| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journal of the Confederate Congress --FRIDAY, May 17, 1861.
OPEN SESSION.
Congress met pursuant to adjournment.
Prayer being offered,
The Chair laid before Congress a report and certain resolutions on the state of the country from the Southern Baptist Convention.
Page 237 | Page image
On motion of Mr. Cobb, they were ordered to be entered at large on the Journal, and are as follows:
Savannah, Ga., May 14, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb,
President of the Congress, C. S. A., Montgomery, Ala.
Sir: Herewith I beg leave to submit to you the report and resolutions adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention, on Monday, 13th instant.
I am instructed to request you to lay this document before the honorable body over which you preside.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
WM. CAREY CRANE,
Senior Secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Report of committee on the state of the country.
We hold this truth to be self-evident--that governments are established for the security, prosperity, and happiness of the people. When, therefore, any government is perverted from its proper design, becomes oppressive, and abuses its power, the people have a right to change it.
As to the States once combined upon this continent, it is now manifest that they can no longer live together in one confederacy. The Union constituted by our forefathers was one of coequal, sovereign States. The fanatical spirit of the North has long been seeking to deprive us of rights and franchises guaranteed by the Constitution, and after years of persistent aggression they have at last accomplished their purpose.
In vindication of their sacred rights and honor, in self-defense, and for the protection of all which is dear to man, the Southern States have practically asserted the right of seceding from a union so degenerated from that established by the Constitution, and they have formed for themselves a Government based upon the principles of the original compact, adopting a charter which secures to each State its sovereign rights and principles.
This new Government, in thus dissolving former political connections, seeks to cultivate relations of amity and good will with its late confederates and with all the world; and they have thrice sent commissioners to Washington with overtures for peace and for a fair, amicable adjustment of all difficulties.
The Government at Washington has insultingly repelled these reasonable proposals and now insists upon devastating our land with fire and sword; upon letting loose hordes of armed soldiery to pillage and desolate the entire South, for the purpose of forcing the seceded States back into unnatural union or of subjugating them and holding them as conquered provinces.
While the two sections of the land are thus arrayed against each other, it might naturally have been hoped that at least the churches of the North would interpose and protest against this appeal to the sword, this invoking of civil war, this deluging the whole land in fratricidal blood; but with astonishment and grief we find churches and pastors at the North breathing out slaughter and clamoring for sanguinary hostilities with a fierceness which we would have supposed impossible among the disciples of the Prince of Peace.
In view of such premises this convention can not keep silence. Recognizing the necessity that the whole moral influence of the people, in whatever capacity or organization, should be enlisted in aid of the rulers who by their suffrages have been called to defend the endangered interests of person and property, of honor and of liberty, it is bound to utter its voice distinctly, decidedly, emphatically. And your committee recommend, therefore, the subjoined resolutions:
Page 238 | Page image
but in contributing to the progress of the transcendent kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Committee.
A true copy, as adopted May 13, 1861, at the city of Savannah, Ga.
RICHARD FULLER, President.
Secretaries.
Mr. Ochiltree presented a memorial relative to the Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company, petitioning for aid, etc.; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
Page 239 | Page image
Mr. Conrad presented a claim in favor of Jacob Barker against the United States Government; which was referred to the Committee on Claims.
Mr. Conrad introduced
A bill to exempt from duty certain cars purchased by the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company and the New Orleans City Railroad Company;
which, together with certain papers from the said railroad companies, was referred to the Committee on Finance.
Congress then proceeded to the consideration of the unfinished business, viz:
A bill to establish a patent office, and to provide for the granting and issuance of patents for new and useful discoveries, inventions, improvements, and designs.
The question pending at the adjournment yesterday, on the motion of Mr. Barry to strike out and insert, the same was lost.
The question then recurring on the motion of Mr. Smith to amend by striking out, the same was agreed to.
On motion of Mr. Withers, the section was further amended by adding at the end of the first sentence the following: "Provided, [That] such assignment was made prior to the fourth of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-one."
On motion of Mr. Brooke, the section was further amended by adding at the end of the amendment adopted on the motion of Mr. Withers the following:
Provided, [That] nothing contained in this act shall be construed to recognize any renewal of a patent by the United States heretofore made.
On motion of Mr. Brooke, the section was also amended by inserting after the word "patents," when it first occurs in the last proviso, the words "or the deed of assignment therefor."
The section as amended is as follows:
That all patents heretofore granted and issued by the United States to any person or persons now a citizens of either of the States of this Confederacy, or of the States of North Carolina, Tennessee, or Arkansas, or now held by assignment by any such citizen or citizens, shall continue in force for the term for which they were issued yet unexpired, and if assigned in part only to any citizen of this Confederacy, or of the States aforesaid, shall continue in force for such part: Provided, [That] such assignment was made prior to the fourth February, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one: Provided, [That] nothing contained in this act shall be construed to recognize any renewal of a patent by the United States heretofore made: Provided, That patents, or the deed of assignment therefor, provided for in this section shall be recorded in the Patent Office of the Confederate States, and there also shall be deposited in said office such models or descriptive drawings as may be necessary to identify and explain the subject-matter of said patents; and all persons claiming the benefit of this section shall pay to the Commissioner of Patents the sum of twenty dollars, for the use of the patent fund; unless such patents are so filed for record, with such drawings or models as aforesaid, within nine months from the date of publication of this act, they shall be considered as abandoned and shall be null and void. And it shall be the duty of the Commissioner to indorse on each patent so filed for record the date of such filing, and also a certificate under the seal of his office that said patent has been recorded, which certificate shall be evidence of the fact in any court of justice, whether of the State or of the Confederacy, and of the rights of the owner thereof to use said patent; and such patents shall, after they are recorded, be returned to the owner thereof.
The last section of the bill being as follows:
That if any citizen of this Confederacy should at the close of the war now existing between this Confederacy and the United States of America be in the use or exercise of any patent rights belonging in whole or in part to an alien enemy or enemies, or
Page 240 | Page image
engaged in the manufacture of any article or fabric by machinery or composition covered and protected by any such rights, such citizen or citizens shall have the right to continue such use and manufacture notwithstanding such patent may be recorded as hereinbefore provided for: Provided, That the citizens of the slaveholding States of the United States shall not be considered as alien enemies within the meaning of this act so long as their respective States shall refuse to assist said United States in its war against this Confederacy with troops, provisions, or munitions of war; and any citizen of any such slaveholding States desiring to avail himself of the privileges of this act during said war shall, with his application, file an affidavit or statement in writing, under oath, admitting the independence of this Confederacy and disclaiming all sympathy with the said United States in their war aforesaid.
On motion of Mr. Brooke, the same was stricken out.
On motion of Mr. Brooke, at the instance of the State of Mississippi, the vote by which the thirty-seventh section, on his motion, was amended was reconsidered.
Mr. Brooke then modified his amendment so as to make the salaries of examiners $2,000 instead of $1,800 per annum.
And the amendment as modified was agreed to.
Mr. Hemphill, for the State of Texas, moved to reconsider the vote by which his motion to amend the thirteenth section on yesterday was lost, and thereon Mr. Hale demanded the question.
The demand was sustained, and the motion to reconsider prevailed.
The question being on the motion of Mr. Hemphill to strike out, by unanimous consent the motion to strike out was so modified as to include the whole section.
Mr. Hale demanded the question; which was seconded, and the section was stricken out;
And Mr. Miles, at the instance of the State of South Carolina, required the yeas and nays of the entire body; which were taken, and recorded as follows:
Mr. Jones, for the State of Alabama, moved to reconsider the vote by which the thirty-second section, on motion of Mr. Cobb, was amended.
Mr. Brooke thereon demanded the question; which was seconded, and the motion to reconsider was lost.
The twenty-eighth section, which was informally passed over, and which was reported as follows:
Page 241 | Page image
On motion of Mr. Cobb, the same was stricken out and the following inserted in lieu thereof, to wit:
All applications by aliens to obtain patents for inventions which have already been patented in foreign countries shall be made within six months from the date of such foreign letters patent. Nor shall letters patent be granted to any alien whose government is at war with the Confederate States.
On motion of Mr. Hemphill, the bill was amended by the following additional section, viz:
Be it further enacted, That in case the original inventor or discoverer of the art, machine, or improvement for which a patent is solicited is a slave, the master of such slave may take an oath that the said slave was the original inventor, and on complying with the requisites of the law shall receive a patent for said discovery or invention and have all the rights to which a patentee is entitled by law.
On motion of Mr. Brooke, the following was adopted as the last section, to wit:
Be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
The bill as amended was then engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
Congress then went into secret session; and after remaining some time therein, adjourned until 11 o'clock to-morrow.
SECRET SESSION.
Congress having resolved itself in secret session,
A message was received from the President that he had approved and signed
An act to provide for auditing the accounts of the Post-Office Department;
An act to increase the military establishment of the Confederate States and to amend the act for the establishment and organization of the Army of the Confederate States of America;
An act to provide a compensation for the disbursing officers of the several Executive Departments;
A resolution in relation to marine hospitals;
An act to amend an act entitled "An act to provide for the appointment of chaplains to the Army," approved May 3, 1861;
[An act to authorize the President to continue the appointments made by him in the military and naval service during the recess of Congress or the present session, and to submit them to Congress at its next session; and
An act to authorize a loan and the issue of Treasury notes, and to prescribe the punishment for forging the same, and for forging certificates of stock and bonds.]
Mr. Shorter, from the Committee on Engrossment, reported as correctly engrossed and enrolled
An act to admit the State of North Carolina into the Confederacy on a certain condition; and
A resolution relating to the adjournment of Congress.
The Chair laid before Congress two messages from the President submitting estimates for appropriations made by the Postmaster-General; which were referred to the Committee of Finance.
Page 242 | Page image
Congress then proceeded to the consideration of the special order, viz:
A bill to provide revenue from commodities imported from foreign countries.
The bill as modified by the committee during its recommittal was substituted for the original bill.
Mr. Rhett moved that the bill be engrossed for a third reading and thereon called the question.
On the question of seconding the demand, Mr. Cobb, at the instance of the State of Georgia, required the yeas and nays of the entire body; which were taken, and recorded as follows:
The demand was sustained.
Mr. Brooke, for the State of Mississippi, moved to reconsider the vote just taken by which the demand for the question was seconded.
The motion was lost.
The bill was then engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
A message was received from the President that he had approved and signed
An act to admit the State of North Carolina into the Confederacy on a certain condition.
Mr. Shorter reported as correctly engrossed and enrolled
A resolution in relation to imports from the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas;
An act to admit the State of Tennessee into the Confederacy on a certain condition;
An act to authorize the extension of the mail service of the Confederate States in certain cases and upon certain conditions;
An act to establish a mail route from Vermillionville, in the State of Louisiana, to Orange, in the State of Texas, and for other purposes; and
An act to provide an additional company of sappers and bombardiers for the Army.
The following message was received from the President:
Montgomery, Ala., May 17, 1861.
To the Congress of the Confederate States.
Gentlemen: I have this day received your resolution providing for the adjournment of Congress, "to meet again at Richmond on the twentieth day of July next," etc., and have the honor to return it to you with a statement of my objections.
Page 243 | Page image
By the third clause of the sixth article of the Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America it was enacted that "until otherwise provided by the Congress, the city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, shall be the seat of government."
There is no provision in the resolution before me to remove the seat of government, and hence it follows that the office of the Executive and those of the Executive Departments of the Government must remain at the city of Montgomery.
Though there is no specific requirement that the Congress should assemble at the seat of government, the obvious necessity for its doing so will require extraordinary circumstances to justify the holding of a session of Congress at a place remote from that where the Executive Departments are located. Great embarrassment and probable detriment to the public service must result from the want of cointelligence between the coordinate branches of the Government incident to such separation. The estimates on which appropriations can alone be made not unfrequently require explanation, which, under such circumstances, could not well be made.
Members of the Cabinet who are also members of the Congress must of necessity be prevented from performing one duty or the other.
With these views, deferentially and most respectfully submitted, I have the honor to return the resolution for such further action as the Congress may, in its wisdom, deem it proper to adopt.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Mr. Rhett moved that the reconsideration of the resolution returned by the President with his objections lie over until to-morrow 12 o'clock and be made the special order for that hour.
The motion was lost.
The question then being on agreeing to the resolution, Mr. Walker, at the instance of the State of Alabama, demanded the yeas and nays of the entire body; which were taken, and are recorded as follows, viz:
The constitutional majority of two-thirds not being in favor of the resolution, the same was lost.
A message was received from the President that he had approved and signed
A resolution in relation to imports from the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas;
An act to admit the State of Tennessee into the Confederacy on a certain condition;
An act to establish a mail route from Vermillionville, in the State of Louisiana, to Orange, in the State of Texas, and for other purposes; and
An act to provide an additional company of sappers and bombardiers for the Army.
Page 244 | Page image
Mr. Rhett offered the following resolution; which was agreed to, viz:
Resolved, That the injunction of secrecy shall be removed from all acts signed by the President as soon as the same are returned to this House, unless the House determine otherwise.
Congress then proceeded to the consideration of the bill for the protection of certain Indian tribes.
The bill was considered by sections, and motion of Mr. Keitt the same was amended by the following additional sections, viz:
The bill as amended was engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
Mr. Conrad introduced
A bill to change the seat of government;
which was read the first and second times and placed on the Calendar.
On motion of Mr. Withers,
Congress adjourned until 11 o'clock to-morrow.
PREVIOUS SECTION .. NEXT SECTION .. NAVIGATOR
| PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |