Confiscation Act of 1861

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Confiscation Act of 1861

Long title	An Act to confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary Purposes.
Announced in	the 37th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub. L. 37–60
Statutes at Large	12 Stat. 319
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 25 by Lyman Trumbull (R–IL) on July 15, 1861 Passed the Senate on July 22, 1861 (33-6) Passed the House on August 3, 1861 (60-48) with amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on August 5, 1861 (24-11) Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on August 6, 1861

The Confiscation Act of 1861 was an act of Congress during the early months of the American Civil War permitting military confiscation and subsequent court proceedings for any property being used to support the Confederate independence effort, including slaves.

The bill passed the House of Representatives 60–48 and in the Senate 24–11. Abraham Lincoln was reluctant to sign the act; he felt that, in light of the Confederacy's recent battlefield victories, the bill would have no practical effect and might be seen as a desperate move. He was also worried that it could be struck down as unconstitutional, which would set a precedent that might derail future attempts at emancipation. Only personal lobbying by several powerful senators persuaded Lincoln to sign the legislation, which he did on August 6, 1861.^[1] As the bill was based on military emancipation, no preceding judicial proceedings were required to seize the property and therefore Lincoln gave Attorney General Edward Bates no instructions on enforcing the bill. Within a year of its passage, tens of thousands of slaves had been freed by the First Confiscation Act.^[2]

With respect to slaves, the act authorized court proceedings to strip their owners of any claim to them but did not clarify whether the slaves were free.^[3] As a result of this ambiguity, these slaves came under Union lines as property in the care of the U.S. government. In response to this situation, General David Hunter, the Union Army military commander of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, issued General Order No. 11 on May 9, 1862, freeing all slaves in areas under his command.^[4] Upon hearing of Hunter's action one week later, Lincoln immediately countermanded the order,^[5] thus returning the slaves to their former status as property in the care of the federal government.^[6]

Before the act was passed, Benjamin Franklin Butler had been the first Union general to declare slaves as contraband. Some other Northern commanders followed this precedent, while officers from the border states were more likely to return escaped slaves to their masters. The Confiscation Act was an attempt to set a consistent policy throughout the army.