The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-16

legislative or executive branches. ever
acknowledged the said Confederacy as
a belligerent power.
On the contrary, such recognition is
expressly denied or purposely and man.
ifestly withheld and avoided.
The proclamation of the President, OF
April Is, 1851, which was the first on
the subject, expressly declares that the
laws are opposed and their execution
obstructed-in the States of South Car
olina. &C., by combinations too power
ful to be suppressed by the ordinary
course of judicial proceedings, or by
the powers vested in the IuRrshals by
law, and called forth the militia of the
several States, to the number of 10000,
10 suppress said combinations and
cause the laws to be executed, and to
repOssess the forts, places and property
which had been seized from the Union,
&c.
The proclamation of April 10, '6l. es-
tablishing II blockade of the ports in the
States where this insurreCtiOn existed,
recited that an insurrection against
the Government had broken out
in the States OF South Carolina, &c,
and that the laws for the collection of
revenue could not be executed, and that
the combination of persons engaged in
such insurreCtiOn had threatened to
grant letters of marque, &C.. and that
hn executive uhI DeSu
issued, requiring the persons engaged
in these disorderly proceedings to de-
sist therefrOm, calling out military
force for the purpose of rePresslng the
same, and cOnvening Congress in extra
session 10 deliberate thereon.
And finally the executive proclama-
ton issued on the 10th day of August,
1861, in pursuance of the act of Con-
gress, approved July 18th, 1861, after re-
MI in m
ceding proclamations, and the refusal
of the insurgents to disperse, as COM
manded, and also, that the insurgents
in all of said States claimed to act un-
der the authority thereof, and that the
claim was not disclaimed by the per-
sons exercising the functions of Gov
ernment in such States, DC, nor had
such insurrectiOnS been suppressed by
such States, Hc.;
Declared that the inhabitants of said
States were in n state of insurrection
against the United States, and that all
commercial intercourse with the same
was unlawful, except, &c, and the
property 10 be forfeited, except, &c.
So also the act of Congress approved
August 9th, 1861, levying direct tax OF
twenty millions of dollas and appor-
tiOning it'among the several STATES OF
the Union, not among the loyal States
only-but,upon the disloyal, also, in eX-
press terms.
SO also, the act to confiscate property,
especially slaves used in aid of the re-
bellion.
These acts and proclamntions, with
numerous others, equally positive and
plain, assert the Jurisdiction of the
Government over the usurrectionists
in the States mentioned, which pre-
cludes the idea of a recognition of any
other or foreign government having
jurisdiction there.
So Mr.. Seward, theISecretary OF State,
in his official dispatches to our foreign
ministers, expressly repudiutes the
pretension that the Contederacy, So
called, was to be regarded as belliger-
ent power. See diplomatic correspond
enCe.
Upon any other hypothesis than the
exercise of sovereign rights over the
insurreGtionary district, it would be
difficult to reconcile the legislation re-
ferred to, with the doctrines declared
by Mi rshall c. J. in the case of Rose as.
himely, where he said, sit is conceded
that the legislation of every country Is
territorial; that beyond its own terri
tory, it can only affect its own subjects
or citizens. 1t is not easy TO conceive IA
power to execute q municipal law, or
10 enforce obedience to that law with
out the circle in which that law oper-
of law is derived from the sovereign,
and must be exercised, it would seem,
within those limits which cirCumScribe
the sovereign power"
Thus, then, the Government of the
United States in its political depart
ment, in both branches thereof-viz-
legislative and executive, has declared
the late war an insurrection, which
was suppressed by military force.
Several of the great nations of the
earth, acknowledged the said Confed-
erAcy as belligerent power, and IN
part, though not in whole. treated them
accordingly. They chose to extend to
trem many rights and privileges of an
independent power which our Govern
ment never extended or admitted, and
yet those very nations stopped short of
admitting the rebel claims to indie.
pendence and nationality, and refused
10 receive or send ambassadors to or
from them. They did not in this re-
fusal, extend all the same rules tOthese
belligerents alike, else, why send and
receive ambassadors on one side and
not on the other?
But what boots it, if fthose nations did
acknowledge the so-called |onfederacy
to be belliEerent power, and in part
so treat them, did that in any wise
change the relation of the insurgents to
the lawful government-or give their
unlawful combination, by whatever
name called-any righLful or political
existence? Not in the least.
AS well hold the United States bound
to get the consent of foreign nations to
enforce its laws against the insurgents.
Where sovereign has to resort to
war to suppress insurrection against
his authority among portion OF MS
subiectS-whnt motive can possibly be
assigned TO induce him to limit his
10 nNl Ia ~
surgents, otherwise than as his laws re-
quire? Humanity and necessity. In obe-
dience to these, lie treats and exchanges
as prisoners Ofwdr his captured subjects
NOT because he recognizes any right in
the insurgents to demand 1t OF MN,
but because they having by the fortunes
OF war got some of his loyal subjects in
their power, may execute them in like
manner by way ofretaliation. Human
ity and necessity, therefore, induce him
TO stay his hand, and forbear to do whut
in the particular instance he other
wise might lawfully do.
But since humanity and necessity in
duced this concession, it cannot be eX'
tended any further than they require
unless the sovereign so expressly de
clares.
And such was precisely the case and
course with the United States in the
late rebellion. Insurgents WHO were
captured and fully and fairly tried and
convicted of pirncy and sentenced by
the courts for their crimes, were not ex-
ecuted, but exchanged as prisoners OF
war Inv the Government which repudi-
ated the right of the rebels to require
in. Yet 1t was done to save the lives oil
our own officers and soldiers and citi-
zens who had been seized, by theinsur-
gents and threatened with execution il
the pirates were not released.
Humanity and necessity, and not
right or justice, nor any principle OF
the law OF nations, induced compliance
with the rebel demand, for the latter
would hive induced acquittal as well