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![handle is hein.slavery/shtspac0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
SP E ECH
OF
HON TIIAJDEUS STEVENS
OF PENNSYLVANIA,
ON THE
CONFISCATION BILL.
DELIVERED IN THE tU E O' REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 22, 1864.
The Housi' having nnder consideration the confiscation of the property of rebels, Mr.
STEVENS said:
Mr. SPEAKER: The tleman from Ohio [Mr. SPALDiYG] has said nearly all I
intended to ay upon 4 subjeet. I begin simply by denying that the Consti-
tution has the !east reference to any one of the provisions of the bill in question,
and I intend to show that the act of 1861, which was modified by a resolution
which it has been truly said was!.sed under duress very little to the credit of
the Congres that passed it-Tat act of 1862 is iot affected directly or indi-
retly by any one of the provislons of the Constitution, and that especially
that part of the act which provides for seizing property and confiscating it in
fee simnple ispurelv a proceeding wnder the laws of war and under the law of
nations, over whie~i the Con~titu io ha3 no control, and in regard to whic
h 0 effect~wthtever. The first section of the act of 1862 punishes the crime
of treason with death and the forfeiture of personal estate. That, I believe,
is not ,bjeeted to, because personal estate, once forfeited, is forfeited forever.
There 's no sueh thing as a life estate in personal property. He who gets it
for an hour gets it frev, r. That is the plainest principle of law. The second
provie.in is that thoei wh* incite to rebellion shall be punished wi,h fine and
imprisonment. That hae nothi g to do with the Constitution. it is not pre-
tended, I suppose, that the i mg: itution in any way affects it. Then comes the
clause of the bill to which gentlemen take exception; and uhat is that? It
U +,o be fornd in the statute books of that session of Congress, page 313. It
11 vides that, to insure the speedy termination of the present rebellion, it shall
Cthe duty of the President of the United States to cause the seizure of all
the estate and properly, money, credits, &e., of the persons guilty, and apply
the proceeds the of to the support of the Army of the United States.
Here is no attainder for treason, here is no confiscation of property under
any provision of the Constitution. Then the law goes on to state how you are
to s,-ize and condemn property. Itis to be seized and proceeded against in rem,
according to the law for that purpose, and condemned. As what? As the
property of traitors f No such thing. Condemned as enemies' property.
Does not that show that the Constitution has nothing to do with it on the ques-
tion of treason I Here are a body of nen in arms against the United States. This
Set of Congrees, so far as it refers to seizures of property in fee, refers to them
as seizures of the propert) of alien euem,4es, to be treated as such.
-#rNow, where is there a, word about attainder of treason I That part of the
act does not seize property as traitors property at all. But the learned gentle-
man from Ohio [Mr. SPALDING] has well said all that I intended to say with
reference to attainder for treason, Attainder for treason is impossible under
the laws of the United States as they now stand, without an express act mraking
a conviction. and sentcuv ,,nd eXecution for treason an attaint of treason.
Th re is no attaint of ti eaMon in the United States, and there is- no such law here.
By the common law of England, after there is a sentence of execution, or a
finai sentence, for treason, n tairiat is worked, not by the act itself of the
sentence of death, but by the adunmon law. In the United States there is no
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