lease of captured pirates (under the order of the President issued from the State Department) as prisoners of war, by exchange, by cartel, of prisoners of war captured on land, by claiming the right of retaliation, and by va rious other acts, which are legitimate in the conduct of the war, but irreconcilable with the assumption that the United States are not engaged in war, but only in en. forcing the laws against certain criminals who have violated certain statutes by engaging in insurrection or rebellion.

If these acts and these proclamations do not show that the Executive Department has declared and determined the status of the inhabitants in insurrection to be that of public enemies, it would be difficult to conceive of any course of executive proceedings that would have had that effect.†

CONGRESS.

The action of the Legislative Department, which has been in harmony with that of the President, has in like manner definitively pronounced the inhabitants of insurrectionary States to be public enemies. In the war of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, the Act of July 6, 1812, and the Act of February 4, 1815, indicated the character and extent of legislation necessary to record the decision of the Legislative Department, that Great Britain was at that time a public enemy.

But since the present rebellion commenced, Congress has enacted laws far more stringent and comprehensive than either of those above cited, against the inhabitants of the rebellious States. The four chief acts which re

*See War Powers, 8th ed. p. 215.

†The effect of the President's Message and Proclamation of Amnesty of Dec. 8, 1863, upon the persons, property, and political rights of the inhabitants of rebellious states, far transcends in importance that of either of his previous executive acts.

cord the decision of Congress on the question whether rebels are public or private enemies, are, —

In the extraordinary but brief session of the 37th Congress, which assembled on the 4th of July, 1861, and lasted but thirty-three days, statutes of the highest importance were passed, and among them none will hereafter attract more attention than the Act of July 13, 1861, ch. 3. Means were thereby provided for collecting the revenue in rebellious districts by the use of military and naval forces, the President was authorized to close ports of entry, and it was enacted, in the fifth section,

"That whenever the President, in pursuance of the provisions of the second section of the act entitled An act to provide for the calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose,' approved February 28, 1795, shall have called forth the militia to suppress combinations against the laws of the United States, and to cause the laws to be duly executed, and the insurgents shall have failed to disperse by the time directed by the President, and when said insurgents claim to act under the authority of any State or States, and such claim is not disclaimed or repudiated by the persons exercising the functions of government in such State or States, or in the part or parts thereof in which said combination exists, nor such insurrection suppressed by said State or States, then in such case it may and shall be lawful for the President, by proclamation, to declare that the inhabitants of such State, or any section or part thereof where such insurrection exists, are in a state of insurrection against the United States; and thereupon all commercial intercourse by and between the same and the citizens thereof, and the citizens of the rest of the United States, shall cease and be unlawful so long as such condition of hostility shall continue; and all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise coming from said State or section into the other parts of the United States, and all proceeding to such State or section, by land or water, shall, together with the vessel or vehicle conveying the same, or conveying persons to or from such State or section, be forfeited to the United States."

Also, in the sixth section, it was enacted,

"That from and after fifteen days after the issuing of the said proclamation, as provided in the last foregoing section of this act, any ship or vessel belong.

ing in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of said State or part of a State whose inhabitants are so declared in a state of insurrection, found at sea, or in any port of the rest of the United States, shall be forfeited to the United States."

By the Act of May 20, 1862, ch. 81, further provisions were made interdicting commerce between loyal and disloyal States, and new forfeitures and penalties were prescribed.

By the Act of July 17, 1862, ch. 195, a new punishment for the crime of treason was declared, penalties were prescribed against all persons who should engage in, or give aid or comfort to the rebellion or insurrection, and they were declared to be disqualified from holding office under the United States. By Section fifth it was enacted,

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That, to insure the speedy termination of the present rebellion, it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the seizure of all the estates and property, money, stocks, credits, and effects of the persons hereinafter named in this section, and to apply and use the same and the proceeds thereof for the support of the army of the United States; that is to say,— "First. Of any person hereafter acting as an officer of the army or navy of the rebels in arms against the government of the United States.

"Secondly. Of any person hereafter acting as president, vice-president, member of Congress, judge of any court, cabinet officer, foreign minister, commissioner, or consul of the so-called confederate states of America.

"Thirdly. Of any person acting as governor of a State, member of a convention or legislature, or judge of any court of the so-called confederate states of America.

Fourthly. Of any person who, having held an office of honor, trust, or profit in the United States, shall hereafter hold an office in the so-called confederate states of America.

"Fifthly. Of any person hereafter holding any office or agency under the government of the so-called confederate states of America, or under any of the several states of the said confederacy, or the laws thereof, whether such office or agency be national, state, or municipal in its name or character. Provided, That the persons, thirdly, fourthly, and fifthly above described, shall have accepted their appointment or election since the date of the pretended ordinance of secession of the State, or shall have taken an oath of allegiance to, or to support the constitution of the so-called confederate

states.

"Sixthly. Of any person who, owning property in any loyal State or Territory of the United States, or in the District of Columbia, shall hereafter assist and give aid and comfort to such rebellion; and all sales, transfers, or conveyances of any such property shall be null and void; and it shall be a sufficient bar to any suit brought by such person for the possession or the use of such property, or any of it, to allege and prove that he is one of the persons described in this section."

Section sixth provided that if any persons other than those above named, had engaged in, or aided the armed rebellion, and should not within a limited time return to their allegiance, their property should be liable to seizure and condemnation.

Section seventh provided proceedings for confiscation of such property, real and personal,

"And if said property, whether real or personal, shall be found to have belonged to a person engaged in rebellion, or who has given aid or comfort thereto, the same shall be condemned as enemies' property, and become the property of the United States."

"Slaves escaping, and taking refuge within the lines of the army, and all slaves captured from, or deserted by, those engaged in rebellion, and coming under control of the government of the United States, and all slaves of such persons found or being within any place occupied by rebel forces, and afterwards occupied by forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war," etc.

The Act approved March 12, 1863, ch. 120, § 1, provides that agents may be appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to collect all abandoned and captured property in any State or Territory designated as in insurrection by the proclamation of July 1, 1862,

'Provided, that such property shall not include any kind or description which has been used, or which was intended to be used, for waging or carrying on war against the United States, such as arms, ordinance, ships, steamboats, or other water craft, and the furniture, forage, or other military supplies or munitions of war."

Section fourth of the same statute, provides,

"That all property coming into any of the United States not declared in insurrection as aforesaid, from within any of the states declared in insurrec

tion, through or by any other person than any agent, duly appointed under the provisions of this act, or under a lawful clearance by the proper officer of the Treasury Department, shall be confiscated to the use of the government of the United States. And the proceedings for the condemnation and sale of any such property shall be instituted and conducted under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, in the mode prescribed by the eighty-ninth and ninetieth sections of the act of March 2, 1799, entitled, 'An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage.' And any agent or agents, person or persons, by or through whom such property shall come within the lines of the United States unlawfully, as aforesaid, shall be judged guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisoned for any time not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court. And the fines, penalties, and forfeitures accruing under this act, may be mitigated or remitted in the mode prescribed by the act of March 3, 1797, or in such manner, in special cases, as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe.”

From these statutes it is seen that the Legislative Department has recognized "certain districts of country, not only as in a state of insurrection and rebellion,” but as "carrying on a war" against the United States. Commercial intercourse has been interdicted between the insurrectionary and the loyal States, and property found in transitu is made liable to seizure and confiscation, for the use of the United States, and property of persons engaged in the rebellion is to be seized and confiscated as ENEMIES' property. The inhabitants (that is to say ALL the inhabitants) of the insurrectionary States, or parts of States, are declared to be in a state of insurrection against the United States, and any ship or vessel, belonging in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of such State, whose inhabitants are so declared in insurrection, found at sea, or in any part of the rest of the United States, shall be forfeited to the United States.

Thus belligerent rights derived from the acknowledged existence of civil territorial war, have been plainly asserted and exercised by Congress, and the insurrectionists have been treated as a public enemy in every form and manner known to legislation, and in language far more