The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-10-12

perry taken laNlulty iiOiiA INC enemy vi
from the inhabitants in the enemy's coun-
try INSTANTLY BECOMES PUBLIC PROPERTY
AND MUST BE USED AS SUCH. The fifty
second article Of war authorizes the pen
aly of death for pilJage on pI,1deriRg, and other
articles authorize severe punishment for
any officer or soldier who shall sell, en-
bezzle, misapply, or waste military
stores, or who shall permit the waste or
misapplication Of any such public pro-
perty.
SEC. A. Al property, public on pirate
taken from ALLEGED enemies must be inVento-
riea on accounted for if the property taken
be claimed as private, receipts must be
given 70 such claimants or their agents,
SEC. 8. When foraging parties are
sent out for provisions or other stores, the
commanding officer will be held account
able for the conduct of his command and
will make true report of all property
taken,
SEC G. No officer or soldier will with
out authority leave his cOlors and rank
to take private property, or enter
private house for the purpose. AL such
acts are punishable Nth death, ant an o6icer
,0do permits them IS equally as g,6hya as the
actual piJlagers."
We wish to call attention to one point
emphatically and clearly laid down in
this truly admirable, and judicious, and
absolutely necessary order, which is, that
call property lawfully taken from the
enemy" that is from ,eJels in arms,
cor from the inhabitants in the enemy's
country" that is from rebel or from 10y
al citizens, is actually The property Of the
United States 1t is public property, in
which every citizen Of the United States
has a pecuniary interest, and whoever
applies such captured or forfeited pro-
perty to his individual use, without au-
thority, is guilty of robbing the public
treasury, of embezzling the property of
loyal people. Many seem TO think that
because a rebel has outlawed himself, by
his wicked course, and renounced the pro-
lection of the constitution and the Union,
by renouncing his allegiance, his proper
ty becomes like a lost knife or stray
dog, which has no claimant, and may
therefore be lawfully appropriated by
the first seizer. This is great error.
II is positively contradicted not only by
tho language of the order of Gen. HAL
LEoE, but by the very law of Congress,
which provides for the conlscation of the
property of rebels. To coafscate, says
WEBSTER, is "To adjudge to be forfeited
10 the public treasury as the goods on estate
Of traitor or other criminal, by agny Of PEN
atty: or to condemn private forfeited property
to PUBLIC USE" The word has no
other meaning; no ingenuity can torture
the word into the countenancing of appro-
priation, or embezzlement for individual
use.
In his proclamation of the date of the
22d of September, the President, after
referring to the act of Congress Of March |
IL, 1862, referring TO fugitive slaves of
rebels, and also to the Confscation Act |
of July II, 1862, says: "And i do hereby |
eyoin upon and ORDER ALL PERSONS en-
gagged in tie military and nayal service Of the
United States TO OBEY AND ENFORCE loithin
tlsir repectiUe spheres Of service, the Article |
and Section above recitea." We have then
a lazy disposing of forfeited property, or
subject TO forfeiture, and that
law is to be enforced by regular judicial
process. Section of one Act says, that
ITO secure the condemnation and sale Of
any such property proceed
ings an rem shall be instituted, &C." If
individuals on their own respon sibility,
and for their own emolument, are TO be
allowed 10 deprcdate. plumber and pill
Iage at their own discretion, why take
the trouble Of c nacting any laws on this
subject at all? Why pay Congressman
large salaries TO make laws, about mat
ter which every man can attend to ON his
own responsibility? If private indi-
yidual has right to a rebels horse, as
a loyal citizen, have the same right, and
so have score of my loyal neighbors;
and so the whole business degeperairs to
a miserable and disgraceful scramble for
property. AS the adage has it, "the
longest pole knocks the persimmons" in
this case. tits not likely that the treas
ury Of the Government will be greatly
replenished by revenue from conGscated
if this private plundering is
permitted.
The officer or soldier who seizes