continued from Part II …

now said as to remission of confiscation has no reference to supposed property in slaves."

On the 13th of April, the day before the assassination of the President, General Ord addressed me a letter, stating that by the instructions of the President he wrote, that since the paper was written on the subject of reconvening the gentlemen who, under the insurrectionary government as the Legislature of Virginia, the object had in view and the convention of such gentlemen is unnecessary; he wishes the paper withdrawn. I sent to General Ord the only paper I had ever received, being that I have copied.

After the President had read and expounded the paper he delivered it to me. It was not dated nor signed, nor directed to me or other person. When he had concluded that he said he had been meditating a plan, but had come to no conclusion upon the subject; that he should not do so till he returned to City Point. That if he was satisfied he would write to General Weitzell.

This had reference to a convention of the Legislature which had been sitting during the preceding winter, and recognized the Confederate States. The President said: "He had a government in Virginia -- The Pierrepont government. It had but a small margin, and he was not disposed to increase it. He wanted the very Legislature which had been sitting `up yonder' -- pointing to the capitol -- to come together and to vote to restore Virginia to the Union, and recall her soldiers from the Confederate army."

The suggestion came from the President, and its object was plainly stated. As the suggestion had some tolerance for the existing State governments, I was pleased to hear it, and strongly supported the suggestion. I told him "there had been discussions during the winter in respect to both peace and union; none could be found to make peace. Each man would not make his own peace." My opinion had been that his assassination was a very great calamity, and that this, among other calamities, would most probably have been averted had there been sober-minded views on the part of those charged with administration of affairs in the Confederate States.

It appears that Edwin M. Stanton was examined in relation to this intercourse before the committee appointed for the examination of charges preferred against President Johnson in 1867. He testified before that committee, "that President Lincoln went to the city of Richmond after its capture and some intercourse took place between him and Judge Campbell, formerly of the Supreme Court of the United States, and General Weitzell, which resulted in the call of the Rebel Legislature to Richmond. Mr. Lincoln on his return from Richmond reconsidered that matter."

The policy of undertaking to restore the government through the medium of rebel organizations was very much opposed by many persons, and very strongly and vehemently opposed by myself. I had several earnest conversations with Mr. Lincoln on the subject, and advised that any effort to reorganize the government should be under the Federal Government solely, and to treat the revel organizations as null and void.

On the day preceding his death, a conversation took place between him, the Attorney-Genera and myself, upon the subject at the Executive mansion.

AN hour or two afterwards, and about the middle of the afternoon, Mr. Lincoln came over to the War Department and renewed the conversation. After I had repeated my reasons against allowing the Rebel Legislatures to assemble, or the Rebel authorities to have any participation in the business of reorganization, eh sat down at my desk and wrote a telegram to General Weitzell and handed it to me. "There," said he, "I think this will suit you." I told him no, it did not go far enough. That the members of the Legislature would probably come to Richmond; that General Weitzell ought to be directed to prohibit their assembling. He took up his pen again and made that addition to the telegram and signed it. He handed it to me. I said it was exactly right. It was transmitted immediately to General Weitzell, and was the last act ever performed by Mr. Lincoln in the War Department. General Ord had succeeded General Weitzell and communicated the intelligence to me. There was no sort of disappointment nor surprise at this proceeding. It was perfectly obvious that the dissolution of the Confederate States and government would immediately ensue the capture of the army.

THE LAST MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE

CONFEDERACY TO CONGRESS.

The following message was transmitted to Congress on Monday, 13th March, 1865:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America:

When informed on Thursday last that it was the intention of Congress to adjourn sine die on the ensuring Saturday, I deemed it my duty to request a postponement of the adjournment, in order that I might submit, for your consideration, certain matters of public interest, which are now laid before you. When that request was made, the most important measures that had occupied your attention during the session had not been so far advanced as to be submitted for executive action, and the state of the country had been so materially affected by the events of the last four months as to evince the necessity of further and more energetic legislation than was contemplated in November last. Our country is now environed with perils which it is our duty calmly to contemplate. Thus alone can the measures necessary to avert threatened calamity be wisely devised and efficiently enforced.

Progress of the War.

Recent military operations of the enemy have been successful in the capture of some of our seaports, in interrupting some of our lines of communication, and in devastating large districts of our country. These events have had the natural effect of encouraging our foes and dispiriting many of our people. The capital of the Confederate States is now threatened, and is in greater danger than it has heretofore been during the war. The fact is stated without reserve or concealment as due to the people whose servants we are, and in whose courage and constancy entire trust is reposed; as due to you, in whose wisdom and resolute spirit the people have confided for the adoption of the measures required to guard them from threatened perils.

While stating to you that our country is in danger, I desire also to state my deliberate conviction that it is within our power to avert the calamities which menace us, and to secure the triumph of the sacred cause for which so much sacrifice has been made, so much suffering endured, so many precious lives been lost. This result is to be obtained by fortitude, by courage, by constancy in enduring the sacrifices still needed; in a word, by the prompt and resolute devotion of the whole resources of men and money in the Confederacy to the achievement of our liberties and independence.

The measures now required, to be successful, should be prompt. Long deliberation and protracted debate over important measures are not only natural, but laudable in representative assemblies under ordinary circumstances; but in moments of danger, when action becomes urgent, the delay thus caused is in itself a new source of peril. Thus it has unfortunately happened that some of the measures passed by you in pursuance of the recommendations contained in my message of November last have been so retarded as to lose much of their value, or have, for the same reason, been abandoned after being matured, because no longer applicable to our altered condition; and others have not been brought under examination. In making these remarks, it is far from my intention to attribute the loss of time to any other causes then those inherent in deliberative assemblies, but only urgently to recommend prompt action upon the measures now submitted. We need for carrying on the war successfully, men and supplies for the army. We have both within our country sufficient to obtain success.

To obtain the supplies it is necessary to protect productive districts, guard our lines of communication by an increase in the number of our forces; and hence it results, that with a large augmentation of the number of men in the army, the facility of supplying the troops would be greater than with our recent reduced strength.

Supplies -- Payment for Them in Coin.

For the purchase of supplies now required, especially for the armies in Virginia and North Carolina, the treasury must be provided with means; and a modification in the impressment law is required. It has been ascertained, by examination, that we have within our reach a sufficiency of what is most needed for the army, and without having resource to the ample provision existing in those pats of the Confederacy with which our communication has been partially interrupted by hostile operations. But in some districts from which supplies are drawn, the inhabitants being either within the enemy's lines or in very close proximity, are unable to make use of Confederate treasury notes for the purchase of articles of prime necessity; and it is necessary that to some extent coin be paid in order to obtain supplies. It is therefore recommended that Congress devise the means for making available the coni within the Confederacy for the purpose of supplying the army. The officers of the supply department report that with two million of dollars in coin, the armies in Virginia and North Carolina can be amply supplied for the remainder of the year; and the knowledge of this fact should suffice to insure the adoption of the measures necessary to obtain this moderate sum.

Impressments.

The impressment law, as it now exists, prohibits the public officers from impressing supplies without making payment of the valuation of the time of impressment. The limit fixed for the issue of treasury notes has been nearly reached, and the treasury cannot always furnish the funds necessary for prompt payment while the law for raising revenue which would have afforded means for diminishing, if not removing, this difficulty, was unfortunately, delayed for several months, and has just been signed. In this condition of things, it is impossible to supply the army, although ample stores may exist in the country, wherever the owners refuse to give credit to the public officer. It is necessary that this restriction on the power of impressment be removed. The power is admitted to be objectionable, liable to abuse, and unequal in its operation on individuals; yet, all these objections must yield to absolute necessity. It is also suggested that the system of valuation now established ought to be radically changed.

The legislation requires in such cases of impressment, that the market price be paid; but there is really no market price in many cases, and then valuation is made arbitrarily and in a depreciated currency. The result is that the most extravagant prices are fixed, such as no one expects ever to be paid in coin. None believe that the Government can ever redeem in coin the obligation to pay fifty dollars a bush for corn, or seven hundred dollars a barrel for flour. It would seem to be more just and appropriate to estimate the supplies impressed at their value in coni; to give the obligation of the Government for the payment of the price in coin, with reasonable interest, or, at the option of the creditor, to return in kind the wheat or corn impressed, with a reasonable interest, also payable in kind; and to make the obligations thus issued receivable for all payments due in coni to the Government. Whatever be the value attached by Congress to these suggestions it is hoped there will be no hesitation in so changing the law as to render it possible to supply the army in case of necessity for the impressment of provisions for that purpose.

The measure adopted to raise revenue, though liberal in its provisions, being clearly inadequate to meet the arrear of debt and the current expenditures, some degree of embarrassment in the management of the finances must continue to be felt. It is to be regretted, I think, that the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, of a tax on agricultural income equal to the augmented tax on other incomes, payable in treasury notes, was rejected by Congress. This tax would have contributed materially to facilitate the purchase of provisions and diminish the necessity that is now felt for a supply of coin.

The Exemption Bill.

The measures passed by Congress during the session for recruiting the army and supplying the additional force needed for the public defence have been, in my judgment, in sufficient, and I am impelled by a profound conviction of duty, and stimulated by a sense of the perils which surround our country, to urge upon you additional legislation upon this subject.

The bill for employing negroes as soldiers has not yet reached me, though the printed journals of your proceedings inform me of its passage. Much benefit is anticipated from this measure, though far less than would have resulted from its adoption at an earlier date, so as to afford time for their organization and instruction during the winter months.

The bill for diminishing the number of exempts has just been made the subject of a special message, and its provisions are such as would add no strength to the army. The recommendation to abolish all class exemptions has not met your favor, although still deemed by me a valuable and important measure; and the number of men exempted by a new clause in the act just passed is believed to be quite equal to that of those whose exemption is revoked. A law of a few lines repealing all class exemptions would not only strengthen the forces in the field, but be still more beneficial by abating the natural discontent and jealousy created in the army by the existence of classes privileged by law to remain in places of safety while their fellow-citizens are exposed in the trenches and the field.

The Militia.

The measure most needed, however, at the present time, for affording an effective increase to our military strength, is a genera militia law, such as the Constitution authorizes Congress to pass by granting to it power "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," and the further power "to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Confederate States, suppress insurrections and repel invasions." The necessity for the exercise of this power can never exist if not in the circumstances which now surround us. The security of the States against any encroachment by the Confederate Government is amply provided by the Constitution, by "reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress."

A law is needed to prescribe not only how, and of what persons, the militia are to be organized, but to provide the mode of calling them out. If instances are required to show the necessity of such general law, it is sufficient to mention that, in one case, I have been informed by the Governor of a State that the law does not permit him to call the militia from one county for service in another, so that a single brigade of the enemy could traverse the State, and devastate each county in turn, without any power on the part of the Executive to use the militia for effective defence; while in another State the Executive refused to allow the militia "to be employed in the service of the Confederate States," in the absence of a law for that purpose.

Suspension of the Habeas Corpus.

I have heretofore, in a confidential message to the two Houses, stated the facts that induced me to consider it necessary that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended. The conviction of the necessity of this measure has become deeper as the events of the struggle have been developed. Congress has not concurred with me in opinion. It is my duty to say that the time has arrived when the suspension of the writ is not simply advisable and expedient, but almost indispensable to the successful conduct of the war. On Congress must rest the responsibility of declining to exercise a power conferred by the Constitution as a means of public safety, to be used in periods of national peril resulting from foreign invasion. If our present circumstances are not such as were contemplated when this power was conferred, I confess myself at a loss to imagine any contingency in which this clause of the Constitution will not remain a dead letter.

With the prompt adoption of the measures above recommended, and the united and hearty cooperation of Congress and the people in the execution of the laws and the defence of the country, we may enter upon the present campaign with cheerful confidence in the result. And who can doubt the continued existence of that spirit and fortitude in the people, and of that constancy under reverses which alone are needed to render our triumph secure? What other resource remains available but the undying, unconquerable resolve to be free? It becomes certain beyond all doubt or question, that we must continue this struggle to a successful issue, or must make abject and unconditional submission to such terms as it shall please the conqueror to impose on us after our surrender. If a possible doubt could exist after the conference between our commissioners and Mr. Lincoln, as recently reported to you, it would be dispelled by a recent occurrence, of which it is proper that you should be informed.

The Peace Conference -- Military Convention -- Interview

Between Generals Longstreet and Ord.

Congress will remember that, in the conference above referred to, our commissioners were informed that the Government of the United States would not enter into any agreement or treaty whatever with the Confederate States, nor with any single State; and that the only possible mode of obtaining peace was by laying down our arms, disbanding our forces, and yielding unconditional obedience to the laws of the United States, including those passed for the confiscation of our property and the constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery. It will further be remembered, that Mr. Lincoln declared that the only terms on which hostilities could cease were those stated in his message of December last, in which we were informed that, in the event of our penitent submission, he would temper justice with mercy, and that the question whether we should be governed as dependent territories, or permitted to have a representation in their Congress, was one on which he could promise nothing, but which would be decided by their Congress after our submission had been accepted.

It has not, however, been hitherto stated to you that, in the course of the conference at Fortress Monroe, a suggestion was made by one of our commissioners that the objections entertained by Mr. Lincoln to treating with the Government of the Confederacy, or with any separate State, might be avoided by submitting for the usual mode of negotiating through commissioners or other diplomatic agents the method sometimes employed of a military convention to be entered into by the commanding generals of the armies of the two belligerents. This he admitted was a power possessed by him, though it was not thought commensurate with all the questions involved. As he did not accept the suggestion when made, he was afterwards requested to reconsider his conclusion upon the subject of a suspension of hostilities, which he agreed to do, but said he had maturely considered of the plan, and had determined that it could not be done.

Subsequently, however, an interview with General Longstreet was asked for by General Ord, commanding the enemy's army of the James, during which General Longstreet was informed by him that there was a possibility of arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention, and that if General Lee desired an interview on the subject it would not be declined, provided General Lee had authority to act. This communication was supposed to be in consequence of the suggestion above referred to, and General Lee, according to instructions, wrote to General Grant, on the second of this month, proposing to meet him for conference on the subject, and stating that he was vested with the requisite authority. General Grant's reply stated that he had no authority to acceded to the proposed conference; that his powers extended only to making a convention on subjects purely of a military character, and that General Ord could only have meant that an interview would not be refused on any subject on which he (General Grant) had the right to act.

It thus appears, that neither with the Confederate authorities, nor the authorities of any State, nor through the commanding generals, will the Government of the United States treat or make any terms or agreement whatever for the cessation of hostilities. There remains then for us no choice but to continue this contest to a final issue; for the people of the Confederacy can be but little known to him who supposes it possible they would ever consent to purchase at the cost of degradation and slavery, permission to live in a country garrisoned by their own negroes, and governed by officers sent by the conqueror to rule over them.

Conclusion.

Having thus fully placed before you the information requisite to enable you to judge of the state of the country, the dangers to which we are exposed, and the measures of legislation needed for averting them, it remains for me but to invoke your attention to the consideration of those means by which, above all others, we may hope to escape the calamities that would result from our failure. Prominent, above all others, is the necessity for cordial and earnest cooperation between all departments of government, State and Confederate, and all eminent citizens throughout the Confederacy. To you especially, as Senators and Representatives, do the people look for encouragement and counsel. To your action, not only in legislative halls, but in your homes, will their eyes be turned for the example of what is befitting men who, by willing sacrifices on the altar of freedom, show that they are worthy to enjoy its blessings.

I feel full confidence that you will concur with me in the conviction that your public duties will not be ended when you shall have closed the legislative labors of the session, but that your voice will be heard cheering and encouraging the people to that persistent fortitude which they have hitherto displayed, and animating them by the manifestation of that serene confidence which, in moments of public danger, is the distinctive characteristic of the patriot, who derives courage from his devotion to his country's destiny, and is thus enabled to inspire the like courage in others.

Thus united in a common and holy cause, rising above all selfish considerations, rendering all our means and faculties tributary to our country's welfare, let us bow submissively to the Divine will, and reverently invoke the blessing of our Heavenly Father, that as He protected and guided our sires when struggling in a similar cause, so He will enable us to guard safely our alters and our firesides, and maintain inviolate the political rights which we inherited.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

RICHMOND, March 13, 1865.

REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON

PRESIDENT DAVIS'S LAST MESSAGE.

The following is the report of the Senate Committee on the recent message of President Davis. It was read and adopted in secret session, and the seal of secrecy removed on the 16th instant.

The select committee, to which was referred to so much of the President's Message of the 13th instant as relates to the action of Congress during the present session, having duly considered the same, respectfully submit the following report:

The attention of Congress is called by the President to the fact that, for carrying on the war successfully, there is urgent need of supplies and men for the army.

The measures passed by Congress during the present session for recruiting the army are considered by the President inefficient; and it is said that the results of the law authorizing the employment of slaves as soldiers will be less than anticipated, in consequences of the dilatory action of Congress in adopting the measure. That a law so radical in its character, so repugnant to the prejudices of our people, and so intimately affecting the organism of society, should encounter opposition and receive a tardy sanction, ought not to excite surprise; but if the policy and necessity of the measure had been seriously urged on Congress by an Executive message, legislative action might have been quickened. The President, in no official communication to Congress, has recommended the passage of a law putting slaves into the army as soldiers, and the message under consideration is the first official information that such a law would meet his approval. The Executive message transmitted to Congress on the 7th of November last, suggests that propriety of enlarging the sphere of employment of the negro as a laborer, and for this purpose recommends that the absolute title to slaves be acquired by impressment, and, as an incentive to the faithful discharge of duty, that the slaves thus acquired be liberated, with the permission of the States from which they were drawn. In this connection the following language is used:

"If this policy should recommend itself to the judgment of Congress, it is suggested that, in addition to the duties heretofore performed by the slaves, they might be advantageously employed as pioneer and engineer laborers; and, in that event, that the number should be augmented to forty thousand. Beyond this limit and these employments it does not seem to be desirable, under existing circumstances, to go."

In the same message the President further remarks:

"The subject is to be viewed by us, therefore, solely in the light of our policy and our social economy. When so regarded, I must dissent from those who advise a general levy and arming the slaves for the duty of soldiers."

It is manifest that the President, in November last, did not consider that the contingency had then arisen which would justify a resort to the extraordinary measure of arming our slaves. Indeed, no other inference can be deduced from the language used by him; for he says:

"These considerations, however, are rather applicable to the improbable contingency of our need of resorting to this element of resistance than to our present condition."

The Secretary of War, in his report, under date of November 3d, seemed to concur in the opinion of the President when he said:

"While it is encouraging to know this resource for further and future efforts is at our command, my own judgment does not yet either perceive the necessity or approve the policy of employing slaves in the higher duties of soldiers."

At what period of the session the President or Secretary of War considered the improbable contingency had arisen, which required a resort to slaves as an element of resistance, does not appear by any official document within the knowledge of your committee. Congress might well have delayed action on this subject until the present moment, as the President, whose constitutional duty it is "to give to the Congress information of the state of the Confederacy," has never asked, in any authentic manner, for the passage of a law authorizing the employment of slaves as soldiers. The Senate, however, did not wait the tardy movements of the President. On the 29th of December, 1864, the following resolution was adopted by the Senate in secret session:

"Resolved, That the President be requested to inform the Senate, in secret session, as to the state of the finances in connection with the payment of the troops; the means of supplying the munitions of war, transportation, and subsistence; the condition of the army and the possibility of recruiting the same; the condition of our foreign relations, and whether any aid or encouragement from abroad is expected, or has been sought, or is proposed, so that the Senate may have a clear and exact view of the state of the country, and of its future prospects, and what measures of legislation are required."

In response to this resolution, the President might well have communicated to the Senate his views as to the necessity and policy of arming the slaves of the Confederacy as a means of public defence. No answer whatever had been made to the resolution. In addition to this, a joint committee was raised by Congress under a concurrent resolution adopted in secret session on the 30th of December, 1864. That committee, by the resolution creating it, was instructed, "by conference with the President, and by such other means as they shall deem proper, to ascertain what are our reliable means of public defence, present, and prospective." A written report was made by the committee on January 25th, 1865; and although it had had a conference with the President, no allusion is made in the report to any suggestion by him that the necessities of the country required the employment of slaves as soldiers. Under the circumstances, Congress, influenced, no doubt, by the opinion of General Lee, determined for itself the propriety, policy and necessity of adopting the measure in question.

The recommendations of the President to employ forty thousand slaves as cooks, teamsters, and as engineer and pioneer laborers, was assented to, and a law has been enacted at the present session for the purpose, without limit as to number. All the measures recommended by the President to promote the efficiency of the army have been adopted except the entire repeal of class exemptions; and some measures not suggested by him -- such as the creation of the office of General-in-Chief -- were originated and passed by Congress, with a view to the restoration of public confidence and the energetic administration of military affairs.

On the subject of exemptions, the President in his message of November 7th, uses the following language:

"No pursuit nor position should relieve any one who is able to do active duty from enrolment in the army unless his functions or services are more useful ot the defence of the country in another sphere. But it is manifest that this cannot be the case with entire classes. All telegraph operators, workmen in mines, professors, teachers engineers, editors and employes of newspapers, journeymen printers, shoemakers, tanners, blacksmiths, millers, physicians, and numerous other classes mentioned in the laws cannot, in the nature of things, be either equally necessary in their several professions, nor distributed throughout the country in such proportions that only the exact numbers required are found in each locality."

The casual reader would infer that the laws, as they stood at the date of the message, exempted the classes enumerated by the President, as well as many other classes not mentioned by him. Such is not the fact. The only class exemptions allowed by the laws then in force were the following: Ministers of religion; superintendents and physicians of asylums for the deaf, dumb and blind, and of the insane; one editor for each newspaper, and such employes as the editor may certify on oath as indispensably necessary; the public printers of the Confederate and State Governments, and their journeymen printers; one skilled apothecary in each apothecary store, who was doing business as such on the 10th of October, 1862; physicians over thirty years of age, for the last seven years in practice; presidents and teachers of colleges, seminaries and schools, and the superintendents, physicians and nurses in public hospitals; certain mail-contractors and drivers of post-coaches; certain officers and employes of railroad companies; and certain agriculturists or overseers.

Officers of the State Governments are not properly included among the exempted classes, but it is conceded that Congress has no constitutional power to conscribe them as soldiers; nor are Dunkards, Quakers, or other non-combatants regarded as belonging to class exemptions, because under the Act of June 7th, 1864, the exemption of these persons is subject to the control of the Secretary of War. The exemption of agriculturists or overseers, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five has been repealed at the present session. Tanners, shoemakers, millers, blacksmiths, telegraph operators and workmen in mines, enumerated by the President as among the classes exempted, are not now, and have not been since the passage of the Act of 17th February, 1864, exempted as a class. If railroad officers and employes, and State officers, who are not constitutionally subject to conscription, be excluded, the classes now exempted east of the Mississippi river embrace about nine thousand men -- one-third of whom are physicians, and nearly another third are ministers of the gospel; the remaining third is principally composed of teachers, professors, printers and employes in newspaper offices and apothecaries.

In remarkable contrast to the number of persons relieved from military service by the exemptions above mentioned, the report of the Conscript Bureau exhibits the fact that, east of the Mississippi river, twenty-two thousand and thirty-five have been detailed by Executive authority. In consequence of this abuse of the power of detail, Congress, at its present session, passed an act revoking all details, and limiting the exercise of that power in the future. The third section of this act, exempting skilled artisans and mechanics from all military service, which is excepted to by the President, and which has since been repealed, was originally adopted in consequence of suggestions contained in the report of the Secretary of War. In alluding to the embarrassments encountered by the administrative bureaus, the Secretary says:

"In addition, they have been constrained, by the stringent legislation of Congress, to relinquish their most active and experienced agents and employes, and substitute for them more infirm and aged classes."

Again:

"Interferences of this kind are inevitably so prejudicial and disturbing, that it is hoped a well-devised and permanent plan of providing and retaining in continuous employment a sufficient number of artisans, experts, and laborers, for all essential operations, may be devised and established."

The truth is, that the bill originally introduced into the Senate exempting skilled artisans and mechanics was actually prepared in one of the bureaus of the War Department. Congress, therefore, had reason to suppose that it would meet the sanction of the Executive.

To conscribe the ministers of religion, and require them to obtain details to preach the Gospel, would shock the religious sentiment of the country, and inflict a greater injury on our cause than can be described. The conscription of the editors and of the printers necessary to the publication of newspapers, would destroy the independence of the press, and subject it to the control of the Executive Department of the Government. The railroad officers and employes are as necessary to the prosecution of the war as soldiers in the field. Physicians and apothecaries are essential to the health of the people, and no complaint has reached Congress of abuses in this class of exemptions. If the education of youth be regarded as conducive to the maintenance of society and the preservation of liberty, it is not perceived that the exemption of professors of colleges and teachers of schools can be justly censured. The Senate passed a bill containing a section repealing the exemption allowed to mail-contractors and drivers of post-coaches; but, at a subsequent stage of proceedings, and on the recommendation of a committee of Conference, based on the urgent remonstrances of the Postmaster General, the section alluded to was stricken out.

The subject of class exemptions was called to the attention of Congress by the Executive message of November last. It was carefully considered, and an act was passed expressive of the views of the Legislative Department of the Government have not met the favor of the Executive, and that he should deem it both necessary and proper to express dissatisfaction with the matured opinion of Congress.

It is true that Congress has failed to respond to the recommendation of the President to enact a general militia law. The subject was considered, and the failure to act was the result of deliberation. The conscription laws enacted by Congress have placed in the military services of the country all its able-bodied citizens between the ages of seventeen and fifty. The whole military material of the country, so far as legislation is concerned, is absorbed by the conscription acts. There is none left on which a militia law can operate, except the exempted classes, and the boys under seventeen, and the men over fifty years of age. It was deemed expedient to allow this material to remain subject to the control of the …

please proceed to Part IV, pp. 81-end