The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-05-08
B1i0e .saf SPEECH a
HON. ]. NJ. HOWARD,
OF Michigan, on the COnfscatiOn of Prop
erty.--Delivered in the Senate of the
United States, April Is, 1862.

els, Mr. HOWARD SAID rfr-s9 ls.nH
Mr.. PREs1DENT:-The great pur-
, pose of the present bill is easily com
: prehended,y easily understood, easily
stated. 1t contcmplates two classes OF
persons who have been or now are en-
gagged in the present rebellion against
the Government the first composed
, of such persons as are absentees, with
out the United States, owning property
within the United States, the other is
that class of persons who are resident
within the United States, who own
property within the limits of the United
, States; and both classes are, by the
plain terms of the bill, described and
treated as insurgents, having taken up
arms against the Government of their
country. The leading purpose of the
bill is to declare forfeit and confiseate,
all the property, real and personal, cor
poreal and incorporeal, of both these
classes of persons, to the United States,
it being assumed by the bill, and being
so declared, that both classes of per-
sons are beyond the reach Of the ordi-
nary process of courts of justice and
canno: be served herewith.
1t need not be denied, Mr.. President,
that this bill, in the. features 10 which
l have alluded, is one of novelty III :his
country. should rather say, sir, and
say more correctly, that for some eighty
years past : thank Heaven and the
good people of the United States of
i America for maintaining free repub-
liean government-nO occasion has
presented itself for exercising or en-
forcing this description of legislation.
But we must remember we are living
in novel times. We must remember
that not this country only, but no coun-
try on the face of the globe, was ever
engaged in a struggle like that which
now dclnges the face of this country in
blood. We must contemplate the state
of things as it actually is. Would that
it were different. Would that these
" horrible scenes were not now upon us.
Would that they could be, by some
, ingenuity of man or interposition OF
Heaven, avoided. But, sir, we are
bound rs men and as patriots, as lovers
of the Government under which We
live; we are bound by our oaths of of.
! flee here; we are bound by our ol,liga
: tions as the guardians of free govern
, ment, and the sustainers of this grca,
cxperiment at this trying moment, and
for all future time, to come up to the
work, and like men do our duty and
our whrlc duty.
The leading objection, aside from
unconstitutionality, to the principle o.
: confiScatinn asserted in the bill, anG
a earnestly pressed upon the attention ot
, its opponents, is that the. practice is
tainted with the crucltics of past ages
is too antiquatcd and harsh to receive
= recognition in modern wars, and has
in fact, been dropped from the code o
war among civilized nations. And
some gentlemen, in their zeal, in orde.
to stamp upon it the odinm of semi
barbarism, have asserted that Tho
: practice has not prevailed since tht
conquest of England by William the
Norman, and that enlightened, civilized
i nations have refused to resort to it.
q such be the historical fact: if the al
vocatcs of this great measure-grea
in what it undertakes, great in th'
!. mighty political and social renovation
II it proposes to work in the insurgen
, States, great in the teachings OF allie
glance and loyalty to delnded portion
!, of our countrymen, greater III the salu
/, tary and necessary retributlon it car
= ries home to tho. enemies of order, lib
E. erty and free government. and creates
= in the protection and gratitude it prom
$, ises to the faithful found among til
r. laithless in the bosom of the rebellion
If, l say. the advocates of this meas
: ure, are departing from high historica
: precedents, and endeayoring to commi
: our Government To a-practices whic
> will leave npon it the state of dishono
!, e in the face of the civilized world, surcl
we ought to pause. Surely we ough
2 never to incur such stigma. Thoug
we all feel, all know, that the provoca
d ton which has impelled us to take NJ
ID arms is wanton and wicked I; thougl
'e the impartial pen of history must re
cord the fact that the insurgents neve
= suffered wrong at the hands of tn
, Government, and had no ground what
ever to apprehend any; though thei
: whole conduct from the beginning ha
y been marked by nerfdies and atrocitie
Il towards the Government and its loya
supporters, unexampled even in tn
chronicles of civil war, yet, for tn
) sake of the great principles of human
ity, for the sake of our own good nam
n and the future good name of onr be
/, loved country, We must not yield to tn
impulses even of a just resentment an
suffer ourselves to do that which ma
be indefensihle in the eyes of mankind
Il Does, then, the practice OF forfeltur
and confscation to the use of the State
as a means of carrying on the wa
Justly deserve, the .denunciation 1T ha
received in this discussion 1t is b
the usage of nations excluded as an u
strument of modern warfare? It.
. such violation of the rules OF human
, ity as to have gone into disuse IN moo
ern times
1 do not SO read history. On I'll
= contrary, find it to be what 1T ev'
has been, an ordinary form OF reprIsal
- Tmeans of carrying on hostilities
AZ ancient as the idea of property itsel
receiving the practical sanction of q
ages, from the time when Nestor seize
the and carried off the herds of the Kleal
}. 10 compel them to pay their debt