that the action of the political branches of the government, in a matter that belongs to them, is conclusive." *

(c) Questions relating to the admission of States into the Union, or to the recognition of local governments as the governments of States in the Union, belong to the political, not to the judicial power to decide; as, for example, whether the government of Rhode Island should be recognized by the United States as the duly constituted government of that State. Therefore the Supreme Court declared that it had not the power to try or determine this question, so far as the United States was concerned. Congress delegated to the President, by the Statute of Feb. 28, 1795, the power to decide for the purposes of that act, whether a government organized in a State was the duly constituted government of that State, and, after he made his decision, the courts of the United States were bound to conform to it.†

(d) Questions as to the legal status of all persons who shall have engaged in insurrection, rebellion, or civil war against the United States, are also of a political character, determinable only by the executive and legislative branches of our government. I

It will, therefore, be the duty of the President and

* Williams v. Suffolk Ins. Co., 13 Peters, S. C. R. 420 (McLean, J.).

See also Gelston v. Hoyt, 3 Wheaton, 246; United States v. Palmer, 3 Wheaton, 610. † Luther v. Borden, 7 Howard, S. C. R. 40, 42-44.

‡ Luther v..Borden, 7 Howard, 40, 44; Lawrence's Wheaton, 514; Martin v. Mott, 12 Wheaton, 29, 30; Law Reporter, July, 1861, 148; The Tropic Wind, Opinion of Judge Dunlop; the prize case Hiawatha and others, 2 Black. 638; War Powers, pp. 141, 215. See also charge of Nelson, J., on the trial of the officers, &c., of the Savannah, p. 371. In this case the rebel privateer put in as a defence his commission to cruise under the confederate flag; and the same defence was made in Philadelphia, by other persons indicted for piracy. In both cases it was held that the courts must follow the decision of the executive and legislative departments in determining the political status of the Confederate States. See also Smith's Trial, p. 96; Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheaton, 283, 305. Upton's Maritime Warfare and Prize, second edition, pp. 44-107.

Note to Forty-third Edition. See also Halleck's Law of Nations, 720, and authorities there cited; Lawrence's Wheaton, p. 43, note; Neueva Anna Liebre, 6 Wheaton, R. 193; also, Index, "Policy of the Government;" and cases recently decided by the Supreme Court. Appendix, pp. 512-610.

of Congress to decide all questions of public policy which may grow out of the rebellion. Of these, the most important are, 1. Whether the Confederates shall have the legal status of mere insurgents, or that of belligerent public enemies. 2. Whether local governments formed, or to be formed, within the territory in rebellion, shall be sanctioned by the United States. 3. Whether, when, and on what conditions, a state of peace shall be established or declared. 4. Whether the Confederate States shall be recognized by receiving their commissioners, by acknowledging their independence, or by any other act of our government. Such decisions on these and on similar matters are binding and conclusive upon the Federal courts.

STATUS OF THE INSURGENTS AS DETERMINED BY THE PRESIDENT.

The acts and proclamations of the Executive Department have stamped as "public enemies" all persons residing in the insurrectionary States. The President issued a proclamation on the 15th April, 1861, which declares that the laws had been opposed and their execution obstructed, for some time past, in certain States, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. He called out 75,000 of the State militia in order to suppress said combinations. On the 19th of April, 1861, he proclaimed a blockade of the ports within certain States, in pursuance of the laws of nations and the statutes of the United States in such case provided, and gave warning that vessels breaking or attempting to break that blockade should be captured and condemned as lawful prize. He also declared that any persons who, under pretended authority of said States, should molest any United States vessel, should be

deemed pirates. This blockade was, by a subsequent proclamation of April 27, 1861, extended to other States.

By the proclamation of May 10, 1861, he suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the islands on the coast of Florida.

On the 16th of August, 1861, in pursuance of an Act of Congress, he declared "that the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (excepting the inhabitants of Western Virginia, etc.), are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other States, and other parts of the United States, is unlawful, and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease, or has been suppressed." He then declared forfeiture of goods, or conveyances thereof, going to said States, and, after fifteen days, of all vessels belonging in whole or in part to any inhabitant of any of said States (except as aforesaid), wherever found.

On the 1st of July, 1862, he again declared the same States in insurrection and rebellion, so that the taxes could not be collected therein, in pursuance of the Act of 1861, Chapter 45.

On the 25th of the same month, he gave a further warning under the provisions of the sixth section of the Act of July 17, 1862, requiring rebels to "return to their proper allegiance to the United States, on pain of forfeitures and seizures," as provided for in said Act.

The proclamation of Sept. 22, 1862, was made by the President as an Executive officer and as Commanderin-Chief of the Army and Navy, "that the war will be prosecuted hereafter as heretofore for the purpose," etc.;

that slaves in States which should be in rebellion on the first day of the following January should be free, and that he would, by subsequent proclamation, designate such States; and at that date (January 1, 1863), the President did designate such States, and did declare "that all persons held as slaves within said States, etc., are and hereafter shall be free," and "that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.'

From an examination of these proclamations issued by President Lincoln, by virtue of his executive power and as a military chief, it cannot be doubted that in the most solemn and formal manner he has recognized the inhabitants of the insurrectionary States as in civil war, and therefore as public enemies. His proclamation characterizes these hostilities as "the war now prosecuted;" he requires the rebels to "return to their proper allegiance to the United States," admitting that they have renounced such allegiance; in all his proclamations, excepting the first, he treats the inhabitants of the rebellious. States as in simili statu (with specified exceptions only), and in the proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, no exceptions are made of any class of persons within the designated districts.

The Executive Department has thus definitely settled the question that all inhabitants of the designated States are public enemies, - First, by proclamations depriving them of slaves, of ships, and of property used in commerce; by a blockade and a declaration of non-intercourse; by claiming against them the rights of war; and by asserting that the existing hostilities are WAR." Second, by extending to the insurgents the usual rights

* See the President's Proclamation, April 2, 1863.

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and privileges of a belligerent public enemy; as by release of captured pirates (under the order of the Presi dent issued from the State Department) as prisoners of war,* by exchange, by cartel, of prisoners of war captured on land, by claiming the right of retaliation, and by various other acts, which are legitimate in the conduct of the war, but irreconcilable with the assumption that the United States are not engaged in war, but only in enforcing the laws against certain criminals who have violated certain statutes by engaging in insurrection or rebellion.†

If these acts and these proclamations do not show that the Executive Department has declared and determined the status of the inhabitants in insurrection to be that of public enemies, it would be difficult to conceive of any course of executive proceedings that would have had that effect.‡

STATUS OF THE INSURGENTS AS DETERMINED BY CONGRESS.

The action of the Legislative Department, which has been in harmony with that of the President, has in like manner definitively pronounced the inhabitants of insurrectionary States to be public enemies. In the war of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, the Act of July 6, 1812, and the Act of February 4, 1815, indicated the character and extent of legislation necessary to record the decision of the Legislative Department, that Great Britain was at that time a public enemy.

But since the present rebellion commenced, Congress has enacted laws far more stringent and comprehensive than either of those above cited, against the inhabitants of the rebellious States. The four chief acts which re

* See page 215.

† Note to Forty-third Edition.-To these acts may now be added the surrender of the armies of Generals Lee and Johnston, upon terms which are deemed obligatory upon the United States.

The effect of the President's Message and Proclamation of Amnesty of December 8, 1863, upon the persons, property, and political rights of the inhabitants of rebellious States, far transcends in importance that of either of his previous executive acts.