State under the first Conscription Act, cannot be pleaded after the brilliant successes of our gallant armies during the summer and fall campaign which have been achieved by troops who entered the service, not as conscripts, but as volunteers. If more troops are needed to meet coming emergencies, call upon the State and you shall have them as volunteers much more rapidly than your enrolling officers can drag conscripts, like slaves ‘in chains,' to camps of instruction. And who that is not blinded by prejudice or ambition can doubt that they will be much more effective as volunteers than as conscripts? The volunteer enters the service of his own free will. He regards the war as much his own as the Government's war; and is ready, if need be, to offer his life a willing sacrifice upon his country's altar. Hence it is that our rolunteer armies have been invincible when contending against vastly superior numbers with every advantage which the best equipments and supplies can afford. Not so with the conscript. He may be as ready as any citizen of the State to volunteer if permitted to enjoy the constitutional rights which have been allowed to others in the choice of his officers and associates. But if these are denied him and he is seized like a serf and hurried into an association repulsive to his feelings and placed under officers in whom he has no confidence, he then feels that this is the Government's war, not his; that he is the mere instrument of arbitrary power, and that he is no longer laboring to establish constitutional liberty, but to build up a military despotism for its ultimate but certain overthrow. Georgians will never refuse to volunteer as long as there is an enemy upon our soil and a call for their services. But if I mistake not the signs of the times they will require the Government to respect their plain constitutional rights.

"Surely no just reason exists why you should refuse to accept volunteers when tendered, and insist on replenishing your armies by conscription and coercion of freemen.

"The question then is not whether you shall have Georgia's quota of troops, for they are freely offered-tendered in advance-but it is whether you shall accept them when tendered as volunteers, organized as the Constitution and laws direct, or shall, when the decision is left with you, insist on rejecting volunteers and dragging the free citizens of this State into your armies as conscripts. No Act of the Government of the United States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at constitutional liberty so fell as has been stricken by the Conscription Acts. The people of this State had ample cause, however, to justify their separation from the old Government. They acted coolly and deliberately in view of all the responsibilities; and they stand ready to-day to sustain their action at all hazards and to resist submission to the Lincoln Government and the reconstruction of the old Union to the expenditure of their last dollar and the sacrifice of their last life. Having entered into the revolution freemen, they intend to emerge from it freemen. And if I mistake not the character of the sons, judged by the action of their fathers against Federal encroachments under Jackson, Troup,

and Gilmer, respectively, as executive officers, they will refuse to yield their sovereignty to usurpation and will require the Government, which is the common agent of all the States, to move within the sphere assigned it by the Constitution.

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"JOSEPH E. BROWN."

CHAPTER XII.

CORRESPONDENCE OF GOVERNOR BROWN AND A. FULLARTON, BRITISH CONSUL AT SAVANNAII.

In July, 1863, Governor Brown, desiring to raise for home defence a force of eight thousand men not in the Confederate army, issued a call for volunteers accompanied by an order for a draft, in the event a sufficient number of men did not respond. This order included all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, of citizens as well as foreign subjects residing within the State. It drew out from the Hon. A. Fullarton, British consul at Savannah, a strong protest in behalf of those subjects of his government who asked his protection, which led to an able, sharp, and interesting correspondence upon the subject of the liability of foreign subjects to compulsory service, which we present entire.

"BRITISH CONSULATE,
SAVANNAH, July 22, 1863.

"TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOV. BROWN, MARIETTA:

"Sir:-My attention has been called to your proclamation, and to General Wayne's general order No. 16 attached thereto, ordering a draft on the 4th of August from persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, including British subjects, in each county which does not furnish its quota of volunteers to complete the number of 8,000 men required for home defence. "I am informed that this force when organized is to be turned over to the Confederate government. British subjects, if drafted, will then be forced to become Confederate soldiers, a position in which Her Majesty's government have, since the commencement of the war, contended they ought not to be placed, and from which Her Majesty's consuls have been instructed to use every means at their command to preserve them.

"Her Majesty's government acknowledges the right of a foreign State to

claim the services of British subjects resident within its limits, for the purpose of maintaining internal order (in other words, to act as a local police force), and even, to a limited extent, to defend against local invasion by a foreign power the places of their residence; but they deny the claim to services beyond this, and accordingly I have given advice in the following sense to British subjects who have applied to me on the subject of this draft: that militia duty is in general an obligation incident to foreign residence, and that therefore they must not object to render the service required so long as the law requires a militia organization for the maintenance of internal peace and order. But if it shall so happen that the militia, after being so organized, shall be brought into conflict with the forces of the United States without being turned over to the Confederate States so as to form a component part of its armies, or if it should be so turned over, in either event, the service required would be such as British subjects cannot be expected to perform; in the first case, in addition to the ordinary accidents of war, they would be liable to be treated as rebels and traitors, and not as prisoners of war; and in the second case, they would be under the operation of a law (requiring them to take up arms against the United States government), which had no existence when for commercial purposes they first took up their residence in this country, and would, moreover, be disobeying the order of their legitimate sovereign, which exhorts them to an observance of the strictest neutrality, and subjects them to severe penalties. For all local service, however, short of the service I have endeavored to describe, I have advised them that the militia organization is lawful and should be acquiesced in by resident British subjects.

"Nearly all British subjects have besides taken an oath that they will not, under any circumstances, take part in the contest now raging in this country by taking up arms on either side.

"I hope, sir, you will therefore so modify the general order in respect of British subjects who have certificates from me, as to release them from a position which, in the event of a draft, will certainly render them liable to all the penalties denounced by their own sovereign against a violation of their neutrality, calling upon them at the same time to render service as local police for the maintenance of internal peace and order.

"On a former occasion, Mr. Molyneux advised you that the consulate was placed under my charge during his absence. I recently submitted my authority to act as Her Majesty's consul to Mr. Benjamin, who duly accorded to me his approval and recognition.

"I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

"A. FULLARTON, Acting Consul."

“MARIETTA, August 8, 1863.

"MR. A. FULLARTON, ACTING CONSUL OF GREAT BRITAIN :

"Dear Sir:-Your letter of 22d July reached these headquartors during my absence, which has caused delay in my reply.

"Judging from your communication, I am obliged to conclude that you have not correctly understood the objects of the government in organizing the 8,000 men for home defence.

"You admit the right of the State to claim the services of British subjects resident within its limits for the purpose of maintaining interual order,' and even to a limited extent to defend the places of their residence against local invasion by a foreign power. In view of this correct admission on your part, I do not deem it necessary to quote authority to show the obligation of Her Majesty's subjects to render the service now called for. To maintain 'internal order,' and to defend to a limited extent against local invasion by a foreign power,' are the sole objects of the proposed military organization. "While the men are to be mustered into service for the purpose of affording them the rights and privileges of prisoners of war, in case of capture by the enemy, and to enable the government to command them without delay in case of sudden emergency, it is not proposed to take them from their homes, or to interrupt their ordinary avocations, unless it be a case of sudden emergency or pressing necessity, for the defence of their homes, or such localities as command their homes, when in the hands of the enemy.

"The government of the United States, in violation of the usages of civilized warfare, is now resorting to every means within its power to incite servile insurrection in our midst. It is not only stealing our slaves, which are private property, or taking them by open robbery, mustering them into its service, and arming them against us, but it is doing all it can by secret agencies, to stir up and excite the angry passion of the mass of ignorant slaves in the interior, whom it can neither reach by theft nor robbery, to cause them to rise in rebellion against their masters, with whom they are now comfortable and happy, and to set fire to our cities, towns, villages, and other property. It is needless for me to add that in case they should be successful in inciting insurrection to this point, the butchery of helpless women and children will doubtless be the result.

"As a means of accomplishing this object, as well as of destroying public and private property, the enemy is now preparing to send cavalry raids as far as possible into this and other States of the Confederacy. These robber bands will, no doubt, burn and destroy property where they go, carry off as many slaves as they can, and attempt to stir up others with whom they come in contact, to insurrection, robbery, and murder.

"It is not expected that the 8,000 men called for by my proclamation, and the general order to which you refer, will be used against the regular armies of the United States. The provisional armies of the Confederate States have shown themselves fully able to meet the enemy upon an hundred battle-fields,