tween eighteen and forty-five, now in service, shall be continued during the war in the same regiments, battalions, and companies to which they belong at the passage of this act, with the organization, officers, &c., provided that companies from one State organized against their consent, expressed at the time, with regrets, &c., from another State, shall have the privilege of being transferred to the same arm in a regiment from their own State, and men can be transferred to a company from their own State. Section three gives a bounty eight months hence of $100 in rebel bonds. Section four provides that no person shall be relieved from the operations of this act heretofore discharged for disability, nor shall those who furnished substitutes be exempted, where no disability now exists; but exempts religious persons who have paid an exemption tax. * * * The vote in the House of Representatives was-yeas, 41; nays, 31. GUERRILLAS. 1862, April 21-The President was authorized to commission such officers as he may deem proper, with authority to form bands of partisan rangers, in companies, battalions or regiments, either as infantry or cavalry, to receive the same pay, rations, and quarters, and be subject to the same regulations as other soldiers. For any arms and munitions of war captured from the enemy by any body of partisan rangers, and delivered to any quartermaster at designated place, the rangers shall pay their full value.* The following resolution, in relation to partisan service, was adopted by the Vir ginia Legislature, May 17, 1862: Whereas, this General Assembly places a high estimate upon the value of the ranger or partisan service in prosecuting the present war to a successful issue, and regards it as perfectly legitimate; and it being understood that a Federal commander on the northern border of Virginia has intimated his purpose, if such service is not discontinued, to lay waste by fire the portion of our territory at present under his power. The tenth section provides that no person shall be exempt except the following: ministers, superintendents of deaf, dumb, and blind, or insane asylums; one editor to each newspaper, and such employees as he may swear to be indispensable; the Confederate and State public printers, and the journeymen printers necessary to perform the public printing; one apothecary to each drug store, who was and has been continuously doing business as such since Octo- Resolved by the General Assembly, That ber 10, 1862; physicians over 30 years of in its opinion, the policy of employing such age of seven years' practice, not including rangers and partisans ought to be carried dentists; presidents and teachers of col-out energetically, both by the authorities leges, academies and schools, who have not of this State and of the Confederate States, less than thirty pupils; superintendents of public hospitals established by law, and such physicians and nurses as may be indispensable for their efficient management. One agriculturist on such farm where there is no white male adult not liable to duty employing fifteen able-bodied slaves, between sixteen and fifty years of age, upon the following conditions: The party exempted shall give bonds to deliver to the Government in the next twelve months, 100 pounds of bacon, or its equivalent in salt pork, at Government selection, and 100 pounds of beef for each such able-bodied slave employed on said farm at commissioner's rates. In certain cases this may be commuted in grain or other provisions. The person shall further bind himself to sell all surplus provisions now on hand, or which he may raise, to the Government, or the families of soldiers, at commissioner's rates, the person to be allowed a credit of 25 per cent. on any amount he may deliver in three months from the passage of this act; Provided that no enrollment since Feb. 1, 1864, shall deprive the person enrolled from the benefit of this exemption. In addition to the above, the Secretary of War is authorized to make such details as the public security requires. without the slightest regard to such threats. By another act, the President was authorized, in addition to the volunteer force authorized under existing laws, to accept the services of volunteers who may offer them, without regard to the place of enlistment, to serve for and during the existing war. 1862, May 27-Major General John B. Floyd was authorized by the Legislature of Virginia, to raise ten thousand men, not now in service or liable to draft, for twelve months. 1862, September 27-The President was authorized to call out and place in the military service for three years, all white men who are residents, between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five, at the time the call may be made, not legally exempt. And such authority shall exist in the President, during the present war, as to all persons who now are, or hereafter may become eighteen years of age, and all persons between eighteen and forty-five, once enrolled, shall serve their full time. * 1864, February 15-Repealed the above act, but provided for continuing organizations of partisan_rangers acting as regular cavalry and so to continue; and author ising the Secretary of War to provide for uniting all bands of partisan rangers with other organization and bringing them under the general discipline of the provisional army. THE TWENTY-NEGRO EXEMPTION LAW. 1862, October 11-Exempted certain classes, described in the repealing law of the next session, as follows: The dissatisfaction of the people with an act passed by the Confederate Congress, at its last session, by which persons owning a certain number of slaves were exempted from the operation of the conscription law, has led the members at the present session to reconsider their work, and already one branch has passed a bill for the repeal of the obnoxious law. This bill provides as follows: แ ap The Congress of the Confederate States do enact, That so much of the act proved October 11, 1862, as exempts from military service one person, either as agent, owner, or overseer, on each plantation on which one white person is required to be kept by the laws or ordinances of any State, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military service, and in States having no such law, one person, as agent, owner, or overseer on such plantation of twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military service;' and also the following clause in said act, to wit: 'and furthermore, for additional police of every twenty negroes, on two or more plantations, within five miles of each other, and each having less than twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military duty, one person, being the oldest of the owners or overseers on such plantations,' be and the same are hereby repealed; and the persons so hitherto exempted by said clauses of said act are hereby made subject to military duty in the same manner that they would be had said clauses never been embraced in said act." THE POSITION OF DOUGLAS. After the President had issued his first call, Douglas saw the danger to which the Capitol was exposed, and he promptly called upon Lincoln to express his full approval of the call. Knowing his political value and that of his following Lincoln asked him to dictate a despatch to the Associated Press, which he did in these words, the original being left in the possession of Hon. George Ashmun of Massachu setts: "April 18, 1861, Senator Douglas, called on the President, and had an interesting conversation, on the present condition of the country. The substance of it was, on the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was unalterably opposed to the administration in all its political issues, he was prepared to fully sustain the President, in the exercise of all his Constitutional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the Government, and defend the Federal Capitol. A firm policy and prompt action was necessary. The Capitol was in danger, and must be defended at all hazards, and at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the present and future, without any reference to the past." Douglas followed this with a great speech at Chicago, in which he uttered a sentence that was soon quoted on nearly every Northern tongue. It was simply this, "that there now could be but two parties, patriots and traitors." It needed nothing more to rally the Douglas Democrats by the side of the Administration, and in the general feeling of patriotism awakened not only this class of Democrats, but many Northern supporters of Breckinridge also enlisted in the Union armies. The leaders who stood aloof and gave their sympathies to the South, were stigmatized as "Copperheads," and these where they were so impudent as to give expression to their hostility, were as odious to the mass of Northerners as the Unionists of Tennessee and North Carolina were to the Secessionistswith this difference that the latter were compelled to seek refuge in their mountains, while the Northern leader who sought to give "aid and comfort to the enemy' was either placed under arrest by the government or proscribed politically by his neighbors. Civil war is ever thus. Let us now pass to THE POLITICAL LEGISLATION INCIDENT TO THE WAR. The first session of the 37th Congress began July 4, 1861, and closed Aug. 6. The second began December 2, 1861, and closed July 17, 1862. The third began December 1, 1862 and closed March 4, 1863. All of these sessions of Congress were really embarrassed by the number of volunteers offering from the North, and sufficiently rapid provision could not be made for them. And as illustrative of how political lines had been broken, it need only be remarked that Benjamin F. Butler, the leader of the Northern wing of Breckinridge's supporters, was commissioned as the first commander of the forces which Massachusetts sent to the field. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio-the great West-all the States, more than met all early requiresong was as popular as that beginning ments. So rapid were enlistments that no with the lines: "We are coming, Father Abraham, The first session of the 37th Congress was a special one, called by the President. McPherson, in his classification of the membership, shows the changes in a body made historic, if such a thing can be, not only by its membership present, but that which had gone or made itself subject to Illinois O. H. Browning,* Lyman Trumbull. Missouri-Trusten Polk,* Waldo P. Johnson.* Michigan-Z. Chandler, K. S. Bing ham.* Iowa-James W. Grimes, James Harlan. 0. Howe. California-Milton S. Latham, James A. McDougall. Minnesota-Henry M. Rice, Morton S. Wilkinson. Oregon-Edward D. Baker,* James W. Nesmith. Kansas-James H. Lane, S. C. Pomeroy. REPRESENTATIVES. GALUSHA A. GROW, of Pennsylvania, Speaker of the House. * Maine-John N. Goodwin, Charles W. Walton, Samuel C. Fessenden, Anson P. Morrill, John H. Rice, Frederick A. Pike. Massachusetts-Thomas D. Eliot, James Buffinton, Benjamin F. Thomas, Alexander H. Rice, William Appleton,* John B. Alley, Daniel W. Gooch, Charles R. Train, Goldsmith F. Bailey,* Charles Delano, Henry L. Dawes. Rhode Island-William P. Sheffield, George H. Browne. Connecticut-Dwight Loomis, James E. English, Alfred A. Burnham,* George C. Woodruff. New York-Edward H. Smith, Moses F. Odell, Benjamin Wood, James E. Kerrigan, William Wall, Frederick A. Conk、 ling, Elijah Ward, Isaac C. Delaplaine, Edward Haight, Charles H. Van Wyck, John B. Steele, Stephen Baker, Abraham B. Olin, Erastus Corning, James B. McKean, William A. Wheeler, Socrates N. Sherman, Chauncey Vibbard, Richard Franchot, Roscoe Conkling, R. Holland Duell, William E. Lansing, Ambrose W. Clark, Charles B. Sedgwick, Theodore M. Pomeroy, Jacob P. Chamberlain, Alexander S. Diven, Robert B. Van Valkenburgh, Alfred Ely, Augustus Frank, Burt Van Horn, Elbridge G. Spalding, Reuben E. Fenton. New Jersey-John T. Nixon, John L. N. Stratton, William G. Steele, George T. Cobb, Nehemiah Perry. Pennsylvania-William E. Lehman, Charles J. Biddle,* John P. Verree, William D. Kelley, William Morris Davis, John Hickman, Thomas B. Cooper,* Sydenham E. Ancona, Thaddeus Stevens, John W. Killinger, James H. Campbell, Hendrick B. Wright, Philip Johnson, Galusha A. Grow, James T. Hale, Joseph Baily, Edward McPherson, Samuel S. Blair, John Covode, Jesse Lazear, James K. Moorhead, Robert McKnight, John W. Wallace, John Patton, Elijah Babbitt. Delaware-George P. Fisher. Maryland-John W. Crisfield, Edwin H. Webster, Cornelius L. L. Leary, Henry May, Francis Thomas, Charles B. Calvert. Virginia-Charles H. Upton, William G. Brown, John S. Carlile,* Kellian V. Whaley. * Ohio-George H. Pendleton, John A. Gurley, Clement L. Vallandigham, William Allen, James M. Ashley, Chilton A. White, Richard A. Harrison, Samuel Shellabarger, Warren P. Noble, Carey A. Trimble, Valentine B. Horton, Samuel S. Cox, Samuel T. Worcester, Harrison G. Blake, Robert H. Nugen, William P. Cutler, James R. Morris, Sidney Edgerton, Albert G. Riddle, John Hutchins, John A. Bing ham. Kentucky-Henry C. Burnett,* James S. New Hampshire-Gilman Marston, Ed-Jackson,* Henry Grider, Aaron Harding, ward H. Rollins, Thomas M. Edwards. Vermont-E. P. Walton, Jr., Justin S. Morrill, Portus Baxter. • See memorandum at the end of list. Charles A. Wickliffe, George W. Dunlap, Robert Mallory, John J. Crittenden, Wil liam H. Wadsworth, John W. Menzies. See memorandum at end of list. Tennessee-Horace Maynard,* Andrew J. Clements,* George W. Bridges.* Indiana-John Law, James A. Cravens, W. McKee Dunn, William S. Holman, George W. Julian, Albert G. Porter, Daniel W. Voorhees, Albert S. White, Schuyler Colfax, William Mitchell, John P. C. Shanks. Illinois-Elihu B. Washburne, Isaac N. Arnold, Owen Lovejoy, William Kellogg, William A. Richardson,* John A. McClernand,* James C. Robinson, Philip B. Fouke, John A. Logan.* Missouri-Francis P. Blair, Jr., James S. Rollins, John B. Clark,* Elijah H. Norton, John W. Reid,* John S. Phelps,* John W. Noell. Michigan-Bradley F. Granger, Fernando C.. Beaman, Francis W. Kellogg, Rowland E. Trowbridge. Iowa-Samuel R. Curtis,* William Van dever. Wisconsin-John F. Potter, Luther Hanchett,* A. Scott Sloan. Minnesota--Cyrus Aldrich, William Win dom. Oregon-Andrew J. Thayer.* MEMORANDUM OF CHANGES. Oregon-1862, Dec. 1, Benjamin F, Harding succeeded Edward D. Baker, deceased Oct. 21, 1862. IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Maine-1862, December 1, Thomas A. D. Fessenden succeeded Charles W. Walton, resigned May 26, 1862. Massachusetts-1861, December 1, Amasa Walker succeeded Goldsmith F. Bailey, deceased May 8, 1862; 1861, December 2, Såmuel Hooper succeeded William Appleton, resigned. Connecticut-1861, December 2, Alfred A. Burnham qualified. Pennsylvania-1861, December 2, Charles J. Biddle qualified; 1862, June 3, John D. Stiles succeeded Thomas B. Cooper, deceased April 4, 1862. Virginia,-1861, July 13, John S. Carlile resigned to take a seat in the Senate; 1861, December 2, Jacob B. Blair, succeeded John S. Carlile, resigned; 1862, February 28, Charles H. Upton unseated by a vote of the House; 1862, May 6, Joseph Segar qualified. Kentucky-1862, December, 1, George H. Yeaman succeeded James S. Jackson, deceased; 1862, March 10, Samuel L. Casey The following changes took place during succeeded Henry C. Burnett, expelled De the Congress: IN SENATE. cember 3, 1861. Tennessee-1861, December 2, Horace drew J. Clements qualified; 1863, FebruMaynard qualified; 1862, January 13, An Rhode Island-1862, Dec. 1, Samuel G. Arnold succeeded James F. Simmons, re-ary 25, George W. Bridges qualified. signed. New Jersey-1862, Dec. 1, Richard S. Field succeeded, by appointment, John R. Thompson, deceased Sept. 12, 1862. 1863, Jan. 21, James, W. Wall, succeeded, by election, Richard S. Field. Maryland-1863, Jan. 14, Thomas H. Hicks, first by appointment and then by election succeeded James A. Pearce, deceased Dec. 20, 1862. Virginia-1861, July 13, John S. Carlile and Waitman T. Willey, sworn in place of Robert M. T. Hunter and James M. Mason, withdrawn and abdicated. Kentucky-1861, Dec. 23, Garrett Davis succeeded John C. Breckinridge, expelled December 4. Indiana-1862, March 3, Joseph A. Wright succeeded Jesse D. Bright, expelled Feb. 5, 1863, Jan. 22, David Turpie, superseded, by election, Joseph A. Wright. Illinois-1863, Jan. 30, William A. Richardson superseded, by election, O. H. Browning. Missouri-1861, Jan. 24, R. Wilson succeeded Waldo P. Johnson, expelled Jan. 10. 1862, Jan. 29, John B. Henderson succeeded Trusten Polk, expelled Jan. 10. Michigan-1862, Jan. 17, Jacob M. Howard succeeded K. S. Bingham, deceased October 5, 1861. See memorandum at end of list. Illinois--1861, December 12, A. L. Knapp qualified, in place of J. A. McClernand, resigned; 1862, June 2, William J. Allen qualified, in place of John A. Logan, resigned; 1863, January 30, William A. Richardson withdrew to take a seat in the Senate. Price succeeded John W. Reid, expelled Missouri-1862, January 21, Thomas L. December 2, 1861; 1862, January 20, William A. Hall succeeded John B. Clark, expelled July 13, 1861; 1862, May 9, John S. Phelps qualified. Iowa-1861, December 2, James F. Wilson succeeded Samuel R. Curtis, resigned August 4, 1861. Wisconsin-1863, January 26, Walter D. McIndoe succeeded Luther Hanchett, deceased November 24, 1862. Oregon-1861, July 30, George K. Shiel succeeded Andrew J. Thayer, unseated. Louisiana-1863, February 17, Michael Hahn qualified; 1863, February 23, Benjamin . Flanders qualified. Lincoln, in his message, recited the events which had transpired since his inauguration, and asked Congress to confer upon him the power to make the conflict short and decisive. He wanted 400,000 men, and four hundred millions of money, remarking that "the people will save their government if the government itself will | tucky, to be uttered. I ask the Senator do its part only indifferently well." Con- to recollect, to what, save to send aid gress responded by adding an hundred and comfort to the enemy, do these prethousand to each request. dictions amount to? Every word thus utterThere were exciting debates and scenes ed, falls as a note of inspiration upon every during this session, for many of the South-Confederate ear. Every sound thus utterern leaders remained, either through hesi-ed, is a word, (and falling from his lips, a tancy or with a view to check legislation mighty word) of kindling and triumph to and aid their section by adverse criticism the foe that determines to advance." on the measures proposed. Most promi- The Republicans of the North were the nent in the latter list was John C. Breckin- distinctive "war party," i. e., they gave ridge, late Vice President and now Senator unqualified support to every demand made from Kentucky. With singular boldness by the Lincoln administration. Most of and eloquence he opposed every war mea- the Democrats, acting as citizens, did likesure, and spoke with the undisguised pur-wise, but many of those in official position, pose of aiding the South. He continued assuming the prerogative of a minority, this course until the close of the extra took the liberty in Congress and State session, when he accepted a General's Legislature to criticise the more important commission in the Confederate army. But war measures, and the extremists went so before its close, Senator Baker of Oregon, far, in many instances, as to organize oppoangered at his general course, said in reply sition, and to encourage it among their to one of Breckinridge's speeches, Aug. 1st: constituents. Thus in the States bordering "What would the Senator from Ken- the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, organized tucky, have? These speeches of his, sown and individual efforts were made to encourbroadcast over the land, what clear distinct age desertions, and the "Knights of the meaning have they? Are they not intend- Golden Circle," and the "Sons of Liberty," ed for disorganization in our very midst? secret societies composed of Northern symAre they not intended to destroy our zeal ? pathizers with the South, formed many Are they not intended to animate our troublesome conspiracies. Through their enemies? Sir, are they not words of bril- action troops were even enlisted in Southliant polished TREASON, even in the very ern Indiana, Illinois and Missouri for the Capitol of the Republic ?" [Here there were Confederate armies, while the border States such manifestations of applause in the gal- in the Union sent whole regiments to batleries, as were with difficulty suppressed.]tle for the South. The "Knights of the Mr. Baker resumed, and turning directly to Mr. Breckinridge, inquired: The Golden Circle" conspired to release Confederate prisoners of war, and invited Mor"What would have been thought, if, in gan to raid their States. One of the worst another Capitol, in another republic, in a forms of opposition took shape in a conyet more martial age, a Senator as grave, spiracy to resist the draft in New York not more eloquent or dignified than the city. The fury of the mob was several Senator from Kentucky, yet with the days beyond control, and troops had to be Roman purple flowing over his shoulders, recalled from the front to suppress it. The had risen in his place, surrounded by all riot was really political, the prejudices of the illustrations of Roman glory, and de- the mob under cover of resistance to the clared that the cause of the advancing draft, being vented on the negroes, many Hannibal was just, and that Carthage ought of whom were killed before adequate numto be dealt with in terms of peace? What bers could be sent to their succor. would have been thought if, after the bat-civil authorities of the city were charged tle of Cannæ, a Senator there had risen in with winking at the occurrence, and it was his place, and denounced every levy of the afterwards ascertained that Confederate Roman people, every expenditure of its agents really organized the riot as a movetreasure, and every appeal to the old recol- ment to "take the enemy in the rear." lections and the old glories?" The Republican was as distinctively the There was a silence so profound through-war party during the Great Rebellion, as out the Senate and galleries, that a pinfall the Whigs were during the Revolution, the could have been heard, while every eye Democratic-Republicans during the War was fixed upon Breckinridge. Fessenden of 1812, and the Democrats during the exclaimed in deep low tones," he would have been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock !" Baker resumed: War with Mexico, and, as in all of these war decades, kept the majority sentiment of the country with them. This is such a "Sir, a Senator himself learned far more plain statement of facts that it is neither than myself, in such lore, (Mr. Fessenden) partisan to assert, nor a mark of partytells me, in a low voice, "he would have fealty to deny. The history is indelibly been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock." written. It is stamped upon nearly every It is a grand commentary upon the war measure, and certainly upon every American Constitution, that we permit political measure incident to growing out these words of the Senator from Ken- lof the rebellion. |