Unknown to T. H. Watts, June 4, 1864
Richmond, Va., June 4, 1864.
Governor T. H. Watts, Montgomery, Ala.:
Your letter of April 27 addressed to the President was referred to me with the indorsement that ”in this case as stated it would seem proper to receive the companies as organized either in the reserve or active force.” In accordance with this instruction I directed the Adjutant-General to order the organization to be retained and considered part of the reserved forces. A letter was by him addressed to General Withers to that effect and a copy of it sent toyou. I have received no letter from you addressed to me on this subject.
J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.
[JUNE 4, 1864.—For Johnston to Brown, with reference to 3,000 Georgia State troops placed at disposal of former, see Series I, Vol. XXXVIII, Part IV, p. 758.1]
RICHMOND, June 6, 1864. THE SENATE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES:
I regret that a sense of duty compels me to return to the Senate without my signature a joint resolution which originated in your honorable body entitled ”Joint resolution in regard to the exemption of editors and employés of newspapers.”
The terms of this resolution extend to editors of magazines and periodicals other than newspapers, together with their employés, the same exemption from military service as is now accorded in favor of newspapers
matter. Ata moment when our lives, our liberty, and our independence are threatened by the utmost power of our enemies, when every citizen capable of bearing arms ought to be found in the ranks, I cannot but deem it impolitie to add to the list of exemptions without the most urgent necessity. Seeing no such necessity, and believing the precedent set by this resolution, if passed, to be productive of evil effect, I am constrained to return it without my approval. JEFFERSON DAVIS.
JOINT RESOLUTION in regard to the exemption of editors and employés of newspapers.
Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That so much of the tenth section of the act entitled ”An act to organize forces to serve during the war,” approved 17th of February, 1864, as exempts from military service one editor for each newspaper being published at the time of the passage of the act, and such employés as said editor may certify on oath to be indispensable to the publication thereof, shall be understood to include magazines and other periodicals published before and at the time of the passage of the said act.
TH. 8. BOCOCK, Speaker of the House of Representatives. R. M. T. HUNTER, President pro tempore of the Senate.