CR 606 
 
 t29J 
 
 Duke University Libraries 
 President's mes 
 Conf Pam #293 
 
 DTTDE717flD 
 
I'RESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 
 
 To the Congress of the Confederate States : 
 
 Gf.ntlkmf.n : I doein it my duty to return for your ro- 
 consideration, with my objections, " an Act regulating fur- 
 loughs and discharges in certain cases." I am unable to 
 sign this act, as my judgment does not approve it, and! 
 respectfully submit to you my reasons for withholding my 
 signature. 
 
 By the terms of the act any sick or invalid soldier now 
 out of camp, Avhether in hospital or not, shall be entitled to 
 furloudi or discharge, on the ground of bodily disability 
 upon Iho certificate of any Surgeon of the Confederate 
 States, or, of any Surgeon of a hospital where the soldier 
 is treated, whether such Surgeon be in the army or not. 
 My o])jections lie, both as to the principle of tliis act and the 
 practical difficulties Avhich will embarrass its execution. 
 
 I. I cannot but regard it as extremely unwise to grant 
 control over any soldier, to the extent of discharging him 
 from service, to' any body of men not employed in the ser- 
 vice of tlie Governiaent- over whom it exercises no control, 
 and who [)rcsent to it no guarantee whatever fv»r the faithful 
 discharge of the duties imposed on them. In the Medical 
 as in alT other professions, there are incompetent as well as 
 unworthy men. This bill proposes to place the jtower of 
 dischannnf' from the ])ublic service the whole body of absent 
 soldiers^ now amounting probably to not less than thirty 
 thousand men, at the mercy of any physician who may call 
 his office a hospital. The absent soldiers, out of camp, 
 scattered over the entire Confederacy are to be allowed to 
 leave the service at pleasure on producing the certificate of 
 some man who signs himself ;i physician in charge of a 
 hospital. No means are provided by the bill, and in the 
 nature of things, no means can well be devised by which it 
 can be ascertained at the office of the Adjutant General, 
 whether the signature to the certificate is genuine or not ; 
 whether, if genuine the signature is that of a physician : 
 nor whether the signer, if he be a physician, have really a 
 
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 hospital in which the sick sohlier is treated. I venture to 
 say that there is not a man now out of camp, whether sick 
 or Avell, who couhl not readily find means for procuring such 
 a certificate as this bill contemplates, at the most trifling 
 cost. 
 
 II. Again : The bill applies to those only who are 7iow 
 out of camp. But if the principle of the bill is right, its 
 application ,<hould he continuous and permanent, and I 
 cannot discover any reason why it should be confined to 
 those not in camp. If a man out of camp is to have his dis- 
 charge, on a certificate of a surgeon, and when far removed 
 from the supervision of commanders, why not give the same 
 right to the soldier in camp, Avhere the presence of the com- 
 mander would at least check the issue of fraudulent certifi- 
 cates ? And if it be right to adopt this rule at all, why is it 
 not as well a]»plicable to men who will l)e absent from camp 
 next week, as to those 7iow absent ? The special limitations 
 of the bill to soldiers out of camp, and to those only now 
 out of camp, indicate an intention to ])rovide for some pre- 
 sent exceptional eiuergency, not defined with sufficient ac- 
 curacy to prevent great mischief in the practical Avorking 
 of the law. If there be such emergency, to what class of 
 cases does it extend ? Does it exist everywhere, or only at 
 one or more determinate points ? The language of the bill 
 requires to be better guarded to meet what I infer, from its 
 phraseology, to be mu exceptional case ; and if there be such 
 a case, I respectfully submit to Congress that it might be 
 remedied in a less objectionable manner than is provided for 
 in the bill. 
 
 III. It is obvious that the intent and purpose of this bill 
 was humane, and directed to ameliorating the condition of 
 the sick soldier, but in very many cases the opposite effect 
 will be produced. The sick soldier, entitled to either fur- 
 lough or discharge, now obtains it through the regularly 
 appointed officers of the Government, provided with blank 
 foi'ms to be properly filled up, by means of which the rights 
 of the soldier to his transportation and allowances can be 
 readily liquidated. But by the provisions of the bill it will 
 very frequently occur that OAving to irregularities in his pa- 
 pers, it will be impossible that his account can be settled at 
 the office of the paymaster ; still worse, he may be exposed 
 to the loss of his cherished honor, to be branded as a de- 
 serter by his failure to secure the proper evidence of his 
 honorable discharge. 
 
I do not think that Congress can have been aware, that 
 some weeks prior to the passage of this bill, the War De- 
 partment had issued regulations, relaxing the former rules, 
 dispensing with many of the formalities and simplifying the 
 means of obtaining furloughs and discharges for the sick. 
 I annex a copy of these regulations, which go as far as is in 
 my opinion compatible with the necessities of the service, 
 and which seem to mo to render the legislation now proposed 
 unnecessary. JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
 
 Aim't and Tnsp'tr General's Office, 
 KicHMONii, Va.. Nov'r 7, 1861. 
 GENERAL ORDER, > 
 No. 17. \ 
 
 Paragraphs (4) four and (5) five of Army Regulations, publish- 
 ed for guidance of the army, August 1861, arc modified as follows: 
 
 IV. " "Whenever a non-commissioned officer or soldier shall be 
 unfit for military service in consequence of wounds, disease, or 
 infirmity, his Captain shall forward through the Commander of the 
 Regiment or Battalion, to tlic Brigade Commander or other 
 officer next higher in rank to the Commander of the Regiment 
 or Battalion, a statement of the case, witli a 'certificate 
 of disabilitj',' signed by the Medical Officer having charge of the 
 invalid, with a recommendation for discharge or furlough, as the 
 case may require; and if the recommendation be approved, the 
 authority for discharge or furlough shall be endorsed on the 'cer- 
 tificate of disability,' which shall then be returned to the Com- 
 manding Officer of the Regiment or Battalion, who will cause the 
 proper papers to be made out — final statements and discharge in 
 the first case, furloughs and descriptive rolls in the second. The 
 certificate of disability, properly endorsed incase oi discharge, will 
 be forwarded by Commanding Officer to Adjutant and Inspector 
 General. 
 
 V. Where invalids are absent from their regiments or companies 
 in hospitals, the Surgeon in charge will mako out certificates of 
 disability in all cases of disease likely to prove of long continu- 
 ance, and forward them to Commanding Officer of Regiment or 
 Battalion to which the invalid belongs, for reference, as prescribed 
 in preceding paragraph." 
 
 By order of Secretary of War, 
 
 S. COOPER, 
 Adj't and lusp'r Geu'l. 
 
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