December 1.—Both Houses of the Congress of the United States met at Washington. The message of President Lincoln was received and read. Among the recommendations offered for adoption in the message, were the following resolution and articles emendatory to the Constitution of the United States:
Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures or Conventions of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures or Conventions, to be valid as part or parts of the said Constitution, namely:
Article —. Every State wherein slavery now exists, which shall abolish the same therein at anytime or times before the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, shall receive compensation from the United States as follows, to wit:
The President of the United States shall deliver to every such State, bonds of the United States, bearing interest at the rate of —, for each slave shown to have been therein, by the eighth census of the United States; said bonds to be delivered to such State by instalments, or in one parcel at the completion of the abolishment, according as the same shall have been gradual or at one time within such State; and interest shall begin to run upon any such bond only from the proper time of its delivery as aforesaid, and afterward. Any State having received bonds as aforesaid, and afterward introducing or tolerating slavery therein, shall refund to the United States the bonds so received, or the value thereof, and all interest paid thereon.
Article—. All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom, by the chances of the war at any time, before the end of the rebellion, shall be forever free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery—but in such a way that no slave shall be twice accounted for.
Article —. Congress may appropriate money, and otherwise provide for colonizing free colored persons with their own consent, at any place or places without the United States.
—William W. Lunt, lately a private belonging to the Ninth regiment of Maine volunteers, was executed at Hilton Head, S. C, for desertion.— The National cavalry, belonging to the army of General Grant, under the command of Colonel Lee, took possession of the rebel forts on the Tallahatchie River. By a sudden descent, early in the morning, Colonel Lee captured a battery of six guns, with the horses attached thereto, on the north side of the river.—A slight skirmish took place in the vicinity of Horse Creek, Dade County, Mo., between a detachment of the Fourth Missouri cavalry, under the command of Major Kelly, and a small band of guerrillas, in which the rebels were routed, leaving five of their number in the hands of the Unionists.—Springfield Missourian.
—A Detachment of the Third Virginia National cavalry, under the command of Captain S. B. Cruger, entered Warrenton, Va., to-day, after routing the rebel cavalry, and capturing one prisoner, nine horses, and a wagon, without any Union loss.—T. R. Cressy, Chaplain Minnesota Second regiment, made a report of the operations of the regiment, from the first of August to this date.—(Doc. 56.)
—The British schooner George, from Nassau, K. P., laden with coffee, salt, etc., was captured off Indian River, Florida, by the United States gunboat Sagamore, Lieutenant Commanding Earle English.—Official confirmation of the hostile plans of “Little Crow,” and a portion of the northern Indians, was this day received by W. P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the United States.—St. Paul Press, January 1, 1863.
—A Union boat expedition, under the command of Acting Master Gordon, proceeded up Bell River, La., and captured an armed rebel launch, mounting a twelve-pounder brass howitzer.—This morning, Gen. Slocum, with a body of National troops, had a skirmish with the rebel cavalry, under White, Henderson, and Baylor, near Charlestown, Va., and succeeded in routing them. This evening he again attacked them at Berryville, killing five and wounding eighteen.— General Slocum’s Report.
