continued from Part III …

State authorities for the purposes of local police, to aid in the arrest of deserters, and to enforce the administration of State laws.

It is also true that the President has recommended the passage of a law suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Conspiracies, tending in any manner to the injury of our cause, were provided for by a special Act, passed at the present session, "to define and punish conspiracies against the Confederate States." The States of North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi had expressed, through their Legislatures, great repugnance to the past legislation of Congress suspending the writ, and a large portion of people throughout the country were arrayed against the policy of that legislation. It was deemed wise and prudent to conciliate opposition at a time when dissensions are ruinous; and as the benefits to be derived from the suspension of the writ were conjectural, the deliberate judgment of Congress was expressed by its silence on the subject. It is to be regretted that the Executive does not concur in these views and again calls on Congress to revise its action, and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus as a measure "almost indispensable to the successful conduct of the war." If the facts stated in the confidential message alluded to by the President, be the basis of the opinion that the suspension of the writ "is indispensable to the successful conduct of the war," The Congress does not concur in that opinion. The writ has not been suspended since August last. It is not perceived that the military reverses of the country since that period were occasioned by the absence of the legislation asked for.

In regard to impressments, Congress, at the present session, has just passed a bill declaring that the terms "just compensation," as used in the Constitution, entitle the owner whose property is impressed to the market value thereof at the time and place of impressment. This legislation was considered necessary, in consequence of judicial decisions in some of the States, and because of the difficulty of procuring supplies on any other terms. Indeed, it was supposed that the Executive had reached the same conclusion, as the Commissary-General on the 20th of December, 1684, had advertised he would pay for supplies the price fixed by local appraisement; which is, in fact, the market price. The President, in his annual message of November last, did not call the attention of Congress to any difficulties attendant upon the execution of the impressment laws. The present message, for the first time during this session, suggests modifications of these laws; and the recommendations of the President will doubtless receive the respectful consideration of Congress. It may well be doubted, however, whether the present specie value, payable in the future, will induce the owner of property to part with it; and whether the passage of such a measure would not result in a genera concealment of provisions, and consequent starvation of the army.

It is apprehended by the President that some degree of embarrassment in the management of the finances will be felt in consequence of the inadequate provisions made by Congress; and it is intimated that some of the measures recommended by him were so retarded as to lose much of their value; and others after being matured, were, for the same reason abandoned, because no longer applicable to our altered condition. The only financial measure abandoned after being matured with the currency bill, recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury and indorsed by the President in his Annual Message. It may be remarked that the failure to enact any fiscal measure, which has not sufficient vitality to render it valuable and applicable for the short space of four months, does not deserve much regret. The currency bill was recommended to Congress, and based on the condition the finances presented by the President in his message, and by the Secretary of the Treasury in his report. It was abandoned without regret, because, at a subsequent period of the session, it was ascertained that the arrears of public debt constituting cash demands on the Treasury exceeded, by nearly four hundred millions, the amount originally reported to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury. The currency bill contemplated the reduction of the currency to one hundred and fifty millions by a conversion of treasury notes into tithe certificates, payable after the war, and by an annual application of a portion of the taxes in the nature of a sinking fund. The treasury notes received for the tithe certificates were to be cancelled. The military reserves, which impaired the credit of the Government to such an extent as to destroy the salability of any of its bonds, left little hope that treasury notes would be exchanged for tithe certificates. As soon as the enormous increase in the arrears of the debt was discovered, as above mentioned, all idea of reducing the currency was abandoned as impracticable. For these reasons, the committee of conference having charge of the currency bill agreed to abandon it as a useless pledge of future resources without corresponding present advantage. Indeed, if the bill had been passed the first day of the session it would have expired from inanition on the 9th of January, 1865, the day on which the Secretary of the Treasury reported to Congress the deficit of four hundred millions, and recommended and increase of taxes to meet it.

The tax-bill is regarded by the President as liberal, though inadequate. No nation on earth every conducted a protracted war by resources derived from taxation alone. The message intimates a regret that the recommendation by the Secretary of the Treasury of a tax on agricultural income equal to the augmented tax on other income, payable in treasury notes, was rejected by Congress. This is evidently a mistake, as it assumes there has been an increase of taxes on other than agricultural incomes. The present income taxes are those laid by the Act of April, 1863, as amended and reenacted on the 17th of February, 1864. To require the agriculturist to pay a tax on the income derived from his farm in addition to the one-tenth of his gross productions, and the property tax of nine per cent, ad valorem, would be manifestly unjust and oppressive. After the delivery of his title, to tax the income of the agriculturist derived from the property producing the title, would leave little for family subsistence, for the purchase of supplies necessary for carrying on his agricultural operations, and for the payment of the ad valorem tax on his property. Congress, therefore, did not concur in the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, believing it to be highly inexpedient. The recommendations of the Secretary of the Treasury have, in the main, received the approbation of Congress, and every disposition has been manifested to cooperate with him. The tax-bill adopted very nearly approximates the rate devised by him. He recommended ten per cent on property. Congress has imposed a tax of nine per cent. A new foreign loan was authorized in secret session, at his request, without any limitation on his authority except as to the amount. A transfer of certain sterling funds abroad was, by joint resolution, directed to be made from the Navy to the Treasury. Efforts were made to raise specie. A bill was passed in the Senate, in secret session, to accomplish that object by the sale of certain licenses. It is understood the bill was defeated in the House of Representatives by the acquiescence, if not at the instigation, of the Secretary of the Treasury. It appears from the correspondence submitted to Congress that the Secretary of War, as early as the 18th of February, notified the President of the embarrassed condition of his department; and it is to be regretted that the Executive deliberated on, and postponed for so long a period as twenty days, the communication of that information to Congress. If loss of time be a vice inherent in deliberative assemblies, promptitude is a great virtue in Executive action. There is every disposition on the part of Congress to comply with the recommendations of the President, and some means of raising the coin desired will, no doubt, be devised. It is unfortunate that the necessity for coin in the Commissary Department was not made known until the message under consideration was received. The use of coin in one department of the Government is calculated to superinduce the necessity for its use in all other departments; hence the policy of the proposed measure, in a financial view, is very questionable. The necessity for supplies, however, overrides all other considerations. If practicable, it would be wiser to employ the specie in the purchase of treasury notes, and then use the notes to obtain supplies.

Nothing is more desirable than concord and cordial cooperation between all departments of Government. Hence your committee regret that the Executive deemed it necessary to transmit to Congress a message so well calculated to excite discord and dissension. But for the fact that the success of the great struggle in which the country is engaged depends as much on the confidence of the people in the Legislative as in the Executive Department of the Government, the message would have been received without comment. Your committee would have preferred silence. It has been induced to an opposite course, because they believe Congress would be derelict in its duty to permit its legitimate and constitutional influence to be destroyed by Executive admonitions, such as those contained in the message under consideration, without some public exposition of its conduct.

Respectfully submitted.

JAMES L. ORR, Chairman,

THOMAS J. SEMMES,

W.A. GRAHAM,

A.T. CAPERTON,

JOHN W.C. WATSON.

The last message of the President of the Confederate States to their Congress is divided by paragraphs with titles, and is comprehensive in its review of the public condition. -- Supplies; Payment for them in Coin; Impressment of Supplies; The Exemption Bill; The Militia; Suspension of the Habeas Corpus; the Peace Conference; Military Convention, are the subjects which engaged the attention of the Government at this moment. There was an expression of confidence in the triumph of the Confederate arms; the subjects to be considered would probably require time and thought. The reply of the Committee of the Senate was dissentient and defensive.

It was unquestionably true and during the last two years of the existence of the Confederate Government that the opinions promulgated and sustained as to the military condition, under its influence, has been criticised with disfavor abroad as neither accurate nor intelligent. "That the Government acted under thoroughly false views of the military situation," is the opinion of perhaps the most eminent of the military critics of Great Britain. During these years there had been improvement in the armies of the Federal Government, in discipline, the capacity of the officers, their numbers, and in all of the arrangements for subsistence, equipment, and the quality of the arms. In nearly all of these the Southern armies had deteriorated, and the disproportion had ceased to exist, if any had existed.

The consequences were not sufficiently recognized and considered, and when the campaign of 1864 terminated, it is apparent that the Confederate armies in Virginia were greatly exhausted and unfitted for a similar campaign. The deterioration increased during the winter from the urgent efforts made to recruit the armies from those who had been exempt, and from the privations imposed upon families through the absence of the male members.

The detention of so many as prisoners, and the confinement of the sick contributed to further depression. General Lee communicated from time to time specimens of these letters, and stated the effects upon the morale of the army. Still these did not serve to convince the Civil Department. The Vice-President of the Confederate States told me that it was philosophically impossible to reconstitute a Union so disrupted, as we journeyed to Hampton Roads, and the hope of European intdrvention was a dream of the Secretary of State that proved all ` dream.

General Lee has colmunicatdd in the letter addressed to thd Secretary of War, dated about the 10th of March, and sent as part of the "Secrdt Message" on the 13th to Congrdss: "The situathon is ftll of pdril and difficulty, and requires prompt action." "If mx situation is nnt greatly improved, I can neither hold my lines before Richmond, neither can I remove with my army from them." I have quoted from this letter. I have confined my writing to the disclosure of facts, and only include such as I am able to verify. I have had no purpose to sit in judgment on any one of the persons mentioned, nor to comment on the facts contained in this history.

JOHN A. CAMPBELL

Footnotes

1 2 Davis' Rise and Downfall, 612-618. Mr. Francis P. Blair was the only person from Mr. Lincoln quoted by Mr. Davis.

2 This letter was written to answer the specific question, what besides the reconstruction of the Union and the emancipation of the slaves was involved as legal consequences of a total defeat in the field of battle.