Communication f Conf Pam #322 DTTDa3S5EZ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Ffb. 17, I S65.— Referred to Committee on Naval ^^^'i^'Sj and ordered to be printed. [By the Chair.] MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT. Richmond, Va., Feb. 15, 1865. To the House of Representatives : In further response to your resolution of the 25th ultimo, I herewith transmit, for your information, a communication from the Secretary of the Navy, covering copies of the remainder of his correspondence with the governor of North CaroHna, relative to coals belonging to the steamer Advance. JEFFERSON DAVIS. COMMUNICATION FROM SECRETARY OF NAVY. Confederate States of America, Navy Department, Riclmond, Feb. 15, 1865. To the President : Sir: Referring to my letter of the .3 let ultimo, transmitting, in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives, "copies of the correspondence between the Secretary of the Navy and the Governor of North Carolina, touching the seizure of the coals of the steamer Advance by the officers of the Navy Department," I have now the honor to transmit herewith, copies of two letters from Grover- nor Vance, dated the 9th and 11th instant, in reply to my letter of the 28th ultimo, and respectfully suggest that they be submitted to the House of Representatives. These letters will close the corres- pondence on the subject referred to in the resolution of the House. I am, respectfully. Your obedient servant, S. R. MALLORY, Secretary of the Navy. ►State of North Carolina, Executive Department, Raleigh, Feb. 9, 1865, Hon. S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy^: Sir: Your communication of the 28th iilt. has been received, in regard to what you are pleased to term a question of fact between yourself and me. I have not the slightest objection to your proposed adherence to the statements made in your former communication. I only desire to be admitted a similar privilege of adhering to my own allegations in regard to the loss of the Advance. Nor do I care to argue the "question of fact," so gravely made upon me, involving only a quib- ble as to whether coal in the possession of my agent was in my pos- session. The distinction between that kind of possession which is r(>quired to sup{)ort an indictment for larceny and that required to sustain an action of trespass vi et armis, might be learnedly descanted upon here ; but as you very properly observe in reference to my allusion to the supposed gold on board the Advance, it would be "unnecessary to the determination of this single question of fact." But tliough such is my susceptibility to reason, I may be induced to forego an argument on the question of the possession of my agent being my possession, I confess I am not quite ready to admit that the possession of A B, abstractly considered, is not the possession of A B ; or that other remarkable proposition, that the legal and undis- puted possession of an article, affords not "the slightest claim" of property. And yet such doctrine I understand you to advance when acknowledging that Power, Low and Co. were part owners of the steamer Advance; that your agents took one hundred and sixty tons of coal from them. You yet assert " that not one particle of coal was taken from the steamer Advance, nor one pound impressed to which the state, or any of the joint owners of that steamer, had the slightest claim." Now, in the name of Blackstone, Coke, and all the lawyers at once, from Moses to Captain Pinkney, who rfi^ have any claim to that coal? Who was its owner? ])Ut really, my dear sir, I think this correspondence had better close, and leave the i)ublic and the proper committee in Congress to determine the question between us. If the taking from my agent of coals collected by him for the use of my vessel and his, did not jus- tify me in my statements to the Legislature, then I am content they should say so. I desire, of course, no difficulty with the Navy De- partment, or any other branch of my government, struggling and straining as they are in the public defence. I was induced more par- ticularly to make this public complaint, because it was not the first time that the coals for my steamer had been seized by the confederate authorities in Wilmington ; and for the further reason that from the first I met with nothing but opposition from all sides in my efforts to clothe the troops of North Carolina. I mentioned those other matters to which you allude as irrelevant to the present question, simply because I considered the general po- licy of my message on this head, as assailed by you, and as I there assailed the policy of the government. Now that the fact that the defences of the Cape Fear and the closure of our last port have given a melancholy confirmation to my strictures, I have no more to say on this subject. Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, (Signed) Z. B. VANCE. State of North Carolina, Executive Department, Raleigh, Feb. 11, 1865. Hon. S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy: Sir: On examining a printed copy of your letter to me of the 2Sth December last, sent me by a member of Congress, I find that I had committed the mistake of attributing to Captain Pinkney certain offensive expressions, which were only used by one J. A. Wil- lard, naval coal agent. I was led into this by the following language in your letter — " Captain Pinkney, C. S. Navy, &c. forwards the following report," and by not noticing the signatures closely at the end of the quota- tion. I have the honor, therefore, to beg that you will consider the correspondence, or my part, amended, by striking out the words "Captain Pinkney" whenever they occur, and the insertion of "Wil- lard ;" and also by striking out any words of respect or praise in my first letter, qualifying " Captain Pinkney," as not applicable to the word " Willard ;" for I should as greatly regret the waste of civility on the latter, as I do the unintentional or mistaken application of any censure to the former. I am, sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, (Signed) Z. B. VANCE. pcRmalipe* pH8.5