General Assembly of Virginia.
Extra session.
Senate.
Thursday, May 8, 1862. The Senate was called to order by Lieut.-Governor Montague.
The Clerk began the reading of the Journal of the Senate, when Mr. Johnson moved to dispense with the further reading of the same. This motion was put and carried.
The Chair then announced the Standing Committees — the same as those of last session, with the exception of the following:
On Confederate Relations.--Messrs. Dickinson of Prince Edward, Robertson, Armstrong, Neeson, Johnson, Charistian of Middlesex, Thompson, Fragier, Whiltie, Wiley, and Dickinson of Grayson.
Mr. Beannon, of Lewis, offered a bill authorizing a change of licenses. The bill was read a first time.
Mr. Johnson offered a bill to authorise County Courts and corporations to purchase salt. Read a first time.
Mr. Quesenberry offered a resolution instructing the Committee of Finance to in quire into the expediency of refunding to Miss Ann M. Fleming a coupon lost or stolen from her and never presented for payment. Read a first time.
Mr. Alderson called up the joint resolution offered by himself yesterday, in regard to the restoration of Gen. J. B. Floyd.
The resolution was taken up and passed unanimously, and Mr. Alderson was appointed to communicate the same to the House of Delegates.
The Senate next took up the reading of the calendar; and all the bills, 14 in number, and herewith attached, were ordered to a second reading.
A bill to provide for holding elections to fill vacancies in the representation in the Senate from the 40th and 50th districts.
A bill providing for the appointment of additional clerks in the office of the Auditor of Public Accounts.
A bill to provide temporary warehouses for tobacco.
A bill to establish an inspection of leather in the city of Norfolk.
A bill to refund license taxes to volunteers in the military service, and to other persons.
A bill to amend an act, entitled ‘"an act to incorporate the American Agency,"’ passed March 29th, 1861.
A bill for the relief of Robert Shield, late Sheriff of the county of York.
A bill authorizing the purchase for the State of certain lots in Hollywood Cemetery.
A bill to amend the first, seventh, and twelfth sections of an act, entitled ‘"An act to raise troops to meet the requisition on Virginia by the President of the Confederate States, "’ passed February 10, 1862.
A bill providing payment for horses taken in the service of the State.
A bill to redress loyal citizens injured by the exercise of usurped power.
A bill to carry into effect a contract made with the lessees of the Washington and Smyth salt works for the purchase of salt.
A bill declaring the standard of a cord measure.
A bill providing for and regulating the salary of the third clerk in the Treasurer's department.
Joint resolution instructing the Attorney General to litigate with the Confederate Government the validity of any laws of said Government as claim the right to sequestrate or confiscate the property held by residents of the United States in Virginia, was read and agreed to.
Joint resolution concerning army and navy officers, was laid on the table.
Joint resolution to exempt a certain number of workmen in manufactories of agricultural implements, was laid on the table.
Joint resolution for auditing board, was laid on the table.
Mr. Brannon moved that the bills ordered to a second reeling be retained by the Clerk and not printed, they having previously been printed. Carried.
On motion of Mr. Quesenberry, the joint resolution for the appointment of a joint committee to take into consideration the state of the country, and to report such measures or resolutions as they may deem proper for the action of the General Assembly, was taken up and passed.
Mr Brannon offered a resolution instructing the Committee of Finance to recommend a tax for the transfer and registration of the registered stock of the State.
The Chair appointed Messrs. Johnson, Hart, Thompson, Brannon, and Quesenberry the committee on the part of the Senate, under the joint resolution.
A message was received from the House, announcing the passage of "an act prescribing the effect of a judgments in favor of the Commonwealth against a deceased person.
The rules were, on motion of Mr. Brannon, suspended to put the bill upon its passage; but Mr. Neeson objecting to its passage, it was reconsidered, and referred to the Committee of Courts of Justice.
Mr. Newman offered the following resolution, which was adopted, viz:
Resolved, That the Governor be requested to inform the Senate as early as possible of the number, quality and description of arms now subject to his disposition.
Mr. Quesenberry, of Caroline, moved to adjourn to 8 P. M.
Mr. Newman offered an amendment fixing the time at 4 P. M.
Mr. Isbell moved an adjournment till 12 o'clock to-morrow. Lost.
Mr. Newman withdrew his amendment, and the original motion of Mr. Quesenberry prevailed.
[In the report of Wednesday's proceedings, omission was made of the fact that the Senate was for some two hours in secret session. It should have been so stated.
Mr. Lynch is confined at home by sickness.--Rep.]
Evening session.
The Senate met at 8 o'clock. Lieut. Gov. Montague in the chair.Mr Johnson, of Bedford, from the committee raised at the morning session, to consider the present state of the country, reported the following report:
The General Assembly of Virginia, now convened in extraordinary session, deem this a fit occasion briefly to review the nature and conduct of the pending war, and solemnly to reaffirm the sentiments which animate them; and those principles of civil liberty which the people of this State and of the Confederate States have maintained from the commencement of the contest, and which, with the blessing of God, they will continue to maintain with unshaken constancy to its close
For more than a year the Government and people of the North have waged a cruel, unjust and unrelenting war against us. They deny to us the inalienable right of self-government, in defence of which in the war of the Revolution of 1776, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. with professed regard for the rights of man, they have at different periods sympathized with the Greeks, the Poles, the Irish, the Hungarians, and the South American States, and all ethers who have at any time sought, by force, to dissolve their subsisting political ties and to establish a separate nationality; yet they deny to those whom they call their brethren the right, which clearly belongs to them as sovereign States, to withdraw peaceably from the Union, and to govern themselves; which rights the people of the Confederate States have declared their solemn purpose to exercise with a unanimity without a parallel in civil revolutions.
In prosecuting the war they have violated without scruple the Constitution which they profess to defend. They have suspended, by Executive proclamation and without law, the writ of habeas corpus imprisoned, without legal warrant or military necessity, thousands of respectable citizens of both sexes; violated their obligations to the State of Maryland, and their solemn compact in the Compromise Measures of 1860 by abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, they have trampled on private rights by depredations upon private property, and now meditate, by a wholesale act of legal robbery the confiscation of the property of nearly every citizen of the Southern States; professing to be the peculiar friends of the black race, they have destroyed their peace and happiness, seducing them by false promises from the kind care and protection of their hereditary owners, and, having found them burdensome to their benevolence, have cruelly cast them off by thousands, without protection or support, to starve or die. The civilized world cannot fall to contrast the acts of these pretenders with their professions, and to see in their seemingly anxious desire to uphold the Constitution their true motive — dread of avarice and the lust of power.
He it Resolved, as the solemn and deliberate sense of the General Assembly of Virginia--
1st That the separation between the North and South is final and sternal; that it was declared by the people or the Confederate States, each acting for itself, with unexampled unanimity, and whatever reverence for the Union may have lingered, for a time, in some minds, has been entirely dissipated by the cruel, rapacious and a tremulous conduct of our enemies.
2d. Resolved, That we have full confidence in
our gallant armies now in the field, which have achieved many glorious victories, and never sustained a disgraceful defeat; yet, should the tide of battle turn against as, we will not be discouraged, but summoning new energy to meet the exigencies struggle on, until, with the blessing of God, we shall conquer an honorable peace, and finally establish our independence.
3d. Resolved, That ordinary coast defences cannot be expected to withstand the powerful armaments of modern naval warfare, and whilst the fall of New Orleans is to be regretted as a calamity, it is no cause for despondency. In the language of our own Washington, on a similar occasion--‘"We should never despair. If new difficulties arise we must only put forth new exertions and proportion our efforts to the exigency of the times."’
4th. Resolved, That in the defence of our liberties we solemnly pledge, for ourselves and our constituents, to the Government of the Confederate States, our whole resources, public and privates; and deliberately declare to our enemies and to the world that we will never submit, under any circumstances, to union with the North, nor abandon this contest so long as a hostile poet-rests upon our soil.
The reading of the report was listened to with marked attention. Mr. Johnson, or Bedford, moved the rules be suspended, to put the resolutions on their passage at once.
Mr. Collibe thought they were inadequate to the occasion; that the preamble wholly failed to do justice to the great subject. He would like himself to examine, with a view of amending.
Mr. Johnson withdrew his motion, and they were laid over.
Mr. Pennybacker moved an adjournment until to morrow at 12 o'clock. The motion was carried.
