Proclamation. In this, the rebels saw their doom. They well knew that if once the negro had his liberty, no power on earth could enslave him again; and also felt assured the freedman would be placed in the army.

On the 29th of September, 1862, the proposed proclamation was before the Rebel Congress, when a warm discussion followed as to the best mode of retaliation. Many plans were suggested, all exhibiting the most brutal and murderous propensities. A few samples of the spirit of Southern Congressmen will suffice to show how completely the traffic in men had brutalized the subjects of the Sovereign States.

The following resolution was introduced by Mr. Semmes, of Louisiana:

"Resolved, By the Congress of the Confederate States, that the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, issued in the City of Washington, in the year 1862, wherein he declares that on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated parts of States, whereof the people shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be henceforth and forever free,' is leveled against the citizens of the Confederate States, and as such is a gross violation of the usages of civilized warfare, an outrage on the rights of private property, and an invitation to an atrocious servile war, and therefore should be held up to the execration of mankind, and counteracted by such retaliatory measures as in the judgment of the President may be most calculated to secure its withdrawal or arrest its execution."

Mr. Clark, of Missouri, was "in favor of declaring every citizen of the Southern Confederacy a soldier, authorized to put to death every man caught on our soil in arms against the Government."

Mr. Henry, of Tennessee, said: "The resolution did not go far enough." He "favored the passage of a law providing that, upon any attempt being made to

execute the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, we immediately hoist the black flag, and proclaim a war of extermination against all invaders of our soil."

Mr. Phelan, of Mississippi, said that he "was always in favor of conducting the war under the black flag; if that flag had been raised a year ago, the war would be ended now."

October 1st, 1862, the Judiciary Committee of the Confederate Congress, made a report and offered a set of resolutions upon the subject of President Lincoln's proclamation, from which the following are extracts:

"2. Every white person who shall act as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer, commanding negroes or mulattoes against the Confederate States, or who shall arm, organize, train, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service, or aid them in any military enterprise against the Confederate States, shall, if captured, suffer death.

"3. Every commissioned or non-commissioned officer of the enemy who shall incite slaves to rebellion, or pretend to give them freedom, under the aforementioned Act of Congress and Proclamation, by abducting, or causing them to be abducted, or inducing them to abscond, shall, if captured, suffer death.”

Senator Hill, of Georgia, introduced the following resolution in the Confederate Congress:

"That every person pretending to be a soldier or officer of the United States, who shall be captured on the soil of the Confederate States, after the 1st day of January, 1863, shall be presumed to have entered the territory of the Confederate States with intent to incite insurrection and abet murder; and unless satisfactory proof be adduced to the contrary, before the military court before which the trial shall be had, shall suffer death. This section shall continue in force until the proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated at Washington on the 22d day of September, 1862, shall be rescinded, and the policy therein announced shall be abandoned, and no longer."

The Confederate Congress finally left the subject to

President Davis.

A general exchange of prisoners under the recognized rules of war was soon after affected, and the war progressed without the black flag of the Democracy of the South, save at Fort Pillow and a few other places.