The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-30 00:00:00

OF THE Cost EDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.

When informo lon Thursday last that it was the
intention of Cot tgress to adjourn sine die on the
ensuing Satur lay -, I deemed it my duty to request
a postponeme) it of the adjournment, in order that I
might submit for your consideration certain matters
of public int, nest which are now laid before you.
When that rc quest was made the most important
measures that had occupied your attention during
the session had been so far advanced as to be sub-
mitted for executive action, and the state of the
country had been so materially affected by the events
of the last four months as to evince the necessity of
further and MOW energetic legislation than was con-
templated in November last.
Our country is now environed with perils which
it is our duty calmly to contemplate. Thus alone
can the measur la necessary to avert threatened
calamities be wisely devised and efficiently enforced.
Recent military operations of the enemy have
been successful in the capture of some of our sea-
ports, and in devastating large districts of our
country. These events have had the natural effect
of encouraging our foes and discouraging many of
our people. The capital of the Confederate States
is now threatened, and it is in greater danger than
it has heretofore been during the war. The fact is
stated without reserve or concealment, as due to the
people, whose servants we are, and in whose courage
and constancy entire trust is reposed ; as due to you,
in whose wisdom and resolute spirit the people have
confided for the adoption of the measures required
to guard them from threatened perils.
While stating to you that our country is in
danger, I -also desire to state my deliberate con-
viction that it is within our power to avert
the calamities which menace us, and to secure
the triumph of the sacred cause for which so
much sacrifice has been made, so much suf-
fering endured, so many lives have been lost. This
result is to be obtained by fortitude, by courage, by
constancy in enduring the sacrifices still needed—in
a word by the prompt and resolute devotion of the
whole resources of men and money in the Confede-
racy to the achievement of our liberties and inde-
pendence.

The measures now required to be successful should
be prompt. Long deliberation and protracted debate
over important measures are not only natural, but
laudable, in representative assemblies under ordinary
circumstances ; but in moments of danger, when
action becomes urgent, the delay thus caused is itself
a new source of peril. Thus it has unfortunately
happened that some of the measures passed by you
in pursuance of the recommendations contained in
my message of November last have been so retarded
as to lose much of their value, or have, for the same
reason, been abandoned after being matured, be-
cause no longer applicable to our altered condition,
and others have not been brought under examina-
tion. In making these remarks, it is far from my
intention to attribute the loss of time to any other
causes than those inherent in deliberative assemblies,
but only urgently to recommend prompt action on
the measures now submitted.

We need for carrying on the war successfully
men and supplies for the army. We have both
within our country sufficient to attain success.
To obtain the supplies it is necessary to protect
productive districts, guard our lines of communica-
tions by an increase in the number of our forces,
and hence it results that with large augmentations
in the number of men in the army, the facility of
supplying the troops would be greater than with
our recent reduced strength.
For the purchase of supplies now required, espe-
cially for the armies in Virginia and North Caro-
lina, the treasury must be provided with means, and
a modification of the Impressment law is required.
It has been ascertained by examination that we have
within our reach a sufficiency of what is most needed
for the army, and without having recourse to the
ample provision existing in those parts of the Con-
federacy with which our communication has been
partially interrupted by hostile operations. But
in some districts from which supplies are to be
drawn, the inhabitants, being either within the
enemy's lines or in very close proximity, are unable
to make use of Confederate Treasury notes for the
purchase of articles of prime necessity, and it is
necessary that, to some extent, coin be paid in order
to obtain supplies. It is therefore recommended
that Congress devise the means of making available
the coin within the confederacy for the purpose of
supplying the army. The officers of the supply de-
partments report that with two millions of dollars
in coin the armies of Virginia and North Carolina
can be amply supplied for the remainder of the year,
and the knowledge of this fact should suffice to in-
sure the adoption of the measures necessary to
'obtain this moderate sum.

The impressment law as it now exists prohibits
the public officers from impressing supplies without
making payment of the valuation at the time of im-
pressment. The limit fixed for the issue of Treasury
notes has been nearly reached, and the Treasury
cannot always furnish the funds necessary for
prompt payment, while the law for raising revenues
which would have afforded means for diminishing,
if not removing this difficulty, was unfortunately
delayed for several months, and has just been
signed. In this condition of things it is impossible
to supply the army, although ample stores may exist
in the country. Whenever the owners refuse to give
credit to the public officer it is necessary that this
restriction on the power of impressment be removed.
The power is admitted to be objectionable, liable to
abuse, and unequal in its operation on individuals;
yet all these objections must yield to absolute ne-
cessity. It is also suggested that the system of
valuation now established ought to be radically
changed. The legislation requires in such cases of
impressment that the market price be paid ; but
there is really no market price in many cases, and
then valuation is made arbitrarily and in a depre-
ciated currency. The result is that the most extra-
vagant prices are fixed, such as no one ever expects
to be paid in coin. None believe that the Govern-
ment can ever redeem in coin the obligation to pay
50 dollars a bushel for corn or seven hundred dol-
lars a barrel for flour. It would seem to be more
just and appropriate to estimate the supplies im-
pressed at their value in coin—to give the obligation
of the Government for the payment of the price in
coin with reasonable interest, or at the option of the
creditor, to return in kind the wheat or corn im-
pressed, with a reasonable interest, also payable in
kind, and to make the obligations thus issued re-
ceivable for all payments due herein to the Govern-
ment. Whatever be the value attached by Congress
to these suggestions, it is hoped that there will be
no hesitation in so changing the law as to render it
possible to supply the army in case of necessity by
the impressment of provisions for that purpose.
The measure adopted to raise revenue, though
liberal in its provisions, being clearly inadequate to
meet the arrears of debt and the current expendi-
tures, some degree of embarrassment in the manage-
ment of the finances must continue to be felt. It is
to be regretted, I think, that the recommendation of
the Secretary of the Treasury of a tax on agricul-
tural income equal to the argaimented tax on other
incomes, payable in Treasury notes, was rejected by
Congress. This tax would have contributed mate-
rially to facilitate the purchase of provisions and
diminish the necessity now felt for a supply of coin.
The measures passed by Congress during the ses-
sion for recruiting the army and supplying the addi-
tional force needed for the public defence, have been,
in my judgment insufficient,and I am impelled by a
profound conviction of duty, and stimulated by a
sense of the perils which surround our country, to
urge upon you additional legislation on this subject.
negroes as soldiers has not
The bill for employing
yet reached me, though the printed journals of your
proceedings inform me of its passage. Much benefit
is anticipated from this measure, though farless than
would have resulted from its adoption at an earlier
date, so as to afford time for their organisation and
instruction during the winter months.
The bill for diminishing the number of exempts
has just been made the subject of a special message,
and its provisions are such as would add no strength
to the army. The recommendation to abolish all

class exemptions has not met your favour, although
still deemed by me a valuable and important mea-
sure ; and the- number of men exempted by a new
clause in the act just passed is believed to be quite
equal to that of those whose exemption is revoked.
A law of a few lines repealing all exemptions would
not only strengthen the forces in the field, but be
still more beneficial by abating the natural discon-
tent and jealousy created in the army by the exist-
ence of classes privileged by law to remain in places
of safety while their fellow-citizens are exposed in
the trenches and the field.

The measure most needed, however, at the present
time, for affording an effective increase to our mili-
tary strength, is a general militia law, such as the
constitution authorises Congress to pass, by grant-
ing to it power "to provide for organising, arming
and disciplining the militia, and for governing
such part of them as may be employed in the
service of the Confederate States," and the fur-
ther power "to provide for calling forth the
militia to execute the laws of the Confederate States,
suppress insurrections, and repel invasions." The ne-
cessity for the exercise of this power can never exist
if not in the circumstances which now surround us.
The security of the States against any encroachment
by the Confederate Government is amply provided
by the constitution, by reserving to the States re-
spectively the appointment of the officers, and the
authority of training the militia, according to the
discipline prescribed by Congress.
A law is needed to prescribe not only how and of
what persons the militia are to be organised, but to
provide the mode of calling them out. If instances
be required to show the necessity for such a general
law, it is sufficient to mention that in one case I have
been informed by the Governor of a State that the
law does not permit him to call out the militia from
one country for service in another ; so that a single
brigade of the enemy could traverse the State, and
devastate each country in turn without any power
on the part of the Executive to use the military for
effective defence ; while in another State the Execu-
tive refused to allow the militia "to be employed in
the service of the Confederate States " in the absence
of a law for that purpose.
I have heretofore, in a confidential message to the
two houses, stated the facts which induced me to
consider it necessary that the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus should be suspended. The conviction
of the necessity of this measure has become deeper
as the events of the struggle should be developed.
Congress has not concurred with me in opinion. It
is my duty to say that the time has arrived when the
suspension of the writ is not simply advisable and
expedient, but almost indispensable to the successful
conduct of the war. On Congress must rest the re-
sponsibility of declining to exercise a power con-
ferred by the constitution as a means of publicsafety
to be used in periods of national peril resulting from
foreign invasion. If our present circumstances were
not such as were contemplated when this power was
conferred, I confess myself at a loss to imagine any
contingency in which the laws of the constitution
will not remain a dead letter.

With the prompt adoption of the measures above
recommended, and the united and hearty co-opera-
tion of Congress and the people in the execution of
the laws and the' defence of the country, we may
enter on the coming campaign with cheerful confi-
dence in the result. And who can doubt the con-
tinued existence of that spirit and fortitude of the
people, and of that constancy under reverses, which
alone are needed to render our triumph secure ?
What other resources remain available but the un-
dying, unconquerable resolve to be free ? It has
become certain beyond all doubt or question that we
must continue this struggle to a successful issue or
must make abject and unconditional submission to
such terms as it shall please the conqueror to impose
upon us after our surrender. If a possible doubt
could exist after the conference between our commis-
sioners and Mr. Lincoln, as recently reported to
you, it would be dispelled by a recent occurrence,
of which it is proper that you should be informed.
Congress will remember that in the conference
above referred to our commissioners were informed
that the Government of the United States would
not enter into any agreement or treaty whatever
with the Confederate States, nor with any single
State; and the only possible mode of obtaining'
peace was by laying down our arms, disbanding
our forces, and yielding unconditional obedience to
the laws of the United States, including those
passed for the confiscation of our property, and the
constitutional amendment for the abolition of
slavery. It will further b 3 remembered that Mr.
Lincoln declared that the only terms on which hos-
tilities could cease were those stated in his Message
of Dec. last, in which we were informed that in the
event of our penitent submission he would temper
justice with mercy, and that the question whether
we would be governed as dependent territories or
permitted to have a representation in their Con-
gress was one on which he could promise nothing,
but which would be decided by their Congress
after our submission had been accepted.
It has not, however, been hitherto stated to you
that in the course of the conference at Fortress
Monroe a suggestion was made by one of our com-
missioners that the objection entertained by Mr.
Lincoln to treating with the Government of the
Confederacy or with any separate State might be
avoided by substituting for the usual mode of
negotiating through commissioners or other diplo-
matic agents the method sometimes employed of a
military convention, to be entered into by the com-
manding generals of the two belligerents. This, he
admitted, was a power possessed by him, though it
was not thought commensurate with all the ques-
tions involved. As he did not accept the suggestion
when made he was afterwards requested to recon-
.ider his conclusion upon the subject of the suspen-
sion of hostilities, which he agreed to do, but said
that he had maturely considered of the plan, and had
determined that it could not be done.
Subsequently, however, an interview with Gene-
ral Longstreet was asked for by General Ord, com-
manding the enemy's Army of the James, during
which General Longstreet was informed by him
that there was a possibility of arriving at a satisfac-
tory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties
by means of a military convention, and that if Gene-
ral Lee desired an interview on the subject it would
not be declined, provided General Lee had autho-
rity to act. This communication was supposed to
be the consequence of the suggestion above referred
to, and General Lee, according to instructions,wrote
to General Grant on the 2d of this month, propos-
ing to meet him for conference on the subject, and
stating that he was vested with the requisite autho-
rity. General Grant's reply stated that he had no
authority to accede to the proposed conference;
that his powers extended only to making a conven-
tion on subjects purely of a military character, and
that General Ord could only have meant that an
interview would not be refused on any subject on
authegillit
which he (General Grant) had the right to act.
It thus appears that nengitoohrveetrhr the
thfe Confederatetheauthoritiesgenerals,any
United
States treat or make any terms or agreement what-
ever for the cessation of hostilities. There remains,
then,. for us no choice but to continue this contest
to a final issue ; for the people of the Confederacy
can be little known to him who supposes it possible
they would ever consent to purchase, at the cost
in a cost of
degradation and slavery, permission to h
country garrisoned by their own negroes , and go-
verned by officers sent by the conqueror to rule
over them.

Having thus fully placed before you the informa-
tion requisite to enable you to judge of the state of
the country, the dangers to which we are exposed,
and the measures of legislation needed for averting
them, it remains for me but to invoke your attention
to the consideration of those means by which, above
all others, we may hope to escape the calamities
that would result from our failure. Prominent above
all others is the necessity for earnest and cordial co-
operation between all departments of Government,
State and Confederate, and all eminent citizens
throughout the Confederacy. To you especially,
as Senators and Representatives, do the people look
for encouragement and counsel. To your action—
not only in legislative halls, but in your homes—
will their eyes be turned fot the example of what is
befitting men who by willing sacrifices on the altar
of freedom show that they were worthy to enjoy its