INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT DAVIS AND SECRETARY MALLORY--MY COMMAND ORGANIZED
AS A BRIGADE OF ARTILLERY--BRIGADE MARCHES TO GREENSBORO', NORTH
CAROLINA--CAPITULATION BETWEEN GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON AND
SHERMAN--DISPERSION OF JOHNSTON'S TROOPS--AUTHOR RETURNS HOME, AND IS
ARRESTED--CONCLUSION.
My memoirs are drawing to a close, for the career of the Confederacy, as
well as my own, is nearly ended. I found, at Danville, President Davis,
and a portion of his cabinet--the Secretary of the Navy among the rest.
Here was temporarily established the seat of Government. I called on the
President and Secretary, who were staying at the same house, at an early
hour on the morning after my arrival, and reported for duty. They were
both calm in the presence of the great disaster which had befallen them
and the country. Mr. Mallory could scarcely be said now to have a
portfolio, though he still had the officers and clerks of his Department
around him. It was at once arranged between him, and the President, that
my command should be organized as a brigade of artillery, and assigned to
the defences around Danville. The question of my rank being discussed, it
was settled by Mr. Davis, that I should act in the capacity of a
brigadier-general. My grade being that of a rear-admiral, I was entitled
to rank, relatively, with the officers of the army, as a major-general,
but it was folly, of course, to talk of rank, in the circumstances in
which we were placed, and so I contented myself by saying pleasantly to
the President, that I would waive the matter of rank, to be discussed
hereafter, if there should ever be occasion to discuss it. "That is the
right spirit," said he, with a smile playing over his usually grave
features.
I did not see him afterward. He moved soon to Charlotte, in North
Carolina, and in a few weeks afterward, he fell into the hands of the
enemy. The reader knows the rest of his history; how the enemy gloated
over his captivity; how he was reviled, and insulted, by the coarse and
brutal men into whose power he had fallen; how lies were invented as to
the circumstances of his capture, to please and amuse the Northern
multitudes, eager for his blood; and finally, how he was degraded by
imprisonment, and the manacles of a felon! His captors and he were of
different races--of different blood. They had nothing in common. He was
the "Cavalier," endowed by nature with the instincts and refinement of the
gentleman. They were of the race of the Roundheads, to whom all such
instincts and refinements were offensive. God has created men in different
moulds, as he has created the animals. It was as natural that the Yankee
should hate Jefferson Davis, as that the cat should arch its back, and
roughen its fur, upon the approach of the dog. I have said that the
American war had its origin in money, and that it was carried on
throughout, "for a consideration." It ended in the same way. The
"long-haired barbarian"--see Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire"--who laid his huge paw upon Jefferson Davis, to make him prisoner,
was paid in _money_ for the gallant deed. A President of the United States
had degraded his high office, by falsely charging Mr. Davis with being an
accomplice in the murder of President Lincoln, and offered a reward for
his apprehension; thus gratifying his malignant nature, by holding him up
to the world as a common felon. All men now know this charge to be false,
the libeller among the rest. Gentlemen retract false charges, when they
know them to be such. The charge made by Andrew Johnson against Jefferson
Davis has not been retracted.
Upon leaving the presence of the President, and Secretary of the Navy, I
sought out my old friend, Captain Sydney Smith Lee, of the Navy, the
Assistant Secretary, who had accompanied Mr. Mallory, and arranged with
him, and afterward with General Cooper, the Adjutant-General of the Army,
the transformation of my sailors into soldiers. There were a great many
other naval officers, besides those under my command, fugitives in
Danville, and the President and Secretary had been kind enough to
authorize me to employ such of them in my new organization, as I might
desire. But the difficulty was not in the want of officers; it was the
want of men. Already my command of five hundred had dwindled down to about
four hundred on my retreat from Richmond, and since my arrival in
Danville. I broke these into skeleton regiments so as to conform to the
Brigade organization, and appointed Dunnington, late Captain of my
flag-ship, the Colonel of one of them, and Johnston, late Captain of the
_Richmond_, Colonel of the other. My youngest son, who had been a
midshipman on board the School-ship at Richmond, and who had retreated
thence with the School, on the night before the surrender, was ordered by
Captain Lee to report to me, and I assigned him to a position on my staff,
with the rank of a second lieutenant. Mr. Daniel, my secretary, became my
other aide-de-camp, and Captain Butt, late commander of the _Nansemond_,
was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General.
We remained in the trenches before Danville ten days; and anxious, and
weary days they were. Raiding parties were careering around us in various
directions, robbing and maltreating the inhabitants, but none of the
thieves ventured within reach of our guns. Lee abandoned his lines, on the
3d of April, and surrendered his army, or the small remnant that was left
of it, to Grant, on the 9th, at Appomattox Court-House. The first news we
received of his surrender, came to us from the stream of fugitives which
now came pressing into our lines at Danville. It was heart-rending to look
upon these men, some on foot, some on horseback, some nearly famished for
want of food, and others barely able to totter along from disease. It was,
indeed, a rabble rout. Hopes had been entertained that Lee might escape to
Lynchburg, or to Danville, and save his army. The President had
entertained this hope, and had issued a proclamation of encouragement to
the people, before he left Danville. But the fatal tidings came at last,
and when they did come, we all felt that the fate of the Confederacy was
sealed.
A new impetus was given to desertions, and before I reached Greensboro',
North Carolina, to which point I was now removed by the orders of General
Joseph E. Johnston, my command had dwindled to about 250 men. Commissioned
officers slunk away from me one by one, and became deserters! I was
ashamed of my countrymen. Johnston, by reason of his great, personal
popularity, and of the confidence which the troops had in his ability, was
enabled to gather around him the fragments of several armies, whilst Grant
had been pressing Lee; and but for Lee's disaster would soon have been
able to hold Sherman in check very effectually. But the moment the news of
Lee's surrender reached him, there was a stampede from his army. It melted
away like a hillock of snow before the sunshine. Whole companies deserted
at a time. Still, many true men remained with him, and with these he stood
so defiantly before Sherman, that the latter was glad to enter into
negotiations with him for the _dispersion_ of his troops. The reader will
be pleased to pay attention to this expression. Johnston dispersed his
troops, under the capitulation which will presently be spoken of. He never
surrendered them _as prisoners_ to the enemy. The country is familiar with
what occurred at Greensboro', between Johnston and Sherman, and I do not
propose to rehearse it here. Sherman, yielding to the impulses of
Johnston's master-mind, entered into an agreement with the latter, which
would have achieved more fame for him in the future than all his
victories, if he had had the courage and ability to stand up to his work.
This agreement was that the Southern States should be regarded as _ipso
facto_, on the cessation of the war, restored to their rights in the
Union. The stroke was one of a statesman. It is in times of great
revolutions that genius shows itself. The Federal Government, at the time
that this convention was made, was prostrate beneath the foot of the
soldier, and a military man of genius might have governed it with the
crook of his finger. If such a one had arisen, he might have applied the
scourge to the back of the Northern people, and they would have yelped
under it as submissively as any hound. They _had_ yelped under the
scourging of Abraham Lincoln. But Sherman was not the man to conceive the
emergency, or to avail himself of it. He, on the contrary, permitted
himself to be scourged by a creature like Stanton, the Federal Secretary
of War, and if he did not yelp under the scourging, he at least submitted
to it with most admirable docility. Stanton insolently rejected the
convention which had been entered into between the two generals, and,
reminding Sherman that he was nothing but a soldier, told him to attend to
his own business. Stanton knew his man, and Sherman did, afterward, attend
to his own business; for he now entered into a purely military convention
with Johnston.
The main features of that convention were, that Johnston should disperse
his army, and Sherman should, in consideration thereof, guarantee it
against molestation by the Federal authorities. It was in the interval
between these two conventions, that my camp was astounded one morning, by
the report that Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, was dead.
He had gone to a small theatre in the city of Washington, on the evening
of Good Friday, and had been shot by a madman! It seemed like a just
retribution that he should be cut off in the midst of the hosannas that
were being shouted in his ears, for all the destruction and ruin he had
wrought upon twelve millions of people. Without any warrant for his
conduct, he had made a war of rapine and lust against eleven sovereign
States, whose only provocation had been that they had made an effort to
preserve the liberties which had been handed down to them by their
fathers. These States had not sought war, but peace, and they had found,
at the hands of Abraham Lincoln, destruction. As a Christian, it was my
duty to say, "Lord, have mercy upon his soul!" but the d----l will surely
take care of his memory.
The last days of April, and the first days of May, were employed, by
General Johnston, in dispersing his army according to agreement.
Commissioners, appointed by the two Generals to arrange the dispersion,
and provide the dispersed troops with the guaranties that had been agreed
upon, met in the village of Greensboro', on the 1st of May, 1865. On the
previous evening, I had called at the headquarters of General Johnston,
where I had met Beauregard, Wade Hampton, Wheeler, D. H. Hill, and a host
of other gallant spirits, who formed the galaxy by which he was
surrounded. He was kind enough to give me precedence, in the matter of
arranging for my departure with the Federal Commissioner. Accordingly, on
the morning of the 1st of May, accompanied by my staff, I rode into
Greensboro', and alighted at the Britannia Hotel, where the Commissioners
were already assembled. They were Brevet Brigadier General Hartsuff, on
the part of the Federals, and Colonel Mason, on the part of the
Confederates. Each guaranty of non-molestation had been prepared,
beforehand, in a printed form, and signed by Hartsuff, and only required
to be filled up with the name and rank of the party entitled to receive
it, and signed by myself to be complete. Upon being introduced to General
Hartsuff, we proceeded at once to business. I produced the muster-roll of
my command, duly signed by my Assistant Adjutant-General; and General
Hartsuff and myself ran our eyes over the names together, and when we had
ascertained the number, the General counted out an equal number of blank
guaranties, and, handing them to me, said: "You have only to fill up one
of these for each officer and soldier of your command, with his name and
rank, and sign it and hand it to him. I have already signed them myself.
You can fill up the one intended for yourself in like manner." "With
regard to the latter," I replied, "I prefer, if you have no objection, to
have it filled up and completed here in your presence." "Oh! that makes no
difference," he replied. "Very well," said I, "if it makes no difference,
then you can have no objection to complying with my request." He now
called an aide-de-camp, and desiring him to be seated at the table where
we were, told him to fill up my guaranty after my dictation. I gave him my
titles separately, making him write me down a "Rear-Admiral in the
Confederate States Navy, and a Brigadier-General in the Confederate States
Army, commanding a brigade." When he had done this, he handed me the
paper; I signed it, and put it in my pocket, and, turning to the General,
said, "I am now satisfied." The following is a copy of the paper:--
GREENSBORO', NORTH CAROLINA, May 1, 1865.
In accordance with the terms of the Military Convention, entered into
on the 26th day of April, 1865, between General Joseph E. Johnston,
commanding the Confederate Army, and Major-General W. T. Sherman,
commanding the United States Army, in North Carolina, _R. Semmes,
Rear-Admiral, and Brigadier-General, C. S. Navy, and C. S. Army,
commanding brigade_, has given his solemn obligation, not to take up
arms against the Government of the United States, until properly
released from this obligation; and is permitted to return to his
home, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities, so long
as he observes this obligation, and obeys the laws in force where he
may reside.
R. SEMMES,
_Rear-Admiral C. S. Navy, and Brigadier-General C. S. Army_.
WM. HARTSUFF,
_Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. Army,
Special Commissioner_.
It was well I took the precautions above described, in dealing with the
enemy, for, when I was afterward arrested, as the reader will presently
see, the Yankee press, howling for my blood, claimed that I had not been
paroled at all! that I had deceived the paroling officer, and obtained my
parole under false pretences; the said paroling officer not dreaming, when
he was paroling one Brigadier-General Semmes, that he had the veritable
"pirate" before him. I dispersed my command, on the same afternoon, and
with my son, and half a dozen of my officers, a baggage-wagon, and the
necessary servants, made my way to Montgomery, in Alabama, and, at that
point, took steamer for my home, in Mobile, which I reached in the latter
days of May.
Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President of the United States, had succeeded Mr.
Lincoln as President. He was a Southern man, born in the State of North
Carolina, and a citizen of Tennessee. He had been elected to the Senate of
the United States, a short time before the breaking out of the war. He had
belonged to the Democratic party, and had arisen from a very low
origin--his father having belonged to the common class of laborers, and he
having learned the trade of a tailor, which he practised after he had
grown to man's estate. Gifted by nature with a strong intellect, he
studied the law, and afterward embarked in politics. The word "embark"
expresses my idea precisely, for, from this time onward, he became a mere
politician. As a rule, it requires an unscrupulous and unprincipled man to
succeed in politics in America. Honorable men do, sometimes, of course,
make their way to high places; but these form the exceptions, not the
rule. Andrew Johnson succeeded in politics. In the earlier stages of our
troubles, he spoke and wrote like a Southern man, demanding, in behalf of
the South, some security for the future, in the way of additional
guaranties. But when these were all denied, and it became evident that his
State would secede, and that he would be stripped of his senatorial honors
so recently won, if he abided by his former record, and went with his
State, he abjured his record, and abandoned his State. Like all renegades,
he became zealous in the new faith which he had adopted, and proved
himself so good a Radical, that President Lincoln sent him back to
Tennessee as a satrap, to govern, with a rod of iron, under military rule,
the Sovereign State for which he had so recently demanded additional
securities.
Still growing in favor with his new party, he was elected Vice-President,
upon the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, in the fall of 1864. The Presidential
mantle having fallen upon him, by the tragical death of Mr. Lincoln, he
retained the cabinet of his predecessor, and made his zeal still more
manifest to his party, by insisting on the necessity of making "treason
odious"--the same sort of treason enjoined upon the States by Jefferson in
his Kentucky Resolutions of '98 and '99, which formed the basis of the
creed of the Democratic party, to which Mr. Johnson had belonged--and
punishing "traitors." A grand jury in Norfolk, Va., found an indictment
for treason against General Lee, and but for the interposition of General
Grant, he would have been tried, under Mr. Johnson's administration; and
probably tried by a packed jury that would have hung him. Mr. Davis was
already in close and ignominious confinement, as has been related. Captain
Wurz, of the late Confederate States Army, who had been, for a short time,
in charge of the prison at Andersonville, was tried by a Military
Commission, in the city of Washington, under the shadow of the President's
chair, convicted, and executed, notwithstanding he was a paroled _prisoner
of war_. Another Military Commission, _in time of peace_, had convicted
and executed a woman--Mrs. Surratt--on the false charge, as is now
admitted by the whole country, that she was an accomplice in Mr. Lincoln's
assassination. Mr. Johnson signed her death-warrant.
It was under these circumstances, that on the night of the 15th of
December, 1865, or seven months and a half after I had received the
guaranty of General Sherman, at Greensboro', North Carolina, that I should
not be molested by the United States authorities, that a lieutenant of the
Marine Corps, with a guard of soldiers, surrounded my house and arrested
me, on an order signed by Mr. Gideon Welles, without the process of any
court. I was torn from my family, under guard--the thieving soldiery
committing some petty thefts about my premises--and hurried off to
Washington. Arrived here, I was imprisoned, first, in the Navy Yard, and
then in the Marine Barracks. I was kept a close prisoner, with a sentinel
at my door, for nearly four months; the gentlemen about the barracks,
however, doing everything in their power to render my confinement more
endurable. It was the intention of the Government to throw me, as it had
thrown Wurz, as a sop to the extreme Radicals of the New England States,
whose commerce I had destroyed; and I was only saved by the circumstances
which will be presently related. But before I relate these circumstances,
I deem it pertinent to give to the reader the following letter addressed
by me to President Johnson, from my place of confinement, charging his
Government with a breach of faith in arresting me.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY ANDREW JOHNSON,
_President of the United States_.
SIR:--Being satisfied that you are anxious to arrive at a correct
decision in my case,--one that shall accord, at the same time, with
the honor and dignity of the United States, and with justice to
myself,--I venture to address you the following brief exposition of
the law and the facts of the case.
On the 26th day of April, 1865, the following military convention was
entered into at Greensboro', N. C., between General Joseph E.
Johnston, commanding the Confederate States Armies in North Carolina,
and Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding the United States Army in
the same State, viz:--
"1. All acts of war on the part of the troops under General
Johnston's command to cease from this date.
"2. All arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro', and
delivered to an ordnance officer of the United States Army.
"3. Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one
copy to be retained by the commander of the troops, and the other to
be given to an officer to be designated by General Sherman. Each
officer and man to give his individual obligation, in writing, not
to take up arms against the Government of the United States until
properly released from this obligation.
"4. The side-arms of officers, and their private horses and baggage,
to be retained by them.
"5. This being done, all the officers and men will be permitted to
return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States
authorities so long as they observe their obligation and the laws in
force where they may reside.
[Signed] "W. T. SHERMAN, _Major-General_,
"_Commanding U. S. Forces in North Carolina_.
[Signed] "JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, _General_,
"_Commanding C. S. Forces in North Carolina_."
Here, Mr. President, was a solemn military convention, entered into
by two generals, who had opposing armies in the field, in which
convention the one and the other general stipulated for certain
terms,--General Johnston agreeing to lay down his arms and disband
his forces, and General Sherman agreeing, _in consideration thereof_,
that the forces thus disbanded shall proceed to their homes, and
there remain undisturbed by the United States authorities. I beg you
to observe the use of the word "undisturbed," one of the most
comprehensive words in our language. I pray you also to remark the
formalities with which this convention was drawn. We were treated as
officers commanding armies, representing, of course, if not a _de
jure_, at least a _de facto_ government. Our proper military titles
were acknowledged. I was myself styled and treated in the
muster-rolls, and other papers drawn up by both parties, a
brigadier-general and a rear-admiral. The honors of war usual upon
surrenders, upon terms, were accorded to us, in our being permitted
to retain our side-arms, private horses, and baggage. In short, the
future historian, upon reading this convention, will be unable to
distinguish it in any particular from other similar papers, agreed
upon by armies of recognized governments. At the date of, and some
weeks prior to the ratification of this convention, I commanded a
brigade of artillery, forming a part of the army of General Johnston.
I was, of course, included in the terms of the convention. I complied
with those terms, under orders received from General Johnston, by
turning over my arms to the proper officer, and disbanding my forces.
The convention was approved by the Government of the United States.
Your Excellency may recollect that the first convention entered into
between General Johnston and General Sherman, which provided, among
other things, for the return of the Southern States to their
functions under the Constitution of the United States, was
disapproved by the Government, on the ground that General Sherman, in
undertaking to treat of political matters, had transcended his
authority. The armistice which had been declared between the two
armies was dissolved, and hostilities were renewed. A few days
afterward, however, new negotiations were commenced, and the
convention with which we have to do was the second convention entered
into by those Generals, and which was a substantial readoption of
the military portion of the first convention. It was this latter
convention which was formally approved, both by General Grant, the
Commander-in-Chief, under whose orders General Sherman acted, and by
the Executive at Washington.
Confiding in the good faith of the Government, pledged in a solemn
treaty as above stated, I returned to my home in Alabama, and
remained there for the space of seven months, engaging in civil
pursuits as a means of livelihood for my dependent family, and
yielding a ready obedience to the laws. I had, in fact, become an
officer of the law, having established myself as an attorney. It
would have been easy for me, at any time within these seven months,
to pass out of the country, if I had had any doubt about the binding
obligation of the Greensboro' convention, or of the good faith of the
Government. But I had no doubt on either point, nor have I any doubt
yet, as I feel quite sure that when you shall have informed yourself
of all the facts of the case, you will come to the conclusion that my
arrest was entirely without warrant, and order my discharge. While
thus remaining quietly at my home, in the belief that I was "not to
be disturbed by the United States authorities," I was, on the 15th of
December, 1865, in the night-time, arrested by a lieutenant and two
sergeants of the Marine Corps, under an order signed by the Secretary
of the Navy, and placed under guard; a file of soldiers in the
meantime surrounding my house. I was informed by the officer making
the arrest that I was to proceed to Washington in his custody, there
to answer to a charge, a copy of which he handed me. This charge, and
the protest which I filed the next day with the Commanding General of
the Department of Alabama, against my arrest, your Excellency has
already seen. The question for you then to decide, Mr. President, is
the legality of this arrest. Can I, in violation of the terms of the
military convention already referred to, and under which I laid down
my arms, be held to answer for any act of war committed anterior to
the date of that convention? I respectfully submit that I cannot be
so held, either during the continuance of the war, (and the political
power has not yet proclaimed the war ended,) or after the war shall
have been brought to a close by proclamation, and the restoration of
the writ of _habeas corpus_, without a flagrant violation of faith on
the part of the United States. If it be admitted that I might be
tried for any act _dehors_ the war, and having no connection with
it--as, for instance, for a forgery--it is quite clear that I cannot
be arrested or arraigned for any act manifestly of war, and
acknowledged as such, (as the act, for instance, for which I was
arrested,) whether such act be in consonance with the laws of war or
in violation thereof; and this for the simple reason that the
military convention was a _condonation_ and an _oblivion_ of all
precedent acts of war, of what nature soever those acts might be. I
am "not to be disturbed," says the military convention. Disturbed for
what? Why, manifestly, for any act of war theretofore committed
against the United States. This is the only commonsense view of the
case; and if the convention did not mean this, it could mean nothing;
and I laid down my arms, not upon terms, as I had supposed, but
without terms. If I was still at the mercy of the conqueror, and my
arrest asserts as much, I was in the condition of one who had
surrendered _unconditionally_; but it has been seen that I did not
surrender unconditionally, but upon terms--terms engrafted upon a
treaty ratified and approved by the conqueror's Government. Nor is it
consistent with good faith to qualify or restrain those terms, so as
to make them inapplicable to acts of war that may be claimed to have
been in violation of the laws of war; for this would be to refine
away all the protection which has been thrown around me by treaty,
and put me in the power of the opposite contracting party, who might
put his own construction upon the laws of war. This very attempt, Mr.
President, has been made in the case before you. I claim to have
escaped, after my ship had sunk from under me in the engagement off
Cherbourg, and I had been precipitated into the water, the enemy not
having taken possession of me, according to the laws and usages of
war, as your Excellency may read in almost every page of naval
history; the Secretary of the Navy claiming the contrary. The true,
and the only just and fair criterion, is, was the act for which the
arrest was made an act of war? If so, there is an end of the
question, and I must be discharged, for, as before remarked, the
convention, if it is anything, is an oblivion of all acts of war of
whatever nature.
But it may be said that, although I cannot be tried by a military
tribunal during the war, I may yet be tried by a civil tribunal after
the war. Let us look at this question also. I was, undoubtedly,
amenable to the civil tribunals of the country, as well after as
before the convention, for any offence of a purely civil nature, not
founded upon an act of war--to instance, as before, the crime of
forgery. If I had committed a forgery in North Carolina, I could not,
upon arraignment, plead the military convention in bar of trial. Why
not? Because that convention had reference only to acts of war. I was
treated with, in my capacity of a soldier and a seaman. But, does it
follow that I may be tried for treason? And if not, why not? The
Attorney-General tells you that treason is a civil offence, and in
his opinion triable exclusively by the civil courts, and he hopes you
will give him plenty of occupation in trying "many whom the sword has
spared." (See his letter to you of the 4th of January, 1866.) But
does not that officer forget that treason is made up of acts of war;
and is it not apparent that you cannot try me for an act of war? The
Constitution of the United States, which the Attorney-General says he
loves even better than blood, declares, in words, that treason
against the United States shall consist only in levying war against
them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and
comfort--all of which adherence, giving of aid and comfort, &c., are
equally acts of war. There is no constructive treason in this
country. Thus I can neither be tried by a military tribunal during
the war, nor a civil tribunal after the war, for any act of war, or
for treason which consists only of acts of war.
But it may further be said that this convention, of which I am
claiming the protection, is not a _continuing_ convention, and will
expire with the war, when, as Mr. Speed thinks, you may hand me over
to the civil tribunals. Whence can such a conclusion be drawn? Not
from the terms of the convention, for these contradict the
conclusion; not by implication merely, but in _totidem verbis_. The
terms are, "not to be disturbed, _so long as they shall observe their
obligation and the laws in force where they may reside_." A misuse of
terms, Mr. President, sometimes misleads very clever minds. And I
presume it is by a misuse of terms that the Attorney-General has
fallen into this error. (See his letter to your Excellency, before
referred to.) That officer, while he admits that PAROLE protects the
party paroled from trial during the war, yet contends that it does
not protect him from trial by a civil tribunal, for treason, after
the war. As I have shown that treason can only consist of acts of
war, and that the military convention is an oblivion of all acts of
war, the Attorney-General, when he says that a paroled party may be
tried for treason at the end of the war, (the parole being no longer
a protection to him,) must mean that the parole will have died with
the war. This is entirely true of a _mere parole_, for a parole is
only a promise, on the part of a prisoner of war, that if released
from imprisonment, he will not take up arms again unless he is
exchanged. This parole is as frequently given by prisoners of war,
who have surrendered unconditionally, as by those who have
surrendered upon terms. There cannot be any parole, then, without a
prisoner of war, and the status of prisoner of war ceasing, the
parole ceases--_cessante ratione cessat et ipso lex_. Thus far the
Attorney-General is quite logical, but by confounding in his mind the
certificates given to the officers and men of General Johnston's
army, stating the terms of the Greensboro' convention, and
guaranteeing those officers and men against molestation, in
accordance with those terms, with PAROLES, it is easy to see how the
mistake I am exposing can have been made. But the convention made
between General Johnston and General Sherman was not a mere release
of prisoners on parole; nor, indeed, had it anything to do with
prisoners, for none of the officers and men of General Johnston's
army _ever were prisoners_, as may be seen at a glance by an
inspection of the terms of the convention. It was a treaty between
commanding generals in the field, in which the word _parole_ is not
once used, or could be used with propriety; a treaty in which mutual
stipulations are made, one in consideration of another, and there is
no limit as to time set to this treaty.
On the contrary, it was expressly stated that the guaranties
contained in it were to continue and be in force, so long as the
parties to whom the guaranties were given, should perform their part
of the treaty stipulations. It was made, not in contemplation of a
continuation of the war, but with a view to put an end to the war,
and the guaranties were demanded by us as _peace guaranties_. It
did, in effect, put an end to the war and pacify the whole country;
General Taylor in Alabama and Mississippi, and General Buckner and
others in Texas, following the lead of General Johnston. Are we to be
told now by an Attorney-General of the United States, that the moment
the object of the convention, to wit, the restoration of peace, was
accomplished, the convention itself became a nullity, its terms
powerless to protect us, and that General Johnston's army
surrendered, in fact, without any terms whatever? You cannot sustain
such an opinion, Mr. President. It will shock the common sense and
love of fair play of the American people. But to show still further
that it was the intention of the parties that this should be a
_continuing_ convention, the words used were, "not to be disturbed by
the _United States Authorities_," these words being co-extensive with
the whole power of the Government. We were not only "not to be
disturbed" by General Sherman, or any other military commander or
authority, but by _any authority whatever_, civil or military. Nor
will it do to say that General Sherman, being merely a military man,
had no authority to speak for the civil branch of the Government, for
his action, as we have seen, was approved by the Administration at
Washington.
One more remark, Mr. President, and I will forbear to trespass
further on your time and patience. The act of war for which I was
arrested, was well known to the Department of the Government making
the arrest, ten months before the convention was entered into at
Greensboro'. It was also well known to the same Department, that
about the middle of February, 1865, I was assigned to the command of
the James River Squadron, near Richmond, with the rank of a
rear-admiral; being thus promoted and employed by my Government,
after the alleged illegal escape off Cherbourg. If the Federal
Government then entertained the design, which it has since developed,
of arresting and trying me for this alleged breach of the laws of
war, was it not its duty, both to itself and to me, to have made me
an exception to any military terms it might have been disposed to
grant to our armies? I put it to you, Mr. President, as a man and a
magistrate to say, and I will rest my case on your answer, whether it
was consistent with honor and fair dealing, for this Government first
to entrap me, by means of a military convention, and then, having me
in its power, to arrest me and declare that convention null and void,
for the course recommended to you by Mr. Speed comes to this--nothing
more, nothing less.
I have thus laid before you, tediously I fear, and yet as concisely
as was consistent with clearness, the grounds upon which I claim at
your hands, who are the guardian of the honor of a great nation, my
discharge from arrest and imprisonment. I have spoken freely and
frankly, as it became an American citizen to speak to the Chief
Magistrate of the American Republic. We live in times of high party
excitement, when men, unfortunately, are but too prone to take
counsel of their passions; but passions die, and men die with them,
and after death comes history. In the future, Mr. President, _when
America shall have a history_, my record and that of the gallant
Southern people will be engrafted upon, and become a part of your
history, the pages of which you are now acting; and the prayer of
this petition is, that you will not permit the honor of the American
name to be tarnished by a perfidy on those pages. In this paper I
have stood strictly upon legal defences; but should those barriers be
beaten down, conscious of the rectitude of my conduct, throughout a
checkered and eventful career, when the commerce of half a world was
at my mercy, and when the passions of men, North and South, were
tossed into a whirlwind, by the current events of the most bloody and
terrific war that the human race had ever seen, I shall hope to
justify and defend myself against any and all charges affecting the
honor and reputation of a man and a soldier. Whatever else may be
said of me, I have, at least, brought no discredit upon the American
name and character.
I am, very respectfully, &c.,
RAPHAEL SEMMES.
WASHINGTON CITY, January 15, 1866.
At the time of my arrest, there was a newspaper called the "Republican,"
published in the city of Washington, in the interests of President
Johnson. There had been some little struggle between Congress and the
President, as to who should take the initiative in the wholesale hanging
of "traitors" which had been resolved upon. The "Republican," speaking for
President Johnson, declares, in the article which will be found below,
_his_ readiness to act. He is only waiting, it says, for Congress to move
in the matter. Here is the article:--
"WHY DON'T CONGRESS ACT?
"As long ago as last October, the President of the United States
commenced an earnest effort to initiate the trials of prominent
traitors, beginning with the arch-traitor Jefferson Davis. It is now
a historical record, and officially in the possession of the Congress
of the United States, that, upon application to the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court to know at what time, if any, the United States
Court for the District of Virginia would be ready to try certain high
crimes against the National Government, the President received an
answer from Chief-Justice Chase, that the Court would not sit in that
district, while that territory was under military control, and
suggested the propriety of delaying action in the matter, until
Congress acted. Congress assembled. The President referred the whole
subject, respectfully, to the consideration of Congress in his annual
message, and subsequently, in answer to a resolution of inquiry, he
sent, by special message, the correspondence alluded to above,
between himself and Chief-Justice Chase.
"All the facts were thus legitimately laid before the legislative
branch of the Government _three and a half months ago_! The
President, some time in November last, stopped the work of
pardoning, except in a few cases where the applications were
accompanied by the most positive evidence of good intentions toward
the Government. From among those who have applied for pardon, the
President has reserved for trial about _five hundred_ of the military
and political leaders of the rebel Government--a sufficient number to
begin with at least. This number, as classified by the President, we
published, by permission, some time since.
"Now, in view of the above statement of facts, what has Congress
done? Has Congress passed any law directing how the rebels shall be
tried? No. Has Congress passed any resolution requesting the
President to order a military court for the trial of Davis & Co.? No.
Has Congress agitated the subject at any time, in any manner, looking
to a trial of the cases referred to? No.
"But what have Congressmen done in their individual capacity? Many of
them, from day to day, have spoken sneeringly of the President,
because he has not done what he began to do, but which the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court prevented, by refusing to hold the
court, and which the Congress of the United States has wholly
neglected, or _purposely ignored_. The people, through the press of
the country, and in private communication, are beginning to inquire
why Congress don't act. Governors of States, ignorant of the facts,
are haranguing the people about the _indisposition_ or _neglect_ of
the _President_ to try traitors. Why don't Congress act? The
President is ready, and has been ready from the beginning, to
co-operate with Congress in any constitutional measure by which
traitors can be tried, to the end, that treason may thereby be made
odious. We repeat the question with which we commenced, and which is
echoed by the people everywhere, 'Why don't Congress act?'"
There is an old adage which says, "When rogues fall out, honest men get
their rights." Fortunately for the "traitors" of the South, Andrew
Johnson, and the Congress quarrelled. Johnson undertook to reconstruct the
Southern States, in _his_ interests, and Congress claimed the right to
reconstruct them in _its_ interests. The Constitution of the United States
was equally disregarded by them both. Johnson had no more respect for it
than Congress. His mode of reconstruction equally violated it, with that
of Congress. It was a struggle between usurpers, which should be
master--that was all. Johnson, with a single stroke of the pen, struck
down all the State governments, called conventions of the people, and told
the conventions what they should do. Congress might go a little further,
but its violation of the Constitution could not, well, be more flagrant.
The breach widened from day to day, and the quarrel at last became bitter.
Neither party, opposed by the other, could afford to become the hangman
of the Southern people, and the very pretty little programme, which,
according to the "Republican" newspaper, had been arranged between the
rogues, naturally fell to the ground.
Johnson finding that his quarrel with Congress had ruined him with his
party, now set about constructing a new one--a Johnson party. His scheme
was to ignore both the Democratic, and the Republican parties. If he could
succeed in reconstructing the Southern States, to the exclusion of
Congress, he might hope to get the votes of those States in the next
Presidential election. But to conciliate these States, it would not do to
hang "_five hundred_ of the military and political leaders of the rebel
Government," as a mere "beginning." He must pursue a different policy. He
now issued first one amnesty proclamation, and then another--doling out
amnesty, grudgingly, in broken doses--until he had issued three of them.
By the last of these proclamations, the writer of these pages, who was
true to his State, was "graciously pardoned" by Andrew Johnson, who had
not only been a traitor to his State, but had betrayed, besides, two
political parties. A glorious opportunity presented itself for him to show
himself a statesman. He has proved a charlatan instead. He cowered in his
struggle with Congress, and that body has shorn him of his prerogatives,
and reduced him to the mere position of a clerk. This is the second act of
the drama, the first act of which was the secession of the Southern
States. The form of government having been changed by the revolution,
there are still other acts of the drama to be performed.
THE END.
Footnotes:
[1] The _Cuba_ was hourly expected to arrive, but, as the reader has seen,
was recaptured, and did not make her appearance.
[2] "Now let us make a calculation of the annual saving to the commerce of
the United States, effected by these charts, and sailing directions.
According to Mr. Maury, the average freight from the United States to Rio
Janeiro, is 17.7 cents per ton, per day; to Australia, 20 cents; to
California, 20 cents. The mean of this is a little over 19 cents per ton,
per day; but to be within the mark, we will take it at 15 cents, and
include all the ports of South America, China, and the East Indies. The
'Sailing Directions' have shortened the passage to California, thirty
days; to Australia, twenty days; and to Rio Janeiro, ten days. The mean of
this is twenty, but we will take it at fifteen, and also include the
above-named ports of South America, China, and the East Indies. We
estimate the tonnage of the United States, engaged in trade with these
places, at 1,000,000 tons per annum. With these data, we see that there
has been effected, a saving for each one of those tons, of 15 cents per
day, for a period of fifteen days, which will give an aggregate of
$2,250,000 saved per annum. This is on the outward voyage alone, and the
tonnage trading with all other parts of the world is also left out of the
calculation. Take these into consideration, and also the fact that there
is a vast amount of foreign tonnage, trading between those places and the
United States, and it will be seen that the annual sum saved will swell to
an enormous amount."--_Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, May, 1854._
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
Some quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors
have been silently closed while those requiring interpretation have
been left open.
Punctuation has been corrected without note.
The following misprints have been corrected:
"the the" corrected to "the" (page 18)
"Goverment" corrected to "Government" (page 51)
"emniently" corrected to "eminently" (page 87)
"requsite" corrected to "requisite" (page 98)
"lieutentant" corrected to "lieutenant" (page 142)
"Marauham" corrected to "Maranham" (page 207)
"longtitude" corrected to "longitude" (page 229)
"ludicruously" corrected to "ludicrously" (page 451)
"wlth" corrected to "with" (page 484)
"the of" corrected to "of the" (page 552)
"Christain" corrected to "Christian" (page 566)
"cannot-shot" corrected to "cannon-shot" (page 656)
"minature" corrected to "miniature" (page 695)
"no" corrected to "on" (page 721)
"bockade-runners" corrected to "blockade-runners" (page 737)
"Balwin" corrected to "Baldwin" (page 739)
"Kearsage" corrected to "Kearsarge" (Illustration between pages 764
and 765)
Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
hyphenation have been retained from the original.