James A. Seddon to His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, January 4, 1864

His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, Governor of North Carolina, Raleigh, N. C.:

Sir: Your letter of the 29th ultimo, with the resolutions of the Legislature of North Carolina relative to impressments in that State, has been received.* The Department has taken the utmost care, by its general orders and by its instructions in writing and otherwise, to mitigate as far as practicable the evils consequent upon the execution of the law relative to impressment. These orders provide that necessary supplies which any person may have for the consumption of himself, his family, employés, slaves, or to carry on his ordinary mechanical, manufacturing, or agricultural employments, shall not be impressed, and until further orders, which will not be given unless under imperative exigencies for the supply of the Army, not to impress necessaries of subsistence to man owned by producers in transitu to market, or after arrival at market, unless retained an unreasonable time from sale to consumer. The seventh section of the act of Congress of 26th of March last, which has been published as a part of the instructions, requires that the supplies to be exempt as family supplies shall be ascertained by appraisers, and that the judgment of the appraisers is to be conclusive on the impressing officer. Each citizen claiming to hold the property impressed for his family supply is entitled to claim the benefit of an appraisement and to designate one of the appraisers who shall act with an appraiser to be appointed by the impressing officer, and who is entitled to aid in the selection of an umpire in case of their disagreement. The Department has enjoined upon the Commissary Department that the power intrusted to it should be employed with discrimination and care, and that all the directions of the act of Congress and of this Department for the execution of the act should be scrupulously fulfilled. This Department is constantly employed in correcting irregularities in the execu-

*See Vol. II, this series, p. 1066.

tion of these regulations, and the eleventh section of the act furnished a remedy to every citizen aggrieved. In the report from this Department which has been submitted to Congress, a copy of which is sent to Your Excellency with this letter, you will find a statement of the difficulties under which the Government labors in providing for the subsistence of the Army, and how much of the evils complained of is the result of inexorable necessity.* The Department has heretofore, and will in the future exert itself to confine these evils within the exact limits of that necessity.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,