32,000. The panic which drove their the rebellion, while he yet had a seat in masters in wild confusion from their homes, leaves them in undisputed possession of the soil. Shall they, armed by their masters, be placed in the field to fight against us, or shall their labor be continually employed in reproducing the means for supporting the armies of rebellion? The war into which this Government has been forced by rebellious traitors is carried on for the purpose of repossessing the property violently and treacherously seized upon by the enemies of the Government, and to reëstablish the authority and laws of the United States in the places where it is opposed or overthrown by armed insurrection and rebellion. Its purpose is to recover and defend what is justly its own. War, even between independent nations, is made to subdue the enemy, and all that belongs to that enemy, by occupying the hostile country, and exercising dominion over all the men and things within its territory. This being true in respect to independent nations at war with each other, it follows that rebels who are laboring by force of arms to overthrow a Government, justly bring upon themselves all the consequences of war, and provoke the destruction merited by the worst of crimes. That Government would be false to national trust, and would justly excite the ridicule of the civilized world, that would abstain from the use of any efficient means to preserve its own existence, or to overcome a rebellious and traitorous enemy, by sparing or protecting the property of those who are waging war against it.

"The principal wealth and power of the Rebel States is a peculiar species of property, consisting of the service or labor of African slaves, or the descendants of Africans. This property has been variously estimated at the value of from $700,000,000 to $1,000,000,000. Why should this property be exempt from the hazards and consequences of a rebellious war? It was the boast of the leader of

the Senate of the United States, that the Southern States would be comparatively safe and free from the burdens of war, if it should be brought on by the contemplated rebellion, and that boast was accompanied by the savage threat that Northern towns and cities would become the victims of rapine and military spoil,' and that Northern men should smell Southern gunpowder and feel Southern steel.' No one doubts the disposition of the rebels to carry that threat into execution. The wealth of Northern towns and cities, the produce of Northern forms, Northern workshops and manufactories, would certainly be seized, destroyed, or appropriated as military spoil. No property in the North would be spared from the hands of the rebels, and their rapine would be defended under the laws of war. While the loyal States thus have all their property and possessions at stake, are the insurgent rebels to carry on warfare against the Government in peace and security to their own property? Reason and justice and selfpreservation forbid that such should be the policy of this Government, but demand, on the contrary, that, being forced by traitors and rebels to the extremity of war, all the rights and powers of war should be exercised to bring it to a speedy end. Those who make war against the Government justly forfeit all rights of property, privilege, or security, derived from the Constitution and laws, against which they are in armed rebellion; and as the labor and service of their slaves constitute the chief property of the rebels, such property should share the common fate of war to which they have devoted the property of loyal citizens.

"While it is plain that the slave property of the South is justly subjected to all the consequences of this rebellious war, and that the Government would be untrue to its trust in not employing all the rights and powers of war to bring it

SECRETARY CAMERON ON THE SLAVES OF REBELS.

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to a speedy close, the details of the plan that time and circumstance will solve, for doing so, like all other military meas- and need not be anticipated further than ures, must, in a great degree, be left to to repeat that they cannot be held by be determined by particular exigencies. the Government as slaves. It would be The disposition of other property be- useless to keep them as prisoners of war ; longing to the rebels that becomes sub- and self-preservation, the highest duty ject to our arms is governed by the cir- of a government, or of individuals, decumstances of the case. The Govern- mands that they should be disposed of Govern-mands ment has no power to hold slaves, none or employed in the most effective manto restrain a slave of his liberty, or to ner that will tend most speedily to supexact his service. It has a right, how- press the insurrection and restore the ever, to use the voluntary service of authority of the Government. If it slaves liberated by war from their rebel shall be found that the men who have masters, like any other property of the been held by the rebels as slaves are rebels, in whatever mode may be most capable of bearing arms and performing efficient for the defense of the Govern- efficient military service, it is the right, ment, the prosecution of the war, and and may become the duty, of the Govthe suppression of the rebellion. It is ernment to arm and equip them, and as clearly a right of the Government to employ their services against the rebels, arm slaves when it may become neces- under proper military regulation, discisary as it is to use gunpowder taken pline, and command. But in whatever from the enemy. Whether it is expedi- manner they may be used by the Govent to do so is purely a military question. ernment, it is plain that, once liberated The right is unquestionable by the laws by the rebellious act of their masters, of war. The expediency must be de- they should never again be restored to termined by circumstances, keeping in bondage. By the master's treason and view the great object of overcoming the rebellion he forfeits all right to the labor rebels, reëstablishing the laws, and re- and service of his slave; and the slave storing peace to the nation. It is vain of the rebellious master, by his service and idle for the Government to carry on to the Government, becomes justly enthis war, or hope to maintain its exist- titled to freedom and protection. The ence against rebellious force, without em- disposition to be made of the slaves of ploying all the rights and powers of war. rebels, after the close of the war, can be As has been said, the right to deprive safely left to the wisdom and patriotism the rebels of their property in slaves and of Congress. The Representatives of slave labor, is as clear and absolute, as the People will unquestionably secure the right to take forage from the field, or to the loyal slaveholders every right to cotton from the warehouse, or powder which they are entitled under the Conand arms from the magazine. To leave stitution of the country." the enemy in the possession of such property as forage and cotton and military stores, and the means of constantly reproducing them, would be madness. It is, therefore, equal madness to leave them in peaceful and secure possession of slave property, more valuable and efficient to them for war, than forage, cotton, and military stores. Such policy would be national suicide. What to do with that species property, is a question

Before, however, reaching Congress, this important exposition of the rights and duties of war, as they presented themselves to the busy intelligence of the Secretary, underwent a very considerable modification. Congress was to meet on Monday the 2d of December. On Saturday the Secretary presented his Report to the President, and on Sunday afternoon mailed it, according to custom, on the day preceding the reading of the

Navy :-" In the coastwise and blockading duties of the navy it has been not unfrequent that fugitives from insurrectionary places have sought our ships for refuge and protection, and our naval commanders have applied to me for instruction as to the proper disposition which should be made of such refugees. My answer has been that, if insurgents, they should be handed over to the cus

contrary, they were free from any voluntary participation in the rebellion and sought the shelter and protection of our flag, then they should be cared for and employed in some useful manner, and might be enlisted to serve on our public vessels or in our navy yards, receiving wages for their labor. If such employment could not be furnished to all by the navy, they might be referred to the army, and if no employment could be found for them in the public service, they should be allowed to proceed freely and peaceably without restraint to seek a livelihood in any loyal portion of the country. This I have considered to be the whole required duty, in the premises, of our naval officers."

Message it was to accompany to the principal papers of the North and West. The President, on reading the Report, thought that the Secretary had outrun discretion in offering his suggestion or recommendation; premature at least, in regard to the military use of the negroes. He accordingly sent for the Secretary and required the suppression of the obnoxious passage. This Mr. Cameron refused to do, whereupon the President re-tody of the Government; but if, on the solved to strike out all relating to the emancipation and arming of the slaves, which he did, retaining the few following sentences only:"It is already a grave question what shall be done with those slaves who are abandoned by their owners on the advance of our troops into Southern territory, as at Beaufort district in South Carolina. The number left within our control at that point is very considerable, and similar cases will probably occur. What shall be done with them? Can we afford to send them forward to their masters, to be by them armed against us, or used in producing supplies to maintain the rebellion? Their labor may be useful to us; withheld from the enemy it lessens his military resources, and withholding them has no tendency to induce the horrors of insurrection, even in the rebel communities. They constitute a military resource, and being such, that they should not be turned over to the enemy is too plain to discuss. Why deprive him of supplies by a blockade, and voluntarily give him men to produce supplies?" The two harmless concluding sentences as to the disposition of the slaves by Congress were left untouched.

It was observed that while this delicacy was shown in the suppression of the suggestions of the Secretary of War, a similar recommendation of the disposition and employment of the fugitive negroes in the naval service, in the report of the Secretary, Mr. Welles, was suffered to pass unquestioned. This was the language of the Secretary of the

Mr. Welles' report exhibited an activity in his Department proportioned to that displayed in the military service. To the 76 vessels of all ranks composing the Navy at the time of his entrance upon office, 136 vessels mounting 518 guns, more than half of them steam vessels, had been added by purchase, while 14 screw sloops, 23 gunboats, 12 sidewheel, and 3 iron-clad steamers, carrying in all 256 guns, were in process of construction. All of the fifty-two new vessels ordered to be built were steamers, the Secretary pronouncing "steam as well as heavy ordinance an indispensable element of the most efficient naval power." The number of seamen in the service had increased three fold. It was in March, as we have stated, 7,600; it was now not less than 22,000.

The work before the Department in

the employment of the force at hand had The report of the Secretary of the embraced three distinct lines of naval Treasury-delayed for a short time beoperations—namely, the blockade, the yond the onening of Congress-was anxfitting out of special expeditions, and iously looked for. In his previous rethe pursuit of piratical cruisers on the port, at the July session, he had calcuhigh seas. The first required "the clos-lated from the estimates of the several ing of all the insurgent ports along the departments, upon an expenditure for coast line of nearly 3,000 miles, in the the year beginning June, 1861, of about form and under the exacting regulations three hundred and eighteen and a half of an international blockade, including millions, eighty millions of which he exthe naval occupation and defence of the pected to receive from the income of the Potomac river, from its mouth to the year and the remainder by a series of Federal Capital, as the boundary line loans.* between Maryland and Virginia, and Comparing the income realized with also the main commercial avenue to the that expected from Custom-house duties principal base of our military opera- the Secretary found a considerable detions." The difficulty of guarding the ficiency. He had calculated in the preshallow waters of the coast, with the in-vious June upon an income for the year ner channels of communication, and the from this source of fifty-seven millions. energy of the Confederates in endeavor- The returns for the first quarter showed ing to supply their wants from abroad, that the aggregate for the year would were admitted. The task, however, had not greatly exceed thirty-two millions, been faithfully pursued and with no in- The duties imposed by Congress had considerable degree of success, one hun- | been lighter than he had recommended, dred and fifty-three vessels having been and he found "another and perhaps captured sailing under various flags, most more potential cause of reduced receipts of them while attempting to violate the in the changed circumstances of the blockade. Something was expected from country, which have proved, even bethe "stone fleet," or vessels laden with yond anticipation, unfavorable to foreign stone, sunk at Ocracoke Inlet and off the commerce." More than half a million harbor of Charleston, as "the most eco- was to be deducted from the estimate of nomical and satisfactory method of in- the land receipts. Including the direct terdicting commerce at those points." tax imposed upon the States of twenty The command of Flag-Officer Stringham millions, the aggregate of revenue from on the Atlantic Coast had been divided. all sources for the year might be estiCaptain Louis M. Goldsborough having mated at about fifty-four and a half milbeen appointed to guard the shores of lions, about twenty-five and a half milVirginia and North Carolina, while the lions less than the estimate of July. residue of the Southern Coast was in- The system of loans and issue of Treastrusted to Captain Dupont. Captain Mc-ury notes recommended in the SecreKean had succeeded Captain Mervine in the command of the Gulf Squadron. Due honor was paid the achievements at Hatteras and Port Royal; Captain Wilkes was handsomely complimented for his seizure of the Ambassadors, and generally the "intrepidity, courage and loyalty of our naval officers, soldiers, and marines" were pronounced "never more marked than in this rebellion."

tary's previous report, or adopted by Congress, had thus far yielded to the Government about one hundred and ninety-seven and a quarter millions of dollars, the loans having been chiefly negotiated through the banking institutions of the Atlantic cities without the contemplated appeal to European capitalists. The calculations for the year

* Ante. vol. i. p. 361-3.

had been originally made on an estimate demands of the nation during the war, of a quarter of a million of volunteers new loans would of course be required. in the field and a regular army of about In endeavoring to solve the problem of fifty thousand; but as this number had" obtaining the necessary means without been so greatly increased by the order unnecessary cost," the Secretary, lookof Congress, additional appropriations ing at the vast aggregate paper currency were of course necessary to meet the of the country, devised a plan for makexpenditures. Two hundred millions ing this, which was in reality "a loan were asked for to meet the deficiency without interest from the people to the -making the outlay for the year, from banks," directly available to the wants June, 1861, to June, 1862, about five of the national government. In fact he hundred and forty-three and a half mil- was disposed to consider the issue of lions. bank notes by local institutions under To meet or facilitate the collection of State laws as prohibited by the Constituthis sum the Secretary enjoined re- tion; while the authority certainly betrenchment and reform with a rigorous longed to Congress "under its powers to system of responsibility in the national lay taxes, to regulate commerce, and to expenditure, justly representing that any regulate the value of coin, to control the saving effected in this way would be credit circulation which enters so largely "worth more in beneficial effect and in-into the transactions of commerce and fluence than the easiest acquisition of affects in so many ways the value of equal sums even without cost or liability coin." There were two methods, it was to repayment." He renewed his pre- urged, by which the end proposed might vious suggestion that the property of be attained,-one by the withdrawal of rebels both in the loyal and insurgent the notes of private corporations and States should be made to pay, in part at the issue in their stead of United States least, the cost of the rebellion. Rights notes, payable in coin on demand; the to services," he added, "under State other contemplating "the preparation laws, must, of necessity, form an excep- and delivery, to institutions and association to any rule of confiscation. Per- tions, of notes prepared for circulation sons held by rebels under such laws, to under national direction, and to be seservice as slaves, may, however, be just-cured as to prompt convertibility into coin ly liberated from their constraint and by the pledge of United States bonds made more valuable in various employ- and other needful regulations." The scments, through voluntary and compen-cond plan was recommended as the more sated service, than if confiscated as advantageous. It would provide a sound, subjects of property." Provision by direct taxation to the amount of fifty millions, in addition to forty millions expected from customs, was recommended to supply an adequate sum for ordinary expenditures, the payment of interest on the public debt, and for a sinking fund for the gradual extinction of the principal. This would require special taxes on stills, distilled liquors, tobacco, bank notes, carriages, legacies, paper evidences of debt, and instruments for conveyance of property and other like subjects of taxation. For the rapidly increasing

แ

convenient, uniform currency, in place of a very defective one in many instances, and it would promote the security of the Union by the distribution of the national stocks throughout the country. The notes thus issued should be receivable for all government dues except customs, which would be still payable in gold. This scheme, if carried out, would contribute at once one hundred and fifty millions, the estimated amount of bank circulation in the loyal States, to the national relief.

Included in Mr. Chase's report was a