BULL RUN--THE CONFISCATION ACT
Trumbull makes an excursion with Senator Grimes to the battle of
Bull Run--Is caught by the retreating Union army and driven back
to Washington--His account of the panic and stampede says, "It
was the most shameful rout you can conceive of"--Sends a
telegram to Mrs. Trumbull, but the authorities suppress
it--Consternation at the Capital--General Fremont's doings at
St. Louis--His military order of emancipation--Lincoln considers
it premature and revokes it--Correspondence between Trumbull and
M. Carey Lea, of Philadelphia--Cameron follows Fremont's example
in his first Annual Report--Sends report to the newspapers
without the President's knowledge--Lincoln directs him to recall
it and strike out the part relating to slavery--General David
Hunter issues an order freeing all slaves in South Carolina,
Georgia, and Florida--The President revokes it--Trumbull reports
a bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee to confiscate the
property of rebels and to give freedom to all of their
slaves--Collamer opposes confiscation as both unconstitutional
and impolitic--He offers an amendment to substitute judicial
process for military confiscation--Collamer's views prevail--The
President objected, however, to the forfeiture of real estate
beyond the lifetime of the owner--This was the first bill passed
by Congress dealing a heavy blow at slavery 165