<L^ C^A^ 4^'. '^-(tKXiiC 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESE.riVVTIVES, February 15, 1864.- Read 
 first and second times, postponed until to-morrow, made special order 
 for 1 o'clock, and ordered to ho printed. 
 
 [Bj Mr, Curry.] 
 
 JOIN^T liESO LUTIOISrS 
 
 In reference to tlie treatment of colored troops. 
 
 1 Whereas, By certiin joint residutiouj* passed by the Congress 
 
 2 of the Confederate iStates of Ametica. :nid approved on the Ist 
 
 3 of May. 1863, the proclamations i>3ued bv the President of the 
 
 4 United States, *' designed ">r tending to emancipate slaves in the 
 6 Confederate States, or to abduct them, or to incite them to 
 
 6 insurrection, or to employ negroes in war against the Confederate 
 
 7 States, or to overthrow the institution of African slavery and 
 
 8 bring on a servile war in these States," were denounced as 
 
 9 inconsistent with the spirit of those usages, which, in modern 
 
 10 warfare, prevail among civilized nations, and therefore as subject 
 
 11 to repression by retaliation, as set forth in said resolutions; 
 
 12 and whereas, in the correspondence between the commissioners for 
 
 1 3 the exchange of prisoners recently submitted to Congress, it 
 
 14 appears by letter of Major General Hitchcock, Commissioner of 
 1 5 Exchange, dated at Washington on the 28th December, 1863, 
 
 16 that information is communicated to the Commissioner of 
 
 17 Exchange, appointed by this Government, that, "until the 
 
2 
 
 18 southern authorities make some ilistinct declaration of a puipo3C 
 
 19 to treat colored troops and their officers in the employment of the 
 
 20 United States Government in all respects according to the laws 
 
 21 of war, as applicable to other troops, we cannot recede from the 
 
 22 position taken by the Commander-in-Chief above referred to," 
 
 23 this position being an order suspending the operation of tliat 
 
 24 portion of article four of the (.'artel which requires all prisoners 
 
 25 of war to be discharged, on }>arole, in ten days after their 
 
 26 capture. 
 
 27 And whereas, it is well known from general orders issued 
 
 « 
 
 28 from Washington, as well as from other official sources, that 
 
 29 tlie words, " colored tvo()i)S and their officers," used in the said 
 
 30 letter, are meant and intended to include slaves, the property of 
 
 31 the people of these Stales, that have been seized, abducted and 
 
 32 impressed into the military service of the United State.-! and 
 
 33 arnied for warfare against their masters ; 
 
 1 Therefore, it is rmolird by the Congress of the Confederott Statfs 
 
 2 of America, That they do a<lhere to the position that the emanci- 
 
 3 pation of the negro slaves within the Confederate States by the 
 A enemy, is not among the acts of legitimate warfare ; but is pro- 
 
 5 perly classed, by writers on public laws, including the most 
 
 6 eminent publicists of the United States, among such acts as 
 
 7 ** putting to death all pri'^oners in cold blood and without special 
 
 8 cause, oi the right to use poisoned weapons, or to assassinate." 
 
3 
 
 1 2. Resolved^ That the pretension of the United States that 
 
 2 these States, whenever they may recapture their own slaves, ab- 
 
 3 ducted and armed by the enemy, shall deliver them back to the 
 
 4 enemy on parole as prisoners of war, is, in effect, a demand that 
 
 5 this Government shall recognize the right of the United States 
 G to legislate within its limits, and shall aid the United States in 
 7 giving effect to such legislation, a pretension too monstrous and 
 S revolting to be yielded to, for a moment, by the Confederate 
 
 States, and set up by our enemies only to create a pretext for 
 }() violating the obligation of liberating prisoners of war, in ac- 
 
 11 cordance with the terms of the cartel, to which the faith of the 
 
 12 two Governments is pledged. 
 
 1 3. Resolved, That Congress approve «the action of the Execu- 
 
 2 tivc in refusing to entertain any proposition for treating our own 
 
 3 recaptured negroes otherwise than as the property of those from 
 
 4 whom they were abducted by the enemy, and to whom the laws 
 
 5 require their restoration. 
 
 1 4. Resolved, That neither these resolutions, nor those passed on 
 
 2 the Ist May, 1863, are to be so construed as to exclude, from 
 
 3 treatment as prisoners of war, such free colored persons and their 
 
 4 officers, as were not resident within the Confederate States at th© 
 
 5 commencement of the present war. 
 
4 
 
 AMENDMENT TO THE TITLE, PROPOSED BY MR. MILES. 
 
 Joint Resolutions in reference to slaves captured in arra^, and tlie 
 exchange of free colored troops of the enemy.