
State. Its greatest weakness is in a dis
position to assume powers from a mischiev
ous and falacious idea that they are neces
sary to our safety. Such assumption is
more to be feared, more dangerous, in my
opinion, than are a million of 1'ankce
bayonets. Let there he mutual respect
tor the rights of each, and all—and there
will result a harmony and an energy and
a power that will reseue to us all the val
ue in constitutional government.
COXfiRESSSOXAL.
Richmond, 29th.—In the Senate, Mr.
Semm<*s ot Louisiana, submitted a resolu
tion declaring Lincoln’s emancipation
proclamation a gross outrage on the rights
of private property and an invitation to
attrocions, servile war, theiefore it should
be held up to the execration of mankind
cant, and the inace of the Executiv e au
thority broken—when lie shall stray still
farther into the temple of State justice,
and find the bench of Justice no longer
occupied, and the sacred ermine torn and
trampled under the feet ot Confederate
soldiery—the very alters of his liberties purs who are indi pensable to tlieir piib-
desecrated and cast down—pray tell mo lication according to the oath of the ed-
sir, what will it he to him to tell him that itor.
you did it from “necessity,” to preserve j Several bills passed.
“the National life,” from a fear of Lincoln _
hordes, from an opinion that you had the _ . . .
right to do it—what to Lina will lie your humous * tate ot Ajjans ni flashing-
desire to be successful in war, when sue- j l° 7lm —Among the exchanged prisoners
cess in war is based on a destruction of the • who arrived yesterday, was Lieut. M.
very rights alone for which he was willing Newman, Adjutant of the 49th Geor-
to war. ! gia regiment. AVe are indebted to
I pass over the 6tb article, as of com- j |,j s courtesy for late Northern papers,
paratively little importance to the 6th. jLieut . N . states that it was rumored
I he two last provisions are tiie* most un- .. ,
portaut in the whole constitution—they ,M . 11 l' 11 '" 011 1,1 gte.it excitement
were not yet devised by the wise men been ^ caused by the 1 resident’s
who framed the instrument in Convention, j emancipation proclamation, and if
After they had sent it to the States for j was further said that several Federal
their consideration, a citizen of this an- officers [iad been, sent to the Old Capi-
cicnt Dominion, far-sighted and with a tol prison for treasonable remarks
thorough knowledge of the government ■ about not intending to’ fight for the
and its workings as taught in history, had u nisr er .» Xlie night be *° re OIJr ex _
them, amongst others, proposed as amend- , " , . , a ,. , .
ments-and they were adopted. They Ranged prisoners leftthe prison doors
constitute the grand beacon lights to every locked, something that had not
been done before, and which betoken
ed some unusual commotion out
side. [Richmond Dispatch.']
dom ; that the Execntive will, on the 1 to be reasonably expected that even they
first day of Jenuary aforesaid, bv proc- j "'*!• at l ast f }e a,J J e t0 discard the rank in-
lamation, designate the States and |J^tice ancl brutal cruelty winch they have
, ~ * .. . ... | compelled us to experience, ana tor the
parts of states, it any, in \\ [ perpetration of wliicli they have not been
the people thereof respectively^shall I heretofore subjected to any thiug like ad-
then be in rebellion against the United i equate punishment.
States; and the fact that any State, j ;* Your committee are well satisfied that
of some such proclamation by
that described in the
Congress of the United States bv j resolutions reterred to them, at such time
as he shall deem expedient, could not but
members chosen thereto at elections | , , . . . 1 .
. - . i-c i I “ e attended with the most saiutory effects,
wherein a majority of the qualified It ig an lindoubted fact tl)at the govern-
votes of suchState shall have partict- { meIlt at Washington, aided by uusernpu-
pated, shall, in the absence of strong i | ous local demagogues in the North-west-
countervailing testimony, be deemed j ern States, has succeeded to a considera-
conelusive evidence that such State { hie extent in deluding the people of that
and the people thereof have not been region into a general belief that, should we
in rebellion against the United States.
And I do hereby enjoin upon and
order all persons engaged in the mili
tary and naval-service of the United
States to observe, obey and enforce
within their respective spheres of ser
vice the act and sections above reci-
r *l. *
And the Executive will in dut time
recommend that all citizens of the
United States who shall have re
mained loyal thereto throughout the
rebellion shall (upon the constitution
al relation between the Unitec States
and their respective States and people,
if the relation shall have been suspen
ded or disturbed,) be compenwted for
all losses by acts of the Unitec States,
including the loss of slaves.
In witness whereof I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed.
Abraham Lincoln.
succeed in our struggle for independence,
it is the intention of the Government and
people of the Confederate States to shut
them out from the free navigation of the
Mississippi river, and its great tributaries;
and though the provisional Congress of
these States long ago emphatically nega-
tiv-ed this idea, by well known acts of for- *
mal legislation, yet your committee is as
sured that the delusion on this subject still
continues to exht among the people of the
North-west, and that the gross misappre
hension in regard to the intentions and
policy of the Confederate States of Amer
ica, thus engendered and kept in existence
by wicked and designing men, has opera
ted most effectively in prompting the
people of. the North-western States (so
closely connected with the South hereto
fore, both by geographical and political
ties, to contribute ireeiy, both in men and
money to the prosecution of a war, which,
if successful on the part of those with
whom it has originated, would be eventu
ally as disastrous iu its effects to the peo-
; pie of the North-western States themselves
Done at the Citv of Washington, j as to those of the Confederate States of
this twenty-second day of September, j America. It is gratifying to discover that
in the year of our Lord oih thousand j high-spirited and intelligent public men
eight hundred and sixty-tv*, and of the i 8everal ot tho ^th-western States
grand beacon lights to every
benighted and puzzled statesman by which
to guide the bark of State. By their light
there can be no excuse even for a blind
man toe not correctly reading this Consti
tution. They speak a language of warn
ing, of instiuction, and reproof to the Sen
ator from Misiissippi. (Mr. Phelan,) who,
from certain special clauses, deduces tbe
power of Congress to destroy or render
null and of no effect nearly every other
delegated power in that instrument, and to
disparage, if'not destroy, nearly eveiv
[Special to the Telegraph.]
Savannah, 29th.-^—A letter received
from P. W. A. this afternoon, says that
Maj. Phil. Tracy, died of bis wound re
ceived at Sharpsburg* Gen. Toombs is
severely wounded in the hand. Snukd.
independence of the Unite! States the
•eighty seventh. By thePresident:
William II Seward.
Secretary of State,
Old Abe's Proclamation.
Commenting upon thii proclamation,
the New York Herald siys:
The President lias ssued a procla
mation to the people ofthe rebel States.
It will be found in mother column
of this morning’s papr. It is one of
the most important documents that
has emanated from the Executive
Department of the ’epublie since the
adoption of the federal Constitu
tion.
On the 25th of Jily last, the Presi
dent, in accordance with the act of
Congress approved on the 17th ol that
month, gave sixty fay’s notice to those
ill rebellion that tie property of all
rebels would be lonfiscated and tlieir
slaves made free, if they presisted in
their suicidal course. The notice
expires to-day, tie 23d instant, and the
proclamation low issued presents
the case in iti new and significant
aspect.
The gravity of its proclamation
will strike eVbry one. It has been
forced upon tie nation by the alioli-
tionists ofthe North and secessionists
of the South. It inaugurates an over
whelming resolution in the system of
labor in a vist and important agricul
tural sectiai of the country, which
will, if the /ebels persist in4heir course
suddenly emancipate three or four
millions of human beings, and throw
them in tie fulness of their helpless
ness and ignorance, upon their own
resoureesand the wisdom of the white
race to jroperiy regulate and care for
them in heir new condition of life.—
But tli* importance of this great
social re oliition will not be confined
to the lection where the black race
now foims the chief laboring element.
It wiljfhave an influence on the labor
of the,North and West. It will, to a
certaii degree, bring the black labor of
the aouth in competition with the
whit# labor on the extensive grain
farm! of the West, unless the existing
stringent laws of some ofthe Western
Stains, confining the negro to h|s pres
ent geographical position, are adopted
in ill the other free States.
have of late become exceedingly active in
their endeavors to discourage and suppress
the ferocious war spirit heretofore raging
among their fellow citizens, and patriotic
efforts have been already attended with
the most marked success. Such a procla
mation as that recommended in the reso-
tions referred to this committee, it is con
fidently believed, would have a tendency
greatly to strengthen the efforts of the ad
vocates of peace in the North-western
States, be calculated to bring those States,
quickly into amicable relations with the
States of the South, withdraw them ulti
mately altogether from their present injuri
ous political connection with the States of
the North and East, with which they have
really so little in common, and thus enable
us to dictate the terms of a just and hon
orable peace from the great commercial
emporiums of that region through whose
influence mainly has this wicked and un
natural war beon thus far kept in pro-
gresss.”
1 he views of the minority of the com
mittee, represented hv Messrs. Barksdale.
McLean, and Smith, objected to the poli
cy of tendering to a portion of the citizens
of the government with whom we are at
war, any exclusive commercial privilege
on the ground that the legislation of Con
gress should not anticipate events, and that
the proclamation of such a policy at the
present time, coupled with offers of inac
tive trade, in the manner suggested by the
majority of the committee, would be do
rogatory to the dignity of this government.
The members of the committee referred
to express tbe opinion in the report to
Congress that the signs of returning rea
son, indicating a desire for peace among
the inhabitants of the North western
States, uf.011 which the majority of the
committee congratulate the country are
delusive. They conclude with the propo
sition that iu the event of the actual ex
istence of these alleged pacific indications
it is clear that they are the result, not of
temporizing expedients on the part of the
government of the Confederate States,
hut of its manifestations of purpose to
prosecute the war with vigor and effect.
The Huntsville Advocate says, but
for the destruction of Paint Rook
Bridge, the cars on the Memphis and
Charleston Railroad could run between
Huntsville and Stevenson, thus being^
in easy communication with Chatta
nooga.
The market for wheat was quite
brisk in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday,
and a prime article was sold $2 50 per
bushel.