, 1862-07-24
Speech Of Hon. Edgar Cowan,
On the ConfseatlOn Of Rebel Property.

ate bill No. 16l, to conhscate the property apd
free the slaves Of rebels, being before the Sem
ate
Mr.. Cowan said-Mr. President: agree with
the honorable Senator from California, and look
upon the bill now under consideration as the
must important, by far, upon our calendar, In
volvng the gravest questions and most muthen-
tous issues. II It passes, Ithink It will be the
great historic event Of the times--times which
are as fruitful Of events as any the world has
ever witnessed. Upon the disposition We may
make Of it, perhaps the fate Of the American Re.
public may depend and no one surely can over
rate the magnitude Of anything which may be
attended with such consequences.
We are standing now squarely face to tace
with questions Of most pregnant signiheance.
Shall we stand or iall by the Constitution, or
shall We leave It and adventure ourselves upon
the wide sea Of reVolutionf Shall we attempt
to liberate the slaves Of the people Of the rebel
lious States, or shall we leave them to regulate
their domestic institutions the same as before the
rebellion Shall we 60 back to the doctrine Of
forfeituFes which marked the middle ages, and
introduce feuds which intervening centuries
have not yet suliced to quietl These are great
questions, and they are 10 this bill, every one Of
them.
IT, for one moment, we can suppose the scheme
consummated which It contemplates, we shall
have the following results:
suppose it is reasonable and moderate to es-
innate the number Of people engaged in the re.
belion to be equal to one.half Of the whole white
population of the Coniederate States-say four
millions. If 50, this bill proposes, at single
stroke, to strip all this vast number OF people Of
all their property, real, personal, and mixed, Of
every kind whatsoever, and reduce them at once
to absolute poverty; and that, too, at . time
VII, we are at war with them, when they have
arms in their hands, with four hundred thousand
Of them in the field opposing US desperately.
Now, sir, 1t does seem to me that II there was
anything in the world calculated to make that
four millions Of people and their four hundred
thousand soldiers in the field now and forever
hostile to us and our Government Il would be
the promulgation Of law such as this. Will
they yield 10 US sooner in view Of such result
to themg What would we be likely to do u
they were N threaten Us with similar lawl
Would we ever, under any circumstances, yield
on terms like theseI ] need hardly ask that
question Of men descended from sires who re-
fused to pay the tax on teas, and from grandsires
who rose IN rebellion and Overturned monarchy
rather than pay twenty shillings ship money
for that, believe, was the sum demanded from
Hampden, and which cost Charles l. his head.
Again the forfeitures Of William the Con-
queror, decreed upon the property Of the Saxons
sink into utter insignihcance compared with
those enacted in the bill before rs. The proud
Norman and his rapacious barons were conlelt
with the castles and fiels Of the Saxon leaders
whom they had overcome, but they did not dare
to strip the people, or, indeed, even much to in
crease their burdens. They knew, victorious
and all as they were, that would have involved
them in new and far more dangerous struggle,
in which every peasant would have been prin-
cipal eonlbatant with his all at stake.
Neither did the English conqueFoFs Of ireland,
in their long series Of forieitures and confsca-
tons, from the time Of StrOngbow down to the
rebellion Of 1898, ever, at any time, venture
upon such 4 sweeping measure as this; their at
flanders exhausted themselves upon the Irish
nobility, and they never were rash enough to
strip the Irish people. do not know the value
Of the property forfeited by this bill; ! cannot
even approximate Il, except to say that Il s enOr
mous-to be computed by billions. But, sir,
the bill goes further, and lorieits vast amount
Of property Of the rebels which, when forfeited,
cannot be conhscated or put into the Golfers Of
the conquerors-I mean their property in negro
slaves.
their right to this species Of property; It Is
enough for me to say that an the people Of the
slaSe States, loyal and FebelliOus, seem to agree
as to this with wonderful unanimity, and to re-
sent with an excessive sensibilitY any interier-
ence with it whatever. And, although in the
bitterness Of the feuds engendered BY the civil
war now raging among them. the loyalists there
would be glad ojoin IN infieting upon the rebels
even the severest punishments, yet this one they
abhor and refuse, because they aver thatt would
be equally injurious to them as to their enemies;
and Il makes no manner OF difference whether
that view Is correct or not, II they believe IT.
"A - hte khofr faNi raj al ma
mean to say is, that this bill would liberate,
perhaps, three millions Of slaves; surely the
most stupendous stroke for universal emancipa-
ton ever before attempted in the world; nay,
think Il equivalent, if carried out, TO virtual
liberation Of the whole four millions Of slaves
in the Union.
But what Is to DO the effect Of Il upon the
war? Win We be stronger alter Il than before
or Wlll we find we have doubled the number OF
those in arms against us5 They have now no
cause Of war; will not this measure furnish
them one, and one they think more just and holy
than any otherp Let the loyal men who know
them also answer this question. l will abide
their answer, and submit again that no delibera-
tive assembly in the world ever before sat in judg-
ment upon an issue Of sue magnitude.
Not content, however, with this, those who
favor this bill seem determined TO bewilder and
| blind us still more BY an additional project OF
greater magniGcence, and, IL possible, Of greater
difficulty and that is. in the duty It imposes
upon the President, in the third section, OF pro-
curing home for these emancipated millions in
some tropical country, and Of transporting, colo
nizing, and settling them there, IL they desire to
90, with guarantees for their rights as freemen;
aud this Is all provided for in section Of sin.
gle sentence Of nine linesi Surely, sir, we must
have been recently transported away from the
sober domain Of practical fact, and set down in
the regions Of eastern fiction, if we can for mo-
ment entertain this proposition seriously. Do
the advocates Of the scheme propose to confer
upon the President the gold-maklng touch OF
| MidasH One would think the universal men.