The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1862-05-07
Delivered In the Senate Of tho United States,
April 18th, Is62.

Delivered In the Senate Of the United States,
April lsah, Is6z.
The Senate resumed the consideration OF the
bill Is. No. 1917 to con6scate the property and
free the slaves Of rebels.
Mr.. HOWARD.-Ar. President, the great
purpose Of the present bill is easily compre.
hended, easily understood, easily stated. 1t
centemplates two classes Of persons who have
been or now are engaged in the present rebel.
lion against the Government: the FIRST composed
of such persons are absentees without the
United States, owning property within the Uni
ted 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 a. insurgents,
baving taken up arms against the Government
Of their country. The leading purpose Of the
bill il to declare forfeited and con6scated all the
property, real and personal, corporal and incor-
poreal, Of both these classes CT persons TO the
United States, it being assumed by the bill, and
being % declared, that both classes of persons
are beyond the reach Of the ordinary process Of
courts Of justice, and cannot be served there
with.
Il need not be denied, Mr.. President that this
bill, in the features to which have alluded, is
one Of novelty in this country. should rather
say, sir, and cay more correctly, that for some
eighty years past-thand Heaven and the good
people of the United States Of America in main
tanning free republican G0vernment-no occa-
zion has presented itself for exercising or enfor.
cling this description Of legislation. But We
must remember that We are living in novel times.
We must remember that not this country only,
but no country on the face Of the globe was ever
engaged in struggle like that which now delu.
ges the face of this country in blood. We must
contemplate the state Of things as it actually is.
Would that it we're different Would that these
horrible scenes we're not now upon US. Would
that they could be by some ingenuity Of man or
interposition Of Heaven avoided. But, sir, We
are bound as men and as patriots, az
lovers of the Government under which We live
We are bound by our oaths Of Office here We are
bound by our obligations as the guardians OF
free government and the sustainers Of this great
experiment at this trying moment, and for all fu
ture time, to come up to the work, and like men
do our duty and our whole duty.
The leading objection, aside from unconsitu-
tiOnalty, to the principle Of con6scaton asserted
in the biil aud earnestly pressed upon our atten.
| tion by its opponeDts, 10 that the practice ia
tainted with the crueties of past ages, is too an
tiquated and harsh to receive recognition in mod
ern wars, and has, in fact, been dropped from
the code of war among civilized nations. And
some gentlemen, in their zeal, and in order to
| stamp upon it the odium of standardization,
have asserted that the practice has not prevailed
since the conquest of England by William the
Norman, and that enlightened, civilized nations
| have refused to resort to it. If such
be the historical fact if the advocates of this
great measure, great in what it undertakes, great
in the mighty political and social renovation it
proposes to work in the insurgent States, great
in its teachings OF allegiance and loyalty to de-
luded portion of our cOuntrymen, greater in the
sa!utary and necessary retrbution it carries home
TO the enemies Of order, liberty, and free gov
ernment, and greatest in the protectioa and graf
ituJe il promises 20 thv faithful found among the
fa,thless in the bosom of the rebellion If. s.y,
| the advocates of this measure are departing from
high historical precsdents and endeavoring to
commit our Government to practice which will
| leave upon it stain of dishonor in the face of
the civilized world, surely We ought to pause.
Surely We ought never to incur such a stigma.
Though We all feel, al knew, that the provoca-
ton which has impelled us to take up arms is
wanton and wicked though the impartial pen
Of history must record the fact that the insur-
gents never suffereda . wrong at the hands of the
Government and had no ground whatever to ap-
prehend any; though their whole conduct from
the begiI ming has been marked with per6dies
and atrocities towards the Government and its
loyal supporters, unexampled even in the chron.
cles of civil war, yet, for the sake Of the great
principles Of humanity, for the sake of our own
good name and the future good name Of our be-
loved country, We must not yield to the impulses
even OF just resentment and suffer ourselves to
do that which may be indefeusible 10 the eyes Of
mankind.
Does, then, the practice of forfeiture and con
6scatiOn to the use Of the State as q means OF
carrying on war justly deserve the denunciations
it has received in this discussion? 10 it by the
usage of nations excluded as an instrument OF
modern warfare? IL it such q violation of the
rules of humanity a. to nave gone into disuse in
modern times?
do not 20 read history. On the contrary,
find it to be what it ever has been, an ordinary
form Of reprisals, means Of carrying on hostili.
ties ancient as the idea of property itself, re-
ceiving the practical sanction Of all ages from
the time when Nestor seized and carried off the
herds Of the Eleans to compel them topay theiI
debts, down to this very day. I find it recogniz
ed and sanctioned by the great teachers OF the
laws Of war, and by the most distinguished and
magnanimous heroes who have illustrated the ar,
Of war. As means of hostility, history show:
it to be as allowable ast the killing OF ourlenemie.
making them prisoners, or weakening them
and strengthening ourselves in any other man
ner.
The history Of the civil wars of England evel
since the Conquest has been marked by seizure.
and con6scations. The very rule Of the common
Law, BY which the commission of treason is fol
lowed by q forfeiture of real and personal estate
isa plain adoption Of the principle Of con6scatior
into the Law Of England; and though she nos
discards anothe: incident, the corruption o
blood, she would, apprehend, be the last na
tion on earth to reject the principle Of con6sca
tion in the prosecution Of her wars. Under thi
form Of carrying on war, and often as against thu
subjects vi rxtiOns with whom she was 1t peace
che has too often filed her treasury with tn,
gains acquired BY her expeditions, almost, if no
, wholly, worthy OF the name Of plunder and pi
racy too often has her navy seized upon neutra
commerce; too often have her privateers plum
dered the ocean, carrying home from the Spanisl
main the rich ingots from the mines Of Mexic'
and South America too often have her militar
. authorities violated all the humane rules Q
e modern war ir their treatment Of the enemy 4
allow her to crticse the practice of con6scatiOn
1t does hot lie in her mouth to school us or tn
r rest Of the world on this subject She must frs
II blot out frOm her history the precedents she ha
set in the seizure Of the church property unde
n Henry VIII, the terrible c0nfscations Of land
y and goods At the restoration of the dynasty O
the Stuaris, whose owners we're hung and qual
tered under the sentences of her Jeffreys an
a, Scroggs, or forced into exile by the restore
h tyrants the con6scatios OF the property Of man
d Of her cavaliers. Who aed to Virginia and els
4 where N avoid tha r,ikss n -ou and L;