Confederate Congress.
Senate.
House resolution declaring it to be impracticable to take a census of the people of the Confederate States was considered and passed.
House bill to authorize the Postmaster-General to purchase United States postage stamps for certain purposes was considered and passed.
House bill to amend the act to reduce the currency, etc., was reported back by the Finance Committee with an amendment providing for the issue of coupon bonds instead of registered bonds. The amendment was agreed to, but the bill rejected — yeas, 6; nays, 11.
The Finance Committee reported back, with amendments, House bill making appropriations for support of the Government from the 1st of July to the 31st of December, 1865. The amendments, which were unimportant, were concurred in, and the bill was passed.
Mr. Barnwell's motion to reconsider the vote by which was passed House bill to provide for the payment of arrears due the army and navy was taken up, and the Senate refused to reconsider.
A message was received from the President stating that he had under consideration the act entitled "an act to diminish the number of exemptions and details, and suggesting that it contained two provisions (the exemption of skilled artisans and mechanics employed by Government from all military service, the revocation of all details, and depriving the President and Secretary of War of the power to grant exemptions and details) which would, in practice, so impair the efficiency of the service as to counterbalance, if not outweigh, the advantages that would result from the other clauses contained in it, and expressing the hope that Congress would pass an amendment to the act in accordance with the foregoing recommendations, so that he might be able, by signing both the act and amendment, to secure unimpaired benefit to the proposed legislation. The message was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.
A message was also received from the President, returning, with his approval, the act to regulate the business of conscription, but suggesting the passage of an amendatory bill. This was also referred to the Military Committee.
Mr. Wigfall, having risen to make a personal explanation, stated that the opinions expressed in his speech on the negro soldier bill relative to the resignation of the President had not been suggested by Mr. Hunter. So far from it, he and Mr. Hunter differed toto calo on the subject. He had been induced to make this explanation in consequence of editorial remarks in a city newspaper attempting to cast on Mr. Hunter the responsibility for those opinions.
The Senate resolved into secret session.
House of Representatives.
The House met at 11 o'clock.Mr. Goode, of Virginia, offered a resolution requesting the Speaker to inform the Governor of Virginia that vacancies exist in the Second and Seventh Congressional districts of Virginia by reason of the resignation of the Hons. R. H. Whitfield and William C. Rives. Agreed to.
Mr. Snead, of Missouri, under a suspension of the rules, called up a bill-for the relief of Major John Reed, of Missouri, which was considered and passed. The special order, viz: Senate bill "to amend the law in relation to impressments," was considered and passed.
A message was received from the President informing the House that he had, on the 9th instant, approved and signed bills with the following titles, viz:
‘ An act to provide for the settlement of certain matters of accounts growing out of purchase of property, as alleged by the purchasers, for the use of the Government, by Payne & Co., in the State of Texas.
’ An act authorizing the promotion of officers, non-commissioned officers and privates for distinguished valor and skill or peculiar competency and general merit.
An act to secure to sick and wounded officers the same rights and privileges in obtaining leaves of absence as are now provided by law for soldiers obtaining furloughs.
An act authorizing hospital accommodations for treatment, including subsistence, to certain officers and soldiers retired or discharged.
An act to change the mode of filling vacancies among commissioned officers of companies, battalions and regiments.
An act to authorize and regulate the allowance of naval storekeepers.
An act to provide for paying, in cotton, annuities due the Seminole, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw nations of Indians.
An act further to amend the act to provide an invalid corps, approved June 17, 1864.
An act to construe and declare more explicitly the meaning of an act to increase the compensation of the heads of the several Executive Departments, and the Assistant Secretary of War and the Treasury, and of the Assistant Attorney-General and the Comptroller of the Treasury, and other officers therein named.
An act to regulate the compensation of Government officers, clerks and employees in the city of Petersburg.
An act making appropriations for the construction and repair of railroads for military purposes for the year 1865.
The Chair laid before the House a communication from the President, stating that he had now under consideration an act to diminish the number of exemptions and details, and asking for the amendment of two features of the bill, namely: The exemption of skilled artisans and mechanics in the employment of the Govarnment from all military duty, and the revocation of the exemptions and details heretofore granted by the President, and the prohibiting of the granting of all such exemptions hereafter.
Mr. Miles, of South Carolina, presented a bill "to amend the act to diminish the number of exemptions and details," which he said would obviate the objections of the President's message. The bill was considered and passed. [It authorizes the President to detail such persons for employment in the several departments as the heads of such departments shall certify to be indispensably necessary: Provided, that the total number in all the departments shall not exceed one hundred persons fit for active service in the field. It limits the exemption of skilled artisans and mechanics to service in the field, and not for service in the local defence.]
The Chair laid before the House a communication from the President, informing them that he had returned, with his approval, an act "to regulate the business of conscription," and recommending that the eighth section, providing for the appointment of a board of surgeons to examine and finally discharge from service persons permanently disabled, be repealed or modified. Referred to the Special Committee on Impressments.
Joint resolution of thanks to, and for the relief of, Major Gaspar Tochman, formerly of the Polish army, was considered and passed.
Mr. Miles, from the Committee on Military Affairs, reported favorably a Senate bill to extend an act "to graduate the pay of general officers," approved June 10, 1864. Passed.
Also, a resolution calling for the printing of the report of the operations of General J. E. Johnston. Agreed to.
On motion of Mr. Marshall, the House took a recess until half-past 7 o'clock.
