Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-03-14
MARCH Il, 1864.

OF the party IN power their majority in the 9Th
Congress passed the confscation act of July II
1862 h5I x 151Ir ~.
The first object expressed In the title of thi:
act was 'to suppress insurrection." As to that
object no man questions that the act has signaly
failed, as the experience Of history proves that
all attempts to deal with great revolution, a
general uprising of a people educated in princi-
pies OF free constitutional government, by
hurting at them the thunders Of vin6ictive legis-
lation have also signally failed. Revolutions are
never conquered by vindictve laws. They but
add fuel to the fame, and make what might
otherwise be weakness, strength by the very in
spiration of despair, but they never conquer nor
suppress a revolution. Armies may do il, but
vlndictive legislation never did and never will.
They are BLOODY inventions which, being taught,
return to plague the inventor" Liberty may
be crushed out BY the strong arm Of material
power, but laws cannot caush it, for liberty and
law affiliate. They are twin sisters, co equal in
origin and duration. and when society is normal,
they ever cling with loving kindness TO each
other. Law was not born to be the tyrant of
liberty, but her sister and her ally s.. e-,s 8
As an act to punish treason and rebellion. and
to seize and condscate the property of rebels the
purposes and terms of the act of july IT. 1862
are clear enough. The first four sections relate
to the punishment of treason. and rebellion be-
low the grade of constitutional treason. The
fifth section makes it the duty of the President
to cause the seizure of the property, real and
personal of all the higher or official grade of
persons who should thereafter participate in the
rebellion, such property to be applied and used
for the support of the army of the United States.
Section six went further, and extended the Pres-
dents power of seizure and application to the
support Of the army, TO all the estate and prop
erty of all other persons engaged ia or aiding the
rebellion who should not, within sixty days after
public warning and proclamation by the President,
cease to rebel or abet rebellion; and The act OF
seizure made operative to defeat all sales or
transfers of such property and estate after the
expiration of said sixty days. Sections seven
and eight prescribed the judicial proceedings in
rem by which the property thus seized should be
condemned as enemy's property, and become
the property of the United States," to be dis
posed of ms the court shall decree, and the pro-
ceeds thereof paid into the Treasury of the United
States for the purpose stated-namely, the sup
port OF the army.
do not know who was the author of this act
of July IL. 1862, but it is apparent that there is
in it strange mixing up of and attempt TO en-
force beligernet and municipal rights against the
same persons. The first four sections are evil
IDENTIFY intended to be constitutional or municipal
legislation, based upon the constitutional power
of Congress to declare the punishment of treason
and its implied power of declaring and furnishing
crimes against the United States, and clearly
contemplated indictment and conviction under
the Constitution. Sections five, six, seven and
eight, inasmuch as they do not conform to any
constitutional provision in regard to treason and
Its punishment. although aimed at persons guilty
of treason, seem TO be based upon an assumed
belgerent or war right of seizure and con6sca-
tion. Thus, while Congress in one breath were
declaring that traitors and their abettors should
be hung, or imprisoned and fined. and their slaves
made free. in another breath they we're providing
that their estates and property should be seized,
condemned, and sold as enemy's property.
The President-either because less clear head
ed, or more tmid or more scrupulous about over
riding the Constitution, did net view the law in
the light of a law based on the rights of war
alone. He either'did not see or would not admit
the propriety in one and the same law Of dealing
with rebels traitors to be indicted. convicted
and hung, or fined and imprisoned, and as alien
enemies, citizens of "foreign country" owing
allegiance to a foreign power, who, if patriotical
ly fighting for it, were subject only to the laws
and entitled to the rights of war. He could not
divest his mind of the very natural idea that the
rebels were in law citizens of the United States
''levying war against them" and therefore trail
tors, not alien enemies. He had not at that
time. as his subsequent conversation with the
two Chicago clergymen OH the 9Th of September.
prehension and wise appreciation of the war
power and military necessity which the gentle
man from Penns ylvania now vouches for and the
President has since shown in his proclamations
of September %, 1852 January of 1863, and
December s. 1863. saying nothing of sundry in
termediate exercises Of the war power in dealings
with the habeas corpus aud personal liberty.
The President under the Instructions of the gen
tleman from PENNSYLVANIA, is evidently iUprov-
intr mill e i r .
When the President who had read Blackstone
and Kent and Story and Mr., Madison in the
Federalist = whose pregnant and authoritative
opinion has been aptly quoted by my friend from
Ohio Mr.. Bliss l-applied his knowledge derived
from those great worthless in Jurisprudence to the
sweeping con6scatinn declared in sections FIVE
and six OF the act, he was staggered, he doubted
and hesitated and finally concluded TO change
the law, or kill il by the veto The result Vas
his message to Congress, OF July II, 1862, fol-
lowed i'm uedatcly by the passage By Congress
of the explanatory joint resolution of the same
date. Ii the President. by similar duress per
minas, had exercised similar conservative inhu-
ence over the same Congress, he would have
done wisely. The language of the Presidents
message is in itself so strong an argument
against the act proposed, that quote briefly
from it. He said: -5- -,.s- sf4se
"That to which chiefly object pervades most
part OIL TIE acl, OuL mDTt ulSIdUSlN tpptdEc III
the first, second, seventh, and eighth sections. 1t
is the sum of those provisions which results in
diyesting of title forever. ..-.-..
For the causes A treason and ingredients of
treason, rot amo TO the full crime, it de-
clares forfeiture el>g6GiES beyond the lives of
the guilty parties ;whereas the Constitution of
the United States declares tharno attaiGder of
treasosshall work corruption or blood or forfeit
ture, except during the life of the person at
tained.' True. there is to be no formal attainder
in this case; still, think the greater punishment
cannot be constitutionally inflicted, IN different
FORM for the same offense
with great respect an, constrained to say
think this feature of the act is unconstitutional.
1t would not be difficult to modify it."
The point of the joint resolution of July IL is
in these words:
{" Nor shall any punishment or proceedings un-
der said act be 80 construed as to work forfei-
ture of the real estate OF the offender beyond his
natural iife."
Now. whatever n1ayhav been the original
design Of the author of sections five and six, &c.
of the confiscation act as to the rights of war,
and however much the President may have mis-
conceived the real point of the law, it is plain
that the joint resolution put the construction and
effect of the law beyond question, Except with
Judge Underwood } and forbade the con6scation
of real estate of offenders beyond their life es-
tates, thus carrying out the plain meaning of the
Constitution and the ideas Of Madison and Story
upon the subject tr $3.50
1t is to be borne in mind that at this time the
slaves were not emancipated. The war power in
its loftiest flights bad not attained to that bad
emisence. The necessity of free soil for freed
men did not then exist The President had not
been educated by the Boston Gamaliels and
Pauls of abolition. or by the gentleman from
Pennsylvania. up TO the standard of the "procla-
nation of emancipation" So soon as the policy
was adopted the embarrassment Of the restriction