Constitution; and we must choose between them which we will have, for we cannot have both. The Constitution was made for freemen, not for slaves. Slavery, as a social evil, might for a time be tolerated and endured; but as a political institution, it becomes imperious and exacting, controlling, like a dread necessity, all whom circumstances have compelled to live under its sway, hampering their action, and thus impeding our national progress. As a political institution, it could exist as a co-ordinate part only of two forms of government, viz., the despotic and the free; and it could exist under a free government only when public sentiment, in the most unrestricted exercise of a robust freedom, leading to extravagance and licentiousness, had swayed the thoughts and habits of the people beyond the bounds and limits of their own moderate constitutional provisions. It could exist under a free government only where the people, in a period of unreasoning extravagance, had permitted popular clamor to overcome public reason, and had attempted the impossibility of setting up permanently, as a political institution, a social evil which is opposed to moral law. By reverting to the history of the past, we find that one of the most destructive wars on record that of the French Revolution-was originated by the attempt to give political character to an institution which was not susceptible of political character. The Church, by being endowed with political power, with its convents, its schools, its immense landed wealth, its associations, secret and open, became the ruling power of the State, and thus occasioned a war of more strife and bloodshed, probably, than any other war which has desolated the earth. Slavery is still less susceptible of political character than was the Church. It is as fit at this moment for the lumber-room of the past as were, in 1793, the landed wealth, the exclusive privilege, etc., of the Catholic Church in France. It behooves us to consider, as a self-governing people, bred and reared and practiced in the habits of self-government, whether we cannot, whether we ought not, revolutionize slavery out of existence, without the necessity of a conflict of arms like that of the French Revolution. Indeed, we feel assured that the moment slavery is abolished, from that moment our Southern brethren, every ten of whom have probably seven relatives in the North, would begin to emerge from a hateful delirium. From that moment, relieved from imaginary terrors, their days become happy and their nights peaceful and free from alarm; the aggregate amount of labor, under the new stimulus of fair competition, becomes greater day by day; property rises in value; invigorating influences succeed to stagnation, degeneracy, and decay; and union, harmony, and peace, to which we have so long been strangers, become restored, and bind us again in the bonds of friendship and amity, as when we first began our national career under our glorious government of 1789. Why do the leaders of the rebellion seek to change the form of your ancient Government? Is it because the growth of the African element of your population has come at length to render a change necessary? Will you permit the free Government under which you have thus far lived, and which is so well suited for the development of true manhood, to be altered to a narrow and belittling despotism in order to adapt it to the necessities of ignorant slaves, and the requirements of their proud and aristocratic owners? Will the laboring men of the South bend their necks to the same yoke that is suited to the slave? We think not. We may safely answer that the time has not yet arrived when our Southern brethren, for the mere sake of keeping Africans in slavery, will abandon their long-cherished Free Institutions and become slaves themselves. It is the conviction of my command, as a part of the national forces of the United States, that labor-manual labor-is inherently noble; that it cannot be systematically degraded by any nation without ruining its peace, happiness, and power; that free labor is the granite basis on which Free Institutions must rest; that it is the right, the capital, the inheritance, the hope of the poor man every where; that it is especially the right of five millions of our fellow-countrymen in the slave States as well as of the four millions of Africans there; and all our efforts, therefore, however small or great, whether directed against the interference of governments from abroad, or against rebellious combinations at home, shall be for Free Labor. Our motto and our standard shall be, here and everywhere, and on all occasions, FREE LABOR AND WORKINGMEN'S RIGHTS. It is on this basis, and this basis alone, that our munificent Government, the asylum of nations, can be perpetuated and preserved. J. W. PHELPS, Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding. GEN. PHELPS OFFICIAL REPORT. SHIP ISLAND, MISSISSIPPI SOUND, Dec. 5, 1861. Major-General B. F. Butler, commanding De partment of New England, Boston, Mass.: SIR: A part of the Middlesex Brigade, consisting of the Massachusetts Twenty-sixth and Connecticut Ninth Infantry, volunteers, with Capt. Manning's battery of artillery, volunteers, numbering in all (servants included) one thousand nine hundred and eight, arrived off Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on board the steam transport Constitution, on the 26th of November. In compliance with previous orders and commands, I relieved Colonel Jones, of the Massachusetts Twenty-sixth, in command, and we stood out to sea on the afternoon of the 27th. After a pleasant passage, we reached Ship Island harbor, Mississippi Sound, on the evening of the 3d of December. Despatches for Flag-officer McKean, with which I was intrusted, were sent by Lieut. Winslow, of the December 6, 1861. R. R. Cuyler, the same evening to Pensacola station, where the flag-officer then was, and to I have to-day, in accordance with my inwhom I made known my arrival. Captain structions, held an interview with Capt. Smith, Smith, of the steamer Massachusetts, offered us of the Massachusetts, Flag-officer McKean not all the means within his power to facilitate our having arrived. Capt. Smith thinks there is landing, an operation which we have not yet water enough on the island and in the vicinity completed, and which we should have found to supply gunboats and other vessels of the stavery difficult, if not impossible, but for the tion, although procuring it will be slow and zealous assistance rendered by Lieut. Buchanan difficult. He says the flag-officer has ordered and the officers of his command, aided by two more guns for the fort, which are daily exhigh-pressure steamers which the navy had re-pected. He suggests a coal depot on the island, cently captured. We found in the harbor the United States war vessels Massachusetts and R. R. Cuyler, beside several prizes, and not long afterward the gunboat New London and an armed schooner came in. Upon the west end of the island a partially finished fort is occupied by about one hundred and seventy sailors and marines, commanded by Lieut. Buchanan, of the navy, who has several large calibre Dahlgren guns in position on navy carriages. The rebels, by whom the island was held several months, abandoned it in September last, and destroyed nearly every thing which they could not carry off. The fort and lighthouse, with the keeper's lodgings, remain, the former unfinished, and the latter injured to some extent by fire. The walls of the fort have been carried up to a sufficient height by the rebels to form nearly a tier of casemates, and partly covered over. With some considerable mason work, and with materials, (none on the ground except lime,) it might receive some twenty guns on casemate carriages. The island is a long, narrow strip of land, running north of east some six or seven miles. Toward the west end, where the harbor lies, and where we are encamped, it consists of hummocks of fine white sand, interspersed with sedgy spots of water. It bears evidence of having been overflowed in some extraordinary storms, large trunks of trees having drifted on some of its higher hummocks. The east end widens out in triangular shape, embracing about one square mile, and is covered with pine trees. I made an unsuccessful effort to have it examined the day after our arrival, and regret having been too much occupied since to repeat it. | and a regular steain packet between the island and Fortress Monroe, or some other Northern port. The discharging of the Constitution is still going on. The wind since our arrival has prevailed from north and east, and the water last night rose so high that a considerable portion of the island between the fort and lighthouse was overflowed, leaving a thin sheet of water there-an event which, I am informed, is not unfrequent. The narrow strip of land, about a quarter or a third of a mile in width, which forms the western extremity of the island, is but ill-suited for a camp, either for regulars or volunteers. I have visited the eastern extremity of the island, beyond the lagoon. There is sufficient space for five thousand men, but the land is so interspersed with marshes that I consider a camp there for that number out of the question. The water along the northern shore for some distance is so shallow that our rowboats dragged bottom. The beach is lined with a ridge of sand hummocks, some ten feet in height; but beyond these the land is generally low, and covered with pines, scrub oak, scrub palmetto, and marsh grass in patches. Mus quitoes would be troublesome there at all seasons, and in rainy weather much of the ground would be under water. The process of reclamation seems still to be going on with an activity as if it had but just begun, although the island is probably as old as the mainland. The animals here are snakes, toads, birds, raccoons, pigs, and, it is said, alligators. The New London, with four long thirty-twos and one rifled cannon, appears to be, under her present commander, a very effective and wellmanaged craft, giving the enemy much annoyance. The enemy's gunboats are of light draught, armed with rifled guns, and it is folly to allow them such an advantage. With such an advantage on our side we could make our For the present, I concluded to land here, where I can place, though indifferently well, one or two more regiments. The land is in no respect suitable for a camp, especially in view of such instruction as one of the regiments pres-selves felt in this quarter. ent particularly needs. Should the stay here be of long continuance, huts with floors will be necessary. I regret to learn that, in landing the baggage, one of Capt. Manning's six-pounders was lost overboard. Deeming it proper to make known to this people the remote objects of this expedition, I have prepared a proclamation, which I shall endeavor to have disseminated as early and widely as possible, consistent with the more pressing demands of the service. December 7-2 P. M. The Constitution has been discharged, and will sail before dark. While re-perusing this report, the De Soto and New London have been engaging the enemy's boats in the direction of New Orleans. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. W. PHELPS, Brigadier-General Commanding. ADJUTANT-GENERAL. WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 1861. Four of the Federals were wounded-not killed, as we understood yesterday. They got a wagon in the neighborhood, in which their wounded were placed, and a little boy who saw them an hour or two after the fight said that one was dead. NOTE FROM MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER TO THE | and Joseph Johnson, of Boshe's Portland Rangers; Thomas Lilly and Messrs. Dougherty and Fox, of Captain Wickliffe's company, and To the Adjutant-General of the United States Paul Burgett, of Captain King's company, Army: were taken prisoners. SIR: I have the honor to forward to the Commanding General this report of BrigadierGeneral Phelps. I have not received from General Phelps any official copy of the proclamation to which he refers, but from other sources have such information as renders it certain that the printed copies are nearly correct. I need hardly say the issuing of any proclamation, upon such occasion, was neither suggested nor authorized by me, and most certainly not such 8 one. With that exception, I commend the report, and ask attention to its clear and business-like statements. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, BENJ. F. BUTLER, Brigadier-General Commanding. Doc. 212. Doo. 213. SECRETARY SEWARD'S LETTER. GENERAL: I am directed by the President to call your attention to the following subject: Persons claimed to be held to service or labor AFFAIR AT WHIPPOOR WILL BRIDGE, KY. under the laws of the State of Virginia, and DECEMBER 4, 1861. THE Louisville-Nashville Courier, of the 9th of December, gives the following details of the bridge-burning affair at Whippoorwill: A detachment of fifteen had been stationed at the bridge to guard it, of whom two were absent at the time of the attack. actually employed in hostile service against the Government of the United States, frequently escape from the lines of the enemy's forces and are received within the lines of the army of the Potomac. This Department understands that such persons, afterward coming into the city of Washington, are liable to be arrested by the city police, upon presumption, arising from color, that they are fugitives from service or labor. as fugitives from service or labor should be immediately followed by the military arrest of the parties making the seizure. The Federals, fifty or sixty in number, under command of a Dutch Jew peddler named Net- By the fourth section of the act of Congress ter, and among whom were several who had approved August 6th, 1861, entitled "An Act been raised in the neighborhood, made their to confiscate property used for insurrectionary appearance about day break Thursday morning. purposes," such hostile employment is made a Four of the guard, who were on duty, and who full and sufficient answer to any further claim were standing by a plank cabin, fired upon to service or labor. Persons thus employed them, whereupon they received a volley of and escaping are received into the military pro over one hundred rounds from Sharp's revolv-tection of the United States, and their arrest ing rifles, killing two instantly and wounding another. Most of the shots were fired into the cabin, on the supposition that the rest of the guard were asleep in it, but fortunately they Copies of this communication will be sent to were in a cabin a little distance off. They the Mayor of the city of Washington and to were aroused by the firing, but by the time the Marshal of the District of Columbia, that they were up, the Federals were at the cabin, any collision between the civil and military and they had to surrender. They put the pris-authorities may be avoided. oners under guard, tore down the cabins, put the planks on the bridge, which they sprinkled with turpentine, and then fired it. Our informant was set about gathering up the baggage of the guard, but, finding an opportunity, he made his escape and came to Russellville. Willis Campbell, of Logan County, a member of Captain King's company, and Hatch Jupin, of Bardstown, a member of Captain Wickliffe's company, were killed, and Joseph Wilson, of Bardstown, also in Captain Wickliffe's company, was severely but not dangerously wounded in the thigh. While loading his gun for the second fire, his right forefinger was shot off. Joseph Hall, James Watshall, and John Jernigon, of Captain Mitchell's company; Isaac Duck wall I am, General, your very obedient, Doc. 214. THE IROQUOIS AND THE SUMTER. THE following official report from Captain UNITED STATES STEAMER Iroquois, On the day following, in the midst of coaling, a mail steamer arrived, bringing information that the Sumter had just put in on the 9th to Port Royal, Martinique, in want of coals. I had been often led astray by false reports, but this seemed so positive that I instantly ceased coaling, got my engines together, and was off at 2 in the mid-watch for Martinique, arriving at St. Pierre in thirty-six hours. On turning into the harbor I discovered a suspicious steamer, which, as we approached, proved to be the Sumter, flying the secession flag, moored to the wharf, in the midst of this populous town, quietly coaling. The town and shipping in the harbor were instantly all excitement. I could not attack her in this position, for humanity's sake, even were I disposed to be regardless of the neutrality of the port. I did not anchor, but cruised around the harbor within half gunshot of her during the night. In the morning a French man-of-war arrived from Port Royal, the seat of government, only twelve miles distant. The Sumter had been there for the last two days. The government, it is true, had refused to give her any of its coals, but had allowed her to come around to St. Pierre, where she readily obtained them from some merchants, (English, I believe.) She evidently had been received with courtesy at the seat of government, and this farce of the non-recognition of the Confederate flag is played out of both France and England in the most flagrant manner. I now addressed a letter to the Governor, assuming him to be ignorant of the character of the Sumter, a copy of which I enclose. I also enclose a translation of his reply. The Department will observe that from the generous disposition of the Governor, the Sumter has the same privileges as this vessel. The captain of the French war-steamer also addressed me a letter, saying he was directed by the Governor to request me no longer to compromise the neutrality of the French waters by establishing a blockade within their jurisdiction, but to anchor, when every hospitality and facility should be afforded me, or to take my position without the distance of a marine league from shore. At the same time, that, while anchor weigh it was contrary to the police regulations of the port to communicate with the shore. I consequently decided upon anchoring, which I had no sooner done than the French commander paid me a visit, offered me every civility and attention, saying that he did not doubt that all international law would be respected by me; and in the course of conversation, quoting from Wheaton, reminded me that one belligerent could not depart until twenty-four hours after the other. I instantly got under weigh, with him on board, fearing that the Sumter should do so before me, as her steam was up. I have now accepted the alternative, and established myself at the mouth of the harbor, without the marine league, with much anxiety, lest during the darkness of the night, under cover of the high land, the Sumter should be able to get off without my being aware of it. The majority of the town is in favor of the Sumter, and with the utmost vigilance, which all on board exert, she may yet escape some night for want of signals from the shore to give us notice of her departure. I am also in want of coal, and shall send over to St. Thomas to-morrow for a supply, as well as provisions, stores, &c., for when I left I did not bargain for this blockade. The Sumter seems in good condition. The consul informs me she has one hundred and twenty men. She does not certainly appear to be in the disorganized state in which late accounts have represented her. She has latterly captured but two American vessels-one the brig Joseph Parke, of Boston, on the 25th of September; the other the schooner Daniel Trowbridge, of New Haven, on the 27th of October. She has landed here fourteen prisoners on their parole. Three of the Joseph Parke's men (all foreigners) joined the Sumter. I regret to give the government so long and unsatisfactory a letter, but must avail myself of the opportunity for St. Thomas, which offers to-morrow. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES S. PALMER, To Hon. GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. Commander. P. S.-November 18.—I feel more and more convinced that the Sumter will yet escape me, in spite of all our vigilance and zeal, even admitting that I can outsteam her, which is a question. To blockade such a bay as this, which is almost an open roadstead, fifteen miles in width, the surrounding land very high and the water very bold, obliged, as we are by the neutrality laws, to blockade at three miles' distance, it would require at least two more fast steamers, and a vessel of war of any description in port to notify us by signal of her departure, to give any reasonable hope of preventing her escape. Even now, moonlight though it be, she may yet creep out under shadow of the land, and no one be able to perceive her, she being always able to observe my position, open to seawards. Though I have made arrangements to be informed by signal of her departure from shore, I fear I cannot depend upon the parties, so fearful are they of the authorities and of popular indignation. I have done all I can, and if she escapes me, we must submit to the distress and mortification. I believe we have no vessel on this station except the Macedonia, and there is no knowing when she may get up this way to learn our situation. I wish the Sumter were anywhere else except in this port, or under French protection. The authorities here, under plea of neutrality, are throwing every obstacle in my way, in the way of communicating with the shore. They are so full of punctilio, and, withal, so polished, that it is provoking to have any thing to do with them. CORRESPONDENCE. UNITED STATES STEAMSHIP IROQUOIS, OFF ST. PIERRE, Nov. 15, 1861. SIR: As circumstances prevent my paying my personal respects to your Excellency or your representative at this place, I write to announce my arrival in the afternoon of yesterday, as well as to inform you that to my surprise I find a notorious steamer, called the Sumter, quietly coaling at the wharves, and enjoying the hospitalities of the port. As your Excellency cannot be aware of the character of this vessel, I denounce her to you as one that has been for some time engaged in pirating upon the commerce of the United States, robbing, burning, or otherwise destroying all American vessels that come within her reach. May I not hope, therefore, that your Excellency, upon this representation, will not allow her to enjoy the privileges I complain of, but direct her to leave the protection of the French flag, and the immunities of a French port? I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAS. S. PALMER, Commanding U. S. steamship Iroquois. To his Excellency, the Governor of Martinique. TRANSLATION. GOUVERNEMENT DE LA MARTINIQUE, CABINET DES GOUVERNEUR No. 430, FORT-DE-FRANCE, Le 15th Nov., 1861. MONSIEUR LE COMMANDANT: I have the honor to reply to the letter which you addressed me this morning. I am not ignorant, Mons. le Commandant, of the presence in the roads of St. Pierre of a vessel belonging to the States of the South, who profess to have formed a separate Confed eration. To accomplish the generous intentions of the Emperor, I wish to be hospitable to the vessels of the two belligerent parties, but I will not, neither cannot, without violating the orders of his Majesty, divest myself of the absolute neutrality that I ought to observe. This is to say to you, Mons. le Commandant, that if it is not my intention to refuse an anchorage to a vessel belonging to the States of the South, I offer to you, on the other hand, the same hospitality, and the same facilities to the vessel belonging to the Government of the Union, which you have the honor to command. There exist, besides, international laws, that every civilized nation scrupulously observes, and which I need scarcely recall to you, Mons. le Commandant, nor to the Commandant of the Sumter. Accept, Mons. le Commandant, the assurance of my most distinguished consideration. LE ADMIRAL, Gouverneur de la Martinique, etc. Monsieur le Commandant de la Iroquois. U. S. S. IROQUOIS, OFF ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE, SIR: I think it is well in my present provoking and anxious position to keep the Government informed by whatever opportunity may offer. It is now the ninth day that I have been blockading the Sumter. She lies still at the wharf, surrounded by more or less of a crowd day and night, all anxious for her escape, sympathizing with their fellow Frenchmen of the State of Louisiana, to which State they believe the Sumter to belong. The authorities, from the Governor down, I believe to be all in their favor. I directed the Consul the other day to call upon the Governor and inform him that I regarded the attitude of the authorities as unfriendly to the United States. I quote you the Consul's reply: "I called on the Governor on Monday night, but could do nothing more than to ask an audience for next day, as his salon was full of people, among them the Captain of the Sumter. When I saw him he said the sanitary regulations were such as were enforced on Monday, and that he had no control over them. The vessel having gone beyond the regular health and Custom House limits, has lost the rights of regular pratique, the Governor of course repudiating any thing like unfriendliness, and regretting the necessity of submitting to the laws in your case, and would be glad to see you in here at anchor to prove the sincerity of his good wishes." Unfortunately for me the coming to an anchor involves the necessity of waiting twentyfour hours after the departure of the Sumter, for I have consented to the Governor's expressed hope that I would abide by all rules of international law, consequently I am obliged to cruise outside, and run the risk of her escaping every night. Thus far we have had the moon, but it is now waning fast, and, with the most intense watching and devotion, I fear I may yet have to report her escape. Would that there were another fast steamer to watch the other point of the bay. I have some understanding with some loyal people on shore to notify by signal of her departure. The French will doubtless think it a great outrage upon their neutrality, but they will have to pocket this, as I have been as forbearing as they can expect, and nothing but the feeling of the impolicy of bringing on hostilities between my country and France, makes me submit with any thing like grace. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES S. PALMER, Com'g. HON. GIDEON WELLES, UNITED STATEs Steamship Iroquois, SIR: As I expected, I have to report the escape of the Sumter, to the great dejection of us |