The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-07 00:00:00

Aim...
The Confederate Congress and President

Davis•

The Richmond Sentinel publishes the report of the
Senate Committee of the Confederate States on the
recent messages of President Davis. It was read
and adopted in secret session, and the seal of secrecy
removed on the 16th March. After discussing the
recommendations of the President, and his remarks
on the dilatory action of the Congress in respect of
them, which charge of dilatoriness the Committee
contest, the report speaks in the following terms
concerning the President's message on the subject
of exemptions :

The casual reader would infer that tho 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 plysicians of asylums for the deaf, dumb, and blind,
and of the insane ; one editor for each newspaper, and such
employ4s 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 Oct. 10, 1862 ; physicians over 30 years of age,
and for 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 ; certain agriculturists
or overseers. Officers of the State Government are not pro-
perly included among the exempted classes, because it is
conceded that Congress has no constitutional power
to conscribe them as soldiers. Nor are drunkards,
Quakers, or other non-combatants, regarded as be-
longing to class exemptions, because under the act of June
7, 1864, the exemption of these persons is subject to the
control of the Secretary of War. The exemption of agri-
culturists or overseers, between the ages of 18 and 45, 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been repealed at the present session.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 pas-
.. .. . .

sage of the act of Feb. 17, 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 em-
brace about 9,000 men, one third of whom are physicians,
and nearly another third aro ministers of the gospel ; the
remaining third is principally composed of teachers, pro-
fessors, printers and employes in newspaper offices, and
apothecaries.

After some further observations on this subject,
the report continues :
It is true that Congress has failed to respond to the re-
commendation 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 service
of the country all its able-bodied citizens between the
ages of 17 and 50. 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 17, and the men under 50 years of age. It
was deemed expedient to allow this material to remain
subject to the control of the 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 pas-
sage of a law suspending the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus. This recommendation was the subject of
a special message, in secret session. It occupied the atten-
tion of Congress for four or five weeks. After mature deli-
beration the measure was laid aside, as unimportant and
inexpedient. Spies can be arrested and tried summarily,
without suspending the writ of habeas corpus. Conspiracies,
tending in any manner to the injury of our cause, were pro-
vided for by special act passed at the present session, "to de-
fine and punish conspiracy against the Confederate States."
The states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi had
expressed through their Legislature great repugnance to
the past legislation of Congress suspending the writ, and a
large portion of the people throughout the country was
arrayed against the policy of that legislation. It was
deemed wise and prudent to conciliate opposition at a
time when dissensions were ruinous ; and as the benefits
to be derived from the suspension of the writ were con-
jectural, 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 fact 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.

The document concludes with the following
words :

Nothing is more desirable than concord and cordial co-
operation between all departments of Government. Hence
your. Committee regret that the Executive deemed it neces-
sary 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 now
engaged depends as much on the confidence of the people
in the legislative as in the executive departments of the
Government, the message would have been received with-
out 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 per-
mit its legitimate and constitutional influence to be de-
stroyed by executive admonitions, such as those contained
in the message under consideration, without some public
exposition of its conduct.