The Abingdon Virginian. [volume], January 02, 1863, Image 1

About The Abingdon Virginian. [volume] (Abingdon [Va.]) 1849-1883

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By the President of the Confederate
States.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas a communication, was addressed
on the Oth day of July last, (1862,) by Gen.
Robert E. Lee, acting under the instruction
of the Secretary of War of the Confederate
States of America, to Gen. H. W. llalleck,
General in Chief of the United States army,
informing the latter that a report had reach
ed this Government that Win. B. Mumford, a
citizen of the Confederate States, had been
executed by the United States authorities at
New Orleans, fer having pulled down the
United States flag in that city before its oc
cupation by the forces of the United States,
and calling for a statement of the facts, with
a view to retaliation, if such an outrage had
really been committed under sanction of the
authorities of the United States:
And whereas, (no answer having been re
ceived to said letter.) another letter was, on j
the 2nd of August last, 1802, addressed by
General Lee, under my instructions, to Gen.
llalleck, renewing the inquiry in relation to
said execution of the said Mumford, with the !
information that in the event of not receiving
a reply within fifteen days, it would be as
sumed that the fact alleged was true and was"
sanetiuued by the Government of the United
States.
And whereas, an answer dated on the 7th
August lust, 1802, was addressed to Gen.
Lee, by 11. W. Halloolt, the. said General in
Chief of the Armies of the United States, al
leging sufficient cause for failure to make ear
ly reply to said letter of Oth July, asserting
that "no authentic information had been re
ceived in relation to the execution of Mum
ford, but measures will be immediately taken
to ascertain the facts of the alleged execu
tion, 1 ' and promising that Gen. Lee should be j
daily informed tliereof:
And whereas, on the 29th November last,
ISG2, another letter was addressed under my
instruction by Robert Ould, Confederate
Agent for the exchange of prisoners under :
the cartel between the two Governments, I
to Lieut. Col. W. 11. Ludlow, agent of the !
United States under said cartel, infoiming
hitn that the explanations promised in the
said letter of Gen. llalleck, of 7th August
last, had not yet been received, and that if
no answer was sent to the Government in fif
teen days from the delivery of this last com
munication, it would be considered that an
answer in declined:
And whereas, by letter dated on the 3d day
of the present month of December, the said
Lieut. Col. Ludlow apprised the said Robert
Ould that the above recited communication of
the 29th November had been received and
forwarded to the Secretary of War of the
United States:
And whereas, this last delay of fifteen
days allowed for answer has relapsed and no
answer has been received :
And whereas, in addition to the tacit ad*
mission resulting from the above refusal to
answer, i have received evidence fully estab
lishing the truth of the fact that the said
Wm B. Mumford, a citizen of this Confede
racy, was actually and publicly executed in
•cold blood by hanging, after the occupation
of the dity of New Orleans by the forces un
der the command of General, Benjamin F.
Butler, when said Mumford was an unresist
ing and non-combatant captive, and for no of
fence even alleged to have been committed
by him subsequent to the date of the capture
i nf the said city:
V- A -P* whereas, the silence of the Govern
ment of the Uuited States and its maintain
ing of said Butler in high office under its
authority for many months after his commis
sion of an act that can be viewed in no other
light than as a deliberate murder, as well as
of numerous other outrages and atrocities
hereafter to be mentioned, afford evidence
only too conclusive that the said Government
sanctions the conduct of aaid Butler, and is
determined that he shall roniain unpunished
for his crimes.
Now, Therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, Presi
dent of the Confederate States of America,
aud in their name, do pronounce aud declare
the said B. F. Butler to be a felon, deserving
of capital punishment. Ido order that he
beuo lodger considered or treated simply as
a public enemy of the Confederate States of
America, but as an outlaw or common enemy
of mankind, and that in the event of *his cap
ture, the officer in command of the capturing
force do cause him to be immediately exe
-. cuted by hanging; and I do further order
that no commissioned officer of the Uuited
States taken captive, shall be released or. pa
role before exchange until the said Butler
shall have met with due punishment for his
crimes.
And whereas the hostilities, waged against
this Confederacy by the forces of tho United
States, under the commaud of B. F. Butler,
have borne no resemblance to such warfare
as is alone permissible by the rules of inter
national law or the usages of civilization,
but have been characterized by repeated atro
cities and outrages, among the large number
of which the following may be cited as ex
amples \, *
_ Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting cap
tives and non-combatants have been confined
at hard labour with balls and chains attached
to their limbs, and are still so held in dun
geons and fortresses. Others have been sub
jected to a like degrading punishment for sell
ing medicines to the sick soldiers of the
Southern Confederacy.
The soldiers of the United States have been
invited and encouraged by gineral orders to
insult and outrage the wives, the mothers
and the sisters of our citizens.
Helpless women have been torn from their
homes, and subjected to solitary confinement,
some in fortresses and prisons, and one es
pecially on an island of barren sand, under a
tropical sun, have been fed with loathsome
rations, that had been condemned as unfit
for soldiers, and have been exposed to the
vilest insults.
Prisoners of war who have surrendered to
the naval forces of the United States on
agreement that they should be released on
parole, have been seized and kept in close
confinement.
Repeated oretexts have been sought or in-.
vented fur plundering the inhabitants of the
captured city by fines levied and exacted un
der threat of imprisoning recusants at hard
labour with ball and chain.
The entire population of the city of New
Orleans have been forced to elect between
starvation by the confiscation of all their
property, and taking an oath against con
science to bear allegiance to the invaders of
their country. -- '
Egress from the city has been refused to
those whose fortitude withstood the test, even
to lone and aged women and to helpless child
ren, and after being ejected from their homes
and robbed of their property they have been
lelrtV) starve in the streets, or subsist on
charyfcy.'
The slaves have been driven from the plan
tations in the neigborhood of New Orleans,
till their owners would consent to share the
crops with the Commanding General, his
brother, Andrew J, Butler, and other Officers;
and when such consent had been extorted*
the slaves have been restored to the planta
tions, and there compelled to work under the
bayonets of the guards of United States sol
diers.
Where this partnership was refused, armed
expeditions have been sent to the plantations
|to rob them of everything that was suscepti
ble of removal, and even slaves, too aged or
infirm for work, have, in spite of their en
treaties, been forced from the homes provided
by the owners, and driven to wander helpless
on the highway.
By a recent General Order (No 91) the en
tire property in that part of Louisiana lying
west of the Mississippi river, has been se
questrated for confiscation, and officers have
been assigned to duty with orders to "gather
up and collect the personal property and turn
over to the proper.officers upon their receipts,
such of said property as may be required for
the use of the United States*army: to collect
together all the other personal property and
bring the same to New Orleans, and cause it
to be sold at public auction to the highest bid
ders,"—an order which, if executed, con
demns to punishment by starvation at least a
quarter of a million of human beings, of all
ages, sexes and conditions, and of which the
execution, although forbidden to military offi
cers by the orders of President Lincoln, is in
accordance with the confiscation law of our
enemies, which he has directed to be enforced
through the agency of civil officials. ATd,
finally, the African slaves have not only been
excited to insurrection by every license and
?ncouragement, but numbers of them have
ictually been armed for a servile war, a war
in its nature far exceeding in horrors the
nost merciless atrocities of the savages:
And whereas, "the officers under the com
mand of the said Butler have been, in many
instances, active and zealous agents in the
commission of these crimes, and no instance
is known of the refusal of any one of them to
participate in tlie outrages above narrated.
And whereas, the President of the United
States-has, by public and official declaration,
signified not only his approval of the effort to
excite servile war within the Confederacy, but
his intention to give aid and encouragement
thereto, if these independent States shall con
tinue to refuse submission to a foreign power
after the first day of January next; and has
thus made known that all appeals to the laws
of nations, the dictates of reason and the in
stincts of humanity would be addressed in
vain to our enemies, and that they can be de
terred from the commission of these crimes
only by the terms of just retribution;
, Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, Presi
dent of the Confederate States of America,
and acting by their authority, appealing to
the Divine Judge in attestation that theireon
duct. is not guided by the passion of revenge,
but that they reluctantly yield to the solemn
duty of repressing, by necessary severity,
crimes of which their citizens are the victims,
do rssue this my proclamation, and, iiy vir
tue of my authority astJommander in Chief of
the armies of the Confederate States, do order
Ist. That all commissioned officers in the
command of said Benjamin F. Butler be de
clared not entitled to be considered as soldiers
engaged in honourable warfare, but as rob
bers and criminals, deserving death; and that
they and each of them he, whenever captur
ed, reserved for execution. *
2d. That the private soldiers and non-com
missioned officers in the army of said Butler
be considered as only the instruments used
for the commission of the crimes perpetrated
by his orders, anc( not as free agents; that
they therefore be treated, when captured, as
prisoners of war. with kindness and humani
ty, and be sent home on the usual parole, that
they will in no manner aid or serve the Unit
ed Stated in any capacity during the continu
ance of t(tis war, nnless duly exchanged.
3d. That all negro slaves captured in arms,
be at once delivered over to the executive
authorities of the respective States to which
they belong, to be dealt with according to
the laws of said States.
4th. That the like orders He executed in all
cases with respect to all commissioned officers
of the United States when/ound serving in
company with armed slaves in insurrection
against the authorities of the different States
of this Confederrcv.
r —•—.-v In testimony whereof, I have signed
|L.S. [ these presents, and caused the seal
*w-- > of the Confederate States of A
merica to be affixed thereto, at the city of
Richmond, on this 23d dayfof December, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun
dred and sixty-two.
[Signed] Jewerson Davis.
By the President.
J. P. Benjamin,
Secnptarv of State.
Burnside's Defeat.
The Loss of the Yankee Army— Comments of
the Press — Utter Despair pf the North.
The Northern papers do n/>t disguise their
disappointment and mortification at the defeat
of Burnside. The New r*fcrk Herald says
that "Sunday, the I4tb; December" —the day
that news was received of Burnside's defeat—
"will long be remembered as the gloomiest of
all days in the history of thejnation." Burn
side's friends try to save him by saying that
the forward movement at Fredericksburg was
not undertaken by his own judgment, but was
peremptorily ordered by the authorities at
Washington. General llalleck had been on a
visit to the army, and Buntside is in Wash
ington, looking after his interests with the Go
vernment. '_!he Yankees admit their severe
loss in the battle. A correspondent of the
Philadelphia Inquirer write*:
General Hooker's Division, although not
prominently in the advance,*yet most of the
entire division was at sometime engaged.—
Those that were sent to the relief of General
Sumner were subject to a tpss in the aggregate
of twenty eight hundred mes, while the divi
sion under General Birney, who were sent.to
the relief of General Franktfh, alone suffered
the loss of near eleven huhdVyd men.
The amount of our are variously
estimated from twelve to fifteen thousand.—
The information received -at headquarters
gives the number killed and founded between
, six and eight thousand—the missing to
another four thousand—maliing our losses a
trifle over eleven thousand. 'Mt cannot be as
certained definitely as to what are the losses
of the rebels, hue from visited the
fie'd, during the burying of the dead and
bringing off the wounded, information was
derived from the enemy witfcs»whom they con
versed. We learn that, in part of the
field alone, their loss in and wounded
is over four thousand, makjigg no mention of
their missing.
The defeat of Burnside hnd given a wide
scope to the comments and strictures of the
press in the North. Tlie general tenor was
one of despair and censure, $,pd so universal
that even the administration papers confess
the hopelessness of an advance against Rich
mond. No attempt is made to disguise the
ftent of their disaster. Ine New York
orld, in a fit of deep meJaisholy, cries out,
while commenting on the result of the battle :
It is a terrible spectacle. A ship, the
grandest that ever Bailed tho tide of time,
freighted with interests for" Ihe face passing
all calculation and beyond «lt"price, the mar
vel and the glory of the whole world—we say
it is a terrible spectacle to nee this peerless
barque, in the hands of chattering idols and
blind blundering imbeciles, driven straight on
upon tlie breakers and quicksands', while the
crew, the stoutest and the mist faithful that
ever trod deck, are compelled) to look passive
ly on, and, in sheer helplessness, await the all
engulphing fate.
Don't call this extravagabt*anguage. It is
not extravagant, it but feebly expresses the
dreadful reality. Here we ate reeling back
from tho third" campaign upon Richmond. —
Fifteen thousand of the grand army sacrificed
at one swoop, and the rest capping only by a
hair's breadth, and all for/>bat? For the
same old accursed trio of imbeciles at Wash
ington. [Lincoln, Halleck and Stanton.]—
Those rebel heights, so murderous, might
have been carried without a blow, had the
pontoon bridges been delivered at the time
promised by the imbeciles at Washington.—
In the face of the stupendous work which the
enemy w?as able to accomplish by reason of
that failure, Burnside would have never made
the did, bad hdSnot? in spite of
his most pressing protests, bee a peremptorily ,
ordered to cross that river, and storm those (
heights, then and there, by tho.men at Wash
ington. * That is the true record. Not all the i
cunning nor all the impudence of White
House flunkeys Can change that record one
iota. Like the fated blunders that preceded
it, it has gone unalterably into history.
Heaven help us 1 There seems to be no
help in man. The cause is perishing. Hope
after hope has vanished, till now the only
prospect is the very blackness of despair.—
But how can we adjure Heaven for help 1 —
Was it not said by the wisest of Pagans that
"there is a stupidity which baffles even the
gods !" and is it not a proverb among Chris
tians, too, that "God helps those only who
help themselves?" What right have we-to
expect that even Infinite Mercy will stay the
laws of the universe that we and ours may be
snatched from the track to death ? Is it not
impious presumption to imagine that the Eter
nal Reason, which has ordained cause and ef
fect, will abdicate to suit the folly that now
governs us ? Alas for our country 1 Given
over, it would seem, to the most ignoble fate
that ever befell a country —wrecked by im
beciles !
The 1 WorMseverely censures the conduct of
the war, and pours hot shot intolhe Cabinet
and the Washington authorities after the fol
lowing fashion—
There stands his Secretary of War, an up
start in public life, with neither knowledge nor
experience, yet full of pretensions and impa
tience, alike nuzzledmaded and pregmatical,
his movement baffling all calculation and con
jecture, now pitching loyal men ipto Fort La
fayette and now running a muck of generals
in the field, a blatherskite and a blunderer,
a mischief-maker and marplot from the begin
ning. There stands the Secretary of the Na
vey, venerable in years, gentle at heart, mild
in manners, admirably qualified to do the
needful for a boarding school in
Murmuring streams, soft shades and springing
flowers.
Lutes, laurels, seas of milk and ships of amber;
but as for his capacity to do the needful in
these dread times on the broad ocean—go
read it in the flaming tracks of the Sumpter
and the Alabama. There stands, too, the
Secretary of the Treasury, up to his eyes in
irredeemable paper, and yet without knack
enough to furnish even greenbacks for the
scant monthly pay of the soldiers, though the
consequence be a violation of the public faith
pledged them, the untold suffering of their
families at home, and their own demoraliza
tion and desertion to a degree incalculably
damaging to the national cause. There, too,
stands the man who calls himself General in
Chief, the President's chosen military mana
ger and adviser, whose strategy is seen in his
dispatching the Banks expedition to Texas,
when every principleof common sense required
it to bear on Richmond, whose business habits
are illustrated in his forgetting the pontoons,
though he had expressly promised them, and
whose judgment in shown by his persistert
order to storm Fredericksburg heights, in spite
of the conclusive reasons of General Burnside
fl.irn.inst it.
The "World," after pronouncing the North
on the brink of ruin, continues—
How can the country be saved with such
men in charge of its destiny ? Human rea
son hopes in vain for an answer. But is there
any prospect of a change ? How can it come 1
The President is blindly and obstinately con
fident in these men. Of public opinion he
takes no heed. In fact he knows nothing of
it as it really exists; for it is notorious that
he reads as little of newspapers—which are
the only true index of public opinion—as the
child unborn. His notion of the popular feel
ing are made up mainly from the representa
tions of the interested coteries about him, and
the fugitive statements of the few visitors who '
can quiet his jesting tongue long enough to
get his serious ear. Of course notions thus
gained are mixed, crude and worthless. , !
What then ? Must the nation surely perish? I
Is there no remedy against all this incapacity? '<
We vouch for nothing. The case at best is '
deplorable. 1
Butter's Course from a Nofihctn Point of
View—A Yankee on Yankee.
It is surprising to see how bold and out
spoken some of the Northern papers have be
come under their recent reverses. The tide
of reaction has set in. Language which
months ago would have consigned one to
Fort Lafayette is now boldly proclaimed,, and
commands thousands of willing ears. The
New York "World" denounces the Adminis
tration for continuing Butler in office, and
shows him to be a disgrace to humanity.—
Reviewing his course in New Orleans, the
"World" says:
There are American journals so ignorant
or so base as to praise the* administration of
General Butler at New Orleans. The fact is
that he not only disgraces the Union cause
he disgraces- civilization and humanity itself
He would be without apologists in Algiers.—
He ought to be without eulogists in America.
Silence concerning his abuses of power and
malfeasances in "office, his brutality and the
peculations at which he winks, if he does not
share their profit, might be tolerated by the
consciences of those who, hopeless of moving
the mind of Mr. Lincoln, were unwilling to
really, obstruct the Government, or even seem
to encourage disloyalty. But when that si
lence is misconstrued into approbation, when
presses actually praise General Butler, when
presses exist which have the effrontery or the
ignorance to represent the number of those
who have taken an enforced oath of allegiance
:as the number of those whose hearts have been [
; constrained to loyalty, then silence becomes j
' a lie. The truth concerning this basest and
; most unprincipled man should then be told,
and 1 his misconduct be denounced as it l« s
serves, that the shame 1 of the loyal and hon
est millions whose Government Mr. tiincol-i
has sent him to represent may at least be tHF
deserved; »
We do not mean to deprecate the shafptiesA
of General Butler's pen or the cleverness of
his cunning mind. Pettifogger- have foond
themselves surpassed in their owh arts; and
thieves could teach General Butler nothing
which he did not know. He has been o_t
witted. So much at ldast may be said to hid
credit, but that is all. Another syllabi* it.
his praise beyond that is false.
He has disgraced the army, for the the At'
my is honest; he has disgraced his Govern
ment, fof his Government is yet great enough
tobejust; he has disgraced his cdtintry, fof
his name barbs the scorn of foreign enemies
and justifies the severity of foreign friends; He
has dishonored the chief magistrate*) by pre
scribing him to ministers of the Gospel as the
subject of their Compulsory prayers; he he
dishonored the North by incarcerating every
mean and sordid characteristic which, falsely*
Southern passion has ascribed to Northern
phlegm, by surrounding himself with meri
whose ill-gotten gaifis, dishonesty and
loyalty profitable, cause disloyal henesty to
seem respectable by comparison; he has dis
graced his sex for not even women have been
exempt from his cruelty, but like men have
been made to suffer as traitorp for the self-re
spect of their intercourse with him as women)
if it is possible he has disgraced himself, fof
the most subservient tool of southern men and
obsequious leader of southern institutions has.
become their assidious enemy, seeking a place
for the heel of power where once he looked to
lick the spittle of servility.
General Butler's whole career Is known to
very many loyal men at the North, who blush
in silence and shame at the imbecility which
tolerates him for an instant in poWer. The
administration presses will act Wisely not to
praise him. They should be thankful if their
own silence secures his immunity from public
odium. Neither they nor Mr. Lincoln out
secure him against the infamy of history*
Tlie Currency of the North—tie Depreciation
Appeal to GongtetSi
Under the effect of the recent reverses of
the Yankee army, the currency of the North
is rapidly depreciating; The New York He*
raid makes a strong appeal to Congress to do
something to arrest it and to save the nation
from bankruptcy. The Herald says-fci
It is demanded-Jjby the
country that the two great matters most deep
ly interesting at this critical moment to the
nation, on which it may be said pur Welfare
and success mainly depend, shall receive, if
not exclusive at least paramount and imme
diate attention. We need hardly say that the
two great and most pressing subjects which
now claim the immediate action of Congress
are the currency and taxation. Let us hope
that the interminable is hotr
at last settled and disposed oi, and that, hat
ing received all the attention possible in the
President's Message, it /will not be dragged
into Congress, at least this session, to the ex
clusion of legitimate and necessary business.
Such are the two questions aiiq matters of
business which it behooves Congress to take
up forthwith and to. arrange and settle on a
sound and honest bans. We say honest, em
phatically, because there are in Congress men
devoted to section a, corporation and tree ng
interests, who we/fear would; if they Irere
able, divert the action of Congress from popu
lar and patriotic action, in view of the great
interests of the great people, to special mer
cenary and dishonest action, in View of pri
vate interests and trading and corporation
advantages. 1
Our observations and our fears apply chief
ly to the currency question—a question which
must be taken |p and must be settled by Con
gress without delay; for it is certain toe tttn
nol &o on long (as now; we cannot safely be
left to drift at the mercy of chance, with the
helm in the hand of wild speculation, and the
vessel of State, headed towards quicksands
and breakers* I
Having hintedjUo Congress its present duty
and business, We will make a. few brief and
concise hints afeo in reference to the course
and direction which its duty ougbt, We think,
to pursue. What, we would ask,' is otir pre
sent position in Preference to the currency ?
We have beforfe us the spectacle of two antago
nistic powers engaged in one and the sdine bu
siness—issuing irsedeertiable paper money; One
of these powers is Congress itself: the other pow
er is a scattered, unconnected force of about a
thousand banks ani trading corporations; The
issue of demand ttofts by the authority of Con
gress is, it is true, subject to limitation—the will
of the majority in that body; also its notes is
sued are, if not redeemable in spvciej at least
convertible into Government securities. But the
issues of the other ptwer we bat* mentioned,
now that the banks are relieved from the neces
sity of converting their bills into specie at the
will of the holder, are absolutely Without limita
tion. This alone and of itself is a great evil to
the country—the unlimited issue tif irredeema
ble, irresponsible pftpfe motley by more than
twelve or fourteen hundred banks throughout the,
country. When to this-great isstte which there
is nothing adequate to control, Whose all kinds
of banks, solvent and insolvent, good and bad,
honest and swindling, are all eonfenoded togeth
er without distinctiveness, without any ready
means of ascertaining which are genmne traders
and which are wildcat swindlers—when to this
evil of redundant, irredeemable issues h added
over and above the issue 'of many millions of
Treasury demand notes, the evil is doubly aggra
vated.
The country, in this deplorable situation, may
be compared to some respeetabie gentleman at
tacked in the streets and knteked down by a