right, were determined to respect no law but their own will. The Government had ceased to answer the ends for which it was ordained and established. To save ourselves from a revolution which, in its silent and rapid progress, was about to place us under the despotism of numbers, and to preserve in spirit, as well as in form, a system of government we believed to be peculiarly fitted to our condition, and full of promise to mankind, we determined to make a new association, composed of States homogeneous in interest, in policy, and in feeling. True to our traditions of peace and our love of justice, we sent Commissioners to the United States to propose a fair and amicable settlement of all questions of public debt or property which might be in dispute. But the Government at Washington, denying our rights to self-government, refused even to listen to any proposals for a peaceful separation. Nothing was then left to us but to prepare for war. The first year in our history has been the most eventful in the annals of this continent. A new Government has been established, and its machinery put in operation over an area exceeding seven hundred thousand square miles. The great principles upon which we have been willing to hazard everything that is dear to man, have made conquests for us which could never have been achieved by the sword. Our confederacy has grown from six to thirteen States, and Maryland, already united to us by hallowed memories and material interests, will, I believe, when able to speak with unstifled voice, connect her destiny with the South. Our people have rallied with unexampled unanimity to the support of the great principles of constitutional government, with firm resolve to perpetuate by arms the rights which they could not peacefully secure. A million of men, it is estimated, are now standing in hostile array and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles. Battles have been fought, sieges have been conducted, and although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not doubtful. The period is near at hand when our foes must sink under the immense load of debt which they have incurred a debt which in their effort to subjugate us has already attained such fearful dimensions as will subject them to burdens which must continue to oppress them for generations to come. We, too, have had our trials and difficulties. That we are to escape them in the future is not be hoped. It was to be expected when we entered upon this war that it would expose our people to sacrifices and cost them much, both of money and blood. But we knew the value of the object for which we struggled, and understood the nature of the war in which we were engaged. Nothing could be so bad a failure, and any sacrifice would be cheap as the price of success in such a contest. But the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. This great strife has awakened in the people the highest emotions and qualities of the human soul. It is cultivating feelings of patriotism, virtue, and courage. Instances of self-sacrifice and of generous devotion to the noble cause for which we are contending are rife throughout the land. Never has a people evinced a more determined spirit than that now animating men, women, and children in every part of our country, Upon the first call the men fly to arms; and wives and mothers send their husbands and sons to battle without a murmur of regret. It was perhaps in the ordination of Providence that we were to be taught the value of our liberties by the price which we pay for them. The recollections of this great contest, with all its common traditions of glory, of sacrifice, and of blood, will be the bond of harmony and enduring affection among the people, producing unity in policy, fraternity in sentiment, and joint effort in war. Nor have the material sacrifices of the past been made without some corresponding benefits. If the acquiescence of foreign nations in a pretended blockade has deprived us of our commerce with them, it is fast making us a self-supporting and an independent people. The blockade, if effectual and permanent, could only serve to divert our industry from the production of articles for export, and employ it in supplying commodities for domestic use. It is a satisfaction that we have maintained the war by our unaided exertions. We have neither asked nor received assistance from any quarter. Yet the interest involved is not wholly our own. The world at large is concerned in opening our markets to its commerce. When the independence of the Confederate States is recognized by the nations of the earth, and we are free to follow our interests and inclinations by cultivating foreign trade, the Southern States will offer to manufacturing nations the most favorable markets which ever invited their commerce. Cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, provisions, timber, and naval stores will furnish attractive exchanges. Nor would the constancy_of those supplies be likely to be disturbed by war. Our confederate strength will be too great to tempt aggression; and never was there a people whose interests and principles committed them so fully to a peaceful policy as those of the Confederate States. By the character of their productions they are too deeply interested in foreign commerce wantonly to disturb it. War of conquest they cannot wage, because the constitution of their Confederacy admits of no coerced association. Civil war there cannot be between States held together by their volition only. This rule of voluntary association, which cannot fail to be conservative, by securing just and impartial government at home, does not diminish the security of the obligation by which the Confederate States may be bound to foreign nations. In proof of this it is to be remembered that, at the first moment of asserting their right of secession, these States proposed a settlement on the basis of a common liability for the obligations of the General Government. Fellow citizens, after the struggles of ages had consecrated the right of the Englishman to constitutional representative Government, our Colonial ancestors were forced to vindicate that birthright by an appeal to arms. Success crowned their efforts, and they provided for their posterity a peaceful remedy against future aggression. The tyranny of an unbridled majority, the most odious and least responsible form of despotism, has denied us both the right and the remedy. Therefore we are in arms to renew such sacrifices as our fathers made to the holy cause of constitutional liberty. At the darkest hour of our struggle the provisional gives place to the permanent Government. After a series of successes and victories, which covered our arms with glory, we have recently met with serious disaster. But in the heart of a people resolved to be free, these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased resistance. To show ourselves worthy of the inheritance bequeathed to us by the patriots of the Revolution, we must emulate that heroic devotion which made reverse to them but the crucible in which their patriotism was refined. With confidence in the wisdom and virtue of those who will share with me the responsibility and aid me in the conduct of public affairs; securely relying on the patriotism and courage of the people, of which the present war has furnished so many examples, I deeply feel the weight of the responsibilities I now, with unaffected diffidence, am about to assume; and, fully realizing the inadequacy of human power to guide and sustain, my hope is reverently fixed on Him whose favor is ever vouchsafed to the cause which is just. With humble gratitude and adoration, acknowledging the Providence which has so visibly protected the Confederacy during its brief but eventful career, to Thee, O God, I trustingly commit myself, and prayerfully invoke Thy blessing on my country and its cause. JEFFERSON DAVIS. Message of President DAVIS to the Confederate of the Confederate States: In obedience to the constitutional provision requiring the President from time to time to give to Congress information of the state of the Confederacy, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient, I have to communicate that, since my Message at the last session of the Provisional Congress, events have demonstrated that the Government had attempted more than it had power successfully to achieve. Hence in the effort to protect by our arms the whole territory of the Confederate States, seaboard and inland, we have been so exposed as recently to encounter serious disasters. When the Confederacy was formed the States comprising it were, in the peculiar character of their pursuits and a misplaced confidence in their former associates, to a great extent destitute of the means for the prosecution of the war on so gigantic a scale as that which it has attained. The workshops and artists were mainly to be found in the Northern States, and one of the first duties which devolved upon this Government was to establish the necessary manufactories, and in the mean time to obtain, by purchase from abroad, as far as practicable, whatever was required for the public defence. No effort has been spared to effect both these ends, and, though the results have not equalled our hopes, it is believed that an impartial judgment will, upon full investigation, award to the various departments of the Government credit for having done all which human power and foresight enabled them to accomplish. The valor and devotion of the people have not only sustained the efforts of the Government, but have gone far to support its deficiencies. The active state of military preparations among the nations of Europe in April last, the date when our agents first went abroad, interposed unavoidable delays in the procurement of arms, and the want of a navy has greatly impeded our efforts to import military supplies of all sorts. The have hoped for several days to receive official reports in relation to our discomfiture at Roanoke Island and the fall of Fort Donelson. They have not yet reached me, and I am, therefore, unable to communicate to you such information of the late events and the consequences resulting from them as would enable me to make recommendations founded upon the changed condition which they have produced. Enough is known of the surrender of Roanoke Island to make us feel that it was deeply humiliating, however imperfect may have been the preparations for defence. hope is still entertained that our reported losses at Fort Donelson have been greatly exaggerated, inasmuch as I am not only unwilling but unable to believe that a large army of our people have surrendered without a desperate effort to cut their way through the investing forces, whatever may have been their numbers, and to endeavor to make a junction with other divisions of the army. But, in the absence of that exact information which can only be afforded by official reports, it would be premature to pass judg ment, and my own is reserved, as I trust yours will be, until that information is received. In the mean time, strenuous efforts have been made to throw forward reenforcements to the armies at the positions threatened, and I cannot doubt that the bitter disappointments we have borne, by nerving the people to still greater exertions, will speedily secure results more accordant with our just expectations, and as favorable to our cause as those which marked the earlier periods of the war. The reports of the Secretaries of War and Navy will exhibit the mass of resources for the conduct of the war which we have been enabled to accumulate, notwithstanding the very serious difficulties against which we have contended. They afford cheering hope that our resources, limited as they were at the beginning of the contest, will, during its progress, become devel oped to such an extent as fully to meet our future wants. The policy of enlistment for short terms, against which I have steadily contended from the commence. ment of the war, has, in my judgment, contributed in no immaterial degree to the recent reverses which we have suffered, and even now renders it difficult to furnish you an accurate statement of the army. When the war first broke out many of our people could with difficulty be persuaded that it would be long or serious. It was not deemed possible that anything so insane as a persistent attempt to subjugate these States could be made; still less that the delusion would so far prevail as to give to the war the vast proportions which it has assumed. The people, incredulous of a long war, were naturally averse to long enlistments, and the early legislation of Congress rendered it impracticable to obtain volunteers for a greater period than twelve months. Now that it has become probable that the war will be continued through a series of years, our high-spirited and gallant soldiers, while generally reenlisting, are, from the fact of having entered the service for a short term, compelled, in many instances, to go home to make the necessary arrangements for their families during their prolonged absence. The quotas of new regiments for the war, called for from the different States, are in rapid progress of organization. The whole body of new levies and reenlisted men will probably be ready in the ranks within the next thirty days. But in the mean time it is exceedingly difficult to give an accurate statement of the number of our forces in the field. They may in general terms be stated at four hundred regiments of infantry, with a proportionate force of cavalry and artillery, the details of which will be shown by the report of the Secretary of War. I deem it proper to advert to the fact that the process of furloughs and reenlistments in progress for the last month had so far disorganized and weakened our forces as to impair our ability for successful defence; but I heartily congratulate you that this evil, which I had foreseen and was powerless to prevent, may now be said to be substantially at an end, and that we shall not agam during the war be exposed to seeing our strength diminished by this fruitful cause of disaster-short enlistments. The people of the Confederate States, being principally engaged in agricultural pursuits, were unprovided at the commencement of hostilities with ships, ship yards, materials for ship building, or skilled mechanics and seamen in sufficient numbers to make the prompt creation of a navy a practical task, even if the required appropriations had been made for the purpose. Notwithstanding our very limited resources, however, the report of the Secretary will exhibit to you a satisfactory proportion in preparation, and certainty of early completion of vessels of a number and class on which we may confidently rely for testing the vaunted control of the enemy over our waters. The financial system devised by the wisdom of your predecessors has proved adequate to supplying all the wants of the Government, notwithstanding the unexpected and very large increase of expenditures resulting from the great augmentation in the necessary means of defence. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will exhibit the gratifying fact that we have no floating debt; that the credit of the Gorernment is unimpaired; and that the total expenditure of the Government for the year has been, in round numbers, one hundred and seventy millions of dollars -less than one-third of the sum wasted by the enemy in his vain effort to conquer us; less than the value of a single article of export-the cotton crop of the year. The report of the Postmaster-General will show the condition of that Department to be steadily improving, its revenues increasing, and already affording the assurance that it will be self-sustaining at the date required by the Constitution, while affording ample mail facilities for the people. In the Department of Justice, which includes the Patent Office and Public Printing, some legislative provision will be required, which will be specifically stated in the report of the head of that department. I invite the attention of Congress to the duty of organizing a Supreme Court of the Confederate States, in accordance with the mandate of the Constitution. I refer you to my Message, communicated to the Provisional Congress in November last, for such further information touching the condition of public affairs as it might be useful to lay before you, the short interval which has since elapsed not having produced any material changes in that condition other than those to which reference has already been made. In conclusion, I cordially welcome representatives who, recently chosen by the people, are fully imbued with their views and feelings, and can so ably advise me as to the needful provisions for the public service. I assure you of my hearty coöperation in all your ef forts for the common welfare of the country. JEFFERSON DAVIS. Message of President Davis at the second or adjourned Session of the Confederate Congress -August 15, 1862. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States: It is again our fortune to meet for devising measures necessary for the public welfare, whilst our country is involved in a desolating war. The sufferings endured by some portions of the people excite the deepest solicitude of the Government, and the sympathy thus evoked has been heightened by the patriotic devotion with which these sufferings have been borne. The gallantry and good conduct of our troops, always claiming the gratitude of the country, have been further illus trated on hard-fought fields, marked by exhibitions of individual prowess which can find but few parallels in ancient or modern history. Our army has not faltered in any of the various trials to which it has been subjected, and the great body of the people have continued to manifest a zeal and unanimity which not only cheer the battle-stained soldier, but give assurance to the friends of constitutional liberty of our final triumph in the pending struggle against despotic usurpation. The vast army which threatened the capital of the Confederacy has been defeated and driven from the lines of investment, and the enemy, repeatedly foiled in his efforts for its capture, is now seeking to raise new armies on a scale such as modern history does not record to effect that subjugation of the South so often proclaimed as on the eve of accomplishment. The perfidy which disregarded rights secured by compact, the madness which trampled on obligations made sacred by every consideration of honor, have been intensified by the malignity engendered by defeat. These passions have changed the character of the hostilities waged by our enemies, who are becoming daily less regardful of the usages of civilized war and the dictates of humanity. Rapine and wanton destruction of private property, war upon non-combatants, murder of captives, bloody threats to avenge the death of an invading soldiery by the slaughter of unarmed citizens, orders of banishment against peaceful farmers engaged in the cultivation of the soil, are some of the means used by our ruthless invaders to enfore the submission of a free people to foreign sway. Confiscation bills of a character so atrocious as to insure, if executed, the utter ruin of the entire population of these States, are passed by their Congress and approved by their Executive. The moneyed obligations of the Confederate Government are forged by citizens of the United States, and publicly advertised for sale in their cities with a notoriety that sufficiently attests the knowledge of their Government, and its complicity in the crime is further evinced by the fact that the soldiers of the invading armies are found supplied with large quantities of these forged notes as a means of despoiling the country people, by fraud, out of such portions of their property as armed violence may fail to reach. Two, at least, of the generals of the United States are engaged, unchecked by their Government, in exciting servile insurrection, and in arming and training slaves for warfare against their masters, citizens of the Confederacy. Another has been found of instincts so brutal as to invite the violence of his soldiery against the women of a captured city. Yet, the rebuke of civilized men has failed to evoke from the authorities of the United States one mark of disapprobation of its acts; nor is there any reason to suppose that the conduct of Benjamin F. Butler has failed to secure from his Government the sanction and applause with which it is known to have been greeted by public meetings and portions of the press of the United States. To inquiries made of the Commanderin-Chief of the armies of the United States, whether the atrocious conduct of some of their military commandants met the sanction of that Government, answer has been evaded on the pretext that the inquiry was insulting, and no method remains for the suppression of these enormities but such retributive justice as it may be found possible to execute. Retaliation in kind for many of them is impracticable, for I have had occasion to remark in a former Message, that under no excess of provocation could our noble-hearted defenders be driven to wreak vengeance on unarmed men, on women, or on children. But stern and exemplary punishment can and must be meted out to the murderers and felons, who, disgracing the profession of arms, seek to make of public war the occasion for the commission of the most monstrous crimes. Deeply as we regret the character of the contest into which we are about to be forced, we must accept it as an alternative which recent manifestations give us little hope can be avoided. The exasperation of failure has aroused the worst passions of our enemies, a large portion of their people, even of their clergymen, now engage in urging an excited populace to the extreme of ferocity, and nothing remains but to vindicate our rights and to maintain our existence by employing against our foe every energy and every resource at our disposal. I append for your information a copy of the paper exhibiting the action of the Government, up to the present time, for the repression of the outrages committed on our people. Other measures, now in progress, will be submitted hereafter. In inviting your attention to the legislation which the necessities of our condition require, those connected with the prosecution of the war command almost undivided attention. The acts passed at your last session intended to sesure the public defence by general enrolment, and to render uniform the rule governing troops in the service, have led to some unexpected criticism that is much to be regretted. The efficiency of the law has been thus somewhat impaired, though it is not believed that in any of the States the popular mind has withheld its sanction from either the necessity or propriety of your legislation. It is only by harmonious as well as zealous action, that a Government as new as ours, ushered into existence on the very eve of a great war, and unprovided with the material necessary for conducting hostilities on so vast a scale, can fulfil its duties. Upon you, who are fully informed of the acts and purposes of the Government, and thoroughly imbued with the feelings and sentiments of the people, must reliance be placed to secure this great object. You can best devise the means for establishing that cooperation of the State and Confederate Governments which is essential to the well-being of both at all times, but which is now indispensable to their very existence. And if any legislation shall seem to you appropriate for adjusting differences of opinion, it will be my pleasure as well as duty to cooperate in any measures that may be devised for reconciling a just care for the public defence with a proper deference for the most scrupulous susceptibilities of the State authorities. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will exhibit in detail the operations of that department. It will be seen with satisfaction that the credit of the Government securities remains unimpaired, and that this credit is fully justified by the comparatively small amount of accumulated debt, notwithstanding the magnitude of our military operations. The legislation of the last session provided for the purchase of supplies with the bonds of the Government, but the preference of the people for Treasury notes has been so marked that the legislation is recommended to authorize an increase in the issue of Treasury notes, which the public service seems to require. No grave inconvenience need be apprehended from this increased issue, as the provision of law by which these notes are convertible into eight per cent. bonds, forms an efficient and permanent safeguard against any serious depreciation of the currency. Your attention is also invited to the means proposed by the Secretary for facilitating the preparation of these notes, and for guarding them against forgery. It is due to our people to state that the manufacture of counterfeit notes exists with in our limits, and that they are imported also from the Northern States. The report of the Secretary of War, which is submitted, contains numerous suggestions for the legislation deemed desirable in order to add to the efficiency of the service. I invite your favorable consideration especially to those recommendations which are intended to secure the proper execution of the conscript law, and the consolidation of companies, battalions, and regiments, when so reduced in strength as to impair that uniformity of organization which is necessary in the army, while an undue burden is imposed on the Treasury. The necessity for some legislation for controlling military transportation on the railroads, and improving their present defective condition, forces itself upon the attention of the Government, and I trust that you will be able to devise satisfactory measures for attaining this purpose. The legislation on the subject of general officers involves the service in some difficulties which are pointed out by the Secretary, and for which the remedy suggested by him seems appropriate. In connection with this subject I am of opinion that prudence dictates some provision for the increase of the army, in the event of emergencies not now anticipated. The very large increase of force recently called into the field by the President of the United States may render it necessary hereafter to extend the provisions of the conscript law, so as to embrace persons between the age of thirty-five and forty-five years. The vigor and efficiency of our present forces, their condition, and the skill and ability which distinguish their leaders, inspire the belief that no further enrolment will be necessary, but a wise foresight requires that if a necessity should be suddenly developed during the recess of Congress requiring increased forces for our defence, means should exist for calling such forces into the field, without awaiting the reassembling of the legislative department of the Government. In the election and appointment of officers for the provisional army, it was to be anticipated that mistakes would be made, and incompetent officers of all grades introduced into the service. In the absence of experience, and with no reliable guide for selection, executive appointments, as well as elections, have been sometimes unfortunate. The good of the service, the interests of our country, require that some means be devised for withdrawing the commissions of officers who are incompetent for the duties required by their position, and I trust that you will find means for relieving the army of such officers by some mode more prompt and less wounding to the sensibility than judgment of court martial. Within a recent period we have effected the object so long desired, of an arrangement for the exchange of prisoners, which is now being executed by delivery at the points agreed upon, and which will, it is hoped, speedily restore our brave and unfortunate countrymen to their places in the ranks of the army, from which, by the fortune of war, they have for a time been separated. The details of this arrangement will be communicated to you in a special report when further progress has been made in their execution. Of other particulars concerning the operations of the War Department you will be informed by the Secre tary in his report and the accompanying documents. The report of the Secretary of the Navy embraces a statement of the operations and present condition of this branch of the public service, both afloat and ashore; the construction and equipment of armed vessels at home and abroad, the manufacture of ordnance and ordnance stores, the establishment of workshops and the development of our resources of coal and of iron. Some legislation seems essential for securing crews for vessels. The difficulties now experienced on this point are fully stated in the Secretary's report, and I invite your attention to providing a remedy. The report of the Postmaster-General discloses the embarrassments which resulted in the postal service from the occupation by the enemy of the Mississippi river and portions of the territory of the different States. The measures taken by the department for relieving these embarrassments, as far as practicable, are detailed in the report. It is a subject of congratalation, that during the ten months which ended on the 31st of March last, the expenses of the department were largely decreased, whilst its revenue was ang mented, as compared with a corresponding period ending on the 30th June, 1860, when the postal service for these States was conducted under the authority delegated to the United States. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to determine whether the measures heretofore devised by Congress will accomplish the end of bringing the expenditures of the department within the limit of its own revenues by the first of March next, as required by the Constitution. I am happy to inform you that, in spite both of blandishments and threats, used in profusion by the agents of the Government of the United States, the Indian nations within the Confederacy have remained firm in their loyalty and steadfast in the observance of their treaty engagements with this Government. Nor has their fidelity been shaken by the fact that, owing to the vacancies in some of the offices of agents and superintendents, delay has occurred in the payments of the annuities and allowances to which they are entitled. I would advise some provision authorizing payments to be made by other officers, in the absence of those especially charged by law with this duty. We have never-ceasing cause to be grateful for the favor with which God has protected our infant Confederacy. And it becomes us reverently to return our thanks and humbly to ask of his bounteousness that wisdom which is needful for the performance of the high trusts with which we are charged. JEFFERSON DAVIS. Emancipation Proclamation of President LINCOLN, issued January 1st, 1863. Whereas on the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtytwo, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any States or desig nated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and for ever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand [L. 8.] eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eightyseventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: Retaliatory Proclamation by JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Confederate States. WHEREAS a communication was addressed on the 6th day of July last, 1862, by Gen. Robert E. Lee, acting under the instructions of the Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America, to Gen. H. W. Halleck, Commander-in-Chief of the United States army, informing the latter that a report had reached this Gov. ernment that Wm. B. Mumford, a citizen of the Confederate States, had been executed by the United States authorities at New Orleans, for having pulled down the United States flag in that city before its occupation by the United States forces, and calling for a statement of the facts, with a view of retaliation if such an outrage had really been committed under the sanction of the United States; and whereas (no answer VOL. II.-47 having been received to said letter) another letter was on the 2d of August last (1862), addressed by Gen. Lee, under my instructions, to Gen. Halleck, renewing the inquiries in relation to the execution of the said Mumford, with the information that in the event of not receiving a reply within fifteen days, it would be assumed that the fact was true, and was sanctioned by the Government of the United States; and whereas an answer, dated on the 7th of August last (1862), was addressed to Gen. Lee by Gen. W. H. Halleck, the said General-in-Chief of the armies of the United States, alleging sufficient causes for failure to make early reply to said letter of the 6th of July, asserting that "No authentic information had been received in relation to the execution of Mumford, but measures will be immediately taken to ascertain the facts of the alleged execution," and promising that Gen. Lee should be duly informed thereof; and whereas, on the 25th of November last (1862), another letter was addressed, under my instructions, by Robert Ould, Confederate agent for the exchange of prisoners, under the cartel between the two Governments, to Lieut.-Col. W. H. Ludlow, agent of the United States under said cartel, informing him that the explanation promised in the said letter of Gen. Halleck, of the 7th of August last, had not yet been received, and that if no answer was sent to the Government within fifteen days from the delivery of this last communication, it would be considered that an answer is declined; and whereas, in a letter dated on the 3d day of the present month of December, the said Lieut.-Col. Ludlow apprized the said Robert Ould that the above-recited communication of the 19th of November had been received and forwarded to the Secretary of War of the United States, and whereas this last delay of fifteen days allowed for answer has elapsed, and no answer has been received; and whereas, in addition to the tacit admission resulting from the above refusal to answer, I have received evidence fully establishing the truth of the fact that the said Wm. B. Mumford, a citizen of the Confederacy, was actually and publicly executed in cold blood by hanging, after the occupation of New Orleans by the forces under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, when said Mumford was an unresisting and non-combatant captive, and for no offences even alleged to have been committed by him subsequent to the date of the capture of said city; and whereas the silence of the Government of the United States, and its maintaining of said Butler in high office under its authority for many months after his commission of an act that can be viewed in no other light than as a deliberate murder, as well as of numerous other outrages and atrocities hereafter to be mentioned, afford evidence too conclusive that the said Government sanctions the conduct of the said Butler, and is determined that he shall remain unpunished for these crimes; Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, and in their name do pronounce and declare the said Benjamin F. Butler a felon, deserving capital punishment. I do order that he be no longer considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate States of America, but as an outlaw and common enemy of mankind, and that in the event of his capture, the officer in command of executed by hanging, and I do further order that the capturing force do cause him to be immediately no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be released on parole before exchange until the said Butler shall have met with due punishment for his crimes. And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy by the forces of the United States, under the command of said Benjamin F. Butler, have borne no resemblance to such warfare as is alone permitable by the rules of international law or the usages of civilization, but have been characterized by repeated atrocities and outrages; The following are examples: Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives, and non-combatants have been confined at hard labor with chains attached to their limbs, and are so held in dungeons and fortresses; others have been submitted to a |