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OCTOBER, 1861     DOUGLAS'S MONTHLY.     535

Congress passed the 6th day of last August upon the same subjects, and hence I wrote you expressing my wish that that clause should be modified accordingly.

Your answer just received expresses the preference on your part that I should make an open order for the modification, which I very cheerfully do.  It is therefore ordered, that the said clause of the said proclamation be so modified, held and construed, as to conform with and not to transcend the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress entitled 'An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,' approved Aug. 6, 1861, and that said act be published along with this order.

Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN.


THE CONFISCATION ACT.

The act which is to be enforced in Missouri, under Major-General Fremont's proclamation, and to which the President refers in his letter of Sept. 11th, is as follows:

AN ACT TO CONFISCATE PROPERTY USED FOR INSURRECTIONARY PURPOSES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That if, during the present or any future insurrection against the Government of the United States, after the President of the United States shall have declared, by proclamation, that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law, any person or persons, his, her, or their agent, attorney, or employee, shall purchase or acquire, sell or give, any property of whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ the same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in aiding, abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws, or any person or persons engaged therein; or if any person or persons, being the owner or owners of any such property, shall knowingly use or employ, or consent to the use or employment of the same as aforesaid, all such property is hereby declared to be lawful subject of prize and capture wherever found; and it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the same to be seized, confiscated, and condemned.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That such prizes and capture shall be condemned in the District or Circuit Court of the United States having jurisdiction of the amount, or in admiralty in any district in which the same may be seized, or into which they may be taken and proceedings first instituted.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Attorney-General or any District Attorney of the United States in which said property may at any time be, may institute the proceedings of condemnation, and in such case they shall be wholly for the benefit of the United States; or any person may file an information with such an Attorney, in which case the proceedings shall be for the use of such informer and the United States in equal parts.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection against the Government of the U. S., any person claimed to be held to labor or service under the law of any State shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or by the lawful agent of such person, to take up arms against the United States; or shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or his lawful agent, to work or to be employed in or upon any fort, navy-yard, dock, armory, ship, intrenchment, or in any military or naval service whatsoever, against the Government and lawful authority of the United States, then, and in every such case, the person to whom such labor is claimed to be due shall forfeit his claim to such labor, any law of the State or of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding.  And whenever thereafter the person claiming such labor

or service shall seek to enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient answer to such claim that the person who service or labor is claimed had been employed in hostile service against the government of the United States, contrary to the provision of this act.
Approved August 6, 1861.


HOW GENERAL FREMONT'S PROCLAMATION WAS RECEIVED BY THE PRESS.

IN THE WEST.

[From the Cincinnati Commercial.]
The proclamation addressed to the people of Missouri, by Gen. Fremont, is the subject of general discussion.  The morbid sensitiveness of the public mind regarding the relations of slavery and civil war, is likely to cause an exaggerated view of the consequences of this proclamation.  It is, indeed, simply the recognition of the military necessity, which has been forced by the secessionists who have invaded Missouri, stirred up neighborhood trifles, and are confiscating and destroying the property and taking the lives of loyal citizens.  The secessionists themselves are the real abolitionists.  They have made the war, and have forced the negro into it; and they must be the sufferers.  The application of General Fremont's proclamation is to them, and to them alone.  Loyal citizens will of course still be protected in all their rights under the State laws, property in slaves included.  The Confederate Congress has passed a confiscation act, which confiscates 'all property of every description owned, possessed or enjoyed by alien enemies since the 21st of May, 1861.'  'Alien enemies' are people of the North who hold property in the South, or Southern men who refuse to take the rebel test oath.  Their property, negroes included, is confiscated; according to the Fremont proclamation only the property of traitors in arms against the Government is confiscated.

[From the Chicago Tribune.]
This important document brings us down to the hard-pan of the rebellion.  After a world of tribulation and endless expense on account of the savages of North Missouri, who employ their time and bank robbing, land piracy, and the assassination of unarmed travelers, the extreme penalty of the law is to be meted out to all traders in that section--death to themselves, confiscation of their property, and freedom to their slaves.  All other methods have been tried, and all have failed. . . . . . 'Now,' says General Fremont, 'you rebel masters may fight your own slaves.  This Republic is too precious to be sacrificed while a weapon is left to defend it, and when you present the alternative of no country or no slavery, down comes the horrid institution which caused this war.'  These, though not the precise words, are the precise meaning of the proclamation, and who shall gainsay it?

[From the Cincinnati Gazette.]
Gen. Fremont's proclamation of the laws of war to the Missouri rebels electrified our people. They received it as evidence that now the rebellion is to be treated as a crime, that the war of rebellion is to be met by the laws of war, and that the Government will now act as if it was in earnest and in the right in putting down the insurrection. – Hitherto it has been treated with so much tenderness and distinguished consideration that it has demoralized public sentiment. – Men see so much hesitation in the Government, and so much boldness and decision in the rebels, that they almost forget that one is a constitutional Government, and the other a criminal rebellion, and they come almost to regard both as having the same claims and rights. The Government does not even treated according to the laws of war, and gradually the people come to regard it as only a difference of opinion.

[From the Louisville Journal.]
Whatever may be said respecting the fitness or unfitness of proclaiming martial law in Missouri, few, except the more raving secessionists, will deny that the state of things

which constitutes the alleged necessity for the proclamation arose in the first instance from the failure of Missouri, under the control of a disloyal Governor and Legislature, to protect her loyal citizens and to uphold within her borders the just supremacy of the nation.

[[From the Louisville Courier, Secession.]
Major-Gen. Fremont, known to the country principally by his insubordination and speculations in California during the Mexican war, and as the representative of the idea of the abolition of those 'twin relics of barbarism, slavery and polygamy,' in the Presidential canvas of 1856, has issued a proclamation, . . . . in which he assumes absolute power over the property and lives of the people of the entire State, and proclaims his intention to be controlled in the exercise of that power only by his sovereign will and pleasure.  This extraordinary act is done without a shadow of warrant in the Constitution or the laws, and without a pretense of any.  It is an abominable, atrocious and infamous usurpation, by a military subordinate of the President, of powers which to-day are neither exercised nor claimed by the most despotic ruler in Europe--a usurpation which nothing could justify or excuse--a usurpation which outlaws the contemptible tyrant who thus would reduce to a slavery worse and more abject than that which prevails on southern plantations the white freemen of a sovereign State.

[Here the Courier indulges in frantic assertions that Fremont will soon be driven out of Missouri.]

[From the Cincinnati Enquirer.]
There is much speculation in our city to know how the President will treat Fremont's proclamation.  As it is directly in the face of Cameron's instructions to Gen. Butler, and Attorney-General Bates's letter to the Marshal of Kansas, many suppose that Fremont has acted on his own responsibility, without any instructions from Washington.  Others feel sure that Gen. Fremont would not, of his own accord, assume so great a responsibility as that of changing the hitherto declared policy of the Administration.  These latter argue that Frank Blair, who has a brother in the Cabinet, procured authority for the issuing of such a proclamation.  One thing is admitted, and that is, that Fremont, by this proclamation, has put himself at the head of the radical Republicans; and that he now overtops Lincoln, Seward and Chase, in the estimation of the great body of his party.--He will, for the future, be looked to as the man to give vitality and progress to the great principles of the anti-slavery party; and should the exigency of the country, in the opinion of the leaders, demand the movement, he will be the man who will be put in the President's place as Military Dictator.

[From the St. Louis Republican.]
The proclamation of Major-Gen. Fremont is the most important document which has yet appeared in the progress of the war.  Let it be read with careful consideration by every citizen. . . . . . There is no longer any middle ground or room for traitors where the lawful Government has sway.  Gen. Fremont strikes boldly and fearlessly.  The consolidated patriotism and the boundless resources of the great Northwest are at his beck.  Let every faithful man, by word and deed, give aid and encouragement to this grand movement for the re-establishment of the whole people.

[From the St. Louis Democrat.]
This declaration will attract much attention, as the introduction of a new policy in reference to the slaves of the rebels.  It is a marked and bold step, and an evident improvement upon Gen. Butler's course in confiscating the slaves as contraband.  The effect of this declaration upon the rebels will be decided.--There slaves are virtually already freed by Fremont's proclamation.  This is a heavy blow, properly and opportunely aimed, and will act as a powerful preventive and sedative to those who are predisposed to, or are laboring under the delirium of secession. . . . All honor to Gen. Fremont that he has the sagacity to perceive and justly measure the

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