Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-12-14

Your oocdient servants,
y. NJ GARTER.
A. G. COWLES.
EUGENE GRISSOM,
THOS A. ALLISON,
7 s. DONNELL.
DAN'J. G. FOWLE,
NJ McGEHEE.
HOUSE OF Commons, 9Th Dec, 1864.
GIL Csrter AMI others:
GENrLExsN:-I will comply with your request
within day or two ,
Thanking you for the compliment you have paid
M, aud Wishing the speech were moro worthy oi
it., am, very truly,
Your friend and servant
S. +. PHILLIPS.
SPEECH OF SAMUEL F. PHILLIPS, ESQ.,,
.ca ORANGE,
In the House of Commons Of North Cro-
Ina, Tuesday December 9Th, 1864, on
the subject Of Impressnse'sts.
M. SpEAKER:-
Recent occurrences in the county of
Orange have Suggested to me the propriety
of Introducing tie resolutions which have
inst beep read. | do not mean to say that
Orange has suffered more from the action
OF agents for iinpressments than the other
counties of the State, but the regency Of
that action among my constituents render
ed it proper that l should call the aten-
ton of the Legislature to it.
The preamble to those resolutions as
se:ts truths which no intelligent gentle
man upon this floor, whether lawyer or
hot, will deuy. ! shall not trouble the
House with an argument upon them. The
first of the resolutions which follow, makes
allegations which, if true, are palpable
rinlstious of the rights asserted in the pre-
amble. The only question which arises
upon that resolution is as to its TRUTH
And, upon this question, | might perhaps
III Ike witness OF every gentleman upon
this floor. For | can hardly doubt that
every one here has been so far personally
cr5nizant of facts going to establish this
point that he might be called az a witness
to establish it before conrt and jury. =.
Within the last two weeks an agent of
the Confederate States hes impressed III
,hH county of Orange $50 horses aud
males at an average price, as was inform
cd by an officer of the government en-
gagged in the transaction, Oh abont $500
each enquired OF the sane gentleman
what was the averag &c market value of the
animals thus taken and was answered Eat
least S2,lo0 each.7 Itappears, tFen, that
by this single operation, the Confederate
States government has torciby seized for
its own use more than S300,0s0 worth of
property; and left in the hands of its own
ers little scraps Of brown paper, promising
to pay at some indefinite period about
100000! In simple language, it is a
transaction by which that government has
possessed itself OF 5000, 900 worth of prop
erty without paying a single dollar of
equivalent! 1t has, by its agents, acting
nnder regularly organized system, rob-
bed certain persons whom, those agents
har, selected! within the comfy referred
TO, of 100000. The county which 1
have the honor, in part, to represent in
this House, makes up a Senatorial district,
and contains about ono .fftieth of. the
properly in the State. Doing these inn
Pressment agents the justice to suppose
that they have been impartial in their VS.
its te-the various sections If the State, the
liouse will see that they have in the item
of horses and mules robbed the State of
some $i0,Ooo,0oo werth OF property. l
mean to say that in the name and nnder
the machinery o; the Confederate govern
ment, they have overawed certain citizens
of North Carolina into delivering to that
government property worth SIS 100000,
at nominal price OF S5,e0o,O06. This
action comes fully up to Try conception
of the idea contained i'll the word robbery.
If the action which has recently taken
place in Orange county were the conse-
quence of the presumption of a subordi-
nate agent of the government, it were
more easily tolerated than now. Or if it
arose from the occasionally irregular work
ing of the machinery of that government
it might be better borne. That it il part
of the settled policy of the Confederate
States, land the regular and intended effectot
certain acts of Congress is that which gives
this action its peculiar unpleasantness, and
makes it the more imperative for this Leg
fslature to utter its remonstrance and pro-
test. When wrong is done under the col
or Of law, it becomes most dangerous.
] held in my hand pamphlet contain
ing the General Orders" issued to the
army from Richmond, from which it APP
pears that this subject Of impressment has
occupied the attention of the government
for several years AS early as the month
of June, 1862, an order was issued regula-
ting this subject. Some months afterwards
stappears by another order that great CON-
plants had beea made to the governments
in relation to it. The complaints compell-
cd Congress, about the month of April,
1868, to pass an act upon the subject, a
great part of which is still in force. That
act provides that where officers impress
property that is in the hands of its produ-
Ger. tw o referees with liberty to select an
nDai'ire) shall be chosen by the officer and
fhe owner respectively, and they shall set
tie the price to be paid where the prop