Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

SPECIAL MESSAGE. [conclusion.] “ To provide and maintain a Navy;” V Paragraph 14, “ To make rules for the government and regulation of “the land and naval forces.” If it were the intention of the Convention to give Con gress the power to “ raise armies” by conscription, these four consecutive paragraphs gave plenary powers over the whole question of war and peace, armies and navies: and it could not have been necessary to add any other para graph to enlarge a power which was al<%ady absolute and complete. If Congress possessed the power under the 12th para graph above quoted, to compel every officer and every cit izen of every .state to enter its armies at its pleasure, its power was as unlimited over the persons of the officers and citizens of the States, jts the power of the most absolute monarch in Europe ever was over his subjects; and it was extreme folly on the part of the Convention to attempt to increase this absolute power by giving to Congress a qualified power over the militia of the States, when its power over every man composing the militia, was unqualified and unlimited. That the Convention was not guilty of the strange absurdity ol having given Congress the absolute, unlimited power now claimed for it, will be seen by refer ence to the two next paragraphs, which give only limited powers over the militia of the States. Paragraph 1-5 gives Congress the power, “ To provide lor calling forth the militia to execute the “ laws of the Confederate States ; suppress insurrections, “ and repel invasions;” Paragraph 16j “ To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining'the “ militia ; and for governing such part of them as may be “ employed in the service of the Confederate States, re- “ serving to the States respectively, the appointment of “the officers, and the authority of training the militia “according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.” Now it must be admitted that Congress had no need of the limited power over the militia of the States, which is giver, by the two last paragraphs, if it possessed under the 12th paragraph, the unlimited power to compel every man of whom the militia is composed, to enter the military service of the Confederacy at any moment designated by Congress. "W lien the six paragraphs above quoted, are construed together, each has its proper place and its proper meaning ; and each delegates a power not. delegated by either of the others. The power to declare war, is the first given to Congress; then the power to raise and support armies; then the power to provide a Navy; then the power to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.• Congress may, therefore, make war; and as long as it can do so by the use of its armies raised by voluntary enlistments, (which was the meaning of the term “to raise armies,” when inserted in the Constitution.) and by the use of the navy, it may prosecute the war without calling upon the States for assistance, or in auy way interfering with the militia. But if it should become necessary for Congress to employ more force than the army and the navy at its command, in the execution of the laws of the Confederacy, the suppression of insurrection, or the repulsion of invasion, Congress may then, under the au sesses the power to raise armies by conscription, it follows past, could be furnished by the States under requisitions, that it may disband the State Governments whenever it in half the time, and with much less than half the expense chooses to consider them an evil, as it may compel every which it will cost the President to get them into service as Executive in every State in the Confederacy, every mem- conscripts. ber of the Legislature of every State, every Judge of every i Under these circumstances, solemnly impressed with a court in every State, every militia officer, and every other sense of the injustice about to be done to a large class of State officer, to enter the armies of the Confederacy in our fellow citizens, under an act which, in iffy opinion, times of peace or war, as privates under officers appointed | plainly violates the Constitution of the Confederacy, and by the President; and may provide that the armies shall strikes down the sovereignty of the States, I felt that I be recruited by other State officers as fust as they are ap- I should justly forfeit the confidence reposed in me by a pointed by the States. Admit {he power of conscription people who, ever jealous of their rights, had opposed stern claimed for Congress by its advocates, and there is no resistance to Federal encroachments, under my predeces- escape from the position that Congress possesses this power sors, Jackson, Troup and Gilmer, were I to permit the over the States. injustice, and allow the Government of the State to be vir- It may be said, however, that the case supposed is an tually disbanded, and the right arm of her power severed extreme one, and that while Congress may possess the ; from her, without first submitting the question of the sur- power to destroy the State governments, it would never render to the representatives of the people. 1 therefore exercise it. If it possesses the power, its exercise depends informed the President of the Confederate States, in a letter upon the will of Congress, which might be influenced by ambition, interest or caprice. Admit the power, and I exercise the functions of the Executive office of this State, you hold your seats as members of the General Assembly, and onr Judges perform their judicial duties, by the spruce ami special favor of Congress, and not as matter of right by virtue of the inherent sovereignty of a great State, whose people, in the manner provided by the Constitution, liav< invested us for the constitutional period, with the right to question. dated the 1 Sth ot last month—a copy of which is here to appended—that I would fill promptly with volun teers legally organized, a requisition, (which I invited,) for her quota of the new levy of troops needed by the Govern ment, but that I would not permit the enrollment o{ con scripts under the late conscription act, till you should have time to meet, deliberate and act. You have the power to adopt the proper measures, and give proper direction to this exercise these functions. During the approaching winter, the enemy will make For my views upon this question somewhat more in de- every effort in his power with large fleets and armies, to tail, and for the strongest reasons which can be given on take our seaport city, over-run a large portion of our State, the other side to sustain this extraordinary pretension of plunder our people and carry olf our slayes, or induce them power in Congress, I beg leave to refer you to the corro- to murder the innocent and helpless portion of our popu- sjmndence between President Davis and myself, upon this iation. At so critical a moment, the portion of our mili- question; a copy of which is herewith transmitted to each branch of the General Assembly. In my letters to the President, will also be found the reasons which induced me to resist the execution of the conscription Act of 16th April last, so far as it related to the officers necessary to the maintenance of the govern ment of this State. It may be proper that I remark, that my first letter to the President upon this question, in which I notify him that I will resist interference with the legislative, executive or judicial departments of the govern ment of the State, though dated the 22d of April, ns it was expected to go by the mail of that day, was prepared on the previous day, which was the day the exemption Act was passed by Congress in secret session ; of the passage of which I had no knowledge, nor had I ever heard that such a bill was pending when the letter was prepared. The question lias frequently been asked, wliv I did not tia, who remain in the State, should be encouraged to vol unteer and form themselves into efficient organizations, and should be kept within the limits of the State to strike for their wives and their children, their homes and their altars. If all our population able to bear arms are to lie forced by Conscription to leave the State in the greatest crisis of the war, to protect more favored points, and our own cities are to be left an easy prey to the enemy, and our homes to be plundered by his marauding bands without resistance, 1 will not be privy to the deed. You are the representatives of the people, and must make the decision. I therefore i conjure you to stand by the rights and the honor of the State, and provide for the protection of the property, the liberties and the lives of her people. Hon. Thomas W. Thomas, a judicial officer of the State of great ability and integrity, in a case brought regularly before him in his judicial capacity, has pronounced the process of the States, (other than the writ of habeas corpus,) in any case or under any emergency whatever. • If a Con federate officer may, by a declaration of martial law, set aside the laws and civil process of a State in a particular city or other locality, at his pleasure, he may extend his order to embrace the whole territory of the State, and set j aside the <>-overnnieiit of the State, and may himself enact the laws and appoint the Governors by which the people of the State shall in future be controlled. Not only so, but if the precedent in this ease is to be tolerated, this may be done by any military commander in any part of the Confederacy, who chooses to send his edict to this State, and appoint his Executive officers to carry it into effect. IMPRESSMENT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. It is also my duty to call your attention to another matter considered by the people of this State a subject of grievance. The power is now claimed by almost every military com mander, to impress the private property of the citizen at his pleasure, without any express order from the Secretary of War for that purpose ; and in many cases, without the payment of any compensation—the officer, who is in some cases, only a Captain or Lieutenant, giving a certificate that the property has been taken fmpublic use ; which seizure, after long delay, may, or may be recognized by the gov ernment ; as it may determine That the officer had, or had not, competentqpithority to make it. I am aware that the Constitution confers the power upon the Confederate Government, to take private property for public use, paying therefor just compensation ; and I have 110 doubt, that every true and loyal citizen, would Cheerfully ! m»n. Hence but few of the original experienced acquiesce in the exercise of this power, by the properly au- * wontb'ShTa name in’V.sS.' tborized and responsible agents of the government, at all ry. now survive, but their places have been filled times when the public necessities might require it. But I, by °‘hers appointed in most cases by the Presi- , ,, , 1 , • - r i ii v dent, they have, therefore, uo lust cause to deny that every subaltern in uniform who passes through claim that the right of election which belongs to the country, lias the right to appropriate what he pleases of ; every Georgiau. shall be denied to all whoarehere- coinpanies, batallioDs and regiments, ; n dance with th« laws cf this State, ’ ' r " The prompt aud patriotic response made by th» people of Georgia to every call for volunteers justifies the reasonable expectation that I 8 k'n be able to fill your requisition ir a short timeaf tor it is made, and authorizes me in advance tn* pledge prompt compliance. This can be don. too. when left to the State authorities. i„ S „I’ way as not to disband nor destroy h -r military 0 gani.:ation at home, which must be kept in 8][ ; r * tence to be used in Case of servile insurrection o- other pressing necessity. r If you should object toother n>-w organizations on the ground that they are not efficient. I beg to invite your attention to the conduct of the newjy organized regiments of Georgians, and indeed of troops from all the States, upon the plains of Manassas, in the battles before Richmond, upon James’ Island near Charleston, at Shiloh, at Richmond. Kentucky, and tfpon every ban;,. fi e ],] whenever and wherever they have met the in Va .' v ding forces. If it is said.that some of our old regiments are almost dicimated, not having m or8 than enough men in a regiment to form a single company; that it is too expensive to keep these small bands in the field as regiments, and that justice to the officers requires that they be filled up by conscripts. I reply, that injustice should never be done to tbe troops, for the purpose of saving a few dollars of e.xpcrsc; and that justice to the men now called into the field, as imperative ly requires, that tiiey shall have the privilege a ], lowed to other troops, to exercise the constitution- h1 rigid of entering the service under officers se lected and appointed as directed by the laws of their own State, as it does, that officers in service shall not be depiived of their commands when their regiments are worn out tr destroyed. Our officers have usually expose.! themselves in the van of the fight, and shared the fate of their after to enter the service, for the purpose of sus taining them in the offices which they now fill. If it becomes necessary to disband any regi- resist the operation of* the Act upon the privates as well as Conscription Act unconstitutional, in an argument which the officers of the militia of the Stale. But for 'the ex- has not been, and will not be answered. Since the decis- treme emergency in which the country was at the time placed, by the neglect of the Confederate Government to make requisition upon the State lor troops, to fill the places of the twelve months men at an earlier (lay, and the fact that the conscription Act by the repeal of all other acts under which the President had been authorized to raise troops, placed it out of his power, for the time, to accept them under the constitutional mode, I should have had no hesitation in taking this course. But having enter ed my protest against the constitutionality of the Act, and Congress having repealed all other acts for raising troops, . j I thought it best on account of the great public peril, to port, has President was mado. Congress, as passed an additional act, authorizing the to suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas in all cases of arrest made under the authority of tin Government, which was doubtless intended to detu to the Judiciary the exercise of its Constitutional fune the property of the citizen without being able to show the authority of the Government for the exercise of this high prerogative. As our people are not aware of their, m nton account of its small numbers, let every 1 ° . £ , 1 ... . , • , officer and private he left perfectly ties to unite piopci lemeuies ioi the HMilttSS of the gllC\tlllCCS Jieieillbe- with such new volunteer association as he thinks fore mentioned, I respectfully suggest, that the General proper, and in the organization and selection of Assembly, alter consideration if these questions, declare by ^£ Resolution or otherwise, their opinion as to the power ol The lata act of Congress, if executed in this the Confederate Government and its officers, in these paYticu- no . t ou b'd 0 ®* K ro *s injustice to a large class ’ . 1 . of her citizens, utterly destroys all fatate military I ll’S. 1 also respectfully request that the (jeueral Assembly organization, aud encroaches upon the reserved declare the extent to which the Executive of this State will be sustained by the representatives of the people, in pro tecting their rights, and the integrity of the Government, and sovereignty of the State, against the usurpations and abuses to which I have invited your attention. JOSEPH E. BROWN. cor j) us, tbority delegated by paragraph 15, provide for calling forth j throw the least possible obstructions, consistent with the the militia of the States, for these purposes. When this is done, however, paragraph 16 guards the rights of the States, by reserving, in plain terms, to the States respect ively, the appointment of the officers to command the militia when employed in the service of the Confederate S'ates., _-This authority was regarded by the Convention of 17S7, as of such vital importance, that they, with almost entire unanimity, voted down a proposition to permit the general government to appoint even the general officers] while the most ultra federalist in the Convention, never seriously contended that the States should lie deprived of the appointment of the field and company officers. The Convention doubtless saw the great value of this reserva tion to the States, as the officers who were to command the militia when in the service of the Confederacy, would not be dependent upon the President for their commissions, and would be supposed to be ready to maintain with their respective commands, if necessary, the rights of the States against the encroachments of the Confederacy, in case an attempt should be made by the latter to usurp powers destructive of the sovereignty of the former. On the con trary, should the officers to command the militia of the maintenance of the government of the State, in the way of the Confederate Government in its preparations for our defense. I, therefore, at the expense of public censure which I saw I must incur by making the distinction he- . sovereignty. ,’selfi The auesti tions, in this very case, and which places the liberty of every citizen of the Confederacy at the mercy of the President, who may imprison any citizen under his order without legal warrant or authority, and no court dare in terfere to liberate the captive when the imprisonment is il legal. I now submit the question for the consideration and decision of the Representatives of the people of the State, whether the Constitutional rights of her citizens shall be respected, and her sovereignty maintained, or whether the citizen shall he told that he has no rigfits, and his State no Copy of a Leller to • President Davis, to which no reply has been received. ights of the Siate, but strikes down her sover eignty at a single blow, auj tears from her the right arm of strength, by which she alone can maintain her existence, aud protect those most dear to her, and most dependent upon her. The representatives ot the p-op’e will meet in General Assembly on tbe fith day of next month, and I feel that I should be recreant to the high trust reposed in me, were I to permit the vir ua! de struction of the Government of the State, before they shall have had time to convene, deliberate and act. Referring in connection with the considerations above mentioned, to onr foimer correspondence, fur the reasons which satisfy my miud beyond doubt, of the uncmistitutiunaiity of tiie conscription acts; and to the fact that a Judge in Ibis State, of treat ability, in ' a ease regularly brought before bim in his judicial ca pacity, has pronounced tne law unconstitutional; and t.» tiie further fact that Congress has lately passed an additional act authorizing yon to suspend the privi lege of the wit of Habeas Corpus, doubtless with a view ofdenying to the judiciary in this verv case, the exercise of its constitutional functions, for the protec tion of personal liberty, I can no longer avoid tbe re- sptmsibiliiy of dischntging a duty which I owe to the people of this State, by informing you that I cannut rmit tiie enrollment of conscripts, under the late act tween officers and privates, determined to content myself (uestion is not whether Georgia shall furnish her till the meeting of the General Assembly, wifii resistance j" s t quota of men and means for the common defence, to the execution of the act, only to the extent necessary to 1 his she lias more than done to the present time, and this protect the State government against dissolution, and her she is ever ready to do, so long as she has a man or a dol- people against the massacre and horrors, which might have attended negro insurrections in particular localities, had the militia been disbanded, by compelling the militia offi cers to leave the State, which would have left no legal vacancies that could have been filled by the Executive. While the first conscription act made a heavy draft upon j the militia of the State, it left all between thirty-five and < forty-five, subject to the command of her constituted au- I thorities, in case of emergency; and with these and her officers, she still retained a military organization. I did not, at that time, anticipate an extension of the act, which would embrace the whole militia of tiie State, before your meeting. The late act of Congress extends the conscrip tion act to embrace all between thirty-five and forty-five ; States in the service of the Confederacy, be appointed by j and, if executed, disbands and destroys all military organiza- the Confederate Executive and be dependent upon him fori tion in the State. Not only so, but it denies to those be- povv construed together, the whole system is harmonious. When Congress has declared war, and lias used all the power it possesses in raising armies by voluntary enlist ment, and providing a Navy, and still needs more forces for the purposes already mentioned, it may then provide for calling forth the militia of the several States, as contradis tinguished from its armies and Xacy; and here, for the first time, the (States as such, have a voice in the matter; as Congress cannot call forth the militia without giving the States the appointment of the officers, which gives them a qualified power over the troops in the service of the Con federacy, and au opportunity to be heard, as States, if the delegated powers have been abused by Congress, or the military force is likely to he used for the subversion of their sovereignty. As the residuum of powers not delegatod, is reserved by the States, they may, when requisitions are made upon them for troops by the Confederacy, or when necessary toi their own protection or the execution ct their own laws, call forth the militia by draft or by accepting volunteers. The advocates of conscription by Congress, hay* at tempted to sustain the doctrine by drawing techmca ( is- tinctions between the militia of the States, and the arms- bearing people of the States, of whom the miluia is com posed." In other words, they attempt to draw a distinction j our wives and our children, between a company of militia of one bundled men in a district, aud tlio ouo hundred fiu ‘“ ?| 'j ‘V"‘, fTiv's'c'm- is composed. And while it is admitted that Congiess ean not call forth the company by conscription hut must take the company with its officers, it is contended that Congress mav call forth, not the company, but the one hundred men J jjy conscription ; and by this ar at her command. But it is, shall she he permitted to furnish troops as volunteers, organized m accordance with | her reserved rights, or shall her volunteers be rejected and her citizens he dragged to the field as Conscripts in viola tion of their rights and her sovereignty / Shall the pom pous pretensions of imperial power, made by a government constituted by the States as their common agent, be’acqui- eseedin, or shall the government be compelled to return to the exercise of the powers delegated to it by the Coustitu- j tion / I am Aware that it lias been said by the advocates of con scription, that it is no time now to correct errors. If so, it follows that there is no responsibility for, and no restraint upon their commission. Again, it is s^iid we should first decide whether we are to “have States,” before we under take to define the rights of the States. We had States when we entered into this revolution. We had States be- of the Conscription Acts. We still have Conscription is to be executed to the extent of 1 for Congress hv its advocates, we cease to have States, or to have constitutional liberty or personal ; rights. The solemn question now presented for your con- _ j sideration is, shall we continue to have States, or shall we in commissioned by the proper authority in his own State This privilege lias been allowed to other troops when called to the field. Even those embraced in the first con-, ....... setiption act, were allowed thirty days to volunteer and u ' u l iereo have a consolidated military despotism / select their own officers from among those who, at the time the act was passed, had commissions from the Secretary of MARTIAL LAW AND HABEAS CORPUS. We were recently informed hv the newspapers, that a .. 1~ * l l.j: * i 1 War to raise Regiments. But even this limited privilege, j military commander holding a commission under the gov- whicli fell far short of the full measure of their constitu- eminent of the Confederate States, had issued an order’do- claringthecity of Atlantain thisState, to bdunder martial lair, and had appointed a Governor and his aids to assume the gov- blished, passed and they are the choice of tional rights, is denied those now called for to lie compelled to enter organizations in whose officers they have had no part, till all the old organ- eminent of the city. At the time this order was pu izations, with most ot their officers appointed by the Pres- ! the head quarters of the General by whom it was L ideut, are filled to their maximum number. This act, there- and most of his command, were, I believe, in anotlier^tate, fore, not only does gross injustice to the class ot our fellow- over 130 miles from the city of Atlanta. The order was citizens now called to the field, and denies them the oxer- issued without any conference with the Executive of this cise of sacred constitutional rights which other citizens j .State upon the subject, and the Governor appointed bv the when they entered the service were permitted to enjoy, j General, assumed the government and control of the city, but, if executed, it takes the Major Generals and all other As you were soon to assemble, I thought it best to avoid militia officers of the State, by force, and puts them under ; all conflict upon this question till the facts should be placed the command of third Lieutenants appointed by the Presi- j before you, and your pleasure, as the representatives of the dent, and leaves the State without a military organization sovereign people of this State, should be known in tiie premises.- I consider this and all like procet part of Confederate officers not only high hi tions, depend!iup for their authority upon n without the sfollow of constitutional right, 1 w g poop to execute her laws, repel invasion, protect her public ; premises.- I consider this and all like proceedings, outlie property, or suppress servile^insurrection which the enemy I part of Confederate officers not only high handed usurpa- lilitary power but dangerous now threatens to incite for the indiscriminate massacre ori who compose the company, _ . . - evasion, get rid of the State officers and appoint its own officers. This mode of enlarging the powers of Congress and evading the constitutional rights of the States, by unsubstantial technicalities, would seem to he entitled to respect, onlv, on account of the distinction ol the names of its authors, and not on account ot its logical tiuth, oi the soundness of the reasoning by which it is attempted to be maintained. If Congress may get rid of the militia organizations of the States, at any time, by disbanding them, and compell ing all the officers and men of whom they are composed, to enter its armies as conscripts, under officers appointed by-the President, the provision in the Constitution which reserves to the States the appointment of the officers, to command their militia, when employed in the service of the Confederacy, is a mere nullity whenever Congress chooses to enact that it shall be a nullity. Again, if Congress has power to raise its armies by con scription, it has the power to discriminate and say whom it will first call. If it may compel all between 18 and 35 years of age, by conscription to enter its armies, it has the same right to extend the act, as it has lately done, from 35 to 45 ; and if it has this power, it has the power to take all between 16 and GO. The same power of discrimi nation authorizes it to limit its operations, and take only those between 25 and. 30, or to take any particular class of individuals it may designate. And it must be borne in mind that the power to raise armies, is as unlimited in Congress, in times of the most profound peace, as it is in the rnid.4 of the most devastating war. If Congress pos- We enter-.! into this reynlnrinq in f,ji 0^.1 of the States, ami sun ( „ r , , . , A with tlie old Government, because State rights were invu- eignty of tne i-tate, and oi tne individual rights ol tlie citi- ded aud State sovereignty denied. The conscription act, zeH * Aids ordei ot the commanding General was, after at one fell swoop, strikes down the sovereignty of the , States, tramples upon the constitutional rights and personal liberty of the citizen, and arms the President with imperial powers under which his subaltern in this State has already published his orders to drag citizens of Georgia, who are not in military service, fiom their homes, “in chains,” for j disobedience to his behests; while invalids unfit for duty | have too often been forced into camp and victimized bv exposure which they were unable to endure some delay, annulled by the War Department The 5th and Gth paragraphs of the 4th Article of the Constitution of the Confederate States, are in these words : 5 “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, “shall not he construed to deny or disparage others retained “by the people of the several States.” G “Tne powers not delegated to the Confederate States “by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States, This action “ ure reserved to the States respectively, or to the people - 1 thereof.” Canton, Geo., Oct..18th, 1562. His Excellency, Jefferson Davis: Dear Sir :—The act of Congress passed at its late session extending the Conscription act, unlike its predecessor, of which it is amendatory, gives you power, in certain contin gencies, of the*happening of which you must be the judge, to suspend its operation, and accept troops from the States under any of the former acts upon that subject. By former acts vou were authorized to accent troons from the States ken action mthepremuea. . ,1 l I he plea ot necessity set organized into companies, battalions aud regiments. Tl\e Conscription act of 16th April last repealed these acts, hut the late act revives them when you suspend it. For the reasons then given, I entered my protest against the first Conscription aet on account of its unconstitution- ality, and refused to permit the enrollment of any State offi cer, civil or military, who was necessary to the integrity of the State government. But on account of the emergencies of the country, growing out of the neglect of the Confede rate authorities to call upon the States for a sufficient amount of additional force tosupply the places of the twelve months troops, and on account of the repeal of the former laws upon that subject, having, for the time, placed it out of your power to accept troops organized by the States in the constitutional mode, I interposed no active resistance to the enrollment of persons in this State between IS and -35, who were not officers necessary to the maintenance of the government of the State. The first conscription act took from the State only part of her military force. She retained her officers and all her militia between 35 and 45. Her military organization was neither disbanded nor destroyed. She had permitted a heavy draft to be made upon it, without constitutional authority, rather than her fidelity to our cause should be questioned, or the enemy should gain any advantage growing out of what her authorities might consider unwise councils. But she still retained au organization, subject to the command of her constituted authorities, which she could use for the pro tection of her public property, the execution of her laws, the repulsion of invasion, or the suppression of servile in surrection which our insidious foe now proclaims to the world that it is his intention to incite, which if done, may result in an indiscriminate massacre of helpless women and children. . * At this critical period in our public affairs, when it is absolutely necessary that each .State keep an organization for home protection, Congress, with your sanction, has exten ded the conscription aet to embrace all between 35 aud 45 subject to military duty, giving you the power to suspend the aet as abovestated. If you refuse to exercise this power and are permitted to take all between 35 and 45 as conscripts, you disband and destroy aii military organization in this State, and leave her people utterly powerless to protect their own families, even against their own slaves. Not onlv so, but you deny to those between 35 aud 45 a privilege of electing the officers to command them, to which, under the Consti tution of the Confederacy and the laws of this State, they are clearly entitled, which has been allowed to other troops j from the State, and was to a limited extent allowed even to 1 Tpon the shutting ti.nvers—like souls at rest— those between IS and 35 under the act of I Gth April, as j Tije shine gloriously-and all that act did allow them thirty days within which to volun- j f a y eme is^^e^. teer, under such officers as they might select, who chanced tlj' tiYii ii'it wave at the time to have commissions from the War DepartmcJ*^ _ ' Above thy chi.c/ nnffii Tl\ WABST* oc ! of Congress entitled "An act toemeiul the net further to provide for the common delence,’-’ until the Geiu-rsl Assembly of this State shall have convened and tn- p!ea ot necessity set up for conscription last Spring, when l withheld active resistance to a heavy draft npoD the military organization of the Slate uu- derthetirst conscription act,cannot be pleaded, after the brilliant successes of our gallant armies during the summer and fall campaign, which have been achieved by troops who entered the service, not as conscripts . but ns volunteers. If more troops arc needed to meet ' coming emergencies, call upon the State, and you shall have them as vdlnnlcers,much more rapidly than your enrolling officers can drag conscripts, like slaves, "in chains,” to camps of instruction. Aud who that is not blinded by prejudice or ambition, can doubt that they will be much ; ■ effective as volunteers than ns conscripts? The volunteer enters the service of his own free will. He rep .res the war as much liisownm the Govcrument’s w«i nd is ready, if need be, to of fer his life a willing sacrifice upon iiis country's alter. Hence it is that aur ! ">itrer urmitg have been in- vincible, when contending against vastly superior mu;; b.rsw.tu every advantage which lbs best equip- ments amt supplies can afford. Not so with the con script. lie may be as ready as any citizen of the State to volunteer, if permitted to enjoy the constitu tional rights which have been allowed to others, in the choice of his officers and associates. But if these are denied him, amt he is seized like a serf, and hurried into an association repulsive to his leelings, and placed tin ler officers in whom be lias no confidence, he then a els that this is the Government's war, not his; that he isthe lucre instrument of arbitrary power, and that he is no longer laboring to establish constitutional lib erty, but to build up a military despotism for its ulti mate but certain overthrow. Georgians will never re tuse to volunteer, asking as there is an enemy upon our soil, and a call for their services. But if I mistake not the signs of the tunes, they will require theUov e'rnment to respect their plain constitutional rights. Surety no just renvoi exists why you slum! I refuse to a'-cept volunteers when tendere-h and insist ou re plenishing your armies by conscript ion and uoercion of freemen. The question, then, is not whether you shall have Georgia's quota of troops, for I hey are freely otl'er- ed—tendered in a dr ante—but it is* whether yon shall ac -cpt them when tendered as volunteers, organized a. the Constitution and laws direct, or shall, when the decision is left with yon, insist on rejecting volunteers, and drugging the free citizens of this State into your armies as conscripts No not of the Government oi the United States, prior To the Secession of Georgia, .truck a blow at constitutional liberty, so fell, as h»* been stricken by the conscription acts. The people "t this State had ample cause, however to justify their separation from tbe old Government. They ■acted coolly and deliberately, in view of all the re .-ponsibilities; and they .-land ready to-day to sustain their action at all hazard-: .-ml to resist submission to the Lincoln Government, and he reconstruction of tbe ol I Union, to the ex;,on iture of their Inst dollar, and "the Mcrifice'of then-lust life. Having entered into the revolution freemen, they intend tocn.eige frrmit freemen. Au'd if l mistake not the character of the sons, judged by the action of their fatheis nguin.-t Federal encroachments, under Jackson, Troup, and Gilmer, respectively, ns executive officers, they will refuse to yield their sovereignty to usurpation, amis it! j require the Government, which id the common agent ; of all the States, to move within the sphere assigned I t by tbe Constitution. X ery respectluliy, your obedient servant, • JOSEPH E. BROWN. I Jlr .ttollin-N Grave. The trembling dew drops fail mm ** t q****t**f**toki lignum I'llVliegU tO rnOSjr T5ptvrteen 35 and 45, and refuse to accept them as volunteers with — selected hy them in accordance with r!ie bm-o of tLxGr State, and attempt to compel them to enter the service as conscripts, my opinion is,* your orders will only be obeyed by many of them when backed by an armed force which they have no power to resist. * The late act, if I construe it correctly, does not give those between 35 and 45 the privilege under any circumstances ol volunteering and forming themselves into regimental or- ganizations, but compels them to enter the present organ izations as privates under officers heretofore selected by others, until all the present organizations are filled to their fhaximum number. This injustice can only be avoided by the exercise of the power given you to suspend the act, and call upon the States for organized companies, battalions and regiments. I think the history df the past justifies me in saying, that the public interest cannot sutler by the adoption of tit is course. When you made a requisition upon me in the early part of Feb ruary last for twelve regiments, I had them all, with a large additional number, in the field subject to your command and ready for service, in about one month. *It has now been over six months since the passage of the first conscription act, and your officers during that time have not probably enrolled and carried into service from this State conscripts, exceeding one-fourth of the number furnished by me as volunteers in one month, while the expense of getting the conscripts in to service has probably been four times as much as it cost to get four times the number of volunteers into the field. In consideration of these facts, I trust you will not hesi tate to exercise the power given you by the act of Congress, and make an early requisition (which I earnestly invite) upon the Executive of this State, for her just quota of the addi tional number of troops necessary to be called out, to meet the hosts of the invader—the troops to be organized into jf tin* Government not only violates the most sacred con stitutional rights of the citizen, but tends to crush out the spirit of freedom and resistance to tyranny which was . . bequeathed to us by our ancestors of the Revolution of | right to assume or exerctse an j power not delegated by the Under these provisions of tie Constitution, no Depart ment nur officer of the Confederate government, has the When the first conscription act was passed we had 1 States, ‘leach State acting in its sovereign and independent e through a series of reverses which saddened the j character. It follows, thertfore, that no Department nor officer oi the Confederate Goternment, has the right to sus pend the writ of habeas corp/s, which is the highest safe guard of personal liberty, not to exercise the high preroga tive of sovereignty, by the,representative of which alone, martial law may be declared,unless the grant of power from the States to do so can be fo|nd in the Constitution. That instrument declares ; 1776. just gone hearts of our people, and the public mind aco^iesced in the usurpation on account of the supposed necessity. The Government, presuming upon the advantage gained by the precedent with the acquiescence, fastens upon the country a second conscription act which not only detaches part from the State militia, but disbands the whole. No plea of necessity can be set up for this last act. Instead of reverses, all was success at the time of its passage. ' Our glorious armies had driven the enemy, at the point of the bayonet, from every battle field, during the most brilliant summer and fallcampaigns to be found upon the pages of history. These successes had been achieved by men who entered the service as volunteers, and were not dragged from their homes as conscripts. The term of service of the troops was not about to expire at the time of the pass age of the last conscription act, for they were then, every one, in for three years or the war. The additional number needed to reinforce the armies, if we may judge from the i of rebellion or invasion, “The privilege of the wrr of habeas corpus shall not be “suspended, unless when, ill cases “the public safety may re ([lire it.” This clau c e contains a ghat, by plain implication, of the power to suspend the wriijjf habeas corpus when the public safety requires it, in the |vo cases ot rebellion or invasion, but in no other case; and So further in these cases than may be required by the publiolafety. But we look to the Con stitution in vain for auy Confederate government int of power by the States to the any Department or .officer there of, to declare martial fotfand suspend the laws and civil Tis a E«'*t flower—yet must ; vnjrnt ira'res to the coming tempest bow Dear Mothur, tis ibiijs eminent: dust Is ojt thy brow. And I could love to die— * To leave, untasted, life’s dark, bitter streams, By thee, as erst in childhood lie, And share thy dreams. And must I linger herg, To stain the plumage of my sinless years, And mourn the hopes to childhood dear, With bitter tears. Ay, must I ’linger here, A lonely branch upou a blasted tree, XV hese last frail leat untimely sere, W entdown with thee? Ott from life’s withered bower. In still communion with tht|past, I linn And muse on the only flower lot memory’s ttru. And, when the evening pale, Bows like a mourner on the dim blue wav ’, I stray to hearths night winds wail Around thy grave. Where is thy spirit flown? I gaze above—thy look is imaged there ; 1 listen, aud thy gentle tone Is on the air. Oh, cents—whilst here I press My brow upou thy grave—and in those uaHJ And thrilling tones ol tenderness, Bless, bless thy child Yes bless thy weeping child, And o’er thy urn—religion's holiest shrine Oh, givelhis spirit undetiled To blend with thine. . Tax Laws of Georgia. COMPILED BY L. H. BKISCOB- FEW copieeofthe TAX LAWS are on hand • for sale at this office.--Price fl per o®PY