Year: 1863

The Abuse of the Impressing Power.


The Act TO regulate impressments authorizes a
resort to that mode of raising supplies for the army
only when they "cannot be otherwise procured.h
1t is the evident design of the act to invest the mil
ltary authorities, including the Secretary of War,
with this power solely as last resort All other
means Of raising supplies to be tried and exhaus.
tel before it is lawful to exercise this harsh power
of compulSion


One means of raising supplies contemplated by the
act is the gathering n of its tithes by the Govern
ment In the natural order of things, this is the
first method Of furnishing the army that is to be
availed of by the authorities. 1t was thought when
the law was passed. that these tithes would nearly
or quite supply the army. the estimate seemed
reasonable, since tie army falls far short of being
onetenth OF the population and could not therefore
be expected to consume more than one-tenth OF the
production of the country. But in the event of this
resource falling short of the demands of the army,
it was contemplated by the act that the deficiency
would be made up by purchase-and it was only in
the event that both the tithes and the ability to pur-
chase had failed, that the power to impress accrued


We do not msstate the law. The officer who i'm
presses is required to certify over his official sigma
ture-that is, on his honor officer-that the
property impressed "cOuld not be otherwise pro-
cured" )" and the Secretary of War; before he can
authorize impresSmentS to be made has to be salts
fled that the article needed cannot be procured by
purchase" These two prerequisites having been





by the collection of its tithes by its efforts to
purchase can the Government supply itself with what
is necessary for the support of the army the power
to impress may be lawfully resorted to. Before
these two resources are exhausted, there is no au-
thority to use this power and any resort to it
not be otherwise than arbitrary and illegal.


Have the Secretary of War and his subordnates
acted up to the requirements of the law in this par
ticulsr? Have they tried and exhausted all means
OF raising supplies before resorting to impressment?
Have they gathered their tthes and ascertaned that
they are inadequate? Have they offered to purchase
IN all cases before impressing? Did Mr. Taylor Ber
ry first visit every farmer in Amherst and offer to
buy his produce, and did each and every one of
these farmers refuse to SELL before he served his
pressing order on them? Was this the course and
this the experience of the impressing agents In
Buckingham and Abemare, in which counties, we
have the assurance the Sentinel, the Government
officials have locked up everything just Mr.. Ber
ry did in AmherSt7


Unless such offers to purchase were made and re-
fused, We undertake to say that the law has been
violated. If there was in either of these counties
single farmer who did not refuse to SELL and he
was embraced in the general notification of impress
ment, undertake to say that as to him the law
was viOlated-and the law affxes penalty to any
single violation. Is it conceivable that these far
merS, than whom there none more public
spirited in the State all refused to sell for the use
of the army articles necessary to its subsistence p
No population Ill Virginia has contributed more
largely of its numbers to swell the ranks of the
army than these counties. Many Of the noblest
regiments that bear the victorious banners Of Gen.
era Lee have gone from the red hills of Amherst,
Albemarle and Buckingham. Is it imaginable that
their fathers and b others and friends at home have
refused to furnish for pay, the food needed for
their supportg The Secretary of War may think
so, DR.. Northrop Gf he ever thinks) may think So
we do not So far from being justified in derog-
atory and unnatural q suppoSitiOn, have public
evidence to the contrary In each of these counties,
the citizens had in general meeting by formal re-
solutions, made known to the Secretary of War
their willingness to sell every thing not needed for
their own consumption, at the prices fixed by the
bound by patriotism and by ties Of blood, but also
by voluntary and solemn cOmmittal to sell to the
Government all that they could part WITH that
needed for the army. They stood ready to meet
their obligation. How, then, the mpressing
agents in these counties certify, on their honor
officers and gentlemen, that the supplies held there
"could not be procured otherwise than by im
pressment? And how can the Secretary of War;
in view OF his responsibility to the country and to
his own conscience, say that the taking of this
| private property rendered necessary by rea-
son Of the impracticability of procuring the same
| by purchaser"


| We repeat, either the farmers of the counties
named (and they not alD have refused to sell to
| the Government--or these impresSments are arbi.
trsry and Violatve Of law. We leave to the proper
authorities to ascertain where the responsibility lies
and to enforce the proper penalty.-Rich. Whig.