The national Republican., 1861-10-12


lation of the Confederate Congress con6scating
property, by the recently published instruc
lions for carrying the same into practical effect
issued BY the Confederate Attorney General,
Mr.. BENJAMIN, late United States Senator from
Louisiana. and which will be found in another
column.
This legislation applies to many species Of
property, real, personal and Mixed to lands
slaves, bank, railroad, and insurance stocks,
and to debts of every description. whether
resting upon individual security only or pro-
tccted by liens, such a. mortgages or convey
lnces to trustees, as is commonly practiced in
the case Of railroad bonds.
1t is directed against the citizens OF all the
free States in the Union, against the ciizeus
If all the Territories Of the Union except the
Territory south of Kansas, New Mexico and
Arizona. and against such OF the citizens o.
those three Territories and Of the States OF
Missouri Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware.
as shall actually take up arms against the
Southern States The District Of Columbia is
put in the same category with the non seeded
.lave States.
This legislation against all the citizens Of
the free States, and against such of the citi
zens of the non-seceded slave States as shall
actually take up arms against the Southern
Confederacy, is construed by Mr.. Attorney
General Benjamin to include all persons, even
if not native or naturalzed, who actually carry
on traffic sni business within the States in.
tended to be punished, or who have a dom'c
within them. This construction brings within
h., nf lorr ,l,x
would otherwise escape it. This is specially
true of the city Of New York where SO much
Of the mercantile and other business is trans
acted by non-uaturalzed foreigners. Mr.. At
torney General Benjamin does not mean to le,
anything or anybody escape him.
This inclusion Of residents, not citizens, with
in the range OF copfiscation, follows the aualog,
of the same thing practiced in seizing prvat
property within an invaded country. in whic
case the property Of all demiciled persons i
trcated as the property of enemies. Bu
here is no precedent for euch confiscation a
the Southern Congress has provided for, and |
is not probable that England, France ant
other European Powers, whose subjects ma,
suffer spoliatons under it, will possibly sub
'y
lation calculated to predispose them to f.vo,
the Southern Confederacy.
1t will be seen, from this brief stateme ut
how vastly the Southern Congress has gon,
beyond the legislation of the Congress of tn,
United States upon the same subject.
The Congress of the United States has con
tisCated nothing except property actually use,
for the military purposes of the rebellion, o
property brought into the loyal portion of ii
Union in violation Of laws and proclamation
establishing uon-intercourse with the dsloya
portion.
There is no law Of the National Cougres:
under which any citizen of Virginia or Sout
Carolina, can be deprived Of any species of Pre-
pcrty, except by his own voluntary and per
gonal act. in appropriating such property t
the uses of the rebellion, or in carrying it int
the loyal States in contravention Of the exis
ing condition Of non-intercourse. Anybody u
the South may have bank balances in Ne'
York, or land and stocks anywhere in the ire
States. and there is no law which touches ihcl
in the least.
This contrast il most striking, between III
kind and considerate action of the nation,
Congress. Furnishing nobody, except for a PEI
sonal and voluntary act, and the reckles
sweeping barbarous and unprecedented legi
atiOn of the Southern Confederacy, as eA
pounded and construed by the renegade Je,
who presides 50 appropriately over its law de
partment
To what extent this Contiscatiug legislatiD
OF the Southern Confederacy can be made T.
iectivc, will depend upon its success in cstsl
fishing its independence The great mass
tho unsecured debts due from the Souther
people TO tie rest of mankind, are lost at II
events, not by confscation, but by bankruptc
1t is otherwise with land titles, with stock
and with debts secured by specific liens. A
Northern property Of those descriptions at III
South, and the aggregate is indefinitely larg,
will be saved harmless by a restoration of III
national authority over the seeded region.
IS otherwise hopelessly lost.
AN IMPORTANT ARTICLEF0R THE TROOP