to about naught. Look at the condition of the country around Richmond; but this was scarcely more than a type of every other part of the Confederacy. rolling officers of the State, who were assembled here a few days ago, said that the State could not stand another draft. It had been said that the agriculturists necessary at Congress did not propose to reduce the ef- home might be enrolled and detailed. If men ficiency of the different bureaus; it did not were wanted outside the army, it was our duty reduce, for instance, the efficiency of the ord- to exempt them by law, and not leave it to the nance and nitre bureaus, because the men must Secretary of War and the President to dole be furnished with munitions of war. And yet out details. He was not one of those who demunitions of war were not all that we could lighted in the Quixotic pastime of making a rely on. We must feed and clothe the army, man of straw and tilting at him; he had no and not only the army but the people at home. fears, and the people need have no fears of the Private appeals were daily coming to the mem- Executive, and it was with no feeling of want bers of Congress from soldiers in the army of confidence in the Executive when he said speaking of the sufferings at home; how many that he preferred this Congress to pass its own of their families are wanting the necessaries laws rather than call upon that branch of the of life, when they are unable to send them any Government to do it for them. The great part of their scant pay; how many asking for danger to-day to our cause did not come from relief to the farming interests; how some, our own Executive, it came from the tyrant at stimulated by the prospects of starvation at Washington, and it should be the effort of this home, and the deficiency of food in the army, Government to use all its energies in providing are driven to despair and desertion. With against the calamities which that tyrant would these things constantly before it, would Con- endeavor to inflict upon us. gress still break down and cripple the limited resources that were left us to carry on this war? Mr. Chambers, of Virginia, said that manufactories were as necessary as agriculture, and there was as great a deficiency in clothing today as there was in food. Did the gentleman mean to say that our soldiers deserted to the Yankees because they were not fed? We could, he believed, feed double two hundred thousand men in the field; and if we could not, then the sooner we made terms with Abraham Lincoln the better for us. We must have more than two hundred thousand men in the field next spring; we have now all the supplies we will have then, for the farmers' productions won't be available until next winter. Every body admits and expects that next spring will be the worst and the heaviest and most decisive campaign that will occur, and yet there is a demand for more exemptions. He was not opposed to the exemption of planters; whether they furnished substitutes or not, it made no difference. But he was opposed to class legislation. Mr. Dupre, of Louisiana, believed that if Congress had given more attention to transportation, the subject of food would not now be exciting so many fears. He had travelled a long way in getting here, and from Western Louisiana to this place he had seen very large quantities of provisions, which only wanted transportation to be distributed to the people and the army. The cry of scarcity was a stratagem employed by traitors, and it misled many honest and conscientious men, who really believed what they said. It was a stratagem to excite the spirits and the efforts of the Northern people, and disaffection and hopelessness in our own. Mr. Goode, of Virginia, was able to state upon the best authority, that in reply to inquiries propounded them by Col. Preston, Chief of the Conscript Bureau, all of the en Mr. Holcombe, of Virginia, said that by the bill of which this was an amendment, the entire agricultural population would be put in the army, and that in a country whose agricultural population greatly outbalances that of the cities and towns. Napoleon, in the ruthless conscription which he inflicted on France, never went above the age of thirty years. We proposed to put in all, of every age, and when it was known that it was a precarious matter to supply from week to week the army in the field. When the supplies were known to be so scarce, the slaves were to be withdrawn from the fields, and it was proposed in time to draw still more largely upon the vital resources of the country. From his district would be drawn one hundred men for the army, and stop two thousand laborers now engaged in producing grain for the army. We had now five hundred thousand men in the field to provide for; the new law would add one hundred thousand more, and was it possible to escape starvation when there were none at home to provide for them? Where was the weak point of the enemy? Certainly not in want of provisions. It was not prob able, then, that a decisive victory could be fought this spring, and no such desperate hope should be allowed to animate us to such desperate measures as that of putting everybody in the army. The weak point of the enemy was in its financial condition. It was our policy to protract the war. Time and distance were our great allies. We must remember that, in reference to this State at least, our last crops were far below the average. Our space had been contracted, and all now must be devoted to the production of provisions for the next year. Take away the men, and starvation at home and ruin in the army would be, in his opinion, the inevitable result. Mr. McRae, of Mississippi, believed that the most certain way of feeding the army was to ciency existed because there were so many of the enemy within our borders, and we had not sufficient numbers to drive them out. Some had attributed the scarcity to corruption in the Commissary Department, and though unprepared for an opinion as to the truth of that charge, he still believed that that department was inefficient; others attributed it to want of transportation, and want of transportation had certainly much to do with it. We had now but one line of railroad; the Knoxville and Chattanooga being in the possession of the enemy, left us with a vast auxiliary cut off. He believed that there was no deficiency in the country, and that if we could drive the enemy back, we could feed the army, no matter what its numbers. After further desultory debate the bill was passed by yeas 41, nays 31. The bill provided that each person exempted shall devote himself and the labor he controls to the production of provisions and family supplies; that there shall be contributed for the use of the army from every farm, besides the tithes required by tax, an additional tenth of all the pork or bacon produced; and that if required, the persons exempted shall sell all their surplus provisions for the use of soldiers' families, or the army, at prices fixed by commissioners. On February 1, the House discussed the bill reported from the Committee on Military Affairs, to increase the efficiency of the army by the employment of free negroes and slaves under certain circumstances. An unsuccessful attempt to go into secret session was made, the pending question being upon an amendment offered by Mr. Baldwin, of Virginia, to add to the first section the words: "And no free negro engaged in the production of food and forage shall be taken under this act." Mr. Barksdale, of Mississippi, said that it was no harm to say that we needed troops, and it was the duty of Congress to place men in the army, and fill up those serried ranks now so gallantly maintaining our cause in the field. The chairman of the Military Committee had informed the House that the proposed measure would bring forty thousand troops into the field-more than had been engaged in any great battle-without materially diminishing our resources, and yet we were met at the threshold by a question relative to exchange. Suppose these free negroes were taken prison. ers; the free negro is not a useful ingredient of our society. He was astonished, a few days ago, at the assertion of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Baldwin) that this class was a useful one in his State. He would leave it to the gentleman's colleagues to answer that, but would say that, according to his observation, the free negro was a blot upon our escutcheon, and pernicious to our slave population. Neither were they engaged in agricultural pursuits. VOB. IV.-14 A The amendment of the gentleman from Virginia proposed to make a most unjust discrimination against the poorer white classes. He says to the free negro, You shall not bear the burdens of this war-while he goes to the dwelling of the humble white citizen, and says to him, You must take your place in the army. It was contrary to the usages of Government to regard a negro as a citizen, and yet the gentleman proposed to discriminate between them and the poorer white classes. Mr. Baldwin: Does the gentleman wish to place the negroes and whites on an equality? Mr. Barksdale said that he was in favor of the bill just as it came from the committee. He would employ negroes in menial service in the army, and thus increase its efficiency by placing able-bodied white men, now performing those services, in the ranks. Mr. Atkins, of Tennessee, called the question; which was ordered, and Mr. Baldwin's amendment was rejected. Mr. Wright, of Texas, said he would like to vote for the bill, but a constitutional difficulty suggested itself to his mind. He would inquire of the chairman of the Military Committee if the proposition to pay negroes eleven dollars per month was not unconstitutional? Mr. Miles thought the objection not a very subtle one. When the constitution provided that no private property should be taken without just compensation to the owner, it did not deprive Congress of the privilege of fixing the compensation. It did not make it obligatory that it should be fixed by a jury. If Congress determined to employ negroes in menial operations in the army, it was perfectly competent to determine the compensation to be paid to the owner. While we were paying soldiers but eleven dollars per month, he thought the compensation ample for the services of negroes. Mr. Smith, of Alabama, moved to strike out the first section of the bill. It was proposed to put into the fortifications and in the army, in the capacity of teamsters, free negroes-a class who were inimical to our cause. Many of them could read, write, and draw, and being introduced into our fortifications, and becoming acquainted with their details, had only to communicate them to the enemy. So with regard to teamsters. They might, by carrying devices, clog the movements of a whole army. Mr. Elliott, of Kentucky: Does the gentleman suppose free negroes are more inimical to our cause than slaves? Mr. Smith had never heard that free negroes had done any thing good to our cause. He was willing to pass the second section, which provides for the employment of slaves, but opposed the free negro feature in toto. Mr. Chambliss, of Virginia, said that he represented a district that was overwhelmed with free negroes, and since the departure of the slaves, they were the only laborers that could be procured. There were many dependent females, who had no other means of procuring subsistence or fuel. There was, however, a clause in the bill which authorized the President to exempt such free negroes as the interests of the country might require; and he was willing to trust to the justice of the Executive in this respect, and should vote for the bill. He was quite as willing to trust free negroes in the army as slaves, however much we might be attached to the latter class. He hoped the section would not be stricken out. It was his intention to vote for every measure to increase the army, and he invoked the House to stand boldly up to its responsibility. If our cause failed, this Congress would be handed down to posterity with contempt, because it refused to make use of the measures within its reach. Mr. Smith's amendment was lost. Various other amendments were proposed, some of which were adopted and others rejected, and the bill finally passed. This measure was distinct from the proposition brought before the Congress, at its session in November, to arm the slaves, and put them in the ranks as soldiers. At this session the following resolutions and address, introduced into the Senate by Mr. Hill, of Georgia, were adopted by both Houses: Joint resolutions declaring the disposition, principles, and purposes of the Confederate States in relation to the existing war with the United States. Whereas, It is due to the great cause of humanity and civilization, and especially to the heroic sacrifices of their gallant army in the field, that no means consistent with a proper self-respect, and the approved usages of nations, should be omitted by the Confederate States to enlighten the public opinion of the world with regard to the true character of the struggle in which they are engaged, and the disposition, principles, and purposes by which they are actuated; therefore, Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the following manifesto be issued in their name, and by their authority, and that the President be requested to cause copies thereof to be transmitted to our commissioners abroad, to the end that the same may be laid before foreign Govern ments. Manifesto of the Congress of the Confederate States of America relative to the existing war with the United States. The Congress of the Confederate States of America, acknowledging their responsibility to the opinion of the civilized world, to the great law of Christian philanthropy, and to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, for the part they have been compelled to bear in the sad spectacle of war and carnage which this continent has, for the last three years, exhibited to the eyes of afflicted humanity, deem the present a fitting occasion to declare the principles, the sentiments, and the purposes by which they have been, and are still, actuated. They have ever deeply deplored the necessity which constrained them to take up arms in defence of their rights, and of the free institutions derived from their ancestors; and there is nothing they more ardently desire than peace, whensoever their enemy, by ceasing from the unhallowed war waged upon them, shall permit them to enjoy in peace the sheltering protection of those hereditary rights, and those cherished institutions. The series of successes with which it has pleased Almighty God in so signal a manner to bless our arms on almost every point of our invaded border since the opening of the present campaign, enables us to profess this desire of peace in the interest of civilization and humanity, without declaration being ascribed to any unmanly sentidanger of having our motives misinterpreted, of the ment, or any mistrust of our ability fully to maintain our cause. The repeated and disastrous checks, foreshadowing ultimate discomfiture, which their Confederacy, has already met with, are but a congigantic army, erected against the capital of the tinuation of the same providential successes for us. We do not recur to the successes in any spirit of vain boasting, but in humble acknowledgment of that Almighty protection which has vouchsafed and granted them. The world must now see that eight millions of people, inhabiting so extensive a territory, with such varied resources, and such numerous facilities for defence as the benignant bounty of nature has bestowed upon us, and animated with one spirit to encounter every sacrifice of ease, of health, of property, of life itself, rather than be degraded from the condition of free and independent States, into which they were born, can never be conquered. Will not our adversaries themselves begin to feel that humanity has bled long enough; that tears, and blood, and treasure enough have been expended in a bootless undertaking, covering their own land, no less than ours, with a pall of mourning, and exposing them far more than ourselves, to the catastrophe of financial exhaustion and bankruptcy, not to speak of the loss of their liberties by the despotism engendered in an aggressive warfare upon the liberties of another and kindred people? Will they be willing by test, to make this continent, which they so long a longer perseverance in a wanton and hopeless conboasted to be the chosen abode of liberty and selftheatre of the most causeless and prodigal effusion government, of peace and a higher civilization, the of blood which the world has ever seen, of a virtual relapse into the barbarism of the ruder ages, and of lessness of usurped power? the destruction of constitutional freedom by the law These are questions which our adversaries will debefore the tribunal of the world, as well as in the cide for themselves. We desire to stand acquitted eyes of omniscient Justice, of any responsibility for the spirit of the age as to the traditions and acthe origin or prolongation of a war as contrary to knowledged principles of the political system of America. prevailed elsewhere, it has ever been held and acOn this continent, whatever opinions may have knowledged by all parties that government, to be lawful, must be founded on the consent of the governed. We were forced to dissolve our Federal connection with our former associates by their aggres sions on the fundamental principles of our compact of union with them; and in doing so we exercised a right consecrated in the great charter of American liberty-the right of a free people, when a Government proves destructive of the ends for which it was established, to recur to the original principles, and to institute new guards for their security. The separate independence of the States, as the sovereign and co-equal members of the Federal Union, had never been surrendered, and the pretensions of applying to independent communities, so constituted and organized, the ordinary rules for coercing and reducing rebellious subjects to obedience was a solecism in terms, as well as an outrage on the principles of public law. The war made upon the Confederate States was, therefore, wholly one of aggression. On our side it has been strictly defensive. Born freemen, and the descendants of a gallant ancestry, we had no opinion but to stand up in defence of our invaded firesides, of our desecrated altars, of our violated liberties and birthright, and of the prescriptive institutions which guard and protect them. We have not interfered, nor do we wish in any manner whatever, to Let them forbear aggressions upon us and the war is at an end. If there be questions which require adjustment by negotiations, we have ever been willing, and are still willing to enter into communication with our adversaries in a spirit of peace, of equity, and of manly frankness. Strong in the persuasion of the justice of our cause, in the manly devotion of our citizen soldiers, and of the whole body of our people, and above all in the gracious protection of heaven, we are not afraid to avow a sincere desire for peace on terms consistent with our honor, and the permanent security of our rights; and an earnest aspiration to see the world once more restored to the beneficent pursuits of industry and of mutual intercourse and exchanges, so essential to its wellbeing, and which have been so gravely interrupted by the existence of this unnatural war in America. But, if our adversaries, or those whom they have placed in power, deaf to the voice of reason and justice, steeled to the dictates of prudence and humanity, by a presumptuous and delusive confidence in their own numbers, or those of their black and foreign mercenaries, shall determine upon an indefinite prolongation of the contest, upon them be the responsibility of a decision so ruinous to themselves, and so injurious to the interest and repose of man kind. For ourselves, we have no fear of the result. The wildest picture ever drawn by a disordered imagination comes short of the extravagance which would dream of the conquest of eight millions of people, resolved with one mind "to die freemen rather than live slaves," and forewarned by the savage and exterminating spirit in which this war has been waged upon them, and by the mad avowals of the supporters of the worse than Egyptian bondage that awaits them in the event of their subjugation. With these declarations of our dispositions, our principles, and our purposes, we commit our cause to the enlightened judgment of the world, to the sober reflections of our adversaries themselves, and to the solemn and righteous arbitrament of heaven. The first session of the Second Congress* under the permanent Constitution convened at Richmond on May 2d. Forty new members had been elected, and fifty-seven old members. *SENATE. Alabama-R. W. Walker, Robert Jemison. North Carolina-William A. Graham, William T. Dortch. Virginia-R. M. T. Hunter, A. T. Caperton. HOUSE. Alabama-Thomas J. Foster, William R. Smith, W. R. W. Cobb, M. H. Cruikshank, Francis S. Lyon, W. P. Chilton, David Clopton, James L. Pugh, J. S. Dickinson. *Mr. Cobb did not take his sent, but withdrew to Kansas. The most important subject discussed at this session arose on resolutions relative to peace. The brief debates which are published serve to explain the views of members: In the House of Representatives, on the 4th of May, Mr. James M. Leach, of North Carolina, asked leave to make a personal explanation. He noticed in the Examiner an article making an attack upon the people of North Carolina in general, and those of his district and himself in particular. After reading the article, he entered into a lengthy criticism upon it. He said the rumors and charges against his people originated in the State; that they came from a clamor gotten up by certain disappointed parties who had vented their spleen by grossly misrepresenting those who had received the support and countenance of the people. It originated with men who once denounced the present Governor as a peace man and a traitor. Mr. said he was a peace man-a peace man upon the principle of recognizing the independence of the Southern Confederacy. Said he was in favor of the appointment of Commissioners to be ready to treat Arkansas-Felix I. Batson, Rufus K. Garland, Vacancy, Thomas B. Hanly. Florida-St. George Rogers, R. B. Hilton. Georgia-Julien Hartridge, William E. Smith, Mark H. Blanford, Clifford Anderson, J. T. Shewmake, J. H. Echols, James M. Smith, H. P. Bell, George N. Lester, Warren Aiken. ry E. Read, George W. Ewing, James S. Chrisman, Theo. L. Kentucky-William B. Machen, George W. Triplett, HenBurnett, H. W. Bruce, Humphrey Marshall, Ely M. Bruce, James W. Moore, Benjamin F. Bradley, John M. Elliott. Louisiana-Charles J. Villere, Charles M. Conrad, Duncan F. Kenner, Lucius J. Dupre, Vacancy, John Perkins, Jr. Mississippi-John A. Orr, W. D. Holder, Israel Welsh, Henry C. Chambers, Otho R. Singleton, Ethel Barksdale, J. T. Lampkin. Missouri-Thomas L. Snead, N. L. Norton, John B. Clark, A. H. Conrow, George G. Vest, Peter S. Wilkes, R. A. Hatcher. North Carolina-W. H. N. Smith, Robert R. Bridgers, J. T. Leach, Thomas C. Fuller, Josiah Turner, Jr., John A. Gilmer, James M. Leach, James G. Ramsay, B. Gaither, George W. Logan. South Carolina-J. M. Witherspoon, W. Porcher Miles, Lewis M. Ayer, W. D. Simpson, James Farrow, W. W. Boyce. Tennessee-Joseph B. Heiskell, William G. Swan, A. S. Colyar, John P. Murray, Henry S. Foote, F. A. Keeble, James McCallum, Thomas Menees, J. D. C. Adkins, John V. Wright, M. W. Cluskey. Texas-Stephen H. Darden, Claiborne C. Herbert, A. M. Branch, Frank B. Sexton, J. R. Baylor, S. H. Morgan. Virginia-Robert L. Montague, Robert H. Whitfield, William C. Wickham, Thomas S. Gholson, Thomas S. Bocock, John Goode, Jr., William C. Rives, D. C. De Jarnette, David Funsten, F. W. M. Holliday, John B. Baldwin, Waller R. Staples, Fayette McMullen, Samuel Miller, Robert Johnston, Charles W. Russell. TERRITORIAL DELEGATES. Arizona-M. H. Macwillie. Choctaw Nation-R. M. Jones. Creek and Seminole Nations-S. B. Callahan. OFFICERS OF THE SENATE.-R. M. T. Hunter, President pro tem.; J. H. Nash, of South Carolina, Secretary; E. Stevens, of South Carolina, Assistant Secretary; C. T. Bruen, of Virginia, Journal Clerk; J. W. Anderson, Recording Clerk; Lafayette H. Fitzhugh, of Kentucky, Sergeant-atArms; James Page, of South Carolina, Doorkeeper. OFFICERS OF THE HOUSE-Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, Speaker; Albert R. Lamar, of Georgia, Clerk; James McDonald, De Louis Dalton, Henry G. Lowring, Assistant Clerks; R. H. Wayne, of Alabama, Doorkeeper. with the United States whenever they were willing to treat with us, as had been done in the Revolutionary war, in the war of 1812, and during the Mexican war. He said the people of his district were as loyal and devoted to the Southern cause as those of any other in the Confederacy. He said they had sent to the army more men in proportion to their population than any district in the South; that they had proved their devotion to the cause upon almost every battlefield-had nobly fallen with "their feet to the enemy and their face to the sky." He said he was prepared to prove that there had been fewer desertions from the troops of North Carolina than from those of any other State in the South. He said the views he entertained upon peace were the same that had been expressed by the Vice-President of the Confederacy, and many other distinguished men in the South. He said that it was true that there was much opposition to the late act passed for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and since the publication of Mr. Stephens's speech it had much increased. He had intended himself to introduce a bill to repeal the late act. He heard that the act had been passed for the purpose of suppressing public sentiment in North Carolina. If so, its object has been and would be defeated. While the people of North Carolina were willing to make any and every sacrifice for the honorable prosecution of the war, they would not quietly submit to the destruction of their rights and liberties. Mr. J. T. Leach also rose to a personal explanation. The article in the Examiner, he had no doubt, alluded to him. He said he endorsed every word that had been said by his colleague. He was a peace man-for an honorable peace-peace that will do justice to those that commenced the war, and those that have sacrificed their all upon the altar of their country. He said he was a Southern man, and would stand by the cause of the "sunny South," and was willing to make any proper sacrifice for its success. But he said is it any discredit to a man to be in favor of peace? How are you to put an end to the war without negotiation, and how are you to negotiate without being in favor of peace? Commissioners had been appointed in all wars we ever had to bring about the cessation of hostilities, and put a stop to the shedding of blood. He said we must lay aside all this spirit of vilification and prejudice which seemed to fill the of many persons upon this subject. The people of North Carolina had been abused and vilified more than those of all the States of the South, and why was it? Was it because she had furnished so many thousand noble and true men, who had sacrificed their all for the cause? worse administration. He said that the recent act* suspending the writ of habeas corpus had created disloyalty there. Mr. Staples desired to ask the gentleman a *A Bill to suspend the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus in certain cases. WHEREAS, The Constitution of the Confederate States of America provides, in Article I., section 9, paragraph 5, that "the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it;" and whereas, the power of suspending the privilege of said writ, as recognized in said Article I., is vested solely in the Congress, which is the exclusive judge of the necessity of such suspension; and requires the suspension of said writ in the existing case of whereas, in the opinion of the Congress, the public safety the invasion of these States by the armies of the United States; and whereas, the President has asked for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and informed Congress of the condition of the public danger which render the suspension of the writ a measure proper for the public defence against invasion and insurrection; now, therefore, SEC. 1. That during the present invasion of the Confederate States the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus be, and ply only to the cases of persons arrested or detained by order the same is hereby suspended; but such suspension shall apof the President, Secretary of War, or the General Officer commanding the Trans-Mississippi Military Department, by authority and under the control of the President. It is hereby declared that the purpose of Congress in the passage of this act, is to provide more effectually for the public safety by suspending the writ of habeas corpus in the following cases, and no other: I. Of treason or treasonable efforts or combinations to subvert the Government of the Confederate States. II. Of conspiracies to overthrow the Government or con spiracies to resist the lawful authority of the Confederate States. ing intelligence to the enemy, or giving him aid and comfort. IV. Of conspiracies, preparations, and attempts to incite servile insurrection. III. Of combining to assist the enemy, or of communicat V Of desertions and encouraging desertions, of harboring deserters, and of attempts to avoid military service: Provided, that in cases of palpable wrong and oppression by any subordinate officer, upon any party who does not legally owe military service, his superior officer shall grant prompt relief to the oppressed party, and the subordinate shall be dismissed from office. VI. Of spies and other emissaries of the enemy. VII. Of holding correspondence or intercourse with the enemy, without necessity, and without the permission of the Confederate States. VIII. Of unlawful trading with the enemy and other offences against the laws of the Confederate States, enacted to promote their success in the war. IX. Of conspiracies, or attempts to liberate prisoners of war held by the Confederate States. X. Of conspiracies, or attempts or preparations to aid the enemy. XI. Of persons aiding or inciting others to abandon the Confederate cause, or to resist the Confederate States, or to adhere to the enemy. XII. Of unlawfully burning, destroying or injuring, or attempting to burn, destroy or injure any bridge or railroad, or telegraph line of communication, or other property with the intent of aiding the enemy. XIII. Of treasonable designs to impair the military power of the Government by destroying or attempting to destroy the vessels or arms or munitions of war, or arsenals, foun deries, workshops, or other property of the Confederate States. SEC. 2. The President shall cause proper officers to invesmindstigate the cases of all persons so arrested or detained, in order that they may be discharged if improperly detained, unless they can be speedily tried in the due course of law. He said that it was true there was disloyalty there a disloyalty that he was proud of-a disloyalty that is opposed to bad laws and SEC. 3. That during the suspension aforesaid no military or other officer shall be compelled, in answer to any writ of habeas corpus, to appear in person, or to return the body of any person detained by him by the authority of the President, Secretary of War, or the general officer commanding the trans-Mississippi Department; but upon the certificate under oath of the officer having charge of any one so detained that such person is detained by him as a prisoner under the authority aforesaid, further proceedings under the writ of habeas corpus shall immediately cease and remain suspended so long as this act shall continue in force. SEC. 4. This act shall continue in force for ninety days after the next meeting of Congress, and no longer. |