N.

A PRAYER FOR PEACE.

[Poem written by S. Teackle Wallis, of Baltimore, a Member of the Maryland Legislature, while imprisoned during "the Reign of Terror," in 1861.]

PEACE! Peace! God of our fathers, grant us Peace!
Unto our cry of anguish and despair

Give ear and pity! From the lonely homes,
Where widowed beggary and orphaned woe

Fill their poor urns with tears; from trampled plains,
Where the bright harvest Thou hast sent us, rots,—
The blood of them who should have garnered it
Calling to Thee-from fields of carnage, where
The foul-beaked vultures, sated, flap their wings
O'er crowded corpses, that but yesterday
Bore hearts of brothers, beating high with love
And common hopes and pride, all blasted now ;—
Father of Mercies! not alone from these
Our prayer and wail are lifted. Not alone

Upon the battle's seared and desolate track,
Nor with the sword and flame, is it, O God,
That Thou hast smitten us. Around our hearths,
And in the crowded streets and busy marts,

Where echo whispers not the far-off strife
That slays our loved ones ;—in the solemn halls
Of safe and quiet counsel-nay, beneath
The temple-roofs that we have reared to Thee,
And mid their rising incense,-God of Peace!
The curse of war is on us. Greed and hate
Hungering for gold and blood: Ambition, bred
Of passionate vanity and sordid lusts,
Mad with the base desire of tyrannous sway
Over men's souls and thoughts; have set their price
On human hecatombs, and sell and buy

Their sons and brothers for the shambles. Priests,
With white, anointed, supplicating hands,

From Sabbath unto Sabbath clasped to Thee,
Burn, in their tingling pulses, to fling down
Thy censers and thy cross, to clutch the throats
Of kinsmen by whose cradles they were born,
Or grasp the brand of Herod, and go forth
Till Rachel hath no children left to slay.

The very name of Jesus, writ upon

Thy shrines, beneath the spotless, outstretched wings
Of Thine Almighty Dove, is wrapt and hid
With bloody battle-flags, and from the spires
That rise above them, angry banners flout
The skies to which they point, amid the clang
Of rolling war-songs tuned to mock Thy praise.

All things once prized and honored are forgot.
The Freedom that we worshipped, next to Thee;
The manhood that was Freedom's spear and shield;
The proud, true heart; the brave, outspoken word,
Which might be stifled, but could never wear
The guise, whate'er the profit, of a lie ;—

All these are gone, and in their stead, have come
The vices of the miser and the slave,-

Scorning no shame that bringeth gold or power,
Knowing no love, or faith, or reverence,
Or sympathy, or tie, or aim, or hope,
Save as begun in self, and ending there.
With vipers like to these, O blessed God!

Scourge us no longer! Send us down, once more,
Some shining seraph in Thy glory clad,
To wake the midnight of our sorrowing
With tidings of Good Will and Peace to men;
And if the star that through the darkness led
Earth's wisdom then, guide not our folly now,
Oh, be the lightning Thine Evangelist,
With all its fiery, forked tongues, to speak

The unanswerable message of Thy will.

Peace! Peace! God of our fathers, grant us Peace!

Peace in our hearts and at Thine altars; Peace

On the red waters and their blighted shores;

Peace for the leaguered cities, and the hosts

That watch and bleed, around them and within;
Peace for the homeless and the fatherless;
Peace for the captive on his weary way,
And the mad crowds who jeer his helplessness.
For them that suffer, them that do the wrong;
Sinning and sinned against-O God! for all-
For a distracted, torn, and bleeding land-
Speed the glad tidings! Give us, give us Peace!

0.
I.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, OF 1ST JANUARY, 1863, REFERRED TO ON PAGE 551.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a Proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the Military and Naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by Proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama,

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this Proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States, are, and henceforward 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.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

BY THE PRESIDENT:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

II.

PROCLAMATION OF MARTIAL LAW, OF THE 24th OF SEPTEMBER, 1862, WITH THE ORDERS REFERRED TO ON PAGES 551 AND 554.

"Whereas, it has become necessary to call into service not only volunteers, but also portions of the militia of the States by draft, in order to suppress the Insurrection existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the ordinary processes of law from hindering this measure, and from giving aid and comfort in various ways to the Insurrection:

Now, therefore, be it ordered,

First. That during the existing Insurrection, and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors, within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice, affording aid and comfort to the rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law, and liable to trial and punishment by Courts-Martial or Military Commission.

Second. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus is suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the Rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any Fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement by any military authority, or by the sentence of any Court-Martial or Military Commission.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

BY THE PRESIDENT:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

ORDERS OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR PROMULGATED SEPTEMBER 26th, 1862.

First. There shall be a Provost Marshal General of the War Department, whose Headquarters will be at Washington, and who will have the immediate supervision, control, and management of the corps. Second. There will be appointed in each State one or more special Provost Marshals, as necessity may require, who will report and receive instructions and orders from the Provost Marshal General of the War Department.

Third. It will be the duty of the special Provost Marshal to arrest all deserters, whether regulars, volunteers, or militia, and send them to the nearest military commander or military post, where they can be cared for and sent to their respective regiments; to arrest, upon the warrant of the Judge Advocate, all disloyal persons subject to arrest under the orders of the War Department; to inquire into and report treasonable practices, seize stolen or embezzled property of the Government, detect spies of the enemy, and perform such other duties as may be enjoined upon them by the War Department, and report all their proceedings promptly to the Provost Marshal General.

Fourth. To enable special Provost Marshals to discharge their duties efficiently, they are authorized to call on any available military force within their respective districts, or else to employ the assistance of citizens, constables, sheriffs, or police-officers, so far as may he necessary under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Provost