Mr. HOWARD. Mr. President, onrthe 2lst of December last, I submitted to the Senate a resolution of inqniry respecting JeffersonDavis, in which the POTUS was requested to inform the Senate upon what. charges and for what reasons he was held in confinement and whyhe had not been put. upon his trial. In answer to this resolution of the Senate, the President sent to us in a brief message 2 statements, the one being a communication from the SecyWar, dated the 4th of January, and the other emanating fnim the AttyGen of the U.S. of the same date. In the former communication the SecyWar informs the President "1. That JeffersonDavis was captured by U.S. troopsin the State of Georgia, on or about the 10thday of May, 1865 and by order of this Do rt ment has been, and nowis, confinedin Fortress I lun roc. to abide such action as may be taken by the properauthoritiesof the U.S. Government. "1. That hehasnot been arraigned upon an indictment or formal charge of crime, but has comin dicted for the crime ofhiah treason by the grand jury of the DistCol, which indictment is now pending in the supreme court of said District. He is also chargedwith the crime of inciting the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and with the murder 01 1866. 567 Union prisonersof war, by starvation and other barbarous and cruel treatment toward them. "3. The President deemingit expedientthat JeffersonDavis should 1st be put upon his trial before a competentcourt and Jury tor the crime of treason he was advisedby the law otfiecroi the Governmentthat the mostproperplace forsuch trial was ip the State of Virginia. That State iswithin the Judicial circuit assignedto the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. who hasheld no court there since the apprehension of Davis and who declines for an indefinite period to“hold anycourt there. The matters above stated are. so far as I an}I!! formed, the reasons for holding JeffersonDavis in ponthiiement, and why he has not been put upon his mi The Secretary adds: “Besides JeffersonDavis, the following persons who acted as officers of the rebel government are impris oned. to Wit: Clement C. Clay, at Fortress Monroe, chargedamong other things with treason. with complicity ainnd tshoefpmiruiirtdeesrJoobfb Mr. Lincoln, iuarnddewreitr hsipnmaunn and to burn the cities an ravng the commerceand coastsof loyal States on the British frontier; D. L. Yulee. at I:ort lula: ki. charged with treason while holding a seatin the U.S. Senute and with plotting to ca ture thoforts and arsenalsof the U.S. an with inciting war and rebellion against. the Government; S.R. Mallory. nt lfort LaFayette. chargedwith treason and With orirnniring and setting on foot piratical nxneditious inst the U.S. commerce and marine on the lab sens. other officersof thesocalled confederate government. arrest edand imprisoned. Have been released on parole to abide the action of thoGoyernment in referenceto their prosecution and triator alleged offenses. on their applications for amnesty and pardon. Among theseare G. A. Trenholni, Secytreasury; John A. Campbell msmstant scerctar of war: James A. Seddon SecyWar John. Reagan, PostMGenl; Mr. M. T. Hunter, senator; Alexan der H. to hens, VEEP, and sundry other personsof essnote.” U.S. h, aitn tahnesw Attourney General of the roquestinade him by the President, has given an opinion upon a question of law arising in these cases. The ground taken by the AttyGen of the U.S. is ver plainly set forth in the communication which he has made to the president, and which has been laid before us; and in order that no injustice may be done him, I shall trouble the Senate with readiii a few extracts from his comuiuuicution to the president. Th"e AttyGen says: When the war wasat its crisis. JeffersonDavis. the CULDIDALIHIQIlllfclllcoit the army of the insurgents, was taken prisoner, with other prominent rebels. by the military forces of the U.S. It was the duty of the military so to take them. They have been heretoforeand are yet held as prisoners of war. 1pough active hostilities have ceased, a state of war Slll existsoyerthe territor in rebellion. Until peace sliill comein fact and in law they can rightfully be held as prisonersof war.” Again, he says: "In that clause of the constitutionmentioned in the resolution of the Senate. it is plainly written that they must be held in the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed. I know that many personsof INHDIBR and ability entertain the opinion that the oommandermchwfpf the rebel armies should be regarded as constructively present With all theinsurgciits who prosecuted hostilities and made raids upon the northern and southern borders of thelegal States. 1This octriueof constructive presence. carried out to its logical consequencesw. ould maksnll who had been connected with the rebel armies liable to trial in any btate and district into which any portion of those armieshad made the slightest incursion. Not being persuadedof the correctnessof that opinion, but rezarding the doctrinementionedas of doubtful constitutionality. J huvp thought it not proper to advise you to cause criminal DIOCOCGIDKt!o be institutel againstJeffersonDavismr anyother insurgent. in Statesor districtsin which the wer o n aocttually presentduring the prosecution o hostilities.” It will be seen from this, Mr. President, that in the opinion of the AttyGen it is in competent and unconstitutional to put any of the insurgents upon trial for treason in any State or district except that in which the crime was actually committed, and in which the accused was personally present at the time of the commission of the crime. This is a grave and important question, and I propose to trouble the Senate for a few minutes with its discussion, not relying with the utmost confidence upon my own opinions, but endeavoring to set. forth my views upon this question of law with becoming brevity, and at the some time with such clearness as I may be master of. One thin is certain, that if there be any expectation which has been more prevalent than another among the loyal people of the U.S., it is that it is due to our dignity as a nation, it is due to the justice of the nation, it is due to the obligations which we owe to the constitution and to the nation, that there should be an arraignment and punishment according to the forms oflaw at least of the ringlcnders of this rebellion. I think that I do not over state the truth when I say that this expectation is in no degree at this time diminished, but that unless some earnest bona fule endeavor shall be made to execute the law uponsoine at least of the traitors who have done such wrong to the Government of the U.S., the feeling of disappointment, not to say disst, will be ver strong and pervading throng out the U.S. Davis was president of the rebel government, and, as such commanderinchief of its armies and navy. his commands, in carrying on the war, were supreme and irresistible. Iis will was the origin of every movement in conducting their operations. It pervaded and directed evei hostile uct. He was the master of the rebelion and gave it animation dud activity throughout its whole extent, from the Atlantic to the Rio Grands. His commands directly or remotely, but in everycase effectually and responsibly, caused every advance of the rebel forces, every attack, every battle, every death of the Union orccs. His orders alone gave energy to every blow on every field in every State along the whole line of 1500 miles from east to west, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian frontier. It was his hand that shed the blood or caused the death of more than a uarter of a million of men and the waste on destruction of more than 6,000millions of property. His irresistible commands irresistible to those subject to them were present everywhere, at the 1st Bull Run, at Mafvern Hill, at the battles on the Rappuhau nock. at Cciitervillc, at Shiloh, at Vicksbur, at Gettysburg, as well as at the massacre of ffort Pillow, and other mine r butcherics. He was the wal. His sole will directed and controlled it everywhere. It was war, complete in form and attributes, not confined to a narrow theater compressed on all sides to small dimensions by the barriers of predominating loyalty, like Mon mouths rebellion in England, the rebellion of Shays in Massachusetts, or the whisky. insurrection of Pennsylvania, but broad, pervading, covering in territorial extent almost scores of derecs of latitude and longitude, and bounded on y by the longliues of bayoncts, irregular and wavering, sometimes advancing and sometimes receding. It was war, both by land and sea. It had its neutralities. its battles, its sieges, its capitulations, its surrenders, its exchange of prisoners, its privateers, letters of marue, its blockades, its captures, prizes, do 5o truce and on the part. of the rebels all these o era tinns were carried on by and under the irection of one man, and he was JeffersonDavis, the supreme commander, who had full power to enforce his commandsa POWBIgiven him by the whole rebel community as a political, organized community, holding and exercising for the time beingwhether rightfully or wrong fully is wholly immaterial to t. e argumentan absolute nationalindepeudeuce, though unrec ognized by us or any foreign nation. Davis was the chief; he was the master and director of this immense, this wasteful, bloody, and most wicked war, and responsible for every drop of blood shed in it. purpose, his will was everywhere; and though his physical iiiin did not give any blow, no blow was struck which was not directed by his mind, no Union soldier bled or languishet who was not the victim of his truitorons malignity; and this though he was at Richmond, in Virginia, and his victim in Louisiana or Ohio. The ground taken in the opinion of the honorable AttyGen is, that Davis cannot be tried for treason in any State or district in which he was not actually present in person during the prosecution of hostilities there; that is, that he ein at Richmond, in Virginia, and such commanderinchief, exercismg such supreme control over his subordinates, and they ghting a battle in Ohio, cannot beput upon is spirit, his intention and " his trial in Ohio for the treason of fighting that battle. such a trial he holds to be forbidden by the constitution of the U.S. If this be a correct view of the instrument, then some very singular and most inconvenient consequences must flow from it. Davis might have been standing but an arms length south of the northern limit of Virginia, while his army was in Ohio fighting a battle under his immediate eye and orders on the north side of the line; and yet he could not be indicted and tried for fighting this battle in Ohio. because he was not personally and corporeally present in the State of Ohio. He mi 7ht have posted himself just over the Cam::1 line or on an island of the British West Indies, and thence in person fitted out and directed expeditions against the lives and property of Union menas, in fact, he did by iis agents; expeditions to carry on the wor of war, robbery, and murderand not be guilty of treason, because he was not actually present within the State or district where hostilities took place and is it so? Is it true that, the framers Of the constitution have left their work thus imperfect? Did they intend to cover with immu nity from the responsibili of treason the man who should command an commit it, but who should happen to be personally and corporeally at the time in another State or district whose peole were so universally disloyal that a jury cond not be found among them sufficicutly loyal and virtuous either to convict or indict; the offender? or the American citizen who, as a rebel and traitor, should hurl the bolts of war against his country from a foreign soil? Could they have contemplated such results? Did they intend that the ringleader, the author of the treason, should thus, by fortunate trickery or fortunate accident, escape the just penalty of his crime, while the subordinates who could not disobey his commands, but. at the peril of their lives, are subjected to all the logo consequences of his crime? Is the judicial Dept of the Government in an attitude so ridic ulous, so miserable and pitiable before the world, that it can punish only the men who fought. the battle in Ohio under the constraint ofiustant death if they refused, but is without power to gunish the leader, the director, the author of e bloodshed, because, forsooth, he stood upon the soil of Virginia at the time; or because in the case of a rebel invasion from a foreign country, he was in that foreign country? Is it impotent to punish gigsntic guilt endowed with perfect freedom of will and of choice, and powerful only to punish the guilt of weakness acting under a compulsion it is unable to resist? If such be the law of the land, it surely demands the serious attention not only of the judiciar but of the American people at large.