Rebel Sequestration Act of 1861

[AZReenactor]

I came across this while researching another project and thought some here might find it of interest.

THE SEQUESTATION ACT.
Department of Justice,
Richmond, September 12, 1861.

Instructions to Receivers under the act entitled "An Act for the Sequestration of the Estates, Property and Effects of Alien Enemies, and for the indemnity of Citizens of the Confederate States, and persons aiding the same in the existing war against the United States." — Approved August 30, 1861.

I. I. The following persons are subject to the operation of the law as alien enemies:
1. All citizens of the United States except citizens of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky or Missouri, or the District of Columbia, or the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, or the Indian Territory south of Kansas.
2. All persons who have a domicile within the States with which this Government is at war, no matter whether they be citizens or not. Thus, the subjects of Great Britain, France, or other neutral nations, who have a domicil or are carrying on business or traffic within the States at war with the Confederacy, are alien enemies under the law.
3. All such citizens or residents of the States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky or Missouri, and the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and the Indian Territory south of Kansas, and of the District of Columbia, as shall commit actual hostilities against the Confederate States, or aid or abet the United states in the existing war against the Confederate States.
II. Immediately after taking your oath of office, you will take possession of all the property of every nature and kind whatsoever within your district belonging to alien enemies as above defined.
III. You will forthwith apply to the clerk of the court for writs of garnishment under the 8th section of the law, and will propound to the garnishees the interrogatories you will propound to the following persons, viz:
1. All attorneys and counselors practicing law within your district
2. The presidents and cashiers of all banks, and principal administrative officers of all railroad and other corporations within your district.
3. All agents of foreign corporations, insurance agents, commission merchants engaged in foreign trade, agents of foreign mercantile houses, dealers in bills of exchange, executors and administrators of estates, assignees and syndics of insolvent estates, trustees, and generally all persons who are known to do business as agents for others.
IV. In the first week of each month you will exhibit to the judge a statement, showing the whole amount of money in your hands as receiver, and deposit the same for safe keeping in such bank or other depository as may be selected for that purpose by the judge—reserving only such amount as may be required for immediate necessary expenditure in the discharge of your duties as receiver.
V. You are strictly prohibited from making personal use in any manner whatever or investing in any kind of property, or loaning with or without interest, or exchanging for other funds, without leave of the court, any money or funds of any kind received by you in your official capacity.
VI. You are prohibited from employing except at your personal expense any attorney or counselor to aid you in the discharge of your duties, other than the district attorney of the confederate States for your district; and you are instructed to invoke to his aid under the 9th section of the law, in all matters of litigation that may arise under the law.
VII. You will take special care to avoid the loss or deterioration of all personal property perishable in its nature, by applying for the sale thereof under the provisions of the 12th section of the law.
VIII. You will keep an account, showing exactly all sums received by you as allowances of compensation, under the 15th section of the law, setting forth the date and amount of each receipt of such sums, and as soon as the amount received by you, in any one year, shall reach the sum of five thousand dollars, you will pay over to the assistant treasurer of the Confederate States, most convenient to your domicil, all further sums allowed you as compensation, taking duplicate receipts therefor, one to be retained as a voucher by yourself, and the other to be forwarded by mail to the Secretary of the Treasury.
IX. Whenever, in the discharge of your duties, you discover that any attorney, agent, former partner, trustee, or other person holding or controlling any property, rights or credits of an alien enemy, has willfully failed to give you information of the same, you will immediately report the fact to the district attorney for your district to the end that the guilty party may be subjected to the pains and penalties prescribed by the third section of the law.

J. P.**Benjamin,
Attorney-General

The following interrogatories to garnishees have been prepared for your use, together with a note annexed for the information of the garnishee:
1. Have you now, or have you had in your possession or under your control, since the twenty-first day of May last, (1861,) and if yea, at what time, any land or lands, tenement or tenements, hereditament or hereditaments, chattel or chattels, right or rights, credit or credits within the Confederate States of America, held, owned, possessed or enjoyed for or by an alien enemy; or in or to which any alien enemy had, and when, since that time, any right, title, or interest, cither directly or indirectly?
2. If you answer any part of the foregoing interrogatory in the affirmative, then set forth specifically and particularly a description of such property, right, title, credit or interest, and if you have disposed of it in whole or in part, or of the profit or rent or interest accruing therefrom; then state when you made such disposition, and to whom, and where such property now is and by whom held?
3. Were you, since the twenty-first day of May, 1861, and if yea, at what time indebted, cither directly or indirectly, to any alien enemy or alien enemies? If yea, state the amount of such indebtedness, if one, and of each indebtedness, if more than one; give the name or names of the creditor or creditors, and the place or places of residence, and state whether and to what extent such debt or debts have been discharged, and also the time and manner of the discharge.
4. Do you know of any land or lands, tenement or tenements, hereditament or hereditaments, chattel or chattels, right or rights, credit**or credits, within the Confederate States of America, or any right or interest held, owned, possessed or enjoyed, directly or indirectly by or for one or more alien enemies since the twenty-first day of May, 1861, or in or to which any one or more alien enemies had since that time any claim, title or interest, direct or indirect? If yea, set forth specially and particularly what and where the property is, and the name and residence of the holder, debtor, trustee or agent
5. State all else that you know which may aid in carrying into full effect the sequestration act of the thirtieth August, 1861, and state the same as fully and particularly as if thereunto specially interrogated.

A. B.,Receiver.

Note. — The garnishee in the foregoing interrogatories, is specially warned that the sequestration act makes it the duty of each and every citizen to give the information asked in said interrogatories.—[ Act of 30th August, 1861, sec. 2.]

And if any attorney, agent, former partner, trustee, or other person holding or controlling any property or interest therein of or for any alien enemy, shall fail speedily to inform the receiver of the same, and to render him an account of such property or interest, ho shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, and imprisoned not longer than six months, and be liable to pay besides to the Confederate States double the value of the property or interest of the alien enemies so held or subject to his control. [Sec. 3]

The attorney-general**has also prescribed the following rule of practice for courts, by virtue of authority vested in him under the 16th section of the law:

Rule. — Garnishees, to whom written or printed interrogatories are addressed, may make appearance by filing written answers sworn to before a justice of the peace or other competent officer, unless specially ordered by the court to appear in person.

Memphis Daily Appeal November 26, 1861

[AZReenactor]

The Confederate Sequestration Act

Found this which seems to highlight the acts significance. I'll Need to get a copy of the paper via Inter-Library Loan.

"The Confederate Sequestration Act"
Civil War History, Vol. 52, p. 373, 2006
Daniel W. Hamilton
University of Illinois College of Law

Abstract:

In the South there was near ideological consensus on the legal basis for seizing Union property during the Civil War. The United States was an enemy belligerent whose property was, at international law, subject to permanent confiscation during war. Through the resort to international law, the Confederacy was able not only to assert its sovereignty, but also to craft a far more rigorous and effective confiscation regime much quicker than their Northern counterparts. U.S. citizens were, at Confederate law, foreigners, and were not due the protections of domestic Confederate constitutional law. U.S. citizens were not traitors or rebels, and in fact owed no legal allegiance to the Confederate States of America. As a result, all of the agonizing self-scrutiny over the constitutional rights of the enemy that so dominated the Northern confiscation debates was mostly absent in the South. The classification of the Union as a foreign country had important institutional consequences. Property was confiscated by Confederate courts simply if it could be shown such property belonged to an alien enemy. By 1865 the Confederate judiciary had seized and sold millions of dollars worth of Northern property located all over the South.

Yet the very independence of the Confederacy also limited the reach of Southern property seizure. Northern confiscation was designed to seize disloyal property and took place as the Union acquired more and more Confederate territory. Sequestration, on the other hand, could be enforced only within the boundaries of the new Confederate nation. The Confederacy made no claim to dominion over the Union, but was instead fighting to secede. By the laws of war, the Confederate army operating in the U.S. could impress property for its own use. But the Confederate Congress could not, in contrast, make any general claim to property located inside the boundaries of the United States. Belligerent property belonging to U.S. citizens could be confiscated by the legislature only if it was located inside the boundaries of the Confederacy.

The fact that Union property was subject to legislative confiscation only inside the Confederacy put remarkable demands upon Southerners, and became, in some cases, oppressive. All citizens were required to inform the government of any enemy property of which they were aware, whether in their possession or anyone else's, imposing a clear legal instruction to inform on one's neighbors. In this way, the Sequestration Act reflected a broad assertion of extraordinary constitutional powers on the part of the Confederate government, and, in particular, its courts. Families were required to offer up to court officers property belonging to children and siblings living in the North. Lawyers, bankers, brokers, and businesses were made to open their books to reveal any property located in the South belonging to Northern clients or partners. The contents of wills were scrutinized by court officers who duly seized property that would have passed to Northern heirs. Most importantly, in terms of the sheer amount of money involved, the Sequestration Act made the Confederate government the new creditor for any debt owed by a Confederate citizen to an alien enemy. Those in debt to any U.S. citizen now owed money to the Confederacy instead.

[AZReenactor]

Re: The Confederate Sequestration Act

The reason I share this is that it seems have been pretty significant at the time based on the news articles surrounding it.

From what I understand it sounds like Southerners were still expected to pay any debts owed, but that the payments would go to the CS government rather than the actual creditors in states outside the CSA.

The implications of the act seem to me to have been quite significant at the time but rarely talked about today. The turmoil created for Southerners living out of the South (I stumbled across this when looking at folks who had immigrated to California but had partnerships, property, or notes owed them from people in the South.) and for Northern Creditors who had financed investments or sold goods in the South prior to the war seem to have been quite significant. Those Southerners not wholeheartedly for Secession must have been quite unhappy with it. I wonder how many otherwise loyal Southerners were soured on the CS government when this act adversely impacted them. Northern Businessmen and institutions owed money would have been furious and had a real financial stake in seeing the Confederacy brought back under US rule.

After the war it must have created quite a mess. Undoubtedly many of the carpetbaggers who went South following the Confederate defeat did so to reassert claim to property and debts that had been seized under this act; southerners who had paid the CS government would still be obliged to pay creditors in the United States and would likely lose all equity that had been paid to the Confederate Government under this act.

From what I'm reading in the period news papers it sounds like this is one period political issue that both Southerners and Northerners might have been aware of and had opinions about. Lots here to discuss in 1st person or to talk about in 3rd person.

[AZReenactor]

Causes of War? Follow the Money...

Interesting article on the Northern view in 1861 that seems to me to shed some light on why Northern interests were so unwilling to let the South merely go on her way...

The National Republican., August 21, 1861

THE CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY.
We copied the other day a breif article from the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, advising the confiscation of real estate and stocks at the South, the property of citizens of the loyal States. That suggestion has already been acted upon, to some extent, in the sequestration of the dividends upon stocks belonging to such citizens, and will finally be carried out to the fullest extent, in all seceding States, unless the national authority over them be restored.

So far as the vast mercantile debt from the South to the North is concerned, it is hopelessly lost in any contingency which is now possible. The war has gone so far, and its destruction of private property at the South is so great, that although there may be here and there an instance of good faith in conjunction with the ability to pay, the great mass of this indebtedness is lost in a gulf of hopeless bankruptcy.

But there yet remains vast property interests at the South, belonging to citizens of the loyal States, not dependent upon the good faith, or personal ability of debtors, but upon the security of legal titles, and upon the regular administration of law. Of that character, are real estate and mortgages upon real estate, shares in corporate property, represented by stock, and liens of all kinds, and especially that much used form of lien, the bonds of public improvement companies companies secured by conveyance to trustees.

The amount of pecuniary interests in all these various forms, which will be utterly lost to the loyal States, if this rebellion is finally successful is incalculable. Southern plantations, city property, wild lands, mortgages, railroad, gas, and bank stocks, and bonds secured by trusts upon railroads, are owned at the North and West to an amount, of which we only know that it is enormous. It is all gone where the mercantile debt has gone, to perdition, if the national authority is not restored, and with it, the enforcement of the constitutional guaranties of the rights of property.

We have been repeatedly told by Southern men, and we can readily believe what is intrinsically so probable, that this pecuniary robbery of the North, first by repudiation, and finally by confiscation, was a very powerful ingredient in the mass of motives which carried the South into the secession scheme. Those who owed debts to the North, and their name was legion, saw in it a ready means of practical discharge, while the politicians saw in the Northern property inviting confiscation on every side, the means of sustaining military operations, and of enriching themselves.

The projects of confiscation, however, depend for their success upon the power of the secessionists to free themselves from the wholesome restraints of the Constitution of the United States, and that is a thing to be settled by war.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Rebel Sequestration Act of 1861

This affected my wife's great great great great uncle, Eliam Barney, who built railroad cars in Dayton, Ohio.

The following is from a history of his company, The Barney and Smith Car Company, Car Builders, Dayton Ohio by Scott D. Trostel, 1993:

When the war started, the company's markets included much of the South... The confederate government then embarked on a policy of economic warfare that almost ruined the company. Ruling that all debts owed to northern creditors were to be paid into the Confederate Treasury, the Rebel Government deprived the company of a large amount of money that it had extended to railroads south of the Ohio River. To avoid a business failure, Barney stalled for time [from his own creditors] by "selling out" to Thresher, who had left the company, and taking his notes for the whole property. When creditors came to press their claims, they were offered Thresher's notes and some respite was won. The other life saving maneuver executed somewhat successfully was a rescue of equipment from some of the railroads. Some of Barney's men went south and were successful in reclaiming some equipment by physically taking possession of it at points along the line of the debtor railroads and returning it to the builder....

In an 1862 newspaper article, Barney, Parker & Company reported, "Though the Company have some heavy amounts due them at the South, they have been able to pass through the crisis, without a quiver, paying promptly their employees. Their monthly payroll amounts to about $5,000 which with other disbursements to wholesale dealers, is quite an item in the monetary maters of the city [of Dayton Ohio], amounting probably to over $100,000 per year."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com