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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journal of the Confederate Congress --THIRD DAY--WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1864.
OPEN SESSION.
The House met pursuant to adjournment, and was opened with prayer by Rev. Dr. Duncan.
The Chair laid before the House a communication from the Hon. A. H. Garland, of Arkansas, late a member of the House, relative to his election to the Senate; which was read and laid upon the table.
Mr. Russell, under a suspension of the rules, offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the Speaker be authorized to assign to the committees of this House the members who have taken their seats since the organization of said committees.
The resolution was adopted.
Mr. Russell submitted the following resolution; which was adopted:
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary inquire into the expediency of increasing the compensation of marshals, jurors, and witnesses in the courts of the Confederate States.
Mr. Russell introduced
A bill "to provide means to carry on the war;"
which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Also, a bill "to lay an export duty on cotton, tobacco, and naval stores;" which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Also, a bill "to consolidate the public debt;" which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Mr. Goode presented the memorial of Caswell Turpin, praying compensation for the loss of a storehouse in the town of Liberty, Va., illegally impressed by the Confederate authorities and destroyed by the public enemy: which was referred to the Committee on Claims.
Mr. Goode offered the following resolution; which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of repealing so much of the act approved seventeenth of February, entitled "An act to organize forces to serve during the war," as exempts one person as overseer or agriculturist on each farm or plantation upon which there were upon the first day of January last fifteen able-bodied field hands between sixteen and fifty.
Mr. Gholson presented the memorial of Edwin Williams, praying compensation for crops destroyed by the troops of General Beauregard; which was referred to the Committee on Claims.
Mr. Gholson offered the following resolution; which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the Committee on Ways and Means, when they come to report a bill imposing taxes for the support of Government, etc., shall, if practicable, embrace the whole subject in a single act.
Mr. Wickham introduced
A bill "to amend an act to increase the efficiency of the. Army by the employment of free negroes and slaves in certain capacities, approved February seventeenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four;"
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which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
Mr. Baldwin offered the following resolution; which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary inquire and report whether it is competent for this House, by simple resolution, to establish at the public expense a newspaper for the publication of the proceedings eft the House.
Also, the following resolution; which was adopted:
Resolved, That the select committee appointed at the last session to make arrangements for reporting and publishing the debates and proceedings of this House be directed to report without delay all that has been done upon that subject.
Mr. Clopton offered the following resolution; which was adopted:
Resolved, That the President be requested to cause to be communicated to the House copies of all instructions now in force which have been issued to the assessors and collectors of taxes, both of the money tax and tax in kind.
Mr. Dickinson moved that the rules be suspended to enable him to offer the following resolution:
Resolved, That the memorials and papers in support of the various claims presented to the House at the last session, and which were not acted upon at that session, be withdrawn from the files and referred to the Committee on Claims.
The motion was lost.
Mr. Shewmake presented the petition of certain route agents of the Post-Office Department, asking an increase of pay; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Mr. Echols introduced
A bill "to explain the word 'family' as used in the fifth section of an act to amend the tax laws passed June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four;"
which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Mr. H. W. Bruce offered the following resolution; which was adopted:
Resolved, That the Committee on Ways and Means be instructed to inquire into the expediency of introducing a bill to make it necessary appropriation to pay for the horses of soldiers killed in battle.
Mr. Read offered the following resolution; which was adopted:
Resolved, That the Committee on Medical Affairs be instructed to inquire into the propriety of increasing the compensation now allowed to matrons of hospitals.
Mr. Moore offered the following resolution; which was adopted:
Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs inquire whether any further legislation be necessary to expedite the process of sending conscripts to the Army where they are found capable of duty in the field, and of sending them home where they are found unfit for duty, and that they report by bill such modification of existing laws as may he required to render more efficient the present system of putting troops into the Army.
Mr. Read offered the following resolution; which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the propriety of establishing a separate bureau from the Department of War, to be styled the Bureau of Conscription.
Mr. Villeré introduced
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A bill "to amend an act entitled 'An act to increase the efficiency of the Army by the employment of free negroes and slaves in certain capacities;'"
which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
Mr. Perkins introduced
A bill "to establish two judicial districts in the State of Louisiana;"
which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. Perkins offered the following resolution; which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the President of the Confederate States be requested to inform Congress whether the Honorable Howell Cobb, President of the late Provisional Congress, has complied with the act of seventeenth February, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, by which he was instructed to have prepared two copies of the Journal of the Provisional Congress and the proceedings of the convention which framed the Provisional and Permanent Constitutions of the Confederate States, one copy of which was to be deposited in the office of the Department of Justice; and if not, to communicate to Congress any information he may have as to the present state of the work; also whether the originals of the Journals and proceedings aforesaid have been sealed and deposited for preservation with the Secretary of State, in accordance with law.
Mr. Chambers offered the following resolution; which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be requested to inform this House what amount of claims from each State has been paid or allowed under the act of June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, to provide for the establishment and payment of claims for a certain description of property taken or informally impressed for the use of the Army.
Mr. Barksdale introduced
A bill "to amend the sequestration laws of the Confederate States;"
which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. Miles presented a communication from the Comptroller of the Treasury relative to compensation for horses; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
Mr. Miles introduced
A bill "to establish a general intelligence office;"
which was read a first and second time and referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
Mr. Swan offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the chairman of the Committee on Pay and Mileage be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to pay Mrs. Sarah A. Heiskell the pay and mileage already due or hereafter to accrue to J. B. Heiskell, while he may be held as a prisoner by the public enemy.
The resolution was referred to the Committee on Pay and Mileage.
Mr. Swan offered the following resolution; which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for the certain removal, to points within our military lines, of all able-bodied adult male negroes, as the necessities of the war may constrain the abandonment of territory to the enemy; and that the committee report by bill or otherwise.
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Mr. Foote offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the recommendation contained in the President's message, that Congress should vest in the military authorities power to detail such editors and needful employees of newspapers as they may consider proper for the conducting of said papers, and to put all others in the military service, is one which this House can by no means approve.
Mr. Barksdale moved that the resolution be referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
Mr. Foote demanded the yeas and nays thereon;
Which were ordered,
Yeas: Anderson, Baldwin, Barksdale, Batson, Blandford, Bradley, Eli M. Bruce, Horatio W. Bruce, Burnett, Chambers, Chilton, Chrisman, Clark, Clopton, Colyar, Conrow, Dickinson, Dupré, Echols, Ewing, Farrow, Funsten, Gaither, Gholson, Goode, Hatcher, Hilton, Holliday, Johnston, Kenner, Lester, Machen, Menees, Miles, Miller, Montague, Moore, Perkins, Read, Rives, Russell, Shewmake, Simpson, J. M. Smith, W. E. Smith, Snead, Staples, Swan, Triplett, Vest, Villeré, Welsh, Wickham, Wilkes, and Witherspoon.
Nays: Bell, Foote, Fuller, Garland, Gilmer, Hanly, J. M. Leach, J. T. Leach, Marshall, Murray, Orr, Ramsay, and Turner.
So the motion prevailed.
Mr. Russell, from the Committee on the Judiciary, to whom had been referred
A bill "granting seats on the floor of the House of Representatives to the principal officers in the Executive Departments,"
reported back the same with the recommendation that it do pass.
On motion of Mr. Russell, the consideration of the bill was postponed until Tuesday next, and made the special order after the morning hour.
On motion of Mr. Welsh, the House resolved itself into secret session; and having spent some time therein, resolved itself into open session.
On motion of Mr. Gaither,
The House adjourned until 12 o'clock to-morrow.
SECRET SESSION.
The House being in secret session,
The Chair laid before the House a communication from the President; which was read as follows, viz:
Richmond, Va., November 9. 1864.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit for your consideration a communication from the Secretary of War. showing that a dangerous conspiracy exists in some of the counties of southwestern Virginia, and in the neighboring portions of North Carolina and Tennessee, which it is found impracticable to suppress by the ordinary course of law. The facts are so fully exhibited by the report and accompanying papers, hereby submitted, that I consider it unnecessary to repeat them or to do more than invite your early attention to disclosures upon which I deem it my duty to recommend the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, in order that full efficiency may be given to the military power for the repression of the evil.
It may be proper here to add that, after the expiration of the term for which the writ was suspended, serious embarrassment was encountered, particularly
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at Mobile, Wilmington, and Richmond, on account of the inability of the military authorities to arrest and hold suspected persons against whom the testimony was sufficient to give full assurance that they were spies or holding treasonable communication with the enemy, though legal proof could not be adduced to secure their commitment and conviction by the courts, either because of the character of the evidence or of the necessity for concealing the sources of information, which were not unfrequently within the enemy's lines.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
On motion of Mr. Russell,
The message and accompanying documents were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
On motion of Mr. Swan,
The House resolved itself into open session.
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