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Impressment of Slaves: Seddon to Davis - Nov. 28,
1864
To the President of the Confederate States:
SIR: The resolution of the House of Representatives, requesting the
President to inform the House by what authority of law the War
Department is now conducting an impressment of slaves in Virginia,
without regard to the State law on that subject, which has been
referred by you to this Department, has been received.
On the 17th of September last, General Lee, commanding the army of
Northern Virginia, made known to this Department "that there was an
immediate necessity for the services of five thousand negroes for
thirty days. That the necessity was sufficiently urgent to justify
calling for this labor at once; that he could not, consistently with
the exigencies of the service, detail officers and soldiers from the
army for this duty;" and said, "that if the agents of the bureau of
conscription can be employed for this purpose, I am prepared to give
them such authority as I consistently may. They can consult with the
local authorities, and arrange for the execution of the impressment
in such manner, as to be least injurious to the public service. I
enclose a tabular statement of the quota and from the counties from
which it is proposed to draw the negroes.
The existence of an urgent necessity for an immediate supply of the
labor required was unquestionable. In conformity to the request of
the commanding General, the agency of the officers of conscription
was directed for the impressment according to the schedule furnished
by him, with orders to confine the impressment to slaves between
eighteen and fifty years of age, and that not more than one slave
out of every five on any farm should be taken, and where there were
only three slaves of ages required, those should be exempt.
The question, whether a commanding general, in the absence of any
law upon the subject, under the pressure of an immediate and urgent
necessity, be authorized to impress slaves for service with his
army, has been much debated in this country, and a diversity of
opinion has been expressed upon it. In a discussion in the Congress
of the then United States of a claim for compensation for the loss
of a slave so impressed for the defense of a city in a state of
siege, Judge P. P. Barbour, of Virginia, said: "The slave is an item
of property, is not a member of the body politic; he owes no service
on his own account to the Government. The Government knows him only
as the property of his master, and it cannot get at him only in two
ways; the one is by the ordinary process of taxation, and the other
is by the extraordinary exertion of power, under a pressing public
emergency. If the officer wantonly or unnecessarily invade the
property of a citizen, he is a trespasser. But then this must be
shown, and, in the present case, not so much as a doubt has been
suggested of the existence of such a case of necessity. If the
necessity exists, then that case has arisen in which the Government
may take private property for the public use."
The power of a general in the field to impress private property for
the public use, in a case of an immediate necessity, has, since the
discussion referred to, been judicially determined by the Supreme
Court of the United States to be legitimate.
The fifth section of the impressment act of the 16th of February
last, amendatory of the laws regulating impressments, seems to
recognise this power as belonging to the commanding General, for it
prohibits the impressment of a very large class of slaves, "except
in case of urgent necessity, and upon the order of the General
commanding, the department" in which the class referred to may be
employed. lt was to this class of slaves that General Lee had
reference in his letter, when he speaks of communicating the
authority that resides in him. This Department, in ordering the
impressments under the circumstances before mentioned, in conformity
to the request of the commanding General, and according to his plan,
had some reference to the powers that belonged to him, under the
conditions that have been disclosed.
It also made reference to the powers with which it was clothed by
the acts of Congress.
The fourth section of the act of Congress of the 26th of March,
1863, authorized the Secretary of War to take private property for
the public use, whenever he shall deem it to be necessary, by reason
of the impracticability of procuring the same by contract, so as to
accumulate supplies for the army, or for the good of the service, in
any locality, by general order, through the instrumentality of
subordinate officers. The ninth section of the same act directed
that when slaves are impressed by the Confederate Government to
labor on fortifications, or other public works, the impressment
should be made according to the rules and regulations provided in
the laws of the States where they are impressed; and, in the absence
of such law, in accordance with such rules and regulations as the
Secretary of War shall, from time to time, prescribe, not
inconsistent with the terms of the act.
This act of Congress does not require the Department to employ the
agency of State officers to secure the labor of slaves. The power to
make the impressment in the fourth section of the act above quoted,
gives to the Secretary of War the power to impress any property
liable to impressment through the agency of the officers of the
Confederate States, and in the ninth section of the act, the terms
used are, "that when slaves are impressed by the Confederate
Government," "the impressment shall be made by said Government" in
accordance with such rules and regulations as have been provided in
the laws of the State wherein they are impressed, if there be such
laws. In an act passed by the State of Virginia, 3d October, 1862,
the Governor of the State was authorized and required to call into
the Confederate States service slaves for labor on fortifications
and public works. The act provided for the equalizing of the burden,
as nearly as may be, among the several counties, cities and towns of
the Commonwealth; for the hire to be paid; the obligations to be
incurred by the Confederate Government; and for the manner of the
collection and delivery of the slaves. This act is not an act for
the impressment of slaves, but a mode for drafting them for the
public service. The execution of the act was dependent, in a great
measure, upon the action of the county court, and experience has
fully shown that its operation is dilatory, arid that it is not
suitable for an immediate and urgent necessity such as existed in
this case.
The only provision in this act that authorizes the impressment of
slaves is conditional upon the event of the neglect or refusal of
the county or corporation court to perform the duty imposed upon
them. In that event the Governor is authorized, with the aid of
certain specified officers of the county to make an impressment of
the slaves demanded from the county by agents of his selection.
The Department has usually collected slaves for work upon
fortifications by a requisition upon the Governor, according to the
terms of this act. It is equitable in its provisions, and the
agencies employed are probably the least obnoxious of any other for
the accomplishment of the object proposed, that object being the
assertion of an onerous and repulsive claim for service. But the
existing circumstances did not admit of the delay necessarily
involved in the use of its machinery. The Department has not
supposed that this act was incorporated into the legislation of the
Confederate States, by the ninth section of the act of March, 1863;
but it has, in its general order under that section of the act, and
its special order in the present instance, preserved its leading
features in reference to the apportionment of the labor, the
compensation to be made, the obligations to be assumed to the owner
in case of the loss or injury of the property, and the length of
time for which the slaves are to be continued in the service.
Having thus shown the authority of law under which the Department is
now conducting the impressment of slaves in Virginia, the answer to
the resolution of the House of Representatives is
Respectfully submitted,
JAMES A. SEDDON,
Secretary of War.
Nov. 28, 1864
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