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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2659-h.zip b/2659-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd2a4e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/2659-h.zip diff --git a/2659-h/2659-h.htm b/2659-h/2659-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee05270 --- /dev/null +++ b/2659-h/2659-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,16917 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Seven + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, +Volume Seven, by Abraham Lincoln + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Seven + Constitutional Edition + +Author: Abraham Lincoln + +Commentator: Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Schurz, and Joseph Choate + +Editor: Arthur Brooks Lapsley + +Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #2659] +Last Updated: October 29, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + </h1> + <h2> + VOLUME SEVEN + </h2> + <h3> + CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + </h3> + <h4> + Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE WRITINGS OF A. LINCOLN, Volume Seven, + 1863-1865</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>1863</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> TO VICE-PRESIDENT HAMLIN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> TO J. W. GRIMES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> TELEGRAM TO P. F. LOWE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> MEMORANDUM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> TO GOVERNOR BRADFORD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> TO J. H. HACKETT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, November 3, 1863. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE. WAR + DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> ORDER CONCERNING THE EXPORT OF TOBACCO + PURCHASED BY FOREIGN NATIONS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> TELEGRAM TO HIRAM BARNEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> TELEGRAM TO J. MILDERBORGER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> TELEGRAM to E. H. AND E. JAMESON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> TO SECRETARY CHASE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> TELEGRAM TO E. P. EVANS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> TO SECRETARY SEWARD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> TO C. P. KIRKLAND. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> ANNOUNCEMENT OF UNION SUCCESS IN EAST + TENNESSEE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION. + DECEMBER 8, 1863. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 8, 1863. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. WASHINGTON D. C., + December 8, 1863. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. WASHINGTON, D. C., + December 8, 1863. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> TO JUDGE HOFFMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> TELEGRAM TO MARY GONYEAG. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> PROCLAMATION CONCERNING DISCRIMINATING DUTIES, + DECEMBER 16, 1863. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HURLBUT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0049"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> TO O. D. FILLEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0052"> TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT + LOOKOUT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT + LOOKOUT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0054"> TELEGRAM TO U. F. LINDER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0055"> TO GENERAL N. P. BANKS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> <b>1864</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PIERPOINT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0061"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0063"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> TO GENERAL Q. A. GILLMORE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0065"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. EXECUTIVE + MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> TO CROSBY AND NICHOLS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> TO GENERAL P. STEELE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0068"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 20, 1864 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0069"> ORDER APPROVING TRADE REGULATIONS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0070"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0071"> TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0072"> TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0073"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SICKLES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0074"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0075"> COLONIZATION EXPERIMENT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0076"> ORDER FOR A DRAFT OF FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND + MEN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0077"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0078"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0079"> THE STORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0080"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SEDGWICK. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0081"> TELEGRAM TO HORACE MAYNARD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0082"> TO W. M. FISHBACK. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0083"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0084"> TELEGRAM TO A. ROBINSON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0085"> PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, FEBRUARY 18, + 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0086"> TELEGRAM TO COMMANDER BLAKE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0087"> TELEGRAM FROM WARREN JORDAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0088"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0089"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0090"> TO GENERAL F. STEELE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0091"> DESERTERS DEATH SENTENCES REMITTED </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0092"> FEMALE SPY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0093"> TO W. JAYNE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0094"> TO E. H. EAST. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0095"> TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0096"> TO SECRETARY CHASE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0097"> TO GENERAL THOMAS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0098"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0099"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0100"> ORDER IN REGARD TO THE EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO + BELONGING TO THE FRENCH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0101"> TELEGRAM TO UNITED STATES MARSHAL, LOUISVILLE. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0102"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0103"> MESSAGE TO SENATE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0104"> ADDRESS TO GENERAL GRANT, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0105"> ORDER ASSIGNING U. S. GRANT COMMAND OF THE + ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0106"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0107"> TO GENERAL HAHN. (Private.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0108"> CALL FOR TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0109"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0110"> PASS FOR GENERAL D. E. SICKLES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0111"> ORDER TO GOVERNOR HAHN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0112"> REMARKS AT A FAIR IN THE PATENT OFFICE, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0113"> REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM THE WORKINGMEN'S + ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0114"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0115"> CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL C. SCHURZ. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0116"> PROCLAMATION ABOUT AMNESTY, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0117"> TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0118"> TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0119"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0120"> TO A. G. HODGES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0121"> TO MRS. HORACE MANN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0122"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0123"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0124"> LECTURE ON LIBERTY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0125"> TO CALVIN TRUESDALE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0126"> TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0127"> TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0128"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DIX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0129"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0130"> INDORSEMENT ON OFFER OF TROOPS, APRIL 23, + 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0131"> TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0132"> TELEGRAM TO JOHN WILLIAMS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0133"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0134"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0135"> TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0136"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, APRIL 28, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0137"> MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0138"> TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0139"> MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0140"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0141"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0142"> TO MRS. S. B. McCONKEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0143"> RECOMMENDATION OF THANKSGIVING. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0144"> RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0145"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL LEW WALLACE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0146"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0147"> TO P. B. LOOMIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0148"> RESPONSE TO A METHODIST DELEGATION, MAY 14, + 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0149"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0150"> ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE + NEWSPAPER REPORTERS AND EDITORS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0151"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. P. BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0152"> ORDER CONCERNING THE EXEMPTION OF AMERICAN + CONSULS FROM MILITARY SERVICE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0153"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MORTON AND OTHERS. + EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 21, 1864 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0154"> TELEGRAM TO CHRISTIANA A. SACK. WAR DEPARTMENT + WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0155"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. WASHINGTON CITY, + May 24, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0156"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, May 25,1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0157"> MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF + THE NEW YORK NAVAL BRIGADE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0158"> TO P. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0159"> INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER TOUCHING THE + REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0160"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, June 6, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0161"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. + WASHINGTON, June 8, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0162"> REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE NOTIFYING PRESIDENT + LINCOLN OF HIS RENOMINATION, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0163"> PLATFORM OF THE UNION NATIONAL CONVENTION HELD + IN BALTIMORE, MD., JUNE 7 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0164"> REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE NATIONAL UNION + LEAGUE, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0165"> REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0166"> ADDRESS TO THE ENVOY FROM THE HAWAIIAN + ISLANDS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0167"> REMARKS TO AN OHIO REGIMENT, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0168"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL L. THOMAS. EXECUTIVE + MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 13, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0169"> TELEGRAM TO THOMAS WEBSTER. WASHINGTON, D. C., + June 13, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0170"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + June 15, 1864. 7 A.M. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0171"> ADDRESS AT A SANITARY FAIR IN PHILADELPHIA, + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0172"> TO ATTORNEY-GENERAL BATES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0173"> TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0174"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. + WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0175"> LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0176"> TO GENERAL P. STEELE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0177"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0178"> TELEGRAM TO DAVID TOD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0179"> TO J. L. SCRIPPS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0180"> FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0181"> PROCLAMATION SUSPENDING THE WRIT OF HABEAS + CORPUS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0182"> PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER, JULY 7, + 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0183"> PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE + TO CERTAIN STATES, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0184"> TO HORACE GREELEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0185"> TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. WASHINGTON, D. C., + July 9, 1864 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0186"> TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK TO GENERAL + WALLACE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0187"> TELEGRAM TO T. SWAN AND OTHERS. WASHINGTON, D. + C., July 10, 1864. 9.20 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0188"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON + CITY, July TO, 1864.2 P.M. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0189"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + July 11, 1864. 8 A.M. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0190"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. + C., July 12, 1864. 11.30 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0191"> TELEGRAM AND LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY. + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0192"> EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, JULY 15, 1864. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0193"> SAFE CONDUCT FOR CLEMENT C. CLAY AND OTHERS, + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0194"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. [WASHINGTON] + July 17. 1864. 11.25 A.M. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0195"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER WASHINGTON JULY + 17, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0196"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0197"> ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING TERMS OF PEACE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0198"> PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND + VOLUNTEERS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0199"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0200"> TELEGRAM TO J. L. WRIGHT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0201"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER. (Cipher.) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0202"> TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, ENCLOSING A LETTER TO + WILLIAM O. SNIDER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0203"> PRESENTATION OF A CANE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0204"> FROM JOHN HAY TO J. C. WELLING. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0205"> TO COLONEL, FIRST N. Y. VETERAN CAVALRY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0206"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0207"> FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL HALLECK. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0208"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. WASHINGTON, July + 27, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0209"> TO Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0210"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U, S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0211"> TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0212"> TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0213"> ON DISLOYAL FAMILY MEMBER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0214"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0215"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0216"> INTERVIEW WITH JOHN T. MILLS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0217"> ENDORSEMENT OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT, + AUGUST 15, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0218"> TO H. J. RAYMOND. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0219"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0220"> PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCIAL + REGULATIONS, AUGUST 18, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0221"> INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF + PRISONERS, AUGUST 18, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0222"> ADDRESS TO THE 164TH OHIO REGIMENT, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0223"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, D. C., August </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0224"> ADDRESS TO THE 166TH OHIO REGIMENT, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0225"> MEMORANDUM. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0226"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. EXECUTIVE + MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0227"> TELEGRAM TO B. H. BREWSTER. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, D. C., August </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0228"> ORDER CONCERNING COTTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0229"> TO COLONEL HUIDEKOPER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0230"> PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0231"> ORDERS OF GRATITUDE AND REJOICING. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0232"> EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0233"> EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0234"> TO MRS. GURNEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0235"> REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF COLORED PEOPLE FROM + BALTIMORE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0236"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PICKERING. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0237"> ORDER OF THANKS TO HUNDRED-DAY TROOPS FROM + OHIO. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0238"> TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0239"> TELEGRAM TO JAMES G. BLAINE. WAR DEPARTMENT, + WASHINGTON, D. C., September </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0240"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SLOUGH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0241"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. WASHINGTON, + D. C., September 17,1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0242"> TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0243"> INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF + PRISONERS, SEPTEMBER 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0244"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. SHERIDAN. EXECUTIVE + MANSION, WASHINGTON, September </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0245"> TO GENERAL HITCHCOCK, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0246"> TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0247"> TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0248"> ORDER CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS IN + INSURRECTIONARY STATES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0249"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. WASHINGTON, + D. C., September 27, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0250"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + D.C., September 29,1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0251"> INDORSEMENT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0252"> ORDER RETURNING THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS FOR + ONE HUNDRED DAYS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0253"> TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0254"> INDORSEMENT ON A MEMORANDUM BY GENERAL + McDOWELL, OCTOBER 7, 1864 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0255"> TO H. W. HOFFMAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0256"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0257"> TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Cambridge, + Mass.: </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0258"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + D. C., October 12, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0259"> RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0260"> PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 20, + 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0261"> TELEGRAM To J. G. NICOLAY. WASHINGTON, D. C., + October 21, 1864. 9.45 P.M. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0262"> TO WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0263"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. WASHINGTON, + D. C., October 23, 1864 5 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0264"> TELEGRAM TO T. T. DAVIS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0265"> PROCLAMATION ADMITTING NEVADA INTO THE UNION + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0266"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURBRIDGE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0267"> TELEGRAM TO NAVAL OFFICER AT MOBILE BAY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0268"> TELEGRAM TO SAILORS' FAIR, BOSTON, + MASSACHUSETTS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0269"> TELEGRAM TO A. H. RICE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0270"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. WASHINGTON, + November 8, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0271"> RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, NOVEMBER 9, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0272"> TELEGRAM TO H. W. HOFFMAN. WAR DEPARTMENT, + WASHINGTON, D. C. November 10, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0273"> ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0274"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. + WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0275"> WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. GOVERNOR + BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0276"> TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0277"> REPLY TO MARYLAND UNION COMMITTEE, NOVEMBER + 17, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0278"> PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, NOVEMBER 19, + 1864 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0279"> FIVE-STAR MOTHER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0280"> TO J. PHILLIPS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0281"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. WASHINGTON, D. + C. NOVEMBER 22, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0282"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, WASHINGTON, D.C., + NOVEMBER 25, 1864 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0283"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. EXECUTIVE + MANSION, WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0284"> MEMORANDUM, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0285"> ORDER CONCERNING THE STEAMER "FUNAYMA SOLACE." + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0286"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0287"> ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0288"> RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, DECEMBER 6, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0289"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR HALL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0290"> TELEGRAM TO COLONEL FASLEIGH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0291"> ORDER APPOINTING COMMISSIONERS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0292"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G, H. THOMAS. WASHINGTON, + D.C., December 16, 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0293"> ORIGIN OF THE "GREENBACK" CURRENCY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0294"> TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT CHATTANOOGA. + EXECUTIVE MANSION, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0295"> CALL FOR 300,000 VOLUNTEERS, DECEMBER 19, + 1864. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0296"> SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0297"> TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT LEXINGTON. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0298"> TO J. MACLEAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0299"> TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0300"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0301"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0302"> TELEGRAM TO COLONEL WARNER. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link1865"> <b>1865</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0303"> TELEGRAM TO J. WILLIAMS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0304"> MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0305"> TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0306"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0307"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0308"> TO SCHUYLER COLFAX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0309"> PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCE, JANUARY 10, + 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0310"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0311"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0312"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0313"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. EXECUTIVE + MANSION, WASHINGTON, January </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0314"> FIRST OVERTURES FOR SURRENDER FROM DAVIS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0315"> EXECUTIVE MANSION, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0316"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0317"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0318"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0319"> TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0320"> REPLY TO A COMMITTEE, JANUARY 24, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0321"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0322"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0323"> EARLY CONSULTATIONS WITH REBELS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0324"> TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY OF WAR TO GENERAL ORD. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0325"> INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER FROM J. M. ASHLEY. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0326"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0327"> INSTRUCTIONS TO SECRETARY SEWARD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0328"> CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE ABOLISHING OF + SLAVERY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0329"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + February 1, 1865 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0330"> TELEGRAM TO MAJOR ECKERT. WASHINGTON, D. C., + February 1, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0331"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + D. C., February 2, 1865 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0332"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD, WASHINGTON, D. + C., February 2, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0333"> ORDER TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE DRAFT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0334"> TO PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0335"> TELEGRAM TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0336"> TO GOVERNOR SMITH. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0337"> MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0338"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. EXECUTIVE + MANSION, WASHINGTON, February </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0339"> RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL COUNT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0340"> CHRONOLOGIC REVIEW OF PEACE PROPOSALS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0341"> Afterwards Mr. Blair dictated for and + authorized me to make an entry on </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0342"> Afterwards the Secretary of War placed in my + hands the following telegram, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0343"> MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. WASHINGTON, February + 10, 1865 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0344"> MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0345"> TO ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0346"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. POPE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0347"> TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS IN WEST TENNESSEE + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0348"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0349"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0350"> PROCLAMATION CONVENING THE SENATE IN EXTRA + SESSION, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0351"> TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S + FERRY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0352"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0353"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0354"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + February 25, 1865 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0355"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, + D. C., February 27, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0356"> TO T. W. CONWAY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0357"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. + C., March 2, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0358"> TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL + GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0359"> SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0360"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL JOHN POPE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0361"> TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., + March 8, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0362"> PROCLAMATION OFFERING PARDON TO DESERTERS, + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0363"> TELEGRAM TO H. T. BLOW. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0364"> LETTER TO THURLOW WEED, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0365"> TELEGRAM TO COLONEL ROUGH AND OTHERS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0366"> ADDRESS TO AN INDIANA REGIMENT, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0367"> PROCLAMATION CONCERNING INDIANS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0368"> ORDER ANNULLING THE SENTENCE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0369"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0370"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0371"> TELEGRAM TO JUDGE SCATES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0372"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0373"> ANOTHER FEMALE SPY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0374"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0375"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0376"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0377"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0378"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0379"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0380"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0381"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0382"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0383"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. CITY POINT, + April 1, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0384"> TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0385"> TELEGRAMS TO SECRETARY STANTON. CITY POINT, + VIRGINIA, April 2, 1865. 8.30 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0386"> TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. CITY POINT, VA., + April 1, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0387"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0388"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0389"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0390"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0391"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0392"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0393"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0394"> TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0395"> LET THE THING BE PRESSED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0396"> NOTE ON A CARD TO SECRETARY STANTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0397"> RESPONSE TO A CALL, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0398"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. GORDON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0399"> PROCLAMATION CLOSING CERTAIN PORTS, APRIL 11, + 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0400"> PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF KEY WEST, + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0401"> PROCLAMATION CLAIMING EQUALITY OF RIGHTS WITH + ALL MARITIME NATIONS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0402"> LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0403"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0404"> TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. WASHINGTON, + D.C., April 12, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0405"> INTERVIEW WITH SCHUYLER COLFAX ON THE MORNING + OF APRIL 14, 1865. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0406"> TO GENERAL VAN ALLEN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0407"> LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE WRITINGS OF A. LINCOLN, <br /> Volume Seven, 1863-1865 + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1863 + </h2> + <p> + OPINION ON THE LOSS OF GENERAL R. H. MILROY'S DIVISION. + </p> + <p> + October 27, 1863. + </p> + <p> + In June last a division was substantially lost at or near Winchester, Va. + At the time, it was under General Milroy as immediate commander in the + field, General Schenck as department commander at Baltimore, and General + Halleck as general-in-chief at Washington. + </p> + <p> + General Milroy, as immediate commander, was put in arrest, and + subsequently a court of inquiry examined chiefly with reference to + disobedience of orders, and reported the evidence. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing is a synoptical statement of the evidence, together with the + judge-advocate-general's conclusions. The disaster, when it came, was a + surprise to all. It was very well known to Generals Shenck and Milroy for + some time before, that General Halleck thought the division was in great + danger of a surprise at Winchester; that it was of no service commensurate + with the risk it incurred, and that it ought to be withdrawn; but, + although he more than once advised its withdrawal, he never positively + ordered it. General Schenck, on the contrary, believed the service of the + force at Winchester was worth the hazard, and so did not positively order + its withdrawal until it was so late that the enemy cut the wire and + prevented the order reaching General Milroy. + </p> + <p> + General Milroy seems to have concurred with General Schenck in the opinion + that the force should be kept at Winchester at least until the approach of + danger, but he disobeyed no order upon the subject. + </p> + <p> + Some question can be made whether some of General Halleck's dispatches to + General Schenk should not have been construed to be orders to withdraw the + force, and obeyed accordingly; but no such question can be made against + General Milroy. In fact, the last order he received was to be prepared to + withdraw, but not to actually withdraw until further order, which further + order never reached him. + </p> + <p> + Serious blame is not necessarily due to any serious disaster, and I cannot + say that in this case any of the officers are deserving of serious blame. + No court-martial is deemed necessary or proper in the case. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + </h2> + <h3> + Private and confidential + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 28, 1863. + </p> + <p> + GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD: + </p> + <p> + There have recently reached the War Department, and thence been laid + before me, from Missouri, three communications, all similar in import and + identical in object. One of them, addressed to nobody, and without place + or date, but having the signature of (apparently) the writer, is a letter + of eight closely written foolscap pages. The other two are written by a + different person, at St. Joseph, Mo., and of the dates, respectively, + October 12 and 13, 1863, and each inclosing a large number of affidavits. + The general statements of the whole are that the Federal and State + authorities are arming the disloyal and disarming the loyal, and that the + latter will all be killed or driven out of the State unless there shall be + a change. In particular, no loyal man who has been disarmed is named, but + the affidavits show by name forty-two persons as disloyal who have been + armed. They are as follows: [The names are omitted.] + </p> + <p> + A majority of these are shown to have been in the rebel service. I believe + it could be shown that the government here has deliberately armed more + than ten times as many captured at Gettysburg, to say nothing of similar + operations in East Tennessee. These papers contain altogether thirty—one + manuscript pages, and one newspaper in extenso, and yet I do not find it + anywhere charged in them that any loyal man has been harmed by reason of + being disarmed, or that any disloyal one has harmed anybody by reason of + being armed by the Federal or State Government. Of course, I have not had + time to carefully examine all; but I have had most of them examined and + briefed by others, and the result is as stated. The remarkable fact that + the actual evil is yet only anticipated—inferred—induces me to + suppose I understand the case; but I do not state my impression, because I + might be mistaken, and because your duty and mine is plain in any event. + The locality of nearly all this seems to be St. Joseph and Buchanan + County. I wish you to give special attention to this region, particularly + on election day. Prevent violence from whatever quarter, and see that the + soldiers themselves do no wrong. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + </h2> + <h3> + [Cipher.] + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 28, 1863. + </p> + <p> + HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: If not too inconvenient, please + come at once and have a personal conversation with me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO VICE-PRESIDENT HAMLIN. + </h2> + <p> + AN ACT TO REGULATE THE DUTIES OF THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + IN PREPARING FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. + </p> + <p> + Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United + States of America in Congress assembled, that, before the first meeting of + the next Congress, and of every subsequent Congress, the clerk of the next + preceding House of Representatives shall make a roll of the + Representatives elect, and place thereon the names of all persons, and of + such persons only, whose credentials show that they were regularly elected + in accordance with the laws of their States respectively, or the laws of + the United States. + </p> + <p> + Approved March 3, 1863. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. W. GRIMES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 1863. + </p> + <p> + HON. JAMES W. GRIMES. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—The above act of Congress was passed, as I suppose, for + the purpose of shutting out improper applicants for seats in the House of + Representatives; and I fear there is some danger that it will be used to + shut out proper ones. Iowa, having an entire Union delegation, will be one + of the States the attempt will be made, if upon any. The Governor + doubtless has made out the certificates, and they are already in the hands + of the members. I suggest that they come on with them; but that, for + greater caution, you, and perhaps Mr. Harlan with you, consult with the + Governor, and have an additional set made out according to the form on the + other half of this sheet; and still another set, if you can, by studying + the law, think of a form that in your judgment, promises additional + security, and quietly bring the whole on with you, to be used in case of + necessity. Let what you do be kept still. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO P. F. LOWE. + </h2> + <h3> + [Cipher.] + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + </p> + <p> + HON. F. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.: + </p> + <p> + Below is an act of Congress, passed last session, intended to exclude + applicants not entitled to seats, but which, there is reason to fear, will + be used to exclude some who are entitled. Please get with the Governor and + one or two other discreet friends, study the act carefully, and make + certificates in two or three forms, according to your best judgement, and + have them sent to me, so as to multiply the chances of the delegation + getting their seats. Let it be done without publicity. Below is a form + which may answer for one. If you could procure the same to be done for the + Oregon member it might be well. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </p> + <p> + Much obliged for the information about deserters contained in your + dispatch of yesterday, while I have to beg your pardon for troubling you + in regard to some of them, when, as it appears by yours, I had the means + of answering my own questions. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MEMORANDUM. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 31, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + The Provost-Marshal-General has issued no proclamation at all. He has in + no form announced anything recently in regard to troops in New York, + except in his letter to Governor Seymour of October 21, which has been + published in the newspapers of that State. It has not been announced or + decided in any form by the Provost-Marshal-General, or any one else in + authority of the Government, that every citizen who has paid his three + hundred dollars commutation is liable to be immediately drafted again, or + that towns that have just raised the money to pay their quotas will have + again to be subject to similar taxation or suffer the operations of the + new conscription, nor it is probable that the like of them ever will be + announced or decided. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 1, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N.Y.: + </p> + <p> + No important news. Details of Hooker's night fight do great credit to his + command, and particularly to the Eleventh Corps and Geary's part of the + Twelfth. No discredit on any. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + </p> + <p> + HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—Some days ago I understood you to say that your + brother, General Frank Blair, desires to be guided by my wishes as to + whether he will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. My + wish, then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for the country; + and it is that he will come here, put his military commission in my hands, + take his seat, go into caucus with our friends, abide the nominations, + help elect the nominees, and thus aid to organize a House of + Representatives which will really support the Government in the war. If + the result shall be the election of himself as Speaker, let him serve in + that position. If not, let him retake his commission and return to the + army for the benefit of the country. + </p> + <p> + This will heal a dangerous schism for him. It will relieve him from a + dangerous position or a misunderstanding, as I think he is in danger of + being permanently separated from those with whom only he can ever have a + real sympathy—the sincere opponents of slavery. + </p> + <p> + It will be a mistake if he shall allow the provocations offered him by + insincere time-servers to drive him from the house of his own building. He + is young yet. He has abundant talents—quite enough to occupy all his + time without devoting any to temper. + </p> + <p> + He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His recent appointment to + the command of a corps, by one so competent to judge as General Sherman, + proves this. In that line he can serve both the country and himself more + profitably than he could as a member of Congress upon the floor. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing is what I would say if Frank Blair was my brother instead of + yours. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GOVERNOR BRADFORD. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + His EXCELLENCY A. W. BRADFORD, Governor of Maryland. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—Yours of the 31st ult. was received yesterday about noon, and + since then I have been giving most earnest attention to the subject-matter + of it. At my call General Schenck has attended, and he assures me it is + almost certain that violence will be used at some of the voting places on + election day unless prevented by his provost-guards. He says that at some + of those places Union voters will not attend at all, or run a ticket, + unless they have some assurance of protection. This makes the Missouri + case, of my action in regard to which you express your approval. + </p> + <p> + The remaining point of your letter is a protest against any person + offering to vote being put to any test not found in the laws of Maryland. + This brings us to a difference between Missouri and Maryland. With the + same reason in both States, Missouri has, by law, provided a test for the + voter with reference to the present rebellion, while Maryland has not. For + example, General Trimble, captured fighting us at Gettysburg, is, without + recanting his treason, a legal voter by the laws of Maryland. Even General + Schenck's order admits him to vote, if he recants upon oath. I think that + is cheap enough. My order in Missouri, which you approve, and General + Scherick's order here, reach precisely the same end. Bach assures the + right of voting to all loyal men, and whether a man is loyal, each allows + that man to fix by his own oath. Your suggestion that nearly all the + candidates are loyal, I do not think quite meets the case. In this + struggle for the nation's life, I cannot so confidently rely on those + whose elections may have depended upon disloyal votes. Such men, when + elected, may prove true; but such votes are given them in the expectation + that they will prove false. + </p> + <p> + Nor do I think that to keep the peace at the polls, and to prevent the + persistently disloyal from voting, constitutes just cause of offense to + Maryland. I think she has her own example for it. If I mistake not, it is + precisely what General Dix did when your Excellency was elected Governor. + </p> + <p> + I revoke the first of the three propositions in General Schenek's General + Order No. 53; not that it is wrong in principle, but because the military, + being of necessity exclusive judges as to who shall be arrested, the + provision is too liable to abuse. For the revoked part I substitute the + following: + </p> + <p> + That, all provost-marshals and other military officers do prevent all + disturbance and violence at or about the polls, whether offered by such + persons as above described, or by any other person or persons whomsoever. + </p> + <p> + The other two propositions of the order I allow to stand. General Schenek + is fully determined, and has my strict orders besides, that all loyal men + may vote, and vote for whom they please. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. H. HACKETT + </h2> + <h3> + [Private.] + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + </p> + <p> + JAMES H. HACKETT. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—Yours of October 22d is received, as also was, in due + course, that of October 3d. I look forward with pleasure to the + fulfillment of the promise made in the former to visit Washington the + following winter and to "call." + </p> + <p> + Give yourself no uneasiness on the subject mentioned in that of the 22d. + My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in print, yet I have not + been much shocked by the newspaper comments upon it. + </p> + <p> + Those comments constitute a fair specimen of what has occurred to me + through life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule, without much + malice; and have received a great deal of kindness not quite free from + ridicule. I am used to it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, November 3, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N. Y.: + </p> + <p> + Nothing new. Dispatches up to 12 last night from Chattanooga show all + quiet and doing well. How is your son? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 3, 1863. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </h3> + <p> + Samuel Wellers, private in Company B, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, + writes that he is to be shot for desertion on the 6th instant. His own + story is rather a bad one, and yet he tells it so frankly, that I am + somewhat interested in him. Has he been a good soldier except the + desertion? About how old is he? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE, MANSION WASHINGTON, D. C., November 5, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </p> + <p> + Please suspend the execution of Samuel Wellers, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania + Volunteers, until further orders. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November + </h2> + <p> + 9, 1863.4 P.M. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + Have seen dispatch from General Grant about your loss at Rogersville. Per + contra, about the same time, Averell and Duffle got considerable advantage + of the enemy at and about Lewisburg, Virginia: and on Saturday, the + seventh, Meade drove the enemy from Rappahannock Station and Kelly's Ford, + capturing eight battle-flags, four guns, and over 1800 prisoners, with + very little loss to himself. Let me hear from you. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863 7.30 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + </p> + <p> + I have seen your dispatches about operations on the Rappahannock on + Saturday, and I wish to say, "Well done!" Do the 1500 prisoners reported + by General Sedgwick include the 400 taken by General French, or do the + Whole amount to 1900? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER CONCERNING THE EXPORT OF TOBACCO PURCHASED BY FOREIGN NATIONS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, November 10, 1863. + </p> + <p> + In consideration of the peculiar circumstances and pursuant to the comity + deemed to be due to friendly powers, any tobacco in the United States + belonging to the government either of France, Austria, or any other state + with which this country is at peace, and which tobacco was purchased and + paid for by such government prior to the 4th day of March, 1861, may be + exported from any port of the United States under the supervision and upon + the responsibility of naval officers of such governments and in conformity + to such regulations as may be presented by the Secretary of State of the + United States, and not otherwise. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 10, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I see a dispatch here from Saint Louis, which is a little difficult +for me to understand. It says "General Schofield has refused leave of +absence to members in military service to attend the legislature. All such +are radical and administration men. The election of two Senators from +this place on Thursday will probably turn upon this thing." what does this +mean? Of course members of the legislation must be allowed to attend its +sessions. But how is there a session before the recent election returns +are in? And how is it to be at "this place"—and that is Saint Louis? +Please inform me. +</pre> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + I believe the Secretary of War has telegraphed you about members of the + legislation. At all events, allow those in the service to attend the + session, and we can afterward decide whether they can stay through the + entire session. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO HIRAM BARNEY. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [Cipher.] +</pre> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + </p> + <p> + HON. HIRAM BARNEY, New York; I would like an interview with you. Can you + not come? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO J. MILDERBORGER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + </p> + <p> + JOHN MILDERBORGER, Peru, Ind.: + </p> + <p> + I cannot comprehend the object of your dispatch. I do not often decline + seeing people who call upon me, and probably will see you if you call. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM to E. H. AND E. JAMESON. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, D. C., November 13, 1863. + </p> + <p> + E. H. and E. JAMESON, Jefferson City, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + Yours saying Brown and Henderson are elected Senators is received. I + understand this is one and one. If so it is knocking heads together to + some. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1863. 12.15 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Cincinnati, Ohio: + </p> + <p> + I have received and considered your dispatch of yesterday. Of the reports + you mention, I have not the means of seeing any except your own. Besides + this, the publication might be improper in view of the court of inquiry + which has been ordered. With every disposition, not merely to do justice, + but to oblige you, I feel constrained to say I think the publications + better not be made now. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, November 16, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + What is the news? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY CHASE + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 17, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—I expected to see you here at Cabinet meeting, and to + say something about going to Gettysburg. There will be a train to take and + return us. The time for starting is not yet fixed, but when it shall be I + will notify you. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG + </h2> + <h3> + NOVEMBER 19, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this + continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the + proposition that all men are created equal. + </p> + <p> + Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or + any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a + great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that + field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that + that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should + do this. + </p> + <p> + But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we + can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who + struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or + detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, + but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, + rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought + here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here + dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these + honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave + the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these + dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall + have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by + the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 20, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </p> + <p> + If there is a man by the name of King under sentence to be shot, please + suspend execution till further order, and send record. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. November 20, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </p> + <p> + An intelligent woman in deep distress, called this morning, saying her + husband, a lieutenant in the Army of Potomac, was to be shot next Monday + for desertion, and putting a letter in my hand, upon which I relied for + particulars, she left without mentioning a name or other particular by + which to identify the case. On opening the letter I found it equally + vague, having nothing to identify by, except her own signature, which + seems to be "Mrs. Anna S. King." I could not again find her. If you have a + case which you shall think is probably the one intended, please apply my + dispatch of this morning to it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO E. P. EVANS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + E. P. EVANS, West Union, Adams County, Ohio: + </p> + <p> + Yours to Governor Chase in behalf of John A Welch is before me. Can there + be a worse case than to desert and with letters persuading others to + desert? I cannot interpose without a better showing than you make. When + did he desert? when did he write the letters? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—Two despatches since I saw you; one not quite so late + on firing as we had before, but giving the points that Burnside thinks he + can hold the place, that he is not closely invested, and that he forages + across the river. The other brings the firing up to 11 A.M. yesterday, + being twenty-three hours later than we had before. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, November 25, 1863. 8.40 A.M. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL U.S. GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Your despatches as to fighting on Monday and Tuesday are here. Well done! + Many thanks to all. Remember Burnside. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO C. P. KIRKLAND. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 7, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, ESQ., New York: + </p> + <p> + I have just received and have read your published letter to the HON. + Benjamin R. Curtis. Under the circumstances I may not be the most + competent judge, but it appears to me to be a paper of great ability, and + for the country's sake more than for my own I thank you for it. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANNOUNCEMENT OF UNION SUCCESS IN EAST TENNESSEE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 7, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + Reliable information being received that the insurgent force is retreating + from East Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it probable that the + Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important position; + and esteeming this to be of high national consequence, I recommend that + all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their + places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God + for this great advancement of the national cause. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION. DECEMBER 8, 1863. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas in and by the Constitution of the United States it is provided + that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for + offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment;" and, + </p> + <p> + Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of + several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have + committed and are now guilty of treason against the United States; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been + enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of property and + liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein stated, and + also declaring that the President was thereby authorized at any time + thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have + participated in the existing rebellion in any State or part thereof pardon + and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such conditions + as he may deem expedient for the public welfare; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas the Congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon + accords with well-established judicial exposition of the pardoning power; + and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the United + States has issued several proclamations with provisions in regard to the + liberation of slaves; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said + rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States and to + reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective + States: + </p> + <p> + Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do + proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by + implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter + excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, + with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves and in + property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and + upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath + and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath + shall be registered for permanent preservation and shall be of the tenor + and effect following, to wit: + </p> + <p> + "I, ———, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, + that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the + Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder; + and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all acts of + Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so + long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress or by + decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will in like manner abide by and + faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the + existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not + modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me + God." + </p> + <p> + The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are all + who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the + so-called Confederate Government; all who have left judicial stations + under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are or shall have + been military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government + above the rank of colonel in the army or of lieutenant in the navy; all + who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who + resigned commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States and + afterwards aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in + treating colored persons, or white persons in charge of such, otherwise + than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been found + in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other + capacity. + </p> + <p> + And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in any + of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, + Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of + persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State + at the Presidential election of the year A.D. 1860, each having taken oath + aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter + by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called + act of secession, and excluding all others, shall reestablish a State + government which shall be republican and in nowise contravening said oath, + such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the + State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional + provision which declares that "the United States shall guarantee to every + State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each + of them against invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or the + EXECUTIVE (when the legislature can not be convened), against domestic + violence." + </p> + <p> + And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision + which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed + people of such State which shall recognize and declare their permanent + freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a + temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, + landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National + EXECUTIVE. + </p> + <p> + And it is suggested as not improper that in constructing a loyal State + government in any State the name of the State, the boundary, the + subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws as before the + rebellion be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary + by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not + contravening said co and which may be deemed expedient by those framing + the new State government. + </p> + <p> + To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this proclamation, + so far as it relates to State governments, has no reference to States + wherein loyal State governments have all the while been maintained. And + for the same reason it may be proper to further say that whether members + sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats + constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to + any extent with the EXECUTIVE. And, still further, that this proclamation + is intended to present the people of the States wherein the national + authority has been suspended and loyal State governments have been + subverted a mode in and by which the national authority and loyal State + governments may be re-established within said States or in any of them; + and while the mode presented is the best the EXECUTIVE can suggest, with + his present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible + mode would be acceptable. + </p> + <p> + Given under my hand at the city of WASHINGTON, the 8th day of December, A. + D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America the + eighty-eighth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 8, 1863. + </h2> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:— + </p> + <p> + Another year of health, and of sufficiently abundant harvests, has passed. + For these, and especially for the improved condition cf our national + affairs, our renewed and profoundest gratitude to God is due. + </p> + <p> + We remain in peace and friendship with foreign powers. + </p> + <p> + The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us in + foreign wars, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been unavailing. + Her Britannic Majesty's government, as was justly expected, have exercised + their authority to prevent the departure of new hostile expeditions from + British ports. The Emperor of France has, by a like proceeding, promptly + vindicated the neutrality which he proclaimed at the beginning of the + contest. Questions of great intricacy and importance have arisen out of + the blockade, and other belligerent operations, between the Government and + several of the maritime powers, but they have been discussed, and, as far + as was possible, accommodated, in a spirit of frankness, justice, and + mutual good-will. It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by + the impartiality of their adjudications, have commanded the respect and + confidence of maritime powers. + </p> + <p> + The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain for + the suppression of the African slave-trade, made on the 17th day of + February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. It is + believed that, so far as American ports and American citizens are + concerned, that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an end. + </p> + <p> + I shall submit, for the consideration of the Senate, a convention for the + adjustment of possessory claims in Washington Territory, arising out of + the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, between the United States and Great + Britain, and which have been the source of some disquiet among the + citizens of that now rapidly improving part of the country. + </p> + <p> + A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime + jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the island of Cuba, has + been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is proposed, in an + amicable spirit, to refer it to the arbitrament of a friendly power. A + convention for that purpose will be submitted to the Senate. + </p> + <p> + I have thought it proper, subject to the approval of the Senate, to concur + with the interested commercial powers in an arrangement for the + liquidation of the Scheldt dues upon the principles which have been + heretofore adopted in regard to the imposts upon navigation in the waters + of Denmark. + </p> + <p> + The long-pending controversy between this government and that of Chile + touching the seizure at Sitana, in Peru, by Chilean officers, of a large + amount in treasure belonging to citizens of the United States has been + brought to a close by the award of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, + to whose arbitration the question was referred by the parties. The subject + was thoroughly and patiently examined by that justly respected magistrate, + and although the sum awarded to the claimants may not have been as large + as they expected there is no reason to distrust the wisdom of His + Majesty's decision. That decision was promptly complied with by Chile when + intelligence in regard to it reached that country. + </p> + <p> + The joint commission under the act of the last session of carrying into + effect the convention with Peru on the subject of claims has been + organized at Lima, and is engaged in the business intrusted to it. + </p> + <p> + Difficulties concerning interoceanic transit through Nicaragua are in + course of amicable adjustment. + </p> + <p> + In conformity with principles set forth in my last annual message, I have + received a representative from the United States of Colombia, and have + accredited a minister to that Republic. + </p> + <p> + Incidents occurring in the progress of our civil war have forced upon my + attention the uncertain state of international questions touching the + rights of foreigners in this country and of United States citizens abroad. + In regard to some governments these rights are at least partially defined + by treaties. In no instance, however, is it expressly stipulated that in + the event of civil war a foreigner residing in this country within the + lines of the insurgents is to be exempted from the rule which classes him + as a belligerent, in whose behalf the government of his country can not + expect any privileges or immunities distinct from that character. I regret + to say, however, that such claims have been put forward, and in some + instances in behalf of foreigners who have lived in the United States the + greater part of their lives. + </p> + <p> + There is reason to believe that many persons born in foreign countries who + have declared their intention to become citizens, or who have been fully + naturalized have evaded the military duty required of them by denying the + fact and thereby throwing upon the Government the burden of proof. It has + been found difficult or impracticable to obtain this proof from the want + of guides to the proper sources of information. These might be supplied by + requiring clerks of courts where declarations of intention may be made or + naturalizations effected to send periodically lists of the names of the + persons naturalized or declaring their intention to become citizens to the + Secretary of the Interior, in whose Department those names might be + arranged and printed for general information. + </p> + <p> + There is also reason to believe that foreigners frequently become citizens + of the United States for the sole purpose of evading duties imposed by the + laws of their native countries, to which on becoming naturalized here they + at once repair, and though never returning to the United States they still + claim the interposition of this government as citizens. Many altercations + and great prejudices have heretofore arisen out of this abuse. It is + therefore submitted to your serious consideration. It might be advisable + to fix a limit beyond which no citizen of the United States residing + abroad may claim the interposition of his government. + </p> + <p> + The right of suffrage has often been assumed and exercised by aliens under + pretenses of naturalization, which they have disavowed when drafted into + the military service. I submit the expediency of such an amendment of the + law as will make the fact of voting an estoppe against any plea of + exemption from military service or other civil obligation on the ground of + alienage. + </p> + <p> + In common with other Western powers, our relations with Japan have been + brought into serious jeopardy through the perverse opposition of the + hereditary aristocracy of the Empire to the enlightened and liberal policy + of the Tycoon, designed to bring the country into the society of nations. + It is hoped, although not with entire confidence, that these difficulties + may be peacefully overcome. I ask your attention to the claim of the + minister residing there for the damages he sustained in the destruction by + fire of the residence of the legation at Yedo. + </p> + <p> + Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the Emperor of Russia, + which, it is believed, will result in effecting a continuous line of + telegraph through that Empire from our Pacific coast. + </p> + <p> + I recommend to your favorable consideration the subject of an + international telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, and also of a telegraph + between this capital and the national forts along the Atlantic seaboard + and the Gulf of Mexico. Such communications, established with any + reasonable outlay, would be economical as well as effective aids to the + diplomatic, military, and naval service. + </p> + <p> + The consular system of the United States, under the enactments of the last + Congress, begins to be self-sustaining, and there is reason to hope that + it may become entirely so with the increase of trade which will ensue + whenever peace is restored. Our ministers abroad have been faithful in + defending American rights. In protecting commercial interests our consuls + have necessarily had to encounter increased labors and responsibilities + growing out of the war. These they have for the most part met and + discharged with zeal and efficiency. This acknowledgment justly includes + those consuls who, residing in Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, China, and + other Oriental countries, are charged with complex functions and + extraordinary powers. + </p> + <p> + The condition of the several organized Territories is generally + satisfactory, although Indian disturbances in New Mexico have not been + entirely suppressed. The mineral resources of Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, New + Mexico, and Arizona are proving far richer than has been heretofore + understood. I lay before you a communication on this subject from the + Governor of New Mexico. I again submit to your consideration the + expediency of establishing a system for the encouragement of immigration. + Although this source of national wealth and strength is again flowing with + greater freedom than for several years before the insurrection occurred, + there is still a great deficiency of laborers in every field of industry, + especially in agriculture and in our mines, as well of iron and coal as of + the precious metals. While the demand for labor is much increased here, + tens of thousands of persons, destitute of remunerative occupation, are + thronging our foreign consulates and offering to emigrate to the United + States if essential, but very cheap, assistance can be afforded them. It + is easy to see that under the sharp discipline of civil war the nation is + beginning a new life. This noble effort demands the aid and ought to + receive the attention and support of the Government. + </p> + <p> + Injuries unforeseen by the Government and unintended may in some cases + have been inflicted on the subjects or citizens of foreign countries, both + at sea and on land, by persons in the service of the United States. As + this government expects redress from other powers when similar injuries + are inflicted by persons in their service upon citizens of the United + States, we must be prepared to do justice to foreigners. If the existing + judicial tribunals are inadequate to this purpose, a special court may be + authorized, with power to hear and decide such claims of the character + referred to as may have arisen under treaties and the public law. + Conventions for adjusting the claims by joint commission have been + proposed to some governments, but no definitive answer to the proposition + has yet been received from any. + </p> + <p> + In the course of the session I shall probably have occasion to request you + to provide indemnification to claimants where decrees of restitution have + been rendered and damages awarded by admiralty courts, and in other cases + where this government may be acknowledged to be liable in principle and + where the amount of that liability has been ascertained by an informal + arbitration. + </p> + <p> + The proper officers of the Treasury have deemed themselves required by the + law of the United States upon the subject to demand a tax upon the incomes + of foreign consuls in this country. While such a demand may not in + strictness be in derogation of public law, or perhaps of any existing + treaty between the United States and a foreign country, the expediency of + so far modifying the act as to exempt from tax the income of such consuls + as are not citizens of the United States, derived from the emoluments of + their office or from property not situated in the United States, is + submitted to your serious consideration. I make this suggestion upon the + ground that a comity which ought to be reciprocated exempts our consuls in + all other countries from taxation to the extent thus indicated. The United + States, I think, ought not to be exceptionally illiberal to international + trade and commerce. + </p> + <p> + The operations of the Treasury during the last year have been successfully + conducted. The enactment by Congress of a national banking law has proved + a valuable support of the public credit, and the general legislation in + relation to loans has fully answered the expectations of its favorers. + Some amendments may be required to perfect existing laws, but no change in + their principles or general scope is believed to be needed. + </p> + <p> + Since these measures have been in operation all demands on the Treasury, + including the pay of the Army and Navy, have been promptly met and fully + satisfied. No considerable body of troops, it is believed, were ever more + amply provided and more liberally and punctually paid, and it may be added + that by no people were the burdens incident to a great war ever more + cheerfully borne. + </p> + <p> + The receipts during the year from all sources, including loans and balance + in the Treasury at its commencement, were $901,125,674.86, and the + aggregate disbursements $895,796,630.65, leaving a balance on the 1st of + July, 1863, of $5,329,044.21. Of the receipts there were derived from + customs $69,059,642.40, from internal revenue $37,640,787.95, from direct + tax $1,485,103.61, from lands $167,617.17, from miscellaneous sources + $3,046,615.35, and from loans $776,682,361.57, making the aggregate + $901,125,674.86. Of the disbursements there were for the civil service + $23,253,922.08, for pensions and Indians $4,216,520.79, for interest on + public debt $24,729,846.51, for the War Department $599,298,600.83, for + the Navy Department $63,211,105.27, for payment of funded and temporary + debt $181,086,635.07, making the aggregate $895,796,630.65 and leaving the + balance of $5,329,044.21. But the payment of funded and temporary debt, + having been made from moneys borrowed during the year, must be regarded as + merely nominal payments and the moneys borrowed to make them as merely + nominal receipts, and their amount, $181,086,635.07, should therefore be + deducted both from receipts and disbursements. This being done there + remains as actual receipts $720,039,039.79 and the actual disbursements + $714,709,995.58, leaving the balance as already stated. + </p> + <p> + The actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the + estimated receipts and disbursements for the remaining three-quarters of + the current fiscal year (1864) will be shown in detail by the report of + the Secretary of the Treasury, to which I invite your attention. It is + sufficient to say here that it is not believed that actual results will + exhibit a state of the finances less favorable to the country than the + estimates of that officer heretofore submitted while it is confidently + expected that at the close of the year both disbursements and debt will be + found very considerably less than has been anticipated. + </p> + <p> + The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. It + consists of: + </p> + <p> + 1. The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of the + General in Chief. + </p> + <p> + 2. The organization of colored persons into the war service. + </p> + <p> + 3. The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of General + Hitchcock. + </p> + <p> + 4. The operations under the act for enrolling and calling out the national + forces, detailed in the report of the Provost Marshal General. + </p> + <p> + 5. The organization of the invalid corps, and + </p> + <p> + 6. The operation of the several departments of the Quartermaster-General, + Commissary-General, Paymaster-General, Chief of Engineers, Chief of + Ordnance, and Surgeon-General. + </p> + <p> + It has appeared impossible to make a valuable summary of this report, + except such as would be too extended for this place, and hence I content + myself by asking your careful attention to the report itself. + </p> + <p> + The duties devolving on the naval branch of the service during the year + and throughout the whole of this unhappy contest have been discharged with + fidelity and eminent success. The extensive blockade has been constantly + increasing in efficiency as the Navy has expanded, yet on so long a line + it has so far been impossible to entirely suppress illicit trade. From + returns received at the Navy Department it appears that more than 1,000 + vessels have been captured since the blockade was instituted? and that the + value of prizes already sent in for adjudication amounts to over + $13,000,000. + </p> + <p> + The naval force of the United States consists at this time of five hundred + and eighty-eight vessels completed and in the course of completion, and of + these seventy-five are ironclad or armored steamers. The events of the war + give an increased interest and importance to the Navy which will probably + extend beyond the war itself. + </p> + <p> + The armored vessels in our Navy completed and in service, or which are + under contract and approaching completion, are believed to exceed in + number those of any other power; but while these may be relied upon for + harbor defense and coast service, others of greater strength and capacity + will be necessary for cruising purposes and to maintain our rightful + position on the ocean. + </p> + <p> + The change that has taken place in naval vessels and naval warfare since + the introduction of steam as a motive power for ships of war demands + either a corresponding change in some of our existing navy yards or the + establishment of new ones for the construction and necessary repair of + modern naval vessels. No inconsiderable embarrassment, delay, and public + injury have been experienced from the want of such governmental + establishments. The necessity of such a navy-yard, so furnished, at some + suitable place upon the Atlantic seaboard has on repeated occasions been + brought to the attention of Congress by the Navy Department, and is again + presented in the report of the Secretary which accompanies this + communication. I think it my duty to invite your special attention to this + subject, and also to that of establishing a yard and depot for naval + purposes upon one of the Western rivers. A naval force has been created on + those interior waters, and under many disadvantages, within little more + than two years, exceeding in numbers the whole naval force of the country + at the commencement of the present Administration. Satisfactory and + important as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy at + this interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the success + of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war vessels, which has + created a new form of naval power. + </p> + <p> + Our country has advantages superior to any other nation in our resources + of iron and timber, with inexhaustible quantities of fuel in the immediate + vicinity of both, and all available and in close proximity to navigable + waters. Without the advantage of public works, the resources of the nation + have been developed and its power displayed in the construction of a Navy + of such magnitude, which has at the very period of its creation rendered + signal service to the Union. + </p> + <p> + The increase of the number of seamen in the public service from 7,500 men + in the spring of 1861 to about 34,000 at the present time has been + accomplished without special legislation or extraordinary bounties to + promote that increase. It has been found, however, that the operation of + the draft, with the high bounties paid for army recruits, is beginning to + affect injuriously the naval service, and will, if not corrected, be + likely to impair its efficiency by detaching seamen from their proper + vocation and inducing them to enter the Army. I therefore respectfully + suggest that Congress might aid both the army and naval services by a + definite provision on this subject which would at the same time be + equitable to the communities more especially interested. + </p> + <p> + I commend to your consideration the suggestions of the Secretary of the + Navy in regard to the policy of fostering and training seamen and also the + education of officers and engineers for the naval service. The Naval + Academy is rendering signal service in preparing midshipmen for the highly + responsible duties which in after life they will be required to perform. + In order that the country should not be deprived of the proper quota of + educated officers, for which legal provision has been made at the naval + school, the vacancies caused by the neglect or omission to make + nominations from the States in insurrection have been filled by the + Secretary of the Navy. The school is now more full and complete than at + any former period, and in every respect entitled to the favorable + consideration of Congress. + </p> + <p> + During the past fiscal year the financial condition of the Post-Office + Department has been one of increasing prosperity, and I am gratified in + being able to state that the actual postal revenue has nearly equaled the + entire expenditures, the latter amounting to $11,314,206.84 and the former + to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency of but $150,417.25. In 1860, the + year immediately preceding the rebellion, the deficiency amounted to + $5,656,705.49, the postal receipts of that year being $2,645,722.19 less + that those of 1863. The decrease since 1860 in the annual amount of + transportation has been only about twenty-five per cent, but the annual + expenditure on account of the same has been reduced thirty-five per cent. + It is manifest, therefore, that the Post-Office Department may become + self-sustaining in a few years, even with the restoration of the whole + service. + </p> + <p> + The international conference of postal delegates from the principal + countries of Europe and America, which was called at the suggestion of the + Postmaster-General, met at Paris on the 11th of May last and concluded its + deliberations on the 8th of June. The principles established by the + conference as best adapted to facilitate postal intercourse between + nations and as the basis of future postal conventions inaugurate a general + system of uniform international charges at reduced rates of postage, and + can not fail to produce beneficial results. + </p> + <p> + I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is + herewith laid before you, for useful and varied information in relation to + the public lands, Indian affairs, patents, pensions, and other matters of + public concern pertaining to his Department. + </p> + <p> + The quantity of land disposed of during the last and the first quarter of + the present fiscal years was 3,841,549 acres, of which 161,911 acres were + sold for cash, 1,456,514 acres were taken up under the homestead law, and + the residue disposed of under laws granting lands for military bounties, + for railroad and other purposes. It also appears that the sale of the + public lands is largely on the increase. + </p> + <p> + It has long been a cherished opinion of some of our wisest statesmen that + the people of the United States had a higher and more enduring interest in + the early settlement and substantial cultivation of the public lands than + in the amount of direct revenue to be derived from the sale of them. This + opinion has had a controlling influence in shaping legislation upon the + subject of our national domain. I may cite as evidence of this the liberal + measures adopted in reference to actual settlers; the grant to the States + of the overflowed lands within their limits, in order to their being + reclaimed and rendered fit for cultivation; the grants to railway + companies of alternate sections of land upon the contemplated lines of + their roads, which when completed will so largely multiply the facilities + for reaching our distant possessions. This policy has received its most + signal and beneficent illustration in the recent enactment granting + homesteads to actual settlers. Since the 1st day of January last the + before-mentioned quantity of 1,456,514 acres of land have been taken up + under its provisions. This fact and the amount of sales furnish gratifying + evidence of increasing settlement upon the public lands, notwithstanding + the great struggle in which the energies of the nation have been engaged, + and which has required so large a withdrawal of our citizens from their + accustomed pursuits. I cordially concur in the recommendation of the + Secretary of the Interior suggesting a modification of the act in favor of + those engaged in the military and naval service of the United States. I + doubt not that Congress will cheerfully adopt such measures as will, + without essentially changing the general features of the system, secure to + the greatest practicable extent its benefits to those who have left their + homes in the defense of the country in this arduous crisis. + </p> + <p> + I invite your attention to the views of the Secretary as to the propriety + of raising by appropriate legislation a revenue from the mineral lands of + the United States. + </p> + <p> + The measures provided at your last session for the removal of certain + Indian tribes have been carried into effect. Sundry treaties have been + negotiated, which will in due time be submitted for the constitutional + action of the Senate. They contain stipulations for extinguishing the + possessory rights of the Indians to large and valuable tracts of lands. It + is hoped that the effect of these treaties will result in the + establishment of permanent friendly relations with such of these tribes as + have been brought into frequent and bloody collision with our outlying + settlements and emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative duty to these + wards of the Government demand our anxious and constant attention to their + material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, and, + above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of Divine + Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying influences, + the hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith. + </p> + <p> + I suggested in my last annual message the propriety of remodeling our + Indian system. Subsequent events have satisfied me of its necessity. The + details set forth in the report of the Secretary evince the urgent need + for immediate legislative action. + </p> + <p> + I commend the benevolent institutions established or patronized by the + Government in this District to your generous and fostering care. + </p> + <p> + The attention of Congress during the last session was engaged to some + extent with a proposition for enlarging the water communication between + the Mississippi River and the northeastern seaboard, which proposition, + however, failed for the time. Since then, upon a call of the greatest + respectability, a convention has been held at Chicago upon the same + subject, a summary of whose views is contained in a memorial addressed to + the President and Congress, and which I now have the honor to lay before + you. That this interest is one which ere long will force its own way I do + not entertain a doubt, while it is submitted entirely to your wisdom as to + what can be done now. Augmented interest is given to this subject by the + actual commencement of work upon the Pacific Railroad, under auspices so + favorable to rapid progress and completion. The enlarged navigation + becomes a palpable need to the great road. + </p> + <p> + I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioner of the Department + of Agriculture, asking your attention to the developments in that vital + interest of the nation. + </p> + <p> + When Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted nearly + twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and sea, + with varying results; the rebellion had been pressed back into reduced + limits; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion, at home and abroad, + was not satisfactory. With other signs, the popular elections then just + past indicated uneasiness among ourselves, while, amid much that was cold + and menacing, the kindest words coming from Europe were uttered in accents + of pity that we are too blind to surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce + was suffering greatly by a few armed vessels built upon and furnished from + foreign shores, and we were threatened with such additions from the same + quarter as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade. We + had failed to elicit from European governments anything hopeful upon this + subject. The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in September, + was running its assigned period to the beginning of the new year. A month + later the final proclamation came, including the announcement that colored + men of suitable condition would be received into the war service. The + policy of emancipation and of employing black soldiers gave to the future + a new aspect, about which hope and fear and doubt contended in uncertain + conflict. According to our political system, as a matter of civil + administration, the General Government had no lawful power to effect + emancipation in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that the + rebellion could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military + measure. It was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it + might come, and that if it should the crisis of the contest would then be + presented. It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and + doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to take + another review. The rebel borders are pressed still farther back, and by + the complete opening of the Mississippi the country dominated by the + rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no practical communication + between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of + insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, owners of slaves and + advocates of slavery at the beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly + for emancipation in their respective States. Of those States not included + in the emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which + three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slavery + into new Territories, dispute now only as to the best mode of removing it + within their own limits. + </p> + <p> + Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full 100,000 + are now in the United States military service, about one-half of which + number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage + of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and supplying the places + which otherwise must be filled with so many white men. So far as tested, + it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any. No servile + insurrection or tendency to violence or cruelty has marked the measures of + emancipation and arming the blacks. These measures have been much + discussed in foreign countries, and, contemporary with such discussion, + the tone of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same + measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and denounced, + and the annual elections following are highly encouraging to those whose + official duty it is to bear the country through this great trial. Thus we + have the new reckoning. The crisis which threatened to divide the friends + of the Union is past. + </p> + <p> + Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a resumption + of the national authority within the States wherein that authority has + been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a proclamation, a copy of + which is herewith transmitted. On examination of this proclamation it will + appear, as is believed, that nothing will be attempted beyond what is + amply justified by the Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given, + but no man is coerced to take it. The man is promised a pardon only in + case he voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the + Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute discretion, + and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is fully established by + judicial and other authorities. + </p> + <p> + It is also proffered that if in any of the States named a State government + shall be in the mode prescribed set up, such government shall be + recognized and guaranteed by the United States, and that under it the + State shall, on the constitutional conditions, be protected against + invasion and domestic violence. The constitutional obligation of the + United States to guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form + of government and to protect the State in the cases stated is explicit and + full. But why tender the benefits of this provision only to a State + government set up in this particular way? This section of the Constitution + contemplates a case wherein the element within a State favorable to + republican government in the Union may be too feeble for an opposite and + hostile element external to or even within the State, and such are + precisely the cases with which we are now dealing. + </p> + <p> + An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government, + constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element + against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply + absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing elements, + so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a sufficiently + liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make a sworn recantation + of his former unsoundness. + </p> + <p> + But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the political + body an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and to + the Union under it, why also to the laws and proclamations in regard to + slavery? Those laws and proclamations were enacted and put forth for the + purpose of aiding in the suppression of the rebellion. To give them their + fullest effect there had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my + judgment, they have aided and will further aid the cause for which they + were intended. To now abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever + of power, but would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith. I + may add at this point that while I remain in my present position I shall + not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall + I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that + proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress. For these and other + reasons it is thought best that support of these measures shall be + included in the oath, and it is believed the Executive may lawfully claim + it in return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, which he has + clear constitutional power to withhold altogether or grant upon the terms + which he shall deem wisest for the public interest. It should be observed + also that this part of the oath is subject to the modifying and abrogating + power of legislation and supreme judicial decision. + </p> + <p> + The proposed acquiescence of the National Executive in any reasonable + temporary State arrangement for the freed people is made with the view of + possibly modifying the confusion and destitution which must at best attend + all classes by a total revolution of labor throughout whole States. It is + hoped that the already deeply afflicted people in those States may be + somewhat more ready to give up the cause of their affliction if to this + extent this vital matter be left to themselves, while no power of the + National Executive to prevent an abuse is abridged by the proposition. + </p> + <p> + The suggestion in the proclamation as to maintaining the political + framework of the States on what is called reconstruction is made in the + hope that it may do good without danger of harm. It will save labor and + avoid great confusion. + </p> + <p> + But why any proclamation now upon this subject? This question is beset + with the conflicting views that the step might be delayed too long or be + taken too soon. In some States the elements for resumption seem ready for + action, but remain inactive apparently for want of a rallying point—a + plan of action. Why shall A adopt the plan of B rather than B that of A? + And if A and B should agree, how can they know but that the General + Government here will reject their plan? By the proclamation a plan is + presented which may be accepted by them as a rallying point, and which + they are assured in advance will not be rejected here. This may bring them + to act sooner than they otherwise would. + </p> + <p> + The objections to a premature presentation of a plan by the National + Executive consist in the danger of committals on points which could be + more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken to so shape + the document as to avoid embarrassments from this source. Saying that on + certain terms certain classes will be pardoned with rights restored, it is + not said that other classes or other terms will never be included. Saying + that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified way, it + is not said it will never be accepted in any other way. + </p> + <p> + The movements by State action for emancipation in several of the States + not included in the emancipation proclamation are matters of profound + gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I have heretofore so + earnestly urged upon this subject my general views and feelings remain + unchanged and I trust that Congress will omit no fair opportunity of + aiding these important steps to a great consummation. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of other cares, however important we must not lose sight of + the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that power + alone we look yet for a time to give confidence to the people in the + contested regions that the insurgent power will not again overrun them. + Until that confidence shall be established little can be done anywhere + what is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest care must still be + directed to the Army and Navy who have thus far borne their harder part so + nobly and well; and it may be esteemed fortunate that giving the greatest + efficiency to these indispensable arms we do also honorably recognize the + gallant men, from commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom + more than to others the world must stand indebted for the home of freedom + disenthralled, regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. WASHINGTON D. C., December 8, 1863. + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </h3> + <p> + In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend that + Captain John Rogers United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks from + Congress for the eminent skill and gallantry exhibited by him in the + engagement with the rebel armed ironclad steamer Fingal, alias Atlanta, + whilst in command of the United States ironclad steamer Weehawken, which + led to her capture on the 17th June, 1863, and also for the zeal, bravery, + and general good conduct shown by this officer on many occasions. + </p> + <p> + This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the + requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in the + following words, viz: + </p> + <p> + That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced one + grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the + thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with the + enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1863. + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + </h3> + <p> + Congress, on my recommendation, passed a resolution, approved 7th + February, 1863, tendering its thanks to Commander D. D. Porter "for the + bravery and skill displayed in the attack on the post of Arkansas on the + 10th January, 1863," and in consideration of those services, together with + his efficient labors and vigilance subsequently displayed in thwarting the + efforts of the rebels to obstruct the Mississippi and its tributaries and + the important part rendered by the squadron under his command, which led + to the surrender of Vicksburg. + </p> + <p> + I do therefore, in conformity to the seventh section of the act approved + 16th July, 1862, nominate Commander D. D. Porter to be a rear-admiral in + the Navy on the active list from the 4th July, 1863, to fill an existing + vacancy. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, December 8, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now + secure, I wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more than + thanks, my profoundest gratitude, for the skill, courage, and perseverance + with which you and they, over so great difficulties, have effected that + important object. God bless you all! + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 9, 1863 + </h3> + <p> + HIS EXCELLENCY A. G. CURTIN, + </p> + <p> + Governor of Pennsylvania. + </p> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—I have to urge my illness, and the preparation of the + message, in excuse for not having sooner transmitted you the inclosed from + the Secretary of War and Provost Marshal General in response to yours in + relation to recruiting in Pennsylvania. Though not quite as you desire, I + hope the grounds taken will be reasonably satisfactory to you. Allow me to + exchange congratulations with you on the organization of the House of + Representatives, and especially on recent military events in Georgia and + Tennessee. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 10, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Please suspend execution in any and all sentences of death in your + department until further order. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 11, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + </p> + <p> + Lieut. Col. James B. Knox, Tenth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves, offers + his resignation under circumstances inducing me to wish to accept it. But + I prefer to know your pleasure upon the subject. Please answer. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JUDGE HOFFMAN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 15, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + HON. OGDEN HOFFMAN, U. S. District Judge, San Francisco, Cal.: + </p> + <p> + The oath in the proclamation of December 8 is intended for those who may + voluntarily take it, and not for those who may be constrained to take it + in order to escape actual imprisonment or punishment. It is intended that + the latter class shall abide the granting or withholding of the pardoning + power in the ordinary way. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO MARY GONYEAG. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 15, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MOTHER MARY GONYEAG, Superior, Academy of Visitation, Keokuk, Iowa: + </p> + <p> + The President has no authority as to whether you may raffle for the + benevolent object you mention. If there is no objection in the Iowa laws, + there is none here. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONCERNING DISCRIMINATING DUTIES, DECEMBER 16, 1863. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of May, + 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act concerning + discriminating duties of tonnage and impost' and to equalize the duties on + Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is provided that upon satisfactory + evidence being given to the President of the United States by the + government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage + or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the said nation upon + vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States or upon the + produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United + States or from any foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to + issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of + tonnage and impost within the United States are and shall be suspended and + discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said foreign nation and + the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported into the United States + in the same from the said foreign nation or from any other foreign + country, the said suspension to take effect from the time of such + notification being given to the President of the United States and to + continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to + citizens of the United States and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be + continued, and no longer; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me through an + official communication of Senor Don Luis Molina, Envoy Extraordinary and + Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Nicaragua, under date of the + 28th of November, 1863, that no other or higher duties of tonnage and + impost have been imposed or levied since the second day of August, 1838, + in the ports of Nicaragua, upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of + the United States, and upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise + imported in the same from the United States, and from any foreign country + whatever, than are levied on Nicaraguan ships and their cargoes in the + same ports under like circumstances: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of + America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts + imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United + States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects + the vessels of Nicaragua, and the produce, manufactures, and the + merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the dominions + of Nicaragua, and from any other foreign country whatever; the said + suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned, and to continue + thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the + United States, and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported + into the dominions of Nicaragua in the same, as aforesaid, shall be + continued on the part of the government of Nicaragua. + </p> + <p> + Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the sixteenth day of + December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and + sixty-three, and the eighty-eighth of the Independence of the United + States. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + </h2> + <h3> + DECEMBER 17, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + </p> + <p> + Herewith I lay before you a letter addressed to myself by a committee of + gentlemen representing the freedmen's aid societies in Boston, New York, + Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The subject of the letter, as indicated + above, is one of great magnitude and importance, and one which these + gentlemen, of known ability and high character, seem to have considered + with great attention and care. Not having the time to form a mature + judgment of my own as to whether the plan they suggest is the best, I + submit the whole subject to Congress, deeming that their attention thereto + is almost imperatively demanded. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HURLBUT. + </h2> + <h3> + [Cipher.] + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 17, 1863. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT, Memphis, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + I understand you have under sentence of death, a tall old man, by the name + of Henry F. Luckett. I personally knew him, and did not think him a bad + man. Please do not let him be executed unless upon further order from me, + and in the meantime send me a transcript of the record. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, December 19, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL GRANT, Chattanooga, Tennessee: + </p> + <p> + The Indiana delegation in Congress, or at least a large part of them, are + very anxious that General Milroy shall enter active service again, and I + share in this feeling. He is not a difficult man to satisfy, sincerity and + courage being his strong traits. Believing in our cause, and wanting to + fight for it, is the whole matter with him. Could you, without + embarrassment, assign him a place, if directed to report to you? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + (Private.) + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 21, 1863. + </p> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—Sending a note to the Secretary of the Navy, as I + promised, he called over and said that the strikes in the ship-yards had + thrown the completion of vessels back so much that he thought General + Gilimore's proposition entirely proper. He only wishes (and in which I + concur) that General Gillmore will courteously confer with, and explain + to, Admiral Dahlgren. + </p> + <p> + In regard to the Western matter, I believe the program will have to stand + substantially as I first put it. Henderson, and especially Brown, believe + that the social influence of St. Louis would inevitably tell injuriously + upon General Pope in the particular difficulty existing there, and I think + there is some force in that view. + </p> + <p> + As to retaining General Schofield temporarily, if this should be done, I + believe I should scarcely be able to get his nomination through the + Senate. Send me over his nomination, which, however, I am not quite ready + to send to the Senate. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO O. D. FILLEY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + O. D. FILLEY, ST. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + I have just looked over a petition signed by some three dozen citizens of + St. Louis, and three accompanying letters, one by yourself, one by a Mr. + Nathan Ranney, and one by a Mr. John D. Coalter, the whole relating to the + Rev. Dr. McPheeters. The petition prays, in the name of justice and mercy, + that I will restore Dr. McPheeters to all his ecclesiastical rights. This + gives no intimation as to what ecclesiastical rights are withheld. + </p> + <p> + Your letter states that Provost-Marshal Dick, about a year ago, ordered + the arrest of Dr. McPheeters, pastor of the Vine Street Church, prohibited + him from officiating, and placed the management of the affairs of the + church out of the control of its chosen trustees; and near the close you + state that a certain course "would insure his release." Mr. Ranney's + letter says: "Dr. Samuel S. McPheeters is enjoying all the rights of a + civilian, but cannot preach the Gospel!!!!" Mr. Coalter, in his letter, + asks: "Is it not a strange illustration of the condition of things, that + the question of who shall be allowed to preach in a church in St. Louis + shall be decided by the President of the United States?" + </p> + <p> + Now, all this sounds very strangely; and, withal, a little as if you + gentlemen making the application do not understand the case alike; one + affirming that the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a civilian, and + another pointing out to me what will secure his release! On the second day + of January last, I wrote to General Curtis in relation to Mr. Dick's order + upon Dr. McPheeters; and, as I suppose the doctor is enjoying all the + rights of a civilian, I only quote that part of my letter which relates to + the church. It is as follows: "But I must add that the United States + Government must not, as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When + an individual, in a church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public + interest, he must be checked; but the churches, as such, must take care of + themselves. It will not do for the United States to appoint trustees, + supervisors, or other agents for the churches." + </p> + <p> + This letter going to General Curtis, then in command there, I supposed, of + course, it was obeyed, especially as I heard no further complaint from Dr. + McPheeters or his friends for nearly an entire year. I have never + interfered, nor thought of interfering, as to who shall or shall not + preach in any church; nor have I knowingly or believingly tolerated any + one else to so interfere by my authority. If any one is so interfering by + color of my authority, I would like to have it specifically made known to + me. If, after all, what is now sought is to have me put Dr. McPheeters + back over the heads of a majority of his own congregation, that, too, will + be declined. I will not have control of any church on any side. + </p> + <p> + Yours respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + </p> + <p> + If you have a prisoner by the name Linder—Daniel Linder, I think, + and certainly the son of U. F. Linder, of Illinois, please send him to me + by an officer. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 24, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + </p> + <p> + If you send Linder to me as directed a day or two ago, also send Edwin C. + Claybrook, of Ninth Virginia rebel cavalry. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO U. F. LINDER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D. C., December 26, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + HON. U. F. LINDER, Chicago, Ill.: Your son Dan has just left me with my + order to the Secretary of War, to administer to him the oath of + allegiance, discharge him and send him to you. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL N. P. BANKS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 29, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BANKS: + </p> + <p> + Yours of the sixteenth is received, and I send you, as covering the ground + of it, a copy of my answer to yours of the sixth, it being possible the + original may not reach you. I intend you to be master in every controversy + made with you. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0056" id="link2H_4_0056"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 30, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Jacob Bowers is fully pardoned for past offence, upon condition that he + returns to duty and re-enlists for three years or during the war. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, December 31, 1863. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—Please fix up the department to which Curtis is to go, without + waiting to wind up the Missouri matter. Lane is very anxious to have Fort + Smith in it, and I am willing, unless there be decided military reasons to + the contrary, in which case of course, I am not for it. It will oblige me + to have the Curtis department fixed at once. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1864 + </h2> + <p> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SULLIVAN. + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., January 1, 1864. 3.30 p.m. + </p> + <p> + GENERAL SULLIVAN, Harper's Ferry: + </p> + <p> + Have you anything new from Winchester, Martinsburg or thereabouts? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PIERPOINT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 2, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR PIERPOINT, Alexandria, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Please call and see me to-day if not too inconvenient. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 2, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—The Secretary of War and myself have concluded to discharge of + the prisoners at Point Lookout the following classes: First, those who + will take the oath prescribed in the proclamation of December 8, and + issued by the consent of General Marston, will enlist in our service. + Second, those who will take the oath and be discharged and whose homes lie + safely within our military lines. + </p> + <p> + I send by Mr. Hay this letter and a blank-book and some other blanks, the + way of using which I propose for him to explain verbally better than I can + in writing. + </p> + <p> + Yours, very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0061" id="link2H_4_0061"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + </p> + <p> + If not inconsistent with the service, please allow General William Harrow + as long a leave of absence as the rules permit with the understanding that + I may lengthen it if I see fit. He is an acquaintance and friend of mine, + and his family matters very urgently require his presence. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + </h2> + <h3> + JANUARY 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + By a joint resolution of your honorable bodies approved December 23, 1863, + the paying of bounties to veteran volunteers, as now practiced by the War + Department, is, to the extent of three hundred dollars in each case, + prohibited after this 5th day of the present month. I transmit for your + consideration a communication from the Secretary of War, accompanied by + one from the Provost-Marshal General to him, both relating to the subject + above mentioned. I earnestly recommend that the law be so modified as to + allow bounties to be paid as they now are, at least until the ensuing 1st + day of February. + </p> + <p> + I am not without anxiety lest I appear to be importunate in thus recalling + your attention to a subject upon which you have so recently acted, and + nothing but a deep conviction that the public interest demands it could + induce me to incur the hazard of being misunderstood on this point. The + Executive approval was given by me to the resolution mentioned, and it is + now by a closer attention and a fuller knowledge of facts that I feel + constrained to recommend a reconsideration of the subject. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 6, 1864. 2 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Kentucky: + </p> + <p> + Yours of yesterday received. Nothing is known here about General Foster's + order, of which you complain, beyond the fair presumption that it comes + from General Grant, and that it has an object which, if you understood, + you would be loath to frustrate. True, these troops are, in strict law, + only to be removed by my order; but General Grant's judgment would be the + highest incentive to me to make such order. Nor can I understand how doing + so is bad faith and dishonor, nor yet how it so exposes Kentucky to ruin. + Military men here do not perceive how it exposes Kentucky, and I am sure + Grant would not permit it if it so appeared to him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL Q. A. GILLMORE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 13, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL GILLMORE: + </p> + <p> + I understand an effort is being made by some worthy gentlemen to + reconstruct a legal State government in Florida. Florida is in your + Department, and it is not unlikely you may be there in person. I have + given Mr. Hay a commission of major, and sent him to you, with some + blank-books and other blanks, to aid in the reconstruction. He will + explain as to the manner of using the blanks, and also my general views on + the subject. It is desirable for all to co-operate, but if irreconcilable + differences of opinion shall arise, you are master. I wish the thing done + in the most speedy way, so that when done it be within the range of the + late proclamation on the subject. The detail labor will, of course, have + to be done by others; but I will be greatly obliged if you will give it + such general supervision as you can find consistent with your more + strictly military duties. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0065" id="link2H_4_0065"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, + </h2> + <p> + 1864. + </p> + <p> + GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + </p> + <p> + If Private William G. Toles, of Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteers, returns to + his regiment and faithfully serves out his term, he is fully pardoned for + all military offenses prior to this. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0066" id="link2H_4_0066"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 16, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MESSRS. CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN: The number for this month and year of the North American Review + was duly received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of course I am + not the most impartial judge; yet, with due allowance for this, I venture + to hope that the article entitled "The President's Policy" will be of + value to the country. I fear I am not worthy of all which is therein + kindly said of me personally. + </p> + <p> + The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 252, I could + wish to be not exactly what it is. In what is there expressed, the writer + has not correctly understood me. I have never had a theory that secession + could absolve States or people from their obligations. Precisely the + contrary is asserted in the inaugural address; and it was because of my + belief in the continuation of those obligations that I was puzzled, for a + time, as to denying the legal rights of those citizens who remained + individually innocent of treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than + to merely call attention to this point. + </p> + <p> + Yours respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0067" id="link2H_4_0067"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 20, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + </p> + <p> + Sundry citizens of the State of Arkansas petition me that an election may + be held in that State, at which to elect a Governor; that it be assumed at + that election, and thenceforward, that the constitution and laws of the + State, as before the rebellion, are in full force, except that the + constitution is so modified as to declare that there shall be neither + slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in the punishment of crimes + whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; that the General + Assembly may make such provisions for the freed people as shall recognize + and declare their permanent freedom, and provide for their education, and + which may yet be construed as a temporary arrangement suitable to their + condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class; that said election + shall be held on the 28th of March, 1864, at all the usual places of the + State, or all such as voters may attend for that purpose, that the voters + attending at eight o'clock in the morning of said day may choose judges + and clerks of election for such purpose; that all persons qualified by + said constitution and laws, and taking the oath presented in the + President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, either before or at the + election, and none others, may be voters; that each set of judges and + clerks may make returns directly to you on or before the —th day of + —— next; that in all other respects said election may be + conducted according to said constitution and laws: that on receipt of said + returns, when five thousand four hundred and six votes shall have been + cast, you can receive said votes, and ascertain all who shall thereby + appear to have been elected; that on the —th day of ——— + next, all persons so appearing to have been elected, who shall appear + before you at Little Rock, and take the oath, to be by you severally + administered, to support the Constitution of the United States and said + modified Constitution of the State of Arkansas, may be declared by you + qualified and empowered to enter immediately upon the duties of the + offices to which they shall have been respectively elected. + </p> + <p> + You will please order an election to take place on the 28th of March, + 1864, and returns to be made in fifteen days thereafter. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0068" id="link2H_4_0068"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 20, 1864 + </h2> + <h3> + GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </h3> + <p> + In accordance with a letter addressed by the Secretary of State, with my + approval, to the Hon. Joseph A. Wright, of Indiana, that patriotic and + distinguished gentleman repaired to Europe and attended the International + Agricultural Exhibition, held at Hamburg last year, and has since his + return made a report to me, which, it is believed, can not fail to be of + general interest, and especially so to the agricultural community. I + transmit for your consideration copies of the letters and report. While it + appears by the letter that no reimbursement of expenses or compensation + was promised him, I submit whether reasonable allowance should not be made + him for them. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0069" id="link2H_4_0069"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER APPROVING TRADE REGULATIONS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 26, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States having seen and + considered the additional regulations of trade prescribed by the Secretary + of the Treasury, and numbered LI, LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, do hereby + approve the same; and I further declare and order that all property + brought in for sale, in good faith, and actually sold in pursuance of said + Regulations LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, after the same shall have taken + effect and come in force as provided in Regulation LVI, shall be exempt + from confiscation or forfeiture to the United States. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0070" id="link2H_4_0070"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 27, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER, Knoxville, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + Is a supposed correspondence between General Longstreet and yourself about + the amnesty proclamation, which is now in the newspapers, genuine? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0071" id="link2H_4_0071"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HON. EDWARD STANLEY, San Francisco, Cal.: + </p> + <p> + Yours of yesterday received. We have rumors similar to the dispatch + received by you, but nothing very definite from North Carolina. Knowing + Mr. Stanley to be an able man, and not doubting that he is a patriot, I + should be glad for him to be with his old acquaintances south of Virginia, + but I am unable to suggest anything definite upon the subject. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0072" id="link2H_4_0072"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK: + </p> + <p> + Some citizens of Missouri, vicinity of Kansas City, are apprehensive that + there is special danger of renewed troubles in that neighborhood, and + thence on the route toward New Mexico. I am not impressed that the danger + is very great or imminent, but I will thank you to give Generals Rosecrans + and Curtis, respectively, such orders as may turn their attention thereto + and prevent as far as possible the apprehended disturbance. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0073" id="link2H_4_0073"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SICKLES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 29, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SICKLES, New York: + </p> + <p> + Could you, without it being inconvenient or disagreeable to yourself, + immediately take a trip to Arkansas for me? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0074" id="link2H_4_0074"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 31, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + </p> + <p> + General Boyle's resignation is accepted, so that your Excellency can give + him the appointment proposed. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0075" id="link2H_4_0075"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + COLONIZATION EXPERIMENT + </h2> + <h3> + ORDER TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 1, 1864 + </p> + <p> + HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + SIR:-You are directed to have a transport (either a steam or sailing + vessel, as may be deemed proper by the Quartermaster-General) sent to the + colored colony established by the United States at the island of Vache, on + the coast of San Domingo, to bring back to this country such of the + colonists there as desire to return. You will have the transport furnished + with suitable supplies for that purpose, and detail an officer of the + Quartermaster's Department, who, under special instructions to be given, + shall have charge of the business. The colonists will be brought to + Washington, unless otherwise hereafter directed, and be employed and + provided for at the camps for colored persons around that city. Those only + will be brought from the island who desire to return, and their effects + will be brought with them. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0076" id="link2H_4_0076"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER FOR A DRAFT OF FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 1, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Ordered, That a draft of five hundred thousand (500,000) men, to serve for + three years or during the war, be made on the tenth (10th) day of March + next, for the military service of the United States, crediting and + deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted or drafted into the + service prior to the first (1st) day of March, and not before credited. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0077" id="link2H_4_0077"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + </p> + <p> + The United States Government lot in Springfield can be used for a + soldiers' home, with the understanding that the Government does not incur + any expense in the case. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0078" id="link2H_4_0078"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, February 6, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR J. MURPHY: + </p> + <p> + My order to General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of the + action your convention had taken or would take. A subsequent letter + directs General Steele to aid you on your own plan, and not to thwart or + hinder you. Show this to him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0079" id="link2H_4_0079"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE STORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + </h2> + <h3> + TOLD BY THE PRESIDENT, TO THE ARTIST F. B. CARPENTER, + </h3> + <p> + FEBRUARY 6, 1864. + </p> + <p> + "It had got to be," said Mr. Lincoln, "midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on + from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on + the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played our + last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game. I now determined + upon the adoption of the emancipation policy; and without consultation + with, or the knowledge of, the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of + the proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet + meeting upon the subject. This was the last of July or the first part of + the month of August, 1862. [The exact date was July 22, 1862.]... All were + present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was absent at the + opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently. I said to the Cabinet + that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to + ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before + them, suggestions as to which would be in order after they had heard it + read. Mr. Lovejoy was in error when he informed you that it excited no + comment excepting on the part of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions + were offered. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to + the arming of the blacks. + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy on the ground that it + would cost the administration the fall elections. Nothing, however, was + offered that I had not already fully anticipated and settled in my mind, + until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in substance, 'Mr. President, I + approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at + this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our + repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a + step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a + cry for help; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, + instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.' His + idea," said the President, "was that it would be considered our last + shriek on the retreat." [This was his precise expression.] 'Now,' + continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that + you postpone its issue until you can give it to the country supported by + military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon + the greatest disasters of the war.' Mr. Lincoln continued "The wisdom of + the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It was + an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had + entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the draft of the + proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a + victory. + </p> + <p> + "From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and + there, anxiously watching the process of events. Well, the next news we + had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever. + Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined to wait no + longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage was on + our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home [three miles out of + Washington]. Here I finished writing the second draft of the preliminary + proclamation; came up on Saturday; called the Cabinet together to hear it, + and it was published on the following Monday." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0080" id="link2H_4_0080"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SEDGWICK. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 11, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SEDGWICK, Army of Potomac: + </p> + <p> + Unless there be some strong reason to the contrary, please send General + Kilpatrick to us here, for two or three days. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0081" id="link2H_4_0081"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO HORACE MAYNARD. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 13, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. HORACE MAYNARD, Nashville, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + Your letter of [the] second received. Of course Governor Johnson will + proceed with reorganization as the exigencies of the case appear to him to + require. I do not apprehend he will think it necessary to deviate from my + views to any ruinous extent. On one hasty reading I see no such deviation + in his program, which you send. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0082" id="link2H_4_0082"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO W. M. FISHBACK. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, Little Rock, Arkansas: + </p> + <p> + When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance that + your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the latter fact I + have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. I have sent two + letters to General Steele, and three or four despatches to you and others, + saying that he, General Steele, must be master, but that it will probably + be best for him to merely help the convention on its own plan. Some single + mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything, and + General Steele, commanding the military and being on the ground, is the + best man to be that master. Even now citizens are telegraphing me to + postpone the election to a later day than either that fixed by the + convention or by me. This discord must be silenced. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0083" id="link2H_4_0083"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + </p> + <p> + The day fixed by the convention for the election is probably the best, but + you on the ground, and in consultation with gentlemen there, are to + decide. I should have fixed no day for an election, presented no plan for + reconstruction, had I known the convention was doing the same things. It + is probably best that you merely assist the convention on their own plan, + as to election day and all other matters I have already written and + telegraphed this half a dozen times. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0084" id="link2H_4_0084"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO A. ROBINSON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 18, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + A. ROBINSON, Leroy, N. Y.: + </p> + <p> + The law only obliges us to keep accounts with States, or at most + Congressional Districts, and it would overwhelm us to attempt in counties, + cities and towns. Nevertheless we do what we can to oblige in particular + cases. In this view I send your dispatch to the Provost-Marshal General, + asking him to do the best he can for you. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0085" id="link2H_4_0085"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, FEBRUARY 18, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas, by my proclamation of the nineteenth of April, one thousand eight + hundred and sixty-one, the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia, + Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were, for reasons + therein set forth, placed under blockade; and whereas, the port of + Brownsville, in the district of Brazos Santiago, in the State of Texas, + has since been blockaded, but as the blockade of said port may now be + safely relaxed with advantage to the interests of commerce: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the + United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section + of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An + act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for + other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said port of + Brownsville shall so far cease and determine from and after this date, + that commercial intercourse with said port, except as to persons, things, + and information hereinafter specified, may, from this date, be carried on, + subject to the laws of the United States, to the regulations prescribed by + the Secretary of the Treasury, and, until the rebellion shall have been + suppressed, to such orders as may be promulgated by the general commanding + the department, or by an officer duly authorized by him and commanding at + said port. This proclamation does not authorize or allow the shipment or + conveyance of persons in, or intending to enter, the service of the + insurgents, or of things or information intended for their use, or for + their aid or comfort, nor, except upon the permission of the Secretary of + War, or of some officer duly authorized by him, of the following + prohibited articles, namely: cannon, mortars, firearms, pistols, bombs, + grenades, powder, saltpeter, sulphur, balls, bullets, pikes, swords, + boarding-caps (always excepting the quantity of the said articles which + may be necessary for the defense of the ship and those who compose the + crew), saddles, bridles, cartridge-bag material, percussion and other + caps, clothing adapted for uniforms; sail-cloth of all kinds, hemp and + cordage, intoxicating drinks other than beer and light native wines. + </p> + <p> + To vessels clearing from foreign ports and destined to the port of + Brownsville, opened by this proclamation, licenses will be granted by + consuls of the United States upon satisfactory evidence that the vessel so + licensed will convey no persons, property, or information excepted or + prohibited above, either to or from the said port; which licenses shall be + exhibited to the collector of said port immediately on arrival, and, if + required, to any officer in charge of the blockade, and on leaving said + port every vessel will be required to have a clearance from the collector + of the customs, according to law, showing no violation of the conditions + of the license. Any violations of said conditions will involve the + forfeiture and condemnation of the vessel and cargo, and the exclusion of + all parties concerned from any further privilege of entering the United + States during the war for any purpose whatever. + </p> + <p> + In all respects, except as herein specified, the existing blockade remains + in full force and effect as hitherto established and maintained, nor is it + relaxed by this proclamation except in regard to the port to which + relaxation is or has been expressly applied. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this + eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight + hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the + eighty-eighth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0086" id="link2H_4_0086"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO COMMANDER BLAKE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE, MANSION, February 19, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + COMMANDER GEORGE S. BLAKE, Commandant Naval Academy, Newport, R. I.: + </p> + <p> + I desire the case of Midshipman C. Lyon re-examined and if not clearly + inconsistent I shall be much obliged to have the recommendation changed. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0087" id="link2H_4_0087"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM FROM WARREN JORDAN. + </h2> + <h3> + NASHVILLE, February 20, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.: + </p> + <p> + In county and State elections, must citizens of Tennessee take the oath + prescribed by Governor Johnson, or will the President's oath of amnesty + entitle them to vote? I have been appointed to hold the March election in + Cheatham County, and wish to act understandingly. + </p> + <p> + WARREN JORDAN. + </p> + <p> + WASHINGTON, February 20, 1864. + </p> + <p> + WARREN JORDAN, NASHVILLE: + </p> + <p> + In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson's plan; + otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his plan. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0088" id="link2H_4_0088"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint LOUIS, MO.: + </p> + <p> + Colonel Sanderson will be ordered to you to-day, a mere omission that it + was not done before. The other questions in your despatch I am not yet + prepared to answer. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0089" id="link2H_4_0089"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + </p> + <p> + Yours of yesterday received. Your conference with citizens approved. Let + the election be on the 14th of March as they agreed. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0090" id="link2H_4_0090"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL F. STEELE. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 25, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + </p> + <p> + General Sickles is not going to Arkansas. He probably will make a tour + down the Mississippi and home by the gulf and ocean, but he will not + meddle in your affairs. + </p> + <p> + At one time I did intend to have him call on you and explain more fully + than I could do by letter or telegraph, so as to avoid a difficulty coming + of my having made a plan here, while the convention made one there, for + reorganizing Arkansas; but even his doing that has been given up for more + than two weeks. Please show this to Governor Murphy to save me + telegraphing him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0091" id="link2H_4_0091"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DESERTERS DEATH SENTENCES REMITTED + </h2> + <h3> + GENERAL ORDERS, NO.76. + </h3> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERALS OFFICE, + </p> + <p> + WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + </p> + <p> + Sentence of Deserters. + </p> + <p> + The President directs that the sentences of all deserters who have been + condemned by court-martial to death, and that have not been otherwise + acted upon by him, be mitigated to imprisonment during the war at the Dry + Tortugas, Florida, where they will be sent under suitable guards by orders + from army commanders. + </p> + <p> + The commanding generals, who have power to act on proceedings of + courts-martial in such cases, are authorized in special cases to restore + to duty deserters under sentence, when in their judgment the service will + be thereby benefited. + </p> + <p> + Copies of all orders issued under the foregoing instructions will be + immediately forwarded to the Adjutant-General and to the Judge-Advocate + General. + </p> + <p> + By order of the Secretary of War: B. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant + Adjutant-General + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0092" id="link2H_4_0092"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FEMALE SPY + </h2> + <h3> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864 + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort. Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + I cannot remember at whose request it was that I gave the pass to Mrs. + Bulky. Of course detain her, if the evidence of her being a spy is strong + against her. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0093" id="link2H_4_0093"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO W. JAYNE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. W. JAYNE. + </p> + <p> + DEAR SIR—I dislike to make changes in office so long as they can be + avoided. It multiplies my embarrassments immensely. I dislike two + appointments when one will do. Send me the name of some man not the + present marshal, and I will nominate him to be Provost-Marshal for Dakota. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0094" id="link2H_4_0094"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO E. H. EAST. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. E. H: EAST, Secretary of State, Nashville, Tennessee + </p> + <p> + Your telegram of the twenty-sixth instant asking for a copy of my despatch + to Warren Jordan, Esq., at Nashville Press office, has just been referred + to me by Governor Johnson. In my reply to Mr. Jordan, which was brief and + hurried, I intended to say that in the county and State elections of + Tennessee, the oath prescribed in the proclamation of Governor Johnson on + the twenty-sixth of January, 1864, ordering an election in Tennessee on + the first Saturday in March next, is entirely satisfactory to me as a test + of loyalty of all persons proposing or offering to vote in said elections; + and coming from him would better be observed and followed. There is no + conflict between the oath of amnesty in my proclamation of eighth + December, 1863, and that prescribed by Governor Johnson in his + proclamation of the twenty-sixth ultimo. + </p> + <p> + No person who has taken the oath of amnesty of eighth December, 1863, and + obtained a pardon thereby, and who intends to observe the same in good + faith, should have any objection to taking that prescribed by Governor + Johnson as a test of loyalty. + </p> + <p> + I have seen and examined Governor Johnson's proclamation, and am entirely + satisfied with his plan, which is to restore the State government and + place it under the control of citizens truly loyal to the Government of + the United States. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + Please send above to Governor Johnson. A. L. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0095" id="link2H_4_0095"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—You ask some instructions from me in relation to the Report of + Special Commission constituted by an order of the War Department, dated + December 5, 1863, "to revise the enrolment and quotas of the City and + State of New York, and report whether there be any, and what, errors or + irregularities therein, and what corrections, if any, should be made." + </p> + <p> + In the correspondence between the Governor of New York and myself last + summer, I understood him to complain that the enrolments in several of the + districts of that State had been neither accurately nor honestly made; and + in view of this, I, for the draft then immediately ensuing, ordered an + arbitrary reduction of the quotas in several of the districts wherein they + seemed too large, and said: "After this drawing, these four districts, and + also the seventeenth and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled, + and, if you please, agents of yours may witness every step of the + process." In a subsequent letter I believe some additional districts were + put into the list of those to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work + over according to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and + thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. The commission, + whose work I am considering, seem to have proceeded upon a totally + different idea. Not going forth to find men at all, they have proceeded + altogether upon paper examinations and mental processes. One of their + conclusions, as I understand, is that, as the law stands, and attempting + to follow it, the enrolling officers could not have made the enrolments + much more accurately than they did. The report on this point might be + useful to Congress. The commission conclude that the quotas for the draft + should be based upon entire population, and they proceed upon this basis + to give a table for the State of New York, in which some districts are + reduced and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, let the quotas + stand as made by the enrolling officers, in the districts wherein this + table requires them to be increased; and let them be reduced according to + the table in the others: this to be no precedent for subsequent action. + But, as I think this report may, on full consideration, be shown to have + much that is valuable in it, I suggest that such consideration be given + it, and that it be especially considered whether its suggestions can be + conformed to without an alteration of the law. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 28, 1864. + </p> + <p> + GENERAL L. THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + </p> + <p> + I see your despatch of yesterday to the Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + I wish you would go to the Mississippi River at once, and take hold of and + be master in the contraband and leasing business. You understand it better + than any other man does. Mr. Miller's system doubtless is well intended, + but from what I hear I fear that, if persisted in, it would fall dead + within its own entangling details. Go there and be the judge. A Mr. Lewis + will probably follow you with something from me on this subject, but do + not wait for him. Nor is this to induce you to violate or neglect any + military order from the General-in-Chief or Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0096" id="link2H_4_0096"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY CHASE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 29, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—I would have taken time to answer yours of the 22d + inst. sooner, only that I did not suppose any evil could result from the + delay, especially as, by a note, I promptly acknowledged the receipt of + yours, and promised a fuller answer. Now, on consideration I find there is + really very little to say. My knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having + been made public came to me only the day you wrote; but I had, in spite of + myself, known of its existence several days before. I have not yet read + it, and I think I shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the + appearance of the letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's + committee, and of secret issues which, I supposed, came from it, and of + secret agents who, I supposed, were sent out by it for several weeks. I + have known just as little a these things as my friends have allowed me to + know. They bring the documents to me, but I do not read them; they tell me + what they think fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for more. + </p> + <p> + I fully concur with you that neither of us can justly be held responsible + for what our respective friends may do without our instigation or + countenance and I assure you, as you have assured me, that no assault has + been made upon you by my instigation, or with my countenance. + </p> + <p> + Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a + question which I will not allow myself to consider from any standpoint + other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that view, I do not + perceive occasion for a change. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0097" id="link2H_4_0097"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL THOMAS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, March 1,1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL L. THOMAS: + </p> + <p> + This introduces Mr. Lewis, mentioned in my despatch sent you at Louisville + some days ago. I have but little personal acquaintance with him; but he + has the confidence of several members of Congress here who seem to know + him well. He hopes to be useful, without charge to the government, in + facilitating the introduction of the free-labor system on the Mississippi + plantations. He is acquainted with, and has access to, many of the + planters who wish to adopt the system. He will show you two letters of + mine on this subject, one somewhat General, and the other relating to + named persons; they are not different in principle. He will also show you + some suggestions coming from some of the planters themselves. I desire + that all I promise in these letters, so far as practicable, may be in good + faith carried out, and that suggestions from the planters may be heard and + adopted, so far as they may not contravene the principles stated, nor + justice, nor fairness, to laborers. I do not herein intend to overrule + your own mature judgment on any point. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0098" id="link2H_4_0098"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 3, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + </p> + <p> + Yours including address to people of Arkansas is received. I approve the + address and thank you for it. Yours in relation to William M. Randolph + also received. Let him take the oath of December 8, and go to work for the + new constitution, and on your notifying me of it, I will immediately issue + the special pardon for him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0099" id="link2H_4_0099"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 4,1864. MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort + Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Admiral Dahlgren is here, and of course is very anxious about his son. + Please send me at once all you know or can learn of his fate. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0100" id="link2H_4_0100"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER IN REGARD TO THE EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO BELONGING TO THE FRENCH + </h2> + <p> + GOVERNMENT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </p> + <p> + WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + </p> + <p> + Whereas, by an Executive order of the 10th of November last permission was + given to export certain tobacco belonging to the French government from + insurgent territory, which tobacco was supposed to have been purchased and + paid for prior to the 4th day of March, 1861; but whereas it was + subsequently ascertained that a part at least of the said tobacco had been + purchased subsequently to that date, which fact made it necessary to + suspend the carrying into effect of the said order; but whereas, pursuant + to mutual explanations, a satisfactory understanding upon the subject has + now been reached, it is directed that the order aforesaid may be carried + into effect, it being understood that the quantity of French tobacco so to + be exported shall not exceed seven thousand hogsheads, and that it is the + same tobacco respecting the exportation of which application Was + originally made by the French government. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0101" id="link2H_4_0101"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO UNITED STATES MARSHAL, LOUISVILLE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + U.S. MARSHAL, Louisville, Ky.: + </p> + <p> + Until further order suspend sale of property and further proceedings in + cases of the United States against Dr. John B. English, and S. S. English, + qt al., sureties for John L. Hill. Also same against same sureties for + Thomas A. Ireland. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR ECKERT: Please send the above dispatch. JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private + Secretary + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0102" id="link2H_4_0102"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </p> + <p> + New York City votes ninety-five hundred majority for allowing soldiers to + vote, and the rest of the State nearly all on the same side. Tell the + soldiers. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0103" id="link2H_4_0103"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO SENATE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES + </p> + <p> + In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, + respecting the points of commencement of the Union Pacific Railroad, on + the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and of the branch road, from + the western boundary of Iowa to the said one hundredth degree of + longitude, I transmit the accompanying report from the Secretary of the + Interior, containing the information called for. + </p> + <p> + I deem it proper to add that on the 17th day of November last an Executive + order was made upon this subject and delivered to the vice-president of + the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which fixed the point on the western + boundary of the State of Iowa from which the company should construct + their branch road to the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and + declared it to be within the limits of the township in Iowa opposite the + town of Omaha, in Nebraska. Since then the company has represented to me + that upon actual surveys made it has determined upon the precise point of + departure of their said branch road from the Missouri River, and located + the same as described in the accompanying report of the Secretary of the + Interior, which point is within the limits designated in the order of + November last; and inasmuch as that order is not of record in any of the + Executive Departments, and the company having desired a more definite one, + I have made the order of which a copy is herewith, and caused the same to + be filed in the Department of the Interior. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0104" id="link2H_4_0104"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS TO GENERAL GRANT, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL GRANT:—The expression of the nation's approbation of what + you have already done, and its reliance on you for what remains to do in + the existing great struggle, is now presented with this commission + constituting you Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States. + </p> + <p> + With this high honor, devolves on you an additional responsibility. As the + country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely + need add, that with what I here speak for the country, goes my own hearty + personal concurrence. + </p> + <p> + GENERAL GRANT'S REPLY. + </p> + <p> + Mr. PRESIDENT:—I accept this commission, with gratitude for the high + honor conferred. + </p> + <p> + With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields for + our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your + expectations. + </p> + <p> + I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, and I + know that if they are met, it will be due to those armies; and above all, + to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0105" id="link2H_4_0105"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER ASSIGNING U. S. GRANT COMMAND OF THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 10, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Under the authority of an act of Congress to revive the grade of + lieutenant-General in the United States Army, approved February 29, 1864, + Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, United States Army, is assigned to + the command of the Armies of the United States. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0106" id="link2H_4_0106"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., March 12, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + </p> + <p> + I am not appointing officers for Arkansas now, and I will try to remember + your request. Do your best to get out the largest vote possible, and of + course as much of it as possible on the right side. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0107" id="link2H_4_0107"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL HAHN. (Private.) + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HON. MICHAEL HAHN. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history + as the first free-state governor of Louisiana. Now, you are about to have + a convention, which among other things will probably define the elective + franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, whether some + of the colored people may not be let in,—as, for instance, the very + intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. + They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel + of liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion,—not + to the public, but to you alone. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0108" id="link2H_4_0108"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CALL FOR TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, MARCH 14, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + In order to supply the force required to be drafted for the Navy and to + provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies, in addition to + the five hundred thousand men called for February 1, 1864, a call is + hereby made and a draft ordered for two hundred thousand men for the + military service (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) of the United States. + </p> + <p> + The proportional quotas for the different wards, towns, townships, + precincts, or election districts, or counties, will be made known through + the Provost Marshal-General's Bureau, and account will be taken of the + credits and deficiencies on former quotas. + </p> + <p> + The 15th day of April, 1864, is designated as the time up to which the + numbers required from each ward of a city, town, etc., may be raised by + voluntary enlistment, and drafts will be made in each ward of a city, + town, etc., which shall not have filled the quota assigned to it within + the time designated for the number required to fill said quotas. The + drafts will be commenced as soon after the 15th of April as practicable. + </p> + <p> + The Government bounties as now paid continue until April I, 1864, at which + time the additional bounties cease. On and after that date one hundred + dollars bounty only will be paid, as provided by the act approved July 22, + 1861. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0109" id="link2H_4_0109"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + (Private.) + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864 + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Nashville, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + General McPherson having been assigned to the command of a department, + could not General Frank Blair, without difficulty or detriment to the + service, be assigned to command the Corps he commanded a while last + autumn? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0110" id="link2H_4_0110"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PASS FOR GENERAL D. E. SICKLES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + WHOM IT MAY CONCERN + </p> + <p> + Major-General Sickles is making a tour for me from here by way of Cairo, + New Orleans, and returning by the gulf, and ocean, and all land and naval + officers and, employees are directed to furnish reasonable transportation + and other reasonable facilities to himself and personal staff not + inconsistent with the public service. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0111" id="link2H_4_0111"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER TO GOVERNOR HAHN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HIS EXCELLENCY MICHAEL HAHN, Governor of Louisiana + </p> + <p> + Until further order, you are hereby invested with the powers exercised + hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0112" id="link2H_4_0112"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS AT A FAIR IN THE PATENT OFFICE, + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, MARCH 16, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + </p> + <p> + I appear to say but a word. This extraordinary war in which we are engaged + falls heavily upon all classes of people but the most heavily upon the + soldier. For it has been said, "All that a man hath will he give for his + life;" and while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts his + life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest + merit, then, is due to the soldier. + </p> + <p> + In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have manifested + themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars; and among these + manifestations nothing has been more remarkable than these fairs for the + relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And the chief agents of + these fairs are the women of America. + </p> + <p> + I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy: I have never studied + the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say, that if all that + has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in + praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them + justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God + bless the women of America. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0113" id="link2H_4_0113"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM THE WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 21, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + </p> + <p> + The honorary membership in your association, as generously tendered, is + gratefully accepted. + </p> + <p> + You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing rebellion means + more and tends to do more than the perpetuation of African slavery—that + it is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all working people. Partly to + show that this view has not escaped my attention, and partly that I cannot + better express myself, I read a passage from the message to Congress in + December, 1861: + </p> + <p> + "It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not + exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government, the + rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of this is found in the most + grave and maturely considered public documents, as well as in the General + tone of the insurgents. In those documents we find the abridgment of the + existing right of suffrage, and the denial to the people of all right to + participate in the selection of public officers, except the legislature, + boldly advocated, with labored argument to prove that large control of the + people in government is the source of all political evil. Monarchy itself + is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. + In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit + raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. + </p> + <p> + "It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a General argument should be + made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, with its + connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief + attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing, if not + above labor, in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is + available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless + somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to + labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital + shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent or + buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded so + it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers, or + what we call slaves. And, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a + hired laborer, is fixed in that condition for life. Now there is no such + relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing + as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. + Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are + groundless. + </p> + <p> + "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit + of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. + Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher + consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection + as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always + will be, a relation between capital and labor, producing mutual benefits. + The error is in assuming that the whole labor of a community exists within + that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, + and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A + large majority belong to neither class—neither work for others, nor + have others working for them. In most of the Southern States, a majority + of the whole people, of all colors, are neither slaves nor masters; while + in the Northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men with + their families, wives, sons, and daughters—work for themselves, on + their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product + to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of + hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a + considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital; that + is, they labor with their own hands, and also buy or hire others to labor + for them, but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle + stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. + </p> + <p> + "Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, any such + thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. + Many independent men everywhere in these States, a few years back in their + lives, were hired laborers. The prudent penniless beginner in the world + labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land + for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length + hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and + prosperous system which opens the way to all—gives hope to all, and + consequent energy and progress, and improvement of condition to all. No + men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from + poverty—none less inclined to touch or take aught which they have + not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power + they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to + close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new + disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost." + </p> + <p> + The views then expressed remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. None + are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the working + people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and hostility + among themselves. The most notable feature of a disturbance in your city + last summer was the hanging of some working people by other working + people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human sympathy, + outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people, + of all nations, and tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war + upon property, or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; + property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should + be rich shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just + encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless + pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one + for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from + violence when built. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0114" id="link2H_4_0114"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 22, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Hon. W. R. Morrison says he has requested you by letter to effect a + special exchange of Lieut. Col. A. F. Rogers, of Eightieth Illinois + Volunteers, now in Libby Prison, and I shall be glad if you can effect it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0115" id="link2H_4_0115"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL C. SCHURZ. + </h2> + <h3> + ( Private.) + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SCHURZ. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—Yours of February 29 reached me only four days ago; but + the delay was of little consequence, because I found, on feeling around, I + could not invite you here without a difficulty which at least would be + unpleasant, and perhaps would be detrimental to the public service. Allow + me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service, it is + very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it; because, with a + major-general once out, it is next to impossible for even the President to + get him in again. With my appreciation of your ability and correct + principle, of course I would be very glad to have your service for the + country in the approaching political canvass; but I fear we cannot + properly have it without separating you from the military. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0116" id="link2H_4_0116"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION ABOUT AMNESTY, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 26, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas, it has become necessary to define the cases in which insurgent + enemies are entitled to the benefits of the Proclamation of the President + of the United States, which was made on the 8th day of December, 1863, and + the manner in which they shall proceed to avail themselves of these + benefits; and whereas the objects of that Proclamation were to suppress + the insurrection and to restore the authority of the United States; and + whereas the amnesty therein proposed by the President was offered with + reference to these objects alone: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do + hereby proclaim and declare that the said Proclamation does not apply to + the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the + benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed, are in military, + naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under bonds, or on parole of + the civil, military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States, + as prisoners of war, or persons detained for offences of any kind, either + before or after conviction; and that on the contrary it does apply only to + those persons who, being yet at large, and free from any arrest, + confinement, or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the said + oath, with the purpose of restoring peace, and establishing the national + authority. + </p> + <p> + Persons excluded from the amnesty offered in the said Proclamation may + apply to the President for clemency, like all other offenders, and their + application will receive due consideration. + </p> + <p> + I do further declare and proclaim that the oath presented in the aforesaid + proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, may be taken and subscribed + before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or naval, in the service + of the United States, or any civil or military officer of a State or + Territory not in insurrection, who, by the laws thereof, may be qualified + for administering oaths. + </p> + <p> + All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give + certificates thereof to the persons respectively by whom they are made, + and such officers are hereby required to transmit the original records of + such oaths, at as early a day as may be convenient, to the Department of + State, where they will be deposited, and remain in the archives of the + Government. + </p> + <p> + The Secretary of State will keep a registry thereof, and will, on + application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such records in the + customary form of official certificates. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed............ + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0117" id="link2H_4_0117"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 28, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—The Governor of Kentucky is here, and desires to have + the following points definitely fixed: + </p> + <p> + First. That the quotas of troops furnished, and to be furnished, by + Kentucky may be adjusted upon the basis as actually reduced by able-bodied + men of hers having gone into the rebel service; and that she be required + to furnish no more than her just quotas upon fair adjustment upon such + basis. + </p> + <p> + Second. To whatever extent the enlistment and drafting, one or both, of + colored troops may be found necessary within the State, it may be + conducted within the law of Congress; and, so far as practicable, free + from collateral embarrassments, disorders, and provocations. + </p> + <p> + I think these requests of the Governor are reasonable; and I shall be + obliged if you will give him a full hearing, and do the best you can to + effect these objects. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0118" id="link2H_4_0118"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 29, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—Your letter to Colonel Townsend, inclosing a slip from + the "Herald," and asking a court of inquiry, has been laid before me by + the Secretary of War, with the request that I would consider it. It is + quite natural that you should feel some sensibility on the subject; yet I + am not impressed, nor do I think the country is impressed, with the belief + that your honor demands, or the public interest demands, such an inquiry. + The country knows that at all events you have done good service; and I + believe it agrees with me that it is much better for you to be engaged in + trying to do more, than to be diverted, as you necessarily would be, by a + court of inquiry. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0119" id="link2H_4_0119"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 29,1864. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Army of the Potomac: + </p> + <p> + Captain Kinney, of whom I spoke to you as desiring to go on your staff, is + now in your camp, in company with Mrs. Senator Dixon. Mrs. Grant and I, + and some others, agreed last night that I should, by this despatch, kindly + call your attention to Captain Kinney. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0120" id="link2H_4_0120"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO A. G. HODGES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 4, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + A. G. HODGES, ESQ., Frankfort, Kentucky: + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I + verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Governor Bramlette and + Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: + </p> + <p> + "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I + cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never + understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to + act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took + that I would to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the + Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without + taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get + power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in + ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically + indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I + had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, + to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract + judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath + to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me + the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government, + that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it + possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By General + law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated + to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt + that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by + becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through + the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and + now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability I had even + tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any minor + matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, and + Constitution, altogether. When, early in the war, General Fremont + attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then + think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General + Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I + objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable necessity. When, + still later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again + forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had + come. When, in March, and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and + successive appeals to the Border States to favor compensated emancipation, + I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and + arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They + declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the + alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the + Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose + the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of + this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no + loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, + none in our white military force, no loss by it any how, or anywhere. On + the contrary, it shows a gain of quite one hundred and thirty thousand + soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as + facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; and we could not have + had them without the measure. + </p> + <p> + "And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself by + writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of + arms; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred and thirty + thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be but + for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his case so stated, it is + only because he cannot face the truth." + </p> + <p> + I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this + tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have + controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. + Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not + what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim + it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a + great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the + South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial + history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and + goodness of God. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0121" id="link2H_4_0121"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MRS. HORACE MANN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MRS HORACE MANN: + </p> + <p> + MADAM:—The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would + free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears you + wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please tell these + little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and + generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the power to grant all they + ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, he + wills to do it. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0122" id="link2H_4_0122"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 12, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + I am pressed to get from Libby, by special exchange, Jacob C. Hagenbuek, + first lieutenant, Company H, Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers. Please + do it if you can without detriment or embarrassment. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0123" id="link2H_4_0123"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 17, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + </p> + <p> + Private William Collins of Company B, of the Sixty-ninth New York + Volunteers, has been convicted of desertion, and execution suspended as in + numerous other cases. Now Captain O'Neill, commanding the regiment, and + nearly all its other regimental and company officers, petition for his + full pardon and restoration to his company. Is there any good objection? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0124" id="link2H_4_0124"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LECTURE ON LIBERTY + </h2> + <h3> + ADDRESS AT SANITARY FAIR IN BALTIMORE, + </h3> + <p> + APRIL 18, 1864. + </p> + <p> + LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:—Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we + cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many people + assembled here to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the Union, it + occurs at once that three years ago the same soldiers could not so much as + pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now is both great and + gratifying. Blessings on the brave men who have wrought the change, and + the fair women who strive to reward them for it! + </p> + <p> + But Baltimore suggests more than could happen within Baltimore. The change + within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the war began, + three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it would last till + now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. Neither did + any anticipate that domestic slavery would be much affected by the war. + But here we are; the war has not ended, and slavery has been much affected + how much needs not now to be recounted. So true is it that man proposes + and God disposes. + </p> + <p> + But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it; and + seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for the + future. + </p> + <p> + The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the + American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for + liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. + With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with + himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may + mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of + other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible + things, called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the + things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and + incompatible names—liberty and tyranny. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep + thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the + same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black + one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of + the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among + us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. + Hence we behold the process by which thousands are daily passing from + under the yoke of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and + bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it + seems, the people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty, + and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary has + been repudiated. + </p> + <p> + It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at length; + but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought to say a word. + A painful rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the massacre, by the + rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of Tennessee, on the + Mississippi River, of some three hundred colored soldiers and white + officers [I believe it latter turned out to be 500], who had just been + overpowered by their assailants [numbering 5000]. There seems to be some + anxiety in the public mind whether the Government is doing its duty to the + colored soldier, and to the service, at this point. At the beginning of + the war, and for some time, the use of colored troops was not + contemplated; and how the change of purpose was wrought I will not now + take time to explain. Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to turn + that element of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the + American people, to the Christian world, to history, and in my final + account to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is + no way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. The + difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically applying + it. It is a mistake to suppose the Government is indifferent to this + matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. We do not to-day + know that a colored soldier, or white officer commanding colored soldiers, + has been massacred by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it, we + believe it, I may say,—but we do not know it. To take the life of + one of their prisoners on the assumption that they murder ours, when it is + short of certainty that they do murder ours, might be too serious, too + cruel, a mistake. We are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly + investigated; and such investigation will probably show conclusively how + the truth is. If after all that has been said it shall turn out that there + has been no massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say there + has been none, and will be none, elsewhere. If there has been the massacre + of three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will + be conclusively proved; and being so proved, the retribution shall as + surely come. It will be matter of grave consideration in what exact course + to apply the retribution; but in the supposed case it must come. + </p> + <p> + [There was a massacre of a black company and their officers at Fort Pillow—they + were prisoners who later on, the day of their capture, were ordered + executed. The black soldiers were tied alive to individual planks—then + man and plank were cobbled up like cord wood and burned. The white + officers were shot. D.W.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0125" id="link2H_4_0125"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO CALVIN TRUESDALE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + CALVIN TRUESDALE, ESQ., Postmaster, Rock Island, Ill.: + </p> + <p> + Thomas J. Pickett, late agent of the Quartermaster 's Department for the + island of Rock Island, has been removed or suspended from that position on + a charge of having sold timber and stone from the island for his private + benefit. Mr. Pickett is an old acquaintance and friend of mine, and I will + thank you, if you will, to set a day or days and place on and at which to + take testimony on the point. Notify Mr. Pickett and one J. B. Danforth + (who, as I understand, makes the charge) to be present with their + witnesses. Take the testimony in writing offered by both sides, and report + it in full to me. Please do this for me. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0126" id="link2H_4_0126"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + OFFICER IN MILITARY COMMAND, Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Mass.: + </p> + <p> + If there is a man by the name of Charles Carpenter, under sentence of + death for desertion, at Fort Warren, suspend execution until further order + and send the record of his trial. If sentenced for any other offence, + telegraph what it is and when he is to be executed. Answer at all events. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0127" id="link2H_4_0127"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 21,1864. + </h3> + <p> + OFFICER IN COMMAND AT FORT WARREN, Boston Harbor, Mass.: + </p> + <p> + The order I sent yesterday in regard to Charles Carpenter is hereby + withdrawn and you are to act as if it never existed. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0128" id="link2H_4_0128"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DIX. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 21, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, New York: + </p> + <p> + Yesterday I was induced to telegraph the officer in military command at + Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, suspending the execution of + Charles Carpenter, to be executed tomorrow for desertion. Just now, on + reaching your order in the case, I telegraphed the same officer + withdrawing the suspension, and leave the case entirely with you. The + man's friends are pressing me, but I refer them to you, intending to take + no further action myself. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0129" id="link2H_4_0129"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Senator Ten Eyck is very anxious to have a special exchange of Capt. Frank + J. McLean, of Ninth Tennessee Cavalry now, or lately, at Johnson's Island, + for Capt. T. Ten Eyck, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry, and now at Richmond. I + would like to have it done. Can it be? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0130" id="link2H_4_0130"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDORSEMENT ON OFFER OF TROOPS, APRIL 23, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + </h3> + <p> + 1. The Governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin offer to + the President infantry troops for the approaching campaign as follows: + Ohio, thirty thousand; Indiana, twenty thousand; Illinois, twenty + thousand; Iowa, ten thousand; Wisconsin, five thousand. + </p> + <p> + 2. The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoned from the date of + muster into the service of the United States, unless sooner discharged. + </p> + <p> + 3. The troops to be mustered into the service of the United States by + regiments, when the regiments are filled up, according to regulations, to + the minimum strength—the regiments to be organized according to the + regulations of the War Department. The whole number to be furnished within + twenty days from date of notice of the acceptance of this proposition. + </p> + <p> + 4. The troops to be clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted; transported, and + paid as other United States infantry volunteers, and to serve in + fortifications,—or wherever their services may be required, within + or without their respective States. + </p> + <p> + 5. No bounty to be paid the troops, nor the service charged or credited on + any draft. + </p> + <p> + 6. The draft for three years' service to go on in any State or district + where the quota is not filled up; but if any officer or soldier in this + special service should be drafted, he shall be credited for the service + rendered. + </p> + <p> + JOHN BROUGH, Governor of Ohio. O. P. MORTON, Governor of Indiana. RICHARD + PATES, Governor of Illinois. WILLIAM M. STONE, Governor of Iowa. JAMES T. + LEWIS, Governor of Wisconsin + </p> + <p> + (Indorsement.) + </p> + <p> + April 23, 1864. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing proposition of the governors is accepted, and the Secretary + of War is directed to carry it into execution. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0131" id="link2H_4_0131"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—According to our understanding with Major-General Frank + P. Blair at the time he took his seat in Congress last winter, he now asks + to withdraw his resignation as Major-General, then tendered, and be sent + to the field. Let this be done. Let the order sending him be such as shown + me to-day by the Adjutant-General, only dropping from it the names of + Maguire and Tompkins. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0132" id="link2H_4_0132"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO JOHN WILLIAMS. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + </p> + <p> + Yours of the 15th is just received. Thanks for your kind remembrance. I + would accept your offer at once, were it not that I fear there might be + some impropriety in it, though I do not see that there would. I will think + of it a while. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0133" id="link2H_4_0133"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </p> + <p> + A Mr. Corby brought you a note from me at the foot of a petition I + believe, in the case of Dawson, to be executed to-day. The record has been + examined here, and it shows too strong a case for a pardon or commutation, + unless there is something in the poor man's favor outside of the record, + which you on the ground may know, but I do not. My note to you only means + that if you know of any such thing rendering a suspension of the execution + proper, on your own judgment, you are at liberty to suspend it. Otherwise + I do not interfere. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0134" id="link2H_4_0134"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 26, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Chattanooga, Term.: + </p> + <p> + Suspend execution of death sentence of young Perry, of Wisconsin, + condemned for sleeping on his post, till further orders, and forward + record for examination. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0135" id="link2H_4_0135"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., April 27, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + </p> + <p> + I am much gratified to learn that you got out so large a vote, so nearly + all the right way, at the late election; and not less so that your State + government including the legislature, is organized and in good working + order. Whatever I can I will do to protect you; meanwhile you must do your + utmost to protect yourselves. Present my greeting to all. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0136" id="link2H_4_0136"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, APRIL 28, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </h3> + <p> + I have the honor to transmit herewith an address to the President of the + United States, and through him to both Houses of Congress, on the + condition and wants of the people of east Tennessee, and asking their + attention to the necessity of some action on the part of the Government + for their relief, and which address is presented by a committee of an + organization called "The East Tennessee Relief Association." + </p> + <p> + Deeply commiserating the condition of these most loyal and suffering + people, I am unprepared to make any specific recommendation for their + relief. The military is doing and will continue to do the best for them + within its power. Their address represents that the construction of direct + railroad communication between Knoxville and Cincinnati by way of central + Kentucky would be of great consequence in the present emergency. It may be + remembered that in the annual message of December, 1861, such railroad + construction was recommended. I now add that, with the hearty concurrence + of Congress, I would yet be pleased to construct a road, both for the + relief of these people and for its continuing military importance. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0137" id="link2H_4_0137"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h2> + <h3> + APRIL 28, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + In obedience to the resolution of your honorable body, a copy of which is + herewith returned, I have the honor to make the following brief statement, + which is believed to contain the information sought: + </p> + <p> + Prior to and at the meeting of the present Congress, Robert C. Schenck, of + Ohio, and Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, members elect thereto, by and + with the consent of the Senate held commissions from the Executive as + major-generals in the volunteer army. General Schenck tendered the + resignation of his said commission, and took his seat in the House of + Representatives, at the assembling thereof, upon the distinct verbal + understanding with the Secretary of War and the Executive that he might, + at any time during the session, at his own pleasure, withdraw said + resignation and return to the field. + </p> + <p> + General Blair was, by temporary assignment of General Sherman, in command + of a corps through the battles in front of Chattanooga, and in the march + to the relief of Knoxville, which occurred in the latter days of November + and early days of December last, and of course was not present at the + assembling of Congress. When he subsequently arrived here, he sought, and + was allowed by the Secretary of War and the Executive, the same conditions + and promise as allowed and made to General Schenck. + </p> + <p> + General Schenck has not applied to withdraw his resignation; but when + General Grant was made Lieutenant-General, producing some change of + commanders, General Blair sought to be assigned to the command of a corps. + This was made known to Generals Grant and Sherman, and assented to by + them, and the particular corps for him designated. + </p> + <p> + This was all arranged and understood, as now remembered, so much as a + month ago; but the formal withdrawal of General Blair's resignation, and + making the order assigning him to the command of the corps, were not + consummated at the War Department until last week, perhaps on the 23d of + April instant. As a summary of the whole, it may be stated that General + Blair holds no military commission or appointment other than as herein + stated, and that it is believed he is now acting as major-General upon the + assumed validity of the commission herein stated, in connection with the + facts herein stated, and not otherwise. There are some letters, notes, + telegrams, orders, entries, and perhaps other documents in connection with + this subject, which it is believed would throw no additional light upon + it, but which will be cheerfully furnished if desired. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0138" id="link2H_4_0138"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 30, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to + express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to + this time, so far as I understand it. + </p> + <p> + The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are + vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude + any restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any + great disaster or capture of our men in great number shall be avoided, I + know that these points are less likely to escape your attention than they + would be mine. If there be anything wanting which is within my power to + give, do not fail to let me know it. + </p> + <p> + And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0139" id="link2H_4_0139"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + </h2> + <h3> + MAY 2, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + In compliance with the request contained in your resolution of the 29th + ultimo, a copy of which resolution is herewith returned, I have the honor + to transmit the following: + </p> + <p> + [Correspondence and orders relating to the resignation and reinstatement + of Major-General Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri.] + </p> + <p> + The foregoing constitutes all sought by the resolution so far as is + remembered or has been found upon diligent search. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0140" id="link2H_4_0140"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., May 4, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattanooga, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + I have an imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens who say your Order + No.8 will compel them to go north of Nashville. This is in no sense an + order, nor is it even a request that you will do anything which in the + least shall be a drawback upon your military operations, but anything you + can do consistently with those operations for those suffering people I + shall be glad of. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0141" id="link2H_4_0141"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Commanding, Saint Louis, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + The President directs me to inquire whether a day has yet been fixed for + the execution of citizen Robert Louden, and if so what day? + </p> + <p> + JOHN HAY, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0142" id="link2H_4_0142"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MRS. S. B. McCONKEY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MRS. SARAH B. McCONKEY, West Chester, Pa.: + </p> + <p> + MADAM:—Our mutual friend, Judge Lewis, tells me you do me the honor + to inquire for my personal welfare. I have been very anxious for some days + in regard to our armies in the field, but am considerably cheered, just + now, by favorable news from them. + </p> + <p> + I am sure you will join me in the hope for their further success; while + yourself, and other good mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, do all + you and they can, to relieve and comfort the gallant soldiers who compose + them. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0143" id="link2H_4_0143"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RECOMMENDATION OF THANKSGIVING. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + TO THE FRIENDS OF UNION AND LIBERTY: + </p> + <p> + Enough is known of army operations, within the last five days, to claim + our special gratitude to God. While what remains undone demands our most + sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him (without whom all effort is + vain), I recommend that all patriots at their homes, in their places of + public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving and + prayer to Almighty God. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0144" id="link2H_4_0144"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + </h2> + <h3> + MAY 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:—I am very much obliged to you for the compliment of + this call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news received + to-day from the Army, than to a desire to see me. I am indeed very + grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with the enemy in the + field, to their noble commanders who have directed them, and especially to + our Maker. Our commanders are following up their victories resolutely and + successfully. I think, without knowing the particulars of the plans of + General Grant, that what has been accomplished is of more importance than + at first appears. I believe, I know (and am especially grateful to know) + that General Grant has not been jostled in his purposes, that he has made + all his points, and to-day he is on his line as he purposed before he + moved his armies. I will volunteer to say that I am very glad at what has + happened, but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are + grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past few + days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us + victory. + </p> + <p> + There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to + perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest + General at the head of our armies, and sink all personal consideration for + the sake of the country. I commend you to keep yourselves in the same + tranquil mood that is characteristic of that brave and loyal man. I have + said more than I expected when I came before you. Repeating my thanks for + this call, I bid you good-bye. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0145" id="link2H_4_0145"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL LEW WALLACE. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL WALLACE, Baltimore: + </p> + <p> + Please tell me what is the trouble with Dr. Hawks. Also please ask Bishop + Whittington to give me his view of the case. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0146" id="link2H_4_0146"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS, + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 11, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + Complaints are coming to me of disturbances in Canoll, Platte, and + Buchanan counties. Please ascertain the truth, correct what is found + wrong, and telegraph me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0147" id="link2H_4_0147"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO P. B. LOOMIS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 12, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + F. B. LOOMIS, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your + communication of the 28th April, in which you offer to replace the present + garrison at Port Trumbull with volunteers, which you propose to raise at + your own expense. While it seems inexpedient at this time to accept this + proposition on account of the special duties now devolving upon the + garrison mentioned, I cannot pass unnoticed such a meritorious instance of + individual patriotism. Permit me, for the Government, to express my + cordial thanks to you for this generous and public-spirited offer, which + is worthy of note among the many called forth in these times of national + trial. + </p> + <p> + I am very truly, your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0148" id="link2H_4_0148"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A METHODIST DELEGATION, MAY 14, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:-In response to your address, allow me to attest the accuracy of + its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it expresses, and thank + you in the nation's name for the sure promise it gives. Nobly sustained, + as the Government has been, by all the churches, I would utter nothing + which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet without this, + it may fairly be said, that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less + devoted than the best, is by its greatest numbers the most important of + all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more + soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to + Heaven than—any other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the + churches; and blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the + churches. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0149" id="link2H_4_0149"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + His EXCELLENCY RICHARD YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + </h3> + <p> + If any such proclamation has appeared, it is a forgery. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0150" id="link2H_4_0150"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE NEWSPAPER REPORTERS AND EDITORS + </h2> + <h3> + ORDER TO GENERAL J. A. DIX. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, Commanding at New York: + </p> + <p> + Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and published + this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of Commerce, + newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a false and + spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the President and to be + countersigned by the Secretary of State, which publication is of a + treasonable nature, designed to give aid and comfort to the enemies of the + United States and to the rebels now at war against the Government and + their aiders and abettors, you are therefore hereby commanded forthwith to + arrest and imprison in any fort or military prison in your command, the + editors, proprietors, and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all + such persons as, after public notice has been given of the falsehood of + said publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and + comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in close + custody until they can be brought to trial before a military commission + for their offense. You will also take possession by military force of the + printing establishments of the New York World and Journal of Commerce, and + hold the same until further orders, and prohibit any further publication + therefrom. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + [On the morning of May 18, 3864, a forged proclamation was published in + the World, and Journal of Commerce, of New York. The proclamation named a + day for fasting and prayer, called for 400,000 fresh troops, and purposed + to raise by an "immediate and peremptory draft," whatever quotas were not + furnished on the day specified. Ed.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0151" id="link2H_4_0151"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. P. BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + (Cipher.) + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, D. C., May 18, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Until receiving your dispatch of yesterday, the idea of commissions in the + volunteers expiring at the end of three years had not occurred to me. I + think no trouble will come of it; and, at all events, I shall take care of + it so far as in me lies. As to the major-generalships in the regular army, + I think I shall not dispose of another, at least until the combined + operations now in progress, under direction of General Grant, and within + which yourself and command are included, shall be terminated. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, on behalf of yourself, officers, and men, please accept my + hearty thanks for what you and they have so far done. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0152" id="link2H_4_0152"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER CONCERNING THE EXEMPTION OF AMERICAN CONSULS FROM MILITARY SERVICE + </h2> + <h3> + MAY 19, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + It is officially announced by the State Department that citizens of the + United States holding commissions and recognized as Consuls of foreign + powers, are not by law exempt from military service if drafted: + </p> + <p> + Therefore the mere enrolment of a citizen holding a foreign consulate will + not be held to vacate his commission, but if he shall be drafted his + exequatur will be revoked unless he shall have previously resigned in + order that another Consul may be received. + </p> + <p> + An exequatur bearing date the 3d day of May, 1858, having been issued to + Charles Hunt, a citizen of the United States, recognizing him as a Consul + of Belgium for St. Louis, Missouri, and declaring him free to exercise and + enjoy such functions, powers, and privileges as are allowed to the Consuls + of the most favored nations in the United States, and the said Hunt having + sought to screen himself from his military duty to his country, in + consequence of thus being invested with the consular functions of a + foreign power in the United States, it is deemed advisable that the said + Charles Hunt should no longer be permitted to continue in the exercise of + said functions, powers, and privileges. + </p> + <p> + These are therefore to declare that I no longer recognize the said Hunt as + Consul of Belgium, for St. Louis, Missouri, and will not permit him to + exercise or enjoy any of the functions, powers or privileges allowed to + consuls of that nation, and that I do hereby wholly revoke and annul the + said exequatur heretofore given, and do declare the same to be absolutely + null and void from this day forward. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, and + the seal of the United States of America to be hereunto + affixed................ + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0153" id="link2H_4_0153"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MORTON AND OTHERS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 21, 1864 + </h2> + <h3> + GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON: + </h3> + <p> + The getting forward of hundred-day troops to sustain General Sherman's + lengthening lines promises much good. Please put your best efforts into + the work. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + Same to Governor Yates, Springfield, Illinois; Governor Stone, Davenport, + Iowa; Governor Lewis, Madison, Wisconsin. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0154" id="link2H_4_0154"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO CHRISTIANA A. SACK. WAR DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21, + </h2> + <p> + 1864 + </p> + <p> + CHRISTIANA A. SACK, Baltimore, Md.: + </p> + <p> + I cannot postpone the execution of a convicted spy on a mere telegraphic + despatch signed with a name I never heard before. General Wallace may give + you a pass to see him if he chooses. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0155" id="link2H_4_0155"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. WASHINGTON CITY, May 24, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + </h3> + <p> + Yours to Secretary of War [received] asking for something cheering. We + have nothing bad from anywhere. I have just seen a despatch of Grant, of + 11 P.M., May 23, on the North Anna and partly across it, which ends as + follows: "Everything looks exceedingly favorable for us." We have nothing + later from him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0156" id="link2H_4_0156"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 25,1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + </h3> + <p> + Mr. J. C. Swift wishes a pass from me to follow your army to pick up rags + and cast-off clothing. I will give it to him if you say so, otherwise not. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + ["No job to big or too small" for this president—not even a request + from a Rag Picker. D.W.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0157" id="link2H_4_0157"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE NEW YORK NAVAL BRIGADE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 26, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + </p> + <p> + I am again pressed with the claim of Mr. Marshall O. Roberts, for + transportation of what was called the Naval Brigade from New York to + Fortress Monroe. This force was a special organization got up by one + Bartlett, in pretended pursuance of written authority from me, but in + fact, pursuing the authority in scarcely anything whatever. The credit + given him by Mr. Roberts, was given in the teeth of the express + declaration that the Government would not be responsible for the class of + expenses to which it belonged. After all some part of the transportation + became useful to the Government, and equitably should be paid for; but I + have neither time nor means to ascertain this equitable amount, or any + appropriation to pay it with if ascertained. If the Quartermaster at New + York can ascertain what would compensate for so much of the transportation + as did result usefully to the Government, it might be a step towards + reaching justice. I write this from memory, but I believe it is + substantially correct. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0158" id="link2H_4_0158"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO P. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, June 3, 1864. + </p> + <p> + HON. F. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:—Your letter, inviting me to be present at a mass meeting + of loyal citizens, to be held at New York on the 4th instant, for the + purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for his signal + services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to attend. I + approve, nevertheless, of whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain + General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction. My previous + high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and heightened by what + has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting, while the + magnitude and difficulty of the task before him does not prove less than I + expected. He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great + trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your good words + that they may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0159" id="link2H_4_0159"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER TOUCHING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + (Indorsement.) + </p> + <p> + Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had not + heard or thought of him for Vice-President. Wish not to interfere about + Vice-President. Cannot interfere about platform. Convention must judge for + itself. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0160" id="link2H_4_0160"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 6, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + </h3> + <p> + Private James McCarthy, of the One-hundred and fortieth New York + Volunteers, is here under sentence to the Dry Tortugas for an attempt to + desert. His friends appeal to me and if his colonel and you consent, I + will send him to his regiment. Please answer. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0161" id="link2H_4_0161"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. WASHINGTON, June 8, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + </h3> + <p> + Yours of to-day received. I am unable to conceive how a message can be + less safe by the express than by a staff-officer. If you send a verbal + message, the messenger is one additional person let into the secret. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN <a name="link2H_4_0162" id="link2H_4_0162"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE NOTIFYING PRESIDENT LINCOLN OF HIS RENOMINATION, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + </p> + <p> + I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression of my + gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in their + continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not + unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to doubt that + I shall accept the nomination tendered; and yet perhaps I should not + declare definitely before reading and considering what is called the + platform. I will say now, however, I approve the declaration in favor of + so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the nation. + When the people in revolt, with a hundred days of explicit notice that + they could within those days resume their allegiance without the overthrow + of their institution, and that they could not so resume it afterward, + elected to stand out, such amendment of the Constitution as now proposed + became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final success of the + Union cause. Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now the + unconditional Union men, North and South, perceive its importance and + embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give + it legal form and practical effect. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0163" id="link2H_4_0163"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PLATFORM OF THE UNION NATIONAL CONVENTION HELD IN BALTIMORE, MD., JUNE 7 + </h2> + <p> + AND 8, 1864. + </p> + <p> + 1. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to + maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the + paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States; and + that, laying aside all differences of political opinion, we pledge + ourselves, as Union men, animated by a common sentiment and aiming at a + common object, to do everything in our power to aid the Government in + quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, + and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and + traitors arrayed against it. + </p> + <p> + 2. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Government of the + United States not to compromise with rebels, or to offer them any terms of + peace, except such as may be based upon an unconditional surrender of + their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to the Constitution + and laws of the United States, and that we call upon the Government to + maintain this position, and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible + vigor to the complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon + the self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic valor, and the undying + devotion of the American people to their Country and its free + institutions. + </p> + <p> + 3. Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the + strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be, always and everywhere, + hostile to the principles of republican government, justice and the + national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of + the republic; and that while we uphold and maintain the acts and + proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed a + death-blow at this gigantic evil, we are in favor, furthermore, of such an + amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with + its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of + slavery within the limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. + </p> + <p> + 4. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to the + soldiers and sailors of the Army and Navy, who have periled their lives in + defense of their country and in vindication of the honor of its flag; that + the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of their patriotism and + their valor, and ample and permanent provision for those of their + survivors who have received disabling and honorable wounds in the service + of the country; and that the memories of those who have fallen in its + defense shall be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance. + </p> + <p> + 5. Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the + unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity to the Constitution and + the principles of American liberty, with which Abraham Lincoln has + discharged under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty the great duties + and responsibilities of the Presidential office; that we approve and + indorse as demanded by the emergency and essential to the preservation of + the nation, and as within the provisions of the Constitution, the measures + and acts which he has adopted to defend the nation against its open and + secret foes; that we approve, especially, the Proclamation of + Emancipation, and the employment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held + in slavery; and that we have full confidence in his determination to carry + these and all other constitutional measures essential to the salvation of + the country into full and complete effect. + </p> + <p> + 6. Resolved, That we deem it essential to the General welfare that harmony + should prevail in the national councils, and we regard as worthy of public + confidence and official trust those only who cordially indorse the + principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and which should characterize + the administration of the Government. + </p> + <p> + 7. Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed in its armies, + without regard to distinction of color, the full protection of the laws of + war, and that any violation of these laws, or of the usages of civilized + nations in time of war, by the rebels now in arms, should be made the + subject of prompt and full redress. + </p> + <p> + 8. Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much + to the wealth, development of resources, and increase of power to this + nation, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and + encouraged by a liberal and just policy. + </p> + <p> + 9. Resolved, That we are in favor of the speedy construction of the + railroad to the Pacific coast. + </p> + <p> + 10. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of the + public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this purpose we + recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public expenditures, and + a vigorous and just system of taxation: and that it is the duty of every + loyal State to sustain the credit and promote the use of the national + currency. + </p> + <p> + 11. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the Government that + the people of the United States can never regard with indifference the + attempt of any European power to overthrow by force or to supplant by + fraud the institutions of any republican government on the Western + Continent, and that they will view with extreme jealousy, as menacing to + the peace and independence of their own country, the efforts of any such + power to obtain new footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by + foreign military force, in near proximity to the United States. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0164" id="link2H_4_0164"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENTLEMEN—I can only say in response to the remarks of your + chairman, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has + been accorded to me, both by the convention and by the National League. I + am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, yet + I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of it is to + be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. The convention and the + nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a higher view of the interests + of the country, for the present and the great future, and the part I am + entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay + hold of as being the opinion of the convention and of the League, that I + am not entirely unworthy to be intrusted with the place I have occupied + for the last three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to + conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this + connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion + once that "it was not best to swap horses when crossing a stream." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0165" id="link2H_4_0165"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 9, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:—I am very much obliged to you for this compliment. I have + just been saying, and will repeat it, that the hardest of all speeches I + have to answer is a serenade. I never know what to say on these occasions. + I suppose that you have done me this kindness in connection with the + action of the Baltimore convention, which has recently taken place, and + with which, of course, I am very well satisfied. What we want still more + than Baltimore conventions, or Presidential elections, is success under + General Grant. I propose that you constantly bear in mind that the support + you owe to the brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very + first importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that + point. Now without detaining you any longer, I propose that you help me to + close up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for General Grant + and the officers and soldiers under his command. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0166" id="link2H_4_0166"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS TO THE ENVOY FROM THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 11, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + SIR:—In every light in which the State of the Hawaiian Islands can + be contemplated, it is an object of profound interest for the United + States. Virtually it was once a colony. It is now a near and intimate + neighbor. It is a haven of shelter and refreshment for our merchants, + fishermen, seamen, and other citizens, when on their lawful occasions they + are navigating the eastern seas and oceans. Its people are free, and its + laws, language, and religion are largely the fruit of our own teaching and + example. The distinguished part which you, Mr. Minister, have acted in the + history of that interesting country, is well known here. It gives me + pleasure to assure you of my sincere desire to do what I can to render now + your sojourn in the United States agreeable to yourself, satisfactory to + your sovereign, and beneficial to the Hawaiian people. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0167" id="link2H_4_0167"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS TO AN OHIO REGIMENT, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 11, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Soldiers! I understand you have just come from Ohio; come to help us in + this the nation's day of trial, and also of its hopes. I thank you for + your promptness in responding to the call for troops. Your services were + never needed more than now. I know not where you are going. You may stay + here and take the places of those who will be sent to the front, or you + may go there yourselves. Wherever you go I know you will do your best. + Again I thank you. Good-by. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0168" id="link2H_4_0168"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL L. THOMAS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 13, + </h2> + <p> + 1864. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + </p> + <p> + Complaint is made to me that in the vicinity of Henderson, our militia is + seizing negroes and carrying them off without their own consent, and + according to no rules whatever, except those of absolute violence. I wish + you would look into this and inform me, and see that the making soldiers + of negroes is done according to the rules you are acting upon, so that + unnecessary provocation and irritation be avoided. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0169" id="link2H_4_0169"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO THOMAS WEBSTER. WASHINGTON, D. C., June 13, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + THOMAS WEBSTER, Philadelphia: + </h3> + <p> + Will try to leave here Wednesday afternoon, say at 4 P.M., remain till + Thursday afternoon and then return. This subject to events. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0170" id="link2H_4_0170"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, June 15, 1864. 7 A.M. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Headquarters Army of the Potomac: + </h3> + <p> + I have just received your dispatch of 1 P.M. yesterday. I begin to see it: + you will succeed. God bless you all. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0171" id="link2H_4_0171"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS AT A SANITARY FAIR IN PHILADELPHIA, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 16, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + I suppose that this toast is intended to open the way for me to say + something. War at the best is terrible, and this of ours in its magnitude + and duration is one of the most terrible the world has ever known. It has + deranged business totally in many places, and perhaps in all. It has + destroyed property, destroyed life, and ruined homes. It has produced a + national debt and a degree of taxation unprecedented in the history of + this country. It has caused mourning among us until the heavens may almost + be said to be hung in black. And yet it continues. It has had + accompaniments not before known in the history of the world. I mean the + Sanitary and Christian Commissions, with their labors for the relief of + the soldiers, and the Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, understood better by + those who hear me than by myself, and these fairs, first begun at Chicago + and next held in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities. The motive and + object that lie at the bottom of them are worthy of the most that we can + do for the soldier who goes to fight the battles of his country. From the + fair and tender hand of women is much, very much, done for the soldier, + continually reminding him of the care and thought for him at home. The + knowledge that he is not forgotten is grateful to his heart. Another view + of these institutions is worthy of thought. They are voluntary + contributions, giving proof that the national resources are not at all + exhausted, and that the national patriotism will sustain us through all. + It is a pertinent question, When is this war to end? I do not wish to name + the day when it will end, lest the end should not come at the given time. + We accepted this war, and did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, + and when that object is accomplished the war will end, and I hope to God + that it will never end until that object is accomplished. We are going + through with our task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us three + years longer. I have not been in the habit of making predictions, but I am + almost tempted now to hazard one. I will. It is, that Grant is this + evening in a position, with Meade and Hancock, of Pennsylvania, whence he + can never be dislodged by the enemy until Richmond is taken. If I shall + discover that General Grant may be greatly facilitated in the capture of + Richmond by rapidly pouring to him a large number of armed men at the + briefest notice, will you go? Will you march on with him? [Cries of "Yes, + yes."] Then I shall call upon you when it is necessary. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0172" id="link2H_4_0172"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO ATTORNEY-GENERAL BATES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Jun. 24, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HONORABLE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—By authority of the Constitution, and moved thereto by the + fourth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act making + appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the + thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and for other + purposes, approved June is, 1864," I require your opinion in writing as to + what pay, bounty, and clothing are allowed by law to persons of color who + were free on the nineteenth day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted + and mustered into the military service of the United States between the + month of December, 1862, and the sixteenth of June, 1864. + </p> + <p> + Please answer as you would do, on my requirement, if the act of June 15, + 1864, had not been passed, and I will so use your opinion as to satisfy + that act. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0173" id="link2H_4_0173"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MRS. A. LINCOLN, Boston, Massachusetts: + </p> + <p> + All well and very warm. Tad and I have been to General Grant's army. + Returned yesterday safe and sound. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0174" id="link2H_4_0174"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + </h3> + <p> + Complaint is made to me that General Brown does not do his best to + suppress bushwhackers. Please ascertain and report to me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0175" id="link2H_4_0175"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 27, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. WILLIAM DENNISON AND OTHERS, a Committee of the Union National + Convention. + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:—Your letter of the 14th inst.., formally notifying me + that I have been nominated by the convention you represent for the + Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next, + has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the + resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily approved. + </p> + <p> + While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican government + upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there might be + misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the Government in + relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State + Department and indorsed by the convention among the measures and acts of + the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so long as the state of facts + shall leave that position pertinent and applicable. + </p> + <p> + I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not forgotten + by the convention, as they forever must and will be remembered by the + grateful country for whose salvation they devote their lives. + </p> + <p> + Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have + communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the convention, I + subscribe myself, + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0176" id="link2H_4_0176"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + </p> + <p> + I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons sent as + Senators and Representatives from Arkansas. These persons apprehend that, + in consequence, you may not support the new State government there as you + otherwise would. My wish is that you give that government and the people + there the same support and protection that you would if the members had + been admitted, because in no event, nor in any view of the case, can this + do any harm, while it will be the best you can do toward suppressing the + rebellion. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0177" id="link2H_4_0177"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + </h3> + <p> + Dr. Worster wishes to visit you with a view of getting your permission to + introduce into the army "Harmon's Sandal Sock." Shall I give him a pass + for that object? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0178" id="link2H_4_0178"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO DAVID TOD. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 30, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. DAVID TOD, Youngstown, Ohio: I have nominated you to be Secretary of + the Treasury, in place of Governor Chase, who has resigned. Please come + without a moment's delay. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0179" id="link2H_4_0179"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. L. SCRIPPS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 4, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + To JOHN L. SCRIPPS, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—Complaint is made to me that you are using your official + power to defeat Mr. Arnold's nomination to Congress. I am well satisfied + with Mr. Arnold as a member of Congress, and I do not know that the man + who might supplant him would be as satisfactory; but the correct + principle, I think, is that all our friends should have absolute freedom + of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you will do just + as you think fit with your own suffrage in the case, and not constrain any + of your subordinates to [do] other than [as] he thinks fit with his. This + is precisely the rule I inculcated and adhered to on my part, when a + certain other nomination, now recently made, was being canvassed for. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + </p> + <p> + J. W. GARRETT, President [B. & 0. R. R.], Camden Station: + </p> + <p> + You say telegraphic communication is re-established with Sandy Hook. Well, + what does Sandy Hook say about operations of enemy and of Sigel during + to-day? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0180" id="link2H_4_0180"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HIS EXCELLENCY HORATIO SEYMOUR, Governor of New York, Albany: + </p> + <p> + The President directs me to inform you that a rebel force, variously + estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men, have invaded the State + of Maryland, and have taken Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, and are + threatening other points; that the public safety requires him to call upon + the State executives for a militia force to repel this invasion. He + therefore directs me to call on you for a militia force of twelve thousand + men from your State to serve not more than one hundred days, and to + request that you will with the utmost despatch forward the troops to + Washington by rail or steamboat as may be most expeditious. + </p> + <p> + Please favor me with an answer at your earliest convenience. + </p> + <p> + EDWIN M. STANTON, + </p> + <p> + Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0181" id="link2H_4_0181"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION SUSPENDING THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, + </h2> + <h3> + JULY 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued on the 15th day of April, + 1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that the + laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then were, + opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in certain States therein + mentioned, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary + course of judicial proceedings or by the power vested in the marshals by + law; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation the land + and naval forces of the United States were put into activity to suppress + the said insurrections and rebellion; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by an act approved on the + third day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion the + President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety + may require it, is authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of + habeas corpus in any case throughout the United States, or any part + thereof; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, endangering + the existence of the Constitution and Government of the United States; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, the military forces of the United States are now actively engaged + in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various parts of the + States where the said rebellion has been successful in obstructing the + laws and public authorities, especially in the States of Virginia and + Georgia; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, on the fifteenth day of September last, the President of the + United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that the + privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended throughout the + United States, in Cases whereby the authority of the President of the + United States, the military, naval, and civil officers of the United + States, or any of them, hold persons under their command or in their + custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders or abettors of the + enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled or drafted, or mustered, + or enlisted in, or belonging to the land or naval forces of the United + States, or as deserters therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law, + or the rules and articles of war, or the rules and regulations prescribed + for the military and naval service by authority of the President of the + United States, or for resisting a draft, or for any other offence against + the military or naval service; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the forces of + the insurgents, who have on several occasions entered the said State of + Kentucky in large force and not without aid and comfort furnished by + disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United States residing therein, + have not only greatly disturbed the public peace but have overborne the + civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, destroying property and + life in various parts of the State; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, it has been made known to the President of the United States, by + the officers commanding the National armies, that combinations have been + formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a purpose of inciting the rebel + forces to renew the said operations of civil war within the said State, + and thereby to embarrass the United States armies now operating in the + said States of Virginia and Georgia, and even to endanger their safety. + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by + virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, do + hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially requires + that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus so + proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of September, 1863, be + made effectual and be duly enforced in and throughout the said State of + Kentucky, and that martial law be for the present declared therein. I do + therefore hereby require of the military officers of the said State that + the privilege of the habeas corpus be effectually suspended within the + said State, according to the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law + be established therein to take effect from the date of this proclamation, + the said suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until + this proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period + when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end. And + I do hereby require and command, as well as military officers, all civil + officers and authorities existing or found within the said State of + Kentucky, to take notice of this proclamation and to give full effect to + the same. The martial laws herein proclaimed and the things in that + respect herein ordered will not be deemed or taken to interfere with the + holding of lawful elections, or with the proceedings of the constitutional + Legislature of Kentucky, or with the administration of justice in the + courts of law existing therein between citizens of the United States in + suits or proceedings which do not affect the military operations or the + constituted authorities of the government of the United States. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed. + </p> + <p> + Done at the City of Washington this 5th day of July, in the year of our + Lord 1864, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0182" id="link2H_4_0182"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER, JULY 7, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives at their last session + adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the second day of + July instant, and which `was in the words following, namely: + </p> + <p> + That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day of + humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States, that he request + his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive Departments to + unite with him, as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at the City of + Washington, and the members of Congress, and all magistrates, all civil, + military, and naval officers, all soldiers, sailors, and marines, with all + loyal and law-abiding people, to convene at their usual places of worship, + or wherever they may be, to confess and to repent of their manifold sins, + to implore the compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that, if + consistent with His will, the existing rebellion may be speedily + suppressed, and the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United + States may be established throughout all the States; to implore Him, as + the Supreme Ruler of the world, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer + us to be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations, or by + obstinate adhesion to our own counsels which may be in conflict with His + eternal, purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of the nation + to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in accordance with + His will that our place should be maintained as a united people among the + family of nations; to implore Him to grant to our armed defenders, and the + masses of the people, that courage, power of resistance, and endurance + necessary to secure that result; to implore Him in His infinite goodness + to soften the hearts, enlighten the minds, and quicken the conscience of + those in rebellion, that they may lay down their arms, and speedily return + to their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly + destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity and + fraternity may be restored, and peace established throughout all our + borders. + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the `United States, + cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States, in the + penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid resolutions, + and heartily approving of the devotional design and purpose thereof, do + hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next to be observed by the + people of the United States as a day of national humiliation and prayer. + </p> + <p> + I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive + Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all judges + and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in the land, + whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, seamen, and marines + in the national service, and all other loyal and law-abiding people of the + United States, to assemble in their preferred places of public worship on + that day, and there to render to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the + Universe, such homage and such confessions, and to offer to Him such + supplications as the Congress of the United States have, in their + aforesaid resolution, so solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently + recommended. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this + seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred + and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the + eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0183" id="link2H_4_0183"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES, + </h2> + <p> + WHOSE GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF + GOVERNMENT," AND CONCERNING RECONSTRUCTION, + </p> + <p> + JULY 8, 1864. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to + certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a + republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United States + for his approval less than one hour before the sine die adjournment of + said session, and was not signed by him; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for restoring + the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation in the Union, + which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that subject, and which + plan it is now thought fit to lay before the people for their + consideration: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do + proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in December + last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for restoration) + unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be inflexibly committed to + any single plan of restoration, and while I am also unprepared to declare + that the free State constitutions and governments already adopted and + installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside and held for + naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens who have set + up the same as to further effort, or to declare a constitutional + competency in Congress to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same + time sincerely hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment + abolishing slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am + fully satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as + one very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to adopt + it, and that I am and at all times shall be prepared to give the Executive + aid and assistance to any such people so soon as the military resistance + to the United States shall have been suppressed in any such States and the + people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the + Constitution and the laws of the United States, in which cases + militia-governors will be appointed with directions to proceed according + to the bill. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed.............. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0184" id="link2H_4_0184"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO HORACE GREELEY. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., July 9, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HON. HORACE GREELEY. + </p> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—Your letter of the 7th, with inclosures, received. + </p> + <p> + If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any proposition + of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the restoration of the + Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, say to him he + may come to me with you; and that if he really brings such proposition, he + shall at the least have safe conduct with the paper (and without + publicity, if he chooses) to the point where you shall have to meet him. + The same if there be two or more persons. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0185" id="link2H_4_0185"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 9, 1864 + </h2> + <h3> + J. W. GARRETT, Camden Station: + </h3> + <p> + What have you heard about a battle at Monocacy to-day? We have nothing + about it here except what you say. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0186" id="link2H_4_0186"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK TO GENERAL WALLACE. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, July 9, 1864. 11.57 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL L. WALLACE, Commanding Middle Department: + </p> + <p> + I am directed by the President to say that you will rally your forces and + make every possible effort to retard the enemy's march on Baltimore. + </p> + <p> + H. W. HALLECK, Major-General and Chief of Staff. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0187" id="link2H_4_0187"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO T. SWAN AND OTHERS. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 10, 1864. 9.20 + </h2> + <p> + A.M. + </p> + <p> + THOMAS SWAN AND OTHERS, Baltimore, Maryland: + </p> + <p> + Yours of last night received. I have not a single soldier but whom is + being disposed by the military for the best protection of all. By latest + accounts the enemy is moving on Washington. They cannot fly to either + place. Let us be vigilant, but keep cool. I hope neither Baltimore nor + Washington will be sacked. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0188" id="link2H_4_0188"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON CITY, July TO, 1864.2 P.M. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + Your dispatch to General Halleck, referring to what I may think in the + present emergency, is shown me. General Halleck says we have absolutely no + force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with the hundred-day men + and invalids we have here we can defend Washington, and, scarcely, + Baltimore. Besides these there are about eight thousand, not very + reliable, under Howe, at Harper's Ferry with Hunter approaching that point + very slowly, with what number I suppose you know better than I. Wallace, + with some odds and ends, and part of what came up with Ricketts, was so + badly beaten yesterday at Monocacy, that what is left can attempt no more + than to defend Baltimore. What we shall get in from Pennsylvania and New + York will scarcely be worth counting, I fear. Now, what I think is, that + you should provide to retain your hold where you are, certainly, and bring + the rest with you personally, and make a vigorous effort to destroy the + enemy's forces in this vicinity. I think there is really a fair chance to + do this, if the movement is prompt. This is what I think upon your + suggestion, and is not an order. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0189" id="link2H_4_0189"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, July 11, 1864. 8 A.M. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + Yours of 10.30 P.M. yesterday received, and very satisfactory. The enemy + will learn of Wright's arrival, and then the difficulty will be to unite + Wright and Hunter south of the enemy before he will recross the Potomac. + Some firing between Rockville and here now. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0190" id="link2H_4_0190"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 12, 1864. 11.30 + </h2> + <p> + AM. + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Vague rumors have been reaching us for two or three days that Longstreet's + corps is also on its way [to] this vicinity. Look out for its absence from + your front. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0191" id="link2H_4_0191"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM AND LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July + </h2> + <p> + 12, 1864. + </p> + <p> + HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + </p> + <p> + I suppose you received my letter of the 9th. I have just received yours of + the 13th, and am disappointed by it. I was not expecting you to send me a + letter, but to bring me a man, or men. Mr. Hay goes to you with my answer + to yours of the 13th. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + [Carried by Major John Hay.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0192" id="link2H_4_0192"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, JULY 15, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + HON. HORACE GREELEY. + </h3> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:-Yours of the 13th is just received, and I am disappointed + that you have not already reached here with those commissioners, if they + would consent to come on being shown my letter to you of the 9th instant. + Show that and this to them, and if they will come on the terms stated in + the former, bring them. I not only intend a sincere effort for peace, but + I intend that you shall be a personal witness that it is made. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0193" id="link2H_4_0193"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SAFE CONDUCT FOR CLEMENT C. CLAY AND OTHERS, + </h2> + <h3> + JULY 16, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + The President of the United States directs that the four persons whose + names follow, to wit, HON. Clement C. Clay, HON. Jacob Thompson, Professor + James P. Holcombe, George N. Sanders, shall have safe conduct to the city + of Washington in company with the HON. HORACE GREELEY, and shall be exempt + from arrest or annoyance of any kind from any officer of the United States + during their journey to the said city of Washington. + </p> + <p> + By order of the President: JOHN HAY, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0194" id="link2H_4_0194"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. [WASHINGTON] July 17. 1864. 11.25 A.M. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + In your dispatch of yesterday to General Sherman, I find the following, to + wit: + </p> + <p> + "I shall make a desperate effort to get a position here, which will hold + the enemy without the necessity of so many men." + </p> + <p> + Pressed as we are by lapse of time I am glad to hear you say this; and yet + I do hope you may find a way that the effort shall not be desperate in the + sense of great loss of life. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, President. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0195" id="link2H_4_0195"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER WASHINGTON JULY 17, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + </h3> + <p> + Yours of this morning received. You misconceive. The order you complain of + was only nominally mine, and was framed by those who really made it with + no thought of making you a scapegoat. It seemed to be General Grant's wish + that the forces under General Wright and those under you should join and + drive at the enemy under General Wright. Wright had the larger part of the + force, but you had the rank. It was thought that you would prefer Crook's + commanding your part to your serving in person under Wright. That is all + of it. General Grant wishes you to remain in command of the department, + and I do not wish to order otherwise. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0196" id="link2H_4_0196"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. 11.25 A.M. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattahoochee River, Georgia: + </p> + <p> + I have seen your despatches objecting to agents of Northern States opening + recruiting stations near your camps. An act of Congress authorizes this, + giving the appointment of agents to the States, and not to the Executive + Government. It is not for the War Department, or myself, to restrain or + modify the law, in its execution, further than actual necessity may + require. To be candid, I was for the passage of the law, not apprehending + at the time that it would produce such inconvenience to the armies in the + field as you now cause me to fear. Many of the States were very anxious + for it, and I hoped that, with their State bounties, and active exertions, + they would get out substantial additions to our colored forces, which, + unlike white recruits, help us where they come from, as well as where they + go to. I still hope advantage from the law; and being a law, it must be + treated as such by all of us. We here will do what we consistently can to + save you from difficulties arising out of it. May I ask, therefore, that + you will give your hearty co-operation. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0197" id="link2H_4_0197"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING TERMS OF PEACE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. + </p> + <p> + TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + </p> + <p> + Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of + the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and + with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the + United States, will be received and considered by the Executive Government + of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other + substantial and collateral points; and the bearer or bearers thereof shall + have safe conduct both ways. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0198" id="link2H_4_0198"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS, + </h2> + <h3> + JULY 18, 1864, + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to + regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces + and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of the United + States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, call for any number + of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of one, two, and three + years for military service," and "that in case the quota or any part + thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election + district, or of a county not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the + space of fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately + order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part thereof which + may be unfilled;" and + </p> + <p> + Whereas the new enrolment heretofore ordered is so far completed as that + the aforementioned act of Congress may now be put in operation for + recruiting and keeping up the strength of the armies in the field, for + garrisons, and such military operations as may be required for the purpose + of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the authority of the United + States Government in the insurgent States: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do + issue this my last call for five hundred thousand volunteers for the + military service: Provided, nevertheless, That this call shall be reduced + by all credits which may be established under section eight of the + aforesaid act on account of persons who have entered the naval service + during the present rebellion and by credits for men furnished to the + military service in excess of calls heretofore made. Volunteers will be + accepted under this call for one, two, or three years, as they may elect, + and will be entitled to the bounty provided by the law for the period of + services for which they enlist. + </p> + <p> + And I hereby proclaim, order, and direct that immediately after the 5th + day of September, 1864, being fifty days from the date of this call, a + draft for troops to serve for one year shall be had in every town, + township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or county not so + subdivided, to fill the quota which shall be assigned to it under this + call or any part thereof which may be unfilled by volunteers on the said + 5th day of September, 1864. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed. + </p> + <p> + Done at the City of Washington, this 18th day of July, A.D. 1864, and of + the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0199" id="link2H_4_0199"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 20, 1864. 4.30 p.m. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Yours of yesterday, about a call for three hundred thousand, is received. + I suppose you had not seen the call for five hundred thousand, made the + day before, and which, I suppose, covers the case. Always glad to have + your suggestions. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0200" id="link2H_4_0200"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO J. L. WRIGHT. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY. 20, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + J. L. WRIGHT, Indianapolis, Ind.: + </p> + <p> + All a mistake. Mr. Stanton has not resigned. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0201" id="link2H_4_0201"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER. (Cipher.) + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY 23, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + </p> + <p> + Are you able to take care of the enemy, when he turns back upon you, as he + probably will on finding that Wright has left? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0202" id="link2H_4_0202"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, ENCLOSING A LETTER TO WILLIAM O. SNIDER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR CURTIN: + </p> + <p> + Herewith is the manuscript letter for the gentleman who sent me a cane + through your hands. For my life I cannot make out his name; and therefore + I cut it from his letter and pasted it on, as you see. I suppose [sic] + will remember who he is, and I will thank you to forward him the letter. + He dates his letter at Philadelphia. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0203" id="link2H_4_0203"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PRESENTATION OF A CANE + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + WILLIAM O. SNIDER: + </p> + <p> + The cane you did me the honor to present through Governor Curtin was duly + placed in my hand by him. Please accept my thanks; and, at the same time, + pardon me for not having sooner found time to tender them. Your obedient + servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0204" id="link2H_4_0204"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FROM JOHN HAY TO J. C. WELLING. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. July 25, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + J. C. WELLING, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—According to the request contained in your note, I have placed + Mr. Gibson's letter of resignation in the hands of the President. He has + read the letter, and says he accepts the resignation, as he will be glad + to do with any other, which may be tendered, as this is, for the purpose + of taking an attitude of hostility against him. + </p> + <p> + He says he was not aware that he was so much indebted to Mr. Gibson for + having accepted the office at first, not remembering that he ever pressed + him to do so, or that he gave it otherwise than as was usual, upon request + made on behalf of Mr. Gibson. + </p> + <p> + He thanks Mr. Gibson for his acknowledgment that he has been treated with + personal kindness and consideration, and says he knows of but two small + drawbacks upon Mr. Gibson's right to still receive such treatment, one of + which is that he never could learn of his giving much attention to the + duties of his office, and the other is this studied attempt of Mr. + Gibson's to stab him. + </p> + <p> + I am very truly, + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + JOHN HAY. <a name="link2H_4_0205" id="link2H_4_0205"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO COLONEL, FIRST N. Y. VETERAN CAVALRY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, JULY 25, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Thomas Connor, a private in the First Veteran New York Cavalry, is now + imprisoned at hard labor for desertion. If the Colonel of said Regiment + will say in writing on this sheets that he is willing to receive him back + to the Regiment, I will pardon, and send him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0206" id="link2H_4_0206"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, July 26, 1864. 2.30 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta: + </p> + <p> + I have just seen yours complaining of the appointment of Hovey and + Osterhaus. The point you make is unquestionably a good one, and yet please + hear a word from us. My recollection is that both General Grant and + yourself recommended both H [ovey] and O [sterhaus] for promotion, and + these, with other strong recommendations, drew committals from us which we + could neither honorably or safely disregard. We blamed H [ovey] for coming + away in the manner in which he did, but he knew he had apparent reason to + feel disappointed and mortified, and we felt it was not best to crush one + who certainly had been a good soldier. As to [Osterhaus], we did not know + of his leaving at the time we made the appointment, and do not now know + the terms on which he left. Not to have appointed him, as the case + appeared to us at the time, would have been almost, if not quite, a + violation of our word. The word was given on what we thought was high + merit and somewhat on his nationality. I beg you to believe we do not act + in a spirit of disregarding merit. We expect to await your programme for + further changes and promotions in your army. My profoundest thanks to you + and your whole army for the present campaign so far. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0207" id="link2H_4_0207"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL HALLECK. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON CITY, July 27, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, Chief of Staff of the Army: + </p> + <p> + GENERAL:—Lieutenant-General Grant having signified that, owing to + the difficulties and delay of communication between his headquarters and + Washington, it is necessary that in the present emergency military orders + must be issued directly from Washington, the President directs me to + instruct you that all the military operations for the defense of the + Middle Department, the Department of the Susquehanna, the Department of + Washington, and the Department of West Virginia, and all the forces in + those departments, are placed under your general command, and that you + will be expected to take all military measures necessary for defense + against any attack of the enemy and for his capture and destruction. You + will issue from time to time such orders to the commanders of the + respective departments and to the military authorities therein as may be + proper. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0208" id="link2H_4_0208"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. WASHINGTON, July 27, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + </h3> + <p> + Yours in relation to General A. C. Gillam just received. Will look after + the matter to-day. + </p> + <p> + I also received yours about General Carl Schurz. I appreciate him + certainly, as highly as you do; but you can never know until you have the + trial, how difficult it is to find a place for an officer of so high rank + when there is no place seeking him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0209" id="link2H_4_0209"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON, + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 29, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON. + </p> + <p> + MADAM:—The plaid you send me is just now placed in my hands. I thank + you for that pretty and useful present, but still more for those good + wishes for myself and our country, which prompted you to present it. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. INDORSEMENT, AUGUST 3, 1864. + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, August 2, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MR. PRESIDENT:—This note will introduce to you Mr. Schley of + Baltimore, who desires to appeal to you for the revocation of an order of + General Hunter, removing some persons, citizens of Frederick, beyond his + lines, and imprisoning others. This Department has no information of the + reasons or proofs on which General Hunter acts, and I do not therefore + feel at liberty to suspend or interfere with his action except under your + direction. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + [Indorsement.] + </p> + <p> + August 3, 1864. + </p> + <p> + The Secretary of War will suspend the order of General Hunter mentioned + within, until further order and direct him to send to the Department a + brief report of what is known against each one proposed to be dealt with. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0210" id="link2H_4_0210"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U, S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + (Cipher.) + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, D. C.. August 3, 1864 + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + I have seen your despatch in which you say, "I want Sheridan put in + command of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put himself + south of the enemy, and follow him to the death. Wherever the enemy goes, + let our troops go also." + </p> + <p> + This, I think, is exactly right as to how our forces should move; but + please look over the despatches you may have received from here, ever + since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is any + idea in the head of any one here of "putting our army south of the enemy," + or of following him to the "death," in any direction. I repeat to you, it + will neither be done nor attempted, unless you watch it every day and + hour, and force it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [Here the President was mistaken in thinking that Sherman, + Sheridan, and Grant had the same inability of most of his + previous general officers. No one needed to watch Grant or + Sherman or Sheridan, they only needed to get out of their + way. D.W.] +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0211" id="link2H_4_0211"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 6, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + </p> + <p> + Yours to Major Hay about publication of our correspondence received. With + the suppression of a few passages in your letters in regard to which I + think you and I would not disagree, I should be glad of the publication. + Please come over and see me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0212" id="link2H_4_0212"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 8, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + </p> + <p> + I telegraphed you Saturday. Did you receive the despatch? Please answer. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0213" id="link2H_4_0213"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON DISLOYAL FAMILY MEMBER + </h2> + <h3> + TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, D. C., August 8, 1864 + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + </p> + <p> + Last December Mrs. Emily T. Helm, half-sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and widow + of the rebel general, Ben Hardin Helm, stopped here on her way from + Georgia to Kentucky, and I gave her a paper, as I remember, to protect her + against the mere fact of her being General Helm's widow. I hear a rumor + to-day that you recently sought to arrest her, but were prevented by her + presenting the paper from me. I do not intend to protect her against the + consequences of disloyal words or acts, spoken or done by her since her + return to Kentucky, and if the paper given her by me can be construed to + give her protection for such words and acts, it is hereby revoked pro + tanto. Deal with her for current conduct just as you would with any other. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0214" id="link2H_4_0214"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., August 14, 1864. 1.30 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + The Secretary of War and I concur that you had better confer with General + Lee, and stipulate for a mutual discontinuance of house-burning and other + destruction of private property. The time and manner of conference and + particulars of stipulation we leave, on our part, to your convenience and + judgment. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0215" id="link2H_4_0215"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 15,1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta, Ga.: + </p> + <p> + If the Government should purchase, on its own account, cotton northward of + you, and on the line of your communications, would it be an inconvenience + to you, or detriment to the military service, for it to come to the north + on the railroad? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0216" id="link2H_4_0216"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTERVIEW WITH JOHN T. MILLS, + </h2> + <h3> + AUGUST [15?], 1864. + </h3> + <p> + "Mr. President," said Governor Randall, "why can't you seek seclusion, and + play hermit for a fortnight? It would reinvigorate you." + </p> + <p> + "Ah," said the President, "two or three weeks would do me no good. I + cannot fly from my thoughts—my solicitude for this great country + follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or + ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot but + feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in + November. There is no program offered by any wing of the Democratic party + but that must result in the permanent destruction of the Union." + </p> + <p> + "But, Mr. President, General McClellan is in favor of crushing out this + rebellion by force. He will be the Chicago candidate." + </p> + <p> + "Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that the + rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It would + sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are now in the + service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty thousand + able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending and acquiring + Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that these forces be + disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by restoring them to + slavery. The black men who now assist Union prisoners to escape are to be + converted into our enemies, in the vain hope of gaining the good-will of + their masters. We shall have to fight two nations instead of one. + </p> + <p> + "You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them ultimate + success; and the experience of the present war proves their success is + inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black men into + their side of the scale. Will you give our enemies such military + advantages as insure success, and then depend on coaxing, flattery, and + concession to get them back into the Union? Abandon all the posts now + garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty thousand men from our + side and put them in the battle-field or corn-field against us, and we + would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks. + </p> + <p> + "We have to hold territory in inclement and sickly places; where are the + Democrats to do this? It was a free fight, and the field was open to the + war Democrats to put down this rebellion by fighting against both master + and slave, long before the present policy was inaugurated. + </p> + <p> + "There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to slavery the + black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the + masters they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time + and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. My + enemies pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of + abolition. So long as I am President, it shall be carried on for the sole + purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this + rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy, and every other + policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the + rebellion. + </p> + <p> + "Freedom has given us one hundred and fifty thousand men, raised on + Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has subtracted + from the enemy, and, instead of alienating the South, there are now + evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our men and the rank + and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies prove to the country that + the destruction of slavery is not necessary to a restoration of the Union. + I will abide the issue." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0217" id="link2H_4_0217"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ENDORSEMENT OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT, AUGUST 15, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + I am always for the man who wishes to work; and I shall be glad for this + man to get suitable employment at Cavalry Depot, or elsewhere. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0218" id="link2H_4_0218"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO H. J. RAYMOND. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, August 15, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + HON. HENRY J. RAYMOND. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara + correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his letters + over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy which I herewith send. He + declines giving his consent to the publication of his letters unless these + parts be published with the rest. I have concluded that it is better for + me to submit, for the time, to the consequences of the false position in + which I consider he has placed me, than to subject the country to the + consequences of publishing these discouraging and injurious parts. I send + you this, and the accompanying copy, not for publication, but merely to + explain to you, and that you may preserve them until their proper time + shall come. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0219" id="link2H_4_0219"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 17, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold + where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew + and choke as much as possible. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0220" id="link2H_4_0220"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS, AUGUST 18, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas the act of Congress of the 28th of September, 1850, entitled "An + act to create additional collection districts in the State of California, + and to change the existing districts therein, and to modify the existing + collection districts in the United States," extends to merchandise + warehoused under bond the privilege of being exported to the British North + American provinces adjoining the United States, in the manner prescribed + in the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1845, which designates certain + frontier ports through which merchandise may be exported, and further + provides "that such other ports, situated on the frontiers of the United + States adjoining the British North American provinces, as may hereafter be + found expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges, on the + recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation duly + made by the President of the United States, specially designating the + ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be extended." + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of + America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of the + Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of Newport, in the + State of Vermont, is and shall be entitled to all the privileges in regard + to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the British North American + provinces adjoining the United States, which are extended to the ports + enumerated in the seventh section of the act of Congress of the 3d of + March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after the date of this proclamation. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the + United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this + eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight + hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States of + America, the eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0221" id="link2H_4_0221"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, AUGUST 18, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + If General Hitchcock can effect a special exchange of Thomas D. Armesy, + now under conviction as a spy, or something of the sort, and in prison at + for Major Nathan Goff, made a prisoner of war, and now in prison at + Richmond, let it be done. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0222" id="link2H_4_0222"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS TO THE 164TH OHIO REGIMENT, + </h2> + <h3> + AUGUST 18, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + SOLDIERS:—You are about to return to your homes and your friends, + after having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short term of + duty in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who + have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it might be more + generally and universally understood what the country is now engaged in. + We have, as all will agree, a free government, where every man has a right + to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of + government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies + succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every + one. There is involved in this struggle, the question whether your + children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say + this, in order to impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, + that no small matter should divert us from our great purpose. + </p> + <p> + There may be some inequalities in the practical application of our system. + It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion to the value + of his property; but if we should wait, before collecting a tax, to adjust + the taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other man, we + should never collect any tax at all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; + and things may be done wrong, while the officers of the Government do all + they can to prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great + Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we have + before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by + any small matter. When you return to your homes, rise up to the height of + a generation of men worthy of a free government, and we will carry out the + great work we have commenced. I return to you my sincere thanks, soldiers, + for the honor you have done me this afternoon. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0223" id="link2H_4_0223"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August + </h2> + <p> + 20, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Please allow Judge Snead to go to his family on Eastern Shore, or give me + some good reason why not. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0224" id="link2H_4_0224"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS TO THE 166TH OHIO REGIMENT, + </h2> + <h3> + AUGUST 22, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + SOLDIERS—I suppose you are going home to see your families and + friends. For the services you have done in this great struggle in which we + are engaged, I present you sincere thanks for myself and the country. + </p> + <p> + I almost always feel inclined, when I say anything to soldiers, to impress + upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success in this + contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all time to come, that we + should perpetuate for our children's children that great and free + government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg you to remember + this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen, temporarily, to + occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your + children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order + that each one of you may have, through this free government which we have + enjoyed, an open field, and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, + and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of + life with all its desirable human aspirations—it is for this that + the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthrights—not + only for one, but for two or three years, if necessary. The nation is + worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0225" id="link2H_4_0225"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MEMORANDUM. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 23, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that + this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so + co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the + election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on + such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0226" id="link2H_4_0226"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, + </h2> + <p> + 1864. + </p> + <p> + GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + Thanks to General Gillam for making the news and also to you for sending + it. Does Joe Heiskell's "walking to meet us" mean any more than that "Joe" + was scared and wanted to save his skin? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0227" id="link2H_4_0227"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO B. H. BREWSTER. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August + </h2> + <p> + 30,1864. + </p> + <p> + HON. B. H. BREWSTER, Astor House, New York: + </p> + <p> + Your letter of yesterday received. Thank you for it. Please have no fears. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0228" id="link2H_4_0228"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER CONCERNING COTTON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 31, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Any person or persons engaged in bringing out cotton, in strict conformity + with authority given by W. P. Fessenden, Secretary of the United States + Treasury, must not be hindered by the War, Navy, or any other Department + of the Government, or any person engaged under any of said Departments. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0229" id="link2H_4_0229"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO COLONEL HUIDEKOPER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, SEPTEMBER 1, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + COLONEL H. C. HUIDEKOPER, Meadville, Penn. + </p> + <p> + SIR: It is represented to me that there are at Rock Island, Illinois, as + rebel prisoners of war, many persons of Northern and foreign birth who are + unwilling to be exchanged and sent South, but who wish to take the oath of + allegiance and enter the military service of the Union. Colonel + Huidekoper, on behalf of the people of some parts of Pennsylvania, wishes + to pay the bounties the Government would have to pay to proper persons of + this class, have them enter the service of the United States, and be + credited to the localities furnishing the bounty money. He will therefore + proceed to Rock Island, ascertain the names of such persons (not including + any who have attractions Southward), and telegraph them to the + Provost-Marshal-General here, whereupon direction will be given to + discharge the persons named upon their taking the oath of allegiance; and + then upon the official evidence being furnished that they shall have been + duly received and mustered into the service of the United States, their + number will be credited as may be directed by Colonel Huidekoper. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0230" id="link2H_4_0230"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, September 3, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + The signal success that Divine Providence has recently vouchsafed to the + operations of the United States fleet and army in the harbor of Mobile, + and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan, and the + glorious achievements of the army under Major-General Sherman, in the + State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of the city of Atlanta, call + for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being in whose hands are the + destinies of nations. It is therefore requested that on next Sunday, in + all places of worship in the United States, thanksgivings be offered to + Him for His mercy in preserve our national existence against the insurgent + rebels who have been waging a cruel war against the Government of the + United States for its overthrow, and also that prayer be made for Divine + protection to our brave soldiers and their leaders in the field who have + so often and so gallantly periled their lives in battling with the enemy, + and for blessings and comfort from the Father of mercies to the sick, + wounded, and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who have + fallen in the service of their country, and that He will continue to + uphold the Government of the United States against all the efforts of + public enemies and secret foes. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0231" id="link2H_4_0231"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDERS OF GRATITUDE AND REJOICING. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + The national thanks are tendered by the President to Admiral Farragut and + Major-General Canby, for the skill and harmony with which the recent + operations in Mobile Harbor and against Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort + Morgan were planned and carried into execution. Also to Admiral Farragut + and Major-General Granger, under whose immediate command they were + conducted, and to the gallant commanders on sea and land, and to the + sailors and soldiers engaged in the operations, for their energy and + courage, which, under the blessing of Providence, have been crowned with + brilliant success, and have won for them the applause and thanks of the + nation. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0232" id="link2H_4_0232"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + The national thanks are tendered by the President to Major-General William + T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his command before + Atlanta, for the distinguished ability, courage, and perseverance + displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which under Divine power resulted in + the capture of the city of Atlanta. The marches, battles, sieges, and + other military operations that have signalized this campaign must render + it famous in the annals of war, and have entitled those who have + participated therein to the applause and thanks of the nation. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0233" id="link2H_4_0233"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + Ordered: First, That on Monday, the fifth day of September, commencing at + the hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be given a salute of one + hundred guns at the arsenal and navy-yard, at Washington, and on Tuesday, + the 6th of September, or on the day after the receipt of this order, at + each arsenal and navy-yard in the United States, for the recent brilliant + achievements of the fleet and land forces of the United States in the + harbor of Mobile, and in the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and + Fort Morgan. The Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy will issue + the necessary directions in their respective departments for the execution + of this order. + </p> + <p> + Second, That on Wednesday, the 7th of September, commencing at the hour of + twelve o'clock noon, there shall be fired a salute of one hundred guns at + the arsenal at Washington, and at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, + Baltimore, Pittsburg, Newport (Ky.), and St. Louis, and New Orleans, + Mobile, and Pensacola, Hilton Head, and Newbern, the day after the receipt + of this order, for the brilliant achievements of the army under command of + Major-General Sherman, in the State of Georgia, and for the capture of + Atlanta. The Secretary of War will issue directions for the execution of + this order. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, President Of the United States. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0234" id="link2H_4_0234"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MRS. GURNEY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 4, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + ELIZA P. GURNEY. + </p> + <p> + MY ESTEEMED FRIEND:—I have not forgotten probably never shall forget + the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on a + Sabbath forenoon two years ago—nor has your kind letter, written + nearly a year later, even been for gotten. In all, it has been your + purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the good + Christian people of the country for their constant prayer and + consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself. The purposes + of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals + may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy + termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and + has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom, and our own + error therein. Mean while we must work earnestly in the best light He + gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He + ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty + convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. + </p> + <p> + Your people—the Friends—have had, and are having, a very great + trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they + can only practically oppose oppression by war. For those appealing to me + on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and + can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this + I doubt not, and believing it, I shall still receive, for our country and + myself your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. + </p> + <p> + Your sincere friend, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0235" id="link2H_4_0235"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF COLORED PEOPLE FROM BALTIMORE + </h2> + <h3> + WHO PRESENTED HIM WITH A BIBLE, + </h3> + <p> + SEPTEMBER 7, 1864. + </p> + <p> + I can only say now, as I have often said before, it has always been a + sentiment with me, that all mankind should be free. So far as I have been + able, so far as came within my sphere, I have always acted as I believed + was just and right, and done all I could for the good of mankind. I have, + in letters sent forth from this office, expressed myself better than I can + now. + </p> + <p> + In regard to the great Book, I have only to say it is the best gift which + God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is + communicated to us through this book. But for that Book, we could not know + right from wrong. All those things desirable to man are contained in it. I + return you sincere thanks for this very elegant copy of this great Book of + God which you present. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0236" id="link2H_4_0236"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PICKERING. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 8, 1864: + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR PICKERING, Olympia, W. T.: + </p> + <p> + Your patriotic despatch of yesterday received and will be published. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0237" id="link2H_4_0237"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER OF THANKS TO HUNDRED-DAY TROOPS FROM OHIO. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, September 10, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + The term of one hundred days for which the National Guard of Ohio + volunteered having expired, the President directs an official + acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic and valuable services during + the recent campaigns. The term of service of their enlistment was short, + but distinguished by memorable events. In the Valley of the Shenandoah, on + the Peninsula, in the operations on the James River, around Petersburg and + Richmond, in the battle of Monocacy, and in the intrenchments of + Washington, and in other important service, the National Guard of Ohio + performed with alacrity the duty of patriotic volunteers, for which they + are entitled to and are hereby tendered, through the Governor of their + State, the national thanks. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0238" id="link2H_4_0238"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 12, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Sheridan and Early are facing each other at a dead-lock. Could we not pick + up a regiment here and there, to the number of say ten thousand men, and + quietly but suddenly concentrate them at Sheridan's camp and enable him to + make a strike? + </p> + <p> + This is but a suggestion. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0239" id="link2H_4_0239"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO JAMES G. BLAINE. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September + </h2> + <p> + 13, 1864. + </p> + <p> + HON. J. G. BLAINE, Augusta, Me.: On behalf of the Union, thanks to Maine. + Thanks to you personally for sending the news. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S.—Send same to L. B. Smith and M. A. Blanchard, Portland, Me. A. + L. + </p> + <p> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September + 13, 1864 + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint Louis: + </p> + <p> + Postpone the execution of S. H. Anderson for two weeks. Hear what his + friends can say in mitigation and report to me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR ECKERT: Please send the above telegram. + </p> + <p> + JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0240" id="link2H_4_0240"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SLOUGH. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 16, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL SLOUGH, Alexandria, Va.: + </p> + <p> + On the 14th I commuted the sentence of Conley, but fearing you may not + have received notice I send this. Do not execute him. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0241" id="link2H_4_0241"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. WASHINGTON, D. C., September 17,1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + </h3> + <p> + I feel great interest in the subjects of your despatch mentioning corn and + sorghum, and the contemplated visit to you. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, President of the United States. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0242" id="link2H_4_0242"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 19, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN: + </p> + <p> + The State election of Indiana occurs on the 11th of October, and the loss + of it to the friends of the Government would go far towards losing the + whole Union cause. The bad effect upon the November election, and + especially the giving the State government to those who will oppose the + war in every possible way, are too much to risk if it can be avoided. The + draft proceeds, notwithstanding its strong tendency to lose us the State. + Indiana is the only important State voting in October whose soldiers + cannot vote in the field. Anything you can safely do to let her soldiers + or any part of them go home and vote at the State election will be greatly + in point. They need not remain for the Presidential election, but may + return to you at once. This is in no sense an order, but is merely + intended to impress you with the importance to the Army itself of your + doing all you safely can, yourself being the judge of what you can safely + do. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0243" id="link2H_4_0243"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, SEPTEMBER 1864. + </h2> + <p> + The writer of this, who appeals for his brother, is our minister to + Ecuador, and whom, if at all compatible, I would like to have obliged by a + special exchange of his brother. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0244" id="link2H_4_0244"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. SHERIDAN. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September + </h2> + <p> + 20, 1864 + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN, Winchester, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Have just heard of your great victory. God bless you all, officers and + men. Strongly inclined to come up and See you. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0245" id="link2H_4_0245"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL HITCHCOCK, + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 21, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL HITCHCOCK: + </p> + <p> + Please see the bearer, Mr. Broadwell, on a question about a mutual + supplying of clothes to prisoners. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0246" id="link2H_4_0246"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 22, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + I send this as an explanation to you, and to do justice to the Secretary + of War. I was induced, upon pressing application, to authorize the agents + of one of the districts of Pennsylvania to recruit in one of the prison + depots in Illinois; and the thing went so far before it came to the + knowledge of the Secretary that, in my judgment, it could not be abandoned + without greater evil than would follow its going through. I did not know + at the time that you had protested against that class of thing being done; + and I now say that while this particular job must be completed, no other + of the sort will be authorized, without an understanding with you, if at + all. The Secretary of War is wholly free of any part in this blunder. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0247" id="link2H_4_0247"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 23, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—You have generously said to me, more than once, that + whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. + The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from no + dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. Your uniform + kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any other friend, and while it is + true that the war does not so greatly add to the difficulties of your + department as to those of some others, it is yet much to say, as I most + truly can, that in the three years and a half during which you have + administered the General Post-Office, I remember no single complaint + against you in connection therewith. + </p> + <p> + Yours, as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0248" id="link2H_4_0248"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS IN INSURRECTIONARY STATES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 24, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + I. Congress having authorized the purchase for the United States of the + products of States declared in insurrection, and the Secretary of the + Treasury having designated New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Pensacola, + Port Royal, Beaufort (North Carolina), and Norfolk, as places of purchase, + and, with my approval, appointed agents and made regulations under which + said products may be purchased, therefore: + </p> + <p> + II. All persons except such as may be in the civil, military, or naval + service of the government, having in their possession any products of + States or parts of States declared in insurrection, which said agents are + authorized to purchase; and all persons owning or controlling such + products therein are authorized to convey such products to either of the + places which have been hereby or may hereafter be designated as places of + purchase, and such products so destined shall not be liable to detention, + seizure, or forfeiture while in transitu, or in store waiting + transportation. + </p> + <p> + III. Any person having the certificate of a purchasing agent, as + prescribed by Treasury Regulation VIII, is authorized to pass with the + necessary means of transportation to the points named in said certificate, + and to return therefrom with the products required for the fulfilment of + the stipulations set forth in said certificate. + </p> + <p> + IV. Any person having sold and delivered to a purchasing agent any + products of an insurrectionary State in accordance with the regulations in + relation thereto, and having in his possession a certificate setting forth + the fact of such purchase and sale; the character and quantity of + products, and the aggregate amount paid therefor, as prescribed by + Regulation I, shall be permitted by the military authority commanding at + the place of sale to purchase from any authorized dealer at such place + merchandise and other articles not contraband of war nor prohibited by + order of the War Department, nor coin, bullion, or foreign exchange, to an + amount not exceeding in value one-third of the aggregate value of the + products sold by him as certified by the agents purchasing, and the + merchandise and other articles so purchased may be transported by the same + route, and to the same place, from and by which the products sold and + delivered reached the purchasing agent, as set forth in the certificate, + and such merchandise and other articles shall have safe conduct, and shall + not be subject to detention, seizure, or forfeiture while being + transported to the places and by the routes set forth in the said + certificate. + </p> + <p> + V. Generals commanding military districts, and commandants of military + posts and detachments, and officers commanding fleets, flotillas, and + gunboats, will give safe conduct to persons and products, merchandise, and + other articles duly authorized as aforesaid, and not contraband of war, or + prohibited by order of the War Department, or of the order of such + generals commanding, or other duly authorized military or naval officer, + made in pursuance hereof, and all persons hindering or preventing such + safe conduct of persons or property will, be deemed guilty of a military + offense and punished accordingly. + </p> + <p> + VI. Any person transporting or attempting to transport any merchandise or + other articles except in pursuance of regulations of the Secretary of the + Treasury, dated July 29, 1864, or in pursuance of this order, or + transporting or attempting to transport any merchandise or other articles + contraband of war or forbidden by any order of the War Department, will be + deemed guilty of a military offense and punished accordingly; and all + products of insurrectionary States found in transitu to any other person + or than a purchasing agent and a designated of purchase shall be seized + and forfeited to the States, except such as may be moving to a loyal state + under duly authorized permits of a proper officer of the Treasury + Department, as prescribed by Regulation XXXVIII, concerning commercial + intercourse, dated July 29, 1864, or such as may have been found + abandoned, or have been captured and are moving in pursuance of the act of + March 12, 1864. + </p> + <p> + VII. No military or naval officer of the United States, or person in the + military or naval service, nor any civil officer, except such as are + appointed for that purpose, shall engage in trade or traffic in the + products of the insurrectionary States, or furnish transportation therefor + under pain of being deemed guilty of unlawful trading with the enemy and + punished accordingly. + </p> + <p> + VIII. The Secretary of War will make such general orders or regulations as + will insure the proper observance and execution of,, this order, and the + Secretary of the Navy will give instructions to officers commanding + fleets, flotillas, and gunboats in conformity therewith. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0249" id="link2H_4_0249"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. WASHINGTON, D. C., September 27, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + </h3> + <p> + You say Jefferson Davis is on a visit to Hood. I judge that Brown and + Stephens are the objects of his visit. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0250" id="link2H_4_0250"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29,1864. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + I hope it will have no constraint on you, nor do harm any way, for me to + say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends reinforcements to Early, and thus + enables him to turn upon Sheridan. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0251" id="link2H_4_0251"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDORSEMENT. + </h2> + <h3> + September 29, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + I think the bearer of this, Second Lieutenant Albee, deserves a hearing. + Will the Secretary of War please accord it to him? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0252" id="link2H_4_0252"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER RETURNING THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS FOR ONE HUNDRED DAYS + </h2> + <h3> + FROM THE STATES OF INDIANA, ILLINOIS, IOWA, AND WISCONSIN. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </p> + <p> + WASHINGTON, October 1, 1864. + </p> + <p> + The term of one hundred days for which volunteers from the States of + Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin volunteered, under the call of + their respective governors, in the months of May and June, to aid in the + campaign of General Sherman, having expired; the President directs an + official acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic service. It was + their good fortune to render efficient service in the brilliant operations + in the Southwest and to contribute to the victories of the national arms + over the rebel forces in Georgia under command of Johnston and Hood. On + all occasions and in every service to which they were assigned their duty + as patriotic volunteers was performed with alacrity and courage, for which + they are entitled to and are hereby tendered the national thanks through + the governors of their respective States. + </p> + <p> + The Secretary of War is directed to transmit a copy of this order to the + governors of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin and to cause a + certificate of their honorable service to be delivered to the officers and + soldiers of the States above named who recently served in the military + force of the United States as volunteers for one hundred days. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0253" id="link2H_4_0253"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 5, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + I inclose you a copy of a correspondence in regard to a contemplated + exchange of naval prisoners through your lines, and not very distant from + your headquarters. It only came to the knowledge of the War Department and + of myself yesterday, and it gives us some uneasiness. I therefore send it + to you with the statement that, as the numbers to be exchanged under it + are small, and so much has already been done to effect the exchange, I + hope you may find it consistent to let it go forward under the general + supervision of General Butler, and particularly in reference to the points + he holds vital in exchanges. Still, you are at liberty to arrest the whole + operation if in your judgment the public good requires it. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0254" id="link2H_4_0254"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDORSEMENT ON A MEMORANDUM BY GENERAL McDOWELL, OCTOBER 7, 1864 + </h2> + <p> + I well remember the meetings herein narrated. See nothing for me to object + to in the narrative as being made by General McDowell, except the phrase + attributed to me "of the Jacobinism of Congress", + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [This memorandum describes the private discussions that + preceded the transfer of McClellan's army from the Potomac, + where it had confronted the Confederates at Manassas. See H. + J. Raymond: Life of Lincoln, p. 772] +</pre> + <p> + which phrase I do not remember using literally or in substance, and which + I wish not to be published in any event. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0255" id="link2H_4_0255"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO H. W. HOFFMAN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, October 10, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. HENRY W. HOFFMAN. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution + for the State; a public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore to + aid in securing its ratification by the people, and you ask a word from me + for the occasion. I presume the only feature of the instrument about which + there is serious controversy is that which provides for the extinction of + slavery. It needs not to be a secret and I presume it is no secret, that I + wish success to this provision. I desire it on every consideration. I wish + all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free, + which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring. I wish to see in + process of disappearing that only thing which ever could bring this nation + to civil war. I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is already + exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more immediately interested + sons of Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly + if the good people of the State shall, by their votes, ratify the new + constitution. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0256" id="link2H_4_0256"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 10, 1864, 5 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: + </p> + <p> + Yours of to-day just this moment received, and the Secretary having left + it is impossible for me to answer to-day. I have not received your letter + from Erie. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0257" id="link2H_4_0257"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Cambridge, Mass.: + </h2> + <p> + Your letter makes us a little uneasy about your health. Telegraph us how + you are. If you think it would help you, make us a visit. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0258" id="link2H_4_0258"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 12, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours about election. Pennsylvania + very close, and still in doubt on home vote. Ohio largely for us, with all + the members of Congress but two or three. Indiana largely for us,—Governor, + it is said, by fifteen thousand, and eight of the eleven members of + Congress. Send us what you may know of your army vote. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0259" id="link2H_4_0259"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + </h2> + <h3> + OCTOBER 19, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:—I am notified that this is a compliment + paid me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer that + the adoption of the new constitution for the State furnishes the occasion, + and that in your view the extirpation of slavery constitutes the chief + merit of the new constitution. Most heartily do I congratulate you, and + Maryland, and the nation, and the world, upon this event. I regret that it + did not occur two years sooner, which, I am sure, would have saved the + nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to the + measure; but it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may + fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its + opponents may by its effects be agreeably and profitably disappointed. + </p> + <p> + A word upon another subject. Something said by the Secretary of State in + his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat, + that if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between then and the + end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin the + Government. + </p> + <p> + Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine + die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as + the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall be elected he will + at once seize control of the Government. I hope the good people will + permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling + to maintain the Government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling + especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say, that + if I live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that + whoever shall be constitutionally elected, in November, shall be duly + installed as President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do + my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall start + with the best possible chance of saving the ship. This is due to the + people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their will, + constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If they should + deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the loss of their + country and their liberties, I know not the power or the right to resist + them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their + own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country + and their liberties; and in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to + stand by them. I may add, that in this purpose to save the country and its + liberties, no classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers + in the field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? + Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen, + with all their brave commanders. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0260" id="link2H_4_0260"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 20, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, + defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from + abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over + the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly + Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in + their camps, and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual health. + He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by + immigration, while he has opened to us new: sources of wealth, and has + crowned the labor of our working-men in every department of industry with + abundant rewards. Moreover, he has been pleased to animate and inspire our + minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for + the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our + adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford + to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our + dangers and afflictions. + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do + hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day + which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may + be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the + beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend + to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently + humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and + fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for a + return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony + throughout the, land which it has pleased him to assign as a + dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all + generations. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed. + </p> + <p> + Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of October, in the year + of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the + independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0261" id="link2H_4_0261"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM To J. G. NICOLAY. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 21, 1864. 9.45 P.M. + </h2> + <h3> + J. G. NICOLAY, Saint Louis, Missouri: + </h3> + <p> + While Curtis is fighting Price, have you any idea where the force under + Rosecrans is, or what it is doing? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0262" id="link2H_4_0262"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 22, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MESSRS WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL, THOMAS A. R. NELSON, JAMES T. P. CARTER, JOHN + WILLIAMS, A. BLIZZARD, HENRY COOPER, BAILLIE PEYTON, JOHN LELLYET, EMERSON + ETHERIDGE, and JOHN D. PERRYMAN. + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:—On the 15th day of this month, as I remember, a printed + paper manuscript, with a few manuscript interlineations, called a protest, + with your names appended thereto, and accompanied by another printed + paper, purporting to be a proclamation by Andrew Johnson, Military + Governor of Tennessee, and also a manuscript paper, purporting to be + extracts from the Code of Tennessee, were laid before me. + </p> + <p> + The protest, proclamation, and extracts are respectively as follows: + </p> + <p> + [The protest is here recited, and also the proclamation of Governor + Johnson, dated September 30, to which it refers, together with a list of + the counties in East, Middle, and West Tennessee; also extracts from the + Code of Tennessee in relation to electors of President and Vice-President, + qualifications of voters for members of the General Assembly, places of + holding elections, and officers of popular elections.] + </p> + <p> + At the time these papers were presented, as before stated, I had never + seen either of them, nor heard of the subject to which they related, + except in a general way one day previously. + </p> + <p> + Up to the present moment, nothing whatever upon the subject has passed + between Governor Johnson, or any one else, connected with the + proclamation, and myself. + </p> + <p> + Since receiving the papers, as stated, I have given the subject such brief + consideration as I have been able to do, in the midst of so many pressing + public duties. + </p> + <p> + My conclusion is, that I can have nothing to do with the matter, either to + sustain the plan as the convention and Governor Johnson have initiated it, + or to revoke or modify it as you demand. + </p> + <p> + By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty in the + presidential election in any State, nor do I in this case perceive any + military reason for his interference in the matter. + </p> + <p> + The movement set on foot by the convention and Governor Johnson does not, + as seems to be assumed by you, emanate from the National Executive. + </p> + <p> + In no proper sense can it be considered other than an independent movement + of, at least, a portion of the loyal people of Tennessee. + </p> + <p> + I do not perceive in the plan any menace, or violence, or coercion towards + any one. + </p> + <p> + Governor Johnson, like any other loyal citizen of Tennessee, has the right + to favor any political plan he chooses, and, as military governor, it is + his duty to keep peace among and for the loyal people of the State. + </p> + <p> + I cannot discern that by this plan he purposes any more. But you object to + the plan. + </p> + <p> + Leaving it alone will be your perfect security against it. It is not + proposed to force you into it. Do as you please, on your own account, + peaceably and loyally, and Governor Johnson will not molest you, but will + protect you against violence as far as in his power. + </p> + <p> + I presume that the conducting of a presidential election in Tennessee in + strict accordance with the old Code of the State, is not now a + possibility. + </p> + <p> + It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any election shall be held and + any votes shall be cast in the State of Tennessee for President and + Vice-President of the United States, it will belong, not to the military + agents, nor yet to the Executive Department, but exclusively to another + department of the Government, to determine whether they are entitled to be + counted in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States. + </p> + <p> + Except it be to give protection against violence, I decline to interfere + in any way with any presidential election. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October + 22, 1864 + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN: + </p> + <p> + With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of the + nation, and my own personal admiration and gratitude, for the month's + operations in the Shenandoah Valley; and especially for the splendid work + of October 19, 1864. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0263" id="link2H_4_0263"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 23, 1864 5 + </h2> + <p> + P.M. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + </p> + <p> + I have received information to-day, having great appearance of + authenticity, that there is to be a rebel raid into Western Kentucky; that + it is to consist of four thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, and + is to start from Corinth, Mississippi, On the fourth day of November. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, President. + </p> + <p> + Send copy to General Washburn at Memphis. A. L. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0264" id="link2H_4_0264"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO T. T. DAVIS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, + </h2> + <p> + 1864. + </p> + <p> + HON. THOMAS T. DAVIS, Syracuse, N.Y.: + </p> + <p> + I have ordered that Milton D. Norton be discharged on taking the oath. + Please notify his mother. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0265" id="link2H_4_0265"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION ADMITTING NEVADA INTO THE UNION + </h2> + <h3> + OCTOBER 31, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation + </p> + <p> + Whereas the Congress of the United States passed an act, which was + approved on the 21st day of March last, entitled "An act to enable the + people of Nevada to form a constitution and State government, and for the + admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the + original States;" and, + </p> + <p> + Whereas the said constitution and State government have been formed, + pursuant to the conditions prescribed by the fifth section of the act of + Congress aforesaid, and the certificate required by the said act and also + a copy of the constitution and ordinances have been submitted to the + President of the United States: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the + United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act of + Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said State of + Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original + States. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the + United States to be affixed.......... + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0266" id="link2H_4_0266"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURBRIDGE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 4, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky. + </p> + <p> + Suspend execution of all the deserters ordered to be executed on Sunday at + Louisville, until further order, and send me the records in the cases. + Acknowledge receipt. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0267" id="link2H_4_0267"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO NAVAL OFFICER AT MOBILE BAY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. 9 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL CANBY, New Orleans, La.: + </p> + <p> + Please forward with all possible despatch to the naval officer commanding + at Mobile Bay the following order. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + (Inclosure.) + </p> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. + </p> + <p> + NAVAL OFFICER IN COMMAND AT MOBILE BAY + </p> + <p> + Do not on any account, or on any showing of authority whatever, from + whomsoever purporting to come, allow the blockade to be violated. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0268" id="link2H_4_0268"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SAILORS' FAIR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., November 8, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SAILORS' FAIR, Boston, Massachusetts + </p> + <p> + Allow me to wish you a great success. With the old fame of the Navy made + brighter in the present war you cannot fail. I name none lest I wrong + others by omission. To all, from rear-admiral to honest Jack, I tender the + nation's admiration and gratitude. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0269" id="link2H_4_0269"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO A. H. RICE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + HON. A. H. RICE, Boston, Massachusetts: + </p> + <p> + Yours received. I have no other notice that the ox is mine. If it be + really so, I present it to the Sailors' Fair as a contribution. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0270" id="link2H_4_0270"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Auburn, New York: + </h3> + <p> + News from Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Rosecrans satisfactory, but not + important. Pirate Florida captured by the Wachusett October 7, on the + coast of Brazil. The information is certain. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0271" id="link2H_4_0271"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, NOVEMBER 9, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:—Even before I had been informed by you + that this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, + friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my + countrymen who think that the best interests of the nation are to be + subserved by the support of the present administration. I do not pretend + to say that you, who think so, embrace all the patriotism and loyalty of + the country, but I do believe, and I trust without personal interest, that + the welfare of the country does require that such support and indorsement + should be given. + </p> + <p> + I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work, if it be as + you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advantage, + if not to the very salvation, of the country. I cannot at this hour say + what has been the result of the election. But, whatever it may be, I have + no desire to modify this opinion: that all who have labored to-day in + behalf of the Union have wrought for the best interests of the country and + the world; not only for the present, but for all future ages. + </p> + <p> + I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply + grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my + gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the + motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over + any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the + people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of + humanity. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0272" id="link2H_4_0272"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO H. W. HOFFMAN. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. November 10, + </h2> + <p> + 1864. + </p> + <p> + H. HOFFMAN, Baltimore, Md.: + </p> + <p> + The Maryland soldiers in the Army of the Potomac cast a total vote of + fourteen hundred and twenty-eight, out of which we get eleven hundred and + sixty majority. This is directly from General Meade and General Grant. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0273" id="link2H_4_0273"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT + </h2> + <h3> + RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, NOVEMBER 10, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong + for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its + existence in great emergencies. On this point the present rebellion + brought our government to a severe test, and a presidential election + occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to + the strain. + </p> + <p> + If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their strength by the + rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially paralyzed by a + political war among themselves? But the election was a necessity. We + cannot have free government without elections; and if the election could + force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim + to have already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the election is but + human nature practically applied to the facts of the case. What has + occurred in this case must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will + not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of + this, we will have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and + as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy to + learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. + </p> + <p> + But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has + done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain + a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has + not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also, + how sound and strong we still are. It shows that even among the candidates + of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union and most opposed to + treason can receive most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to the + extent yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war + began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are + better than gold. + </p> + <p> + But the rebellion continues, and, now that the election is over, may not + all have a common interest to reunite in a common effort to save our + common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid + placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not + willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am duly sensible to + the high compliment of a re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to + Almighty God, for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as + I think, for their good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other + man may be disappointed by the result. + </p> + <p> + May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this same + spirit towards those who have? And now, let me close by asking three + hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their gallant and + skillful commanders. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0274" id="link2H_4_0274"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + </h3> + <p> + I have just received a telegram from Governor Bramlette saying: "General + John B. Houston, a loyal man and prominent citizen, was arrested, and + yesterday, started off by General Burbridge, to be sent beyond our lines + by way of Catlettsburg, for no other offense than opposition to your + re-election," and I have answered him as follows below, of which please + take notice and report to me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0275" id="link2H_4_0275"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + </h2> + <p> + Yours of yesterday received. I can scarcely believe that General John B. + Houston has been arrested "for no other offense than opposition to my + re-election;" for, if that had been deemed sufficient cause of arrest, I + should have heard of more than one arrest in Kentucky on election day. If, + however, General Houston has been arrested for no other cause than + opposition to my re-election, General Burbridge will discharge him at + once, I sending him a copy of this as an order to that effect. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0276" id="link2H_4_0276"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT. + </h2> + <h3> + (Private.) + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT: + </p> + <p> + Few things since I have been here have impressed me more painfully than + what, for four or five months past, has appeared a bitter military + opposition to the new State government of Louisiana. I still indulged some + hope that I was mistaken in the fact; but copies of a correspondence on + the subject between General Canby and yourself, and shown me to-day, + dispel that hope. A very fair proportion of the people of Louisiana have + inaugurated a new State government, making an excellent new constitution—better + for the poor black man than we have in Illinois. This was done under + military protection, directed by me, in the belief, still sincerely + entertained, that with such a nucleus around which to build we could get + the State into position again sooner than otherwise. In this belief a + general promise of protection and support, applicable alike to Louisiana + and other States, was given in the last annual message. During the + formation of the new government and constitution they were supported by + nearly every loyal person, and opposed by every secessionist. And this + support and this opposition, from the respective standpoints of the + parties, was perfectly consistent and logical. Every Unionist ought to + wish the new government to succeed; and every disunionist must desire it + to fail. Its failure would gladden the heart of Slidell in Europe, and of + every enemy of the old flag in the world. Every advocate of slavery + naturally desires to see blasted and crushed the liberty promised the + black man by the new constitution. But why General Canby and General + Hurlbut should join on the same side is to me incomprehensible. + </p> + <p> + Of course, in the condition of things at New Orleans, the military must + not be thwarted by the civil authority; but when the Constitutional + Convention, for what it deems a breach of privilege, arrests an editor in + no way connected with the military, the military necessity for insulting + the convention and forcibly discharging the editor is difficult to + perceive. Neither is the military necessity for protecting the people + against paying large salaries fixed by a legislature of their own choosing + very apparent. Equally difficult to perceive is the military necessity for + forcibly interposing to prevent a bank from loaning its own money to the + State. These things, if they have occurred, are, at the best, no better + than gratuitous hostility. I wish I could hope that they may be shown not + to have occurred. To make assurance against misunderstanding, I repeat + that in the existing condition of things in Louisiana, the military must + not be thwarted by the civil authority; and I add that on points of + difference the commanding general must be judge and master. But I also add + that in the exercise of this judgment and control, a purpose, obvious, and + scarcely unavowed, to transcend all military necessity, in order to crush + out the civil government, will not be overlooked. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0277" id="link2H_4_0277"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO MARYLAND UNION COMMITTEE, NOVEMBER 17, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + The President, in reply, said that he had to confess he had been duly + notified of the intention to make this friendly call some days ago, and in + this he had had a fair opportunity afforded to be ready with a set speech; + but he had not prepared one, being too busy for that purpose. He would + say, however, that he was gratified with the result of the presidential + election. He had kept as near as he could to the exercise of his best + judgment for the interest of the whole country, and to have the seal of + approbation stamped on the course he had pursued was exceedingly grateful + to his feelings. He thought he could say, in as large a sense as any other + man, that his pleasure consisted in belief that the policy he had pursued + was the best, if not the only one, for the safety of the country. + </p> + <p> + He had said before, and now repeated, that he indulged in no feeling of + triumph over any man who thought or acted differently from himself. He had + no such feeling toward any living man. When he thought of Maryland, in + particular, he was of the opinion that she had more than double her share + in what had occurred in the recent elections. The adoption of a free-State + constitution was a greater thing than the part taken by the people of the + State in the presidential election. He would any day have stipulated to + lose Maryland in the presidential election to save it by the adoption of a + free-State constitution, because the presidential election comes every + four years, while that is a thing which, being done, cannot be undone. He + therefore thought that in that they had a victory for the right worth a + great deal more than their part in the presidential election, though of + the latter he thought highly. He had once before said, but would say + again, that those who have differed with us and opposed us will see that + the result of the presidential election is better for their own good than + if they had been successful. + </p> + <p> + Thanking the committee for their compliment, he brought his brief speech + to a close. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0278" id="link2H_4_0278"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, NOVEMBER 19, 1864 + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas by my proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, it was declared + that the ports of certain States, including those of Norfolk, in the State + of Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, in the State of Florida, were, for + reasons therein set forth, intended to be placed under blockade; and: + </p> + <p> + Whereas the said ports were subsequently blockaded accordingly, but having + for some time past been in the military possession of the United States, + it is deeemd advisable that they should be opened to domestic and foreign + commerce: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the + United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section + of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An + act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for + other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said ports of + Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola shall so far cease and determine, from + and after the first day of December next, that commercial intercourse with + those ports, except as to persons, things, and information contraband of + war, may, from that time, be carried on, subject to the laws of the United + States, to the limitations and in pursuance of the regulations which may + be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and to such military and + naval regulations as are now in force, or may hereafter be found + necessary. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the + United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this + nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight + hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the + eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0279" id="link2H_4_0279"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FIVE-STAR MOTHER + </h2> + <h3> + TO MRS. BIXBY. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864. + </p> + <p> + MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts. + </p> + <p> + DEAR MADAM:—I have been shown in the files of the War Department a + statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother + of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how + weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to + beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain + from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of + the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may + assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished + memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to + have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. + </p> + <p> + Yours very sincerely and respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0280" id="link2H_4_0280"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. PHILLIPS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + DEACON JOHN PHILLIPS. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, + in which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of writing + to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment paid me by the + suffrage of a citizen so venerable. + </p> + <p> + The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have + already been extended an average lifetime beyond the Psalmist's limit, + cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself only, but for + the country which you have in your sphere served so long and so well, that + I thank you. + </p> + <p> + Your friend and servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0281" id="link2H_4_0281"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. WASHINGTON, D. C. NOVEMBER 22, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + </h3> + <p> + Yours of to-day received. It seems that Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs and + Colonel Wolford are stationary now. General Sudarth and Mr. Hodges are + here, and the Secretary of War and myself are trying to devise means of + pacification and harmony for Kentucky, which we hope to effect soon, now + that the passion-exciting subject of the election is past. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0282" id="link2H_4_0282"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 25, 1864 + </h2> + <h3> + GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; + </h3> + <p> + I have no knowledge, information, or belief, that three States—or + any States, offer to resume allegiance. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0283" id="link2H_4_0283"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. + </h2> + <p> + 26, 1864 MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS: + </p> + <p> + Please telegraph me briefly on what charge and evidence Mrs. Anna B. + Martin has been sent to the penitentiary at Alton. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0284" id="link2H_4_0284"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MEMORANDUM, + </h2> + <h3> + DECEMBER 3, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee came before the + President, asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of war + at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they came again, + and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews one of + the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man, and on Saturday the + President ordered the release of the prisoners, when he said to this lady: + "You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that + I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the + religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their own government, + because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some + men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort + of religion upon which people can get to heaven." + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0285" id="link2H_4_0285"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER CONCERNING THE STEAMER "FUNAYMA SOLACE." + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 3, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + A war steamer, called the Funayma Solace, having been built in this + country, for the Japanese government and at the instance of that + government, it is deemed to comport with the public interest, in view of + the unsettled condition of the relations of the United States with that + Empire, that the steamer should not be allowed to proceed to Japan. If, + however, the Secretary of the Navy should ascertain that the steamer is + adapted to our service, he is authorized to purchase her, but the purchase + money will be held in trust toward satisfying any valid claims which may + be presented by the Japanese on account of the construction of the steamer + and the failure to deliver the same, as above set forth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + </p> + <p> + WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864 + </p> + <p> + TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend that + Captain John A. Winslow, United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks from + Congress for the skill and gallantry exhibited by him in the brilliant + action whilst in command of the United States steamer Keaysarge, which led + to the total destruction of the piratical craft Alabama, on the 19th of + June, 1864., a vessel superior in tonnage, superior in number of guns, and + superior in number of crew. + </p> + <p> + This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the + requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in the + following words, viz: + </p> + <p> + That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one + grade, if, upon recommendation by the President by name he receives the + thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with the + enemy, or far extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, <a name="link2H_4_0286" id="link2H_4_0286"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend that + Lieutenant William B. Gushing, United States Navy, receive a vote of + thanks from Congress for his important, gallant, and perilous achievement + in destroying the rebel ironclad steamer Albemarle on the night of the + 27th of October, 1864., at Plymouth, N. C. + </p> + <p> + The destruction of so formidable a vessel, which had resisted the + continued attacks of a number of our vessels on former occasions, is an + important event touching our future naval and military operations, and + would reflect honor on any officer, and redounds to the credit of this + young officer and the few brave comrades who assisted in this successful + and daring undertaking. + </p> + <p> + This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the + requirements of the ninth section of the Aforesaid act, which is in the + following words, namely: + </p> + <p> + That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one + grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the + thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with the + enemy, or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0287" id="link2H_4_0287"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + </h2> + <h3> + DECEMBER 6, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + Again the blessings of health and abundant harvests claim our profoundest + gratitude to Almighty God. + </p> + <p> + The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably satisfactory. + </p> + <p> + Mexico continues to be a theater of civil war. While our political + relations with that country have undergone no change, we have at the same + time strictly maintained neutrality between the belligerents. + </p> + <p> + At the request of the States of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a competent + engineer has been authorized to make a survey of the river San Juan and + the port of San Juan. It is a source of much satisfaction that the + difficulties which for a moment excited some political apprehensions and + caused a closing of the interoceanic transit route have been amicably + adjusted, and that there is a good prospect that the route will soon be + reopened with an increase of capacity and adaptation. We could not + exaggerate either the commercial or the political importance of that great + improvement. + </p> + <p> + It would be doing injustice to an important South American State not to + acknowledge the directness, frankness, and cordiality with which the + United States of Colombia have entered into intimate relations with this + government. A claims convention has been constituted to complete the + unfinished work of the one which closed its session in 1861. + </p> + <p> + The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having gone into effect with the + universal acquiescence of the people, the government under it has been + recognized and diplomatic intercourse with it has opened in a cordial and + friendly spirit. The long-deferred Aves Island claim has been + satisfactorily paid and discharged. + </p> + <p> + Mutual payments have been made of the claims awarded by the late joint + commission for the settlement of claims between the United States and + Peru. An earnest and cordial friendship continues to exist between the two + countries, and such efforts as were in my power have been used to remove + misunderstanding, and avert a threatened war between Peru and Spain. + </p> + <p> + Our relations are of the most friendly nature with Chile, the Argentine + Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salvador, and Haiti. + </p> + <p> + During the past year no differences of any kind have arisen with any of + these republics, and on the other hand, their sympathies with the United + States are constantly expressed with cordiality and earnestness. + </p> + <p> + The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo of the brig Macedonian in + 1821 has been paid in full by the Government of Chile. + </p> + <p> + Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San Domingo, apparently without + prospect of an early close. + </p> + <p> + Official correspondence has been freely opened with Liberia, and it gives + us a pleasing view of social and political progress in that republic. It + may be expected to derive new vigor from American influence improved by + the rapid disappearance of slavery in the United States. + </p> + <p> + I solicit your authority to furnish to the republic a gunboat, at moderate + cost, to be reimbursed to the United States by instalments. Such a vessel + is needed for the safety of that state against the native African races, + and in Liberian hands it would be more effective in arresting the African + slave-trade than a squadron in our own hands. The possession of the least + organized naval force would stimulate a generous ambition in the republic, + and the confidence which we should manifest by furnishing it would win + forbearance and favor toward the colony from all civilized nations. + </p> + <p> + The proposed overland telegraph between America and Europe, by the way of + Bering Straits and Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by Congress at the + last session, has been undertaken, under very favorable circumstances, by + an association of American citizens, with the cordial good-will and + support as well of this Government as of those of Great Britain and + Russia. Assurances have been received from most of the South American + States of their high appreciation of the enterprise and their readiness to + co-operate in constructing lines tributary to that world-encircling + communication. I learn with much satisfaction that the noble design of a + telegraphic communication between the eastern coast of America and Great + Britain has been renewed, with full expectation of its early + accomplishment. + </p> + <p> + Thus it is hoped that with the return of domestic peace the country will + be able to resume with energy and advantage its former high career of + commerce and civilization. + </p> + <p> + Our very popular and estimable representative in Egypt died in April last. + An unpleasant altercation which arose between the temporary incumbent of + the office and the Government of the Pasha resulted in a suspension of + intercourse. The evil was promptly corrected on the arrival of the + successor in the consulate, and our relations with Egypt, as well as our + relations with the Barbary Powers, are entirely satisfactory. + </p> + <p> + The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in China has at last been + suppressed, with the co-operating good offices of this Government and of + the other Western commercial States. The judicial consular establishment + there has become very difficult and onerous, and it will need legislative + revision to adapt it to the extension of our commerce and to the more + intimate intercourse which has been instituted with the Government and + people of that vast Empire. China seems to be accepting with hearty + good-will the conventional laws which regulate commercial and social + intercourse among the Western nations. + </p> + <p> + Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan and the anomalous form of its + Government, the action of that empire in performing treaty stipulations is + inconstant and capricious. Nevertheless, good progress has been effected + by the Western powers, moving with enlightened concert. Our own pecuniary + claims have been allowed or put in course of settlement, and the inland + sea has been reopened to commerce. There is reason also to believe that + these proceedings have increased rather than diminished the friendship of + Japan toward the United States. + </p> + <p> + The ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola have been opened by + proclamation. It is hoped that foreign merchants will now consider whether + it is not safer and more profitable to themselves, as well as just to the + United States, to resort to these and other open ports than it is to + pursue, through many hazards and at vast cost, a contraband trade with + other ports which are closed, if not by actual military occupation, at + least by a lawful and effective blockade. + </p> + <p> + For myself, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive, under + the law of nations, to exclude enemies of the human race from an asylum in + the United States. If Congress should think that proceedings in such cases + lack the authority of law, or ought to be further regulated by it, I + recommend that provision be made for effectually preventing foreign slave + traders from acquiring domicile and facilities for their criminal + occupation in our country. + </p> + <p> + It is possible that if it were a new and open question the maritime + powers, with the lights they now enjoy, would not concede the privileges + of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the United States, destitute, + as they are, and always have been, equally of ships of war and of ports + and harbors. Disloyal emissaries have been neither assiduous nor more + successful during the last year than they were before that time in their + efforts, under favor of that privilege, to embroil our country in foreign + wars. The desire and determination of the governments of the maritime + states to defeat that design are believed to be as sincere as and can not + be more earnest than our own. Nevertheless, unforeseen political + difficulties have arisen, especially in Brazilian and British ports and on + the northern boundary of the United States, which have required, and are + likely to continue to require, the practice of constant vigilance and a + just and conciliatory spirit on the part of the United States, as well as + of the nations concerned and their governments. + </p> + <p> + Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great Britain on + the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound + Agricultural Companies, in Oregon, and are now proceeding to the execution + of the trust assigned to them. + </p> + <p> + In view of the insecurity of life and property in the region adjacent to + the Canadian border, by reason of recent assaults and depredations + committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, it has + been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration of six + months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing arrangement + with Great Britain, the United States must hold themselves at liberty to + increase their naval armament upon the Lakes if they shall find that + proceeding necessary. The condition of the border will necessarily come + into consideration in connection with the question of continuing or + modifying the rights of transit from Canada through the United States, as + well as the regulation of imposts, which were temporarily established by + the reciprocity treaty of the 5th June, 1854. + </p> + <p> + I desire, however, to be understood while making this statement that the + colonial authorities of Canada are not deemed to be intentionally unjust + or unfriendly toward the United States, but, on the contrary, there is + every reason to expect that, with the approval of the Imperial Government, + they will take the necessary measures to prevent new incursions across the + border. + </p> + <p> + The act passed at the last session for the encouragement of immigration + has so far as was possible been put into operation. It seems to need + amendment which will enable the officers of the Government to prevent the + practice of frauds against the immigrants while on their way and on their + arrival in the ports, so as to secure them here a free choice of + avocations and places of settlement. A liberal disposition toward this + great national policy is manifested by most of the European States, and + ought to be reciprocated on our part by giving the immigrants effective + national protection. I regard our immigrants as one of the principal + replenishing streams which are appointed by Providence to repair the + ravages of internal war and its wastes of national strength and health. + All that is necessary is to secure the flow of that stream in its present + fullness, and to that end the Government must in every way make it + manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose involuntary military + service upon those who come from other lands to cast their lot in our + country. The financial affairs of the Government have been successfully + administered during the last year. The legislation of the last session of + Congress has beneficially affected the revenues, although sufficient time + has not yet elapsed to experience the full effect of several of the + provisions of the acts of Congress imposing increased taxation. + </p> + <p> + The receipts during the year from all sources, upon the basis of warrants + signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans and the balance + in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1863, were $1,394,196,007.62, and + the aggregate disbursements, upon the same basis, were $1,298,056,101.89, + leaving a balance in the Treasury, as shown by warrants, of + $96,739,905.73. + </p> + <p> + Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public debt + redeemed and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and the actual + cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, $884,076,646.57; + disbursements, $865,234,087.86; which leaves a cash balance in the + Treasury of $18,842,558.71. + </p> + <p> + Of the receipts there were derived from customs $102,316,152.99, from + lands $588,333.29, from direct taxes $475,648.96, from internal revenue + $109,741,134.10, from miscellaneous sources $47,511,448.10, and from loans + applied to actual expenditures, including former balance, $623,443,929.13. + </p> + <p> + There were disbursed for the civil service $27,505,599.46, for pensions + and Indians $7,517,930.97, for the War Department $690,791,842.97, for the + Navy Department $85,733,292.77, for interest on the public debt + $53,685,421.69, making an aggregate of $865,234,087.86, and leaving a + balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558.71, as before stated. + </p> + <p> + For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the + estimated receipts and disbursements for the three remaining quarters of + the current fiscal year, and the general operations of the Treasury in + detail, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. I + concur with him in the opinion that the proportion of moneys required to + meet the expenses consequent upon the war derived from taxation should be + still further increased; and I earnestly invite your attention to this + subject to the end that there be such additional legislation as shall be + required to meet the just expectations of the Secretary. + </p> + <p> + The public debt on the first day of July last, as appears by the books of + the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489.49. Probably, should the war + continue for another year, that amount may be increased by not far from + $500,000,000. Held, as it is, for the most part by our own people, it has + become a substantial branch of national, though private, property. For + obvious reasons the more nearly this property can be distributed among all + the people the better. To favor such general distribution, greater + inducements to become owners might, perhaps, with good effect and without + injury be presented to persons of limited means. With this view I suggest + whether it might not be both competent and expedient for Congress to + provide that a limited amount of some future issue of public securities + might be held by any bona fide purchaser exempt from taxation and from + seizure for debt, under such restrictions and limitations as might be + necessary to guard against abuse of so important a privilege. This would + enable every prudent person to set aside a small annuity against a + possible day of want. + </p> + <p> + Privileges like these would render the possession of such securities to + the amount limited most desirable to every person of small means who might + be able to save enough for the purpose. The great advantage of citizens + being creditors as well as debtors with relation to the public debt is + obvious. Men readily perceive that they can not be much oppressed by a + debt which they owe to themselves. + </p> + <p> + The public debt on the first day of July last, although somewhat exceeding + the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to Congress at the + commencement of the last session, falls short of the estimate of that + officer made in the preceding December as to its probable amount at the + beginning of this year by the sum of $3,995,097.31. This fact exhibits a + satisfactory condition and conduct of the operations of the Treasury. + </p> + <p> + The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to capitalists and + to the people. On the twenty-fifth day of November five hundred and + eighty-four national banks had been organized, a considerable number of + which were conversions from State banks. Changes from State systems to the + national system are rapidly taking place, and it is hoped that very soon + there will be in the United States no banks of issue not authorized by + Congress and no bank-note circulation not secured by the Government. That + the Government and the people will derive great benefit from this change + in the banking systems of the country can hardly be questioned. The + national system will create a reliable and permanent influence in support + of the national credit and protect the people against losses in the use of + paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is advisable for the + suppression of State-bank issues, it will be for Congress to determine. It + seems quite clear that the Treasury can not be satisfactorily conducted + unless the Government can exercise a restraining power over the bank-note + circulation of the country. + </p> + <p> + The report of the Secretary of War and the accompanying documents will + detail the campaigns of the armies in the field since the date of the last + annual message, and also the operations of the several administrative + bureaus of the War Department during the last year. It will also specify + the measures deemed essential for the national defense and to keep up and + supply the requisite military force. + </p> + <p> + The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehensive and + satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that Department and of the naval + service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable pride to our + countrymen that a Navy of such vast proportions has been organized in so + brief a period and conducted with so much efficiency and success. + </p> + <p> + The general exhibit of the Navy, including vessels under construction on + the first of December, 1864, shows a total of 671 vessels, carrying 4610 + guns, and of 510,396 tons, being an actual increase during the year, over + and above all losses by shipwreck or in battle, of 83 vessels, 167 guns, + and 42,427 tons. + </p> + <p> + The total number of men at this time in the naval service, including + officers, is about 51,000. + </p> + <p> + There have been captured by the Navy during the year 324 vessels, and the + whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced is 1379, of + which 267 are steamers. + </p> + <p> + The gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property thus + far reported amount to $14,369,250.51. A large amount of such proceeds is + still under adjudication and yet to be reported. + </p> + <p> + The total expenditure of the Navy Department of every description, + including the cost of the immense squadrons that have been called into + existence from the fourth of March, 1861, to the first of November, 1864, + is $238,647,262.35. + </p> + <p> + Your favorable consideration is invited to the various recommendations of + the Secretary of the Navy, especially in regard to a navy-yard and + suitable establishment for the construction and repair of iron vessels and + the machinery and armature for our ships, to which reference was made in + my last annual message. + </p> + <p> + Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the report in + relation to the legislation of Congress at its last session in respect to + prize on our inland waters. + </p> + <p> + I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to the + propriety of creating the new rank of vice-admiral in our naval service. + </p> + <p> + Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster-General for a + detailed account of the operations and financial condition of the + Post-Office Department. + </p> + <p> + The postal revenues for the year ending June 30, 1864, amounted to + $12,438,253.78, and the expenditures to $12,644,786.20, the excess of + expenditures over receipts being $206,532.42. + </p> + <p> + The views presented by the Postmaster-General on the subject of special + grants by the Government in aid of the establishment of new lines of ocean + mail steamships and the policy he recommends for the development of + increased commercial intercourse with adjacent and neighboring countries + should receive the careful consideration of Congress. + </p> + <p> + It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of population, + improvement, and governmental institutions over the new and unoccupied + portions of our country have scarcely been checked, much less impeded or + destroyed, by our great civil war, which at first glance would seem to + have absorbed almost the entire energies of the nation. + </p> + <p> + The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been completed + in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is firmly + established in the mountains, which once seemed a barren and uninhabitable + waste between the Atlantic States and those which have grown up on the + coast of the Pacific Ocean. + </p> + <p> + The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of prosperity + and rapid growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their great distance and + the interruption of communication with them by Indian hostilities, have + been only partially organized; but it is understood that these + difficulties are about to disappear, which will permit their governments, + like those of the others, to go into speedy and full operation. + </p> + <p> + As intimately connected with and promotive of this material growth of the + nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the valuable information and + important recommendations relating to the public lands, Indian affairs, + the Pacific Railroad, and mineral discoveries contained in the report of + the Secretary of the Interior which is herewith transmitted, and which + report also embraces the subjects of patents, pensions, and other topics + of public interest pertaining to his Department. + </p> + <p> + The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters ending on + the thirtieth of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of which 1,538,614 + acres were entered under the homestead law. The remainder was located with + military land warrants, agricultural scrip certified to States for + railroads, and sold for cash. The cash received from sales and location + fees was $1,019,446. + </p> + <p> + The income from sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, was + $678,007.21, against $136,077.95 received during the preceding year. The + aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has been equal to the + quantity disposed of, and there is open to settlement about 133,000,000 + acres of surveyed land. + </p> + <p> + The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific States by + railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a vigor that gives + assurance of success, notwithstanding the embarrassments arising from the + prevailing high prices of materials and labor. The route of the main line + of the road has been definitely located for one hundred miles westward + from the initial point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location + of the Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento + eastward to the great bend of the Truckee River in Nevada. + </p> + <p> + Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been added + to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the Sierra + Nevada and Rocky mountains and the subordinate ranges now teems with + enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is believed that the + produce of the mines of precious metals in that region has during the year + reached, if not exceeded, $100,000,000 in value. + </p> + <p> + It was recommended in my last annual message that our Indian system be + remodeled. Congress at its last session, acting upon the recommendation, + did provide for reorganizing the system in California, and it is believed + that under the present organization the management of the Indians there + will be attended with reasonable success. Much yet remains to be done to + provide for the proper government of the Indians in other parts of the + country, to render it secure for the advancing settler, and to provide for + the welfare of the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recommendations, + and to them the attention of Congress is invited. + </p> + <p> + The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to invalid + soldiers and sailors of the Republic and to the widows, orphans, and + dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle or died of disease + contracted or of wounds received in the service of their country have been + diligently administered. There have been added to the pension rolls during + the year ending the 30th day of June last the names of 16,770 invalid + soldiers and of 271 disabled seamen, making the present number of army + invalid pensioners 22,767 and of navy invalid pensioners 712. + </p> + <p> + Of widows, orphans, and mothers 22,198 have been placed on the army + pension rolls and 248 on the navy rolls. The present number of army + pensioners of this class is 25,433 and of navy pensioners 793. At the + beginning of the year the number of Revolutionary pensioners was 1430. + Only twelve of them were soldiers, of whom seven have since died. The + remainder are those who under the law receive pensions because of + relationship to Revolutionary soldiers. During the year ending the + thirtieth of June, 1864, $4,504,616.92 have been paid to pensioners of all + classes. + </p> + <p> + I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent + institutions of the District of Columbia which have hitherto been + established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer for + information concerning them and in relation to the Washington Aqueduct, + the Capitol, and other matters of local interest to the report of the + Secretary. + </p> + <p> + The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present + energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself to the great and + vital interest it was created to advance. It is peculiarly the people's + department, in which they feel more directly concerned than in any other. + I commend it to the continued attention and fostering care of Congress. + </p> + <p> + The war continues. Since the last annual message all the important lines + and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained and our + arms have steadily advanced, thus liberating the regions left in rear, so + that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other States have again + produced reasonably fair crops. + </p> + <p> + The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year is + General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles directly through + the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of our relative + strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to confront and hold + in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to detach a + well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition. The result not + yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not here indulged. + </p> + <p> + Important movements have also occurred during the year to the effect of + molding society for durability in the Union. Although short of complete + success, it is much in the right direction that twelve thousand citizens + in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana have organized loyal State + governments, with free constitutions, and are earnestly struggling to + maintain and administer them. The movements in the same direction more + extensive though less definite in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, + should not be overlooked. But Maryland presents the example of complete + success. Maryland is secure to liberty and union for all the future. The + genius of rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit + being driven out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no more. + </p> + <p> + At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Constitution + abolishing slavery throughout the United States passed the Senate, but + failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the House of + Representatives. Although the present is the same Congress and nearly the + same members, and without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those + who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and + passage of the measure at the present session. Of course the abstract + question is not changed; but an intervening election shows almost + certainly that the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not. + Hence there is only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment + will go to the States for their action. And as it is to so go at all + events, may we not agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed + that the election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or + their votes any further than, as an additional element to be considered, + their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people now + for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national crisis + like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very + desirable, almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity is + attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority + simply because it is the will of the majority. In this case the common end + is the maintenance of the Union, and among the means to secure that end + such will, through the election, is most clearly declared in favor of such + Constitutional amendment. + </p> + <p> + The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived + through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its + result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain the + integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than + now. The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions of + voters met and mingled at the polls give strong assurance of this. Not + only all those who supported the Union ticket, so called, but a great + majority of the opposing party also may be fairly claimed to entertain and + to be actuated by the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this + effect that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has + ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. + There have been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy as + to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause, but on the + distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their + instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. In + affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to another and to + the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the election has been of + vast value to the national cause. + </p> + <p> + The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be known—the + fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most important branch of + national resources, that of living men. While it is melancholy to reflect + that the war has filled so many graves and carried mourning to so many + hearts, it is some relief to know that, compared with the surviving, the + fallen have been so few. While corps and divisions and brigades and + regiments have formed and fought and dwindled and gone out of existence, a + great majority of the men who composed them are still living. The same is + true of the naval service. The election returns prove this. So many voters + could not else be found. The States regularly holding elections, both now + and four years ago, to wit, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, + Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, + Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, + Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, cast + 3,982,011 votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then, showing an aggregate now + of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 cast now in the new States of + Kansas and Nevada, which States did not vote in 1860, thus swelling the + aggregate to 4,015,773 and the net increase during the three years and a + half of war to 145,551. A table is appended showing particulars. To this + again should be added the number of all soldiers in the field from + Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and + California, who by the laws of those States could not vote away from their + homes, and which number can not be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. + The number in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years + ago—while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms + press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively and + negatively, by the election. It is not material to inquire how the + increase has been produced or to show that it would have been greater but + for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains + demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war began; + that we are not exhausted nor in process of exhaustion; that we are + gaining strength and may if need be maintain the contest indefinitely. + [This sentence recognizes the concern of a guerilla war after the main war + finished.]This as to men. Material resources are now more complete and + abundant than ever. + </p> + <p> + The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe, + inexhaustible. The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the + national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. The + manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful + consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that no + attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. + He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union, precisely what we + will not and can not give. His declarations to this effect are explicit + and oft repeated. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no + excuse to deceive ourselves. He can not voluntarily reaccept the Union; we + can not voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the issue is distinct, + simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war and + decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people + fail him, he is beaten. Either way it would be the victory and defeat + following war. What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause + is not necessarily true of those who follow. Although he can not reaccept + the Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire peace and + reunion. The number of such may increase. They can at any moment have + peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the national + authority under the Constitution. After so much the Government could not, + if it would, maintain war against them. The loyal people would not sustain + or allow it. If questions should remain, we would adjust them by the + peaceful means of legislation, conference, courts, and votes, operating + only in Constitutional and lawful channels. Some certain, and other + possible, questions are and would be beyond the Executive power to adjust; + as, for instance, the admission of members into Congress and whatever + might require the appropriation of money. The Executive power itself would + be greatly diminished by the cessation of actual war. Pardons and + remissions of forfeitures, however, would still be within Executive + control. In what spirit and temper this control would be exercised can be + fairly judged of by the past. + </p> + <p> + A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, were offered + to all except certain designated classes, and it was at the same time made + known that the excepted classes were still within contemplation of special + clemency. During the year many availed themselves of the general + provision, and many more would, only that the signs of bad faith in some + led to such precautionary measures as rendered the practical process less + easy and certain. During the same time also special pardons have been + granted to individuals of the excepted classes, and no voluntary + application has been denied. Thus practically the door has been for a full + year open to all except such as were not in condition to make free choice; + that is, such as were in custody or under constraint. It is still so open + to all. But the time may come, probably will come, when public duty shall + demand that it be closed and that in lieu more rigorous measures than + heretofore shall be adopted. + </p> + <p> + In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national + authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable + condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract + nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a + year ago, that "while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt + to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to + slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any + of the acts of Congress." If the people should, by whatever mode or means, + make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, + must be their instrument to perform it. + </p> + <p> + In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the war + will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on + the part of those who began it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0288" id="link2H_4_0288"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, DECEMBER 6, 1864. + </h2> + <p> + FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:—I believe I shall never be old enough + to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. I have + no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news to tell. We have + talked of elections until there is nothing more to say about them. The + most interesting news now we have is from Sherman. We all know where he + went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. I will now close + by proposing three cheers for General Sherman and his army. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0289" id="link2H_4_0289"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR HALL. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 7, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR HALL, Jefferson City, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + Complaint is made to me of the doings of a man at Hannibal, Mo., by the + name of Haywood, who, as I am told, has charge of some militia force, and + is not in the United States service. Please inquire into the matter and + correct anything you may find amiss if in your power. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0290" id="link2H_4_0290"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO COLONEL FASLEIGH. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + COLONEL FASLEIGH, Louisville, Ky.: + </p> + <p> + I am appealed to in behalf of a man by the name of Frank Fairbairns, said + to have been for a long time and still in prison, without any definite + ground stated. How is it? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0291" id="link2H_4_0291"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER APPOINTING COMMISSIONERS + </h2> + <h3> + TO INVESTIGATE THE MILITARY DIVISION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 10, 1864. + </p> + <p> + ORDERED, First, that Major-General William P. Smith and the Hon. Henry + Stanbery be, and they are hereby, appointed special commissioners to + investigate and report, for the information of the President; upon the + civil and military administration in the military division bordering upon + and west of the Mississippi, under such instructions as shall be issued by + authority of the President and the War Department. + </p> + <p> + Second, said commissioners shall have power to examine witnesses upon + oath, and to take such proofs orally or in writing, upon the + subject-matters of investigation as they may deem expedient, and return + the same together with their report. + </p> + <p> + Third, all officers and persons in the military, naval and revenue + services, or in any branch of the public service under the authority of + the United States Government, are required, upon subpoena issued by + direction of the said commissioners, to appear before them at such time + and place as may be designated in said subpoena and to give testimony on + oath touching such matters as may be inquired of by the commissioners, and + to produce such books, papers, writings, and documents as they may be + notified or required to produce by the commissioners, and as may be in + their possession. + </p> + <p> + Fourth, said special commissioners shall also investigate and report upon + any other matters that may hereafter be directed by the Secretary of War, + and shall with all convenient dispatch make report to him in writing of + their investigation, and shall also from time to time make special reports + to the Secretary of War upon such matters as they may deem of importance + to the public interests. + </p> + <p> + Fifth, the Secretary of War shall assign to the said commissioners such + aid and assistance as may be required for the performance of their duties, + and make such just and reasonable allowances and compensation for the said + commissioners and for the persons employed by them as he may deem proper. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0292" id="link2H_4_0292"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G, H. THOMAS. WASHINGTON, D.C., December 16, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + </h3> + <p> + Please accept for yourself, officers, and men, the nation's thanks for + your good work of yesterday. You made a magnificent beginning; a grand + consummation is within your easy reach. Do not let it slip. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, <a name="link2H_4_0293" id="link2H_4_0293"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORIGIN OF THE "GREENBACK" CURRENCY + </h2> + <h3> + TO COLONEL B. D. TAYLOR + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December [16?], 1864. + </p> + <p> + DEAR COLONEL DICK:—I have long determined to make public the origin + of the greenback and tell the world that it is Dick Taylor's creation. You + had always been friendly to me, and when troublous times fell on us, and + my shoulders, though broad and willing, were weak, and myself surrounded + by such circumstances and such people that I knew not whom to trust, then + I said in my extremity: "I will send for Colonel Taylor; he will know what + to do." I think it was in January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that I did + so. You came, and I said to you: + </p> + <p> + "What can we do?" Said you, "Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no + interest, printed on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off the + Army expenses and declare it legal tender." + </p> + <p> + Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accomplished it, and + gave the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever had—their + own paper to pay their own debts. + </p> + <p> + It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the people + should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known. How many + times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be + anything but a lawyer. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0294" id="link2H_4_0294"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT CHATTANOOGA. EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h2> + <p> + WASHINGTON, December 16, 1864 + </p> + <h3> + OFFICER IN COMMAND at Chattanooga, Tenn.: + </h3> + <p> + It is said that Harry Walters, a private in the Anderson cavalry, is now + and for a long time has been in prison at Chattanooga. Please report to me + what is his condition, and for what he is imprisoned. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0295" id="link2H_4_0295"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CALL FOR 300,000 VOLUNTEERS, DECEMBER 19, 1864. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation + </p> + <p> + Whereas, by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to + regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national + forces, and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of the + United States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, call for any + number of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of one, two, and + three years for military service," and "that in case the quota or any part + thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election + district, or of any country not so subdivided, shall not be filled within + the space of fifty days after such call, then the President shall + immediately order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part + thereof which may be unfilled;" and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of Congress on + the call for 500,000 men, made July 18, 1864, the number of men to be + obtained under that call was reduced to 280,000; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered it + impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops under said + call; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas, from the foregoing causes but 240,000 men have been put into the + Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, 1864, leaving + a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty thousand (260,000): + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of + America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency and to provide for + casualties in the military and naval service of the United States, do + issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) volunteers to + serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the States, districts, + and subdistricts under this call will be assigned by the War Department + through the bureau of the Provost-Marshal General of the United States, + and "in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward of + a city, precinct, or election district, or of any county not so + subdivided, shall not be filled" before the fifteenth of February, 1865, + then a draft shall be made to fill such quota or any part thereof under + this call which may be unfilled on said fifteenth day of February, 1865. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed.......... + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0296" id="link2H_4_0296"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA + </h2> + <h3> + TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864 + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN:—Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, + the capture of Savannah. + </p> + <p> + When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, + if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, and + remembering that "nothing risked, nothing gained," I did not interfere. + Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I + believe none of us went further than to acquiesce. + </p> + <p> + And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be + taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious + and immediate military advantages; but in showing to the world that your + army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new + service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of the + whole,—Hood's army,—it brings those who sat in darkness to see + a great light. But what next? + </p> + <p> + I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to decide. + </p> + <p> + Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army of officers and + men. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0297" id="link2H_4_0297"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT LEXINGTON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + OFFICER IN COMMAND at Lexington, Ky.: + </p> + <p> + If within your power send me the particulars of the causes for which + Lieutenant-Governor Jacob was arrested and sent away. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0298" id="link2H_4_0298"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. MACLEAN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + Dr. JOHN MACLEAN: + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your + note of the twentieth of December, conveying the announcement that the + Trustees of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the degree of + Doctor of Laws. + </p> + <p> + The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of the + Government which I represent, has received the approval of a body of + gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of public + trial, is most grateful to me. + </p> + <p> + Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this continent + is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most gratifying proofs + of this conviction is the hearty devotion everywhere exhibited by our + schools and colleges to the national cause. + </p> + <p> + I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct to the preservation + of those institutions, under which alone we can expect good government and + in its train sound learning, and the progress of the liberal arts. + </p> + <p> + I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0299" id="link2H_4_0299"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 28, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn.: + </p> + <p> + Suspend execution of James R. Mallory, for six weeks from Friday the + thirtieth of this month, which time I have given his friends to make + proof, if they can, upon certain points. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, <a name="link2H_4_0300" id="link2H_4_0300"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1864. 5.30 p.m. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of the + Wilmington expedition, present and prospective. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0301" id="link2H_4_0301"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 29, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER: + </p> + <p> + There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, First + Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, at Chapin's Farm, Va.; + under the assumed name of William Stanley, but whose real name is Frank R. + Judd, and who is under arrest, and probably about to be tried for + desertion. He is the son of our present minister to Prussia, who is a + close personal friend of Senator Trumbull and myself. We are not willing + for the boy to be shot, but we think it as well that his trial go + regularly on, suspending execution until further order from me and + reporting to me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0302" id="link2H_4_0302"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO COLONEL WARNER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 30, 1864. + </h3> + <p> + COLONEL WARNER, Indianapolis, Ind.: + </p> + <p> + It is said that you were on the court-martial that tried John Lennon, and + that you are disposed to advise his being pardoned and sent to his + regiment. If this be true, telegraph me to that effect at once. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <br /><br /> <a name="link1865" id="link1865"></a> <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + 1865 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0303" id="link2H_4_0303"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO J. WILLIAMS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 4, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + </p> + <p> + Let Trumbo's substitute be regularly mustered in, send me the evidence + that it is done and I will then discharge Trumbo. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0304" id="link2H_4_0304"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + </p> + <p> + I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, a "joint + resolution to correct certain clerical errors in the internal revenue + act," without my approval. + </p> + <p> + My reason for so doing is that I am informed that this joint resolution + was prepared during the last moments of the last session of Congress for + the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference in the internal + revenue act, which were discovered on an examination of an official copy + procured from the State Department a few hours only before the + adjournment. It passed the House and went to the Senate, where a vote was + taken upon it, but by some accident it was not presented to the President + of the Senate for his signature. + </p> + <p> + Since the adjournment of the last session of Congress, other errors of a + kind similar to those which this resolution was designed to correct, have + been discovered in the law, and it is now thought most expedient to + include all the necessary corrections in one act or resolution. + </p> + <p> + The attention of the proper committee of the House has, I am informed, + been already directed to the preparation of a bill for this purpose. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0305" id="link2H_4_0305"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Richard T. Jacob, Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, is at the Spotswood + House, in Richmond, under an order of General Burbridge not to return to + Kentucky. Please communicate leave to him to pass our lines, and come to + me here at Washington. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0306" id="link2H_4_0306"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, January 6, 1865, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + </p> + <p> + If there is a man at City Point by the name of Waterman Thornton who is in + trouble about desertion, please have his case briefly stated to me and do + not let him be executed meantime. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0307" id="link2H_4_0307"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I transmit to Congress a copy + of two treaties between the United States and Belgium, for the + extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, etc., concluded on the twentieth of + May, 1863, and twentieth of July, 1863, respectively, the ratifications of + which were exchanged at Brussels on the twenty-fourth of June last; and I + recommend an appropriation to carry into effect the provisions thereof + relative to the payment of the proportion of the United States toward the + capitalization of the said dues. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0308" id="link2H_4_0308"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO SCHUYLER COLFAX. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of Representatives. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—I transmit herewith the letter of the Secretary of War, with + accompanying report of the Adjutant-General, in reply to the resolution of + the House of Representatives, dated December 7, 1864, requesting me "to + communicate to the House the report made by Col. Thomas M. Key of an + interview between himself and General Howell Cobb on the fourteenth [15th] + day of June, 1862, on the banks of the Chickahominy, on the subject of the + exchange of prisoners of war." + </p> + <p> + I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0309" id="link2H_4_0309"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCE, JANUARY 10, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas the act of Congress of the twenty-eighth of September, 1850, + entitled "An act to create additional collection districts in the State of + California, and to change the existing districts therein, and to modify + the existing collection districts in the United States," extends to + merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege of being exported to the + British North American provinces adjoining the United States, in the + manner prescribed in the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, + which designates certain frontier ports through which merchandise may be + exported, and further provides "that such other ports situated on the + frontiers of the United States, adjoining the British North American + provinces, as may hereafter be found expedient, may have extended to them + the like privileges on the recommendation of the Secretary of the + Treasury, and proclamation duly made by the President of the United + States, specially designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges + are to be extended;" + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of + America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of the + Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of St. Albans, in + the State of Vermont, is, and shall be, entitled to all the privileges in + regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the British North + American provinces adjoining the United States, which are extended to the + ports enumerated in the seventh section of the act of Congress of the + third of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after the date of this + proclamation. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed. + </p> + <p> + Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of January, in the year of + our Lord one thousand eight hundred-and sixty-five, and of the + independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0310" id="link2H_4_0310"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 10, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + No principal report of yours on the Wilmington expedition has ever reached + the War Department, as I am informed there. A preliminary report did reach + here, but was returned to General Grant at his request. Of course, leave + to publish cannot be given without inspection of the paper, and not then + if it should be deemed to be detrimental to the public service. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0311" id="link2H_4_0311"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Yours asking leave to come to Washington is received. You have been + summoned by the Committee on the Conduct of the War to attend here, which, + of course, you will do. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0312" id="link2H_4_0312"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., January 15, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + </p> + <p> + Yours announcing ordinance of emancipation received. Thanks to the + convention and to you. When do you expect to be here? Would be glad to + have your suggestion as to supplying your place of military governor. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0313" id="link2H_4_0313"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January + </h2> + <p> + 15, 1865. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + It is represented to me that there is so much irregular violence in + northern Missouri as to be driving away the people and almost depopulating + it. Please gather information, and consider whether an appeal to the + people there to go to their homes and let one another alone recognizing as + a full right of protection for each that he lets others alone, and banning + only him who refuses to let others alone may not enable you to withdraw + the troops, their presence itself [being] a cause of irritation and + constant apprehension, and thus restore peace and quiet, and returning + prosperity. Please consider this and telegraph or write me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0314" id="link2H_4_0314"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FIRST OVERTURES FOR SURRENDER FROM DAVIS + </h2> + <h3> + TO P. P. BLAIR, SR. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + </p> + <p> + F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + SIR:-You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth instant, + you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall + continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential + person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with + the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0315" id="link2H_4_0315"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but only + a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having graduated at + Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. I do not wish + to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to which those + who have already served long are better entitled and better qualified to + hold. Could he, without embarrassment to you, or detriment to the service, + go into your military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the + public, furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the least + hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that you + shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0316" id="link2H_4_0316"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + If Mrs. Beattie, alias Mrs. Wolff, shall be sentenced to death, notify me, + and postpone the execution till further order. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0317" id="link2H_4_0317"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1864 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ORD: + </p> + <p> + You have a man in arrest for desertion passing by the name of Stanley. + William Stanley, I think, but whose real name is different. He is the son + of so close a friend of mine that I must not let him be executed. Please + let me know what is his present and prospective condition. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0318" id="link2H_4_0318"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + It is said an old lady in Clay County, Missouri, by name Mrs. Winifred B. + Price, is about being sent South. If she is not misbehaving let her + remain. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0319" id="link2H_4_0319"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + </p> + <p> + Several members of the Cabinet, with myself, considered the question, + to-day, as to the time of your coming on here. While we fully appreciate + your wish to remain in Tennessee until her State government shall be + completely reinaugurated, it is our unanimous conclusion that it is unsafe + for you to not be here on the 4th of March. Be sure to reach here by that + time. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0320" id="link2H_4_0320"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO A COMMITTEE, JANUARY 24, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + </h3> + <p> + I accept with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift you + have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect that I + acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so well, that + for me to attempt to say more may perhaps only serve to weaken the force + of that which has already been said. A most graceful and eloquent tribute + was paid to the patriotism and self-denying labors of the American ladies, + on the occasion of the consecration of the National Cemetery at + Gettysburg, by our illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed + from earth. His life was a truly great one, and I think the greatest part + of it was that which crowned its closing years, I wish you to read, if you + have not already done so, the eloquent and truthful words which he then + spoke of the women of America. Truly, the services they have rendered to + the defenders of our country in this perilous time, and are yet rendering, + can never be estimated as they ought to be. For your kind wishes to me + personally, I beg leave to render you likewise my sincerest thanks. I + assure you they are reciprocated. And now, gentlemen and ladies, may God + bless you all. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0321" id="link2H_4_0321"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 25, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point + </p> + <p> + If Newell W. Root, of First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, is under sentence + of death, please telegraph me briefly the circumstances. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0322" id="link2H_4_0322"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 25, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Having received the report in the case of Newell W. Root, I do not + interfere further in the case. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0323" id="link2H_4_0323"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EARLY CONSULTATIONS WITH REBELS + </h2> + <h3> + INSTRUCTIONS TO MAJOR ECKERT. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. + </p> + <p> + SIR:-You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on + reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by the + Secretary of War. Then, by General Ord's assistance procure an interview + with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of them, deliver to + him or them the paper on which your own letter is written. Note on the + copy which you retain the time of delivery and to whom delivered. Receive + their answer in writing, waiting a reasonable time for it, and which, if + it contain their decision to come through without further condition, will + be your warrant to ask General Ord to pass them through as directed in the + letter of the Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to + come, or propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this + being your whole duty, return and report to me. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0324" id="link2H_4_0324"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY OF WAR TO GENERAL ORD. + </h2> + <h3> + (Cipher.) + </h3> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Headquarters Army of the James: + </p> + <p> + By direction of the President you are instructed to inform the three + gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, that a messenger will + be dispatched to them at or near where they now are, without unnecessary + delay. + </p> + <p> + EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0325" id="link2H_4_0325"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER FROM J. M. ASHLEY. + </h2> + <h3> + HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 31, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—The report is in circulation in the House that Peace + Commissioners are on their way or in the city, and is being used against + us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. Please authorize me to + contradict it, if it is not true. + </p> + <p> + Respectfully, J. M. ASHLEY. + </p> + <p> + To the President. + </p> + <p> + (Indorsement.) + </p> + <p> + So far as I know there are no Peace Commissioners in the city or likely to + be in it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. January 31, 1865 + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0326" id="link2H_4_0326"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your despatch. + Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he arrives, and then + act upon the message he brings, as far as applicable, it having been made + up to pass through General Ord's hands, and when the gentlemen were + supposed to be beyond our lines. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0327" id="link2H_4_0327"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INSTRUCTIONS TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + </p> + <p> + You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and + informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the + basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of + which you have. You will make known to them that three things are + indispensable to wit: + </p> + <p> + 1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States. + </p> + <p> + 2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery + question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to + Congress, and in preceding documents. + </p> + <p> + 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the + disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + </p> + <p> + You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not inconsistent + with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere + liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and report it to me. + You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0328" id="link2H_4_0328"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY + </h2> + <p> + PASSAGE THROUGH CONGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE + ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY + </p> + <p> + RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, JANUARY 31, 1865. + </p> + <p> + He supposed the passage through Congress of the Constitutional amendment + for the abolishing of slavery throughout the United States was the + occasion to which he was indebted for the honor of this call. + </p> + <p> + The occasion was one of congratulation to the country, and to the whole + world. But there is a task yet before us—to go forward and + consummate by the votes of the States that which Congress so nobly began + yesterday. He had the honor to inform those present that Illinois had + already done the work. Maryland was about half through, but he felt proud + that Illinois was a little ahead. + </p> + <p> + He thought this measure was a very fitting if not an indispensable adjunct + to the winding up of the great difficulty. He wished the reunion of all + the States perfected, and so effected as to remove all causes of + disturbance in the future; and, to attain this end, it was necessary that + the original disturbing cause should, if possible, be rooted out. He + thought all would bear him witness that he had never shirked from doing + all that he could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an Emancipation + Proclamation. But that proclamation falls short of what the amendment will + be when fully consummated. A question might be raised whether the + proclamation was legally valid. It might be added, that it only aided + those who came into our lines, and that it was inoperative as to those who + did not give themselves up; or that it would have no effect upon the + children of the slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it + did not meet the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure for all evils. + It winds the whole thing up. He would repeat, that it was the fitting if + not the indispensable adjunct to the consummation of the great game we are + playing. He could not but congratulate all present—himself, the + country, and the whole world upon this great moral victory. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0329" id="link2H_4_0329"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, February 1, 1865 + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + </h3> + <p> + Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military + movements or plans. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0330" id="link2H_4_0330"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO MAJOR ECKERT. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + Call at Fortress Monroe, and put yourself under direction of Mr. Seward, + whom you will find there. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0331" id="link2H_4_0331"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865 + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe as + soon as I can get there. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0332" id="link2H_4_0332"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va. + </h3> + <p> + Induced by a despatch of General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe, as soon + as I can come. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0333" id="link2H_4_0333"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE DRAFT. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, February 6, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + Whereas complaints are made in some localities respecting the assignments + of quotas and credits allowed for the pending call of troops to fill up + the armies: Now, in order to determine all controversies in respect + thereto, and to avoid any delay in filling up the armies, it is ordered, + </p> + <p> + 1. That the Attorney-General, Brigadier-General Richard Delafield, and + Colonel C. W. Foster, be, and they are hereby constituted, a board to + examine into the proper quotas and credits of the respective States and + districts under the call of December 19, 1864, with directions, if any + errors be found therein, to make such corrections as the law and facts may + require, and report their determination to the Provost-Marshal-General. + The determination of said board to be final and conclusive, and the draft + to be made in conformity therewith. + </p> + <p> + 2. The Provost-Marshal-General is ordered to make the draft in the + respective districts as speedily as the same can be done after the + fifteenth of this month. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0334" id="link2H_4_0334"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 6, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL: + </p> + <p> + These gentlemen distinctly say to me this morning that what they want is + the means from your office of showing their people that the quota assigned + to them is right. They think it will take but little time—two hours, + they say. Please give there double the time and every facility you can. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + February 6, 1865. + </p> + <p> + The Provost-Marshal brings this letter back to me and says he cannot give + the facility required without detriment to the service, and thereupon he + is excused from doing it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0335" id="link2H_4_0335"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 7, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN, Commanding Post at Henderson, Ky.: + </p> + <p> + Complaint is made to me that you are forcing negroes into the military + service, and even torturing them—riding them on rails and the like + to extort their consent. I hope this may be a mistake. The like must not + be done by you, or any one under you. You must not force negroes any more + than white men. Answer me on this. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0336" id="link2H_4_0336"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GOVERNOR SMITH. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SMITH, of Vermont: + </p> + <p> + Complaint is made to me, by Vermont, that the assignment of her quota for + the draft on the pending call is intrinsically unjust, and also in bad + faith of the Government's promise to fairly allow credits for men + previously furnished. To illustrate, a supposed case is stated as follows: + </p> + <p> + Vermont and New Hampshire must between them furnish six thousand men on + the pending call; and being equal, each must furnish as many as the other + in the long run. But the Government finds that on former calls Vermont + furnished a surplus of five hundred, and New Hampshire a surplus, of + fifteen hundred. These two surpluses making two thousand and added to the + six thousand, making eight thousand to be furnished by the two States, or + four thousand each less, by fair credits. Then subtract Vermont's surplus + of five hundred from her four thousand, leaves three thousand five hundred + as her quota on the pending call; and likewise subtract New Hampshire's + surplus of fifteen hundred from her four thousand, leaves two thousand + five hundred as her quota on the pending call. These three thousand five + hundred and two thousand five hundred make precisely six thousand, which + the supposed case requires from the two States, and it is just equal for + Vermont to furnish one thousand more now than New Hampshire, because New + Hampshire has heretofore furnished one thousand more than Vermont, which + equalizes the burdens of the two in the long run. And this result, so far + from being bad faith to Vermont, is indispensable to keeping good faith + with New Hampshire. By no other result can the six thousand men be + obtained from the two States, and, at the same time deal justly and keep + faith with both, and we do but confuse ourselves in questioning the + process by which the right result is reached. The supposed case is perfect + as an illustration. + </p> + <p> + The pending call is not for three hundred thousand men subject to fair + credits, but is for three hundred thousand remaining after all fair + credits have been deducted, and it is impossible to concede what Vermont + asks without coming out short of three hundred thousand men, or making + other localities pay for the partiality shown her. + </p> + <p> + This upon the case stated. If there be different reasons for making an + allowance to Vermont, let them be presented and considered. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0337" id="link2H_4_0337"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 8, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + The joint resolution entitled "Joint resolution declaring certain States + not entitled to representation in the electoral college" has been signed + by the Executive in deference to the view of Congress implied in its + passage and presentation to him. In his own view, however, the two Houses + of Congress, convened under the twelfth article of the Constitution, have + complete power to exclude from counting all electoral votes deemed by them + to be illegal, and it is not competent for the Executive to defeat or + obstruct that power by a veto, as would be the case if his action were at + all essential in the matter. He disclaims all right of the Executive to + interfere in any way in the matter of canvassing or counting electoral + votes, and he also disclaims that by signing said resolution he has + expressed any opinion on the recitals of the preamble or any judgment of + his own upon the subject of the resolution. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0338" id="link2H_4_0338"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February + </h2> + <p> + 8, 1865 + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point. Va.: + </p> + <p> + I am called on by the House of Representatives to give an account of my + interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, and it is very + desirable to me to put your despatch of February 1, to the Secretary of + War, in which, among other things, you say: "I fear now their going back + without any expression from any one in authority will have a bad + influence." I think the despatch does you credit, while I do not see that + it can embarrass you. May I use it? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0339" id="link2H_4_0339"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL COUNT + </h2> + <p> + REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS, REPORTING THE RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL + COUNT, + </p> + <p> + FEBRUARY 9, 1865. + </p> + <p> + With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their confidence; + with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty required under the + most favorable circumstances, and now rendered doubly difficult by + existing national perils; yet with a firm reliance on the strength of our + free government, and the eventual loyalty of the people to the just + principles upon which it is founded, and above all with an unshaken faith + in the Supreme Ruler of nations, I accept this trust. Be pleased to + signify this to the respective Houses of Congress. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0340" id="link2H_4_0340"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHRONOLOGIC REVIEW OF PEACE PROPOSALS + </h2> + <h3> + MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 10, 1865 + </p> + <p> + TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + </p> + <p> + In response to your resolution of the eighth instant, requesting + information in relation to a conference recently held in Hampton Roads, I + have the honor to state that on the day of the date I gave Francis P. + Blair, Sr., a card, written on as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + December 28, 1864. + </p> + <p> + Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go South, and + return. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + That at the time I was informed that Mr. Blair sought the card as a means + of getting to Richmond, Va., but he was given no authority to speak or act + for the Government, nor was I informed of anything he would say or do on + his own account or otherwise. Afterwards Mr. Blair told me that he had + been to Richmond and had seen Mr. Jefferson Davis; and he (Mr. B.) at the + same time left with me a manuscript letter, as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + RICHMOND, VA., January 12, 1865. F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + SIR: I have deemed it proper, and probably desirable to you, to give you + in this for in the substance of remarks made by me, to be repeated by you + to President Lincoln, etc., etc. + </p> + <p> + I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and am willing, now as + heretofore, to enter into negotiations for the restoration of peace, and + am ready to send a commission whenever I have reason to suppose it will be + received, or to receive a commission if the United States Government shall + choose to send one. That notwithstanding the rejection of our former + offers, I would, if you could promise that a commissioner, minister, or + other agent would be received, appoint one immediately, and renew the + effort to enter into conference with a view to secure peace to the two + countries. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., JEFFERSON DAVIS. + </p> + <p> + Afterwards, and with the view that it should be shown to Mr. Davis, I + wrote and delivered to Mr. Blair a letter, as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + </p> + <p> + P. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth + instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall + continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential + person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with + the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0341" id="link2H_4_0341"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Afterwards Mr. Blair dictated for and authorized me to make an entry on + </h2> + <p> + the back of my retained copy of the letter last above recited, which entry + is as follows: + </p> + <h3> + January 28, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + To-day Mr. Blair tells me that on the twenty-first instant he delivered to + Mr. Davis the original of which the within is a copy, and left it with + him; that at the time of delivering it Mr. Davis read it over twice in Mr. + Blair's presence, at the close of which he (Mr. Blair) remarked that the + part about "our one common country" related to the part of Mr. Davis' + letter about "the two countries," to which Mr. Davis replied that he so + understood it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0342" id="link2H_4_0342"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Afterwards the Secretary of War placed in my hands the following telegram, + </h2> + <p> + indorsed by him, as appears: + </p> + <p> + OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAR DEPARTMENT. The following + telegram received at Washington January 29, 1865, from headquarters Army + of James, + </p> + <p> + 6.30 P.M., January 29, 1865: + </p> + <p> + "HON. EDWIN M. STANTON," Secretary of War: + </p> + <p> + "The following despatch just received from Major-General Parke, who refers + it to me for my action. I refer it to you in Lieutenant-General Grant's + absence: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "E. O. C. ORD, Major-General, Commanding. + HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC, + January 29, 1863. 4 P.M." + + 'MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, + 'Headquarters Army of James: + 'The following despatch is forwarded to you for your action. Since I + have no knowledge of General Grant's having had any understanding of + this kind, I refer the matter to you as the ranking officer present + in the two armies. + 'JNO. G. PARKE, Major-General, Commanding.' +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "'FROM HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY Cos, 29th. + 'MAJOR-GENERAL JNO. G. PARKE, 'Headquarters Army of Potomac: + 'Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and J. A. Campbell desire to + cross my lines, in accordance with an understanding claimed to exist + with Lieutenant-General Grant, on their way to Washington as peace + commissioners. Shall they be admitted? They desire an early answer, + to come through immediately. Would like to reach City Point tonight + if they can. If they can not do this, they would like to come + through at 10 A.M. to-morrow morning. + 'O. B. WILCOX, + 'Major-General, Commanding Ninth Corps.' +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "January 29, 8.30 P.M. + "Respectfully referred to the President for such instructions as he + may be pleased to give. + "EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War." +</pre> + <p> + It appears that about the time of placing the foregoing telegram in my + hands the Secretary of War dispatched General Ord as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, January 29, 1865. 10 P.M. (Sent at 2 + A.M., 30th.) MAJOR-GENERAL ORD. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—This Department has no knowledge of any understanding by + General Grant to allow any person to come within his lines as commissioner + of any sort. You will therefore allow no one to come into your lines under + such character or profession until you receive the President's + instructions, to whom your telegraph will be submitted for his directions. + </p> + <p> + EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + Afterwards, by my direction, the Secretary of War telegraphed General Ord + as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., January 30. 10.30 A.M. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, Headquarters Army of the James. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—By direction of the President, you are instructed to inform the + three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, that a messenger + will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are without + unnecessary delay. + </p> + <p> + EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + Afterwards I prepared and put into the hands of Major Thomas T. Eckert the + following instructions and message: + </p> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </p> + <p> + MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865 + </p> + <p> + SIR:—You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and + on reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by + the Secretary of War; then, by General Ord's assistance, procure an + interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of them. + Deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is written. Note + on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and to whom delivered. + Receive their answer in writing, waiting a reasonable time for it, and + which, if it contain their decision to come through without further + condition, will be your warrant to ask General Ord to pass them through, + as directed in the letter of the Secretary of War to him. If by their + answer they decline to come, or propose other terms, do not have them pass + through. And this being your whole duty, return and report to me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VA.. February 1, 1865. + </p> + <p> + MESSRS. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, J. A. CAMPBELL AND R. M. T. HUNTER. + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:—I am instructed by the President of the United States to + place this paper in your hands, with the information that if you pass + through the United States military lines it will be understood that you do + so for the purpose of an informal conference on the basis of the letter a + copy of which is on the reverse side of this sheet, and that if you choose + to pass on such understanding, and so notify me in writing, I will procure + the commanding general to pass you through the lines and to Fortress + Monroe under such military precautions as he may deem prudent, and at + which place you will be met in due time by some person or persons for the + purpose of such informal conference; and, further, that you shall have + protection, safe conduct, and safe return in all events. + </p> + <p> + THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aide-de-Camp. + </p> + <p> + WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth + instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall + continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential + person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with + the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + Afterwards, but before Major Eckert had departed, the following dispatch + was received from General Grant: + </p> + <p> + OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, WAR DEPARTMENT. + </p> + <p> + The following telegram received at Washington January 30, 1865, from City + Point, Va., 10.30 A.M., January 30, 1865: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "His EXCELLENCY + A. LINCOLN, + President of the United States: + + "The following communication was received here last evening: + + "'PETERSBURG, VA., January 30, 1865. + 'LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U.S. GRANT, + Commanding Armies United States. + 'SIR: We desire to pass your lines under safe conduct, and to proceed + to Washington to hold a conference with President Lincoln upon the + subject of the existing war, and with a view of ascertaining upon + what terms it may be terminated, in pursuance of the course indicated + by him in his letter to Mr. Blair of January 18, 1865, of which we + presume you have a copy; and if not, we wish to see you in person, if + convenient, and to confer with you upon the subject. + 'Very respectfully, yours, + 'ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. + 'J. A. CAMPBELL. + 'R. M. T. HUNTER.'" +</pre> + <p> + "I have sent directions to receive these gentlemen, and expect to have + them at my quarters this evening, awaiting your instructions. U.S. GRANT, + Lieutenant-General, Commanding Armies United States." + </p> + <p> + This, it will be perceived, transferred General Ord's agency in the matter + to General Grant. I resolved, however, to send Major Eckert forward with + his message, and accordingly telegraphed General Grant as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865 (Sent at 1.30 P.M.) + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your despatch. + Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he arrives, and then + act upon the message he brings as far as applicable, it having been made + up to pass through General Ord's hands, and when the gentlemen were + supposed to be beyond our lines. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + When Major Eckert departed, he bore with him a letter of the Secretary of + War to General Grant, as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Commanding, etc. + </p> + <p> + GENERAL:—The President desires that you will please procure for the + bearer, Major Thomas T. Eckert, an interview with Messrs. Stephens, + Hunter, and Campbell, and if on his return to you he requests it pass them + through our lines to Fortress Monroe by such route and under such military + precautions as you may deem prudent, giving them protection and + comfortable quarters while there, and that you let none of this have any + effect upon your movements or plans. + </p> + <p> + By order of the President: EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + Supposing the proper point to be then reached, I dispatched the Secretary + of State with the following instructions, Major Eckert, however, going + ahead of him: + </p> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865. + </p> + <p> + HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State: + </p> + <p> + You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Va., there to meet and informally + confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on the basis of my + letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you + have. + </p> + <p> + You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to Wit: + </p> + <p> + 1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States. + </p> + <p> + 2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery + question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to + Congress and in preceding documents. + </p> + <p> + 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the + disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + </p> + <p> + You will inform them that all propositions of theirs not inconsistent with + the above will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere + liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and report it to me. + </p> + <p> + You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + On the day of its date the following telegram was sent to General Grant: + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1,1865 (Sent at 9.30 A.M.) + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military + movements or plans. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + Afterwards the following despatch was received from General Grant: + </p> + <p> + OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAR DEPARTMENT. The following + telegram received at Washington, 2.30 P.M., February 1, 1865, from City + Point, Va., February 1, 12.30 PM., 1865: + </p> + <p> + "His EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President United States: + </p> + <p> + "Your despatch received. There will be no armistice in consequence of the + presence of Mr. Stephens and others within our lines. The troops are kept + in readiness to move at the shortest notice if occasion should justify it. + </p> + <p> + "U.S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + </p> + <p> + To notify Major Eckert that the Secretary of State would be at Fortress + Monroe, and to put them in communication, the following despatch was sent: + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + </p> + <p> + MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Call at Fortress Monroe and put yourself under direction of Mr. S., whom + you will find there. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + On the morning of the 2d instant the following telegrams were received by + me respectively from the Secretary of State and Major Eckert: + </p> + <p> + FORT MONROE, VA., February 1,1865. 11.30 PM. + </p> + <p> + THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + </p> + <p> + Arrived at 10 this evening. Richmond party not here. I remain here. + </p> + <p> + WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865. 10 P.M. + </p> + <p> + HIS EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President of the United States: I have the + honor to report the delivery of your communication and my letter at 4.15 + this afternoon, to which I received a reply at 6 P.M., but not + satisfactory. + </p> + <p> + At 8 P.M. the following note, addressed to General Grant, was received: + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865 + </p> + <p> + "LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. + </p> + <p> + "SIR:—We desire to go to Washington City to confer informally with + the President personally in reference to the matters mentioned in his + letter to Mr. Blair of the 18th January ultimo, without any personal + compromise on any question in the letter. We have the permission to do so + from the authorities in Richmond. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully yours, + </p> + <p> + ALEX. H. STEPHENS R. M. T. HUNTER. J. A. CAMPBELL." + </p> + <p> + At 9.30 P.M. I notified them that they could not proceed further unless + they complied with the terms expressed in my letter. The point of meeting + designated in the above note would not, in my opinion, be insisted upon. + Think Fort Monroe would be acceptable. Having complied with my + instructions, I will return to Washington to-morrow unless otherwise + ordered. + </p> + <p> + THOS. T. ECKERT, Major, etc. + </p> + <p> + On reading this despatch of Major Eckert I was about to recall him and the + Secretary of State, when the following telegram of General Grant to the + Secretary of War was shown me: + </p> + <p> + OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, WAR DEPARTMENT. + </p> + <p> + The following telegram received at Washington 4.35 A.M., February 2, 1865, + from City Point, Va., February 1, 10.30 P.M., 1865: + </p> + <p> + "HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War: + </p> + <p> + "Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written + instructions, and Mr. Stephens and party has ended, I will state + confidentially, but not officially to become a matter of record, that I am + convinced upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter that their + intentions are good and their desire sincere to restore peace and union. I + have not felt myself at liberty to express even views of my own or to + account for my reticency. This has placed me in an awkward position, which + I could have avoided by not seeing them in the first instance. I fear now + their going back without any expression from anyone in authority will have + a bad influence. At the same time, I recognize the difficulties in the way + of receiving these informal commissioners at this time, and do not know + what to recommend. I am sorry, however, that Mr. Lincoln can not have an + interview with the two named in this despatch, if not all three now within + our lines. Their letter to me was all that the President's instructions + contemplated to secure their safe conduct if they had used the same + language to Major Eckert. + </p> + <p> + "U.S. GRANT "Lieutenant-General." + </p> + <p> + This despatch of General Grant changed my purpose, and accordingly I + telegraphed him and the Secretary of State, respectively, as follows: + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe as + soon as I can get there. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + </p> + <p> + HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Induced by a despatch from General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe as + soon as I can come. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + Before starting, the following despatch was shown me. I proceeded, + nevertheless: + </p> + <p> + OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, WAR DEPARTMENT. + </p> + <p> + The following telegram received at Washington, February 2, 1865, from City + Point, Va., 9 A.M., February 2, 1865: + </p> + <p> + "HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + </p> + <p> + "The gentlemen here have accepted the proposed terms, and will leave for + Fort Monroe at 9.30 A.M. + </p> + <p> + "U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + </p> + <p> + (Copy to HON. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington.) + </p> + <p> + On the night of the 2nd I reached Hampton Roads, found the Secretary of + State and Major Eckert on a steamer anchored offshore, and learned of them + that the Richmond gentlemen were on another steamer also anchored + offshore, in the Roads, and that the Secretary of State had not yet seen + or communicated with them. I ascertained that Major Eckert had literally + complied with his instructions, and I saw for the first time the answer of + the Richmond gentlemen to him, which in his despatch to me of the 1st he + characterizes as "not satisfactory." That answer is as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865. THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and + Aid-de-Camp. MAJOR:-Your note, delivered by yourself this day, has been + considered. In reply we have to say that we were furnished with a copy of + the letter of President Lincoln to Francis P. Blair, Esq., of the 18th of + January ultimo, another copy of which is appended to your note. Our + instructions are contained in a letter of which the following is a copy: + </p> + <p> + "RICHMOND, January 28, 1865. "In conformity with the letter of Mr. + Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are to proceed to + Washington City for informal conference with him upon the issues involved + in the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two + countries. "With great respect, your obedient servant, "JEFFERSON DAVIS." + </p> + <p> + The substantial object to be obtained by the informal conference is to + ascertain upon what terms the existing war can be terminated honorably. + </p> + <p> + Our instructions contemplate a personal interview between President + Lincoln and ourselves at Washington City, but with this explanation we are + ready to meet any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint at + such place as he may designate. + </p> + <p> + Our earnest desire is that a just and honorable peace may be agreed upon, + and we are prepared to receive or to submit propositions which may + possibly lead to the attainment of that end. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully, yours, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. + R. M. T. HUNTER. + JOHN A. CAMPBELL. +</pre> + <p> + A note of these gentlemen, subsequently addressed to General Grant, has + already been given in Major Eckert's despatch of the 1st instant. + </p> + <p> + I also here saw, for the first time, the following note, addressed by the + Richmond gentlemen to Major Eckert: + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VA., February 2, 1865. THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and + Aid-de-Camp. MAJOR:—In reply to your verbal statement that your + instructions did not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a + passport could be given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to + Fortress Monroe and there to have an informal conference with any person + or persons that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter + to Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other terms + or conditions that he may hereafter propose not inconsistent with the + essential principles of self-government and popular rights, upon which our + institutions are founded. + </p> + <p> + It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of ideas and + information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just and honorable + peace can be established without the further effusion of blood, and to + contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a result. + </p> + <p> + We think it better to add that in accepting your passport we are not to be + understood as committing ourselves to anything but to carry to this + informal conference the views and feelings above expressed. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully, yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, J. A. CAMPBELL, R. M. T. HUNTER. + </p> + <p> + Note.-The above communication was delivered to me at Fort Monroe at 4.30 + P.M. February 2 by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, of General Grant's staff. + </p> + <p> + THOMAS T. ECKERT Major and Aid-de-Camp. + </p> + <p> + On the morning of the third the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, + and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer and had an interview with the + Secretary of State and myself of several hours' duration. No question of + preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made or mentioned; no + other person was present; no papers were exchanged or produced; and it was + in advance agreed that the conversation was to be informal and verbal + merely. On our part the whole substance of the instructions to the + Secretary of State hereinbefore recited was stated and insisted upon, and + nothing was said inconsistent therewith; while by the other party it was + not said that in any event or on any condition they ever would consent to + reunion, and yet they equally omitted to declare that they never would + consent. They seemed to desire a postponement of that question and the + adoption of some other course first, which, as some of them seemed to + argue, might or might not lead to reunion, but which course we thought + would amount to an indefinite postponement. The conference ended without + result. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing, containing, as is believed, all the information sought is + respectfully submitted. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0343" id="link2H_4_0343"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865 + </h2> + <h3> + To THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + </h3> + <p> + In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the eighth instant, + requesting information concerning recent conversations or communications + with insurgents, under executive sanction, I transmit a report from the + Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. TO THE PRESIDENT: + </p> + <p> + The Secretary of State, to whom was referred a resolution of the Senate of + the 8th instant, requesting "the President of the United States, if, in + his opinion, not incompatible with the public interests, to furnish to the + Senate any information in his possession concerning recent conversations + or communications with certain rebels, said to have taken place under + executive sanction, including communications with the rebel Jefferson + Davis, and any correspondence relating thereto," has the honor to report + that the Senate may properly be referred to a special message of the + President bearing upon the subject of the resolution, and transmitted to + the House this day. Appended to this report is a copy of an instruction + which has been addressed to Charles Francis Adams, Esq., envoy + extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, + and which is the only correspondence found in this department touching the + subject referred to in the resolution. + </p> + <p> + Respectfully submitted, + </p> + <p> + WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + </p> + <p> + DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0344" id="link2H_4_0344"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS. + </h2> + <h3> + (Extract.) No. 1258. + </h3> + <p> + DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 7,1865 + </p> + <p> + On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the Secretary, + received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on board the United States + steam transport River Queen in Hampton Roads. The conference was + altogether informal. There was no attendance of secretaries, clerks, or + other witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The conversation, although + earnest and free, was calm, and courteous, and kind on both sides. The + Richmond party approached the discussion rather indirectly, and at no time + did they either make categorical demands, or tender formal stipulations or + absolute refusals. Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four + hours, the several points at issue between the Government and the + insurgents were distinctly raised, and discussed fully, intelligently, and + in an amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor + was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war is + waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of the Government, as well as + those of the insurgents, to some extrinsic policy or scheme for a season + during which passions might be expected to subside, and the armies be + reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people of both sections + resumed. It was suggested by them that through such postponement we might + now have immediate peace, with some not very certain prospect of an + ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political relations between this + Government and the States, section, or people now engaged in conflict with + it. + </p> + <p> + This suggestion, though deliberately considered, was nevertheless regarded + by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he announced that we + can agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities, except on the + basis of the disbandment of the insurgent forces, and the restoration of + the national authority throughout all the States in the Union. + Collaterally, and in subordination to the proposition which was thus + announced, the antislavery policy of the United States was reviewed in all + its bearings, and the President announced that he must not be expected to + depart from the positions he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation of + emancipation and other documents, as these positions were reiterated in + his last annual message. It was further declared by the President that the + complete restoration of the national authority was an indispensable + condition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might be + proposed. The President assured the other party that, while he must adhere + to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as power is lodged with + the Executive, to exercise liberality. His power, however, is limited by + the Constitution; and when peace should be made, Congress must necessarily + act in regard to appropriations of money and to the admission of + representatives from the insurrectionary States. The Richmond party were + then informed that Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, adopted by a + constitutional majority a joint resolution submitting to the several + States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that + there is every reason to expect that it will be soon accepted by three + fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national organic law. + </p> + <p> + The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without producing an + agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, or any of them. + Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that we have been able to + submit our opinions and views directly to prominent insurgents, and to + hear them in answer in a courteous and not unfriendly manner. + </p> + <p> + I am, sir, your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + WILLIAM H. SEWARD. <a name="link2H_4_0345" id="link2H_4_0345"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 10, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER, Commanding North Atlantic Squadron, Hampton + Roads, Va. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—It is made my agreeable duty to enclose herewith the joint + resolution approved 24th January, 1865, tendering the thanks of Congress + to yourself, the officers and men under your command for their gallantry + and good conduct in the capture of Fort Fisher, and through you to all who + participated in that brilliant and decisive victory under your command. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0346" id="link2H_4_0346"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. POPE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 12, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + I understand that provost-marshals in different parts of Missouri are + assuming to decide that the conditions of bonds are forfeited, and + therefore are seizing and selling property to pay damages. This, if true, + is both outrageous and ridiculous. Do not allow it. The courts, and not + provost-marshals, are to decide such questions unless when military + necessity makes an exception. Also excuse John Eaton, of Clay County, and + Wesley Martin, of Platte, from being sent South, and let them go East if + anywhere. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN <a name="link2H_4_0347" id="link2H_4_0347"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS IN WEST TENNESSEE + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, February 13, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + TO THE MILITARY OFFICERS COMMANDING IN WEST TENNESSEE: + </p> + <p> + While I cannot order as within requested, allow me to say that it is my + wish for you to relieve the people from all burdens, harassments, and + oppressions, so far as is possible consistently with your military + necessities; that the object of the war being to restore and maintain the + blessings of peace and good government, I desire you to help, and not + hinder, every advance in that direction. + </p> + <p> + Of your military necessities you must judge and execute, but please do so + in the spirit and with the purpose above indicated. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0348" id="link2H_4_0348"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 14, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + Yours of yesterday about provost-marshal system received. As part of the + same subject, let me say I am now pressed in regard to a pending + assessment in St. Louis County. Please examine and satisfy yourself + whether this assessment should proceed or be abandoned; and if you decide + that it is to proceed, please examine as to the propriety of its + application to a gentleman by the name of Charles McLaran. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0349" id="link2H_4_0349"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON February 15, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + Please ascertain whether General Fisk's administration is as good as it + might be, and answer me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0350" id="link2H_4_0350"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONVENING THE SENATE IN EXTRA SESSION, + </h2> + <h3> + FEBRUARY 17, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation + </p> + <p> + Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the Senate + should be convened at twelve o'clock on the fourth of March next to + receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part + of the Executive; + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, have + considered it to be my duty to issue this, my proclamation, declaring that + an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States to + convene for the transaction of business at the Capitol, in the city of + Washington, on the fourth day of March next, at twelve o'clock at noon on + that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as + members of that body are hereby required to take notice. + </p> + <p> + Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at + Washington............... + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0351" id="link2H_4_0351"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY: + </p> + <p> + Chaplain Fitzgibbon yesterday sent me a despatch invoking Clemency for + Jackson, Stewart, and Randall, who are to be shot to-day. The despatch is + so vague that there is no means here of ascertaining whether or not the + execution of sentence of one or more of them may not already have been + ordered. If not suspend execution of sentence m their cases until further + orders and forward records of trials for examination. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + MAJOR ECKERT: Please send above telegram JNO. G. NICOLAY. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0352" id="link2H_4_0352"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + </p> + <p> + I am in a little perplexity. I was induced to authorize a gentleman to + bring Roger A. Pryor here with a view of effecting an exchange of him; but + since then I have seen a despatch of yours showing that you specially + object to his exchange. Meantime he has reached here and reported to me. + It is an ungracious thing for me to send him back to prison, and yet + inadmissible for him to remain here long. Cannot you help me out with it? + I can conceive that there may be difference to you in days, and I can keep + him a few days to accommodate on that point. I have not heard of my son's + reaching you. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0353" id="link2H_4_0353"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 24, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + Please inquire and report to me whether there is any propriety of longer + keeping in Gratiott Street Prison a man said to be there by the name of + Riley Whiting. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0354" id="link2H_4_0354"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, February 25, 1865 + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + </h3> + <p> + General Sheridan's despatch to you, of to-day, in which he says he "will + be off on Monday," and that he "will leave behind about two thousand men," + causes the Secretary of War and myself considerable anxiety. Have you well + considered whether you do not again leave open the Shenandoah Valley + entrance to Maryland and Pennsylvania, or, at least, to the Baltimore and + Ohio Railroad? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0355" id="link2H_4_0355"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + </h3> + <p> + Subsequent reflection, conference with General Halleck, your despatch, and + one from General Sheridan, have relieved my anxiety; and so I beg that you + will dismiss any concern you may have on my account, in the matter of my + last despatch. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0356" id="link2H_4_0356"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO T. W. CONWAY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 1, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MR. THOMAS W. CONWAY, General Superintendent Freedmen, Department of the + Gulf. + </p> + <p> + SIR:—Your statement to Major-General Hurlbut of the condition of the + freedmen of your department, and of your success in the work of their + moral and physical elevation, has reached me and given me much pleasure. + </p> + <p> + That we shall be entirely successful in our efforts I firmly believe. + </p> + <p> + The blessing of God and the efforts of good and faithful men will bring us + an earlier and happier consummation than the most sanguine friends of the + freedmen could reasonably expect. + </p> + <p> + Yours, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, <a name="link2H_4_0357" id="link2H_4_0357"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + You have not sent contents of Richmond papers for Tuesday or Wednesday. + Did you not receive them? If not, does it indicate anything? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0358" id="link2H_4_0358"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865. 12 PM. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no + conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of General + Lee's army, or on some minor and purely military matter. He instructs me + to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political + question. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and will + submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meantime you are to + press to the utmost your military advantages. + </p> + <p> + EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0359" id="link2H_4_0359"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1865. + </h2> + <p> + FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:—At this second appearing to take the oath of the + presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than + there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to + be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four + years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth + on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the + attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new + could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly + depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, + reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the + future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. + </p> + <p> + On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were + anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought + to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this + place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent + agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to + dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties + deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation + survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the + war came. + </p> + <p> + One eighth of the whole population was colored slaves, not distributed + generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These + slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this + interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and + extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend + the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more + than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected + for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. + Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or + even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier + triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same + Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the + other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's + assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, + but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not + be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His + own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs + be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If + we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in + the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued + through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to + both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the + offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine + attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? + Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war + may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the + wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited + toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash + shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand + years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true + and righteous altogether." + </p> + <p> + With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right + as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we + are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have + borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may + achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all + nations. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0360" id="link2H_4_0360"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL JOHN POPE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + Please state briefly, by telegraph, what you concluded about the + assessments in St. Louis County. Early in the war one Samuel B. Churchill + was sent from St. Louis to Louisville, where I have quite satisfactory + evidence that he has not misbehaved. Still I am told his property at St. + Louis is subjected to the assessment, which I think it ought not to be. + Still I wish to know what you think. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0361" id="link2H_4_0361"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 8, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va: + </h3> + <p> + Your two despatches to the Secretary of War, one relating to supplies for + the enemy going by the Blackwater, and the other to General Singleton and + Judge Hughes, have been laid before me by him. As to Singleton and Hughes, + I think they are not in Richmond by any authority, unless it be from you. + I remember nothing from me which could aid them in getting there, except a + letter to you, as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, February 7, 1865. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL + GRANT, City Point, Va.: General Singleton, who bears you this, claims that + he already has arrangements made, if you consent, to bring a large amount + of Southern produce through your lines. For its bearing on our finances, I + would be glad for this to be done, if it can be, without injuriously + disturbing your military operations, or supplying the enemy. I wish you to + be judge and master on these points. Please see and hear him fully, and + decide whether anything, and, if anything, what, can be done in the + premises. Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + I believe I gave Hughes a card putting him with Singleton on the same + letter. However this may be, I now authorize you to get Singleton and + Hughes away from Richmond, if you choose, and can. I also authorize you, + by an order, or in what form you choose, to suspend all operations on the + Treasury trade permits, in all places southeastward of the Alleghenies. If + you make such order, notify me of it, giving a copy, so that I can give + corresponding direction to the Navy. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0362" id="link2H_4_0362"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION OFFERING PARDON TO DESERTERS, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 11, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation + </p> + <p> + Whereas, the twenty-first section of the act of Congress, approved on the + 3d instant, entitled "An Act to amend the several acts heretofore passed + to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces and for + other purposes," requires that in addition to the other lawful penalties + of the crime of desertion from the military or naval service, all persons + who have deserted the military or naval service of the United States who + shall not return to said service or report themselves to a provost-marshal + within sixty days after the proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall be + deemed and taken to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their + citizenship and their right to become citizens, and such deserters shall + be forever incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the + United States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all + persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all + persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction of the + district in which they are enrolled, or go beyond the limits of the United + States with intent to avoid any draft into the military or naval service + duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of this section; and the + President is hereby authorized and required forthwith, on the passage of + this act, to issue his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this + section, in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all + deserters returning within sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be + pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and companies, or to + such other organizations as they may be assigned to, until they shall have + served for a period of time equal to their original term of enlistment: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the + United States, do issue this my proclamation as required by said act, + ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; and + I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall within sixty days + from the date of this proclamation, viz., on or before the 10th day of + May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a provost-marshal, + shall be pardoned on condition that they return to their regiments or + companies or to such other organization as they may be assigned to, and + serve the remainder of their original terms of enlistment, and in addition + thereto a period equal to the time lost by desertion. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed............... + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0363" id="link2H_4_0363"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO H. T. BLOW. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, March 13, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + HON. HENRY T. BLOW, Saint Louis, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + A Miss E. Snodgrass, who was banished from Saint Louis in May,1863, wishes + to take the oath and return home. What say you? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0364" id="link2H_4_0364"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LETTER TO THURLOW WEED, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 15, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C. + </p> + <p> + DEAR Mr. WEED: + </p> + <p> + Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little + notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect the + latter to wear as well as perhaps better than—anything I have + produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not + flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose + between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to + deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I + thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it + falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to + tell it. + </p> + <p> + Truly yours, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0365" id="link2H_4_0365"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO COLONEL ROUGH AND OTHERS. + </h2> + <h3> + WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 17, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + COL. R. M. ROUGH AND OTHERS, Chicago, Ill.: + </p> + <p> + Yours received. The best I can do with it is, to refer it to the War + Department. The Rock Island case referred to, was my individual + enterprise; and it caused so much difficulty in so many ways that I + promised to never undertake another. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0366" id="link2H_4_0366"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS TO AN INDIANA REGIMENT, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 17, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:—It will be but a very few words that I shall + undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in + Illinois; and now I am here, where it is my business to care equally for + the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment on + this day able to present the captured flag to the Governor of Indiana. I + am not disposed, in saying this, to make a distinction between the States, + for all have done equally well. + </p> + <p> + There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have not + said or written something whereby my own opinions might be known. But + there is one—the recent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are + sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. I have neither + written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was their + business, not mine, and if I had a wish on the subject, I had not the + power to introduce it, or make it effective. The great question with them + was whether the negro, being put into the army, will fight for them. I do + not know, and therefore cannot decide. They ought to know better than me. + I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be + slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it + will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for + that, ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at last, to take one out + of four of the slaves and put them in the army, and that one out of the + four who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a slave + himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often said that all + men ought to be free, yet would I allow those colored persons to be slaves + who want to be, and next to them those white people who argue in favor of + making other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an appointment to such + white men to try it on for these slaves. I will say one thing in regard to + the negroes being employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight + and stay at home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as + the other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of + having them try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that, and I + wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor + of allowing the negro to fight. But they cannot fight and work both. We + must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as + long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them they must allow him + to fight. They have drawn upon their last branch of resources, and we can + now see the bottom. I am glad to see the end so near at hand. I have said + now more than I intended, and will therefore bid you good-by. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0367" id="link2H_4_0367"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CONCERNING INDIANS, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 17, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas reliable information has been received that hostile Indians, + within the limits of the United States, have been furnished with arms and + munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign territory, + and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare upon the exposed + and sparse settlements of the frontier; + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the + United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all persons + detected in that nefarious traffic shall be arrested and tried by + court-martial at the nearest military post, and if convicted, shall + receive the punishment due to their deserts. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed................... + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0368" id="link2H_4_0368"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ORDER ANNULLING THE SENTENCE + </h2> + <h3> + AGAINST BENJAMIN G. SMITH AND FRANKLIN W. SMITH, + </h3> + <p> + MARCH 18, 1865. + </p> + <p> + I am unwilling for the sentence to stand, and be executed, to any extent + in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than the evidence + discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the existence of criminal or + fraudulent intent on the part of men of such well established good + character. If the evidence went as far to establish a guilty profit of one + or two hundred thousand dollars, as it does of one or two hundred dollars, + the case would, on the question of guilt, bear a far different aspect. + That on this contract, involving some twelve hundred thousand dollars, the + contractors would plan, and attempt to execute a fraud which, at the most, + could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand dollars, + is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That they did not, in + such a case, make far greater gains, proves that they did not, with guilty + or fraudulent intent, make at all. The judgment and sentence are + disapproved, and declared null, and the defendants are fully discharged. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN March 18, 1865. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0369" id="link2H_4_0369"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 19, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + </p> + <p> + Understanding that the plan of action for Missouri contained in your + letter to the Governor of that State, and your other letter to me, is + concurred in by the Governor, it is approved by me, and you will be + sustained in proceeding upon it. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0370" id="link2H_4_0370"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May [March] 20, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Army of the James + </p> + <p> + Is it true that George W. Lane is detained at Norfolk without any charge + against him? And if so why is it done? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0371" id="link2H_4_0371"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO JUDGE SCATES. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, March 21, 1865. + </p> + <p> + HON. WALTER B. SCATES, Centralia, Illinois: + </p> + <p> + If you choose to go to New Mexico and reside, I will appoint you chief + justice there. What say you? Please answer. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0372" id="link2H_4_0372"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., March 22, 1865. MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK, Winchester, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + Seeing your despatch about General Crook, and fearing that through + misapprehension something unpleasant may occur, I send you below two + despatches of General Grant, which I suppose will fully explain General + Crook's movements. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0373" id="link2H_4_0373"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANOTHER FEMALE SPY + </h2> + <h3> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 23, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL DODGE, Commanding, &c, Saint Louis, Mo.: + </p> + <p> + Allow Mrs. R. S. Ewell the benefit of my amnesty proclamation on her + taking the oath. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0374" id="link2H_4_0374"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 25, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C.: + </p> + <p> + Arrived here all safe about 9 P.M. yesterday. No war news. General Grant + does not seem to know very much about Yeatman, but thinks very well of him + so far as he does know. + </p> + <p> + I like Mr. Whiting very much, and hence would wish him to remain or resign + as best suits himself. Hearing this much from me, do as you think best in + the matter. General Lee has sent the Russell letter back, concluding, as I + understand from Grant, that their dignity does not admit of their + receiving the document from us. Robert just now tells me there was a + little rumpus up the line this morning, ending about where it began. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0375" id="link2H_4_0375"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + (Cipher.) + </h3> + <p> + HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, March 25, 1865. (Received 5 P.M.) + </p> + <p> + HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + </p> + <p> + I am here within five miles of the scene of this morning's action. I have + nothing to add to what General Meade reports except that I have seen the + prisoners myself and they look like there might be the number he states—1600. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN <a name="link2H_4_0376" id="link2H_4_0376"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VA., March 26, 1865. (Received 11.30 A.M.) + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + </p> + <p> + I approve your Fort Sumter programme. Grant don't seem to know Yeatman + very well, but thinks very well of him so far as he knows. Thinks it + probable that Y. is here now, for the place. I told you this yesterday as + well as that you should do as you think best about Mr. Whiting's + resignation, but I suppose you did not receive the dispatch. I am on the + boat and have no later war news than went to you last night. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0377" id="link2H_4_0377"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 27, 1865.3.35 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + </p> + <p> + Yours inclosing Fort Sumter order received. I think of but one suggestion. + I feel quite confident that Sumter fell on the 13th, and not on the 14th + of April, as you have it. It fell on Saturday, the 13th; the first call + for troops on our part was got up on Sunday, the 14th, and given date and + issued on Monday, the 15th. Look up the old almanac and other data, and + see if I am not right. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0378" id="link2H_4_0378"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 28, 1865. 12 M. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: After your explanation, I think + it is little or no difference whether the Fort Sumter ceremony takes place + on the 13th or 14th. + </p> + <p> + General Sherman tells me he is well acquainted with James Yeatman, and + that he thinks him almost the best man in the country for anything he will + undertake. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0379" id="link2H_4_0379"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VA., March 30, 1865. 7.30 P.M. (Received 8.30 P.M.) + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + </p> + <p> + I begin to feel that I ought to be at home and yet I dislike to leave + without seeing nearer to the end of General Grant's present movement. He + has now been out since yesterday morning and although he has not been + diverted from his programme no considerable effort has yet been produced + so far as we know here. Last night at 10.15 P. M. when it was dark as a + rainy night without a moon could be, a furious cannonade soon joined in by + a heavy musketry fire opened near Petersburg and lasted about two hours. + The sound was very distinct here as also were the flashes of the guns up + the clouds. It seemed to me a great battle, but the older hands here + scarcely noticed it and sure enough this morning it was found that very + little had been done. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0380" id="link2H_4_0380"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 31, 1865. 3 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + SECRETARY STANTON: + </p> + <p> + At 12.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphed me as follows: "There has + been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our left from near + Dabney's house back well toward the Boydton plank road. We are now about + to take the offensive at that point, and I hope will more than recover the + lost ground." + </p> + <p> + Later he telegraphed again as follows: + </p> + <p> + "Our troops, after being driven back to the Boydton plank road, turned and + drove the enemy in turn, and took the White Oak road, which we now have. + This gives us the ground occupied by the enemy this morning. I will send + you a rebel flag captured by our troops in driving the enemy back. There + have been four flags captured to-day." + </p> + <p> + Judging by the two points from which General Grant telegraphs, I infer + that he moved his headquarters about one mile since he sent the first of + the two despatches. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0381" id="link2H_4_0381"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Yours to Colonel Bowers about the Secretary of War is shown to me. He is + not here, nor have I any notice that he is coming. I presume the mistake + comes of the fact that the Secretary of State was here. He started back to + Washington this morning. I have your two despatches of this morning, and + am anxious to hear from Sheridan. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0382" id="link2H_4_0382"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. 12.50 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + </p> + <p> + I have had two despatches from General Grant since my last to you, but + they contain little additional, except that Sheridan also had pretty hot + work yesterday, that infantry was sent to his support during the night, + and that he (Grant) has not since heard from Sheridan. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lincoln has started home, and I will thank you to see that our + coachman is at the Arsenal wharf at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, there + to wait until she arrives. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VA., April, 1865. 5.30?.M. + </p> + <p> + HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + </p> + <p> + Despatch just received, showing that Sheridan, aided by Warren, had, at 2 + P.M., pushed the enemy back, so as to retake the Five Forks and bring his + own headquarters up to J. Boisseau's. The Five Forks were barricaded by + the enemy and carried by Devin's division of cavalry. This part of the + enemy seem to now be trying to work along the White Oak road, to join the + main force in front of Grant, while Sheridan and Warren are pressing them + as closely as possible. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0383" id="link2H_4_0383"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </h3> + <p> + Yours showing Sheridan's success of to-day is just received and highly + appreciated. Having no great deal to do here, I am still sending the + substance of your despatches to the Secretary of War. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0384" id="link2H_4_0384"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VA., April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. (Received 9 A.M.) + </h3> + <p> + MRS. A. LINCOLN, Executive Mansion: + </p> + <p> + Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan with his + cavalry and the Fifth Corps had captured three brigades of infantry, a + train of wagons, and several batteries, prisoners amounting to several + thousand. This morning General Grant having ordered an attack along the + whole line telegraphs as follows. + </p> + <p> + Robert yesterday wrote a little cheerful note to Captain Penrose, which is + all he has heard of him since you left. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0385" id="link2H_4_0385"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAMS TO SECRETARY STANTON. CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2, 1865. 8.30 + </h2> + <p> + A.M. + </p> + <p> + HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + </p> + <p> + Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan, with his + cavalry and the Fifth Corps, had captured three brigades of infantry, a + train of wagons, and several batteries; the prisoners amounting to several + thousand. + </p> + <p> + This morning General Grant, having ordered an attack along the whole line, + telegraphs as follows: + </p> + <p> + "Both Wright and Parke got through the enemy's lines. The battle now rages + furiously. General Sheridan, with his cavalry, the Fifth corps, and + Miles's Division of the Second Corps, which was sent to him this morning, + is now sweeping down from the west. + </p> + <p> + "All now looks highly favorable. General Ord is engaged, but I have not + yet heard the result in his front." + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, April 1. 11.00 A.M. + </p> + <p> + Despatches are frequently coming in. All is going on finely. Generals + Parke, Wright, and Ord's lines are extending from the Appomattox to + Hatcher's Run. They have all broken through the enemy's intrenched lines, + taking some forts, guns, and prisoners. Sheridan, with his own cavalry, + the Fifth Corps, and part of the Second, is coming in from the west on the + enemy's flank. Wright is already tearing up the Southside Railroad. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 2 P.M. + </p> + <p> + At 10.45 A.M. General Grant telegraphs as follows: + </p> + <p> + "Everything has been carried from the left of the Ninth Corps. The Sixth + Corps alone captured more than three thousand prisoners. The Second and + Twenty-fourth Corps captured forts, guns, and prisoners from the enemy, + but I cannot tell the numbers. We are now closing around the works of the + line immediately enveloping Petersburg. All looks remarkably well. I have + not yet heard from Sheridan. His headquarters have been moved up to + Banks's house, near the Boydton road, about three miles southwest of + Petersburg." + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 8.30 P.M. + </p> + <p> + At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs as follows: + </p> + <p> + "We are now up and have a continuous line of troops, and in a few hours + will be intrenched from the Appomattox below Petersburg to the river + above. The whole captures since the army started out will not amount to + less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of artillery. I + do not know the number of men and guns accurately, however. A portion of + Foster's Division, Twenty Fourth Corps, made a most gallant charge this + afternoon, and captured a very important fort from the enemy, with its + entire garrison. All seems well with us, and everything is quiet just + now." + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0386" id="link2H_4_0386"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. CITY POINT, VA., April 1, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + MRS. LINCOLN: + </h3> + <p> + At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs that he has Petersburg + completely enveloped from river below to river above, and has captured, + since he started last Wednesday, about twelve thousand prisoners and fifty + guns. He suggests that I shall go out and see him in the morning, which I + think I will do. Tad and I are both well, and will be glad to see you and + your party here at the time you name. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0387" id="link2H_4_0387"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, April 2, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Allow me to tender to you and all with you the nation's grateful thanks + for this additional and magnificent success. At your kind suggestion I + think I will meet you to-morrow. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0388" id="link2H_4_0388"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 3, 1865.8.30 A.M. + </h3> + <p> + HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + </p> + <p> + This morning Lieutenant-General Grant reports Petersburg evacuated, and he + is confident that Richmond also is. He is pushing forward to cut off, if + possible, the retreating rebel army. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0389" id="link2H_4_0389"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VA., April 3, 1865. 5 P.M. + </h3> + <p> + HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + </p> + <p> + Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to + Petersburg. Staid with General Grant an hour and a half and returned here. + It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I will go + there to-morrow. I will take care of myself. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0390" id="link2H_4_0390"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VA., April 4, 1865 (Received 8.45 A.M.) + </h3> + <p> + HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + </p> + <p> + General Weitzel telegraphs from Richmond that of railroad stock he found + there twenty-eight locomotives, forty-four passenger and baggage cars, and + one hundred and six freight cars. At 3.30 this evening General Grant, from + Sutherland's Station, ten miles from Petersburg toward Burkevllle, + telegraphs as follows: + </p> + <p> + "General Sheridan picked up twelve hundred prisoners to-day, and from + three hundred to five hundred more have been gathered by other troops. The + majority of the arms that were left in the hands of the remnant of Lee's + army are now scattered between Richmond and where his troops are. The + country is also full of stragglers; the line of retreat marked with + artillery, ammunition, burned or charred wagons, caissons, ambulances, + etc." + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0391" id="link2H_4_0391"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, APRIL 5, 1865. (Received 11.55 PM.) + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF STATE: + </p> + <p> + Yours of to-day received. I think there is no probability of my remaining + here more than two days longer. If that is too long come down. I passed + last night at Richmond and have just returned. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0392" id="link2H_4_0392"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h2> + <h3> + HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, in the Field: + </p> + <p> + Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yesterday and seriously + injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. I was + at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge Campbell, + who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February, called on me, and + made such representations as induced me to put in his hands an informal + paper, repeating the propositions in my letter of instructions to Mr. + Seward, which you remember, and adding that if the war be now further + persisted in by the rebels, confiscated property shall at the least bear + the additional cost, and that confiscation shall be remitted to the people + of any State which will now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops + and other support from resistance to the Government. + </p> + <p> + Judge Campbell thought it not impossible that the rebel legislature of + Virginia would do the latter if permitted; and accordingly I addressed a + private letter to General Weitzel, with permission to Judge Campbell to + see it, telling him (General Weitzel) that if they attempt this, to permit + and protect them, unless they attempt something hostile to the United + States, in which case to give them notice and time to leave, and to arrest + any remaining after such time. + </p> + <p> + I do not think it very probable that anything win come of this, but I have + thought best to notify you so that if you should see signs you may + understand them. + </p> + <p> + From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually + withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the Government. Nothing + that I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, or interfere + with your work. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0393" id="link2H_4_0393"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. + </h2> + <h3> + HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + </p> + <p> + It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the + legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion may now desire to + assemble at Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia troops and + other support from resistance to the General Government. If they attempt + it, give them permission and protection, until, if at all, they attempt + some action hostile to the United States, in which case you will notify + them, give them reasonable time to leave, and at the end of which time + arrest any who remain. Allow Judge Campbell to see this, but do not make + it public. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0394" id="link2H_4_0394"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + CITY POINT, VA., April 7, 1865 (Received 10.30 AM.) + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + </p> + <p> + At 11.15 P.M. yesterday at Burkesville Station, General Grant sends me the + following from General Sheridan: + </p> + <p> + "April 6, 11.15 P.M. + </p> + <p> + "LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + I have the honor to report that the enemy made a stand at the intersection + of the Burks Station road with the road upon which they were retreating. I + attacked them with two divisions of the Sixth Army Corps and routed them + handsomely, making a connection with the cavalry. I am still pressing on + with both cavalry and infantry. Up to the present time we have captured + Generals Ewell, Kershaw, Button, Corse, DeBare, and Custis Lee, several + thousand prisoners, fourteen pieces of artillery with caissons and a large + number of wagons. If the thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender. + </p> + <p> + "P. H. SHERIDAN, + </p> + <p> + "Major-General, Commanding." + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0395" id="link2H_4_0395"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LET THE THING BE PRESSED. + </h2> + <h3> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + </h3> + <p> + HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, + </p> + <p> + CITY POINT, April 7, 11 A.M., 1865. + </p> + <p> + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + </p> + <p> + Gen. Sheridan says: + </p> + <p> + "If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender." + </p> + <p> + Let the thing be pressed. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0396" id="link2H_4_0396"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTE ON A CARD TO SECRETARY STANTON. + </h2> + <h3> + April 10, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + Tad wants some flags—can he be accommodated? + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0397" id="link2H_4_0397"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A CALL, + </h2> + <h3> + APRIL 10, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + If the company had assembled by appointment, some mistake had crept in + their understanding. He had appeared before a larger audience than this + one to-day, and he would repeat what he then said, namely, he supposed + owing to the great, good news, there would be some demonstration. He would + prefer to-morrow evening, when he should be quite willing, and he hoped + ready, to say something. He desired to be particular, because every thing + he said got into print. Occupying the position he did, a mistake would + produce harm, and therefore he wanted to be careful not to make a mistake. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0398" id="link2H_4_0398"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. GORDON. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 11, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + BRIG. GEN. G. H. GORDON, Norfolk, Va.: + </p> + <p> + Send to me at once a full statement as to the cause or causes for which, + and by authority of what tribunal George W. Lane, Charles Whitlock, Ezra + Baler, J. M. Renshaw, and others are restrained of their liberty. Do this + promptly and fully. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0399" id="link2H_4_0399"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CLOSING CERTAIN PORTS, APRIL 11, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </h3> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas by my proclamations of the 19th and 27th days of April, A.D. 1861, + the ports of the United States in the States of Virginia, North Carolina, + South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and + Texas were declared to be subject to blockade; but + </p> + <p> + Whereas the said blockade has, in consequence of actual military + occupation by this Government, since been conditionally set aside or + relaxed in respect to the ports of Norfolk and Alexandria, in the State of + Virginia; Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina; Port Royal, in the + State of South Carolina; Pensacola and Fernandina, in the State of + Florida; and New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana; and + </p> + <p> + Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th + of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of + duties on imports, and for other purposes," the President, for the reasons + therein set forth, is authorized to close certain ports of entry: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of the + United States, do hereby proclaim that the ports of Richmond, + Tappahannock, Cherrystone, Yorktown, and Petersburg, in Virginia; of + Camden (Elizabeth City), Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Newbern, Ocracoke, + and Wilmington in North Carolina; of Charleston, Georgetown, and Beaufort, + in South Carolina; of Savannah, St. Marys, and Brunswick (Darien), in + Georgia; of Mobile, in Alabama; of Pearl River (Shieldsboro), Natchez and + Vicksburg, in Mississippi; of St. Augustine, Key West, St. Marks (Port + Leon), St. Johns (Jacksonville), and Apalachicola, in Florida; of Teche + (Franklin), in Louisiana; of Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago + (Point Isabel), and Brownsville, in Texas, are hereby closed, and all + right of importation, warehousing, and other privileges shall, in respect + to the ports aforesaid, cease until they shall have again been opened by + order of the President; and if while said parts are so closed any ship or + vessel from beyond the United States or having on board any articles + subject to duties shall attempt to enter any such port, the same, together + with its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, shall be forfeited to the + United States. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the + United States to be affixed. + </p> + <p> + Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D., 1865, + and of the independence of the United States of America, the eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0400" id="link2H_4_0400"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF KEY WEST, + </h2> + <h3> + APRIL 11, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas by my proclamation of this date the port of Key West, in the State + of Florida, was inadvertently included among those which are not open to + commerce: + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the + United States, do hereby declare and make known that the said port of Key + West is and shall remain open to foreign and domestic commerce upon the + same conditions by which that commerce has there hitherto been governed. + </p> + <p> + In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed. + </p> + <p> + Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D. 1865, and + of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0401" id="link2H_4_0401"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROCLAMATION CLAIMING EQUALITY OF RIGHTS WITH ALL MARITIME NATIONS, + </h2> + <h3> + APRIL 11, 1865. + </h3> + <p> + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + </p> + <p> + A Proclamation. + </p> + <p> + Whereas for some time past vessels of war of the United States have been + refused in certain foreign ports, privileges and immunities to which they + were entitled by treaty, public law, or the community of nations, at the + same time that vessels of war of the country wherein the said privileges + and immunities have been withheld have enjoyed them fully and + uninterruptedly in ports of the United States, which condition of things + has not always been forcibly resisted by the United States, although, on + the other hand, they have not at any time failed to protest against and + declare their dissatisfaction with the same. In the view of the United + States, no condition any longer exists which can be claimed to justify the + denial to them by any one of such nations of customary naval rights as has + heretofore been so unnecessarily persisted in....... + </p> + <p> + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do + hereby make known that if, after a reasonable time shall have elapsed for + intelligence of this proclamation to have reached any foreign country in + whose ports the said privileges and immunities shall have been refused as + aforesaid, they shall continue to be so refused, then and thenceforth the + same privileges and immunities shall be refused to the vessels of war of + that country in the ports of the United States, and this refusal shall + continue until war vessels of the United States shall have been placed + upon an entire equality in the foreign ports aforesaid with similar + vessels of other countries. The United States, whatever claim or pretense + may have existed heretofore, are now, at least, entitled to claim and + concede an entire and friendly equality of rights and hospitalities with + all maritime nations. + </p> + <p> + In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of + the United States to be affixed.................. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0402" id="link2H_4_0402"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS, + </h2> + <h3> + APRIL 11, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS—We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness + of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of + the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, + whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, + however, He from whom blessings flow must not be forgotten. + </p> + <p> + A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly + promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of + rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with + others. I myself was near the front, and had the pleasure of transmitting + much of the good news to you. But no part of the honor for plan or + execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers, and brave men, + all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take + active part. By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national + authority—reconstruction which has had a large share of thought from + the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught + with great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, + there is no authorized organ for us to treat with—no one man has + authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin + with and mould from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a + small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among + ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. As a + general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, + Wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an + answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge + that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking + to sustain the new State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just + so much and no more than the public knows. In the Annual Message of + December, 1863, and the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of + reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any + State, would be acceptable to and sustained by the Executive Government of + the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan that might + possibly be acceptable, and I also distinctly protested that the Executive + claimed no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to + seats in Congress from such States. This plan was in advance submitted to + the then Cabinet, and approved by every member of it. One of them + suggested that I should then and in that connection apply the Emancipation + Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; + that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, + and that I should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the + admission of members of Congress. But even he approved every part and + parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the action + of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation + for the whole State, practically applies the proclamation to the part + previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, + and is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of + members to Congress. So that, as it applied to Louisiana, every member of + the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I + received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not a + single objection to it from any professed emancipationist came to my + knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of + Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862, + I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested in + seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the + message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans, + General Banks wrote me that he was confident that the people, with his + military co-operation, would reconstruct substantially on that plan. I + wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and the result is + known. Such has been my only agency in getting up the Louisiana + government. As to sustaining it my promise is out, as before stated. But, + as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad + promise and break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is + adverse to the public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I + have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in + which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be + definitely fixed upon the question whether the seceded States, so called, + are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment to his + regret were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men + endeavoring to answer that question, I have purposely forborne any public + expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been nor yet + is a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it + thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the + mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may become, + that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing + at all—a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the + seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with + the Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, + in regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper + practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact + easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether those + States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves + safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had been + abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restore the proper + practical relations between these States and the Union, and each forever + after innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts he + brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper + assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency, + so to speak, on which the Louisiana government rests, would be more + satisfactory to all if it contained fifty thousand, or thirty thousand, or + even twenty thousand, instead of twelve thousand, as it does. It is also + unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the + colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very + intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the + question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite + all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be wiser to take it as it + is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse? Can Louisiana be + brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining + or by discarding her new State government? Some twelve thousand voters in + the heretofore Slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the + Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held + elections, organized a State government, adopted a Free State + constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and + white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise + upon the colored man. This Legislature has already voted to ratify the + Constitutional Amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery + throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully + committed to the Union and to perpetuate freedom in the State—committed + to the very things, and nearly all things, the nation wants—and they + ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good this + committal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to + disorganize and disperse them. We, in fact, say to the white man: You are + worthless or worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To the + blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, held to + your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of + gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined + when, where, and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both + white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical + relations with the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on + the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, + the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve + the arms of twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and + proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it + to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, + is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring to the same end. Grant + that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by + saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward + over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it + should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by + hatching the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we + also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the National + Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more + than three fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are + necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against + this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, + and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three + fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I + repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical + relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new + State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply to other + States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such + important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new + and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan + can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and + inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important + principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation as the + phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people + of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied + that action will be proper. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0403" id="link2H_4_0403"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1865. MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + I have seen your despatch to Colonel Hardie about the matter of prayers. I + do not remember hearing prayers spoken of while I was in Richmond; but I + have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you to be the spirit and + temper manifested by me while there. Is there any sign of the rebel + legislature coming together on the understanding of my letter to you? If + there is any such sign, inform me what it is; if there is no such sign, + you may withdraw the offer. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0404" id="link2H_4_0404"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 1865. + </h2> + <h3> + MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + </h3> + <p> + I have just seen Judge Campbell's letter to you of the 7th. He assumes, as + appears to me, that I have called the insurgent legislature of Virginia + together, as the rightful legislature of the State, to settle all + differences with the United States. I have done no such thing. I spoke of + them, not as a legislature, but as "the gentlemen who have acted as the + legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion." I did this on + purpose to exclude the assumption that I was recognizing them as a + rightful body. I deal with them as men having power de facto to do a + specific thing, to wit: "To withdraw the Virginia troops and other support + from resistance to the General Government," for which, in the paper handed + Judge Campbell, I promised a specific equivalent, to wit: a remission to + the people of the State, except in certain cases, of the confiscation of + their property. I meant this, and no more. Inasmuch, however, as Judge + Campbell misconstrues this, and is still pressing for an armistice, + contrary to the explicit statement of the paper I gave him, and + particularly as General Grant has since captured the Virginia troops, so + that giving a consideration for their withdrawal is no longer applicable, + let my letter to you and the paper to Judge Campbell both be withdrawn, or + countermanded, and he be notified of it. Do not now allow them to + assemble, but if any have come, allow them safe return to their homes. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0405" id="link2H_4_0405"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTERVIEW WITH SCHUYLER COLFAX ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 14, 1865. + </h2> + <p> + Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from me to the miners whom you + visit. I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I + believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the Western + country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has + scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of + millions of dollars every day to our national debt, I did not care about + encouraging the increase in the volume of our precious metals. We had the + country to save first. But now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we + know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and + silver we mine, we make the payment of that debt so much the easier. + "Now," said he, speaking with more emphasis, "I am going to encourage that + in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded + soldiers, and many have feared that their return home in such great + numbers might paralyze industry, by furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply + of labor than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them + to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough + for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon + our shores hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded Europe. I + intend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for them in the + West. Tell the miners for me, that I shall promote their interests to the + utmost of my ability; because their prosperity is the prosperity of the + nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, "we shall prove, + in a very few years, that we are indeed the treasury of the world." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0406" id="link2H_4_0406"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GENERAL VAN ALLEN. + </h2> + <h3> + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 14, 1865 + </h3> + <p> + GENERAL VAN ALLEN: + </p> + <p> + I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precaution.... I + thank you for the assurance you give me that I shall be supported by + conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may make to restore the + Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a Union of hearts and hands + as well as of States. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0407" id="link2H_4_0407"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS + </h2> + <h3> + Allow Mr. Ashmer and friend to come in at 9 A.M. to-morrow. + </h3> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. April 14, 1865 + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham +Lincoln, Volume Seven, by Abraham Lincoln + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 2659-h.htm or 2659-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/2659/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Seven + Constitutional Edition + +Author: Abraham Lincoln + +Commentator: Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Schurz, and Joseph Choate + +Editor: Arthur Brooks Lapsley + +Release Date: June, 2001 [Etext #2659] +Posting Date: July 5, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +VOLUME SEVEN + +CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + +By Abraham Lincoln + + +Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF A. LINCOLN, Volume Seven, 1863-1865 + + + + +1863 + + +OPINION ON THE LOSS OF GENERAL R. H. MILROY'S DIVISION. + +October 27, 1863. + +In June last a division was substantially lost at or near Winchester, Va. +At the time, it was under General Milroy as immediate commander in the +field, General Schenck as department commander at Baltimore, and General +Halleck as general-in-chief at Washington. + +General Milroy, as immediate commander, was put in arrest, and +subsequently a court of inquiry examined chiefly with reference to +disobedience of orders, and reported the evidence. + +The foregoing is a synoptical statement of the evidence, together with the +judge-advocate-general's conclusions. The disaster, when it came, was a +surprise to all. It was very well known to Generals Shenck and Milroy for +some time before, that General Halleck thought the division was in great +danger of a surprise at Winchester; that it was of no service commensurate +with the risk it incurred, and that it ought to be withdrawn; but, +although he more than once advised its withdrawal, he never positively +ordered it. General Schenck, on the contrary, believed the service of the +force at Winchester was worth the hazard, and so did not positively +order its withdrawal until it was so late that the enemy cut the wire and +prevented the order reaching General Milroy. + +General Milroy seems to have concurred with General Schenck in the opinion +that the force should be kept at Winchester at least until the approach of +danger, but he disobeyed no order upon the subject. + +Some question can be made whether some of General Halleck's dispatches to +General Schenk should not have been construed to be orders to withdraw the +force, and obeyed accordingly; but no such question can be made against +General Milroy. In fact, the last order he received was to be prepared to +withdraw, but not to actually withdraw until further order, which further +order never reached him. + +Serious blame is not necessarily due to any serious disaster, and I cannot +say that in this case any of the officers are deserving of serious blame. +No court-martial is deemed necessary or proper in the case. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + +Private and confidential + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 28, 1863. + +GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD: + +There have recently reached the War Department, and thence been laid +before me, from Missouri, three communications, all similar in import and +identical in object. One of them, addressed to nobody, and without place +or date, but having the signature of (apparently) the writer, is a letter +of eight closely written foolscap pages. The other two are written by +a different person, at St. Joseph, Mo., and of the dates, respectively, +October 12 and 13, 1863, and each inclosing a large number of affidavits. +The general statements of the whole are that the Federal and State +authorities are arming the disloyal and disarming the loyal, and that the +latter will all be killed or driven out of the State unless there shall be +a change. In particular, no loyal man who has been disarmed is named, but +the affidavits show by name forty-two persons as disloyal who have been +armed. They are as follows: [The names are omitted.] + +A majority of these are shown to have been in the rebel service. I believe +it could be shown that the government here has deliberately armed more +than ten times as many captured at Gettysburg, to say nothing of similar +operations in East Tennessee. These papers contain altogether thirty--one +manuscript pages, and one newspaper in extenso, and yet I do not find it +anywhere charged in them that any loyal man has been harmed by reason of +being disarmed, or that any disloyal one has harmed anybody by reason of +being armed by the Federal or State Government. Of course, I have not had +time to carefully examine all; but I have had most of them examined and +briefed by others, and the result is as stated. The remarkable fact that +the actual evil is yet only anticipated--inferred--induces me to suppose I +understand the case; but I do not state my impression, because I might +be mistaken, and because your duty and mine is plain in any event. The +locality of nearly all this seems to be St. Joseph and Buchanan County. +I wish you to give special attention to this region, particularly on +election day. Prevent violence from whatever quarter, and see that the +soldiers themselves do no wrong. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +[Cipher.] + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 28, 1863. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: If not too inconvenient, please +come at once and have a personal conversation with me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO VICE-PRESIDENT HAMLIN. + +AN ACT TO REGULATE THE DUTIES OF THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES +IN PREPARING FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. + +Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled, that, before the first meeting of +the next Congress, and of every subsequent Congress, the clerk of the +next preceding House of Representatives shall make a roll of the +Representatives elect, and place thereon the names of all persons, and of +such persons only, whose credentials show that they were regularly elected +in accordance with the laws of their States respectively, or the laws of +the United States. + +Approved March 3, 1863. + + + + +TO J. W. GRIMES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 1863. + +HON. JAMES W. GRIMES. + +MY DEAR SIR:--The above act of Congress was passed, as I suppose, for +the purpose of shutting out improper applicants for seats in the House of +Representatives; and I fear there is some danger that it will be used to +shut out proper ones. Iowa, having an entire Union delegation, will be +one of the States the attempt will be made, if upon any. The Governor +doubtless has made out the certificates, and they are already in the +hands of the members. I suggest that they come on with them; but that, for +greater caution, you, and perhaps Mr. Harlan with you, consult with the +Governor, and have an additional set made out according to the form on the +other half of this sheet; and still another set, if you can, by studying +the law, think of a form that in your judgment, promises additional +security, and quietly bring the whole on with you, to be used in case of +necessity. Let what you do be kept still. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO P. F. LOWE. + +[Cipher.] + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +HON. F. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Below is an act of Congress, passed last session, intended to exclude +applicants not entitled to seats, but which, there is reason to fear, will +be used to exclude some who are entitled. Please get with the Governor +and one or two other discreet friends, study the act carefully, and make +certificates in two or three forms, according to your best judgement, +and have them sent to me, so as to multiply the chances of the delegation +getting their seats. Let it be done without publicity. Below is a form +which may answer for one. If you could procure the same to be done for the +Oregon member it might be well. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Much obliged for the information about deserters contained in your +dispatch of yesterday, while I have to beg your pardon for troubling you +in regard to some of them, when, as it appears by yours, I had the means +of answering my own questions. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 31, 1863. + +The Provost-Marshal-General has issued no proclamation at all. He has +in no form announced anything recently in regard to troops in New York, +except in his letter to Governor Seymour of October 21, which has been +published in the newspapers of that State. It has not been announced or +decided in any form by the Provost-Marshal-General, or any one else in +authority of the Government, that every citizen who has paid his three +hundred dollars commutation is liable to be immediately drafted again, or +that towns that have just raised the money to pay their quotas will have +again to be subject to similar taxation or suffer the operations of the +new conscription, nor it is probable that the like of them ever will be +announced or decided. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 1, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N.Y.: + +No important news. Details of Hooker's night fight do great credit to his +command, and particularly to the Eleventh Corps and Geary's part of the +Twelfth. No discredit on any. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Some days ago I understood you to say that your brother, +General Frank Blair, desires to be guided by my wishes as to whether he +will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. My wish, then, is +compounded of what I believe will be best for the country; and it is that +he will come here, put his military commission in my hands, take his seat, +go into caucus with our friends, abide the nominations, help elect the +nominees, and thus aid to organize a House of Representatives which will +really support the Government in the war. If the result shall be the +election of himself as Speaker, let him serve in that position. If not, +let him retake his commission and return to the army for the benefit of +the country. + +This will heal a dangerous schism for him. It will relieve him from a +dangerous position or a misunderstanding, as I think he is in danger of +being permanently separated from those with whom only he can ever have a +real sympathy--the sincere opponents of slavery. + +It will be a mistake if he shall allow the provocations offered him by +insincere time-servers to drive him from the house of his own building. He +is young yet. He has abundant talents--quite enough to occupy all his time +without devoting any to temper. + +He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His recent appointment to +the command of a corps, by one so competent to judge as General Sherman, +proves this. In that line he can serve both the country and himself more +profitably than he could as a member of Congress upon the floor. + +The foregoing is what I would say if Frank Blair was my brother instead of +yours. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR BRADFORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +His EXCELLENCY A. W. BRADFORD, Governor of Maryland. + +SIR:--Yours of the 31st ult. was received yesterday about noon, and since +then I have been giving most earnest attention to the subject-matter +of it. At my call General Schenck has attended, and he assures me it is +almost certain that violence will be used at some of the voting places on +election day unless prevented by his provost-guards. He says that at some +of those places Union voters will not attend at all, or run a ticket, +unless they have some assurance of protection. This makes the Missouri +case, of my action in regard to which you express your approval. + +The remaining point of your letter is a protest against any person +offering to vote being put to any test not found in the laws of Maryland. +This brings us to a difference between Missouri and Maryland. With the +same reason in both States, Missouri has, by law, provided a test for the +voter with reference to the present rebellion, while Maryland has not. For +example, General Trimble, captured fighting us at Gettysburg, is, without +recanting his treason, a legal voter by the laws of Maryland. Even General +Schenck's order admits him to vote, if he recants upon oath. I think that +is cheap enough. My order in Missouri, which you approve, and General +Scherick's order here, reach precisely the same end. Bach assures the +right of voting to all loyal men, and whether a man is loyal, each allows +that man to fix by his own oath. Your suggestion that nearly all the +candidates are loyal, I do not think quite meets the case. In this +struggle for the nation's life, I cannot so confidently rely on those +whose elections may have depended upon disloyal votes. Such men, when +elected, may prove true; but such votes are given them in the expectation +that they will prove false. + +Nor do I think that to keep the peace at the polls, and to prevent the +persistently disloyal from voting, constitutes just cause of offense to +Maryland. I think she has her own example for it. If I mistake not, it is +precisely what General Dix did when your Excellency was elected Governor. + +I revoke the first of the three propositions in General Schenek's General +Order No. 53; not that it is wrong in principle, but because the military, +being of necessity exclusive judges as to who shall be arrested, the +provision is too liable to abuse. For the revoked part I substitute the +following: + +That, all provost-marshals and other military officers do prevent all +disturbance and violence at or about the polls, whether offered by such +persons as above described, or by any other person or persons whomsoever. + +The other two propositions of the order I allow to stand. General Schenek +is fully determined, and has my strict orders besides, that all loyal men +may vote, and vote for whom they please. + +Your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. H. HACKETT + +[Private.] + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +JAMES H. HACKETT. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of October 22d is received, as also was, in +due course, that of October 3d. I look forward with pleasure to the +fulfillment of the promise made in the former to visit Washington the +following winter and to "call." + +Give yourself no uneasiness on the subject mentioned in that of the 22d. +My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in print, yet I have not +been much shocked by the newspaper comments upon it. + +Those comments constitute a fair specimen of what has occurred to me +through life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule, without much +malice; and have received a great deal of kindness not quite free from +ridicule. I am used to it. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, November 3, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N. Y.: + +Nothing new. Dispatches up to 12 last night from Chattanooga show all +quiet and doing well. How is your son? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 3, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Samuel Wellers, private in Company B, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, +writes that he is to be shot for desertion on the 6th instant. His own +story is rather a bad one, and yet he tells it so frankly, that I +am somewhat interested in him. Has he been a good soldier except the +desertion? About how old is he? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE, MANSION WASHINGTON, D. C., November 5, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Please suspend the execution of Samuel Wellers, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania +Volunteers, until further orders. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November +9, 1863.4 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Have seen dispatch from General Grant about your loss at Rogersville. Per +contra, about the same time, Averell and Duffle got considerable advantage +of the enemy at and about Lewisburg, Virginia: and on Saturday, the +seventh, Meade drove the enemy from Rappahannock Station and Kelly's Ford, +capturing eight battle-flags, four guns, and over 1800 prisoners, with +very little loss to himself. Let me hear from you. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. + +WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863 7.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +I have seen your dispatches about operations on the Rappahannock on +Saturday, and I wish to say, "Well done!" Do the 1500 prisoners reported +by General Sedgwick include the 400 taken by General French, or do the +Whole amount to 1900? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXPORT OF TOBACCO PURCHASED BY FOREIGN NATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, November 10, 1863. + +In consideration of the peculiar circumstances and pursuant to the comity +deemed to be due to friendly powers, any tobacco in the United States +belonging to the government either of France, Austria, or any other state +with which this country is at peace, and which tobacco was purchased and +paid for by such government prior to the 4th day of March, 1861, may be +exported from any port of the United States under the supervision and upon +the responsibility of naval officers of such governments and in conformity +to such regulations as may be presented by the Secretary of State of the +United States, and not otherwise. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 10, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + + I see a dispatch here from Saint Louis, which is a little difficult +for me to understand. It says "General Schofield has refused leave of +absence to members in military service to attend the legislature. All such +are radical and administration men. The election of two Senators from +this place on Thursday will probably turn upon this thing." what does this +mean? Of course members of the legislation must be allowed to attend its +sessions. But how is there a session before the recent election returns +are in? And how is it to be at "this place"--and that is Saint Louis? +Please inform me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +I believe the Secretary of War has telegraphed you about members of the +legislation. At all events, allow those in the service to attend the +session, and we can afterward decide whether they can stay through the +entire session. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HIRAM BARNEY. + + [Cipher.] + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +HON. HIRAM BARNEY, New York; I would like an interview with you. Can you +not come? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. MILDERBORGER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +JOHN MILDERBORGER, Peru, Ind.: + +I cannot comprehend the object of your dispatch. I do not often decline +seeing people who call upon me, and probably will see you if you call. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM to E. H. AND E. JAMESON. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, + +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 13, 1863. + +E. H. and E. JAMESON, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Yours saying Brown and Henderson are elected Senators is received. I +understand this is one and one. If so it is knocking heads together to +some. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1863. 12.15 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Cincinnati, Ohio: + +I have received and considered your dispatch of yesterday. Of the reports +you mention, I have not the means of seeing any except your own. Besides +this, the publication might be improper in view of the court of inquiry +which has been ordered. With every disposition, not merely to do justice, +but to oblige you, I feel constrained to say I think the publications +better not be made now. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, November 16, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +What is the news? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 17, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I expected to see you here at Cabinet meeting, and to say +something about going to Gettysburg. There will be a train to take and +return us. The time for starting is not yet fixed, but when it shall be I +will notify you. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG + +NOVEMBER 19, 1863. + +Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or +any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a +great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that +field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that +that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should +do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we +can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled +here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. +The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can +never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be +dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus +far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the +great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take +increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure +of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have +died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of +freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, +shall not perish from the earth. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +If there is a man by the name of King under sentence to be shot, please +suspend execution till further order, and send record. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +An intelligent woman in deep distress, called this morning, saying her +husband, a lieutenant in the Army of Potomac, was to be shot next Monday +for desertion, and putting a letter in my hand, upon which I relied for +particulars, she left without mentioning a name or other particular by +which to identify the case. On opening the letter I found it equally +vague, having nothing to identify by, except her own signature, which +seems to be "Mrs. Anna S. King." I could not again find her. If you have +a case which you shall think is probably the one intended, please apply my +dispatch of this morning to it. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. P. EVANS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +E. P. EVANS, West Union, Adams County, Ohio: + +Yours to Governor Chase in behalf of John A Welch is before me. Can there +be a worse case than to desert and with letters persuading others to +desert? I cannot interpose without a better showing than you make. When +did he desert? when did he write the letters? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Two despatches since I saw you; one not quite so late on +firing as we had before, but giving the points that Burnside thinks he +can hold the place, that he is not closely invested, and that he forages +across the river. The other brings the firing up to 11 A.M. yesterday, +being twenty-three hours later than we had before. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, November 25, 1863. 8.40 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL U.S. GRANT: + +Your despatches as to fighting on Monday and Tuesday are here. Well done! +Many thanks to all. Remember Burnside. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO C. P. KIRKLAND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 7, 1863. + +CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, ESQ., New York: + +I have just received and have read your published letter to the HON. +Benjamin R. Curtis. Under the circumstances I may not be the most +competent judge, but it appears to me to be a paper of great ability, and +for the country's sake more than for my own I thank you for it. + +Yours very truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF UNION SUCCESS IN EAST TENNESSEE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 7, 1863. + +Reliable information being received that the insurgent force is retreating +from East Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it probable that the +Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important position; +and esteeming this to be of high national consequence, I recommend that +all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their +places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God +for this great advancement of the national cause. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION. DECEMBER 8, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas in and by the Constitution of the United States it is provided +that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for +offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment;" and, + +Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of +several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have +committed and are now guilty of treason against the United States; and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been +enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of property and +liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein stated, and +also declaring that the President was thereby authorized at any +time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have +participated in the existing rebellion in any State or part thereof pardon +and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such conditions +as he may deem expedient for the public welfare; and + +Whereas the Congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon +accords with well-established judicial exposition of the pardoning power; +and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the United +States has issued several proclamations with provisions in regard to the +liberation of slaves; and + +Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said +rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States and to +reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective +States: + +Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by +implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter +excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, +with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves and in +property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and +upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath +and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath +shall be registered for permanent preservation and shall be of the tenor +and effect following, to wit: + +"I, ------, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I will +henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the +United States and the Union of the States thereunder; and that I will in +like manner abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed +during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far +as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress or by decision of +the Supreme Court; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully +support all proclamations of the President made during the existing +rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified +or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God." + +The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are all +who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the +so-called Confederate Government; all who have left judicial stations +under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are or shall have +been military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government +above the rank of colonel in the army or of lieutenant in the navy; all +who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all +who resigned commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States and +afterwards aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in +treating colored persons, or white persons in charge of such, otherwise +than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been +found in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other +capacity. + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in +any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, +Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of +persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State +at the Presidential election of the year A.D. 1860, each having taken oath +aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter +by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called +act of secession, and excluding all others, shall reestablish a State +government which shall be republican and in nowise contravening said oath, +such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and +the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional +provision which declares that "the United States shall guarantee to every +State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each +of them against invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or the +EXECUTIVE (when the legislature can not be convened), against domestic +violence." + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision +which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed +people of such State which shall recognize and declare their permanent +freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as +a temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, +landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National +EXECUTIVE. + +And it is suggested as not improper that in constructing a loyal +State government in any State the name of the State, the boundary, the +subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws as before the +rebellion be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary +by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not +contravening said co and which may be deemed expedient by those framing +the new State government. + +To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this proclamation, +so far as it relates to State governments, has no reference to States +wherein loyal State governments have all the while been maintained. And +for the same reason it may be proper to further say that whether +members sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats +constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to +any extent with the EXECUTIVE. And, still further, that this proclamation +is intended to present the people of the States wherein the national +authority has been suspended and loyal State governments have been +subverted a mode in and by which the national authority and loyal State +governments may be re-established within said States or in any of them; +and while the mode presented is the best the EXECUTIVE can suggest, with +his present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible +mode would be acceptable. + +Given under my hand at the city of WASHINGTON, the 8th day of December, +A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America the +eighty-eighth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 8, 1863. + + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:-- + +Another year of health, and of sufficiently abundant harvests, has passed. +For these, and especially for the improved condition cf our national +affairs, our renewed and profoundest gratitude to God is due. + +We remain in peace and friendship with foreign powers. + +The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us in +foreign wars, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been unavailing. +Her Britannic Majesty's government, as was justly expected, have exercised +their authority to prevent the departure of new hostile expeditions from +British ports. The Emperor of France has, by a like proceeding, promptly +vindicated the neutrality which he proclaimed at the beginning of the +contest. Questions of great intricacy and importance have arisen out of +the blockade, and other belligerent operations, between the Government and +several of the maritime powers, but they have been discussed, and, as +far as was possible, accommodated, in a spirit of frankness, justice, and +mutual good-will. It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by +the impartiality of their adjudications, have commanded the respect and +confidence of maritime powers. + +The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain +for the suppression of the African slave-trade, made on the 17th day of +February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. It +is believed that, so far as American ports and American citizens are +concerned, that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an end. + +I shall submit, for the consideration of the Senate, a convention for the +adjustment of possessory claims in Washington Territory, arising out of +the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, between the United States and +Great Britain, and which have been the source of some disquiet among the +citizens of that now rapidly improving part of the country. + +A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime +jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the island of Cuba, +has been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is proposed, in +an amicable spirit, to refer it to the arbitrament of a friendly power. A +convention for that purpose will be submitted to the Senate. + +I have thought it proper, subject to the approval of the Senate, to +concur with the interested commercial powers in an arrangement for the +liquidation of the Scheldt dues upon the principles which have been +heretofore adopted in regard to the imposts upon navigation in the waters +of Denmark. + +The long-pending controversy between this government and that of Chile +touching the seizure at Sitana, in Peru, by Chilean officers, of a large +amount in treasure belonging to citizens of the United States has been +brought to a close by the award of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, +to whose arbitration the question was referred by the parties. The subject +was thoroughly and patiently examined by that justly respected magistrate, +and although the sum awarded to the claimants may not have been as +large as they expected there is no reason to distrust the wisdom of His +Majesty's decision. That decision was promptly complied with by Chile when +intelligence in regard to it reached that country. + +The joint commission under the act of the last session of carrying +into effect the convention with Peru on the subject of claims has been +organized at Lima, and is engaged in the business intrusted to it. + +Difficulties concerning interoceanic transit through Nicaragua are in +course of amicable adjustment. + +In conformity with principles set forth in my last annual message, I have +received a representative from the United States of Colombia, and have +accredited a minister to that Republic. + +Incidents occurring in the progress of our civil war have forced upon +my attention the uncertain state of international questions touching the +rights of foreigners in this country and of United States citizens abroad. +In regard to some governments these rights are at least partially defined +by treaties. In no instance, however, is it expressly stipulated that in +the event of civil war a foreigner residing in this country within the +lines of the insurgents is to be exempted from the rule which classes him +as a belligerent, in whose behalf the government of his country can not +expect any privileges or immunities distinct from that character. I regret +to say, however, that such claims have been put forward, and in some +instances in behalf of foreigners who have lived in the United States the +greater part of their lives. + +There is reason to believe that many persons born in foreign countries who +have declared their intention to become citizens, or who have been fully +naturalized have evaded the military duty required of them by denying the +fact and thereby throwing upon the Government the burden of proof. It has +been found difficult or impracticable to obtain this proof from the want +of guides to the proper sources of information. These might be supplied by +requiring clerks of courts where declarations of intention may be made or +naturalizations effected to send periodically lists of the names of the +persons naturalized or declaring their intention to become citizens to +the Secretary of the Interior, in whose Department those names might be +arranged and printed for general information. + +There is also reason to believe that foreigners frequently become citizens +of the United States for the sole purpose of evading duties imposed by the +laws of their native countries, to which on becoming naturalized here they +at once repair, and though never returning to the United States they still +claim the interposition of this government as citizens. Many altercations +and great prejudices have heretofore arisen out of this abuse. It is +therefore submitted to your serious consideration. It might be advisable +to fix a limit beyond which no citizen of the United States residing +abroad may claim the interposition of his government. + +The right of suffrage has often been assumed and exercised by aliens under +pretenses of naturalization, which they have disavowed when drafted into +the military service. I submit the expediency of such an amendment of +the law as will make the fact of voting an estoppe against any plea of +exemption from military service or other civil obligation on the ground of +alienage. + +In common with other Western powers, our relations with Japan have been +brought into serious jeopardy through the perverse opposition of the +hereditary aristocracy of the Empire to the enlightened and liberal policy +of the Tycoon, designed to bring the country into the society of nations. +It is hoped, although not with entire confidence, that these difficulties +may be peacefully overcome. I ask your attention to the claim of the +minister residing there for the damages he sustained in the destruction by +fire of the residence of the legation at Yedo. + +Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the Emperor of Russia, +which, it is believed, will result in effecting a continuous line of +telegraph through that Empire from our Pacific coast. + +I recommend to your favorable consideration the subject of an +international telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, and also of a telegraph +between this capital and the national forts along the Atlantic seaboard +and the Gulf of Mexico. Such communications, established with any +reasonable outlay, would be economical as well as effective aids to the +diplomatic, military, and naval service. + +The consular system of the United States, under the enactments of the last +Congress, begins to be self-sustaining, and there is reason to hope that +it may become entirely so with the increase of trade which will ensue +whenever peace is restored. Our ministers abroad have been faithful in +defending American rights. In protecting commercial interests our consuls +have necessarily had to encounter increased labors and responsibilities +growing out of the war. These they have for the most part met and +discharged with zeal and efficiency. This acknowledgment justly includes +those consuls who, residing in Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, China, +and other Oriental countries, are charged with complex functions and +extraordinary powers. + +The condition of the several organized Territories is generally +satisfactory, although Indian disturbances in New Mexico have not been +entirely suppressed. The mineral resources of Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, +New Mexico, and Arizona are proving far richer than has been heretofore +understood. I lay before you a communication on this subject from +the Governor of New Mexico. I again submit to your consideration the +expediency of establishing a system for the encouragement of immigration. +Although this source of national wealth and strength is again flowing with +greater freedom than for several years before the insurrection occurred, +there is still a great deficiency of laborers in every field of industry, +especially in agriculture and in our mines, as well of iron and coal as +of the precious metals. While the demand for labor is much increased here, +tens of thousands of persons, destitute of remunerative occupation, are +thronging our foreign consulates and offering to emigrate to the United +States if essential, but very cheap, assistance can be afforded them. It +is easy to see that under the sharp discipline of civil war the nation +is beginning a new life. This noble effort demands the aid and ought to +receive the attention and support of the Government. + +Injuries unforeseen by the Government and unintended may in some cases +have been inflicted on the subjects or citizens of foreign countries, both +at sea and on land, by persons in the service of the United States. As +this government expects redress from other powers when similar injuries +are inflicted by persons in their service upon citizens of the United +States, we must be prepared to do justice to foreigners. If the existing +judicial tribunals are inadequate to this purpose, a special court may +be authorized, with power to hear and decide such claims of the character +referred to as may have arisen under treaties and the public law. +Conventions for adjusting the claims by joint commission have been +proposed to some governments, but no definitive answer to the proposition +has yet been received from any. + +In the course of the session I shall probably have occasion to request you +to provide indemnification to claimants where decrees of restitution have +been rendered and damages awarded by admiralty courts, and in other cases +where this government may be acknowledged to be liable in principle and +where the amount of that liability has been ascertained by an informal +arbitration. + +The proper officers of the Treasury have deemed themselves required by the +law of the United States upon the subject to demand a tax upon the +incomes of foreign consuls in this country. While such a demand may not +in strictness be in derogation of public law, or perhaps of any existing +treaty between the United States and a foreign country, the expediency of +so far modifying the act as to exempt from tax the income of such consuls +as are not citizens of the United States, derived from the emoluments +of their office or from property not situated in the United States, is +submitted to your serious consideration. I make this suggestion upon the +ground that a comity which ought to be reciprocated exempts our consuls in +all other countries from taxation to the extent thus indicated. The United +States, I think, ought not to be exceptionally illiberal to international +trade and commerce. + +The operations of the Treasury during the last year have been successfully +conducted. The enactment by Congress of a national banking law has proved +a valuable support of the public credit, and the general legislation in +relation to loans has fully answered the expectations of its favorers. +Some amendments may be required to perfect existing laws, but no change in +their principles or general scope is believed to be needed. + +Since these measures have been in operation all demands on the Treasury, +including the pay of the Army and Navy, have been promptly met and fully +satisfied. No considerable body of troops, it is believed, were ever more +amply provided and more liberally and punctually paid, and it may be +added that by no people were the burdens incident to a great war ever more +cheerfully borne. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, including loans and +balance in the Treasury at its commencement, were $901,125,674.86, and the +aggregate disbursements $895,796,630.65, leaving a balance on the 1st +of July, 1863, of $5,329,044.21. Of the receipts there were derived from +customs $69,059,642.40, from internal revenue $37,640,787.95, from direct +tax $1,485,103.61, from lands $167,617.17, from miscellaneous sources +$3,046,615.35, and from loans $776,682,361.57, making the aggregate +$901,125,674.86. Of the disbursements there were for the civil service +$23,253,922.08, for pensions and Indians $4,216,520.79, for interest on +public debt $24,729,846.51, for the War Department $599,298,600.83, for +the Navy Department $63,211,105.27, for payment of funded and temporary +debt $181,086,635.07, making the aggregate $895,796,630.65 and leaving the +balance of $5,329,044.21. But the payment of funded and temporary debt, +having been made from moneys borrowed during the year, must be regarded +as merely nominal payments and the moneys borrowed to make them as merely +nominal receipts, and their amount, $181,086,635.07, should therefore +be deducted both from receipts and disbursements. This being done there +remains as actual receipts $720,039,039.79 and the actual disbursements +$714,709,995.58, leaving the balance as already stated. + +The actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the +estimated receipts and disbursements for the remaining three-quarters of +the current fiscal year (1864) will be shown in detail by the report of +the Secretary of the Treasury, to which I invite your attention. It is +sufficient to say here that it is not believed that actual results will +exhibit a state of the finances less favorable to the country than the +estimates of that officer heretofore submitted while it is confidently +expected that at the close of the year both disbursements and debt will be +found very considerably less than has been anticipated. + +The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. It +consists of: + +1. The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of the +General in Chief. + +2. The organization of colored persons into the war service. + +3. The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of General +Hitchcock. + +4. The operations under the act for enrolling and calling out the national +forces, detailed in the report of the Provost Marshal General. + +5. The organization of the invalid corps, and + +6. The operation of the several departments of the Quartermaster-General, +Commissary-General, Paymaster-General, Chief of Engineers, Chief of +Ordnance, and Surgeon-General. + +It has appeared impossible to make a valuable summary of this report, +except such as would be too extended for this place, and hence I content +myself by asking your careful attention to the report itself. + +The duties devolving on the naval branch of the service during the year +and throughout the whole of this unhappy contest have been discharged with +fidelity and eminent success. The extensive blockade has been constantly +increasing in efficiency as the Navy has expanded, yet on so long a line +it has so far been impossible to entirely suppress illicit trade. From +returns received at the Navy Department it appears that more than 1,000 +vessels have been captured since the blockade was instituted? and that +the value of prizes already sent in for adjudication amounts to over +$13,000,000. + +The naval force of the United States consists at this time of five hundred +and eighty-eight vessels completed and in the course of completion, and of +these seventy-five are ironclad or armored steamers. The events of the war +give an increased interest and importance to the Navy which will probably +extend beyond the war itself. + +The armored vessels in our Navy completed and in service, or which are +under contract and approaching completion, are believed to exceed in +number those of any other power; but while these may be relied upon for +harbor defense and coast service, others of greater strength and capacity +will be necessary for cruising purposes and to maintain our rightful +position on the ocean. + +The change that has taken place in naval vessels and naval warfare since +the introduction of steam as a motive power for ships of war demands +either a corresponding change in some of our existing navy yards or the +establishment of new ones for the construction and necessary repair of +modern naval vessels. No inconsiderable embarrassment, delay, and +public injury have been experienced from the want of such governmental +establishments. The necessity of such a navy-yard, so furnished, at some +suitable place upon the Atlantic seaboard has on repeated occasions been +brought to the attention of Congress by the Navy Department, and is +again presented in the report of the Secretary which accompanies this +communication. I think it my duty to invite your special attention to +this subject, and also to that of establishing a yard and depot for naval +purposes upon one of the Western rivers. A naval force has been created +on those interior waters, and under many disadvantages, within little more +than two years, exceeding in numbers the whole naval force of the country +at the commencement of the present Administration. Satisfactory and +important as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy at +this interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the success +of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war vessels, which has +created a new form of naval power. + +Our country has advantages superior to any other nation in our resources +of iron and timber, with inexhaustible quantities of fuel in the immediate +vicinity of both, and all available and in close proximity to navigable +waters. Without the advantage of public works, the resources of the nation +have been developed and its power displayed in the construction of a Navy +of such magnitude, which has at the very period of its creation rendered +signal service to the Union. + +The increase of the number of seamen in the public service from 7,500 +men in the spring of 1861 to about 34,000 at the present time has been +accomplished without special legislation or extraordinary bounties to +promote that increase. It has been found, however, that the operation of +the draft, with the high bounties paid for army recruits, is beginning +to affect injuriously the naval service, and will, if not corrected, be +likely to impair its efficiency by detaching seamen from their proper +vocation and inducing them to enter the Army. I therefore respectfully +suggest that Congress might aid both the army and naval services by +a definite provision on this subject which would at the same time be +equitable to the communities more especially interested. + +I commend to your consideration the suggestions of the Secretary of the +Navy in regard to the policy of fostering and training seamen and also +the education of officers and engineers for the naval service. The Naval +Academy is rendering signal service in preparing midshipmen for the highly +responsible duties which in after life they will be required to perform. +In order that the country should not be deprived of the proper quota of +educated officers, for which legal provision has been made at the +naval school, the vacancies caused by the neglect or omission to make +nominations from the States in insurrection have been filled by the +Secretary of the Navy. The school is now more full and complete than +at any former period, and in every respect entitled to the favorable +consideration of Congress. + +During the past fiscal year the financial condition of the Post-Office +Department has been one of increasing prosperity, and I am gratified in +being able to state that the actual postal revenue has nearly equaled the +entire expenditures, the latter amounting to $11,314,206.84 and the former +to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency of but $150,417.25. In 1860, +the year immediately preceding the rebellion, the deficiency amounted to +$5,656,705.49, the postal receipts of that year being $2,645,722.19 +less that those of 1863. The decrease since 1860 in the annual amount of +transportation has been only about twenty-five per cent, but the annual +expenditure on account of the same has been reduced thirty-five per cent. +It is manifest, therefore, that the Post-Office Department may become +self-sustaining in a few years, even with the restoration of the whole +service. + +The international conference of postal delegates from the principal +countries of Europe and America, which was called at the suggestion of the +Postmaster-General, met at Paris on the 11th of May last and concluded +its deliberations on the 8th of June. The principles established by +the conference as best adapted to facilitate postal intercourse between +nations and as the basis of future postal conventions inaugurate a general +system of uniform international charges at reduced rates of postage, and +can not fail to produce beneficial results. + +I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is +herewith laid before you, for useful and varied information in relation to +the public lands, Indian affairs, patents, pensions, and other matters of +public concern pertaining to his Department. + +The quantity of land disposed of during the last and the first quarter of +the present fiscal years was 3,841,549 acres, of which 161,911 acres were +sold for cash, 1,456,514 acres were taken up under the homestead law, and +the residue disposed of under laws granting lands for military bounties, +for railroad and other purposes. It also appears that the sale of the +public lands is largely on the increase. + +It has long been a cherished opinion of some of our wisest statesmen that +the people of the United States had a higher and more enduring interest in +the early settlement and substantial cultivation of the public lands than +in the amount of direct revenue to be derived from the sale of them. This +opinion has had a controlling influence in shaping legislation upon the +subject of our national domain. I may cite as evidence of this the liberal +measures adopted in reference to actual settlers; the grant to the States +of the overflowed lands within their limits, in order to their being +reclaimed and rendered fit for cultivation; the grants to railway +companies of alternate sections of land upon the contemplated lines of +their roads, which when completed will so largely multiply the facilities +for reaching our distant possessions. This policy has received its most +signal and beneficent illustration in the recent enactment granting +homesteads to actual settlers. Since the 1st day of January last the +before-mentioned quantity of 1,456,514 acres of land have been taken up +under its provisions. This fact and the amount of sales furnish gratifying +evidence of increasing settlement upon the public lands, notwithstanding +the great struggle in which the energies of the nation have been engaged, +and which has required so large a withdrawal of our citizens from their +accustomed pursuits. I cordially concur in the recommendation of the +Secretary of the Interior suggesting a modification of the act in favor +of those engaged in the military and naval service of the United States. +I doubt not that Congress will cheerfully adopt such measures as will, +without essentially changing the general features of the system, secure to +the greatest practicable extent its benefits to those who have left their +homes in the defense of the country in this arduous crisis. + +I invite your attention to the views of the Secretary as to the propriety +of raising by appropriate legislation a revenue from the mineral lands of +the United States. + +The measures provided at your last session for the removal of certain +Indian tribes have been carried into effect. Sundry treaties have been +negotiated, which will in due time be submitted for the constitutional +action of the Senate. They contain stipulations for extinguishing the +possessory rights of the Indians to large and valuable tracts of lands. +It is hoped that the effect of these treaties will result in the +establishment of permanent friendly relations with such of these tribes +as have been brought into frequent and bloody collision with our outlying +settlements and emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative duty to these +wards of the Government demand our anxious and constant attention to their +material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, and, +above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of Divine +Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying influences, +the hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith. + +I suggested in my last annual message the propriety of remodeling our +Indian system. Subsequent events have satisfied me of its necessity. The +details set forth in the report of the Secretary evince the urgent need +for immediate legislative action. + +I commend the benevolent institutions established or patronized by the +Government in this District to your generous and fostering care. + +The attention of Congress during the last session was engaged to some +extent with a proposition for enlarging the water communication between +the Mississippi River and the northeastern seaboard, which proposition, +however, failed for the time. Since then, upon a call of the greatest +respectability, a convention has been held at Chicago upon the same +subject, a summary of whose views is contained in a memorial addressed to +the President and Congress, and which I now have the honor to lay before +you. That this interest is one which ere long will force its own way I do +not entertain a doubt, while it is submitted entirely to your wisdom as to +what can be done now. Augmented interest is given to this subject by the +actual commencement of work upon the Pacific Railroad, under auspices +so favorable to rapid progress and completion. The enlarged navigation +becomes a palpable need to the great road. + +I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioner of the Department +of Agriculture, asking your attention to the developments in that vital +interest of the nation. + +When Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted nearly +twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and sea, +with varying results; the rebellion had been pressed back into reduced +limits; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion, at home and abroad, +was not satisfactory. With other signs, the popular elections then just +past indicated uneasiness among ourselves, while, amid much that was cold +and menacing, the kindest words coming from Europe were uttered in accents +of pity that we are too blind to surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce +was suffering greatly by a few armed vessels built upon and furnished from +foreign shores, and we were threatened with such additions from the same +quarter as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade. We +had failed to elicit from European governments anything hopeful upon this +subject. The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in September, +was running its assigned period to the beginning of the new year. A month +later the final proclamation came, including the announcement that colored +men of suitable condition would be received into the war service. The +policy of emancipation and of employing black soldiers gave to the future +a new aspect, about which hope and fear and doubt contended in uncertain +conflict. According to our political system, as a matter of civil +administration, the General Government had no lawful power to effect +emancipation in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that +the rebellion could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military +measure. It was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it +might come, and that if it should the crisis of the contest would then be +presented. It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and +doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to take +another review. The rebel borders are pressed still farther back, and +by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country dominated by the +rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no practical communication +between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of +insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, owners of slaves and +advocates of slavery at the beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly +for emancipation in their respective States. Of those States not included +in the emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which +three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slavery +into new Territories, dispute now only as to the best mode of removing it +within their own limits. + +Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full 100,000 +are now in the United States military service, about one-half of which +number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage +of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and supplying the places +which otherwise must be filled with so many white men. So far as tested, +it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any. No servile +insurrection or tendency to violence or cruelty has marked the measures +of emancipation and arming the blacks. These measures have been much +discussed in foreign countries, and, contemporary with such discussion, +the tone of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same +measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and denounced, +and the annual elections following are highly encouraging to those whose +official duty it is to bear the country through this great trial. Thus we +have the new reckoning. The crisis which threatened to divide the friends +of the Union is past. + +Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a resumption +of the national authority within the States wherein that authority has +been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a proclamation, a copy of +which is herewith transmitted. On examination of this proclamation it +will appear, as is believed, that nothing will be attempted beyond what is +amply justified by the Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given, +but no man is coerced to take it. The man is promised a pardon only +in case he voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the +Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute discretion, +and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is fully established by +judicial and other authorities. + +It is also proffered that if in any of the States named a State government +shall be in the mode prescribed set up, such government shall be +recognized and guaranteed by the United States, and that under it the +State shall, on the constitutional conditions, be protected against +invasion and domestic violence. The constitutional obligation of the +United States to guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form +of government and to protect the State in the cases stated is explicit +and full. But why tender the benefits of this provision only to a State +government set up in this particular way? This section of the Constitution +contemplates a case wherein the element within a State favorable to +republican government in the Union may be too feeble for an opposite +and hostile element external to or even within the State, and such are +precisely the cases with which we are now dealing. + +An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government, +constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element +against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply +absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing elements, +so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a sufficiently +liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make a sworn recantation +of his former unsoundness. + +But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the political +body an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and +to the Union under it, why also to the laws and proclamations in regard to +slavery? Those laws and proclamations were enacted and put forth for the +purpose of aiding in the suppression of the rebellion. To give them their +fullest effect there had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my +judgment, they have aided and will further aid the cause for which they +were intended. To now abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever +of power, but would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith. I +may add at this point that while I remain in my present position I shall +not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor +shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that +proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress. For these and other +reasons it is thought best that support of these measures shall be +included in the oath, and it is believed the Executive may lawfully claim +it in return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, which he has +clear constitutional power to withhold altogether or grant upon the terms +which he shall deem wisest for the public interest. It should be observed +also that this part of the oath is subject to the modifying and abrogating +power of legislation and supreme judicial decision. + +The proposed acquiescence of the National Executive in any reasonable +temporary State arrangement for the freed people is made with the view of +possibly modifying the confusion and destitution which must at best attend +all classes by a total revolution of labor throughout whole States. It +is hoped that the already deeply afflicted people in those States may be +somewhat more ready to give up the cause of their affliction if to this +extent this vital matter be left to themselves, while no power of the +National Executive to prevent an abuse is abridged by the proposition. + +The suggestion in the proclamation as to maintaining the political +framework of the States on what is called reconstruction is made in the +hope that it may do good without danger of harm. It will save labor and +avoid great confusion. + +But why any proclamation now upon this subject? This question is beset +with the conflicting views that the step might be delayed too long or be +taken too soon. In some States the elements for resumption seem ready for +action, but remain inactive apparently for want of a rallying point--a +plan of action. Why shall A adopt the plan of B rather than B that of +A? And if A and B should agree, how can they know but that the General +Government here will reject their plan? By the proclamation a plan is +presented which may be accepted by them as a rallying point, and which +they are assured in advance will not be rejected here. This may bring them +to act sooner than they otherwise would. + +The objections to a premature presentation of a plan by the National +Executive consist in the danger of committals on points which could be +more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken to so shape +the document as to avoid embarrassments from this source. Saying that on +certain terms certain classes will be pardoned with rights restored, it is +not said that other classes or other terms will never be included. Saying +that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified way, it +is not said it will never be accepted in any other way. + +The movements by State action for emancipation in several of the States +not included in the emancipation proclamation are matters of profound +gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I have heretofore +so earnestly urged upon this subject my general views and feelings remain +unchanged and I trust that Congress will omit no fair opportunity of +aiding these important steps to a great consummation. + +In the midst of other cares, however important we must not lose sight +of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that power +alone we look yet for a time to give confidence to the people in the +contested regions that the insurgent power will not again overrun them. +Until that confidence shall be established little can be done anywhere +what is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest care must still be +directed to the Army and Navy who have thus far borne their harder part so +nobly and well; and it may be esteemed fortunate that giving the greatest +efficiency to these indispensable arms we do also honorably recognize the +gallant men, from commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom +more than to others the world must stand indebted for the home of freedom +disenthralled, regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. WASHINGTON D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Captain John Rogers United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks +from Congress for the eminent skill and gallantry exhibited by him in the +engagement with the rebel armed ironclad steamer Fingal, alias Atlanta, +whilst in command of the United States ironclad steamer Weehawken, which +led to her capture on the 17th June, 1863, and also for the zeal, bravery, +and general good conduct shown by this officer on many occasions. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in the +following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with the +enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Congress, on my recommendation, passed a resolution, approved 7th +February, 1863, tendering its thanks to Commander D. D. Porter "for the +bravery and skill displayed in the attack on the post of Arkansas on the +10th January, 1863," and in consideration of those services, together with +his efficient labors and vigilance subsequently displayed in thwarting the +efforts of the rebels to obstruct the Mississippi and its tributaries and +the important part rendered by the squadron under his command, which led +to the surrender of Vicksburg. + +I do therefore, in conformity to the seventh section of the act approved +16th July, 1862, nominate Commander D. D. Porter to be a rear-admiral in +the Navy on the active list from the 4th July, 1863, to fill an existing +vacancy. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, December 8, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT: + +Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now +secure, I wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more than +thanks, my profoundest gratitude, for the skill, courage, and perseverance +with which you and they, over so great difficulties, have effected that +important object. God bless you all! + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 9, 1863 + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. G. CURTIN, + +Governor of Pennsylvania. + +DEAR SIR:--I have to urge my illness, and the preparation of the message, +in excuse for not having sooner transmitted you the inclosed from the +Secretary of War and Provost Marshal General in response to yours in +relation to recruiting in Pennsylvania. Though not quite as you desire, I +hope the grounds taken will be reasonably satisfactory to you. Allow me +to exchange congratulations with you on the organization of the House of +Representatives, and especially on recent military events in Georgia and +Tennessee. + +Yours very truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 10, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Please suspend execution in any and all sentences of death in your +department until further order. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 11, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Lieut. Col. James B. Knox, Tenth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves, offers +his resignation under circumstances inducing me to wish to accept it. But +I prefer to know your pleasure upon the subject. Please answer. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JUDGE HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 15, 1863. + +HON. OGDEN HOFFMAN, U. S. District Judge, San Francisco, Cal.: + +The oath in the proclamation of December 8 is intended for those who may +voluntarily take it, and not for those who may be constrained to take it +in order to escape actual imprisonment or punishment. It is intended that +the latter class shall abide the granting or withholding of the pardoning +power in the ordinary way. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MARY GONYEAG. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 15, 1863. + +MOTHER MARY GONYEAG, Superior, Academy of Visitation, Keokuk, Iowa: + +The President has no authority as to whether you may raffle for the +benevolent object you mention. If there is no objection in the Iowa laws, +there is none here. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING DISCRIMINATING DUTIES, DECEMBER 16, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of May, +1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act concerning +discriminating duties of tonnage and impost' and to equalize the duties on +Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is provided that upon satisfactory +evidence being given to the President of the United States by the +government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage +or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the said nation upon +vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States or upon the +produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United +States or from any foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to +issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of +tonnage and impost within the United States are and shall be suspended and +discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said foreign nation and +the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported into the United +States in the same from the said foreign nation or from any other +foreign country, the said suspension to take effect from the time of such +notification being given to the President of the United States and to +continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to +citizens of the United States and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be +continued, and no longer; and + +Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me through an +official communication of Senor Don Luis Molina, Envoy Extraordinary and +Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Nicaragua, under date of the +28th of November, 1863, that no other or higher duties of tonnage and +impost have been imposed or levied since the second day of August, 1838, +in the ports of Nicaragua, upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of +the United States, and upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise +imported in the same from the United States, and from any foreign country +whatever, than are levied on Nicaraguan ships and their cargoes in the +same ports under like circumstances: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts +imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United +States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects +the vessels of Nicaragua, and the produce, manufactures, and the +merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the dominions +of Nicaragua, and from any other foreign country whatever; the said +suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned, and to continue +thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the +United States, and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported +into the dominions of Nicaragua in the same, as aforesaid, shall be +continued on the part of the government of Nicaragua. + +Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the sixteenth day +of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and +sixty-three, and the eighty-eighth of the Independence of the United +States. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 17, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Herewith I lay before you a letter addressed to myself by a committee of +gentlemen representing the freedmen's aid societies in Boston, New York, +Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The subject of the letter, as indicated +above, is one of great magnitude and importance, and one which these +gentlemen, of known ability and high character, seem to have considered +with great attention and care. Not having the time to form a mature +judgment of my own as to whether the plan they suggest is the best, I +submit the whole subject to Congress, deeming that their attention thereto +is almost imperatively demanded. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HURLBUT. + +[Cipher.] + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 17, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT, Memphis, Tenn.: + +I understand you have under sentence of death, a tall old man, by the name +of Henry F. Luckett. I personally knew him, and did not think him a bad +man. Please do not let him be executed unless upon further order from me, +and in the meantime send me a transcript of the record. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, December 19, 1863. + +GENERAL GRANT, Chattanooga, Tennessee: + +The Indiana delegation in Congress, or at least a large part of them, are +very anxious that General Milroy shall enter active service again, and I +share in this feeling. He is not a difficult man to satisfy, sincerity and +courage being his strong traits. Believing in our cause, and wanting +to fight for it, is the whole matter with him. Could you, without +embarrassment, assign him a place, if directed to report to you? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +(Private.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 21, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Sending a note to the Secretary of the Navy, as I promised, +he called over and said that the strikes in the ship-yards had thrown +the completion of vessels back so much that he thought General Gilimore's +proposition entirely proper. He only wishes (and in which I concur) that +General Gillmore will courteously confer with, and explain to, Admiral +Dahlgren. + +In regard to the Western matter, I believe the program will have to stand +substantially as I first put it. Henderson, and especially Brown, believe +that the social influence of St. Louis would inevitably tell injuriously +upon General Pope in the particular difficulty existing there, and I think +there is some force in that view. + +As to retaining General Schofield temporarily, if this should be done, +I believe I should scarcely be able to get his nomination through the +Senate. Send me over his nomination, which, however, I am not quite ready +to send to the Senate. + +Yours as ever, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO O. D. FILLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +O. D. FILLEY, ST. Louis, Missouri: + +I have just looked over a petition signed by some three dozen citizens of +St. Louis, and three accompanying letters, one by yourself, one by a Mr. +Nathan Ranney, and one by a Mr. John D. Coalter, the whole relating to the +Rev. Dr. McPheeters. The petition prays, in the name of justice and mercy, +that I will restore Dr. McPheeters to all his ecclesiastical rights. This +gives no intimation as to what ecclesiastical rights are withheld. + +Your letter states that Provost-Marshal Dick, about a year ago, ordered +the arrest of Dr. McPheeters, pastor of the Vine Street Church, prohibited +him from officiating, and placed the management of the affairs of the +church out of the control of its chosen trustees; and near the close +you state that a certain course "would insure his release." Mr. Ranney's +letter says: "Dr. Samuel S. McPheeters is enjoying all the rights of a +civilian, but cannot preach the Gospel!!!!" Mr. Coalter, in his letter, +asks: "Is it not a strange illustration of the condition of things, that +the question of who shall be allowed to preach in a church in St. Louis +shall be decided by the President of the United States?" + +Now, all this sounds very strangely; and, withal, a little as if you +gentlemen making the application do not understand the case alike; one +affirming that the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a civilian, and +another pointing out to me what will secure his release! On the second day +of January last, I wrote to General Curtis in relation to Mr. Dick's order +upon Dr. McPheeters; and, as I suppose the doctor is enjoying all the +rights of a civilian, I only quote that part of my letter which relates +to the church. It is as follows: "But I must add that the United States +Government must not, as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When +an individual, in a church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public +interest, he must be checked; but the churches, as such, must take care +of themselves. It will not do for the United States to appoint trustees, +supervisors, or other agents for the churches." + +This letter going to General Curtis, then in command there, I supposed, of +course, it was obeyed, especially as I heard no further complaint from +Dr. McPheeters or his friends for nearly an entire year. I have never +interfered, nor thought of interfering, as to who shall or shall not +preach in any church; nor have I knowingly or believingly tolerated any +one else to so interfere by my authority. If any one is so interfering by +color of my authority, I would like to have it specifically made known +to me. If, after all, what is now sought is to have me put Dr. McPheeters +back over the heads of a majority of his own congregation, that, too, will +be declined. I will not have control of any church on any side. + +Yours respectfully, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you have a prisoner by the name Linder--Daniel Linder, I think, and +certainly the son of U. F. Linder, of Illinois, please send him to me by +an officer. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 24, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you send Linder to me as directed a day or two ago, also send Edwin C. +Claybrook, of Ninth Virginia rebel cavalry. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO U. F. LINDER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D. C., December 26, 1863. + +HON. U. F. LINDER, Chicago, Ill.: Your son Dan has just left me with +my order to the Secretary of War, to administer to him the oath of +allegiance, discharge him and send him to you. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL N. P. BANKS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 29, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BANKS: + +Yours of the sixteenth is received, and I send you, as covering the ground +of it, a copy of my answer to yours of the sixth, it being possible the +original may not reach you. I intend you to be master in every controversy +made with you. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Jacob Bowers is fully pardoned for past offence, upon condition that he +returns to duty and re-enlists for three years or during the war. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, December 31, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--Please fix up the department to which Curtis is to go, without +waiting to wind up the Missouri matter. Lane is very anxious to have Fort +Smith in it, and I am willing, unless there be decided military reasons to +the contrary, in which case of course, I am not for it. It will oblige me +to have the Curtis department fixed at once. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1864 + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SULLIVAN. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., January 1, 1864. 3.30 p.m. + +GENERAL SULLIVAN, Harper's Ferry: + +Have you anything new from Winchester, Martinsburg or thereabouts? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PIERPOINT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 2, 1864. + +GOVERNOR PIERPOINT, Alexandria, Va.: + +Please call and see me to-day if not too inconvenient. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 2, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. + +SIR:--The Secretary of War and myself have concluded to discharge of the +prisoners at Point Lookout the following classes: First, those who will +take the oath prescribed in the proclamation of December 8, and issued by +the consent of General Marston, will enlist in our service. Second, those +who will take the oath and be discharged and whose homes lie safely within +our military lines. + +I send by Mr. Hay this letter and a blank-book and some other blanks, the +way of using which I propose for him to explain verbally better than I can +in writing. + +Yours, very truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +If not inconsistent with the service, please allow General William Harrow +as long a leave of absence as the rules permit with the understanding that +I may lengthen it if I see fit. He is an acquaintance and friend of mine, +and his family matters very urgently require his presence. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +JANUARY 5, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +By a joint resolution of your honorable bodies approved December 23, 1863, +the paying of bounties to veteran volunteers, as now practiced by the +War Department, is, to the extent of three hundred dollars in each case, +prohibited after this 5th day of the present month. I transmit for your +consideration a communication from the Secretary of War, accompanied by +one from the Provost-Marshal General to him, both relating to the subject +above mentioned. I earnestly recommend that the law be so modified as to +allow bounties to be paid as they now are, at least until the ensuing 1st +day of February. + +I am not without anxiety lest I appear to be importunate in thus recalling +your attention to a subject upon which you have so recently acted, and +nothing but a deep conviction that the public interest demands it could +induce me to incur the hazard of being misunderstood on this point. The +Executive approval was given by me to the resolution mentioned, and it +is now by a closer attention and a fuller knowledge of facts that I feel +constrained to recommend a reconsideration of the subject. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 6, 1864. 2 P.M. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Kentucky: + +Yours of yesterday received. Nothing is known here about General Foster's +order, of which you complain, beyond the fair presumption that it comes +from General Grant, and that it has an object which, if you understood, +you would be loath to frustrate. True, these troops are, in strict law, +only to be removed by my order; but General Grant's judgment would be the +highest incentive to me to make such order. Nor can I understand how doing +so is bad faith and dishonor, nor yet how it so exposes Kentucky to ruin. +Military men here do not perceive how it exposes Kentucky, and I am sure +Grant would not permit it if it so appeared to him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL Q. A. GILLMORE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GILLMORE: + +I understand an effort is being made by some worthy gentlemen to +reconstruct a legal State government in Florida. Florida is in your +Department, and it is not unlikely you may be there in person. I have +given Mr. Hay a commission of major, and sent him to you, with some +blank-books and other blanks, to aid in the reconstruction. He will +explain as to the manner of using the blanks, and also my general views on +the subject. It is desirable for all to co-operate, but if irreconcilable +differences of opinion shall arise, you are master. I wish the thing done +in the most speedy way, so that when done it be within the range of the +late proclamation on the subject. The detail labor will, of course, have +to be done by others; but I will be greatly obliged if you will give +it such general supervision as you can find consistent with your more +strictly military duties. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, +1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +If Private William G. Toles, of Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteers, returns to +his regiment and faithfully serves out his term, he is fully pardoned for +all military offenses prior to this. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 16, 1864. + +MESSRS. CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +GENTLEMEN: The number for this month and year of the North American Review +was duly received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of course I am +not the most impartial judge; yet, with due allowance for this, I venture +to hope that the article entitled "The President's Policy" will be of +value to the country. I fear I am not worthy of all which is therein +kindly said of me personally. + +The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 252, I could +wish to be not exactly what it is. In what is there expressed, the writer +has not correctly understood me. I have never had a theory that secession +could absolve States or people from their obligations. Precisely the +contrary is asserted in the inaugural address; and it was because of my +belief in the continuation of those obligations that I was puzzled, for +a time, as to denying the legal rights of those citizens who remained +individually innocent of treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than +to merely call attention to this point. + +Yours respectfully, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +Sundry citizens of the State of Arkansas petition me that an election may +be held in that State, at which to elect a Governor; that it be assumed +at that election, and thenceforward, that the constitution and laws of +the State, as before the rebellion, are in full force, except that the +constitution is so modified as to declare that there shall be neither +slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in the punishment of crimes +whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; that the General +Assembly may make such provisions for the freed people as shall recognize +and declare their permanent freedom, and provide for their education, and +which may yet be construed as a temporary arrangement suitable to their +condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class; that said election +shall be held on the 28th of March, 1864, at all the usual places of the +State, or all such as voters may attend for that purpose, that the voters +attending at eight o'clock in the morning of said day may choose judges +and clerks of election for such purpose; that all persons qualified +by said constitution and laws, and taking the oath presented in the +President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, either before or at the +election, and none others, may be voters; that each set of judges and +clerks may make returns directly to you on or before the --th day of ---- +next; that in all other respects said election may be conducted according +to said constitution and laws: that on receipt of said returns, when five +thousand four hundred and six votes shall have been cast, you can receive +said votes, and ascertain all who shall thereby appear to have been +elected; that on the --th day of ------ next, all persons so appearing to +have been elected, who shall appear before you at Little Rock, and take +the oath, to be by you severally administered, to support the Constitution +of the United States and said modified Constitution of the State of +Arkansas, may be declared by you qualified and empowered to enter +immediately upon the duties of the offices to which they shall have been +respectively elected. + +You will please order an election to take place on the 28th of March, +1864, and returns to be made in fifteen days thereafter. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 20, 1864 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In accordance with a letter addressed by the Secretary of State, with my +approval, to the Hon. Joseph A. Wright, of Indiana, that patriotic and +distinguished gentleman repaired to Europe and attended the International +Agricultural Exhibition, held at Hamburg last year, and has since his +return made a report to me, which, it is believed, can not fail to be +of general interest, and especially so to the agricultural community. I +transmit for your consideration copies of the letters and report. While +it appears by the letter that no reimbursement of expenses or compensation +was promised him, I submit whether reasonable allowance should not be made +him for them. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPROVING TRADE REGULATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 26, 1864. + +I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States having seen and +considered the additional regulations of trade prescribed by the Secretary +of the Treasury, and numbered LI, LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, do hereby +approve the same; and I further declare and order that all property +brought in for sale, in good faith, and actually sold in pursuance of said +Regulations LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, after the same shall have taken +effect and come in force as provided in Regulation LVI, shall be exempt +from confiscation or forfeiture to the United States. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Is a supposed correspondence between General Longstreet and yourself about +the amnesty proclamation, which is now in the newspapers, genuine? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864 + +HON. EDWARD STANLEY, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Yours of yesterday received. We have rumors similar to the dispatch +received by you, but nothing very definite from North Carolina. Knowing +Mr. Stanley to be an able man, and not doubting that he is a patriot, I +should be glad for him to be with his old acquaintances south of Virginia, +but I am unable to suggest anything definite upon the subject. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION + +WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK: + +Some citizens of Missouri, vicinity of Kansas City, are apprehensive that +there is special danger of renewed troubles in that neighborhood, and +thence on the route toward New Mexico. I am not impressed that the danger +is very great or imminent, but I will thank you to give Generals Rosecrans +and Curtis, respectively, such orders as may turn their attention thereto +and prevent as far as possible the apprehended disturbance. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SICKLES, New York: + +Could you, without it being inconvenient or disagreeable to yourself, +immediately take a trip to Arkansas for me? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 31, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +General Boyle's resignation is accepted, so that your Excellency can give +him the appointment proposed. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +COLONIZATION EXPERIMENT + +ORDER TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 1, 1864 + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + +SIR:-You are directed to have a transport (either a steam or sailing +vessel, as may be deemed proper by the Quartermaster-General) sent to the +colored colony established by the United States at the island of Vache, +on the coast of San Domingo, to bring back to this country such of the +colonists there as desire to return. You will have the transport furnished +with suitable supplies for that purpose, and detail an officer of the +Quartermaster's Department, who, under special instructions to be given, +shall have charge of the business. The colonists will be brought to +Washington, unless otherwise hereafter directed, and be employed and +provided for at the camps for colored persons around that city. Those only +will be brought from the island who desire to return, and their effects +will be brought with them. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER FOR A DRAFT OF FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 1, 1864. + +Ordered, That a draft of five hundred thousand (500,000) men, to serve for +three years or during the war, be made on the tenth (10th) day of March +next, for the military service of the United States, crediting and +deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted or drafted into the +service prior to the first (1st) day of March, and not before credited. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1864. + +GOVERNOR YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +The United States Government lot in Springfield can be used for a +soldiers' home, with the understanding that the Government does not incur +any expense in the case. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, February 6, 1864. + +GOVERNOR J. MURPHY: + +My order to General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of +the action your convention had taken or would take. A subsequent letter +directs General Steele to aid you on your own plan, and not to thwart or +hinder you. Show this to him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + +TOLD BY THE PRESIDENT, TO THE ARTIST F. B. CARPENTER, + +FEBRUARY 6, 1864. + +"It had got to be," said Mr. Lincoln, "midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on +from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on +the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played our +last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game. I now determined +upon the adoption of the emancipation policy; and without consultation +with, or the knowledge of, the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft +of the proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet +meeting upon the subject. This was the last of July or the first part of +the month of August, 1862. [The exact date was July 22, 1862.]... All were +present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was absent at the +opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently. I said to the Cabinet +that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to +ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before +them, suggestions as to which would be in order after they had heard it +read. Mr. Lovejoy was in error when he informed you that it excited no +comment excepting on the part of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions +were offered. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to +the arming of the blacks. + +"Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy on the ground that it +would cost the administration the fall elections. Nothing, however, was +offered that I had not already fully anticipated and settled in my mind, +until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in substance, 'Mr. President, I +approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue +at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our +repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a +step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, +a cry for help; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, +instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.' His +idea," said the President, "was that it would be considered our last +shriek on the retreat." [This was his precise expression.] 'Now,' +continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that +you postpone its issue until you can give it to the country supported by +military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon +the greatest disasters of the war.' Mr. Lincoln continued "The wisdom of +the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It +was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I +had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the draft of the +proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a +victory. + +"From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and +there, anxiously watching the process of events. Well, the next news we +had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever. +Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined to wait no +longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage was on +our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home [three miles out of +Washington]. Here I finished writing the second draft of the preliminary +proclamation; came up on Saturday; called the Cabinet together to hear it, +and it was published on the following Monday." + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SEDGWICK. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SEDGWICK, Army of Potomac: + +Unless there be some strong reason to the contrary, please send General +Kilpatrick to us here, for two or three days. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE MAYNARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 13, 1864. + +HON. HORACE MAYNARD, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Your letter of [the] second received. Of course Governor Johnson will +proceed with reorganization as the exigencies of the case appear to him to +require. I do not apprehend he will think it necessary to deviate from my +views to any ruinous extent. On one hasty reading I see no such deviation +in his program, which you send. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. M. FISHBACK. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance that +your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the latter fact +I have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. I have sent two +letters to General Steele, and three or four despatches to you and others, +saying that he, General Steele, must be master, but that it will probably +be best for him to merely help the convention on its own plan. Some single +mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything, and +General Steele, commanding the military and being on the ground, is the +best man to be that master. Even now citizens are telegraphing me to +postpone the election to a later day than either that fixed by the +convention or by me. This discord must be silenced. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +The day fixed by the convention for the election is probably the best, +but you on the ground, and in consultation with gentlemen there, are to +decide. I should have fixed no day for an election, presented no plan for +reconstruction, had I known the convention was doing the same things. It +is probably best that you merely assist the convention on their own +plan, as to election day and all other matters I have already written and +telegraphed this half a dozen times. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. ROBINSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 18, 1864. + +A. ROBINSON, Leroy, N. Y.: + +The law only obliges us to keep accounts with States, or at most +Congressional Districts, and it would overwhelm us to attempt in counties, +cities and towns. Nevertheless we do what we can to oblige in particular +cases. In this view I send your dispatch to the Provost-Marshal General, +asking him to do the best he can for you. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, FEBRUARY 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by my proclamation of the nineteenth of April, one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-one, the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia, +Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were, for reasons +therein set forth, placed under blockade; and whereas, the port of +Brownsville, in the district of Brazos Santiago, in the State of Texas, +has since been blockaded, but as the blockade of said port may now be +safely relaxed with advantage to the interests of commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section +of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An +act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for +other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said port of +Brownsville shall so far cease and determine from and after this date, +that commercial intercourse with said port, except as to persons, things, +and information hereinafter specified, may, from this date, be carried on, +subject to the laws of the United States, to the regulations prescribed +by the Secretary of the Treasury, and, until the rebellion shall have been +suppressed, to such orders as may be promulgated by the general commanding +the department, or by an officer duly authorized by him and commanding at +said port. This proclamation does not authorize or allow the shipment +or conveyance of persons in, or intending to enter, the service of the +insurgents, or of things or information intended for their use, or for +their aid or comfort, nor, except upon the permission of the Secretary +of War, or of some officer duly authorized by him, of the following +prohibited articles, namely: cannon, mortars, firearms, pistols, bombs, +grenades, powder, saltpeter, sulphur, balls, bullets, pikes, swords, +boarding-caps (always excepting the quantity of the said articles which +may be necessary for the defense of the ship and those who compose the +crew), saddles, bridles, cartridge-bag material, percussion and other +caps, clothing adapted for uniforms; sail-cloth of all kinds, hemp and +cordage, intoxicating drinks other than beer and light native wines. + +To vessels clearing from foreign ports and destined to the port of +Brownsville, opened by this proclamation, licenses will be granted by +consuls of the United States upon satisfactory evidence that the vessel +so licensed will convey no persons, property, or information excepted or +prohibited above, either to or from the said port; which licenses shall +be exhibited to the collector of said port immediately on arrival, and, +if required, to any officer in charge of the blockade, and on leaving said +port every vessel will be required to have a clearance from the collector +of the customs, according to law, showing no violation of the conditions +of the license. Any violations of said conditions will involve the +forfeiture and condemnation of the vessel and cargo, and the exclusion of +all parties concerned from any further privilege of entering the United +States during the war for any purpose whatever. + +In all respects, except as herein specified, the existing blockade remains +in full force and effect as hitherto established and maintained, nor is +it relaxed by this proclamation except in regard to the port to which +relaxation is or has been expressly applied. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this +eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the +eighty-eighth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COMMANDER BLAKE. + +EXECUTIVE, MANSION, February 19, 1864. + +COMMANDER GEORGE S. BLAKE, Commandant Naval Academy, Newport, R. I.: + +I desire the case of Midshipman C. Lyon re-examined and if not clearly +inconsistent I shall be much obliged to have the recommendation changed. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM WARREN JORDAN. + +NASHVILLE, February 20, 1864. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.: + +In county and State elections, must citizens of Tennessee take the oath +prescribed by Governor Johnson, or will the President's oath of amnesty +entitle them to vote? I have been appointed to hold the March election in +Cheatham County, and wish to act understandingly. + +WARREN JORDAN. + + +WASHINGTON, February 20, 1864. + +WARREN JORDAN, NASHVILLE: + +In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson's plan; +otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his plan. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint LOUIS, MO.: + +Colonel Sanderson will be ordered to you to-day, a mere omission that it +was not done before. The other questions in your despatch I am not yet +prepared to answer. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours of yesterday received. Your conference with citizens approved. Let +the election be on the 14th of March as they agreed. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL F. STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +General Sickles is not going to Arkansas. He probably will make a tour +down the Mississippi and home by the gulf and ocean, but he will not +meddle in your affairs. + +At one time I did intend to have him call on you and explain more fully +than I could do by letter or telegraph, so as to avoid a difficulty coming +of my having made a plan here, while the convention made one there, for +reorganizing Arkansas; but even his doing that has been given up for +more than two weeks. Please show this to Governor Murphy to save me +telegraphing him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +DESERTERS DEATH SENTENCES REMITTED + +GENERAL ORDERS, NO.76. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERALS OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +Sentence of Deserters. + +The President directs that the sentences of all deserters who have been +condemned by court-martial to death, and that have not been otherwise +acted upon by him, be mitigated to imprisonment during the war at the Dry +Tortugas, Florida, where they will be sent under suitable guards by orders +from army commanders. + +The commanding generals, who have power to act on proceedings of +courts-martial in such cases, are authorized in special cases to restore +to duty deserters under sentence, when in their judgment the service will +be thereby benefited. + +Copies of all orders issued under the foregoing instructions will be +immediately forwarded to the Adjutant-General and to the Judge-Advocate +General. + +By order of the Secretary of War: B. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant +Adjutant-General + + + + +FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort. Monroe, Va.: + +I cannot remember at whose request it was that I gave the pass to Mrs. +Bulky. Of course detain her, if the evidence of her being a spy is strong +against her. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. JAYNE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +HON. W. JAYNE. + +DEAR SIR--I dislike to make changes in office so long as they can +be avoided. It multiplies my embarrassments immensely. I dislike two +appointments when one will do. Send me the name of some man not the +present marshal, and I will nominate him to be Provost-Marshal for Dakota. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO E. H. EAST. + +WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864. + +HON. E. H: EAST, Secretary of State, Nashville, Tennessee + +Your telegram of the twenty-sixth instant asking for a copy of my despatch +to Warren Jordan, Esq., at Nashville Press office, has just been referred +to me by Governor Johnson. In my reply to Mr. Jordan, which was brief +and hurried, I intended to say that in the county and State elections of +Tennessee, the oath prescribed in the proclamation of Governor Johnson on +the twenty-sixth of January, 1864, ordering an election in Tennessee on +the first Saturday in March next, is entirely satisfactory to me as a test +of loyalty of all persons proposing or offering to vote in said elections; +and coming from him would better be observed and followed. There is +no conflict between the oath of amnesty in my proclamation of eighth +December, 1863, and that prescribed by Governor Johnson in his +proclamation of the twenty-sixth ultimo. + +No person who has taken the oath of amnesty of eighth December, 1863, and +obtained a pardon thereby, and who intends to observe the same in good +faith, should have any objection to taking that prescribed by Governor +Johnson as a test of loyalty. + +I have seen and examined Governor Johnson's proclamation, and am entirely +satisfied with his plan, which is to restore the State government and +place it under the control of citizens truly loyal to the Government of +the United States. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +Please send above to Governor Johnson. A. L. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864 + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--You ask some instructions from me in relation to the Report of +Special Commission constituted by an order of the War Department, dated +December 5, 1863, "to revise the enrolment and quotas of the City and +State of New York, and report whether there be any, and what, errors or +irregularities therein, and what corrections, if any, should be made." + +In the correspondence between the Governor of New York and myself last +summer, I understood him to complain that the enrolments in several of the +districts of that State had been neither accurately nor honestly made; +and in view of this, I, for the draft then immediately ensuing, ordered an +arbitrary reduction of the quotas in several of the districts wherein they +seemed too large, and said: "After this drawing, these four districts, +and also the seventeenth and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled, +and, if you please, agents of yours may witness every step of the +process." In a subsequent letter I believe some additional districts were +put into the list of those to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work +over according to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and +thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. The commission, +whose work I am considering, seem to have proceeded upon a totally +different idea. Not going forth to find men at all, they have proceeded +altogether upon paper examinations and mental processes. One of their +conclusions, as I understand, is that, as the law stands, and attempting +to follow it, the enrolling officers could not have made the enrolments +much more accurately than they did. The report on this point might be +useful to Congress. The commission conclude that the quotas for the draft +should be based upon entire population, and they proceed upon this basis +to give a table for the State of New York, in which some districts are +reduced and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, let the quotas +stand as made by the enrolling officers, in the districts wherein this +table requires them to be increased; and let them be reduced according to +the table in the others: this to be no precedent for subsequent action. +But, as I think this report may, on full consideration, be shown to have +much that is valuable in it, I suggest that such consideration be given +it, and that it be especially considered whether its suggestions can be +conformed to without an alteration of the law. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 28, 1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +I see your despatch of yesterday to the Secretary of War. + +I wish you would go to the Mississippi River at once, and take hold of and +be master in the contraband and leasing business. You understand it better +than any other man does. Mr. Miller's system doubtless is well intended, +but from what I hear I fear that, if persisted in, it would fall dead +within its own entangling details. Go there and be the judge. A Mr. Lewis +will probably follow you with something from me on this subject, but do +not wait for him. Nor is this to induce you to violate or neglect any +military order from the General-in-Chief or Secretary of War. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 29, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I would have taken time to answer yours of the 22d inst. +sooner, only that I did not suppose any evil could result from the delay, +especially as, by a note, I promptly acknowledged the receipt of yours, +and promised a fuller answer. Now, on consideration I find there is really +very little to say. My knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made +public came to me only the day you wrote; but I had, in spite of myself, +known of its existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I +think I shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of +the letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of +secret issues which, I supposed, came from it, and of secret agents who, +I supposed, were sent out by it for several weeks. I have known just as +little a these things as my friends have allowed me to know. They bring +the documents to me, but I do not read them; they tell me what they think +fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for more. + +I fully concur with you that neither of us can justly be held responsible +for what our respective friends may do without our instigation or +countenance and I assure you, as you have assured me, that no assault has +been made upon you by my instigation, or with my countenance. + +Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a +question which I will not allow myself to consider from any standpoint +other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that view, I do not +perceive occasion for a change. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL THOMAS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, March 1,1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS: + +This introduces Mr. Lewis, mentioned in my despatch sent you at Louisville +some days ago. I have but little personal acquaintance with him; but he +has the confidence of several members of Congress here who seem to know +him well. He hopes to be useful, without charge to the government, in +facilitating the introduction of the free-labor system on the Mississippi +plantations. He is acquainted with, and has access to, many of the +planters who wish to adopt the system. He will show you two letters of +mine on this subject, one somewhat General, and the other relating to +named persons; they are not different in principle. He will also show you +some suggestions coming from some of the planters themselves. I desire +that all I promise in these letters, so far as practicable, may be in good +faith carried out, and that suggestions from the planters may be heard +and adopted, so far as they may not contravene the principles stated, nor +justice, nor fairness, to laborers. I do not herein intend to overrule +your own mature judgment on any point. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 3, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours including address to people of Arkansas is received. I approve the +address and thank you for it. Yours in relation to William M. Randolph +also received. Let him take the oath of December 8, and go to work for the +new constitution, and on your notifying me of it, I will immediately issue +the special pardon for him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 4,1864. MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort +Monroe, Va.: + +Admiral Dahlgren is here, and of course is very anxious about his son. +Please send me at once all you know or can learn of his fate. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER IN REGARD TO THE EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO BELONGING TO THE FRENCH +GOVERNMENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +Whereas, by an Executive order of the 10th of November last permission was +given to export certain tobacco belonging to the French government from +insurgent territory, which tobacco was supposed to have been purchased +and paid for prior to the 4th day of March, 1861; but whereas it was +subsequently ascertained that a part at least of the said tobacco had +been purchased subsequently to that date, which fact made it necessary to +suspend the carrying into effect of the said order; but whereas, pursuant +to mutual explanations, a satisfactory understanding upon the subject has +now been reached, it is directed that the order aforesaid may be carried +into effect, it being understood that the quantity of French tobacco so to +be exported shall not exceed seven thousand hogsheads, and that it is +the same tobacco respecting the exportation of which application Was +originally made by the French government. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO UNITED STATES MARSHAL, LOUISVILLE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +U.S. MARSHAL, Louisville, Ky.: + +Until further order suspend sale of property and further proceedings in +cases of the United States against Dr. John B. English, and S. S. English, +qt al., sureties for John L. Hill. Also same against same sureties for +Thomas A. Ireland. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: Please send the above dispatch. JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private +Secretary + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 9, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +New York City votes ninety-five hundred majority for allowing soldiers +to vote, and the rest of the State nearly all on the same side. Tell the +soldiers. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO SENATE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 9, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES + +In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, +respecting the points of commencement of the Union Pacific Railroad, on +the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and of the branch road, +from the western boundary of Iowa to the said one hundredth degree of +longitude, I transmit the accompanying report from the Secretary of the +Interior, containing the information called for. + +I deem it proper to add that on the 17th day of November last an Executive +order was made upon this subject and delivered to the vice-president of +the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which fixed the point on the western +boundary of the State of Iowa from which the company should construct +their branch road to the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and +declared it to be within the limits of the township in Iowa opposite the +town of Omaha, in Nebraska. Since then the company has represented to me +that upon actual surveys made it has determined upon the precise point of +departure of their said branch road from the Missouri River, and located +the same as described in the accompanying report of the Secretary of the +Interior, which point is within the limits designated in the order of +November last; and inasmuch as that order is not of record in any of the +Executive Departments, and the company having desired a more definite one, +I have made the order of which a copy is herewith, and caused the same to +be filed in the Department of the Interior. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO GENERAL GRANT, + +MARCH 9, 1864. + +GENERAL GRANT:--The expression of the nation's approbation of what you +have already done, and its reliance on you for what remains to do in +the existing great struggle, is now presented with this commission +constituting you Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States. + +With this high honor, devolves on you an additional responsibility. As the +country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely +need add, that with what I here speak for the country, goes my own hearty +personal concurrence. + + + +GENERAL GRANT'S REPLY. + +Mr. PRESIDENT:--I accept this commission, with gratitude for the high +honor conferred. + +With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields for +our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your +expectations. + +I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, and I +know that if they are met, it will be due to those armies; and above all, +to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men. + + + + +ORDER ASSIGNING U. S. GRANT COMMAND OF THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 10, 1864. + +Under the authority of an act of Congress to revive the grade of +lieutenant-General in the United States Army, approved February 29, 1864, +Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, United States Army, is assigned to +the command of the Armies of the United States. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 12, 1864. + +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am not appointing officers for Arkansas now, and I will try to remember +your request. Do your best to get out the largest vote possible, and of +course as much of it as possible on the right side. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HAHN. (Private.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864 + +HON. MICHAEL HAHN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as +the first free-state governor of Louisiana. Now, you are about to have +a convention, which among other things will probably define the elective +franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, whether some +of the colored people may not be let in,--as, for instance, the very +intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. +They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the +jewel of liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a +suggestion,--not to the public, but to you alone. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, MARCH 14, 1864. + +In order to supply the force required to be drafted for the Navy and to +provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies, in addition +to the five hundred thousand men called for February 1, 1864, a call +is hereby made and a draft ordered for two hundred thousand men for the +military service (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) of the United States. + +The proportional quotas for the different wards, towns, townships, +precincts, or election districts, or counties, will be made known through +the Provost Marshal-General's Bureau, and account will be taken of the +credits and deficiencies on former quotas. + +The 15th day of April, 1864, is designated as the time up to which the +numbers required from each ward of a city, town, etc., may be raised by +voluntary enlistment, and drafts will be made in each ward of a city, +town, etc., which shall not have filled the quota assigned to it within +the time designated for the number required to fill said quotas. The +drafts will be commenced as soon after the 15th of April as practicable. + +The Government bounties as now paid continue until April I, 1864, at which +time the additional bounties cease. On and after that date one hundred +dollars bounty only will be paid, as provided by the act approved July 22, +1861. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +(Private.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Nashville, Tenn.: + +General McPherson having been assigned to the command of a department, +could not General Frank Blair, without difficulty or detriment to the +service, be assigned to command the Corps he commanded a while last +autumn? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PASS FOR GENERAL D. E. SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN + +Major-General Sickles is making a tour for me from here by way of Cairo, +New Orleans, and returning by the gulf, and ocean, and all land and naval +officers and, employees are directed to furnish reasonable transportation +and other reasonable facilities to himself and personal staff not +inconsistent with the public service. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO GOVERNOR HAHN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY MICHAEL HAHN, Governor of Louisiana + +Until further order, you are hereby invested with the powers exercised +hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REMARKS AT A FAIR IN THE PATENT OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, MARCH 16, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I appear to say but a word. This extraordinary war in which we are engaged +falls heavily upon all classes of people but the most heavily upon the +soldier. For it has been said, "All that a man hath will he give for his +life;" and while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts his +life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest +merit, then, is due to the soldier. + +In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have manifested +themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars; and among these +manifestations nothing has been more remarkable than these fairs for the +relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And the chief agents of +these fairs are the women of America. + +I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy: I have never studied +the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say, that if all that +has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in +praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them +justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God +bless the women of America. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM THE WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, + +MARCH 21, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +The honorary membership in your association, as generously tendered, is +gratefully accepted. + +You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing rebellion means +more and tends to do more than the perpetuation of African slavery--that +it is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all working people. Partly to +show that this view has not escaped my attention, and partly that I cannot +better express myself, I read a passage from the message to Congress in +December, 1861: + +"It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not +exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government, the +rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of this is found in the most +grave and maturely considered public documents, as well as in the General +tone of the insurgents. In those documents we find the abridgment of the +existing right of suffrage, and the denial to the people of all right to +participate in the selection of public officers, except the legislature, +boldly advocated, with labored argument to prove that large control of the +people in government is the source of all political evil. Monarchy itself +is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. +In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit +raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. + +"It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a General argument should be +made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, with its +connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief +attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing, if not +above labor, in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor +is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless +somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to +labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital +shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent or +buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded so +it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers, or +what we call slaves. And, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a +hired laborer, is fixed in that condition for life. Now there is no such +relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing +as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. +Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are +groundless. + +"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit +of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. +Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher +consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection +as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always +will be, a relation between capital and labor, producing mutual benefits. +The error is in assuming that the whole labor of a community exists within +that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, +and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A +large majority belong to neither class--neither work for others, nor have +others working for them. In most of the Southern States, a majority of the +whole people, of all colors, are neither slaves nor masters; while in the +Northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men with their +families, wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves, on their +farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to +themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired +laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable +number of persons mingle their own labor with capital; that is, they labor +with their own hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for them, but +this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is +disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. + +"Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, any such +thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. +Many independent men everywhere in these States, a few years back in their +lives, were hired laborers. The prudent penniless beginner in the world +labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land +for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length +hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous +and prosperous system which opens the way to all--gives hope to all, and +consequent energy and progress, and improvement of condition to all. +No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from +poverty--none less inclined to touch or take aught which they have not +honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power they +already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close +the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities +and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost." + +The views then expressed remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. None +are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the working +people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and hostility +among themselves. The most notable feature of a disturbance in your +city last summer was the hanging of some working people by other working +people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human sympathy, +outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people, +of all nations, and tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war +upon property, or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; +property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some +should be rich shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just +encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless +pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build +one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from +violence when built. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Hon. W. R. Morrison says he has requested you by letter to effect a +special exchange of Lieut. Col. A. F. Rogers, of Eightieth Illinois +Volunteers, now in Libby Prison, and I shall be glad if you can effect it. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL C. SCHURZ. + +( Private.) + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SCHURZ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of February 29 reached me only four days ago; but the +delay was of little consequence, because I found, on feeling around, I +could not invite you here without a difficulty which at least would be +unpleasant, and perhaps would be detrimental to the public service. Allow +me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service, it +is very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it; because, with a +major-general once out, it is next to impossible for even the President +to get him in again. With my appreciation of your ability and correct +principle, of course I would be very glad to have your service for +the country in the approaching political canvass; but I fear we cannot +properly have it without separating you from the military. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ABOUT AMNESTY, + +MARCH 26, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, it has become necessary to define the cases in which insurgent +enemies are entitled to the benefits of the Proclamation of the President +of the United States, which was made on the 8th day of December, 1863, +and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail themselves of these +benefits; and whereas the objects of that Proclamation were to suppress +the insurrection and to restore the authority of the United States; and +whereas the amnesty therein proposed by the President was offered with +reference to these objects alone: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +hereby proclaim and declare that the said Proclamation does not apply +to the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the +benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed, are in military, +naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under bonds, or on parole of +the civil, military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States, +as prisoners of war, or persons detained for offences of any kind, either +before or after conviction; and that on the contrary it does apply only +to those persons who, being yet at large, and free from any arrest, +confinement, or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the said +oath, with the purpose of restoring peace, and establishing the national +authority. + +Persons excluded from the amnesty offered in the said Proclamation may +apply to the President for clemency, like all other offenders, and their +application will receive due consideration. + +I do further declare and proclaim that the oath presented in the aforesaid +proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, may be taken and subscribed +before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or naval, in the service +of the United States, or any civil or military officer of a State or +Territory not in insurrection, who, by the laws thereof, may be qualified +for administering oaths. + +All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give +certificates thereof to the persons respectively by whom they are made, +and such officers are hereby required to transmit the original records of +such oaths, at as early a day as may be convenient, to the Department of +State, where they will be deposited, and remain in the archives of the +Government. + +The Secretary of State will keep a registry thereof, and will, on +application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such records in the +customary form of official certificates. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed............ + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 28, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--The Governor of Kentucky is here, and desires to have the +following points definitely fixed: + +First. That the quotas of troops furnished, and to be furnished, by +Kentucky may be adjusted upon the basis as actually reduced by able-bodied +men of hers having gone into the rebel service; and that she be required +to furnish no more than her just quotas upon fair adjustment upon such +basis. + +Second. To whatever extent the enlistment and drafting, one or both, +of colored troops may be found necessary within the State, it may be +conducted within the law of Congress; and, so far as practicable, free +from collateral embarrassments, disorders, and provocations. + +I think these requests of the Governor are reasonable; and I shall be +obliged if you will give him a full hearing, and do the best you can to +effect these objects. + +Yours very truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Your letter to Colonel Townsend, inclosing a slip from the +"Herald," and asking a court of inquiry, has been laid before me by the +Secretary of War, with the request that I would consider it. It is quite +natural that you should feel some sensibility on the subject; yet I am not +impressed, nor do I think the country is impressed, with the belief that +your honor demands, or the public interest demands, such an inquiry. The +country knows that at all events you have done good service; and I believe +it agrees with me that it is much better for you to be engaged in trying +to do more, than to be diverted, as you necessarily would be, by a court +of inquiry. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Army of the Potomac: + +Captain Kinney, of whom I spoke to you as desiring to go on your staff, +is now in your camp, in company with Mrs. Senator Dixon. Mrs. Grant and I, +and some others, agreed last night that I should, by this despatch, kindly +call your attention to Captain Kinney. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. G. HODGES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 4, 1864. + +A. G. HODGES, ESQ., Frankfort, Kentucky: + +MY DEAR SIR:--You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I +verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Governor Bramlette and +Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: + +"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. +I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never +understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to +act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took +that I would to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the +Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without +taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get +power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in +ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically +indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I +had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, +to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract +judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath +to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me +the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government, +that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it +possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By General +law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated +to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I +felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by +becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through +the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and +now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability I had even +tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any +minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, and +Constitution, altogether. When, early in the war, General Fremont +attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then +think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General +Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I +objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable necessity. +When, still later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again +forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity +had come. When, in March, and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and +successive appeals to the Border States to favor compensated emancipation, +I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and +arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They +declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to +the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the +Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose +the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of +this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no +loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, +none in our white military force, no loss by it any how, or anywhere. On +the contrary, it shows a gain of quite one hundred and thirty thousand +soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as +facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; and we could not have +had them without the measure. + +"And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself by +writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by force +of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred and thirty +thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be but +for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his case so stated, it is +only because he cannot face the truth." + +I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this +tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have +controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. +Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not +what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim +it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a +great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of +the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial +history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and +goodness of God. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MRS. HORACE MANN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 5, 1864. + +MRS HORACE MANN: + +MADAM:--The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would +free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears you +wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please tell these +little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and +generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the power to grant all they +ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, he +wills to do it. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 12, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +I am pressed to get from Libby, by special exchange, Jacob C. Hagenbuek, +first lieutenant, Company H, Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers. Please +do it if you can without detriment or embarrassment. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private William Collins of Company B, of the Sixty-ninth New York +Volunteers, has been convicted of desertion, and execution suspended as +in numerous other cases. Now Captain O'Neill, commanding the regiment, +and nearly all its other regimental and company officers, petition for his +full pardon and restoration to his company. Is there any good objection? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LECTURE ON LIBERTY + +ADDRESS AT SANITARY FAIR IN BALTIMORE, + +APRIL 18, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we +cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many people +assembled here to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the Union, it +occurs at once that three years ago the same soldiers could not so much +as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now is both great and +gratifying. Blessings on the brave men who have wrought the change, and +the fair women who strive to reward them for it! + +But Baltimore suggests more than could happen within Baltimore. The change +within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the war began, +three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it would last till +now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. Neither did +any anticipate that domestic slavery would be much affected by the war. +But here we are; the war has not ended, and slavery has been much affected +how much needs not now to be recounted. So true is it that man proposes +and God disposes. + +But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it; +and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for the +future. + +The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the +American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for +liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. +With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with +himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may +mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product +of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible +things, called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of +the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and +incompatible names--liberty and tyranny. + +The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep +thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the +same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black +one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of +the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among +us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. +Hence we behold the process by which thousands are daily passing from +under the yoke of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and +bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it +seems, the people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty, +and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary has +been repudiated. + +It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at length; +but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought to say a word. +A painful rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the massacre, by +the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of Tennessee, on the +Mississippi River, of some three hundred colored soldiers and white +officers [I believe it latter turned out to be 500], who had just been +overpowered by their assailants [numbering 5000]. There seems to be some +anxiety in the public mind whether the Government is doing its duty to the +colored soldier, and to the service, at this point. At the beginning +of the war, and for some time, the use of colored troops was not +contemplated; and how the change of purpose was wrought I will not now +take time to explain. Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to turn +that element of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the +American people, to the Christian world, to history, and in my final +account to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is +no way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. The +difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically applying +it. It is a mistake to suppose the Government is indifferent to this +matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. We do not to-day +know that a colored soldier, or white officer commanding colored soldiers, +has been massacred by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it, we +believe it, I may say,--but we do not know it. To take the life of one of +their prisoners on the assumption that they murder ours, when it is short +of certainty that they do murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel, a +mistake. We are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; and +such investigation will probably show conclusively how the truth is. If +after all that has been said it shall turn out that there has been no +massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say there has been +none, and will be none, elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of +three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will be +conclusively proved; and being so proved, the retribution shall as surely +come. It will be matter of grave consideration in what exact course to +apply the retribution; but in the supposed case it must come. + +[There was a massacre of a black company and their officers at Fort +Pillow--they were prisoners who later on, the day of their capture, +were ordered executed. The black soldiers were tied alive to individual +planks--then man and plank were cobbled up like cord wood and burned. The +white officers were shot. D.W.] + + + + +TO CALVIN TRUESDALE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +CALVIN TRUESDALE, ESQ., Postmaster, Rock Island, Ill.: + +Thomas J. Pickett, late agent of the Quartermaster 's Department for the +island of Rock Island, has been removed or suspended from that position on +a charge of having sold timber and stone from the island for his private +benefit. Mr. Pickett is an old acquaintance and friend of mine, and I will +thank you, if you will, to set a day or days and place on and at which +to take testimony on the point. Notify Mr. Pickett and one J. B. Danforth +(who, as I understand, makes the charge) to be present with their +witnesses. Take the testimony in writing offered by both sides, and report +it in full to me. Please do this for me. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +OFFICER IN MILITARY COMMAND, Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +If there is a man by the name of Charles Carpenter, under sentence of +death for desertion, at Fort Warren, suspend execution until further order +and send the record of his trial. If sentenced for any other offence, +telegraph what it is and when he is to be executed. Answer at all events. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 21,1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT FORT WARREN, Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +The order I sent yesterday in regard to Charles Carpenter is hereby +withdrawn and you are to act as if it never existed. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 21, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, New York: + +Yesterday I was induced to telegraph the officer in military command at +Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, suspending the execution of +Charles Carpenter, to be executed tomorrow for desertion. Just now, +on reaching your order in the case, I telegraphed the same officer +withdrawing the suspension, and leave the case entirely with you. The +man's friends are pressing me, but I refer them to you, intending to take +no further action myself. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Senator Ten Eyck is very anxious to have a special exchange of Capt. Frank +J. McLean, of Ninth Tennessee Cavalry now, or lately, at Johnson's Island, +for Capt. T. Ten Eyck, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry, and now at Richmond. I +would like to have it done. Can it be? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON OFFER OF TROOPS, APRIL 23, 1864. + +TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +1. The Governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin offer +to the President infantry troops for the approaching campaign as follows: +Ohio, thirty thousand; Indiana, twenty thousand; Illinois, twenty +thousand; Iowa, ten thousand; Wisconsin, five thousand. + +2. The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoned from the date of +muster into the service of the United States, unless sooner discharged. + +3. The troops to be mustered into the service of the United States by +regiments, when the regiments are filled up, according to regulations, +to the minimum strength--the regiments to be organized according to the +regulations of the War Department. The whole number to be furnished within +twenty days from date of notice of the acceptance of this proposition. + +4. The troops to be clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted; transported, +and paid as other United States infantry volunteers, and to serve in +fortifications,--or wherever their services may be required, within or +without their respective States. + +5. No bounty to be paid the troops, nor the service charged or credited on +any draft. + +6. The draft for three years' service to go on in any State or district +where the quota is not filled up; but if any officer or soldier in this +special service should be drafted, he shall be credited for the service +rendered. + +JOHN BROUGH, Governor of Ohio. O. P. MORTON, Governor of Indiana. RICHARD +PATES, Governor of Illinois. WILLIAM M. STONE, Governor of Iowa. JAMES T. +LEWIS, Governor of Wisconsin + +(Indorsement.) + +April 23, 1864. + +The foregoing proposition of the governors is accepted, and the Secretary +of War is directed to carry it into execution. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +MY DEAR SIR:--According to our understanding with Major-General Frank P. +Blair at the time he took his seat in Congress last winter, he now asks to +withdraw his resignation as Major-General, then tendered, and be sent to +the field. Let this be done. Let the order sending him be such as shown me +to-day by the Adjutant-General, only dropping from it the names of Maguire +and Tompkins. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JOHN WILLIAMS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Yours of the 15th is just received. Thanks for your kind remembrance. I +would accept your offer at once, were it not that I fear there might be +some impropriety in it, though I do not see that there would. I will think +of it a while. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +A Mr. Corby brought you a note from me at the foot of a petition I +believe, in the case of Dawson, to be executed to-day. The record has been +examined here, and it shows too strong a case for a pardon or commutation, +unless there is something in the poor man's favor outside of the record, +which you on the ground may know, but I do not. My note to you only means +that if you know of any such thing rendering a suspension of the execution +proper, on your own judgment, you are at liberty to suspend it. Otherwise +I do not interfere. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 26, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Chattanooga, Term.: + +Suspend execution of death sentence of young Perry, of Wisconsin, +condemned for sleeping on his post, till further orders, and forward +record for examination. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am much gratified to learn that you got out so large a vote, so nearly +all the right way, at the late election; and not less so that your State +government including the legislature, is organized and in good working +order. Whatever I can I will do to protect you; meanwhile you must do your +utmost to protect yourselves. Present my greeting to all. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +I have the honor to transmit herewith an address to the President of +the United States, and through him to both Houses of Congress, on the +condition and wants of the people of east Tennessee, and asking their +attention to the necessity of some action on the part of the Government +for their relief, and which address is presented by a committee of an +organization called "The East Tennessee Relief Association." + +Deeply commiserating the condition of these most loyal and suffering +people, I am unprepared to make any specific recommendation for their +relief. The military is doing and will continue to do the best for them +within its power. Their address represents that the construction of direct +railroad communication between Knoxville and Cincinnati by way of central +Kentucky would be of great consequence in the present emergency. It may +be remembered that in the annual message of December, 1861, such railroad +construction was recommended. I now add that, with the hearty concurrence +of Congress, I would yet be pleased to construct a road, both for the +relief of these people and for its continuing military importance. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + +APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In obedience to the resolution of your honorable body, a copy of which is +herewith returned, I have the honor to make the following brief statement, +which is believed to contain the information sought: + +Prior to and at the meeting of the present Congress, Robert C. Schenck, of +Ohio, and Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, members elect thereto, by +and with the consent of the Senate held commissions from the Executive +as major-generals in the volunteer army. General Schenck tendered the +resignation of his said commission, and took his seat in the House of +Representatives, at the assembling thereof, upon the distinct verbal +understanding with the Secretary of War and the Executive that he might, +at any time during the session, at his own pleasure, withdraw said +resignation and return to the field. + +General Blair was, by temporary assignment of General Sherman, in command +of a corps through the battles in front of Chattanooga, and in the march +to the relief of Knoxville, which occurred in the latter days of November +and early days of December last, and of course was not present at the +assembling of Congress. When he subsequently arrived here, he sought, and +was allowed by the Secretary of War and the Executive, the same conditions +and promise as allowed and made to General Schenck. + +General Schenck has not applied to withdraw his resignation; but when +General Grant was made Lieutenant-General, producing some change of +commanders, General Blair sought to be assigned to the command of a corps. +This was made known to Generals Grant and Sherman, and assented to by +them, and the particular corps for him designated. + +This was all arranged and understood, as now remembered, so much as a +month ago; but the formal withdrawal of General Blair's resignation, +and making the order assigning him to the command of the corps, were not +consummated at the War Department until last week, perhaps on the 23d of +April instant. As a summary of the whole, it may be stated that General +Blair holds no military commission or appointment other than as herein +stated, and that it is believed he is now acting as major-General upon the +assumed validity of the commission herein stated, in connection with the +facts herein stated, and not otherwise. There are some letters, notes, +telegrams, orders, entries, and perhaps other documents in connection with +this subject, which it is believed would throw no additional light upon +it, but which will be cheerfully furnished if desired. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 30, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to +this time, so far as I understand it. + +The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are +vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude +any restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any +great disaster or capture of our men in great number shall be avoided, I +know that these points are less likely to escape your attention than they +would be mine. If there be anything wanting which is within my power to +give, do not fail to let me know it. + +And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. + +Yours very truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +MAY 2, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In compliance with the request contained in your resolution of the 29th +ultimo, a copy of which resolution is herewith returned, I have the honor +to transmit the following: + +[Correspondence and orders relating to the resignation and reinstatement +of Major-General Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri.] + +The foregoing constitutes all sought by the resolution so far as is +remembered or has been found upon diligent search. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 4, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +I have an imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens who say your Order +No.8 will compel them to go north of Nashville. This is in no sense an +order, nor is it even a request that you will do anything which in the +least shall be a drawback upon your military operations, but anything you +can do consistently with those operations for those suffering people I +shall be glad of. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Commanding, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +The President directs me to inquire whether a day has yet been fixed for +the execution of citizen Robert Louden, and if so what day? + +JOHN HAY, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. + + + + +TO MRS. S. B. McCONKEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864. + +MRS. SARAH B. McCONKEY, West Chester, Pa.: + +MADAM:--Our mutual friend, Judge Lewis, tells me you do me the honor to +inquire for my personal welfare. I have been very anxious for some days in +regard to our armies in the field, but am considerably cheered, just now, +by favorable news from them. + +I am sure you will join me in the hope for their further success; while +yourself, and other good mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, do all +you and they can, to relieve and comfort the gallant soldiers who compose +them. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RECOMMENDATION OF THANKSGIVING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864 + +TO THE FRIENDS OF UNION AND LIBERTY: + +Enough is known of army operations, within the last five days, to claim +our special gratitude to God. While what remains undone demands our most +sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him (without whom all effort is +vain), I recommend that all patriots at their homes, in their places of +public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving and +prayer to Almighty God. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +MAY 9, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am very much obliged to you for the compliment of this +call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news received to-day +from the Army, than to a desire to see me. I am indeed very grateful to +the brave men who have been struggling with the enemy in the field, to +their noble commanders who have directed them, and especially to our +Maker. Our commanders are following up their victories resolutely and +successfully. I think, without knowing the particulars of the plans of +General Grant, that what has been accomplished is of more importance than +at first appears. I believe, I know (and am especially grateful to know) +that General Grant has not been jostled in his purposes, that he has made +all his points, and to-day he is on his line as he purposed before he +moved his armies. I will volunteer to say that I am very glad at what +has happened, but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are +grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past few +days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us +victory. + +There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to +perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest +General at the head of our armies, and sink all personal consideration +for the sake of the country. I commend you to keep yourselves in the same +tranquil mood that is characteristic of that brave and loyal man. I have +said more than I expected when I came before you. Repeating my thanks for +this call, I bid you good-bye. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL LEW WALLACE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WALLACE, Baltimore: + +Please tell me what is the trouble with Dr. Hawks. Also please ask Bishop +Whittington to give me his view of the case. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaints are coming to me of disturbances in Canoll, Platte, and +Buchanan counties. Please ascertain the truth, correct what is found +wrong, and telegraph me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. B. LOOMIS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 12, 1864 + +F. B. LOOMIS, ESQ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your +communication of the 28th April, in which you offer to replace the present +garrison at Port Trumbull with volunteers, which you propose to raise at +your own expense. While it seems inexpedient at this time to accept +this proposition on account of the special duties now devolving upon the +garrison mentioned, I cannot pass unnoticed such a meritorious instance +of individual patriotism. Permit me, for the Government, to express my +cordial thanks to you for this generous and public-spirited offer, which +is worthy of note among the many called forth in these times of national +trial. + +I am very truly, your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A METHODIST DELEGATION, MAY 14, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:-In response to your address, allow me to attest the accuracy of +its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it expresses, and thank +you in the nation's name for the sure promise it gives. Nobly sustained, +as the Government has been, by all the churches, I would utter nothing +which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet without this, +it may fairly be said, that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less +devoted than the best, is by its greatest numbers the most important +of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more +soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers +to Heaven than--any other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the +churches; and blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the +churches. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +His EXCELLENCY RICHARD YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +If any such proclamation has appeared, it is a forgery. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE NEWSPAPER REPORTERS AND EDITORS + +ORDER TO GENERAL J. A. DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, Commanding at New York: + +Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and published +this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of Commerce, +newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a false and +spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the President and to +be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which publication is of a +treasonable nature, designed to give aid and comfort to the enemies of +the United States and to the rebels now at war against the Government and +their aiders and abettors, you are therefore hereby commanded forthwith +to arrest and imprison in any fort or military prison in your command, the +editors, proprietors, and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all +such persons as, after public notice has been given of the falsehood of +said publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and +comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in close +custody until they can be brought to trial before a military commission +for their offense. You will also take possession by military force of the +printing establishments of the New York World and Journal of Commerce, and +hold the same until further orders, and prohibit any further publication +therefrom. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +[On the morning of May 18, 3864, a forged proclamation was published in +the World, and Journal of Commerce, of New York. The proclamation named a +day for fasting and prayer, called for 400,000 fresh troops, and purposed +to raise by an "immediate and peremptory draft," whatever quotas were not +furnished on the day specified. Ed.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. P. BUTLER. + +(Cipher.) + +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Until receiving your dispatch of yesterday, the idea of commissions in the +volunteers expiring at the end of three years had not occurred to me. I +think no trouble will come of it; and, at all events, I shall take care of +it so far as in me lies. As to the major-generalships in the regular +army, I think I shall not dispose of another, at least until the combined +operations now in progress, under direction of General Grant, and within +which yourself and command are included, shall be terminated. + +Meanwhile, on behalf of yourself, officers, and men, please accept my +hearty thanks for what you and they have so far done. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXEMPTION OF AMERICAN CONSULS FROM MILITARY SERVICE + +MAY 19, 1864. + +It is officially announced by the State Department that citizens of the +United States holding commissions and recognized as Consuls of foreign +powers, are not by law exempt from military service if drafted: + +Therefore the mere enrolment of a citizen holding a foreign consulate +will not be held to vacate his commission, but if he shall be drafted +his exequatur will be revoked unless he shall have previously resigned in +order that another Consul may be received. + +An exequatur bearing date the 3d day of May, 1858, having been issued to +Charles Hunt, a citizen of the United States, recognizing him as a Consul +of Belgium for St. Louis, Missouri, and declaring him free to exercise and +enjoy such functions, powers, and privileges as are allowed to the Consuls +of the most favored nations in the United States, and the said Hunt +having sought to screen himself from his military duty to his country, +in consequence of thus being invested with the consular functions of a +foreign power in the United States, it is deemed advisable that the said +Charles Hunt should no longer be permitted to continue in the exercise of +said functions, powers, and privileges. + +These are therefore to declare that I no longer recognize the said Hunt +as Consul of Belgium, for St. Louis, Missouri, and will not permit him to +exercise or enjoy any of the functions, powers or privileges allowed to +consuls of that nation, and that I do hereby wholly revoke and annul the +said exequatur heretofore given, and do declare the same to be absolutely +null and void from this day forward. + +In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, +and the seal of the United States of America to be hereunto +affixed................ + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MORTON AND OTHERS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 21, 1864 + +GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON: + +The getting forward of hundred-day troops to sustain General Sherman's +lengthening lines promises much good. Please put your best efforts into +the work. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +Same to Governor Yates, Springfield, Illinois; Governor Stone, Davenport, +Iowa; Governor Lewis, Madison, Wisconsin. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO CHRISTIANA A. SACK. WAR DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21, +1864 + +CHRISTIANA A. SACK, Baltimore, Md.: + +I cannot postpone the execution of a convicted spy on a mere telegraphic +despatch signed with a name I never heard before. General Wallace may give +you a pass to see him if he chooses. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. WASHINGTON CITY, May 24, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +Yours to Secretary of War [received] asking for something cheering. We +have nothing bad from anywhere. I have just seen a despatch of Grant, of +11 P.M., May 23, on the North Anna and partly across it, which ends as +follows: "Everything looks exceedingly favorable for us." We have nothing +later from him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 25,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Mr. J. C. Swift wishes a pass from me to follow your army to pick up rags +and cast-off clothing. I will give it to him if you say so, otherwise not. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +["No job to big or too small" for this president--not even a request from +a Rag Picker. D.W.] + + + + +MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE NEW YORK NAVAL BRIGADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 26, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +I am again pressed with the claim of Mr. Marshall O. Roberts, for +transportation of what was called the Naval Brigade from New York to +Fortress Monroe. This force was a special organization got up by one +Bartlett, in pretended pursuance of written authority from me, but in +fact, pursuing the authority in scarcely anything whatever. The +credit given him by Mr. Roberts, was given in the teeth of the express +declaration that the Government would not be responsible for the class of +expenses to which it belonged. After all some part of the transportation +became useful to the Government, and equitably should be paid for; but +I have neither time nor means to ascertain this equitable amount, or any +appropriation to pay it with if ascertained. If the Quartermaster at New +York can ascertain what would compensate for so much of the transportation +as did result usefully to the Government, it might be a step towards +reaching justice. I write this from memory, but I believe it is +substantially correct. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, June 3, 1864. + +HON. F. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter, inviting me to be present at a mass meeting of +loyal citizens, to be held at New York on the 4th instant, for the +purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for his signal +services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to attend. I +approve, nevertheless, of whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain +General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction. My previous +high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and heightened by what +has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting, while the +magnitude and difficulty of the task before him does not prove less than +I expected. He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great +trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your good words +that they may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER TOUCHING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. + +JUNE 5, 1864. + +(Indorsement.) + +Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had not +heard or thought of him for Vice-President. Wish not to interfere about +Vice-President. Cannot interfere about platform. Convention must judge for +itself. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 6, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private James McCarthy, of the One-hundred and fortieth New York +Volunteers, is here under sentence to the Dry Tortugas for an attempt to +desert. His friends appeal to me and if his colonel and you consent, I +will send him to his regiment. Please answer. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. WASHINGTON, June 8, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of to-day received. I am unable to conceive how a message can be +less safe by the express than by a staff-officer. If you send a verbal +message, the messenger is one additional person let into the secret. + + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE NOTIFYING PRESIDENT LINCOLN OF HIS RENOMINATION, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression of +my gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in their +continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not +unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to doubt +that I shall accept the nomination tendered; and yet perhaps I should +not declare definitely before reading and considering what is called the +platform. I will say now, however, I approve the declaration in favor of +so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the nation. +When the people in revolt, with a hundred days of explicit notice that +they could within those days resume their allegiance without the overthrow +of their institution, and that they could not so resume it afterward, +elected to stand out, such amendment of the Constitution as now proposed +became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final success of +the Union cause. Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now the +unconditional Union men, North and South, perceive its importance and +embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give +it legal form and practical effect. + + + + +PLATFORM OF THE UNION NATIONAL CONVENTION HELD IN BALTIMORE, MD., JUNE 7 +AND 8, 1864. + +1. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to +maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the +paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States; +and that, laying aside all differences of political opinion, we pledge +ourselves, as Union men, animated by a common sentiment and aiming at +a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the Government in +quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, +and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and +traitors arrayed against it. + +2. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Government of the +United States not to compromise with rebels, or to offer them any terms +of peace, except such as may be based upon an unconditional surrender of +their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to the Constitution +and laws of the United States, and that we call upon the Government to +maintain this position, and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible +vigor to the complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance +upon the self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic valor, and the +undying devotion of the American people to their Country and its free +institutions. + +3. Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the +strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be, always and everywhere, +hostile to the principles of republican government, justice and the +national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil +of the republic; and that while we uphold and maintain the acts and +proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed a +death-blow at this gigantic evil, we are in favor, furthermore, of such an +amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with +its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of +slavery within the limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. + +4. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to the +soldiers and sailors of the Army and Navy, who have periled their lives in +defense of their country and in vindication of the honor of its flag; that +the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of their patriotism +and their valor, and ample and permanent provision for those of their +survivors who have received disabling and honorable wounds in the service +of the country; and that the memories of those who have fallen in its +defense shall be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance. + +5. Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the +unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity to the Constitution +and the principles of American liberty, with which Abraham Lincoln has +discharged under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty the great duties +and responsibilities of the Presidential office; that we approve and +indorse as demanded by the emergency and essential to the preservation of +the nation, and as within the provisions of the Constitution, the measures +and acts which he has adopted to defend the nation against its open +and secret foes; that we approve, especially, the Proclamation of +Emancipation, and the employment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held +in slavery; and that we have full confidence in his determination to carry +these and all other constitutional measures essential to the salvation of +the country into full and complete effect. + +6. Resolved, That we deem it essential to the General welfare that harmony +should prevail in the national councils, and we regard as worthy of +public confidence and official trust those only who cordially indorse the +principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and which should characterize +the administration of the Government. + +7. Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed in its armies, +without regard to distinction of color, the full protection of the laws of +war, and that any violation of these laws, or of the usages of civilized +nations in time of war, by the rebels now in arms, should be made the +subject of prompt and full redress. + +8. Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much +to the wealth, development of resources, and increase of power to this +nation, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and +encouraged by a liberal and just policy. + +9. Resolved, That we are in favor of the speedy construction of the +railroad to the Pacific coast. + +10. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of +the public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this purpose we +recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public expenditures, and +a vigorous and just system of taxation: and that it is the duty of every +loyal State to sustain the credit and promote the use of the national +currency. + +11. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the Government that +the people of the United States can never regard with indifference the +attempt of any European power to overthrow by force or to supplant +by fraud the institutions of any republican government on the Western +Continent, and that they will view with extreme jealousy, as menacing to +the peace and independence of their own country, the efforts of any such +power to obtain new footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by +foreign military force, in near proximity to the United States. + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN--I can only say in response to the remarks of your chairman, +that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has been accorded +to me, both by the convention and by the National League. I am not +insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, yet I do +not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of it is to +be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. The convention and the +nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a higher view of the interests +of the country, for the present and the great future, and the part I am +entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay +hold of as being the opinion of the convention and of the League, that I +am not entirely unworthy to be intrusted with the place I have occupied +for the last three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to +conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this +connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion +once that "it was not best to swap horses when crossing a stream." + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:--I am very much obliged to you for this compliment. I have just +been saying, and will repeat it, that the hardest of all speeches I have +to answer is a serenade. I never know what to say on these occasions. I +suppose that you have done me this kindness in connection with the action +of the Baltimore convention, which has recently taken place, and with +which, of course, I am very well satisfied. What we want still more than +Baltimore conventions, or Presidential elections, is success under General +Grant. I propose that you constantly bear in mind that the support you +owe to the brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first +importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that point. +Now without detaining you any longer, I propose that you help me to close +up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for General Grant and +the officers and soldiers under his command. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE ENVOY FROM THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +SIR:--In every light in which the State of the Hawaiian Islands can be +contemplated, it is an object of profound interest for the United States. +Virtually it was once a colony. It is now a near and intimate neighbor. +It is a haven of shelter and refreshment for our merchants, fishermen, +seamen, and other citizens, when on their lawful occasions they are +navigating the eastern seas and oceans. Its people are free, and its +laws, language, and religion are largely the fruit of our own teaching and +example. The distinguished part which you, Mr. Minister, have acted in +the history of that interesting country, is well known here. It gives me +pleasure to assure you of my sincere desire to do what I can to render now +your sojourn in the United States agreeable to yourself, satisfactory to +your sovereign, and beneficial to the Hawaiian people. + + + + +REMARKS TO AN OHIO REGIMENT, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +Soldiers! I understand you have just come from Ohio; come to help us in +this the nation's day of trial, and also of its hopes. I thank you for +your promptness in responding to the call for troops. Your services were +never needed more than now. I know not where you are going. You may stay +here and take the places of those who will be sent to the front, or you +may go there yourselves. Wherever you go I know you will do your best. +Again I thank you. Good-by. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL L. THOMAS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 13, +1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +Complaint is made to me that in the vicinity of Henderson, our militia +is seizing negroes and carrying them off without their own consent, and +according to no rules whatever, except those of absolute violence. I wish +you would look into this and inform me, and see that the making soldiers +of negroes is done according to the rules you are acting upon, so that +unnecessary provocation and irritation be avoided. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO THOMAS WEBSTER. WASHINGTON, D. C., June 13, 1864. + +THOMAS WEBSTER, Philadelphia: + +Will try to leave here Wednesday afternoon, say at 4 P.M., remain till +Thursday afternoon and then return. This subject to events. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, June 15, 1864. 7 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Headquarters Army of the Potomac: + +I have just received your dispatch of 1 P.M. yesterday. I begin to see it: +you will succeed. God bless you all. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT A SANITARY FAIR IN PHILADELPHIA, + +JUNE 16, 1864. + +I suppose that this toast is intended to open the way for me to say +something. War at the best is terrible, and this of ours in its magnitude +and duration is one of the most terrible the world has ever known. It +has deranged business totally in many places, and perhaps in all. It has +destroyed property, destroyed life, and ruined homes. It has produced a +national debt and a degree of taxation unprecedented in the history of +this country. It has caused mourning among us until the heavens may +almost be said to be hung in black. And yet it continues. It has had +accompaniments not before known in the history of the world. I mean the +Sanitary and Christian Commissions, with their labors for the relief of +the soldiers, and the Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, understood better by +those who hear me than by myself, and these fairs, first begun at Chicago +and next held in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities. The motive and +object that lie at the bottom of them are worthy of the most that we can +do for the soldier who goes to fight the battles of his country. From the +fair and tender hand of women is much, very much, done for the soldier, +continually reminding him of the care and thought for him at home. The +knowledge that he is not forgotten is grateful to his heart. Another +view of these institutions is worthy of thought. They are voluntary +contributions, giving proof that the national resources are not at all +exhausted, and that the national patriotism will sustain us through all. +It is a pertinent question, When is this war to end? I do not wish to name +the day when it will end, lest the end should not come at the given time. +We accepted this war, and did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, +and when that object is accomplished the war will end, and I hope to God +that it will never end until that object is accomplished. We are going +through with our task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us three +years longer. I have not been in the habit of making predictions, but I +am almost tempted now to hazard one. I will. It is, that Grant is this +evening in a position, with Meade and Hancock, of Pennsylvania, whence he +can never be dislodged by the enemy until Richmond is taken. If I shall +discover that General Grant may be greatly facilitated in the capture +of Richmond by rapidly pouring to him a large number of armed men at the +briefest notice, will you go? Will you march on with him? [Cries of "Yes, +yes."] Then I shall call upon you when it is necessary. + + + + +TO ATTORNEY-GENERAL BATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Jun. 24, 1864 + +HONORABLE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. + +SIR:--By authority of the Constitution, and moved thereto by the fourth +section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act making appropriations +for the support of the army for the year ending the thirtieth of June, +eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and for other purposes, approved June +is, 1864," I require your opinion in writing as to what pay, bounty, +and clothing are allowed by law to persons of color who were free on the +nineteenth day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted and mustered +into the military service of the United States between the month of +December, 1862, and the sixteenth of June, 1864. + +Please answer as you would do, on my requirement, if the act of June 15, +1864, had not been passed, and I will so use your opinion as to satisfy +that act. + +Your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MRS. A. LINCOLN, Boston, Massachusetts: + +All well and very warm. Tad and I have been to General Grant's army. +Returned yesterday safe and sound. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaint is made to me that General Brown does not do his best to +suppress bushwhackers. Please ascertain and report to me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 27, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM DENNISON AND OTHERS, a Committee of the Union National +Convention. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter of the 14th inst.., formally notifying me that I +have been nominated by the convention you represent for the Presidency +of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next, has been +received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of the +convention, called the platform, are heartily approved. + +While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican government +upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there might be +misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the Government in +relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State +Department and indorsed by the convention among the measures and acts of +the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so long as the state of facts +shall leave that position pertinent and applicable. + +I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not forgotten +by the convention, as they forever must and will be remembered by the +grateful country for whose salvation they devote their lives. + +Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have +communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the convention, I +subscribe myself, + +Your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons sent as +Senators and Representatives from Arkansas. These persons apprehend that, +in consequence, you may not support the new State government there as you +otherwise would. My wish is that you give that government and the people +there the same support and protection that you would if the members had +been admitted, because in no event, nor in any view of the case, can this +do any harm, while it will be the best you can do toward suppressing the +rebellion. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Dr. Worster wishes to visit you with a view of getting your permission to +introduce into the army "Harmon's Sandal Sock." Shall I give him a pass +for that object? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO DAVID TOD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 30, 1864. + +HON. DAVID TOD, Youngstown, Ohio: I have nominated you to be Secretary of +the Treasury, in place of Governor Chase, who has resigned. Please come +without a moment's delay. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. L. SCRIPPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 4, 1864. + +To JOHN L. SCRIPPS, ESQ. + +DEAR SIR:--Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power +to defeat Mr. Arnold's nomination to Congress. I am well satisfied with +Mr. Arnold as a member of Congress, and I do not know that the man who +might supplant him would be as satisfactory; but the correct principle, +I think, is that all our friends should have absolute freedom of choice +among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you will do just as you +think fit with your own suffrage in the case, and not constrain any of +your subordinates to [do] other than [as] he thinks fit with his. This is +precisely the rule I inculcated and adhered to on my part, when a certain +other nomination, now recently made, was being canvassed for. + +Yours very truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +J. W. GARRETT, President [B. & 0. R. R.], Camden Station: + +You say telegraphic communication is re-established with Sandy Hook. Well, +what does Sandy Hook say about operations of enemy and of Sigel during +to-day? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY HORATIO SEYMOUR, Governor of New York, Albany: + +The President directs me to inform you that a rebel force, variously +estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men, have invaded the State +of Maryland, and have taken Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, and are +threatening other points; that the public safety requires him to call +upon the State executives for a militia force to repel this invasion. He +therefore directs me to call on you for a militia force of twelve thousand +men from your State to serve not more than one hundred days, and to +request that you will with the utmost despatch forward the troops to +Washington by rail or steamboat as may be most expeditious. + +Please favor me with an answer at your earliest convenience. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, + +Secretary of War. + + + + +PROCLAMATION SUSPENDING THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, + +JULY 5, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued on the 15th day of April, +1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that the +laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then were, +opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in certain States therein +mentioned, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary +course of judicial proceedings or by the power vested in the marshals by +law; and + +Whereas, immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation the land +and naval forces of the United States were put into activity to suppress +the said insurrections and rebellion; and + +Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by an act approved on the +third day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion the +President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety +may require it, is authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of +habeas corpus in any case throughout the United States, or any part +thereof; and + +Whereas, the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, endangering +the existence of the Constitution and Government of the United States; and + +Whereas, the military forces of the United States are now actively engaged +in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various parts of +the States where the said rebellion has been successful in obstructing +the laws and public authorities, especially in the States of Virginia and +Georgia; and + +Whereas, on the fifteenth day of September last, the President of the +United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that the +privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended throughout +the United States, in Cases whereby the authority of the President of +the United States, the military, naval, and civil officers of the United +States, or any of them, hold persons under their command or in their +custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders or abettors of the +enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled or drafted, or mustered, +or enlisted in, or belonging to the land or naval forces of the United +States, or as deserters therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law, +or the rules and articles of war, or the rules and regulations prescribed +for the military and naval service by authority of the President of the +United States, or for resisting a draft, or for any other offence against +the military or naval service; and + +Whereas, many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the forces of +the insurgents, who have on several occasions entered the said State +of Kentucky in large force and not without aid and comfort furnished by +disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United States residing therein, +have not only greatly disturbed the public peace but have overborne the +civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, destroying property and +life in various parts of the State; and + +Whereas, it has been made known to the President of the United States, by +the officers commanding the National armies, that combinations have been +formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a purpose of inciting the rebel +forces to renew the said operations of civil war within the said State, +and thereby to embarrass the United States armies now operating in the +said States of Virginia and Georgia, and even to endanger their safety. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by +virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, do +hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially requires +that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus so +proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of September, 1863, be +made effectual and be duly enforced in and throughout the said State of +Kentucky, and that martial law be for the present declared therein. I do +therefore hereby require of the military officers of the said State that +the privilege of the habeas corpus be effectually suspended within the +said State, according to the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law +be established therein to take effect from the date of this proclamation, +the said suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until +this proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period +when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end. And +I do hereby require and command, as well as military officers, all civil +officers and authorities existing or found within the said State of +Kentucky, to take notice of this proclamation and to give full effect +to the same. The martial laws herein proclaimed and the things in that +respect herein ordered will not be deemed or taken to interfere with the +holding of lawful elections, or with the proceedings of the constitutional +Legislature of Kentucky, or with the administration of justice in the +courts of law existing therein between citizens of the United States in +suits or proceedings which do not affect the military operations or the +constituted authorities of the government of the United States. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington this 5th day of July, in the year of our +Lord 1864, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. + + +A. LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER, JULY 7, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives at their last session +adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the second day of +July instant, and which `was in the words following, namely: + +That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day of +humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States, that he request +his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive Departments +to unite with him, as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at the City of +Washington, and the members of Congress, and all magistrates, all civil, +military, and naval officers, all soldiers, sailors, and marines, with all +loyal and law-abiding people, to convene at their usual places of worship, +or wherever they may be, to confess and to repent of their manifold +sins, to implore the compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that, +if consistent with His will, the existing rebellion may be speedily +suppressed, and the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United +States may be established throughout all the States; to implore Him, as +the Supreme Ruler of the world, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer +us to be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations, or by +obstinate adhesion to our own counsels which may be in conflict with His +eternal, purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of the nation +to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in accordance with +His will that our place should be maintained as a united people among the +family of nations; to implore Him to grant to our armed defenders, and +the masses of the people, that courage, power of resistance, and endurance +necessary to secure that result; to implore Him in His infinite goodness +to soften the hearts, enlighten the minds, and quicken the conscience of +those in rebellion, that they may lay down their arms, and speedily return +to their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly +destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity and +fraternity may be restored, and peace established throughout all our +borders. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the `United States, +cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States, in the +penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid resolutions, +and heartily approving of the devotional design and purpose thereof, do +hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next to be observed by the +people of the United States as a day of national humiliation and prayer. + +I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive +Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all judges +and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in the land, +whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, seamen, and marines +in the national service, and all other loyal and law-abiding people of the +United States, to assemble in their preferred places of public worship on +that day, and there to render to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the +Universe, such homage and such confessions, and to offer to Him such +supplications as the Congress of the United States have, in their +aforesaid resolution, so solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently +recommended. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this +seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred +and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the +eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES, + +WHOSE GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF +GOVERNMENT," AND CONCERNING RECONSTRUCTION, + +JULY 8, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to +certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a +republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; and + +Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United States +for his approval less than one hour before the sine die adjournment of +said session, and was not signed by him; and + +Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for restoring +the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation in the Union, +which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that subject, and +which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the people for their +consideration: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in December +last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for restoration) +unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be inflexibly committed to +any single plan of restoration, and while I am also unprepared to declare +that the free State constitutions and governments already adopted and +installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside and held for +naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens who have +set up the same as to further effort, or to declare a constitutional +competency in Congress to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same +time sincerely hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment +abolishing slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am +fully satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as +one very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to adopt +it, and that I am and at all times shall be prepared to give the Executive +aid and assistance to any such people so soon as the military resistance +to the United States shall have been suppressed in any such States and the +people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to +the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in which cases +militia-governors will be appointed with directions to proceed according +to the bill. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.............. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO HORACE GREELEY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 9, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +DEAR SIR:--Your letter of the 7th, with inclosures, received. + +If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any proposition +of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the restoration of the +Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, say to him he +may come to me with you; and that if he really brings such proposition, +he shall at the least have safe conduct with the paper (and without +publicity, if he chooses) to the point where you shall have to meet him. +The same if there be two or more persons. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 9, 1864 + +J. W. GARRETT, Camden Station: + +What have you heard about a battle at Monocacy to-day? We have nothing +about it here except what you say. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK TO GENERAL WALLACE. + +WASHINGTON, July 9, 1864. 11.57 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL L. WALLACE, Commanding Middle Department: + +I am directed by the President to say that you will rally your forces and +make every possible effort to retard the enemy's march on Baltimore. + +H. W. HALLECK, Major-General and Chief of Staff. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. SWAN AND OTHERS. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 10, 1864. 9.20 +A.M. + +THOMAS SWAN AND OTHERS, Baltimore, Maryland: + +Yours of last night received. I have not a single soldier but whom is +being disposed by the military for the best protection of all. By latest +accounts the enemy is moving on Washington. They cannot fly to either +place. Let us be vigilant, but keep cool. I hope neither Baltimore nor +Washington will be sacked. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON CITY, July TO, 1864.2 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Your dispatch to General Halleck, referring to what I may think in the +present emergency, is shown me. General Halleck says we have absolutely no +force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with the hundred-day +men and invalids we have here we can defend Washington, and, scarcely, +Baltimore. Besides these there are about eight thousand, not very +reliable, under Howe, at Harper's Ferry with Hunter approaching that point +very slowly, with what number I suppose you know better than I. Wallace, +with some odds and ends, and part of what came up with Ricketts, was so +badly beaten yesterday at Monocacy, that what is left can attempt no more +than to defend Baltimore. What we shall get in from Pennsylvania and New +York will scarcely be worth counting, I fear. Now, what I think is, that +you should provide to retain your hold where you are, certainly, and bring +the rest with you personally, and make a vigorous effort to destroy the +enemy's forces in this vicinity. I think there is really a fair chance +to do this, if the movement is prompt. This is what I think upon your +suggestion, and is not an order. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, July 11, 1864. 8 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of 10.30 P.M. yesterday received, and very satisfactory. The enemy +will learn of Wright's arrival, and then the difficulty will be to unite +Wright and Hunter south of the enemy before he will recross the Potomac. +Some firing between Rockville and here now. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 12, 1864. 11.30 +AM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Vague rumors have been reaching us for two or three days that Longstreet's +corps is also on its way [to] this vicinity. Look out for its absence from +your front. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM AND LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July +12, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I suppose you received my letter of the 9th. I have just received yours of +the 13th, and am disappointed by it. I was not expecting you to send me a +letter, but to bring me a man, or men. Mr. Hay goes to you with my answer +to yours of the 13th. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +[Carried by Major John Hay.] + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, JULY 15, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +MY DEAR SIR:-Yours of the 13th is just received, and I am disappointed +that you have not already reached here with those commissioners, if they +would consent to come on being shown my letter to you of the 9th instant. +Show that and this to them, and if they will come on the terms stated in +the former, bring them. I not only intend a sincere effort for peace, but +I intend that you shall be a personal witness that it is made. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SAFE CONDUCT FOR CLEMENT C. CLAY AND OTHERS, + +JULY 16, 1864. + +The President of the United States directs that the four persons whose +names follow, to wit, HON. Clement C. Clay, HON. Jacob Thompson, Professor +James P. Holcombe, George N. Sanders, shall have safe conduct to the city +of Washington in company with the HON. HORACE GREELEY, and shall be exempt +from arrest or annoyance of any kind from any officer of the United States +during their journey to the said city of Washington. + +By order of the President: JOHN HAY, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. [WASHINGTON] July 17. 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +In your dispatch of yesterday to General Sherman, I find the following, to +wit: + +"I shall make a desperate effort to get a position here, which will hold +the enemy without the necessity of so many men." + +Pressed as we are by lapse of time I am glad to hear you say this; and yet +I do hope you may find a way that the effort shall not be desperate in the +sense of great loss of life. + + +A. LINCOLN, President. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER WASHINGTON JULY 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Yours of this morning received. You misconceive. The order you complain of +was only nominally mine, and was framed by those who really made it with +no thought of making you a scapegoat. It seemed to be General Grant's wish +that the forces under General Wright and those under you should join and +drive at the enemy under General Wright. Wright had the larger part of the +force, but you had the rank. It was thought that you would prefer Crook's +commanding your part to your serving in person under Wright. That is all +of it. General Grant wishes you to remain in command of the department, +and I do not wish to order otherwise. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattahoochee River, Georgia: + +I have seen your despatches objecting to agents of Northern States opening +recruiting stations near your camps. An act of Congress authorizes this, +giving the appointment of agents to the States, and not to the Executive +Government. It is not for the War Department, or myself, to restrain +or modify the law, in its execution, further than actual necessity may +require. To be candid, I was for the passage of the law, not apprehending +at the time that it would produce such inconvenience to the armies in the +field as you now cause me to fear. Many of the States were very anxious +for it, and I hoped that, with their State bounties, and active exertions, +they would get out substantial additions to our colored forces, which, +unlike white recruits, help us where they come from, as well as where they +go to. I still hope advantage from the law; and being a law, it must be +treated as such by all of us. We here will do what we consistently can to +save you from difficulties arising out of it. May I ask, therefore, that +you will give your hearty co-operation. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING TERMS OF PEACE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. + +TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of +the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and +with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the +United States, will be received and considered by the Executive +Government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other +substantial and collateral points; and the bearer or bearers thereof shall +have safe conduct both ways. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS, + +JULY 18, 1864, + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to +regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces +and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of the United +States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, call for any number +of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of one, two, and three +years for military service," and "that in case the quota or any part +thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election +district, or of a county not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the +space of fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately +order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part thereof which +may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas the new enrolment heretofore ordered is so far completed as +that the aforementioned act of Congress may now be put in operation for +recruiting and keeping up the strength of the armies in the field, for +garrisons, and such military operations as may be required for the purpose +of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the authority of the United +States Government in the insurgent States: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +issue this my last call for five hundred thousand volunteers for the +military service: Provided, nevertheless, That this call shall be reduced +by all credits which may be established under section eight of the +aforesaid act on account of persons who have entered the naval service +during the present rebellion and by credits for men furnished to the +military service in excess of calls heretofore made. Volunteers will be +accepted under this call for one, two, or three years, as they may elect, +and will be entitled to the bounty provided by the law for the period of +services for which they enlist. + +And I hereby proclaim, order, and direct that immediately after the 5th +day of September, 1864, being fifty days from the date of this call, +a draft for troops to serve for one year shall be had in every town, +township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or county not +so subdivided, to fill the quota which shall be assigned to it under this +call or any part thereof which may be unfilled by volunteers on the said +5th day of September, 1864. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington, this 18th day of July, A.D. 1864, and of +the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 20, 1864. 4.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of yesterday, about a call for three hundred thousand, is received. +I suppose you had not seen the call for five hundred thousand, made the +day before, and which, I suppose, covers the case. Always glad to have +your suggestions. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. L. WRIGHT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY. 20, 1864. + +J. L. WRIGHT, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +All a mistake. Mr. Stanton has not resigned. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER. (Cipher.) + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Are you able to take care of the enemy, when he turns back upon you, as he +probably will on finding that Wright has left? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, ENCLOSING A LETTER TO WILLIAM O. SNIDER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN: + +Herewith is the manuscript letter for the gentleman who sent me a cane +through your hands. For my life I cannot make out his name; and therefore +I cut it from his letter and pasted it on, as you see. I suppose [sic] +will remember who he is, and I will thank you to forward him the letter. +He dates his letter at Philadelphia. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PRESENTATION OF A CANE + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + +WILLIAM O. SNIDER: + +The cane you did me the honor to present through Governor Curtin was duly +placed in my hand by him. Please accept my thanks; and, at the same time, +pardon me for not having sooner found time to tender them. Your obedient +servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM JOHN HAY TO J. C. WELLING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. July 25, 1864. + +J. C. WELLING, ESQ. + +SIR:--According to the request contained in your note, I have placed Mr. +Gibson's letter of resignation in the hands of the President. He has read +the letter, and says he accepts the resignation, as he will be glad to +do with any other, which may be tendered, as this is, for the purpose of +taking an attitude of hostility against him. + +He says he was not aware that he was so much indebted to Mr. Gibson for +having accepted the office at first, not remembering that he ever pressed +him to do so, or that he gave it otherwise than as was usual, upon request +made on behalf of Mr. Gibson. + +He thanks Mr. Gibson for his acknowledgment that he has been treated with +personal kindness and consideration, and says he knows of but two small +drawbacks upon Mr. Gibson's right to still receive such treatment, one +of which is that he never could learn of his giving much attention to +the duties of his office, and the other is this studied attempt of Mr. +Gibson's to stab him. + +I am very truly, + +Your obedient servant, + +JOHN HAY. + + + + +TO COLONEL, FIRST N. Y. VETERAN CAVALRY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, JULY 25, 1864. + +Thomas Connor, a private in the First Veteran New York Cavalry, is now +imprisoned at hard labor for desertion. If the Colonel of said Regiment +will say in writing on this sheets that he is willing to receive him back +to the Regiment, I will pardon, and send him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +WASHINGTON, July 26, 1864. 2.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta: + +I have just seen yours complaining of the appointment of Hovey and +Osterhaus. The point you make is unquestionably a good one, and yet +please hear a word from us. My recollection is that both General Grant +and yourself recommended both H [ovey] and O [sterhaus] for promotion, and +these, with other strong recommendations, drew committals from us which we +could neither honorably or safely disregard. We blamed H [ovey] for coming +away in the manner in which he did, but he knew he had apparent reason to +feel disappointed and mortified, and we felt it was not best to crush one +who certainly had been a good soldier. As to [Osterhaus], we did not know +of his leaving at the time we made the appointment, and do not now +know the terms on which he left. Not to have appointed him, as the case +appeared to us at the time, would have been almost, if not quite, a +violation of our word. The word was given on what we thought was high +merit and somewhat on his nationality. I beg you to believe we do not act +in a spirit of disregarding merit. We expect to await your programme for +further changes and promotions in your army. My profoundest thanks to you +and your whole army for the present campaign so far. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL HALLECK. + +WASHINGTON CITY, July 27, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, Chief of Staff of the Army: + +GENERAL:--Lieutenant-General Grant having signified that, owing to the +difficulties and delay of communication between his headquarters and +Washington, it is necessary that in the present emergency military orders +must be issued directly from Washington, the President directs me to +instruct you that all the military operations for the defense of the +Middle Department, the Department of the Susquehanna, the Department of +Washington, and the Department of West Virginia, and all the forces in +those departments, are placed under your general command, and that you +will be expected to take all military measures necessary for defense +against any attack of the enemy and for his capture and destruction. +You will issue from time to time such orders to the commanders of the +respective departments and to the military authorities therein as may be +proper. + +Your obedient servant, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. WASHINGTON, July 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours in relation to General A. C. Gillam just received. Will look after +the matter to-day. + +I also received yours about General Carl Schurz. I appreciate him +certainly, as highly as you do; but you can never know until you have the +trial, how difficult it is to find a place for an officer of so high rank +when there is no place seeking him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 29, 1864. + +Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON. + +MADAM:--The plaid you send me is just now placed in my hands. I thank you +for that pretty and useful present, but still more for those good wishes +for myself and our country, which prompted you to present it. + +Your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +INDORSEMENT, AUGUST 3, 1864. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, August 2, 1864. + +MR. PRESIDENT:--This note will introduce to you Mr. Schley of Baltimore, +who desires to appeal to you for the revocation of an order of General +Hunter, removing some persons, citizens of Frederick, beyond his lines, +and imprisoning others. This Department has no information of the reasons +or proofs on which General Hunter acts, and I do not therefore feel +at liberty to suspend or interfere with his action except under your +direction. + +Yours truly, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + +[Indorsement.] + +August 3, 1864. + +The Secretary of War will suspend the order of General Hunter mentioned +within, until further order and direct him to send to the Department a +brief report of what is known against each one proposed to be dealt with. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U, S. GRANT. + +(Cipher.) + +WASHINGTON, D. C.. August 3, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch in which you say, "I want Sheridan put in +command of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put himself +south of the enemy, and follow him to the death. Wherever the enemy goes, +let our troops go also." + +This, I think, is exactly right as to how our forces should move; but +please look over the despatches you may have received from here, ever +since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is any +idea in the head of any one here of "putting our army south of the enemy," +or of following him to the "death," in any direction. I repeat to you, +it will neither be done nor attempted, unless you watch it every day and +hour, and force it. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + [Here the President was mistaken in thinking that Sherman, + Sheridan, and Grant had the same inability of most of his + previous general officers. No one needed to watch Grant or + Sherman or Sheridan, they only needed to get out of their + way. D.W.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 6, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +Yours to Major Hay about publication of our correspondence received. With +the suppression of a few passages in your letters in regard to which I +think you and I would not disagree, I should be glad of the publication. +Please come over and see me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 8, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I telegraphed you Saturday. Did you receive the despatch? Please answer. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DISLOYAL FAMILY MEMBER + +TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., August 8, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +Last December Mrs. Emily T. Helm, half-sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and widow +of the rebel general, Ben Hardin Helm, stopped here on her way from +Georgia to Kentucky, and I gave her a paper, as I remember, to protect her +against the mere fact of her being General Helm's widow. I hear a rumor +to-day that you recently sought to arrest her, but were prevented by her +presenting the paper from me. I do not intend to protect her against the +consequences of disloyal words or acts, spoken or done by her since her +return to Kentucky, and if the paper given her by me can be construed +to give her protection for such words and acts, it is hereby revoked pro +tanto. Deal with her for current conduct just as you would with any other. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., August 14, 1864. 1.30 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +The Secretary of War and I concur that you had better confer with General +Lee, and stipulate for a mutual discontinuance of house-burning and other +destruction of private property. The time and manner of conference and +particulars of stipulation we leave, on our part, to your convenience and +judgment. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 15,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta, Ga.: + +If the Government should purchase, on its own account, cotton northward of +you, and on the line of your communications, would it be an inconvenience +to you, or detriment to the military service, for it to come to the north +on the railroad? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH JOHN T. MILLS, + +AUGUST [15?], 1864. + + +"Mr. President," said Governor Randall, "why can't you seek seclusion, and +play hermit for a fortnight? It would reinvigorate you." + +"Ah," said the President, "two or three weeks would do me no good. I +cannot fly from my thoughts--my solicitude for this great country follows +me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or ambition, though +I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot but feel that the +weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in November. There is no +program offered by any wing of the Democratic party but that must result +in the permanent destruction of the Union." + +"But, Mr. President, General McClellan is in favor of crushing out this +rebellion by force. He will be the Chicago candidate." + +"Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that +the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It would +sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are now in +the service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty thousand +able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending and acquiring +Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that these forces be +disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by restoring them to +slavery. The black men who now assist Union prisoners to escape are to be +converted into our enemies, in the vain hope of gaining the good-will of +their masters. We shall have to fight two nations instead of one. + +"You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them ultimate +success; and the experience of the present war proves their success is +inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black men +into their side of the scale. Will you give our enemies such military +advantages as insure success, and then depend on coaxing, flattery, and +concession to get them back into the Union? Abandon all the posts now +garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty thousand men from our +side and put them in the battle-field or corn-field against us, and we +would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks. + +"We have to hold territory in inclement and sickly places; where are the +Democrats to do this? It was a free fight, and the field was open to the +war Democrats to put down this rebellion by fighting against both master +and slave, long before the present policy was inaugurated. + +"There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to slavery the +black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the +masters they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time +and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. +My enemies pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of +abolition. So long as I am President, it shall be carried on for the +sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this +rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy, and every other +policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the +rebellion. + +"Freedom has given us one hundred and fifty thousand men, raised on +Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has subtracted +from the enemy, and, instead of alienating the South, there are now +evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our men and the rank +and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies prove to the country that +the destruction of slavery is not necessary to a restoration of the Union. +I will abide the issue." + + + + +ENDORSEMENT OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT, AUGUST 15, 1864. + +I am always for the man who wishes to work; and I shall be glad for this +man to get suitable employment at Cavalry Depot, or elsewhere. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. J. RAYMOND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, August 15, 1864 + +HON. HENRY J. RAYMOND. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara +correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his letters +over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy which I herewith send. He +declines giving his consent to the publication of his letters unless these +parts be published with the rest. I have concluded that it is better for +me to submit, for the time, to the consequences of the false position +in which I consider he has placed me, than to subject the country to the +consequences of publishing these discouraging and injurious parts. I send +you this, and the accompanying copy, not for publication, but merely to +explain to you, and that you may preserve them until their proper time +shall come. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 17, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold +where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew +and choke as much as possible. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS, AUGUST 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the 28th of September, 1850, entitled "An +act to create additional collection districts in the State of California, +and to change the existing districts therein, and to modify the existing +collection districts in the United States," extends to merchandise +warehoused under bond the privilege of being exported to the British North +American provinces adjoining the United States, in the manner prescribed +in the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1845, which designates certain +frontier ports through which merchandise may be exported, and further +provides "that such other ports, situated on the frontiers of the United +States adjoining the British North American provinces, as may hereafter +be found expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges, on the +recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation duly +made by the President of the United States, specially designating the +ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be extended." + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of the +Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of Newport, in the +State of Vermont, is and shall be entitled to all the privileges in regard +to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the British North American +provinces adjoining the United States, which are extended to the ports +enumerated in the seventh section of the act of Congress of the 3d of +March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after the date of this proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this +eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States of +America, the eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, AUGUST 18, 1864. + +If General Hitchcock can effect a special exchange of Thomas D. Armesy, +now under conviction as a spy, or something of the sort, and in prison +at for Major Nathan Goff, made a prisoner of war, and now in prison at +Richmond, let it be done. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 164TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 18, 1864. + +SOLDIERS:--You are about to return to your homes and your friends, after +having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short term of duty +in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who +have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it might be more +generally and universally understood what the country is now engaged in. +We have, as all will agree, a free government, where every man has a right +to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of +government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies +succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by +every one. There is involved in this struggle, the question whether your +children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say +this, in order to impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, +that no small matter should divert us from our great purpose. + +There may be some inequalities in the practical application of our system. +It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion to the value +of his property; but if we should wait, before collecting a tax, to adjust +the taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other man, we +should never collect any tax at all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; +and things may be done wrong, while the officers of the Government do all +they can to prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great +Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we have +before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by +any small matter. When you return to your homes, rise up to the height of +a generation of men worthy of a free government, and we will carry out the +great work we have commenced. I return to you my sincere thanks, soldiers, +for the honor you have done me this afternoon. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August +20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Please allow Judge Snead to go to his family on Eastern Shore, or give me +some good reason why not. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 166TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 22, 1864. + +SOLDIERS--I suppose you are going home to see your families and friends. +For the services you have done in this great struggle in which we are +engaged, I present you sincere thanks for myself and the country. + +I almost always feel inclined, when I say anything to soldiers, to impress +upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success in this +contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all time to come, that +we should perpetuate for our children's children that great and free +government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg you to remember +this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen, temporarily, to +occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your +children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order +that each one of you may have, through this free government which we have +enjoyed, an open field, and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, +and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of +life with all its desirable human aspirations--it is for this that the +struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthrights--not +only for one, but for two or three years, if necessary. The nation is +worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 23, 1864. + +This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that +this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to +so co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the +election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on +such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, +1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Thanks to General Gillam for making the news and also to you for sending +it. Does Joe Heiskell's "walking to meet us" mean any more than that "Joe" +was scared and wanted to save his skin? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO B. H. BREWSTER. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August +30,1864. + +HON. B. H. BREWSTER, Astor House, New York: + +Your letter of yesterday received. Thank you for it. Please have no fears. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING COTTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 31, 1864. + +Any person or persons engaged in bringing out cotton, in strict conformity +with authority given by W. P. Fessenden, Secretary of the United States +Treasury, must not be hindered by the War, Navy, or any other Department +of the Government, or any person engaged under any of said Departments. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO COLONEL HUIDEKOPER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, SEPTEMBER 1, 1864 + +COLONEL H. C. HUIDEKOPER, Meadville, Penn. + +SIR: It is represented to me that there are at Rock Island, Illinois, as +rebel prisoners of war, many persons of Northern and foreign birth who are +unwilling to be exchanged and sent South, but who wish to take the oath +of allegiance and enter the military service of the Union. Colonel +Huidekoper, on behalf of the people of some parts of Pennsylvania, wishes +to pay the bounties the Government would have to pay to proper persons +of this class, have them enter the service of the United States, and be +credited to the localities furnishing the bounty money. He will therefore +proceed to Rock Island, ascertain the names of such persons (not +including any who have attractions Southward), and telegraph them to +the Provost-Marshal-General here, whereupon direction will be given to +discharge the persons named upon their taking the oath of allegiance; and +then upon the official evidence being furnished that they shall have been +duly received and mustered into the service of the United States, their +number will be credited as may be directed by Colonel Huidekoper. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, September 3, 1864. + +The signal success that Divine Providence has recently vouchsafed to the +operations of the United States fleet and army in the harbor of Mobile, +and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan, and the +glorious achievements of the army under Major-General Sherman, in the +State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of the city of Atlanta, call +for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being in whose hands are the +destinies of nations. It is therefore requested that on next Sunday, in +all places of worship in the United States, thanksgivings be offered to +Him for His mercy in preserve our national existence against the insurgent +rebels who have been waging a cruel war against the Government of the +United States for its overthrow, and also that prayer be made for Divine +protection to our brave soldiers and their leaders in the field who have +so often and so gallantly periled their lives in battling with the enemy, +and for blessings and comfort from the Father of mercies to the sick, +wounded, and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who have +fallen in the service of their country, and that He will continue to +uphold the Government of the United States against all the efforts of +public enemies and secret foes. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDERS OF GRATITUDE AND REJOICING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Admiral Farragut +and Major-General Canby, for the skill and harmony with which the recent +operations in Mobile Harbor and against Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort +Morgan were planned and carried into execution. Also to Admiral Farragut +and Major-General Granger, under whose immediate command they were +conducted, and to the gallant commanders on sea and land, and to the +sailors and soldiers engaged in the operations, for their energy and +courage, which, under the blessing of Providence, have been crowned with +brilliant success, and have won for them the applause and thanks of the +nation. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Major-General William +T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his command before +Atlanta, for the distinguished ability, courage, and perseverance +displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which under Divine power resulted +in the capture of the city of Atlanta. The marches, battles, sieges, and +other military operations that have signalized this campaign must +render it famous in the annals of war, and have entitled those who have +participated therein to the applause and thanks of the nation. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 3, 1864. + +Ordered: First, That on Monday, the fifth day of September, commencing +at the hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be given a salute of one +hundred guns at the arsenal and navy-yard, at Washington, and on Tuesday, +the 6th of September, or on the day after the receipt of this order, at +each arsenal and navy-yard in the United States, for the recent brilliant +achievements of the fleet and land forces of the United States in the +harbor of Mobile, and in the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and +Fort Morgan. The Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy will issue +the necessary directions in their respective departments for the execution +of this order. + +Second, That on Wednesday, the 7th of September, commencing at the hour of +twelve o'clock noon, there shall be fired a salute of one hundred guns +at the arsenal at Washington, and at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, +Baltimore, Pittsburg, Newport (Ky.), and St. Louis, and New Orleans, +Mobile, and Pensacola, Hilton Head, and Newbern, the day after the receipt +of this order, for the brilliant achievements of the army under command +of Major-General Sherman, in the State of Georgia, and for the capture of +Atlanta. The Secretary of War will issue directions for the execution of +this order. + + +A. LINCOLN, President Of the United States. + + + + +TO MRS. GURNEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 4, 1864. + +ELIZA P. GURNEY. + +MY ESTEEMED FRIEND:--I have not forgotten probably never shall forget the +very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on a Sabbath +forenoon two years ago--nor has your kind letter, written nearly a +year later, even been for gotten. In all, it has been your purpose to +strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the good Christian +people of the country for their constant prayer and consolations; and to +no one of them, more than to yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are +perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately +perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this +terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled +otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom, and our own error therein. +Mean while we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting +that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He +intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal +could make, and no mortal could stay. + +Your people--the Friends--have had, and are having, a very great trial. +On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can +only practically oppose oppression by war. For those appealing to me on +conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and +can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this +I doubt not, and believing it, I shall still receive, for our country and +myself your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. + +Your sincere friend, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF COLORED PEOPLE FROM BALTIMORE + +WHO PRESENTED HIM WITH A BIBLE, + +SEPTEMBER 7, 1864. + +I can only say now, as I have often said before, it has always been a +sentiment with me, that all mankind should be free. So far as I have been +able, so far as came within my sphere, I have always acted as I believed +was just and right, and done all I could for the good of mankind. I have, +in letters sent forth from this office, expressed myself better than I can +now. + +In regard to the great Book, I have only to say it is the best gift which +God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is +communicated to us through this book. But for that Book, we could not know +right from wrong. All those things desirable to man are contained in it. I +return you sincere thanks for this very elegant copy of this great Book of +God which you present. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PICKERING. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 8, 1864: + +GOVERNOR PICKERING, Olympia, W. T.: + +Your patriotic despatch of yesterday received and will be published. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER OF THANKS TO HUNDRED-DAY TROOPS FROM OHIO. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, September 10, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which the National Guard of Ohio +volunteered having expired, the President directs an official +acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic and valuable services during +the recent campaigns. The term of service of their enlistment was short, +but distinguished by memorable events. In the Valley of the Shenandoah, on +the Peninsula, in the operations on the James River, around Petersburg +and Richmond, in the battle of Monocacy, and in the intrenchments of +Washington, and in other important service, the National Guard of Ohio +performed with alacrity the duty of patriotic volunteers, for which they +are entitled to and are hereby tendered, through the Governor of their +State, the national thanks. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 12, 1864. + + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Sheridan and Early are facing each other at a dead-lock. Could we not pick +up a regiment here and there, to the number of say ten thousand men, and +quietly but suddenly concentrate them at Sheridan's camp and enable him to +make a strike? + +This is but a suggestion. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JAMES G. BLAINE. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September +13, 1864. + +HON. J. G. BLAINE, Augusta, Me.: On behalf of the Union, thanks to Maine. +Thanks to you personally for sending the news. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--Send same to L. B. Smith and M. A. Blanchard, Portland, Me. A. L. + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September +13, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint Louis: + +Postpone the execution of S. H. Anderson for two weeks. Hear what his +friends can say in mitigation and report to me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: Please send the above telegram. + +JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SLOUGH. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 16, 1864. + +GENERAL SLOUGH, Alexandria, Va.: + +On the 14th I commuted the sentence of Conley, but fearing you may not +have received notice I send this. Do not execute him. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. WASHINGTON, D. C., September 17,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +I feel great interest in the subjects of your despatch mentioning corn and +sorghum, and the contemplated visit to you. + + +A. LINCOLN, President of the United States. + + + + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 19, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN: + +The State election of Indiana occurs on the 11th of October, and the loss +of it to the friends of the Government would go far towards losing +the whole Union cause. The bad effect upon the November election, and +especially the giving the State government to those who will oppose the +war in every possible way, are too much to risk if it can be avoided. The +draft proceeds, notwithstanding its strong tendency to lose us the State. +Indiana is the only important State voting in October whose soldiers +cannot vote in the field. Anything you can safely do to let her soldiers +or any part of them go home and vote at the State election will be greatly +in point. They need not remain for the Presidential election, but may +return to you at once. This is in no sense an order, but is merely +intended to impress you with the importance to the Army itself of your +doing all you safely can, yourself being the judge of what you can safely +do. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, SEPTEMBER 1864. + +The writer of this, who appeals for his brother, is our minister to +Ecuador, and whom, if at all compatible, I would like to have obliged by a +special exchange of his brother. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. SHERIDAN. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September +20, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN, Winchester, Va.: + +Have just heard of your great victory. God bless you all, officers and +men. Strongly inclined to come up and See you. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HITCHCOCK, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 21, 1864. + +GENERAL HITCHCOCK: + +Please see the bearer, Mr. Broadwell, on a question about a mutual +supplying of clothes to prisoners. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 22, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I send this as an explanation to you, and to do justice to the Secretary +of War. I was induced, upon pressing application, to authorize the agents +of one of the districts of Pennsylvania to recruit in one of the prison +depots in Illinois; and the thing went so far before it came to the +knowledge of the Secretary that, in my judgment, it could not be abandoned +without greater evil than would follow its going through. I did not know +at the time that you had protested against that class of thing being done; +and I now say that while this particular job must be completed, no other +of the sort will be authorized, without an understanding with you, if at +all. The Secretary of War is wholly free of any part in this blunder. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 23, 1864. + + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--You have generously said to me, more than once, that +whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. +The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from no +dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. Your uniform +kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any other friend, and while it +is true that the war does not so greatly add to the difficulties of your +department as to those of some others, it is yet much to say, as I most +truly can, that in the three years and a half during which you have +administered the General Post-Office, I remember no single complaint +against you in connection therewith. + +Yours, as ever, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS IN INSURRECTIONARY STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 24, 1864. + +I. Congress having authorized the purchase for the United States of the +products of States declared in insurrection, and the Secretary of the +Treasury having designated New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Pensacola, +Port Royal, Beaufort (North Carolina), and Norfolk, as places of purchase, +and, with my approval, appointed agents and made regulations under which +said products may be purchased, therefore: + +II. All persons except such as may be in the civil, military, or naval +service of the government, having in their possession any products of +States or parts of States declared in insurrection, which said agents +are authorized to purchase; and all persons owning or controlling such +products therein are authorized to convey such products to either of the +places which have been hereby or may hereafter be designated as places of +purchase, and such products so destined shall not be liable to +detention, seizure, or forfeiture while in transitu, or in store waiting +transportation. + +III. Any person having the certificate of a purchasing agent, as +prescribed by Treasury Regulation VIII, is authorized to pass with the +necessary means of transportation to the points named in said certificate, +and to return therefrom with the products required for the fulfilment of +the stipulations set forth in said certificate. + +IV. Any person having sold and delivered to a purchasing agent any +products of an insurrectionary State in accordance with the regulations in +relation thereto, and having in his possession a certificate setting +forth the fact of such purchase and sale; the character and quantity +of products, and the aggregate amount paid therefor, as prescribed by +Regulation I, shall be permitted by the military authority commanding at +the place of sale to purchase from any authorized dealer at such place +merchandise and other articles not contraband of war nor prohibited by +order of the War Department, nor coin, bullion, or foreign exchange, to +an amount not exceeding in value one-third of the aggregate value of +the products sold by him as certified by the agents purchasing, and the +merchandise and other articles so purchased may be transported by the +same route, and to the same place, from and by which the products sold and +delivered reached the purchasing agent, as set forth in the certificate, +and such merchandise and other articles shall have safe conduct, and +shall not be subject to detention, seizure, or forfeiture while being +transported to the places and by the routes set forth in the said +certificate. + +V. Generals commanding military districts, and commandants of military +posts and detachments, and officers commanding fleets, flotillas, and +gunboats, will give safe conduct to persons and products, merchandise, and +other articles duly authorized as aforesaid, and not contraband of war, +or prohibited by order of the War Department, or of the order of such +generals commanding, or other duly authorized military or naval officer, +made in pursuance hereof, and all persons hindering or preventing such +safe conduct of persons or property will, be deemed guilty of a military +offense and punished accordingly. + +VI. Any person transporting or attempting to transport any merchandise or +other articles except in pursuance of regulations of the Secretary of +the Treasury, dated July 29, 1864, or in pursuance of this order, or +transporting or attempting to transport any merchandise or other articles +contraband of war or forbidden by any order of the War Department, will +be deemed guilty of a military offense and punished accordingly; and all +products of insurrectionary States found in transitu to any other person +or than a purchasing agent and a designated of purchase shall be seized +and forfeited to the States, except such as may be moving to a loyal +state under duly authorized permits of a proper officer of the Treasury +Department, as prescribed by Regulation XXXVIII, concerning commercial +intercourse, dated July 29, 1864, or such as may have been found +abandoned, or have been captured and are moving in pursuance of the act of +March 12, 1864. + +VII. No military or naval officer of the United States, or person in +the military or naval service, nor any civil officer, except such as +are appointed for that purpose, shall engage in trade or traffic in the +products of the insurrectionary States, or furnish transportation therefor +under pain of being deemed guilty of unlawful trading with the enemy and +punished accordingly. + +VIII. The Secretary of War will make such general orders or regulations as +will insure the proper observance and execution of,, this order, and +the Secretary of the Navy will give instructions to officers commanding +fleets, flotillas, and gunboats in conformity therewith. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. WASHINGTON, D. C., September 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +You say Jefferson Davis is on a visit to Hood. I judge that Brown and +Stephens are the objects of his visit. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I hope it will have no constraint on you, nor do harm any way, for me to +say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends reinforcements to Early, and thus +enables him to turn upon Sheridan. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT. + +September 29, 1864. + +I think the bearer of this, Second Lieutenant Albee, deserves a hearing. +Will the Secretary of War please accord it to him? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER RETURNING THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS FOR ONE HUNDRED DAYS + +FROM THE STATES OF INDIANA, ILLINOIS, IOWA, AND WISCONSIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, October 1, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which volunteers from the States of +Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin volunteered, under the call of +their respective governors, in the months of May and June, to aid in the +campaign of General Sherman, having expired; the President directs an +official acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic service. It was +their good fortune to render efficient service in the brilliant operations +in the Southwest and to contribute to the victories of the national arms +over the rebel forces in Georgia under command of Johnston and Hood. On +all occasions and in every service to which they were assigned their duty +as patriotic volunteers was performed with alacrity and courage, for which +they are entitled to and are hereby tendered the national thanks through +the governors of their respective States. + +The Secretary of War is directed to transmit a copy of this order to +the governors of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin and to cause a +certificate of their honorable service to be delivered to the officers +and soldiers of the States above named who recently served in the military +force of the United States as volunteers for one hundred days. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 5, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I inclose you a copy of a correspondence in regard to a contemplated +exchange of naval prisoners through your lines, and not very distant from +your headquarters. It only came to the knowledge of the War Department and +of myself yesterday, and it gives us some uneasiness. I therefore send it +to you with the statement that, as the numbers to be exchanged under it +are small, and so much has already been done to effect the exchange, I +hope you may find it consistent to let it go forward under the general +supervision of General Butler, and particularly in reference to the points +he holds vital in exchanges. Still, you are at liberty to arrest the whole +operation if in your judgment the public good requires it. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A MEMORANDUM BY GENERAL McDOWELL, OCTOBER 7, 1864 + +I well remember the meetings herein narrated. See nothing for me to object +to in the narrative as being made by General McDowell, except the phrase +attributed to me "of the Jacobinism of Congress", + + [This memorandum describes the private discussions that + preceded the transfer of McClellan's army from the Potomac, + where it had confronted the Confederates at Manassas. See H. + J. Raymond: Life of Lincoln, p. 772] + +which phrase I do not remember using literally or in substance, and which +I wish not to be published in any event. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. W. HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, October 10, 1864. + +HON. HENRY W. HOFFMAN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution for +the State; a public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore to aid +in securing its ratification by the people, and you ask a word from me +for the occasion. I presume the only feature of the instrument about which +there is serious controversy is that which provides for the extinction of +slavery. It needs not to be a secret and I presume it is no secret, that I +wish success to this provision. I desire it on every consideration. I wish +all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free, +which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring. I wish to see in +process of disappearing that only thing which ever could bring this nation +to civil war. I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is already +exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more immediately interested +sons of Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly +if the good people of the State shall, by their votes, ratify the new +constitution. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 10, 1864, 5 P.M. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: + +Yours of to-day just this moment received, and the Secretary having left +it is impossible for me to answer to-day. I have not received your letter +from Erie. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Cambridge, Mass.: + +Your letter makes us a little uneasy about your health. Telegraph us how +you are. If you think it would help you, make us a visit. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 12, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours about election. Pennsylvania +very close, and still in doubt on home vote. Ohio largely for us, with +all the members of Congress but two or three. Indiana largely for +us,--Governor, it is said, by fifteen thousand, and eight of the eleven +members of Congress. Send us what you may know of your army vote. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +OCTOBER 19, 1864. + + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am notified that this is a compliment paid +me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer that the +adoption of the new constitution for the State furnishes the occasion, and +that in your view the extirpation of slavery constitutes the chief +merit of the new constitution. Most heartily do I congratulate you, and +Maryland, and the nation, and the world, upon this event. I regret that +it did not occur two years sooner, which, I am sure, would have saved the +nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to +the measure; but it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends +may fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its +opponents may by its effects be agreeably and profitably disappointed. + +A word upon another subject. Something said by the Secretary of State in +his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat, +that if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between then and +the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin the +Government. + +Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine +die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as +the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall be elected he +will at once seize control of the Government. I hope the good people will +permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling +to maintain the Government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling +especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say, that +if I live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that +whoever shall be constitutionally elected, in November, shall be duly +installed as President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do +my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall +start with the best possible chance of saving the ship. This is due to +the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their will, +constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If they should +deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the loss of their +country and their liberties, I know not the power or the right to resist +them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their +own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country +and their liberties; and in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to +stand by them. I may add, that in this purpose to save the country and its +liberties, no classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers +in the field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? +Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen, +with all their brave commanders. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 20, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, +defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from +abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over +the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly +Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in +their camps, and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual health. +He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by +immigration, while he has opened to us new: sources of wealth, and has +crowned the labor of our working-men in every department of industry with +abundant rewards. Moreover, he has been pleased to animate and inspire our +minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient +for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our +adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford +to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our +dangers and afflictions. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day +which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they +may be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the +beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend +to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently +humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and +fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for +a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony +throughout the, land which it has pleased him to assign as a +dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all +generations. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of October, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the +independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM To J. G. NICOLAY. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 21, 1864. 9.45 P.M. + +J. G. NICOLAY, Saint Louis, Missouri: + +While Curtis is fighting Price, have you any idea where the force under +Rosecrans is, or what it is doing? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 22, 1864. + + +MESSRS WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL, THOMAS A. R. NELSON, JAMES T. P. CARTER, JOHN +WILLIAMS, A. BLIZZARD, HENRY COOPER, BAILLIE PEYTON, JOHN LELLYET, EMERSON +ETHERIDGE, and JOHN D. PERRYMAN. + +GENTLEMEN:--On the 15th day of this month, as I remember, a printed paper +manuscript, with a few manuscript interlineations, called a protest, with +your names appended thereto, and accompanied by another printed paper, +purporting to be a proclamation by Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of +Tennessee, and also a manuscript paper, purporting to be extracts from the +Code of Tennessee, were laid before me. + +The protest, proclamation, and extracts are respectively as follows: + +[The protest is here recited, and also the proclamation of Governor +Johnson, dated September 30, to which it refers, together with a list of +the counties in East, Middle, and West Tennessee; also extracts from the +Code of Tennessee in relation to electors of President and Vice-President, +qualifications of voters for members of the General Assembly, places of +holding elections, and officers of popular elections.] + +At the time these papers were presented, as before stated, I had never +seen either of them, nor heard of the subject to which they related, +except in a general way one day previously. + +Up to the present moment, nothing whatever upon the subject has +passed between Governor Johnson, or any one else, connected with the +proclamation, and myself. + +Since receiving the papers, as stated, I have given the subject such brief +consideration as I have been able to do, in the midst of so many pressing +public duties. + +My conclusion is, that I can have nothing to do with the matter, either to +sustain the plan as the convention and Governor Johnson have initiated it, +or to revoke or modify it as you demand. + +By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty in +the presidential election in any State, nor do I in this case perceive any +military reason for his interference in the matter. + +The movement set on foot by the convention and Governor Johnson does not, +as seems to be assumed by you, emanate from the National Executive. + +In no proper sense can it be considered other than an independent movement +of, at least, a portion of the loyal people of Tennessee. + +I do not perceive in the plan any menace, or violence, or coercion towards +any one. + +Governor Johnson, like any other loyal citizen of Tennessee, has the right +to favor any political plan he chooses, and, as military governor, it is +his duty to keep peace among and for the loyal people of the State. + +I cannot discern that by this plan he purposes any more. But you object to +the plan. + +Leaving it alone will be your perfect security against it. It is not +proposed to force you into it. Do as you please, on your own account, +peaceably and loyally, and Governor Johnson will not molest you, but will +protect you against violence as far as in his power. + +I presume that the conducting of a presidential election in Tennessee +in strict accordance with the old Code of the State, is not now a +possibility. + +It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any election shall be held +and any votes shall be cast in the State of Tennessee for President and +Vice-President of the United States, it will belong, not to the military +agents, nor yet to the Executive Department, but exclusively to another +department of the Government, to determine whether they are entitled to be +counted in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States. + +Except it be to give protection against violence, I decline to interfere +in any way with any presidential election. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October +22, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN: + +With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of +the nation, and my own personal admiration and gratitude, for the month's +operations in the Shenandoah Valley; and especially for the splendid work +of October 19, 1864. + +Your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 23, 1864 5 +P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +I have received information to-day, having great appearance of +authenticity, that there is to be a rebel raid into Western Kentucky; that +it is to consist of four thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, and +is to start from Corinth, Mississippi, On the fourth day of November. + + +A. LINCOLN, President. + +Send copy to General Washburn at Memphis. A. L. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. T. DAVIS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, +1864. + +HON. THOMAS T. DAVIS, Syracuse, N.Y.: + +I have ordered that Milton D. Norton be discharged on taking the oath. +Please notify his mother. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ADMITTING NEVADA INTO THE UNION + +OCTOBER 31, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas the Congress of the United States passed an act, which was +approved on the 21st day of March last, entitled "An act to enable the +people of Nevada to form a constitution and State government, and for +the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the +original States;" and, + +Whereas the said constitution and State government have been formed, +pursuant to the conditions prescribed by the fifth section of the act of +Congress aforesaid, and the certificate required by the said act and +also a copy of the constitution and ordinances have been submitted to the +President of the United States: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act of +Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said State of +Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original +States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the +United States to be affixed.......... + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURBRIDGE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 4, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky. + +Suspend execution of all the deserters ordered to be executed on Sunday +at Louisville, until further order, and send me the records in the cases. +Acknowledge receipt. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO NAVAL OFFICER AT MOBILE BAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. 9 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL CANBY, New Orleans, La.: + +Please forward with all possible despatch to the naval officer commanding +at Mobile Bay the following order. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +(Inclosure.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. + +NAVAL OFFICER IN COMMAND AT MOBILE BAY + +Do not on any account, or on any showing of authority whatever, from +whomsoever purporting to come, allow the blockade to be violated. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SAILORS' FAIR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 8, 1864. + +TO THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SAILORS' FAIR, Boston, Massachusetts + +Allow me to wish you a great success. With the old fame of the Navy made +brighter in the present war you cannot fail. I name none lest I wrong +others by omission. To all, from rear-admiral to honest Jack, I tender the +nation's admiration and gratitude. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. H. RICE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. A. H. RICE, Boston, Massachusetts: + +Yours received. I have no other notice that the ox is mine. If it be +really so, I present it to the Sailors' Fair as a contribution. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Auburn, New York: + +News from Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Rosecrans satisfactory, but not +important. Pirate Florida captured by the Wachusett October 7, on the +coast of Brazil. The information is certain. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, NOVEMBER 9, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Even before I had been informed by you that +this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, friendly +to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my countrymen who +think that the best interests of the nation are to be subserved by the +support of the present administration. I do not pretend to say that you, +who think so, embrace all the patriotism and loyalty of the country, but I +do believe, and I trust without personal interest, that the welfare of the +country does require that such support and indorsement should be given. + +I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work, if it be as +you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advantage, +if not to the very salvation, of the country. I cannot at this hour say +what has been the result of the election. But, whatever it may be, I have +no desire to modify this opinion: that all who have labored to-day in +behalf of the Union have wrought for the best interests of the country and +the world; not only for the present, but for all future ages. + +I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply +grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my +gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the +motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph +over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of +the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of +humanity. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. W. HOFFMAN. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. November 10, +1864. + +H. HOFFMAN, Baltimore, Md.: + +The Maryland soldiers in the Army of the Potomac cast a total vote of +fourteen hundred and twenty-eight, out of which we get eleven hundred and +sixty majority. This is directly from General Meade and General Grant. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, NOVEMBER 10, 1864. + +It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong +for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its +existence in great emergencies. On this point the present rebellion +brought our government to a severe test, and a presidential election +occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to +the strain. + +If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their strength by the +rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially paralyzed by +a political war among themselves? But the election was a necessity. We +cannot have free government without elections; and if the election could +force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim +to have already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the election is +but human nature practically applied to the facts of the case. What has +occurred in this case must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will +not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of +this, we will have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and +as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy to +learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. + +But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has +done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain +a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has +not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also, +how sound and strong we still are. It shows that even among the candidates +of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union and most opposed +to treason can receive most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to +the extent yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war +began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are +better than gold. + +But the rebellion continues, and, now that the election is over, may +not all have a common interest to reunite in a common effort to save our +common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid +placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not +willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am duly sensible to +the high compliment of a re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to +Almighty God, for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as +I think, for their good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other +man may be disappointed by the result. + +May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this +same spirit towards those who have? And now, let me close by asking three +hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their gallant and +skillful commanders. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +I have just received a telegram from Governor Bramlette saying: "General +John B. Houston, a loyal man and prominent citizen, was arrested, and +yesterday, started off by General Burbridge, to be sent beyond our lines +by way of Catlettsburg, for no other offense than opposition to your +re-election," and I have answered him as follows below, of which please +take notice and report to me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of yesterday received. I can scarcely believe that General John +B. Houston has been arrested "for no other offense than opposition to my +re-election;" for, if that had been deemed sufficient cause of arrest, I +should have heard of more than one arrest in Kentucky on election day. +If, however, General Houston has been arrested for no other cause than +opposition to my re-election, General Burbridge will discharge him at +once, I sending him a copy of this as an order to that effect. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT. + +(Private.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT: + +Few things since I have been here have impressed me more painfully +than what, for four or five months past, has appeared a bitter military +opposition to the new State government of Louisiana. I still indulged some +hope that I was mistaken in the fact; but copies of a correspondence +on the subject between General Canby and yourself, and shown me to-day, +dispel that hope. A very fair proportion of the people of Louisiana +have inaugurated a new State government, making an excellent new +constitution--better for the poor black man than we have in Illinois. This +was done under military protection, directed by me, in the belief, still +sincerely entertained, that with such a nucleus around which to build we +could get the State into position again sooner than otherwise. In this +belief a general promise of protection and support, applicable alike to +Louisiana and other States, was given in the last annual message. During +the formation of the new government and constitution they were supported +by nearly every loyal person, and opposed by every secessionist. And +this support and this opposition, from the respective standpoints of the +parties, was perfectly consistent and logical. Every Unionist ought to +wish the new government to succeed; and every disunionist must desire it +to fail. Its failure would gladden the heart of Slidell in Europe, and +of every enemy of the old flag in the world. Every advocate of slavery +naturally desires to see blasted and crushed the liberty promised the +black man by the new constitution. But why General Canby and General +Hurlbut should join on the same side is to me incomprehensible. + +Of course, in the condition of things at New Orleans, the military must +not be thwarted by the civil authority; but when the Constitutional +Convention, for what it deems a breach of privilege, arrests an editor in +no way connected with the military, the military necessity for insulting +the convention and forcibly discharging the editor is difficult to +perceive. Neither is the military necessity for protecting the people +against paying large salaries fixed by a legislature of their own choosing +very apparent. Equally difficult to perceive is the military necessity for +forcibly interposing to prevent a bank from loaning its own money to the +State. These things, if they have occurred, are, at the best, no better +than gratuitous hostility. I wish I could hope that they may be shown not +to have occurred. To make assurance against misunderstanding, I repeat +that in the existing condition of things in Louisiana, the military +must not be thwarted by the civil authority; and I add that on points of +difference the commanding general must be judge and master. But I also add +that in the exercise of this judgment and control, a purpose, obvious, and +scarcely unavowed, to transcend all military necessity, in order to crush +out the civil government, will not be overlooked. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO MARYLAND UNION COMMITTEE, NOVEMBER 17, 1864. + +The President, in reply, said that he had to confess he had been duly +notified of the intention to make this friendly call some days ago, and in +this he had had a fair opportunity afforded to be ready with a set speech; +but he had not prepared one, being too busy for that purpose. He would +say, however, that he was gratified with the result of the presidential +election. He had kept as near as he could to the exercise of his best +judgment for the interest of the whole country, and to have the seal of +approbation stamped on the course he had pursued was exceedingly grateful +to his feelings. He thought he could say, in as large a sense as any other +man, that his pleasure consisted in belief that the policy he had pursued +was the best, if not the only one, for the safety of the country. + +He had said before, and now repeated, that he indulged in no feeling of +triumph over any man who thought or acted differently from himself. He +had no such feeling toward any living man. When he thought of Maryland, in +particular, he was of the opinion that she had more than double her share +in what had occurred in the recent elections. The adoption of a free-State +constitution was a greater thing than the part taken by the people of the +State in the presidential election. He would any day have stipulated to +lose Maryland in the presidential election to save it by the adoption of +a free-State constitution, because the presidential election comes every +four years, while that is a thing which, being done, cannot be undone. He +therefore thought that in that they had a victory for the right worth a +great deal more than their part in the presidential election, though +of the latter he thought highly. He had once before said, but would say +again, that those who have differed with us and opposed us will see that +the result of the presidential election is better for their own good than +if they had been successful. + +Thanking the committee for their compliment, he brought his brief speech +to a close. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, NOVEMBER 19, 1864 + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, it was declared +that the ports of certain States, including those of Norfolk, in the State +of Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, in the State of Florida, were, for +reasons therein set forth, intended to be placed under blockade; and: + +Whereas the said ports were subsequently blockaded accordingly, but having +for some time past been in the military possession of the United States, +it is deeemd advisable that they should be opened to domestic and foreign +commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section +of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An +act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for +other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said ports of +Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola shall so far cease and determine, from +and after the first day of December next, that commercial intercourse with +those ports, except as to persons, things, and information contraband of +war, may, from that time, be carried on, subject to the laws of the United +States, to the limitations and in pursuance of the regulations which may +be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and to such military +and naval regulations as are now in force, or may hereafter be found +necessary. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this +nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the +eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +FIVE-STAR MOTHER + +TO MRS. BIXBY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864. + +MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts. + +DEAR MADAM:--I have been shown in the files of the War Department a +statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother +of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel +how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to +beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain +from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks +of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may +assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished +memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to +have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. + +Yours very sincerely and respectfully, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. PHILLIPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864. + +DEACON JOHN PHILLIPS. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, in +which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of writing +to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment paid me by the +suffrage of a citizen so venerable. + +The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have +already been extended an average lifetime beyond the Psalmist's limit, +cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself only, but for +the country which you have in your sphere served so long and so well, that +I thank you. + +Your friend and servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. WASHINGTON, D. C. NOVEMBER 22, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of to-day received. It seems that Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs and +Colonel Wolford are stationary now. General Sudarth and Mr. Hodges are +here, and the Secretary of War and myself are trying to devise means of +pacification and harmony for Kentucky, which we hope to effect soon, now +that the passion-exciting subject of the election is past. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 25, 1864 + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; + +I have no knowledge, information, or belief, that three States--or any +States, offer to resume allegiance. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. +26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS: + +Please telegraph me briefly on what charge and evidence Mrs. Anna B. +Martin has been sent to the penitentiary at Alton. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM, + +DECEMBER 3, 1864. + +On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee came before the +President, asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of war +at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they came again, +and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews one of +the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man, and on Saturday the +President ordered the release of the prisoners, when he said to this lady: +"You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that +I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the +religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their own government, +because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some +men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort +of religion upon which people can get to heaven." + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE STEAMER "FUNAYMA SOLACE." + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 3, 1864. + +A war steamer, called the Funayma Solace, having been built in this +country, for the Japanese government and at the instance of that +government, it is deemed to comport with the public interest, in view of +the unsettled condition of the relations of the United States with that +Empire, that the steamer should not be allowed to proceed to Japan. If, +however, the Secretary of the Navy should ascertain that the steamer is +adapted to our service, he is authorized to purchase her, but the purchase +money will be held in trust toward satisfying any valid claims which may +be presented by the Japanese on account of the construction of the steamer +and the failure to deliver the same, as above set forth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864 + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend that +Captain John A. Winslow, United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks from +Congress for the skill and gallantry exhibited by him in the brilliant +action whilst in command of the United States steamer Keaysarge, which led +to the total destruction of the piratical craft Alabama, on the 19th of +June, 1864., a vessel superior in tonnage, superior in number of guns, and +superior in number of crew. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in the +following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade, if, upon recommendation by the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with the +enemy, or far extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Lieutenant William B. Gushing, United States Navy, receive a vote of +thanks from Congress for his important, gallant, and perilous achievement +in destroying the rebel ironclad steamer Albemarle on the night of the +27th of October, 1864., at Plymouth, N. C. + +The destruction of so formidable a vessel, which had resisted the +continued attacks of a number of our vessels on former occasions, is an +important event touching our future naval and military operations, and +would reflect honor on any officer, and redounds to the credit of this +young officer and the few brave comrades who assisted in this successful +and daring undertaking. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the Aforesaid act, which is in the +following words, namely: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with the +enemy, or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +Again the blessings of health and abundant harvests claim our profoundest +gratitude to Almighty God. + +The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably satisfactory. + +Mexico continues to be a theater of civil war. While our political +relations with that country have undergone no change, we have at the same +time strictly maintained neutrality between the belligerents. + +At the request of the States of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a competent +engineer has been authorized to make a survey of the river San Juan +and the port of San Juan. It is a source of much satisfaction that the +difficulties which for a moment excited some political apprehensions and +caused a closing of the interoceanic transit route have been amicably +adjusted, and that there is a good prospect that the route will soon +be reopened with an increase of capacity and adaptation. We could not +exaggerate either the commercial or the political importance of that great +improvement. + +It would be doing injustice to an important South American State not +to acknowledge the directness, frankness, and cordiality with which the +United States of Colombia have entered into intimate relations with this +government. A claims convention has been constituted to complete the +unfinished work of the one which closed its session in 1861. + +The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having gone into effect with +the universal acquiescence of the people, the government under it has been +recognized and diplomatic intercourse with it has opened in a cordial +and friendly spirit. The long-deferred Aves Island claim has been +satisfactorily paid and discharged. + +Mutual payments have been made of the claims awarded by the late joint +commission for the settlement of claims between the United States and +Peru. An earnest and cordial friendship continues to exist between the two +countries, and such efforts as were in my power have been used to remove +misunderstanding, and avert a threatened war between Peru and Spain. + +Our relations are of the most friendly nature with Chile, the Argentine +Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salvador, and Haiti. + +During the past year no differences of any kind have arisen with any of +these republics, and on the other hand, their sympathies with the United +States are constantly expressed with cordiality and earnestness. + +The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo of the brig Macedonian in +1821 has been paid in full by the Government of Chile. + +Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San Domingo, apparently without +prospect of an early close. + +Official correspondence has been freely opened with Liberia, and it gives +us a pleasing view of social and political progress in that republic. It +may be expected to derive new vigor from American influence improved by +the rapid disappearance of slavery in the United States. + +I solicit your authority to furnish to the republic a gunboat, at moderate +cost, to be reimbursed to the United States by instalments. Such a vessel +is needed for the safety of that state against the native African races, +and in Liberian hands it would be more effective in arresting the African +slave-trade than a squadron in our own hands. The possession of the least +organized naval force would stimulate a generous ambition in the republic, +and the confidence which we should manifest by furnishing it would win +forbearance and favor toward the colony from all civilized nations. + +The proposed overland telegraph between America and Europe, by the way of +Bering Straits and Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by Congress at the +last session, has been undertaken, under very favorable circumstances, +by an association of American citizens, with the cordial good-will and +support as well of this Government as of those of Great Britain and +Russia. Assurances have been received from most of the South American +States of their high appreciation of the enterprise and their readiness +to co-operate in constructing lines tributary to that world-encircling +communication. I learn with much satisfaction that the noble design of a +telegraphic communication between the eastern coast of America and +Great Britain has been renewed, with full expectation of its early +accomplishment. + +Thus it is hoped that with the return of domestic peace the country will +be able to resume with energy and advantage its former high career of +commerce and civilization. + +Our very popular and estimable representative in Egypt died in April last. +An unpleasant altercation which arose between the temporary incumbent of +the office and the Government of the Pasha resulted in a suspension +of intercourse. The evil was promptly corrected on the arrival of the +successor in the consulate, and our relations with Egypt, as well as our +relations with the Barbary Powers, are entirely satisfactory. + +The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in China has at last been +suppressed, with the co-operating good offices of this Government and of +the other Western commercial States. The judicial consular establishment +there has become very difficult and onerous, and it will need legislative +revision to adapt it to the extension of our commerce and to the more +intimate intercourse which has been instituted with the Government and +people of that vast Empire. China seems to be accepting with hearty +good-will the conventional laws which regulate commercial and social +intercourse among the Western nations. + +Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan and the anomalous form of its +Government, the action of that empire in performing treaty stipulations is +inconstant and capricious. Nevertheless, good progress has been effected +by the Western powers, moving with enlightened concert. Our own pecuniary +claims have been allowed or put in course of settlement, and the inland +sea has been reopened to commerce. There is reason also to believe that +these proceedings have increased rather than diminished the friendship of +Japan toward the United States. + +The ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola have been opened by +proclamation. It is hoped that foreign merchants will now consider whether +it is not safer and more profitable to themselves, as well as just to +the United States, to resort to these and other open ports than it is to +pursue, through many hazards and at vast cost, a contraband trade with +other ports which are closed, if not by actual military occupation, at +least by a lawful and effective blockade. + +For myself, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive, under +the law of nations, to exclude enemies of the human race from an asylum in +the United States. If Congress should think that proceedings in such +cases lack the authority of law, or ought to be further regulated by it, I +recommend that provision be made for effectually preventing foreign +slave traders from acquiring domicile and facilities for their criminal +occupation in our country. + +It is possible that if it were a new and open question the maritime +powers, with the lights they now enjoy, would not concede the privileges +of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the United States, destitute, +as they are, and always have been, equally of ships of war and of ports +and harbors. Disloyal emissaries have been neither assiduous nor more +successful during the last year than they were before that time in their +efforts, under favor of that privilege, to embroil our country in foreign +wars. The desire and determination of the governments of the maritime +states to defeat that design are believed to be as sincere as and can +not be more earnest than our own. Nevertheless, unforeseen political +difficulties have arisen, especially in Brazilian and British ports and on +the northern boundary of the United States, which have required, and are +likely to continue to require, the practice of constant vigilance and a +just and conciliatory spirit on the part of the United States, as well as +of the nations concerned and their governments. + +Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great Britain +on the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound +Agricultural Companies, in Oregon, and are now proceeding to the execution +of the trust assigned to them. + +In view of the insecurity of life and property in the region adjacent +to the Canadian border, by reason of recent assaults and depredations +committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, it +has been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration of six +months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing arrangement +with Great Britain, the United States must hold themselves at liberty +to increase their naval armament upon the Lakes if they shall find that +proceeding necessary. The condition of the border will necessarily come +into consideration in connection with the question of continuing or +modifying the rights of transit from Canada through the United States, as +well as the regulation of imposts, which were temporarily established by +the reciprocity treaty of the 5th June, 1854. + +I desire, however, to be understood while making this statement that the +colonial authorities of Canada are not deemed to be intentionally unjust +or unfriendly toward the United States, but, on the contrary, there is +every reason to expect that, with the approval of the Imperial Government, +they will take the necessary measures to prevent new incursions across the +border. + +The act passed at the last session for the encouragement of immigration +has so far as was possible been put into operation. It seems to need +amendment which will enable the officers of the Government to prevent the +practice of frauds against the immigrants while on their way and on +their arrival in the ports, so as to secure them here a free choice of +avocations and places of settlement. A liberal disposition toward this +great national policy is manifested by most of the European States, and +ought to be reciprocated on our part by giving the immigrants effective +national protection. I regard our immigrants as one of the principal +replenishing streams which are appointed by Providence to repair the +ravages of internal war and its wastes of national strength and health. +All that is necessary is to secure the flow of that stream in its present +fullness, and to that end the Government must in every way make it +manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose involuntary military +service upon those who come from other lands to cast their lot in our +country. The financial affairs of the Government have been successfully +administered during the last year. The legislation of the last session of +Congress has beneficially affected the revenues, although sufficient +time has not yet elapsed to experience the full effect of several of the +provisions of the acts of Congress imposing increased taxation. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, upon the basis of warrants +signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans and the balance +in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1863, were $1,394,196,007.62, and +the aggregate disbursements, upon the same basis, were $1,298,056,101.89, +leaving a balance in the Treasury, as shown by warrants, of +$96,739,905.73. + +Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public debt +redeemed and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and the +actual cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, $884,076,646.57; +disbursements, $865,234,087.86; which leaves a cash balance in the +Treasury of $18,842,558.71. + +Of the receipts there were derived from customs $102,316,152.99, from +lands $588,333.29, from direct taxes $475,648.96, from internal revenue +$109,741,134.10, from miscellaneous sources $47,511,448.10, and from loans +applied to actual expenditures, including former balance, $623,443,929.13. + +There were disbursed for the civil service $27,505,599.46, for pensions +and Indians $7,517,930.97, for the War Department $690,791,842.97, for +the Navy Department $85,733,292.77, for interest on the public debt +$53,685,421.69, making an aggregate of $865,234,087.86, and leaving a +balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558.71, as before stated. + +For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the +estimated receipts and disbursements for the three remaining quarters of +the current fiscal year, and the general operations of the Treasury in +detail, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. I +concur with him in the opinion that the proportion of moneys required to +meet the expenses consequent upon the war derived from taxation should +be still further increased; and I earnestly invite your attention to this +subject to the end that there be such additional legislation as shall be +required to meet the just expectations of the Secretary. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, as appears by the books +of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489.49. Probably, should the war +continue for another year, that amount may be increased by not far from +$500,000,000. Held, as it is, for the most part by our own people, it has +become a substantial branch of national, though private, property. For +obvious reasons the more nearly this property can be distributed among +all the people the better. To favor such general distribution, greater +inducements to become owners might, perhaps, with good effect and without +injury be presented to persons of limited means. With this view I suggest +whether it might not be both competent and expedient for Congress to +provide that a limited amount of some future issue of public securities +might be held by any bona fide purchaser exempt from taxation and from +seizure for debt, under such restrictions and limitations as might be +necessary to guard against abuse of so important a privilege. This +would enable every prudent person to set aside a small annuity against a +possible day of want. + +Privileges like these would render the possession of such securities to +the amount limited most desirable to every person of small means who might +be able to save enough for the purpose. The great advantage of citizens +being creditors as well as debtors with relation to the public debt is +obvious. Men readily perceive that they can not be much oppressed by a +debt which they owe to themselves. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, although somewhat exceeding +the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to Congress at the +commencement of the last session, falls short of the estimate of that +officer made in the preceding December as to its probable amount at the +beginning of this year by the sum of $3,995,097.31. This fact exhibits a +satisfactory condition and conduct of the operations of the Treasury. + +The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to capitalists +and to the people. On the twenty-fifth day of November five hundred and +eighty-four national banks had been organized, a considerable number of +which were conversions from State banks. Changes from State systems to the +national system are rapidly taking place, and it is hoped that very soon +there will be in the United States no banks of issue not authorized by +Congress and no bank-note circulation not secured by the Government. That +the Government and the people will derive great benefit from this change +in the banking systems of the country can hardly be questioned. The +national system will create a reliable and permanent influence in support +of the national credit and protect the people against losses in the use of +paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is advisable for the +suppression of State-bank issues, it will be for Congress to determine. +It seems quite clear that the Treasury can not be satisfactorily conducted +unless the Government can exercise a restraining power over the bank-note +circulation of the country. + +The report of the Secretary of War and the accompanying documents will +detail the campaigns of the armies in the field since the date of the +last annual message, and also the operations of the several administrative +bureaus of the War Department during the last year. It will also specify +the measures deemed essential for the national defense and to keep up and +supply the requisite military force. + +The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehensive and +satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that Department and of the naval +service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable pride to our +countrymen that a Navy of such vast proportions has been organized in so +brief a period and conducted with so much efficiency and success. + +The general exhibit of the Navy, including vessels under construction on +the first of December, 1864, shows a total of 671 vessels, carrying 4610 +guns, and of 510,396 tons, being an actual increase during the year, over +and above all losses by shipwreck or in battle, of 83 vessels, 167 guns, +and 42,427 tons. + +The total number of men at this time in the naval service, including +officers, is about 51,000. + +There have been captured by the Navy during the year 324 vessels, and the +whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced is 1379, of +which 267 are steamers. + +The gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property thus +far reported amount to $14,369,250.51. A large amount of such proceeds is +still under adjudication and yet to be reported. + +The total expenditure of the Navy Department of every description, +including the cost of the immense squadrons that have been called into +existence from the fourth of March, 1861, to the first of November, 1864, +is $238,647,262.35. + +Your favorable consideration is invited to the various recommendations +of the Secretary of the Navy, especially in regard to a navy-yard and +suitable establishment for the construction and repair of iron vessels and +the machinery and armature for our ships, to which reference was made in +my last annual message. + +Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the report in +relation to the legislation of Congress at its last session in respect to +prize on our inland waters. + +I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to the +propriety of creating the new rank of vice-admiral in our naval service. + +Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster-General for +a detailed account of the operations and financial condition of the +Post-Office Department. + +The postal revenues for the year ending June 30, 1864, amounted to +$12,438,253.78, and the expenditures to $12,644,786.20, the excess of +expenditures over receipts being $206,532.42. + +The views presented by the Postmaster-General on the subject of special +grants by the Government in aid of the establishment of new lines of +ocean mail steamships and the policy he recommends for the development of +increased commercial intercourse with adjacent and neighboring countries +should receive the careful consideration of Congress. + +It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of population, +improvement, and governmental institutions over the new and unoccupied +portions of our country have scarcely been checked, much less impeded or +destroyed, by our great civil war, which at first glance would seem to +have absorbed almost the entire energies of the nation. + +The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been completed +in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is firmly +established in the mountains, which once seemed a barren and uninhabitable +waste between the Atlantic States and those which have grown up on the +coast of the Pacific Ocean. + +The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of prosperity +and rapid growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their great distance and +the interruption of communication with them by Indian hostilities, +have been only partially organized; but it is understood that these +difficulties are about to disappear, which will permit their governments, +like those of the others, to go into speedy and full operation. + +As intimately connected with and promotive of this material growth of the +nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the valuable information and +important recommendations relating to the public lands, Indian affairs, +the Pacific Railroad, and mineral discoveries contained in the report of +the Secretary of the Interior which is herewith transmitted, and which +report also embraces the subjects of patents, pensions, and other topics +of public interest pertaining to his Department. + +The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters ending +on the thirtieth of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of which 1,538,614 +acres were entered under the homestead law. The remainder was located +with military land warrants, agricultural scrip certified to States for +railroads, and sold for cash. The cash received from sales and location +fees was $1,019,446. + +The income from sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, was +$678,007.21, against $136,077.95 received during the preceding year. The +aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has been equal to the +quantity disposed of, and there is open to settlement about 133,000,000 +acres of surveyed land. + +The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific States by +railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a vigor that gives +assurance of success, notwithstanding the embarrassments arising from the +prevailing high prices of materials and labor. The route of the main line +of the road has been definitely located for one hundred miles westward +from the initial point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location +of the Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento +eastward to the great bend of the Truckee River in Nevada. + +Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been added +to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the Sierra +Nevada and Rocky mountains and the subordinate ranges now teems with +enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is believed that the +produce of the mines of precious metals in that region has during the year +reached, if not exceeded, $100,000,000 in value. + +It was recommended in my last annual message that our Indian system be +remodeled. Congress at its last session, acting upon the recommendation, +did provide for reorganizing the system in California, and it is believed +that under the present organization the management of the Indians there +will be attended with reasonable success. Much yet remains to be done to +provide for the proper government of the Indians in other parts of the +country, to render it secure for the advancing settler, and to provide for +the welfare of the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recommendations, +and to them the attention of Congress is invited. + + +The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to invalid +soldiers and sailors of the Republic and to the widows, orphans, and +dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle or died of disease +contracted or of wounds received in the service of their country have been +diligently administered. There have been added to the pension rolls during +the year ending the 30th day of June last the names of 16,770 invalid +soldiers and of 271 disabled seamen, making the present number of army +invalid pensioners 22,767 and of navy invalid pensioners 712. + +Of widows, orphans, and mothers 22,198 have been placed on the army +pension rolls and 248 on the navy rolls. The present number of army +pensioners of this class is 25,433 and of navy pensioners 793. At the +beginning of the year the number of Revolutionary pensioners was 1430. +Only twelve of them were soldiers, of whom seven have since died. +The remainder are those who under the law receive pensions because +of relationship to Revolutionary soldiers. During the year ending the +thirtieth of June, 1864, $4,504,616.92 have been paid to pensioners of all +classes. + +I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent +institutions of the District of Columbia which have hitherto been +established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer for +information concerning them and in relation to the Washington Aqueduct, +the Capitol, and other matters of local interest to the report of the +Secretary. + +The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present +energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself to the great and +vital interest it was created to advance. It is peculiarly the people's +department, in which they feel more directly concerned than in any other. +I commend it to the continued attention and fostering care of Congress. + +The war continues. Since the last annual message all the important lines +and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained and our +arms have steadily advanced, thus liberating the regions left in rear, so +that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other States have again +produced reasonably fair crops. + +The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year is +General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles directly through +the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of our relative +strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to confront and +hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to detach a +well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition. The result not +yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not here indulged. + +Important movements have also occurred during the year to the effect of +molding society for durability in the Union. Although short of complete +success, it is much in the right direction that twelve thousand citizens +in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana have organized loyal State +governments, with free constitutions, and are earnestly struggling to +maintain and administer them. The movements in the same direction more +extensive though less definite in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, +should not be overlooked. But Maryland presents the example of complete +success. Maryland is secure to liberty and union for all the future. The +genius of rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit +being driven out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no more. + +At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Constitution +abolishing slavery throughout the United States passed the Senate, +but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the House of +Representatives. Although the present is the same Congress and nearly the +same members, and without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those +who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and +passage of the measure at the present session. Of course the abstract +question is not changed; but an intervening election shows almost +certainly that the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not. +Hence there is only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment +will go to the States for their action. And as it is to so go at all +events, may we not agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed +that the election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or +their votes any further than, as an additional element to be considered, +their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people now +for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national crisis +like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very +desirable, almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity is +attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority +simply because it is the will of the majority. In this case the common end +is the maintenance of the Union, and among the means to secure that end +such will, through the election, is most clearly declared in favor of such +Constitutional amendment. + +The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived +through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its +result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain the +integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than +now. The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions +of voters met and mingled at the polls give strong assurance of this. +Not only all those who supported the Union ticket, so called, but a great +majority of the opposing party also may be fairly claimed to entertain and +to be actuated by the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to +this effect that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has +ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. +There have been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy as +to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause, but on +the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their +instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. In +affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to another and to +the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the election has been of +vast value to the national cause. + +The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be known--the +fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most important branch of +national resources, that of living men. While it is melancholy to reflect +that the war has filled so many graves and carried mourning to so many +hearts, it is some relief to know that, compared with the surviving, +the fallen have been so few. While corps and divisions and brigades and +regiments have formed and fought and dwindled and gone out of existence, a +great majority of the men who composed them are still living. The same is +true of the naval service. The election returns prove this. So many voters +could not else be found. The States regularly holding elections, both now +and four years ago, to wit, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, +Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, cast +3,982,011 votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then, showing an aggregate now +of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 cast now in the new States of +Kansas and Nevada, which States did not vote in 1860, thus swelling the +aggregate to 4,015,773 and the net increase during the three years and a +half of war to 145,551. A table is appended showing particulars. To +this again should be added the number of all soldiers in the field from +Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and +California, who by the laws of those States could not vote away from their +homes, and which number can not be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. +The number in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years +ago--while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms press +back the insurgent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively and negatively, +by the election. It is not material to inquire how the increase has been +produced or to show that it would have been greater but for the war, which +is probably true. The important fact remains demonstrated that we have +more men now than we had when the war began; that we are not exhausted nor +in process of exhaustion; that we are gaining strength and may if need be +maintain the contest indefinitely. [This sentence recognizes the concern +of a guerilla war after the main war finished.]This as to men. Material +resources are now more complete and abundant than ever. + +The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe, +inexhaustible. The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the +national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. +The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful +consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that no +attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. +He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union, precisely what +we will not and can not give. His declarations to this effect are explicit +and oft repeated. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no +excuse to deceive ourselves. He can not voluntarily reaccept the Union; +we can not voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the issue is distinct, +simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war and +decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people +fail him, he is beaten. Either way it would be the victory and defeat +following war. What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause +is not necessarily true of those who follow. Although he can not reaccept +the Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire peace and +reunion. The number of such may increase. They can at any moment have +peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the national +authority under the Constitution. After so much the Government could not, +if it would, maintain war against them. The loyal people would not sustain +or allow it. If questions should remain, we would adjust them by the +peaceful means of legislation, conference, courts, and votes, operating +only in Constitutional and lawful channels. Some certain, and other +possible, questions are and would be beyond the Executive power to adjust; +as, for instance, the admission of members into Congress and whatever +might require the appropriation of money. The Executive power itself +would be greatly diminished by the cessation of actual war. Pardons +and remissions of forfeitures, however, would still be within Executive +control. In what spirit and temper this control would be exercised can be +fairly judged of by the past. + +A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, were offered +to all except certain designated classes, and it was at the same time made +known that the excepted classes were still within contemplation of +special clemency. During the year many availed themselves of the general +provision, and many more would, only that the signs of bad faith in some +led to such precautionary measures as rendered the practical process less +easy and certain. During the same time also special pardons have +been granted to individuals of the excepted classes, and no voluntary +application has been denied. Thus practically the door has been for a full +year open to all except such as were not in condition to make free choice; +that is, such as were in custody or under constraint. It is still so open +to all. But the time may come, probably will come, when public duty shall +demand that it be closed and that in lieu more rigorous measures than +heretofore shall be adopted. + +In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national +authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable +condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract +nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a +year ago, that "while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt +to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to +slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any +of the acts of Congress." If the people should, by whatever mode or means, +make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, +must be their instrument to perform it. + +In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the war +will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on +the part of those who began it. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I believe I shall never be old enough to +speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. I have no +good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news to tell. We have talked +of elections until there is nothing more to say about them. The most +interesting news now we have is from Sherman. We all know where he went +in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. I will now close by +proposing three cheers for General Sherman and his army. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR HALL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 7, 1864. + +GOVERNOR HALL, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Complaint is made to me of the doings of a man at Hannibal, Mo., by the +name of Haywood, who, as I am told, has charge of some militia force, and +is not in the United States service. Please inquire into the matter and +correct anything you may find amiss if in your power. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL FASLEIGH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1864. + +COLONEL FASLEIGH, Louisville, Ky.: + +I am appealed to in behalf of a man by the name of Frank Fairbairns, said +to have been for a long time and still in prison, without any definite +ground stated. How is it? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPOINTING COMMISSIONERS + +TO INVESTIGATE THE MILITARY DIVISION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 10, 1864. + +ORDERED, First, that Major-General William P. Smith and the Hon. Henry +Stanbery be, and they are hereby, appointed special commissioners to +investigate and report, for the information of the President; upon the +civil and military administration in the military division bordering upon +and west of the Mississippi, under such instructions as shall be issued by +authority of the President and the War Department. + +Second, said commissioners shall have power to examine witnesses +upon oath, and to take such proofs orally or in writing, upon the +subject-matters of investigation as they may deem expedient, and return +the same together with their report. + +Third, all officers and persons in the military, naval and revenue +services, or in any branch of the public service under the authority +of the United States Government, are required, upon subpoena issued by +direction of the said commissioners, to appear before them at such time +and place as may be designated in said subpoena and to give testimony on +oath touching such matters as may be inquired of by the commissioners, +and to produce such books, papers, writings, and documents as they may +be notified or required to produce by the commissioners, and as may be in +their possession. + +Fourth, said special commissioners shall also investigate and report upon +any other matters that may hereafter be directed by the Secretary of War, +and shall with all convenient dispatch make report to him in writing of +their investigation, and shall also from time to time make special reports +to the Secretary of War upon such matters as they may deem of importance +to the public interests. + +Fifth, the Secretary of War shall assign to the said commissioners such +aid and assistance as may be required for the performance of their duties, +and make such just and reasonable allowances and compensation for the said +commissioners and for the persons employed by them as he may deem proper. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G, H. THOMAS. WASHINGTON, D.C., December 16, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Please accept for yourself, officers, and men, the nation's thanks for +your good work of yesterday. You made a magnificent beginning; a grand +consummation is within your easy reach. Do not let it slip. + + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +ORIGIN OF THE "GREENBACK" CURRENCY + +TO COLONEL B. D. TAYLOR + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December [16?], 1864. + +DEAR COLONEL DICK:--I have long determined to make public the origin of +the greenback and tell the world that it is Dick Taylor's creation. You +had always been friendly to me, and when troublous times fell on us, and +my shoulders, though broad and willing, were weak, and myself surrounded +by such circumstances and such people that I knew not whom to trust, then +I said in my extremity: "I will send for Colonel Taylor; he will know what +to do." I think it was in January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that I did +so. You came, and I said to you: + +"What can we do?" Said you, "Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no +interest, printed on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off the +Army expenses and declare it legal tender." + +Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accomplished it, +and gave the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever +had--their own paper to pay their own debts. + +It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the people +should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known. How many +times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be +anything but a lawyer. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT CHATTANOOGA. EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 16, 1864 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +It is said that Harry Walters, a private in the Anderson cavalry, is now +and for a long time has been in prison at Chattanooga. Please report to me +what is his condition, and for what he is imprisoned. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR 300,000 VOLUNTEERS, DECEMBER 19, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further +to regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national +forces, and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of the +United States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, call for +any number of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of one, two, and +three years for military service," and "that in case the quota or any +part thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election +district, or of any country not so subdivided, shall not be filled +within the space of fifty days after such call, then the President shall +immediately order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part +thereof which may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas, by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of Congress +on the call for 500,000 men, made July 18, 1864, the number of men to be +obtained under that call was reduced to 280,000; and + +Whereas, the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered it +impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops under said +call; and + +Whereas, from the foregoing causes but 240,000 men have been put into the +Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, 1864, leaving +a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty thousand (260,000): + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency and to provide for +casualties in the military and naval service of the United States, do +issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) volunteers to +serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the States, districts, +and subdistricts under this call will be assigned by the War Department +through the bureau of the Provost-Marshal General of the United States, +and "in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward +of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any county not so +subdivided, shall not be filled" before the fifteenth of February, 1865, +then a draft shall be made to fill such quota or any part thereof under +this call which may be unfilled on said fifteenth day of February, 1865. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.......... + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864 + +MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN:--Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, the +capture of Savannah. + +When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was +anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, and +remembering that "nothing risked, nothing gained," I did not interfere. +Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I +believe none of us went further than to acquiesce. + +And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be +taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious +and immediate military advantages; but in showing to the world that your +army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new +service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of the +whole,--Hood's army,--it brings those who sat in darkness to see a great +light. But what next? + +I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to decide. + +Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army of officers and +men. + +Yours very truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT LEXINGTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Lexington, Ky.: + +If within your power send me the particulars of the causes for which +Lieutenant-Governor Jacob was arrested and sent away. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. MACLEAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + + +Dr. JOHN MACLEAN: + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your note +of the twentieth of December, conveying the announcement that the Trustees +of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the degree of Doctor of +Laws. + +The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of the +Government which I represent, has received the approval of a body of +gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of public +trial, is most grateful to me. + +Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this continent +is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most gratifying proofs +of this conviction is the hearty devotion everywhere exhibited by our +schools and colleges to the national cause. + +I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct to the preservation +of those institutions, under which alone we can expect good government and +in its train sound learning, and the progress of the liberal arts. + +I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 28, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn.: + +Suspend execution of James R. Mallory, for six weeks from Friday the +thirtieth of this month, which time I have given his friends to make +proof, if they can, upon certain points. + + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1864. 5.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of the +Wilmington expedition, present and prospective. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER: + +There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, First +Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, at Chapin's Farm, Va.; +under the assumed name of William Stanley, but whose real name is Frank +R. Judd, and who is under arrest, and probably about to be tried for +desertion. He is the son of our present minister to Prussia, who is a +close personal friend of Senator Trumbull and myself. We are not willing +for the boy to be shot, but we think it as well that his trial go +regularly on, suspending execution until further order from me and +reporting to me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL WARNER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 30, 1864. + +COLONEL WARNER, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +It is said that you were on the court-martial that tried John Lennon, +and that you are disposed to advise his being pardoned and sent to his +regiment. If this be true, telegraph me to that effect at once. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. WILLIAMS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 4, 1865. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Let Trumbo's substitute be regularly mustered in, send me the evidence +that it is done and I will then discharge Trumbo. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, a "joint +resolution to correct certain clerical errors in the internal revenue +act," without my approval. + +My reason for so doing is that I am informed that this joint resolution +was prepared during the last moments of the last session of Congress for +the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference in the internal +revenue act, which were discovered on an examination of an official +copy procured from the State Department a few hours only before the +adjournment. It passed the House and went to the Senate, where a vote was +taken upon it, but by some accident it was not presented to the President +of the Senate for his signature. + +Since the adjournment of the last session of Congress, other errors of a +kind similar to those which this resolution was designed to correct, +have been discovered in the law, and it is now thought most expedient to +include all the necessary corrections in one act or resolution. + +The attention of the proper committee of the House has, I am informed, +been already directed to the preparation of a bill for this purpose. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Richard T. Jacob, Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, is at the Spotswood +House, in Richmond, under an order of General Burbridge not to return to +Kentucky. Please communicate leave to him to pass our lines, and come to +me here at Washington. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 6, 1865, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +If there is a man at City Point by the name of Waterman Thornton who is in +trouble about desertion, please have his case briefly stated to me and do +not let him be executed meantime. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I transmit to Congress a +copy of two treaties between the United States and Belgium, for the +extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, etc., concluded on the twentieth of +May, 1863, and twentieth of July, 1863, respectively, the ratifications of +which were exchanged at Brussels on the twenty-fourth of June last; and +I recommend an appropriation to carry into effect the provisions thereof +relative to the payment of the proportion of the United States toward the +capitalization of the said dues. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SCHUYLER COLFAX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of Representatives. + +SIR:--I transmit herewith the letter of the Secretary of War, with +accompanying report of the Adjutant-General, in reply to the resolution +of the House of Representatives, dated December 7, 1864, requesting me +"to communicate to the House the report made by Col. Thomas M. Key of an +interview between himself and General Howell Cobb on the fourteenth [15th] +day of June, 1862, on the banks of the Chickahominy, on the subject of the +exchange of prisoners of war." + +I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCE, JANUARY 10, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the twenty-eighth of September, 1850, +entitled "An act to create additional collection districts in the State +of California, and to change the existing districts therein, and to +modify the existing collection districts in the United States," extends to +merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege of being exported to +the British North American provinces adjoining the United States, in the +manner prescribed in the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, +which designates certain frontier ports through which merchandise may +be exported, and further provides "that such other ports situated on +the frontiers of the United States, adjoining the British North American +provinces, as may hereafter be found expedient, may have extended to +them the like privileges on the recommendation of the Secretary of the +Treasury, and proclamation duly made by the President of the United +States, specially designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges +are to be extended;" + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of the +Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of St. Albans, in +the State of Vermont, is, and shall be, entitled to all the privileges +in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the British North +American provinces adjoining the United States, which are extended to +the ports enumerated in the seventh section of the act of Congress of +the third of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after the date of this +proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of January, in the year +of our Lord one thousand eight hundred-and sixty-five, and of the +independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 10, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +No principal report of yours on the Wilmington expedition has ever reached +the War Department, as I am informed there. A preliminary report did reach +here, but was returned to General Grant at his request. Of course, leave +to publish cannot be given without inspection of the paper, and not then +if it should be deemed to be detrimental to the public service. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Yours asking leave to come to Washington is received. You have been +summoned by the Committee on the Conduct of the War to attend here, which, +of course, you will do. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 15, 1865. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours announcing ordinance of emancipation received. Thanks to the +convention and to you. When do you expect to be here? Would be glad to +have your suggestion as to supplying your place of military governor. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January +15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +It is represented to me that there is so much irregular violence in +northern Missouri as to be driving away the people and almost depopulating +it. Please gather information, and consider whether an appeal to the +people there to go to their homes and let one another alone recognizing as +a full right of protection for each that he lets others alone, and banning +only him who refuses to let others alone may not enable you to withdraw +the troops, their presence itself [being] a cause of irritation and +constant apprehension, and thus restore peace and quiet, and returning +prosperity. Please consider this and telegraph or write me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FIRST OVERTURES FOR SURRENDER FROM DAVIS + +TO P. P. BLAIR, SR. + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:-You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall +continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential +person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with +the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but +only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having graduated at +Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. I do not wish +to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to which those +who have already served long are better entitled and better qualified to +hold. Could he, without embarrassment to you, or detriment to the service, +go into your military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the +public, furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the least +hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that you +shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +If Mrs. Beattie, alias Mrs. Wolff, shall be sentenced to death, notify me, +and postpone the execution till further order. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD: + +You have a man in arrest for desertion passing by the name of Stanley. +William Stanley, I think, but whose real name is different. He is the son +of so close a friend of mine that I must not let him be executed. Please +let me know what is his present and prospective condition. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Mo.: + +It is said an old lady in Clay County, Missouri, by name Mrs. Winifred +B. Price, is about being sent South. If she is not misbehaving let her +remain. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Several members of the Cabinet, with myself, considered the question, +to-day, as to the time of your coming on here. While we fully appreciate +your wish to remain in Tennessee until her State government shall be +completely reinaugurated, it is our unanimous conclusion that it is unsafe +for you to not be here on the 4th of March. Be sure to reach here by that +time. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE, JANUARY 24, 1865. + +REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I accept with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift you +have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect that I +acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so well, that +for me to attempt to say more may perhaps only serve to weaken the force +of that which has already been said. A most graceful and eloquent tribute +was paid to the patriotism and self-denying labors of the American +ladies, on the occasion of the consecration of the National Cemetery at +Gettysburg, by our illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed +from earth. His life was a truly great one, and I think the greatest part +of it was that which crowned its closing years, I wish you to read, if you +have not already done so, the eloquent and truthful words which he then +spoke of the women of America. Truly, the services they have rendered to +the defenders of our country in this perilous time, and are yet rendering, +can never be estimated as they ought to be. For your kind wishes to me +personally, I beg leave to render you likewise my sincerest thanks. I +assure you they are reciprocated. And now, gentlemen and ladies, may God +bless you all. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point + +If Newell W. Root, of First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, is under sentence +of death, please telegraph me briefly the circumstances. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Having received the report in the case of Newell W. Root, I do not +interfere further in the case. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EARLY CONSULTATIONS WITH REBELS + +INSTRUCTIONS TO MAJOR ECKERT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. + +SIR:-You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on +reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by the +Secretary of War. Then, by General Ord's assistance procure an interview +with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of them, deliver to +him or them the paper on which your own letter is written. Note on the +copy which you retain the time of delivery and to whom delivered. Receive +their answer in writing, waiting a reasonable time for it, and which, if +it contain their decision to come through without further condition, will +be your warrant to ask General Ord to pass them through as directed in the +letter of the Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline +to come, or propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this +being your whole duty, return and report to me. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY OF WAR TO GENERAL ORD. + +(Cipher.) + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Headquarters Army of the James: + +By direction of the President you are instructed to inform the three +gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, that a messenger will +be dispatched to them at or near where they now are, without unnecessary +delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER FROM J. M. ASHLEY. + +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 31, 1865. + +DEAR SIR:--The report is in circulation in the House that Peace +Commissioners are on their way or in the city, and is being used against +us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. Please authorize me to +contradict it, if it is not true. + +Respectfully, J. M. ASHLEY. + +To the President. + + +(Indorsement.) + +So far as I know there are no Peace Commissioners in the city or likely to +be in it. + + +A. LINCOLN. January 31, 1865 + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your despatch. +Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he arrives, and then +act upon the message he brings, as far as applicable, it having been +made up to pass through General Ord's hands, and when the gentlemen were +supposed to be beyond our lines. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INSTRUCTIONS TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and +informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the +basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy +of which you have. You will make known to them that three things are +indispensable to wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to +Congress, and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not inconsistent +with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere +liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and report it to me. +You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY + +PASSAGE THROUGH CONGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE +ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, JANUARY 31, 1865. + +He supposed the passage through Congress of the Constitutional amendment +for the abolishing of slavery throughout the United States was the +occasion to which he was indebted for the honor of this call. + +The occasion was one of congratulation to the country, and to the whole +world. But there is a task yet before us--to go forward and consummate by +the votes of the States that which Congress so nobly began yesterday. He +had the honor to inform those present that Illinois had already done the +work. Maryland was about half through, but he felt proud that Illinois was +a little ahead. + +He thought this measure was a very fitting if not an indispensable adjunct +to the winding up of the great difficulty. He wished the reunion of +all the States perfected, and so effected as to remove all causes of +disturbance in the future; and, to attain this end, it was necessary +that the original disturbing cause should, if possible, be rooted out. He +thought all would bear him witness that he had never shirked from doing +all that he could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an Emancipation +Proclamation. But that proclamation falls short of what the amendment +will be when fully consummated. A question might be raised whether the +proclamation was legally valid. It might be added, that it only aided +those who came into our lines, and that it was inoperative as to those +who did not give themselves up; or that it would have no effect upon the +children of the slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it +did not meet the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure for all evils. +It winds the whole thing up. He would repeat, that it was the fitting if +not the indispensable adjunct to the consummation of the great game we are +playing. He could not but congratulate all present--himself, the country, +and the whole world upon this great moral victory. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, February 1, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military +movements or plans. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MAJOR ECKERT. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe, and put yourself under direction of Mr. Seward, +whom you will find there. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe as +soon as I can get there. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va. + +Induced by a despatch of General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe, as soon +as I can come. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE DRAFT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, February 6, 1865 + +Whereas complaints are made in some localities respecting the assignments +of quotas and credits allowed for the pending call of troops to fill +up the armies: Now, in order to determine all controversies in respect +thereto, and to avoid any delay in filling up the armies, it is ordered, + +1. That the Attorney-General, Brigadier-General Richard Delafield, and +Colonel C. W. Foster, be, and they are hereby constituted, a board to +examine into the proper quotas and credits of the respective States and +districts under the call of December 19, 1864, with directions, if any +errors be found therein, to make such corrections as the law and facts may +require, and report their determination to the Provost-Marshal-General. +The determination of said board to be final and conclusive, and the draft +to be made in conformity therewith. + +2. The Provost-Marshal-General is ordered to make the draft in the +respective districts as speedily as the same can be done after the +fifteenth of this month. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 6, 1865. + +PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL: + +These gentlemen distinctly say to me this morning that what they want is +the means from your office of showing their people that the quota assigned +to them is right. They think it will take but little time--two hours, they +say. Please give there double the time and every facility you can. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +February 6, 1865. + +The Provost-Marshal brings this letter back to me and says he cannot give +the facility required without detriment to the service, and thereupon he +is excused from doing it. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 7, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN, Commanding Post at Henderson, Ky.: + +Complaint is made to me that you are forcing negroes into the military +service, and even torturing them--riding them on rails and the like to +extort their consent. I hope this may be a mistake. The like must not be +done by you, or any one under you. You must not force negroes any more +than white men. Answer me on this. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR SMITH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865. + +HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SMITH, of Vermont: + +Complaint is made to me, by Vermont, that the assignment of her quota for +the draft on the pending call is intrinsically unjust, and also in +bad faith of the Government's promise to fairly allow credits for men +previously furnished. To illustrate, a supposed case is stated as follows: + +Vermont and New Hampshire must between them furnish six thousand men on +the pending call; and being equal, each must furnish as many as the other +in the long run. But the Government finds that on former calls Vermont +furnished a surplus of five hundred, and New Hampshire a surplus, of +fifteen hundred. These two surpluses making two thousand and added to the +six thousand, making eight thousand to be furnished by the two States, or +four thousand each less, by fair credits. Then subtract Vermont's surplus +of five hundred from her four thousand, leaves three thousand five hundred +as her quota on the pending call; and likewise subtract New Hampshire's +surplus of fifteen hundred from her four thousand, leaves two thousand +five hundred as her quota on the pending call. These three thousand five +hundred and two thousand five hundred make precisely six thousand, which +the supposed case requires from the two States, and it is just equal for +Vermont to furnish one thousand more now than New Hampshire, because New +Hampshire has heretofore furnished one thousand more than Vermont, which +equalizes the burdens of the two in the long run. And this result, so far +from being bad faith to Vermont, is indispensable to keeping good faith +with New Hampshire. By no other result can the six thousand men be +obtained from the two States, and, at the same time deal justly and +keep faith with both, and we do but confuse ourselves in questioning the +process by which the right result is reached. The supposed case is perfect +as an illustration. + +The pending call is not for three hundred thousand men subject to fair +credits, but is for three hundred thousand remaining after all fair +credits have been deducted, and it is impossible to concede what Vermont +asks without coming out short of three hundred thousand men, or making +other localities pay for the partiality shown her. + +This upon the case stated. If there be different reasons for making an +allowance to Vermont, let them be presented and considered. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 8, 1865. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +The joint resolution entitled "Joint resolution declaring certain States +not entitled to representation in the electoral college" has been signed +by the Executive in deference to the view of Congress implied in its +passage and presentation to him. In his own view, however, the two Houses +of Congress, convened under the twelfth article of the Constitution, have +complete power to exclude from counting all electoral votes deemed by +them to be illegal, and it is not competent for the Executive to defeat or +obstruct that power by a veto, as would be the case if his action were at +all essential in the matter. He disclaims all right of the Executive to +interfere in any way in the matter of canvassing or counting electoral +votes, and he also disclaims that by signing said resolution he has +expressed any opinion on the recitals of the preamble or any judgment of +his own upon the subject of the resolution. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February +8, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point. Va.: + +I am called on by the House of Representatives to give an account of my +interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, and it is very +desirable to me to put your despatch of February 1, to the Secretary of +War, in which, among other things, you say: "I fear now their going +back without any expression from any one in authority will have a bad +influence." I think the despatch does you credit, while I do not see that +it can embarrass you. May I use it? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL COUNT + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS, REPORTING THE RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL +COUNT, + +FEBRUARY 9, 1865. + +With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their confidence; +with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty required under +the most favorable circumstances, and now rendered doubly difficult by +existing national perils; yet with a firm reliance on the strength of +our free government, and the eventual loyalty of the people to the just +principles upon which it is founded, and above all with an unshaken +faith in the Supreme Ruler of nations, I accept this trust. Be pleased to +signify this to the respective Houses of Congress. + + + + +CHRONOLOGIC REVIEW OF PEACE PROPOSALS + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 10, 1865 + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In response to your resolution of the eighth instant, requesting +information in relation to a conference recently held in Hampton Roads, +I have the honor to state that on the day of the date I gave Francis P. +Blair, Sr., a card, written on as follows, to wit: + +December 28, 1864. + +Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go South, and +return. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +That at the time I was informed that Mr. Blair sought the card as a means +of getting to Richmond, Va., but he was given no authority to speak or act +for the Government, nor was I informed of anything he would say or do on +his own account or otherwise. Afterwards Mr. Blair told me that he had +been to Richmond and had seen Mr. Jefferson Davis; and he (Mr. B.) at the +same time left with me a manuscript letter, as follows, to wit: + +RICHMOND, VA., January 12, 1865. F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR: I have deemed it proper, and probably desirable to you, to give you +in this for in the substance of remarks made by me, to be repeated by you +to President Lincoln, etc., etc. + +I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and am willing, now as +heretofore, to enter into negotiations for the restoration of peace, and +am ready to send a commission whenever I have reason to suppose it will be +received, or to receive a commission if the United States Government +shall choose to send one. That notwithstanding the rejection of our former +offers, I would, if you could promise that a commissioner, minister, or +other agent would be received, appoint one immediately, and renew the +effort to enter into conference with a view to secure peace to the two +countries. + +Yours, etc., JEFFERSON DAVIS. + + +Afterwards, and with the view that it should be shown to Mr. Davis, I +wrote and delivered to Mr. Blair a letter, as follows, to wit: + + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +P. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential +person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with +the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards Mr. Blair dictated for and authorized me to make an entry on +the back of my retained copy of the letter last above recited, which entry +is as follows: + +January 28, 1865 + +To-day Mr. Blair tells me that on the twenty-first instant he delivered +to Mr. Davis the original of which the within is a copy, and left it with +him; that at the time of delivering it Mr. Davis read it over twice in Mr. +Blair's presence, at the close of which he (Mr. Blair) remarked that the +part about "our one common country" related to the part of Mr. Davis' +letter about "the two countries," to which Mr. Davis replied that he so +understood it. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards the Secretary of War placed in my hands the following telegram, +indorsed by him, as appears: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAR DEPARTMENT. The following +telegram received at Washington January 29, 1865, from headquarters Army +of James, + +6.30 P.M., January 29, 1865: + +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON," Secretary of War: + +"The following despatch just received from Major-General Parke, who refers +it to me for my action. I refer it to you in Lieutenant-General Grant's +absence: + + "E. O. C. ORD, Major-General, Commanding. + HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC, + January 29, 1863. 4 P.M." + + 'MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, + 'Headquarters Army of James: + 'The following despatch is forwarded to you for your action. Since I + have no knowledge of General Grant's having had any understanding of + this kind, I refer the matter to you as the ranking officer present + in the two armies. + 'JNO. G. PARKE, Major-General, Commanding.' + + + "'FROM HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY Cos, 29th. + 'MAJOR-GENERAL JNO. G. PARKE, 'Headquarters Army of Potomac: + 'Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and J. A. Campbell desire to + cross my lines, in accordance with an understanding claimed to exist + with Lieutenant-General Grant, on their way to Washington as peace + commissioners. Shall they be admitted? They desire an early answer, + to come through immediately. Would like to reach City Point tonight + if they can. If they can not do this, they would like to come + through at 10 A.M. to-morrow morning. + 'O. B. WILCOX, + 'Major-General, Commanding Ninth Corps.' + + + "January 29, 8.30 P.M. + "Respectfully referred to the President for such instructions as he + may be pleased to give. + "EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War." + + +It appears that about the time of placing the foregoing telegram in my +hands the Secretary of War dispatched General Ord as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, January 29, 1865. 10 P.M. (Sent at 2 +A.M., 30th.) MAJOR-GENERAL ORD. + +SIR:--This Department has no knowledge of any understanding by General +Grant to allow any person to come within his lines as commissioner of any +sort. You will therefore allow no one to come into your lines under such +character or profession until you receive the President's instructions, to +whom your telegraph will be submitted for his directions. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + +Afterwards, by my direction, the Secretary of War telegraphed General Ord +as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., January 30. 10.30 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, Headquarters Army of the James. + +SIR:--By direction of the President, you are instructed to inform the +three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, that a messenger +will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are without +unnecessary delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + +Afterwards I prepared and put into the hands of Major Thomas T. Eckert the +following instructions and message: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865 + +SIR:--You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on +reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by the +Secretary of War; then, by General Ord's assistance, procure an interview +with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of them. Deliver to +him or them the paper on which your own letter is written. Note on the +copy which you retain the time of delivery and to whom delivered. Receive +their answer in writing, waiting a reasonable time for it, and which, if +it contain their decision to come through without further condition, will +be your warrant to ask General Ord to pass them through, as directed in +the letter of the Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline +to come, or propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this +being your whole duty, return and report to me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, VA.. February 1, 1865. + +MESSRS. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, J. A. CAMPBELL AND R. M. T. HUNTER. + +GENTLEMEN:--I am instructed by the President of the United States to place +this paper in your hands, with the information that if you pass through +the United States military lines it will be understood that you do so for +the purpose of an informal conference on the basis of the letter a copy of +which is on the reverse side of this sheet, and that if you choose to pass +on such understanding, and so notify me in writing, I will procure the +commanding general to pass you through the lines and to Fortress Monroe +under such military precautions as he may deem prudent, and at which place +you will be met in due time by some person or persons for the purpose of +such informal conference; and, further, that you shall have protection, +safe conduct, and safe return in all events. + +THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aide-de-Camp. + + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential +person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with +the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +Afterwards, but before Major Eckert had departed, the following dispatch +was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington January 30, 1865, from City +Point, Va., 10.30 A.M., January 30, 1865: + + "His EXCELLENCY + A. LINCOLN, + President of the United States: + + "The following communication was received here last evening: + + "'PETERSBURG, VA., January 30, 1865. + 'LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U.S. GRANT, + Commanding Armies United States. + 'SIR: We desire to pass your lines under safe conduct, and to proceed + to Washington to hold a conference with President Lincoln upon the + subject of the existing war, and with a view of ascertaining upon + what terms it may be terminated, in pursuance of the course indicated + by him in his letter to Mr. Blair of January 18, 1865, of which we + presume you have a copy; and if not, we wish to see you in person, if + convenient, and to confer with you upon the subject. + 'Very respectfully, yours, + 'ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. + 'J. A. CAMPBELL. + 'R. M. T. HUNTER.'" + + +"I have sent directions to receive these gentlemen, and expect to have +them at my quarters this evening, awaiting your instructions. U.S. GRANT, +Lieutenant-General, Commanding Armies United States." + + +This, it will be perceived, transferred General Ord's agency in the matter +to General Grant. I resolved, however, to send Major Eckert forward with +his message, and accordingly telegraphed General Grant as follows, to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865 (Sent at 1.30 P.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your despatch. +Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he arrives, and then +act upon the message he brings as far as applicable, it having been +made up to pass through General Ord's hands, and when the gentlemen were +supposed to be beyond our lines. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +When Major Eckert departed, he bore with him a letter of the Secretary of +War to General Grant, as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Commanding, etc. + +GENERAL:--The President desires that you will please procure for the +bearer, Major Thomas T. Eckert, an interview with Messrs. Stephens, +Hunter, and Campbell, and if on his return to you he requests it pass them +through our lines to Fortress Monroe by such route and under such +military precautions as you may deem prudent, giving them protection and +comfortable quarters while there, and that you let none of this have any +effect upon your movements or plans. + +By order of the President: EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + +Supposing the proper point to be then reached, I dispatched the Secretary +of State with the following instructions, Major Eckert, however, going +ahead of him: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State: + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Va., there to meet and informally +confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on the basis of my +letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you +have. + +You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to Wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to +Congress and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs not inconsistent +with the above will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere +liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and report it to me. + +You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +On the day of its date the following telegram was sent to General Grant: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1,1865 (Sent at 9.30 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military +movements or plans. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +Afterwards the following despatch was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAR DEPARTMENT. The following +telegram received at Washington, 2.30 P.M., February 1, 1865, from City +Point, Va., February 1, 12.30 PM., 1865: + +"His EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President United States: + +"Your despatch received. There will be no armistice in consequence of the +presence of Mr. Stephens and others within our lines. The troops are kept +in readiness to move at the shortest notice if occasion should justify it. + +"U.S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + + +To notify Major Eckert that the Secretary of State would be at Fortress +Monroe, and to put them in communication, the following despatch was sent: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe and put yourself under direction of Mr. S., whom +you will find there. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +On the morning of the 2d instant the following telegrams were received by +me respectively from the Secretary of State and Major Eckert: + +FORT MONROE, VA., February 1,1865. 11.30 PM. + +THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Arrived at 10 this evening. Richmond party not here. I remain here. + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + +CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865. 10 P.M. + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President of the United States: I have the +honor to report the delivery of your communication and my letter at +4.15 this afternoon, to which I received a reply at 6 P.M., but not +satisfactory. + + +At 8 P.M. the following note, addressed to General Grant, was received: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865 + +"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. + +"SIR:--We desire to go to Washington City to confer informally with the +President personally in reference to the matters mentioned in his letter +to Mr. Blair of the 18th January ultimo, without any personal compromise +on any question in the letter. We have the permission to do so from the +authorities in Richmond. + +Very respectfully yours, + +ALEX. H. STEPHENS R. M. T. HUNTER. J. A. CAMPBELL." + + +At 9.30 P.M. I notified them that they could not proceed further unless +they complied with the terms expressed in my letter. The point of meeting +designated in the above note would not, in my opinion, be insisted +upon. Think Fort Monroe would be acceptable. Having complied with my +instructions, I will return to Washington to-morrow unless otherwise +ordered. + +THOS. T. ECKERT, Major, etc. + + +On reading this despatch of Major Eckert I was about to recall him and the +Secretary of State, when the following telegram of General Grant to the +Secretary of War was shown me: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington 4.35 A.M., February 2, 1865, +from City Point, Va., February 1, 10.30 P.M., 1865: + +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War: + +"Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written +instructions, and Mr. Stephens and party has ended, I will state +confidentially, but not officially to become a matter of record, that I +am convinced upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter that their +intentions are good and their desire sincere to restore peace and union. +I have not felt myself at liberty to express even views of my own or to +account for my reticency. This has placed me in an awkward position, which +I could have avoided by not seeing them in the first instance. I fear now +their going back without any expression from anyone in authority will have +a bad influence. At the same time, I recognize the difficulties in the way +of receiving these informal commissioners at this time, and do not know +what to recommend. I am sorry, however, that Mr. Lincoln can not have an +interview with the two named in this despatch, if not all three now within +our lines. Their letter to me was all that the President's instructions +contemplated to secure their safe conduct if they had used the same +language to Major Eckert. + +"U.S. GRANT "Lieutenant-General." + + +This despatch of General Grant changed my purpose, and accordingly I +telegraphed him and the Secretary of State, respectively, as follows: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe as +soon as I can get there. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va.: + +Induced by a despatch from General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe as +soon as I can come. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +Before starting, the following despatch was shown me. I proceeded, +nevertheless: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington, February 2, 1865, from City +Point, Va., 9 A.M., February 2, 1865: + +"HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +"The gentlemen here have accepted the proposed terms, and will leave for +Fort Monroe at 9.30 A.M. + +"U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + +(Copy to HON. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington.) + + +On the night of the 2nd I reached Hampton Roads, found the Secretary of +State and Major Eckert on a steamer anchored offshore, and learned of +them that the Richmond gentlemen were on another steamer also anchored +offshore, in the Roads, and that the Secretary of State had not yet seen +or communicated with them. I ascertained that Major Eckert had literally +complied with his instructions, and I saw for the first time the answer of +the Richmond gentlemen to him, which in his despatch to me of the 1st he +characterizes as "not satisfactory." That answer is as follows, to wit: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865. THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and +Aid-de-Camp. MAJOR:-Your note, delivered by yourself this day, has been +considered. In reply we have to say that we were furnished with a copy of +the letter of President Lincoln to Francis P. Blair, Esq., of the 18th +of January ultimo, another copy of which is appended to your note. Our +instructions are contained in a letter of which the following is a copy: + +"RICHMOND, January 28, 1865. "In conformity with the letter of Mr. +Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are to proceed to +Washington City for informal conference with him upon the issues involved +in the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two +countries. "With great respect, your obedient servant, "JEFFERSON DAVIS." + + +The substantial object to be obtained by the informal conference is to +ascertain upon what terms the existing war can be terminated honorably. + +Our instructions contemplate a personal interview between President +Lincoln and ourselves at Washington City, but with this explanation we are +ready to meet any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint at +such place as he may designate. + +Our earnest desire is that a just and honorable peace may be agreed +upon, and we are prepared to receive or to submit propositions which may +possibly lead to the attainment of that end. + +Very respectfully, yours, + + ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. + R. M. T. HUNTER. + JOHN A. CAMPBELL. + + +A note of these gentlemen, subsequently addressed to General Grant, has +already been given in Major Eckert's despatch of the 1st instant. + +I also here saw, for the first time, the following note, addressed by the +Richmond gentlemen to Major Eckert: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 2, 1865. THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and +Aid-de-Camp. MAJOR:--In reply to your verbal statement that your +instructions did not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a +passport could be given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to +Fortress Monroe and there to have an informal conference with any person +or persons that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter +to Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other terms +or conditions that he may hereafter propose not inconsistent with the +essential principles of self-government and popular rights, upon which our +institutions are founded. + +It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of ideas and +information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just and honorable +peace can be established without the further effusion of blood, and to +contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a result. + +We think it better to add that in accepting your passport we are not to +be understood as committing ourselves to anything but to carry to this +informal conference the views and feelings above expressed. + +Very respectfully, yours, etc., + +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, J. A. CAMPBELL, R. M. T. HUNTER. + + +Note.-The above communication was delivered to me at Fort Monroe at 4.30 +P.M. February 2 by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, of General Grant's staff. + +THOMAS T. ECKERT Major and Aid-de-Camp. + + +On the morning of the third the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, +and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer and had an interview with the +Secretary of State and myself of several hours' duration. No question +of preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made or mentioned; no +other person was present; no papers were exchanged or produced; and it +was in advance agreed that the conversation was to be informal and +verbal merely. On our part the whole substance of the instructions to the +Secretary of State hereinbefore recited was stated and insisted upon, and +nothing was said inconsistent therewith; while by the other party it was +not said that in any event or on any condition they ever would consent +to reunion, and yet they equally omitted to declare that they never would +consent. They seemed to desire a postponement of that question and the +adoption of some other course first, which, as some of them seemed to +argue, might or might not lead to reunion, but which course we thought +would amount to an indefinite postponement. The conference ended without +result. + +The foregoing, containing, as is believed, all the information sought is +respectfully submitted. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865 + +To THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the eighth instant, +requesting information concerning recent conversations or communications +with insurgents, under executive sanction, I transmit a report from the +Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +TO THE PRESIDENT: + +The Secretary of State, to whom was referred a resolution of the Senate +of the 8th instant, requesting "the President of the United States, if, in +his opinion, not incompatible with the public interests, to furnish to the +Senate any information in his possession concerning recent conversations +or communications with certain rebels, said to have taken place under +executive sanction, including communications with the rebel Jefferson +Davis, and any correspondence relating thereto," has the honor to report +that the Senate may properly be referred to a special message of the +President bearing upon the subject of the resolution, and transmitted to +the House this day. Appended to this report is a copy of an instruction +which has been addressed to Charles Francis Adams, Esq., envoy +extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, +and which is the only correspondence found in this department touching the +subject referred to in the resolution. + +Respectfully submitted, + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865. + + + + +MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS. + +(Extract.) No. 1258. + +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 7,1865 + +On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the Secretary, +received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on board the United +States steam transport River Queen in Hampton Roads. The conference was +altogether informal. There was no attendance of secretaries, clerks, or +other witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The conversation, although +earnest and free, was calm, and courteous, and kind on both sides. The +Richmond party approached the discussion rather indirectly, and at no time +did they either make categorical demands, or tender formal stipulations or +absolute refusals. Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted +four hours, the several points at issue between the Government and the +insurgents were distinctly raised, and discussed fully, intelligently, and +in an amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor +was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war is +waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of the Government, as well as +those of the insurgents, to some extrinsic policy or scheme for a season +during which passions might be expected to subside, and the armies be +reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people of both sections +resumed. It was suggested by them that through such postponement we +might now have immediate peace, with some not very certain prospect of +an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political relations between this +Government and the States, section, or people now engaged in conflict with +it. + +This suggestion, though deliberately considered, was nevertheless regarded +by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he announced that we +can agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities, except on the +basis of the disbandment of the insurgent forces, and the restoration +of the national authority throughout all the States in the Union. +Collaterally, and in subordination to the proposition which was thus +announced, the antislavery policy of the United States was reviewed in all +its bearings, and the President announced that he must not be expected to +depart from the positions he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation +of emancipation and other documents, as these positions were reiterated in +his last annual message. It was further declared by the President that +the complete restoration of the national authority was an indispensable +condition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might be +proposed. The President assured the other party that, while he must adhere +to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as power is lodged with +the Executive, to exercise liberality. His power, however, is limited by +the Constitution; and when peace should be made, Congress must necessarily +act in regard to appropriations of money and to the admission of +representatives from the insurrectionary States. The Richmond party +were then informed that Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, adopted by +a constitutional majority a joint resolution submitting to the several +States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that +there is every reason to expect that it will be soon accepted by three +fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national organic law. + +The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without producing +an agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, or any of them. +Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that we have been able to +submit our opinions and views directly to prominent insurgents, and to +hear them in answer in a courteous and not unfriendly manner. + +I am, sir, your obedient servant, + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + + + +TO ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 10, 1865 + +REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER, Commanding North Atlantic Squadron, Hampton +Roads, Va. + +SIR:--It is made my agreeable duty to enclose herewith the joint +resolution approved 24th January, 1865, tendering the thanks of Congress +to yourself, the officers and men under your command for their gallantry +and good conduct in the capture of Fort Fisher, and through you to all who +participated in that brilliant and decisive victory under your command. + +Very respectfully, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 12, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +I understand that provost-marshals in different parts of Missouri are +assuming to decide that the conditions of bonds are forfeited, and +therefore are seizing and selling property to pay damages. This, if true, +is both outrageous and ridiculous. Do not allow it. The courts, and +not provost-marshals, are to decide such questions unless when military +necessity makes an exception. Also excuse John Eaton, of Clay County, and +Wesley Martin, of Platte, from being sent South, and let them go East if +anywhere. + + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS IN WEST TENNESSEE + +WASHINGTON, February 13, 1865. + +TO THE MILITARY OFFICERS COMMANDING IN WEST TENNESSEE: + +While I cannot order as within requested, allow me to say that it is my +wish for you to relieve the people from all burdens, harassments, and +oppressions, so far as is possible consistently with your military +necessities; that the object of the war being to restore and maintain +the blessings of peace and good government, I desire you to help, and not +hinder, every advance in that direction. + +Of your military necessities you must judge and execute, but please do so +in the spirit and with the purpose above indicated. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 14, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of yesterday about provost-marshal system received. As part of +the same subject, let me say I am now pressed in regard to a pending +assessment in St. Louis County. Please examine and satisfy yourself +whether this assessment should proceed or be abandoned; and if you +decide that it is to proceed, please examine as to the propriety of its +application to a gentleman by the name of Charles McLaran. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON February 15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please ascertain whether General Fisk's administration is as good as it +might be, and answer me. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONVENING THE SENATE IN EXTRA SESSION, + +FEBRUARY 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the Senate +should be convened at twelve o'clock on the fourth of March next to +receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part +of the Executive; + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, have +considered it to be my duty to issue this, my proclamation, declaring +that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States +to convene for the transaction of business at the Capitol, in the city of +Washington, on the fourth day of March next, at twelve o'clock at noon +on that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as +members of that body are hereby required to take notice. + +Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at +Washington............... + + +A. LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1865 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY: + +Chaplain Fitzgibbon yesterday sent me a despatch invoking Clemency for +Jackson, Stewart, and Randall, who are to be shot to-day. The despatch is +so vague that there is no means here of ascertaining whether or not the +execution of sentence of one or more of them may not already have been +ordered. If not suspend execution of sentence m their cases until further +orders and forward records of trials for examination. + + +A. LINCOLN + +MAJOR ECKERT: Please send above telegram JNO. G. NICOLAY. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +I am in a little perplexity. I was induced to authorize a gentleman to +bring Roger A. Pryor here with a view of effecting an exchange of him; +but since then I have seen a despatch of yours showing that you specially +object to his exchange. Meantime he has reached here and reported to +me. It is an ungracious thing for me to send him back to prison, and yet +inadmissible for him to remain here long. Cannot you help me out with it? +I can conceive that there may be difference to you in days, and I can keep +him a few days to accommodate on that point. I have not heard of my son's +reaching you. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 24, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Please inquire and report to me whether there is any propriety of longer +keeping in Gratiott Street Prison a man said to be there by the name of +Riley Whiting. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, February 25, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +General Sheridan's despatch to you, of to-day, in which he says he "will +be off on Monday," and that he "will leave behind about two thousand men," +causes the Secretary of War and myself considerable anxiety. Have you +well considered whether you do not again leave open the Shenandoah Valley +entrance to Maryland and Pennsylvania, or, at least, to the Baltimore and +Ohio Railroad? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +Subsequent reflection, conference with General Halleck, your despatch, and +one from General Sheridan, have relieved my anxiety; and so I beg that you +will dismiss any concern you may have on my account, in the matter of my +last despatch. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO T. W. CONWAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 1, 1865. + +MR. THOMAS W. CONWAY, General Superintendent Freedmen, Department of the +Gulf. + +SIR:--Your statement to Major-General Hurlbut of the condition of the +freedmen of your department, and of your success in the work of their +moral and physical elevation, has reached me and given me much pleasure. + +That we shall be entirely successful in our efforts I firmly believe. + +The blessing of God and the efforts of good and faithful men will bring us +an earlier and happier consummation than the most sanguine friends of the +freedmen could reasonably expect. + +Yours, + + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +You have not sent contents of Richmond papers for Tuesday or Wednesday. +Did you not receive them? If not, does it indicate anything? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865. 12 PM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no +conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of General +Lee's army, or on some minor and purely military matter. He instructs me +to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political +question. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and will +submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meantime you are to +press to the utmost your military advantages. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1865. + + +FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:--At this second appearing to take the oath of the +presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than +there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course +to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four +years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth +on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the +attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new +could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly +depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, +reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the +future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were +anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought +to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this +place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent +agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to +dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties +deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation +survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the +war came. + +One eighth of the whole population was colored slaves, not distributed +generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These +slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this +interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and +extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend +the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more +than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected +for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. +Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or +even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier +triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the +other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's +assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, +but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not +be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His +own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs +be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If +we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, +in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued +through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to +both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom +the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine +attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? +Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war +may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the +wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited +toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash +shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand +years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true +and righteous altogether." + +With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right +as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we +are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have +borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may +achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all +nations. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL JOHN POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please state briefly, by telegraph, what you concluded about the +assessments in St. Louis County. Early in the war one Samuel B. Churchill +was sent from St. Louis to Louisville, where I have quite satisfactory +evidence that he has not misbehaved. Still I am told his property at St. +Louis is subjected to the assessment, which I think it ought not to be. +Still I wish to know what you think. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 8, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va: + +Your two despatches to the Secretary of War, one relating to supplies for +the enemy going by the Blackwater, and the other to General Singleton and +Judge Hughes, have been laid before me by him. As to Singleton and Hughes, +I think they are not in Richmond by any authority, unless it be from you. +I remember nothing from me which could aid them in getting there, except a +letter to you, as follows, to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, February 7, 1865. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL +GRANT, City Point, Va.: General Singleton, who bears you this, claims that +he already has arrangements made, if you consent, to bring a large amount +of Southern produce through your lines. For its bearing on our finances, +I would be glad for this to be done, if it can be, without injuriously +disturbing your military operations, or supplying the enemy. I wish you +to be judge and master on these points. Please see and hear him fully, +and decide whether anything, and, if anything, what, can be done in the +premises. Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + +I believe I gave Hughes a card putting him with Singleton on the same +letter. However this may be, I now authorize you to get Singleton and +Hughes away from Richmond, if you choose, and can. I also authorize you, +by an order, or in what form you choose, to suspend all operations on the +Treasury trade permits, in all places southeastward of the Alleghenies. +If you make such order, notify me of it, giving a copy, so that I can give +corresponding direction to the Navy. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OFFERING PARDON TO DESERTERS, + +MARCH 11, 1865 + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, the twenty-first section of the act of Congress, approved on the +3d instant, entitled "An Act to amend the several acts heretofore passed +to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces and for +other purposes," requires that in addition to the other lawful penalties +of the crime of desertion from the military or naval service, all persons +who have deserted the military or naval service of the United States who +shall not return to said service or report themselves to a provost-marshal +within sixty days after the proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall +be deemed and taken to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their +citizenship and their right to become citizens, and such deserters shall +be forever incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the +United States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all +persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all +persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction of the +district in which they are enrolled, or go beyond the limits of the United +States with intent to avoid any draft into the military or naval service +duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of this section; and the +President is hereby authorized and required forthwith, on the passage of +this act, to issue his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this +section, in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all +deserters returning within sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be +pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and companies, or to +such other organizations as they may be assigned to, until they shall have +served for a period of time equal to their original term of enlistment: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do issue this my proclamation as required by said act, +ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; and +I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall within sixty days +from the date of this proclamation, viz., on or before the 10th day of +May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a provost-marshal, +shall be pardoned on condition that they return to their regiments or +companies or to such other organization as they may be assigned to, and +serve the remainder of their original terms of enlistment, and in addition +thereto a period equal to the time lost by desertion. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed............... + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. T. BLOW. + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1865. + +HON. HENRY T. BLOW, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +A Miss E. Snodgrass, who was banished from Saint Louis in May,1863, wishes +to take the oath and return home. What say you? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER TO THURLOW WEED, + +MARCH 15, 1865. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C. + +DEAR Mr. WEED: + +Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little +notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect the +latter to wear as well as perhaps better than--anything I have produced; +but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by +being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the +Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that +there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed +to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most +directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it. + +Truly yours, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL ROUGH AND OTHERS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 17, 1865. + +COL. R. M. ROUGH AND OTHERS, Chicago, Ill.: + +Yours received. The best I can do with it is, to refer it to the +War Department. The Rock Island case referred to, was my individual +enterprise; and it caused so much difficulty in so many ways that I +promised to never undertake another. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO AN INDIANA REGIMENT, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It will be but a very few words that I shall undertake +to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois; +and now I am here, where it is my business to care equally for the good +people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment on this +day able to present the captured flag to the Governor of Indiana. I am not +disposed, in saying this, to make a distinction between the States, for +all have done equally well. + +There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have +not said or written something whereby my own opinions might be known. +But there is one--the recent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are +sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. I have neither +written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was their +business, not mine, and if I had a wish on the subject, I had not the +power to introduce it, or make it effective. The great question with them +was whether the negro, being put into the army, will fight for them. I do +not know, and therefore cannot decide. They ought to know better than me. +I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be +slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it +will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for +that, ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at last, to take one out +of four of the slaves and put them in the army, and that one out of the +four who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a slave +himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often said that all +men ought to be free, yet would I allow those colored persons to be slaves +who want to be, and next to them those white people who argue in favor of +making other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an appointment to such +white men to try it on for these slaves. I will say one thing in regard +to the negroes being employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight +and stay at home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as +the other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of +having them try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that, and I +wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor +of allowing the negro to fight. But they cannot fight and work both. We +must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as +long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them they must allow him +to fight. They have drawn upon their last branch of resources, and we can +now see the bottom. I am glad to see the end so near at hand. I have said +now more than I intended, and will therefore bid you good-by. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING INDIANS, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas reliable information has been received that hostile Indians, +within the limits of the United States, have been furnished with arms and +munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign territory, +and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare upon the exposed +and sparse settlements of the frontier; + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all persons +detected in that nefarious traffic shall be arrested and tried by +court-martial at the nearest military post, and if convicted, shall +receive the punishment due to their deserts. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed................... + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ORDER ANNULLING THE SENTENCE + +AGAINST BENJAMIN G. SMITH AND FRANKLIN W. SMITH, + +MARCH 18, 1865. + + +I am unwilling for the sentence to stand, and be executed, to any extent +in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than the evidence +discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the existence of criminal +or fraudulent intent on the part of men of such well established good +character. If the evidence went as far to establish a guilty profit of one +or two hundred thousand dollars, as it does of one or two hundred dollars, +the case would, on the question of guilt, bear a far different aspect. +That on this contract, involving some twelve hundred thousand dollars, the +contractors would plan, and attempt to execute a fraud which, at the most, +could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand dollars, +is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That they did not, in +such a case, make far greater gains, proves that they did not, with +guilty or fraudulent intent, make at all. The judgment and sentence are +disapproved, and declared null, and the defendants are fully discharged. + + +A. LINCOLN March 18, 1865. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Understanding that the plan of action for Missouri contained in your +letter to the Governor of that State, and your other letter to me, is +concurred in by the Governor, it is approved by me, and you will be +sustained in proceeding upon it. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May [March] 20, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Army of the James + +Is it true that George W. Lane is detained at Norfolk without any charge +against him? And if so why is it done? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JUDGE SCATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 21, 1865. + +HON. WALTER B. SCATES, Centralia, Illinois: + +If you choose to go to New Mexico and reside, I will appoint you chief +justice there. What say you? Please answer. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 22, 1865. MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK, Winchester, Va.: + +Seeing your despatch about General Crook, and fearing that through +misapprehension something unpleasant may occur, I send you below two +despatches of General Grant, which I suppose will fully explain General +Crook's movements. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANOTHER FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 23, 1865. + +GENERAL DODGE, Commanding, &c, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Allow Mrs. R. S. Ewell the benefit of my amnesty proclamation on her +taking the oath. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 25, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C.: + +Arrived here all safe about 9 P.M. yesterday. No war news. General Grant +does not seem to know very much about Yeatman, but thinks very well of him +so far as he does know. + +I like Mr. Whiting very much, and hence would wish him to remain or resign +as best suits himself. Hearing this much from me, do as you think best in +the matter. General Lee has sent the Russell letter back, concluding, as +I understand from Grant, that their dignity does not admit of their +receiving the document from us. Robert just now tells me there was a +little rumpus up the line this morning, ending about where it began. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +(Cipher.) + +HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, March 25, 1865. (Received 5 P.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +I am here within five miles of the scene of this morning's action. I have +nothing to add to what General Meade reports except that I have seen +the prisoners myself and they look like there might be the number he +states--1600. + + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VA., March 26, 1865. (Received 11.30 A.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I approve your Fort Sumter programme. Grant don't seem to know Yeatman +very well, but thinks very well of him so far as he knows. Thinks it +probable that Y. is here now, for the place. I told you this yesterday +as well as that you should do as you think best about Mr. Whiting's +resignation, but I suppose you did not receive the dispatch. I am on the +boat and have no later war news than went to you last night. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 27, 1865.3.35 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +Yours inclosing Fort Sumter order received. I think of but one suggestion. +I feel quite confident that Sumter fell on the 13th, and not on the 14th +of April, as you have it. It fell on Saturday, the 13th; the first call +for troops on our part was got up on Sunday, the 14th, and given date and +issued on Monday, the 15th. Look up the old almanac and other data, and +see if I am not right. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 28, 1865. 12 M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: After your explanation, I think +it is little or no difference whether the Fort Sumter ceremony takes place +on the 13th or 14th. + +General Sherman tells me he is well acquainted with James Yeatman, and +that he thinks him almost the best man in the country for anything he will +undertake. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VA., March 30, 1865. 7.30 P.M. (Received 8.30 P.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I begin to feel that I ought to be at home and yet I dislike to leave +without seeing nearer to the end of General Grant's present movement. +He has now been out since yesterday morning and although he has not been +diverted from his programme no considerable effort has yet been produced +so far as we know here. Last night at 10.15 P. M. when it was dark as a +rainy night without a moon could be, a furious cannonade soon joined in by +a heavy musketry fire opened near Petersburg and lasted about two hours. +The sound was very distinct here as also were the flashes of the guns +up the clouds. It seemed to me a great battle, but the older hands here +scarcely noticed it and sure enough this morning it was found that very +little had been done. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 31, 1865. 3 P.M. + +SECRETARY STANTON: + +At 12.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphed me as follows: "There has +been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our left from near +Dabney's house back well toward the Boydton plank road. We are now about +to take the offensive at that point, and I hope will more than recover the +lost ground." + +Later he telegraphed again as follows: + +"Our troops, after being driven back to the Boydton plank road, turned and +drove the enemy in turn, and took the White Oak road, which we now have. +This gives us the ground occupied by the enemy this morning. I will send +you a rebel flag captured by our troops in driving the enemy back. There +have been four flags captured to-day." + +Judging by the two points from which General Grant telegraphs, I infer +that he moved his headquarters about one mile since he sent the first of +the two despatches. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours to Colonel Bowers about the Secretary of War is shown to me. He is +not here, nor have I any notice that he is coming. I presume the mistake +comes of the fact that the Secretary of State was here. He started back to +Washington this morning. I have your two despatches of this morning, and +am anxious to hear from Sheridan. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. 12.50 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +I have had two despatches from General Grant since my last to you, but +they contain little additional, except that Sheridan also had pretty hot +work yesterday, that infantry was sent to his support during the night, +and that he (Grant) has not since heard from Sheridan. + +Mrs. Lincoln has started home, and I will thank you to see that our +coachman is at the Arsenal wharf at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, there +to wait until she arrives. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +CITY POINT, VA., April, 1865. 5.30?.M. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +Despatch just received, showing that Sheridan, aided by Warren, had, at 2 +P.M., pushed the enemy back, so as to retake the Five Forks and bring his +own headquarters up to J. Boisseau's. The Five Forks were barricaded by +the enemy and carried by Devin's division of cavalry. This part of the +enemy seem to now be trying to work along the White Oak road, to join the +main force in front of Grant, while Sheridan and Warren are pressing them +as closely as possible. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours showing Sheridan's success of to-day is just received and highly +appreciated. Having no great deal to do here, I am still sending the +substance of your despatches to the Secretary of War. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. + +CITY POINT, VA., April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. (Received 9 A.M.) + +MRS. A. LINCOLN, Executive Mansion: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps had captured three brigades of infantry, a +train of wagons, and several batteries, prisoners amounting to several +thousand. This morning General Grant having ordered an attack along the +whole line telegraphs as follows. + +Robert yesterday wrote a little cheerful note to Captain Penrose, which is +all he has heard of him since you left. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAMS TO SECRETARY STANTON. CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2, 1865. 8.30 +A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan, with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps, had captured three brigades of infantry, a +train of wagons, and several batteries; the prisoners amounting to several +thousand. + +This morning General Grant, having ordered an attack along the whole line, +telegraphs as follows: + +"Both Wright and Parke got through the enemy's lines. The battle now +rages furiously. General Sheridan, with his cavalry, the Fifth corps, and +Miles's Division of the Second Corps, which was sent to him this morning, +is now sweeping down from the west. + +"All now looks highly favorable. General Ord is engaged, but I have not +yet heard the result in his front." + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, April 1. 11.00 A.M. + +Despatches are frequently coming in. All is going on finely. Generals +Parke, Wright, and Ord's lines are extending from the Appomattox to +Hatcher's Run. They have all broken through the enemy's intrenched lines, +taking some forts, guns, and prisoners. Sheridan, with his own cavalry, +the Fifth Corps, and part of the Second, is coming in from the west on the +enemy's flank. Wright is already tearing up the Southside Railroad. + + +A. LINCOLN + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 2 P.M. + +At 10.45 A.M. General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"Everything has been carried from the left of the Ninth Corps. The Sixth +Corps alone captured more than three thousand prisoners. The Second and +Twenty-fourth Corps captured forts, guns, and prisoners from the enemy, +but I cannot tell the numbers. We are now closing around the works of the +line immediately enveloping Petersburg. All looks remarkably well. I +have not yet heard from Sheridan. His headquarters have been moved up +to Banks's house, near the Boydton road, about three miles southwest of +Petersburg." + + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 8.30 P.M. + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"We are now up and have a continuous line of troops, and in a few hours +will be intrenched from the Appomattox below Petersburg to the river +above. The whole captures since the army started out will not amount to +less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of artillery. I +do not know the number of men and guns accurately, however. A portion of +Foster's Division, Twenty Fourth Corps, made a most gallant charge this +afternoon, and captured a very important fort from the enemy, with its +entire garrison. All seems well with us, and everything is quiet just +now." + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. CITY POINT, VA., April 1, 1865. + +MRS. LINCOLN: + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs that he has Petersburg +completely enveloped from river below to river above, and has captured, +since he started last Wednesday, about twelve thousand prisoners and fifty +guns. He suggests that I shall go out and see him in the morning, which I +think I will do. Tad and I are both well, and will be glad to see you and +your party here at the time you name. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +CITY POINT, April 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Allow me to tender to you and all with you the nation's grateful thanks +for this additional and magnificent success. At your kind suggestion I +think I will meet you to-morrow. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 3, 1865.8.30 A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +This morning Lieutenant-General Grant reports Petersburg evacuated, and he +is confident that Richmond also is. He is pushing forward to cut off, if +possible, the retreating rebel army. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VA., April 3, 1865. 5 P.M. + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to +Petersburg. Staid with General Grant an hour and a half and returned here. +It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I will go +there to-morrow. I will take care of myself. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VA., April 4, 1865 (Received 8.45 A.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +General Weitzel telegraphs from Richmond that of railroad stock he found +there twenty-eight locomotives, forty-four passenger and baggage cars, and +one hundred and six freight cars. At 3.30 this evening General Grant, +from Sutherland's Station, ten miles from Petersburg toward Burkevllle, +telegraphs as follows: + +"General Sheridan picked up twelve hundred prisoners to-day, and from +three hundred to five hundred more have been gathered by other troops. The +majority of the arms that were left in the hands of the remnant of Lee's +army are now scattered between Richmond and where his troops are. The +country is also full of stragglers; the line of retreat marked with +artillery, ammunition, burned or charred wagons, caissons, ambulances, +etc." + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +CITY POINT, APRIL 5, 1865. (Received 11.55 PM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF STATE: + +Yours of to-day received. I think there is no probability of my remaining +here more than two days longer. If that is too long come down. I passed +last night at Richmond and have just returned. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, in the Field: + +Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yesterday and seriously +injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. I was +at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge Campbell, +who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February, called on me, and +made such representations as induced me to put in his hands an informal +paper, repeating the propositions in my letter of instructions to Mr. +Seward, which you remember, and adding that if the war be now further +persisted in by the rebels, confiscated property shall at the least bear +the additional cost, and that confiscation shall be remitted to the people +of any State which will now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops +and other support from resistance to the Government. + +Judge Campbell thought it not impossible that the rebel legislature of +Virginia would do the latter if permitted; and accordingly I addressed a +private letter to General Weitzel, with permission to Judge Campbell to +see it, telling him (General Weitzel) that if they attempt this, to permit +and protect them, unless they attempt something hostile to the United +States, in which case to give them notice and time to leave, and to arrest +any remaining after such time. + +I do not think it very probable that anything win come of this, but I +have thought best to notify you so that if you should see signs you may +understand them. + +From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually +withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the Government. Nothing +that I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, or interfere +with your work. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. + +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the +legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion may now desire to +assemble at Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia troops and +other support from resistance to the General Government. If they attempt +it, give them permission and protection, until, if at all, they attempt +some action hostile to the United States, in which case you will notify +them, give them reasonable time to leave, and at the end of which time +arrest any who remain. Allow Judge Campbell to see this, but do not make +it public. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +CITY POINT, VA., April 7, 1865 (Received 10.30 AM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +At 11.15 P.M. yesterday at Burkesville Station, General Grant sends me the +following from General Sheridan: + +"April 6, 11.15 P.M. + +"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I have the honor to report that the enemy made a stand at the intersection +of the Burks Station road with the road upon which they were retreating. +I attacked them with two divisions of the Sixth Army Corps and routed them +handsomely, making a connection with the cavalry. I am still pressing on +with both cavalry and infantry. Up to the present time we have captured +Generals Ewell, Kershaw, Button, Corse, DeBare, and Custis Lee, several +thousand prisoners, fourteen pieces of artillery with caissons and a large +number of wagons. If the thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender. + +"P. H. SHERIDAN, + +"Major-General, Commanding." + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LET THE THING BE PRESSED. + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, + +CITY POINT, April 7, 11 A.M., 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Gen. Sheridan says: + +"If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender." + +Let the thing be pressed. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +NOTE ON A CARD TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +April 10, 1865. + +Tad wants some flags--can he be accommodated? + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A CALL, + +APRIL 10, 1865 + +If the company had assembled by appointment, some mistake had crept in +their understanding. He had appeared before a larger audience than this +one to-day, and he would repeat what he then said, namely, he supposed +owing to the great, good news, there would be some demonstration. He would +prefer to-morrow evening, when he should be quite willing, and he hoped +ready, to say something. He desired to be particular, because every thing +he said got into print. Occupying the position he did, a mistake would +produce harm, and therefore he wanted to be careful not to make a mistake. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. GORDON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 11, 1865. + +BRIG. GEN. G. H. GORDON, Norfolk, Va.: + +Send to me at once a full statement as to the cause or causes for which, +and by authority of what tribunal George W. Lane, Charles Whitlock, Ezra +Baler, J. M. Renshaw, and others are restrained of their liberty. Do this +promptly and fully. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLOSING CERTAIN PORTS, APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamations of the 19th and 27th days of April, A.D. 1861, +the ports of the United States in the States of Virginia, North Carolina, +South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and +Texas were declared to be subject to blockade; but + +Whereas the said blockade has, in consequence of actual military +occupation by this Government, since been conditionally set aside or +relaxed in respect to the ports of Norfolk and Alexandria, in the State +of Virginia; Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina; Port Royal, in +the State of South Carolina; Pensacola and Fernandina, in the State of +Florida; and New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana; and + +Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th +of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of +duties on imports, and for other purposes," the President, for the reasons +therein set forth, is authorized to close certain ports of entry: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of +the United States, do hereby proclaim that the ports of Richmond, +Tappahannock, Cherrystone, Yorktown, and Petersburg, in Virginia; of +Camden (Elizabeth City), Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Newbern, Ocracoke, +and Wilmington in North Carolina; of Charleston, Georgetown, and Beaufort, +in South Carolina; of Savannah, St. Marys, and Brunswick (Darien), in +Georgia; of Mobile, in Alabama; of Pearl River (Shieldsboro), Natchez and +Vicksburg, in Mississippi; of St. Augustine, Key West, St. Marks (Port +Leon), St. Johns (Jacksonville), and Apalachicola, in Florida; of Teche +(Franklin), in Louisiana; of Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago +(Point Isabel), and Brownsville, in Texas, are hereby closed, and all +right of importation, warehousing, and other privileges shall, in respect +to the ports aforesaid, cease until they shall have again been opened by +order of the President; and if while said parts are so closed any ship +or vessel from beyond the United States or having on board any articles +subject to duties shall attempt to enter any such port, the same, together +with its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, shall be forfeited to the +United States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the +United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D., 1865, +and of the independence of the United States of America, the eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF KEY WEST, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of this date the port of Key West, in the State +of Florida, was inadvertently included among those which are not open to +commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do hereby declare and make known that the said port of Key +West is and shall remain open to foreign and domestic commerce upon the +same conditions by which that commerce has there hitherto been governed. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D. 1865, and +of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLAIMING EQUALITY OF RIGHTS WITH ALL MARITIME NATIONS, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas for some time past vessels of war of the United States have been +refused in certain foreign ports, privileges and immunities to which they +were entitled by treaty, public law, or the community of nations, at the +same time that vessels of war of the country wherein the said +privileges and immunities have been withheld have enjoyed them fully and +uninterruptedly in ports of the United States, which condition of things +has not always been forcibly resisted by the United States, although, on +the other hand, they have not at any time failed to protest against and +declare their dissatisfaction with the same. In the view of the United +States, no condition any longer exists which can be claimed to justify the +denial to them by any one of such nations of customary naval rights as has +heretofore been so unnecessarily persisted in....... + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +hereby make known that if, after a reasonable time shall have elapsed for +intelligence of this proclamation to have reached any foreign country in +whose ports the said privileges and immunities shall have been refused as +aforesaid, they shall continue to be so refused, then and thenceforth the +same privileges and immunities shall be refused to the vessels of war of +that country in the ports of the United States, and this refusal shall +continue until war vessels of the United States shall have been placed +upon an entire equality in the foreign ports aforesaid with similar +vessels of other countries. The United States, whatever claim or pretense +may have existed heretofore, are now, at least, entitled to claim and +concede an entire and friendly equality of rights and hospitalities with +all maritime nations. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.................. + + +A. LINCOLN. + +By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS, + +APRIL 11, 1865 + +FELLOW-CITIZENS--We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of +heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the +principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose +joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He +from whom blessings flow must not be forgotten. + +A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly +promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of +rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with +others. I myself was near the front, and had the pleasure of transmitting +much of the good news to you. But no part of the honor for plan or +execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers, and brave men, +all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take +active part. By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national +authority--reconstruction which has had a large share of thought from the +first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with +great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there +is no authorized organ for us to treat with--no one man has authority to +give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with +and mould from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small +additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves +as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, +I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, Wishing not to +be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite +of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much +censured for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the +new State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much and no +more than the public knows. In the Annual Message of December, 1863, and +the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction, +as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, would be +acceptable to and sustained by the Executive Government of the nation. I +distinctly stated that this was not the only plan that might possibly be +acceptable, and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed +no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats in +Congress from such States. This plan was in advance submitted to the then +Cabinet, and approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I +should then and in that connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to +the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should +drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I +should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the admission +of members of Congress. But even he approved every part and parcel of the +plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. +The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole +State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously +excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and is +silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members +to Congress. So that, as it applied to Louisiana, every member of the +Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I +received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not +a single objection to it from any professed emancipationist came to my +knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of +Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862, +I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested in +seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the +message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans, +General Banks wrote me that he was confident that the people, with his +military co-operation, would reconstruct substantially on that plan. I +wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and the result +is known. Such has been my only agency in getting up the Louisiana +government. As to sustaining it my promise is out, as before stated. But, +as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad +promise and break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is +adverse to the public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I +have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, +in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be +definitely fixed upon the question whether the seceded States, so called, +are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment to +his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men +endeavoring to answer that question, I have purposely forborne any public +expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been nor yet +is a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it +thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the +mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may become, +that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing +at all--a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded +States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the +Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in +regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper practical +relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to +do this without deciding or even considering whether those States have +ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at +home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had been abroad. Let +us all join in doing the acts necessary to restore the proper practical +relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after +innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts he +brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper +assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency, +so to speak, on which the Louisiana government rests, would be more +satisfactory to all if it contained fifty thousand, or thirty thousand, or +even twenty thousand, instead of twelve thousand, as it does. It is also +unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the +colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very +intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the +question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite +all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be wiser to take it as +it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse? Can Louisiana be +brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining +or by discarding her new State government? Some twelve thousand voters +in the heretofore Slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the +Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, +held elections, organized a State government, adopted a Free State +constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and +white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise +upon the colored man. This Legislature has already voted to ratify the +Constitutional Amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery +throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully +committed to the Union and to perpetuate freedom in the State--committed +to the very things, and nearly all things, the nation wants--and they ask +the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good this committal. +Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and +disperse them. We, in fact, say to the white man: You are worthless or +worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we +say: This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, held to your +lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the +spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, +and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, +has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with +the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, +we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse +of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of +twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte +for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a +complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is +inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring to the same end. Grant +that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by +saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward +over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what +it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by +hatching the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we +also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the National +Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more +than three fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are +necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against +this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, +and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three +fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. +I repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical +relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new +State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply to other +States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such +important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new +and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan +can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive +and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important +principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation as the +phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people +of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied +that action will be proper. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1865. MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch to Colonel Hardie about the matter of prayers. +I do not remember hearing prayers spoken of while I was in Richmond; but I +have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you to be the spirit +and temper manifested by me while there. Is there any sign of the rebel +legislature coming together on the understanding of my letter to you? If +there is any such sign, inform me what it is; if there is no such sign, +you may withdraw the offer. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have just seen Judge Campbell's letter to you of the 7th. He assumes, +as appears to me, that I have called the insurgent legislature of +Virginia together, as the rightful legislature of the State, to settle all +differences with the United States. I have done no such thing. I spoke of +them, not as a legislature, but as "the gentlemen who have acted as +the legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion." I did this +on purpose to exclude the assumption that I was recognizing them as a +rightful body. I deal with them as men having power de facto to do a +specific thing, to wit: "To withdraw the Virginia troops and other support +from resistance to the General Government," for which, in the paper handed +Judge Campbell, I promised a specific equivalent, to wit: a remission to +the people of the State, except in certain cases, of the confiscation of +their property. I meant this, and no more. Inasmuch, however, as Judge +Campbell misconstrues this, and is still pressing for an armistice, +contrary to the explicit statement of the paper I gave him, and +particularly as General Grant has since captured the Virginia troops, so +that giving a consideration for their withdrawal is no longer applicable, +let my letter to you and the paper to Judge Campbell both be withdrawn, +or countermanded, and he be notified of it. Do not now allow them to +assemble, but if any have come, allow them safe return to their homes. + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH SCHUYLER COLFAX ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 14, 1865. + +Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from me to the miners whom you +visit. I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I +believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the Western +country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development +has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of +millions of dollars every day to our national debt, I did not care about +encouraging the increase in the volume of our precious metals. We had the +country to save first. But now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we +know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and +silver we mine, we make the payment of that debt so much the easier. +"Now," said he, speaking with more emphasis, "I am going to encourage that +in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded +soldiers, and many have feared that their return home in such great +numbers might paralyze industry, by furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply +of labor than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them +to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough +for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon +our shores hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded Europe. +I intend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for them in the +West. Tell the miners for me, that I shall promote their interests to the +utmost of my ability; because their prosperity is the prosperity of the +nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, "we shall prove, +in a very few years, that we are indeed the treasury of the world." + + + + +TO GENERAL VAN ALLEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 14, 1865 + +GENERAL VAN ALLEN: + +I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precaution.... +I thank you for the assurance you give me that I shall be supported by +conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may make to restore the +Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a Union of hearts and hands +as well as of States. + +Yours truly, + + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS + +Allow Mr. Ashmer and friend to come in at 9 A.M. to-morrow. + + +A. LINCOLN. April 14, 1865 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham +Lincoln, Volume Seven, by Abraham Lincoln + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 2659.txt or 2659.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/2659/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d41bbb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #2659 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2659) diff --git a/old/20060816.2659.txt b/old/20060816.2659.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c98314d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20060816.2659.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12844 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 7, +1863-1865, by Abraham Lincoln + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 7, 1863-1865 + +Author: Abraham Lincoln + +Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #2659] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +Volume Seven + +1863-1865 + + +CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + + + + +OPINION ON THE LOSS OF +GENERAL R. H. MILROY'S DIVISION. + +October 27, 1863. + +In June last a division was substantially lost at or near Winchester, +Va. At the time, it was under General Milroy as immediate commander +in the field, General Schenck as department commander at Baltimore, +and General Halleck as general-in-chief at Washington. + +General Milroy, as immediate commander, was put in arrest, and +subsequently a court of inquiry examined chiefly with reference to +disobedience of orders, and reported the evidence. + +The foregoing is a synoptical statement of the evidence, together +with the judge-advocate-general's conclusions. The disaster, when it +came, was a surprise to all. It was very well known to Generals +Shenck and Milroy for some time before, that General Halleck thought +the division was in great danger of a surprise at Winchester; that it +was of no service commensurate with the risk it incurred, and that it +ought to be withdrawn; but, although he more than once advised its +withdrawal, he never positively ordered it. General Schenck, on the +contrary, believed the service of the force at Winchester was worth +the hazard, and so did not positively order its withdrawal until it +was so late that the enemy cut the wire and prevented the order +reaching General Milroy. + +General Milroy seems to have concurred with General Schenck in the +opinion that the force should be kept at Winchester at least until +the approach of danger, but he disobeyed no order upon the subject. + +Some question can be made whether some of General Halleck's +dispatches to General Schenk should not have been construed to be +orders to withdraw the force, and obeyed accordingly; but no such +question can be made against General Milroy. In fact, the last order +he received was to be prepared to withdraw, but not to actually +withdraw until further order, which further order never reached him. + +Serious blame is not necessarily due to any serious disaster, and I +cannot say that in this case any of the officers are deserving of +serious blame. No court-martial is deemed necessary or proper in the +case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + +Private and confidential + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, October 28, 1863. + +GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD: + +There have recently reached the War Department, and thence been laid +before me, from Missouri, three communications, all similar in import +and identical in object. One of them, addressed to nobody, and +without place or date, but having the signature of (apparently) the +writer, is a letter of eight closely written foolscap pages. The +other two are written by a different person, at St. Joseph, Mo., and +of the dates, respectively, October 12 and 13, 1863, and each +inclosing a large number of affidavits. The general statements of +the whole are that the Federal and State authorities are arming the +disloyal and disarming the loyal, and that the latter will all be +killed or driven out of the State unless there shall be a change. In +particular, no loyal man who has been disarmed is named, but the +affidavits show by name forty-two persons as disloyal who have been +armed. They are as follows: [The names are omitted.] + +A majority of these are shown to have been in the rebel service. I +believe it could be shown that the government here has deliberately +armed more than ten times as many captured at Gettysburg, to say +nothing of similar operations in East Tennessee. These papers +contain altogether thirty--one manuscript pages, and one newspaper in +extenso, and yet I do not find it anywhere charged in them that any +loyal man has been harmed by reason of being disarmed, or that any +disloyal one has harmed anybody by reason of being armed by the +Federal or State Government. Of course, I have not had time to +carefully examine all; but I have had most of them examined and +briefed by others, and the result is as stated. The remarkable fact +that the actual evil is yet only anticipated--inferred--induces me to +suppose I understand the case; but I do not state my impression, +because I might be mistaken, and because your duty and mine is plain +in any event. The locality of nearly all this seems to be St. +Joseph and Buchanan County. I wish you to give special attention to +this region, particularly on election day. Prevent violence from +whatever quarter, and see that the soldiers themselves do no wrong. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 28, 1863. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: +If not too inconvenient, please come at once and have a personal +conversation with me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO VICE-PRESIDENT HAMLIN. + +AN ACT TO REGULATE THE DUTIES OF THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES IN PREPARING FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. + +Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States of America in Congress assembled, that, before the +first meeting of the next Congress, and of every subsequent Congress, +the clerk of the next preceding House of Representatives shall make a +roll of the Representatives elect, and place thereon the names of all +persons, and of such persons only, whose credentials show that they +were regularly elected in accordance with the laws of their States +respectively, or the laws of the United States. + +Approved March 3, 1863. + + + + +TO J. W. GRIMES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 1863. + +HON. JAMES W. GRIMES. + +MY DEAR SIR:--The above act of Congress was passed, as I suppose, +for the purpose of shutting out improper applicants for seats in the +House of Representatives; and I fear there is some danger that it +will be used to shut out proper ones. Iowa, having an entire Union +delegation, will be one of the States the attempt will be made, if +upon any. The Governor doubtless has made out the certificates, and +they are already in the hands of the members. I suggest that they +come on with them; but that, for greater caution, you, and perhaps +Mr. Harlan with you, consult with the Governor, and have an +additional set made out according to the form on the other half of +this sheet; and still another set, if you can, by studying the law, +think of a form that in your judgment, promises additional security, +and quietly bring the whole on with you, to be used in case of +necessity. Let what you do be kept still. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO P. F. LOWE. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +HON. F. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Below is an act of Congress, passed last session, intended to exclude +applicants not entitled to seats, but which, there is reason to fear, +will be used to exclude some who are entitled. Please get with the +Governor and one or two other discreet friends, study the act +carefully, and make certificates in two or three forms, according to +your best judgement, and have them sent to me, so as to multiply the +chances of the delegation getting their seats. Let it be done +without publicity. Below is a form which may answer for one. If you +could procure the same to be done for the Oregon member it might be +well. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Much obliged for the information about deserters contained in your +dispatch of yesterday, while I have to beg your pardon for troubling +you in regard to some of them, when, as it appears by yours, I had +the means of answering my own questions. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, October 31, 1863. + +The Provost-Marshal-General has issued no proclamation at all. He +has in no form announced anything recently in regard to troops in New +York, except in his letter to Governor Seymour of October 21, which +has been published in the newspapers of that State. It has not been +announced or decided in any form by the Provost-Marshal-General, or +any one else in authority of the Government, that every citizen who +has paid his three hundred dollars commutation is liable to be +immediately drafted again, or that towns that have just raised the +money to pay their quotas will have again to be subject to similar +taxation or suffer the operations of the new conscription, nor it is +probable that the like of them ever will be announced or decided. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 1, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N.Y.: + +No important news. Details of Hooker's night fight do great credit +to his command, and particularly to the Eleventh Corps and Geary's +part of the Twelfth. No discredit on any. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Some days ago I understood you to say that your +brother, General Frank Blair, desires to be guided by my wishes as to +whether he will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. +My wish, then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for the +country; and it is that he will come here, put his military +commission in my hands, take his seat, go into caucus with our +friends, abide the nominations, help elect the nominees, and thus aid +to organize a House of Representatives which will really support the +Government in the war. If the result shall be the election of +himself as Speaker, let him serve in that position. If not, let him +retake his commission and return to the army for the benefit of the +country. + +This will heal a dangerous schism for him. It will relieve him from +a dangerous position or a misunderstanding, as I think he is in +danger of being permanently separated from those with whom only he +can ever have a real sympathy--the sincere opponents of slavery. + +It will be a mistake if he shall allow the provocations offered him +by insincere time-servers to drive him from the house of his own +building. He is young yet. He has abundant talents--quite enough to +occupy all his time without devoting any to temper. + +He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His recent +appointment to the command of a corps, by one so competent to judge +as General Sherman, proves this. In that line he can serve both the +country and himself more profitably than he could as a member of +Congress upon the floor. + +The foregoing is what I would say if Frank Blair was my brother +instead of yours. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR BRADFORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +His EXCELLENCY A. W. BRADFORD, Governor of Maryland. + +SIR:--Yours of the 31st ult. was received yesterday about noon, and +since then I have been giving most earnest attention to the +subject-matter of it. At my call General Schenck has attended, and he +assures me it is almost certain that violence will be used at some of +the voting places on election day unless prevented by his +provost-guards. He says that at some of those places Union voters will +not attend at all, or run a ticket, unless they have some assurance of +protection. This makes the Missouri case, of my action in regard to +which you express your approval. + +The remaining point of your letter is a protest against any person +offering to vote being put to any test not found in the laws of +Maryland. This brings us to a difference between Missouri and +Maryland. With the same reason in both States, Missouri has, by law, +provided a test for the voter with reference to the present +rebellion, while Maryland has not. For example, General Trimble, +captured fighting us at Gettysburg, is, without recanting his +treason, a legal voter by the laws of Maryland. Even General +Schenck's order admits him to vote, if he recants upon oath. I think +that is cheap enough. My order in Missouri, which you approve, and +General Scherick's order here, reach precisely the same end. Bach +assures the right of voting to all loyal men, and whether a man is +loyal, each allows that man to fix by his own oath. Your suggestion +that nearly all the candidates are loyal, I do not think quite meets +the case. In this struggle for the nation's life, I cannot so +confidently rely on those whose elections may have depended upon +disloyal votes. Such men, when elected, may prove true; but such +votes are given them in the expectation that they will prove false. + +Nor do I think that to keep the peace at the polls, and to prevent +the persistently disloyal from voting, constitutes just cause of +offense to Maryland. I think she has her own example for it. If I +mistake not, it is precisely what General Dix did when your +Excellency was elected Governor. + +I revoke the first of the three propositions in General Schenek's +General Order No. 53; not that it is wrong in principle, but because +the military, being of necessity exclusive judges as to who shall be +arrested, the provision is too liable to abuse. For the revoked part +I substitute the following: + +That, all provost-marshals and other military officers do prevent all +disturbance and violence at or about the polls, whether offered by +such persons as above described, or by any other person or persons +whomsoever. + +The other two propositions of the order I allow to stand. General +Schenek is fully determined, and has my strict orders besides, that +all loyal men may vote, and vote for whom they please. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. H. HACKETT +[Private.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 2, 1863. + +JAMES H. HACKETT. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of October 22d is received, as also was, in due +course, that of October 3d. I look forward with pleasure to the +fulfillment of the promise made in the former to visit Washington the +following winter and to "call." + +Give yourself no uneasiness on the subject mentioned in that +of the 22d. My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in +print, yet I have not been much shocked by the newspaper comments +upon it. + +Those comments constitute a fair specimen of what has occurred +to me through life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule, without +much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness not quite +free from ridicule. I am used to it. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, November 3, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N. Y.: + +Nothing new. Dispatches up to 12 last night from Chattanooga show +all quiet and doing well. How is your son? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 3, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Samuel Wellers, private in Company B, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania +Volunteers, writes that he is to be shot for desertion on the 6th +instant. His own story is rather a bad one, and yet he tells it so +frankly, that I am somewhat interested in him. Has he been a good +soldier except the desertion? About how old is he? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE, MANSION +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 5, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Please suspend the execution of Samuel Wellers, Forty-ninth +Pennsylvania Volunteers, until further orders. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863.4 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Have seen dispatch from General Grant about your loss at Rogersville. +Per contra, about the same time, Averell and Duffle got considerable +advantage of the enemy at and about Lewisburg, Virginia: and on +Saturday, the seventh, Meade drove the enemy from Rappahannock +Station and Kelly's Ford, capturing eight battle-flags, four guns, +and over 1800 prisoners, with very little loss to himself. Let me +hear from you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. +WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863 7.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +I have seen your dispatches about operations on the Rappahannock on +Saturday, and I wish to say, "Well done!" Do the 1500 prisoners +reported by General Sedgwick include the 400 taken by General French, +or do the Whole amount to 1900? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXPORT OF TOBACCO PURCHASED BY FOREIGN NATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, November 10, 1863. + +In consideration of the peculiar circumstances and pursuant to the +comity deemed to be due to friendly powers, any tobacco in the United +States belonging to the government either of France, Austria, or any +other state with which this country is at peace, and which tobacco +was purchased and paid for by such government prior to the 4th day of +March, 1861, may be exported from any port of the United States under +the supervision and upon the responsibility of naval officers of such +governments and in conformity to such regulations as may be presented +by the Secretary of State of the United States, and not otherwise. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 10, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + + I see a dispatch here from Saint Louis, which is a little difficult +for me to understand. It says "General Schofield has refused leave +of absence to members in military service to attend the legislature. +All such are radical and administration men. The election of two +Senators from this place on Thursday will probably turn upon this +thing." what does this mean? Of course members of the legislation +must be allowed to attend its sessions. But how is there a session +before the recent election returns are in? And how is it to be at +"this place"--and that is Saint Louis? Please inform me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +I believe the Secretary of War has telegraphed you about members of +the legislation. At all events, allow those in the service to attend +the session, and we can afterward decide whether they can stay +through the entire session. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HIRAM BARNEY. + [Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +HON. HIRAM BARNEY, New York; +I would like an interview with you. Can you not come? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. MILDERBORGER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +JOHN MILDERBORGER, Peru, Ind.: + +I cannot comprehend the object of your dispatch. I do not often +decline seeing people who call upon me, and probably will see you if +you call. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM to E. H. AND E. JAMESON. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 13, 1863. + +E. H. and E. JAMESON, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Yours saying Brown and Henderson are elected Senators is received. I +understand this is one and one. If so it is knocking heads together +to some. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1863. 12.15 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Cincinnati, Ohio: + +I have received and considered your dispatch of yesterday. Of the +reports you mention, I have not the means of seeing any except your +own. Besides this, the publication might be improper in view of the +court of inquiry which has been ordered. With every disposition, not +merely to do justice, but to oblige you, I feel constrained to say I +think the publications better not be made now. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, November 16, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +What is the news? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 17, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I expected to see you here at Cabinet meeting, and to +say something about going to Gettysburg. There will be a train to +take and return us. The time for starting is not yet fixed, but when +it shall be I will notify you. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG + +NOVEMBER 19, 1863. + +Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation +or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here +gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether +fitting and proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate +--we can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add +or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we +say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us +the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which +they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather +for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us +--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause +for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here +highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this +nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that +government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not +perish from the earth. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +If there is a man by the name of King under sentence to be shot, +please suspend execution till further order, and send record. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +An intelligent woman in deep distress, called this morning, saying +her husband, a lieutenant in the Army of Potomac, was to be shot next +Monday for desertion, and putting a letter in my hand, upon which I +relied for particulars, she left without mentioning a name or other +particular by which to identify the case. On opening the letter I +found it equally vague, having nothing to identify by, except her own +signature, which seems to be "Mrs. Anna S. King." I could not again +find her. If you have a case which you shall think is probably the +one intended, please apply my dispatch of this morning to it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. P. EVANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +E. P. EVANS, West Union, Adams County, Ohio: + +Yours to Governor Chase in behalf of John A Welch is before me. Can +there be a worse case than to desert and with letters persuading +others to desert? I cannot interpose without a better showing than +you make. When did he desert? when did he write the letters? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Two despatches since I saw you; one not quite so late +on firing as we had before, but giving the points that Burnside +thinks he can hold the place, that he is not closely invested, and +that he forages across the river. The other brings the firing up to +11 A.M. yesterday, being twenty-three hours later than we had before. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. +WASHINGTON, November 25, 1863. 8.40 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL U.S. GRANT: + +Your despatches as to fighting on Monday and Tuesday are here. Well +done! Many thanks to all. Remember Burnside. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO C. P. KIRKLAND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 7, 1863. + +CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, ESQ., New York: + +I have just received and have read your published letter to the HON. +Benjamin R. Curtis. Under the circumstances I may not be the most +competent judge, but it appears to me to be a paper of great ability, +and for the country's sake more than for my own I thank you for it. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF UNION SUCCESS IN EAST TENNESSEE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., +December 7, 1863. + +Reliable information being received that the insurgent force is +retreating from East Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it +probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from +that important position; and esteeming this to be of high national +consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this +information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special +homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of +the national cause. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION +DECEMBER 8, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas in and by the Constitution of the United States it is +provided that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and +pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of +impeachment;" and, + +Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of +several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons +have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United +States; and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been +enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of +property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions +therein stated, and also declaring that the President was thereby +authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to +persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any +State or part thereof pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at +such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the +public welfare; and + +Whereas the Congressional declaration for limited and conditional +pardon accords with well-established judicial exposition of the +pardoning power; and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the +United States has issued several proclamations with provisions in +regard to the liberation of slaves; and + +Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said +rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States and to +reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective +States: + +Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly +or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as +hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them +and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except +as to slaves and in property cases where rights of third parties +shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person +shall take and subscribe an oath and thenceforward keep and maintain +said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for permanent +preservation and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit: + +"I, ________, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I +will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the +Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States +thereunder; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully +support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion +with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, +modified, or held void by Congress or by decision of the Supreme +Court; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support +all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion +having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or +declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God." + +The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions +are all who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers or +agents of the so-called Confederate Government; all who have left +judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all +who are or shall have been military or naval officers of said +so-called Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in the army +or of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States +Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the +Army or Navy of the United States and afterwards aided the rebellion; +and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or +white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners +of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States +service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity. + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in +any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, +Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North +Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of +the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of the year +A.D. 1860, each having taken oath aforesaid, and not having since +violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the +State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and +excluding all others, shall reestablish a State government which +shall be republican and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall +be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State +shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision +which declares that "the United States shall guarantee to every State +in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each +of them against invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or +the EXECUTIVE (when the legislature can not be convened), against +domestic violence." + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision +which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the +freed people of such State which shall recognize and declare their +permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be +consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as +a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by +the National EXECUTIVE. + +And it is suggested as not improper that in constructing a loyal +State government in any State the name of the State, the boundary, +the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws as +before the rebellion be maintained, subject only to the modifications +made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such +others, if any, not contravening said co and which may be deemed +expedient by those framing the new State government. + +To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this +proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has no +reference to States wherein loyal State governments have all the +while been maintained. And for the same reason it may be proper to +further say that whether members sent to Congress from any State +shall be admitted to seats constitutionally rests exclusively with +the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the EXECUTIVE. And, +still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the +people of the States wherein the national authority has been +suspended and loyal State governments have been subverted a mode in +and by which the national authority and loyal State governments may +be re-established within said States or in any of them; and while the +mode presented is the best the EXECUTIVE can suggest, with his +present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible +mode would be acceptable. + +Given under my hand at the city of WASHINGTON, the 8th day of +December, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of +America the eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 8, 1863. + + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES:--Another year of health, and of sufficiently +abundant harvests, has passed. For these, and especially for the +improved condition cf our national affairs, our renewed and +profoundest gratitude to God is due. + +We remain in peace and friendship with foreign powers. + +The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us +in foreign wars, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been +unavailing. Her Britannic Majesty's government, as was justly +expected, have exercised their authority to prevent the departure of +new hostile expeditions from British ports. The Emperor of France +has, by a like proceeding, promptly vindicated the neutrality which +he proclaimed at the beginning of the contest. Questions of great +intricacy and importance have arisen out of the blockade, and other +belligerent operations, between the Government and several of the +maritime powers, but they have been discussed, and, as far as was +possible, accommodated, in a spirit of frankness, justice, and mutual +good-will. It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by the +impartiality of their adjudications, have commanded the respect and +confidence of maritime powers. + +The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain +for the suppression of the African slave-trade, made on the 17th day +of February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. +It is believed that, so far as American ports and American citizens +are concerned, that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an +end. + +I shall submit, for the consideration of the Senate, a convention for +the adjustment of possessory claims in Washington Territory, arising +out of the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, between the United +States and Great Britain, and which have been the source of some +disquiet among the citizens of that now rapidly improving part of the +country. + +A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime +jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the island of +Cuba, has been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is +proposed, in an amicable spirit, to refer it to the arbitrament of a +friendly power. A convention for that purpose will be submitted to +the Senate. + +I have thought it proper, subject to the approval of the Senate, to +concur with the interested commercial powers in an arrangement for +the liquidation of the Scheldt dues upon the principles which have +been heretofore adopted in regard to the imposts upon navigation in +the waters of Denmark. + +The long-pending controversy between this government and that of +Chile touching the seizure at Sitana, in Peru, by Chilean officers, +of a large amount in treasure belonging to citizens of the United +States has been brought to a close by the award of His Majesty the +King of the Belgians, to whose arbitration the question was referred +by the parties. The subject was thoroughly and patiently examined by +that justly respected magistrate, and although the sum awarded to the +claimants may not have been as large as they expected there is no +reason to distrust the wisdom of His Majesty's decision. That +decision was promptly complied with by Chile when intelligence in +regard to it reached that country. + +The joint commission under the act of the last session of carrying +into effect the convention with Peru on the subject of claims has +been organized at Lima, and is engaged in the business intrusted to +it. + +Difficulties concerning interoceanic transit through Nicaragua are in +course of amicable adjustment. + +In conformity with principles set forth in my last annual message, I +have received a representative from the United States of Colombia, +and have accredited a minister to that Republic. + +Incidents occurring in the progress of our civil war have forced upon +my attention the uncertain state of international questions touching +the rights of foreigners in this country and of United States +citizens abroad. In regard to some governments these rights are at +least partially defined by treaties. In no instance, however, is it +expressly stipulated that in the event of civil war a foreigner +residing in this country within the lines of the insurgents is to be +exempted from the rule which classes him as a belligerent, in whose +behalf the government of his country can not expect any privileges or +immunities distinct from that character. I regret to say, however, +that such claims have been put forward, and in some instances in +behalf of foreigners who have lived in the United States the greater +part of their lives. + +There is reason to believe that many persons born in foreign +countries who have declared their intention to become citizens, +or who have been fully naturalized have evaded the military duty +required of them by denying the fact and thereby throwing upon the +Government the burden of proof. It has been found difficult or +impracticable to obtain this proof from the want of guides to the +proper sources of information. These might be supplied by requiring +clerks of courts where declarations of intention may be made or +naturalizations effected to send periodically lists of the names of +the persons naturalized or declaring their intention to become +citizens to the Secretary of the Interior, in whose Department those +names might be arranged and printed for general information. + +There is also reason to believe that foreigners frequently become +citizens of the United States for the sole purpose of evading duties +imposed by the laws of their native countries, to which on becoming +naturalized here they at once repair, and though never returning to +the United States they still claim the interposition of this +government as citizens. Many altercations and great prejudices have +heretofore arisen out of this abuse. It is therefore submitted to +your serious consideration. It might be advisable to fix a limit +beyond which no citizen of the United States residing abroad may +claim the interposition of his government. + +The right of suffrage has often been assumed and exercised by aliens +under pretenses of naturalization, which they have disavowed when +drafted into the military service. I submit the expediency of such +an amendment of the law as will make the fact of voting an estoppe +against any plea of exemption from military service or other civil +obligation on the ground of alienage. + +In common with other Western powers, our relations with Japan have +been brought into serious jeopardy through the perverse opposition of +the hereditary aristocracy of the Empire to the enlightened and +liberal policy of the Tycoon, designed to bring the country into the +society of nations. It is hoped, although not with entire +confidence, that these difficulties may be peacefully overcome. I +ask your attention to the claim of the minister residing there for +the damages he sustained in the destruction by fire of the residence +of the legation at Yedo. + +Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the Emperor of Russia, +which, it is believed, will result in effecting a continuous line of +telegraph through that Empire from our Pacific coast. + +I recommend to your favorable consideration the subject of an +international telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, and also of a +telegraph between this capital and the national forts along the +Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Such communications, +established with any reasonable outlay, would be economical as well +as effective aids to the diplomatic, military, and naval service. + +The consular system of the United States, under the enactments of the +last Congress, begins to be self-sustaining, and there is reason to +hope that it may become entirely so with the increase of trade which +will ensue whenever peace is restored. Our ministers abroad have +been faithful in defending American rights. In protecting commercial +interests our consuls have necessarily had to encounter increased +labors and responsibilities growing out of the war. These they have +for the most part met and discharged with zeal and efficiency. This +acknowledgment justly includes those consuls who, residing in +Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, China, and other Oriental countries, +are charged with complex functions and extraordinary powers. + +The condition of the several organized Territories is generally +satisfactory, although Indian disturbances in New Mexico have not +been entirely suppressed. The mineral resources of Colorado, Nevada, +Idaho, New Mexico, and Arizona are proving far richer than has been +heretofore understood. I lay before you a communication on this +subject from the Governor of New Mexico. I again submit to your +consideration the expediency of establishing a system for the +encouragement of immigration. Although this source of national +wealth and strength is again flowing with greater freedom than for +several years before the insurrection occurred, there is still a +great deficiency of laborers in every field of industry, especially +in agriculture and in our mines, as well of iron and coal as of the +precious metals. While the demand for labor is much increased here, +tens of thousands of persons, destitute of remunerative occupation, +are thronging our foreign consulates and offering to emigrate to the +United States if essential, but very cheap, assistance can be +afforded them. It is easy to see that under the sharp discipline of +civil war the nation is beginning a new life. This noble effort +demands the aid and ought to receive the attention and support of the +Government. + +Injuries unforeseen by the Government and unintended may in some +cases have been inflicted on the subjects or citizens of foreign +countries, both at sea and on land, by persons in the service of the +United States. As this government expects redress from other powers +when similar injuries are inflicted by persons in their service upon +citizens of the United States, we must be prepared to do justice to +foreigners. If the existing judicial tribunals are inadequate to +this purpose, a special court may be authorized, with power to hear +and decide such claims of the character referred to as may have +arisen under treaties and the public law. Conventions for adjusting +the claims by joint commission have been proposed to some +governments, but no definitive answer to the proposition has yet been +received from any. + +In the course of the session I shall probably have occasion to +request you to provide indemnification to claimants where decrees of +restitution have been rendered and damages awarded by admiralty +courts, and in other cases where this government may be acknowledged +to be liable in principle and where the amount of that liability has +been ascertained by an informal arbitration. + +The proper officers of the Treasury have deemed themselves required +by the law of the United States upon the subject to demand a tax upon +the incomes of foreign consuls in this country. While such a demand +may not in strictness be in derogation of public law, or perhaps of +any existing treaty between the United States and a foreign country, +the expediency of so far modifying the act as to exempt from tax the +income of such consuls as are not citizens of the United States, +derived from the emoluments of their office or from property not +situated in the United States, is submitted to your serious +consideration. I make this suggestion upon the ground that a comity +which ought to be reciprocated exempts our consuls in all other +countries from taxation to the extent thus indicated. The United +States, I think, ought not to be exceptionally illiberal to +international trade and commerce. + +The operations of the Treasury during the last year have been +successfully conducted. The enactment by Congress of a national +banking law has proved a valuable support of the public credit, and +the general legislation in relation to loans has fully answered the +expectations of its favorers. Some amendments may be required to +perfect existing laws, but no change in their principles or general +scope is believed to be needed. + +Since these measures have been in operation all demands on the +Treasury, including the pay of the Army and Navy, have been promptly +met and fully satisfied. No considerable body of troops, it is +believed, were ever more amply provided and more liberally and +punctually paid, and it may be added that by no people were the +burdens incident to a great war ever more cheerfully borne. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, including loans and +balance in the Treasury at its commencement, were $901,125,674.86, +and the aggregate disbursements $895,796,630.65, leaving a balance on +the 1st of July, 1863, of $5,329,044.21. Of the receipts there were +derived from customs $69,059,642.40, from internal revenue +$37,640,787.95, from direct tax $1,485,103.61, from lands +$167,617.17, from miscellaneous sources $3,046,615.35, and from loans +$776,682,361.57, making the aggregate $901,125,674.86. Of the +disbursements there were for the civil service $23,253,922.08, for +pensions and Indians $4,216,520.79, for interest on public debt +$24,729,846.51, for the War Department $599,298,600.83, for the Navy +Department $63,211,105.27, for payment of funded and temporary debt +$181,086,635.07, making the aggregate $895,796,630.65 and leaving the +balance of $5,329,044.21. But the payment of funded and temporary +debt, having been made from moneys borrowed during the year, must be +regarded as merely nominal payments and the moneys borrowed to make +them as merely nominal receipts, and their amount, $181,086,635.07, +should therefore be deducted both from receipts and disbursements. +This being done there remains as actual receipts $720,039,039.79 and +the actual disbursements $714,709,995.58, leaving the balance as +already stated. + +The actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the +estimated receipts and disbursements for the remaining three-quarters +of the current fiscal year (1864) will be shown in detail by the +report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to which I invite your +attention. It is sufficient to say here that it is not believed +that actual results will exhibit a state of the finances less +favorable to the country than the estimates of that officer +heretofore submitted while it is confidently expected that at the +close of the year both disbursements and debt will be found very +considerably less than has been anticipated. + +The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. +It consists of: + +1. The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of the +General in Chief. +2. The organization of colored persons into the war service. +3. The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of General +Hitchcock. +4. The operations under the act for enrolling and calling out the +national forces, detailed in the report of the Provost Marshal +General. +5. The organization of the invalid corps, and +6. The operation of the several departments of the Quartermaster- +General, Commissary-General, Paymaster-General, Chief of Engineers, +Chief of Ordnance, and Surgeon-General. + +It has appeared impossible to make a valuable summary of this report, +except such as would be too extended for this place, and hence I +content myself by asking your careful attention to the report itself. + +The duties devolving on the naval branch of the service during the +year and throughout the whole of this unhappy contest have been +discharged with fidelity and eminent success. The extensive blockade +has been constantly increasing in efficiency as the Navy has +expanded, yet on so long a line it has so far been impossible to +entirely suppress illicit trade. From returns received at the Navy +Department it appears that more than 1,000 vessels have been captured +since the blockade was instituted? and that the value of prizes +already sent in for adjudication amounts to over $13,000,000. + +The naval force of the United States consists at this time of five +hundred and eighty-eight vessels completed and in the course of +completion, and of these seventy-five are ironclad or armored +steamers. The events of the war give an increased interest and +importance to the Navy which will probably extend beyond the war +itself. + +The armored vessels in our Navy completed and in service, or which +are under contract and approaching completion, are believed to exceed +in number those of any other power; but while these may be relied +upon for harbor defense and coast service, others of greater strength +and capacity will be necessary for cruising purposes and to maintain +our rightful position on the ocean. + +The change that has taken place in naval vessels and naval warfare +since the introduction of steam as a motive power for ships of war +demands either a corresponding change in some of our existing navy +yards or the establishment of new ones for the construction and +necessary repair of modern naval vessels. No inconsiderable +embarrassment, delay, and public injury have been experienced from +the want of such governmental establishments. The necessity of such +a navy-yard, so furnished, at some suitable place upon the Atlantic +seaboard has on repeated occasions been brought to the attention of +Congress by the Navy Department, and is again presented in the report +of the Secretary which accompanies this communication. I think it my +duty to invite your special attention to this subject, and also to +that of establishing a yard and depot for naval purposes upon one of +the Western rivers. A naval force has been created on those interior +waters, and under many disadvantages, within little more than two +years, exceeding in numbers the whole naval force of the country at +the commencement of the present Administration. Satisfactory and +important as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy +at this interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the +success of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war +vessels, which has created a new form of naval power. + +Our country has advantages superior to any other nation in our +resources of iron and timber, with inexhaustible quantities of fuel +in the immediate vicinity of both, and all available and in close +proximity to navigable waters. Without the advantage of public +works, the resources of the nation have been developed and its power +displayed in the construction of a Navy of such magnitude, which has +at the very period of its creation rendered signal service to the +Union. + +The increase of the number of seamen in the public service from 7,500 +men in the spring of 1861 to about 34,000 at the present time has +been accomplished without special legislation or extraordinary +bounties to promote that increase. It has been found, however, that +the operation of the draft, with the high bounties paid for army +recruits, is beginning to affect injuriously the naval service, and +will, if not corrected, be likely to impair its efficiency by +detaching seamen from their proper vocation and inducing them to +enter the Army. I therefore respectfully suggest that Congress +might aid both the army and naval services by a definite provision on +this subject which would at the same time be equitable to the +communities more especially interested. + +I commend to your consideration the suggestions of the Secretary of +the Navy in regard to the policy of fostering and training seamen and +also the education of officers and engineers for the naval service. +The Naval Academy is rendering signal service in preparing midshipmen +for the highly responsible duties which in after life they will be +required to perform. In order that the country should not be +deprived of the proper quota of educated officers, for which legal +provision has been made at the naval school, the vacancies caused by +the neglect or omission to make nominations from the States in +insurrection have been filled by the Secretary of the Navy. The +school is now more full and complete than at any former period, and +in every respect entitled to the favorable consideration of Congress. + +During the past fiscal year the financial condition of the +Post-Office Department has been one of increasing prosperity, and I am +gratified in being able to state that the actual postal revenue has +nearly equaled the entire expenditures, the latter amounting to +$11,314,206.84 and the former to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency +of but $150,417.25. In 1860, the year immediately preceding the +rebellion, the deficiency amounted to $5,656,705.49, the postal +receipts of that year being $2,645,722.19 less that those of 1863. +The decrease since 1860 in the annual amount of transportation has +been only about twenty-five per cent, but the annual expenditure on +account of the same has been reduced thirty-five per cent. It is +manifest, therefore, that the Post-Office Department may become +self-sustaining in a few years, even with the restoration of the +whole service. + +The international conference of postal delegates from the principal +countries of Europe and America, which was called at the suggestion +of the Postmaster-General, met at Paris on the 11th of May last and +concluded its deliberations on the 8th of June. The principles +established by the conference as best adapted to facilitate postal +intercourse between nations and as the basis of future postal +conventions inaugurate a general system of uniform international +charges at reduced rates of postage, and can not fail to produce +beneficial results. + +I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is +herewith laid before you, for useful and varied information in +relation to the public lands, Indian affairs, patents, pensions, and +other matters of public concern pertaining to his Department. + +The quantity of land disposed of during the last and the first +quarter of the present fiscal years was 3,841,549 acres, of which +161,911 acres were sold for cash, 1,456,514 acres were taken up under +the homestead law, and the residue disposed of under laws granting +lands for military bounties, for railroad and other purposes. It +also appears that the sale of the public lands is largely on the +increase. + +It has long been a cherished opinion of some of our wisest statesmen +that the people of the United States had a higher and more enduring +interest in the early settlement and substantial cultivation of the +public lands than in the amount of direct revenue to be derived from +the sale of them. This opinion has had a controlling influence in +shaping legislation upon the subject of our national domain. I may +cite as evidence of this the liberal measures adopted in reference to +actual settlers; the grant to the States of the overflowed lands +within their limits, in order to their being reclaimed and rendered +fit for cultivation; the grants to railway companies of alternate +sections of land upon the contemplated lines of their roads, which +when completed will so largely multiply the facilities for reaching +our distant possessions. This policy has received its most signal +and beneficent illustration in the recent enactment granting +homesteads to actual settlers. Since the 1st day of January last the +before-mentioned quantity of 1,456,514 acres of land have been taken +up under its provisions. This fact and the amount of sales furnish +gratifying evidence of increasing settlement upon the public lands, +notwithstanding the great struggle in which the energies of the +nation have been engaged, and which has required so large a +withdrawal of our citizens from their accustomed pursuits. I +cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary of the +Interior suggesting a modification of the act in favor of those +engaged in the military and naval service of the United States. I +doubt not that Congress will cheerfully adopt such measures as will, +without essentially changing the general features of the system, +secure to the greatest practicable extent its benefits to those who +have left their homes in the defense of the country in this arduous +crisis. + +I invite your attention to the views of the Secretary as to the +propriety of raising by appropriate legislation a revenue from the +mineral lands of the United States. + +The measures provided at your last session for the removal of certain +Indian tribes have been carried into effect. Sundry treaties have +been negotiated, which will in due time be submitted for the +constitutional action of the Senate. They contain stipulations for +extinguishing the possessory rights of the Indians to large and +valuable tracts of lands. It is hoped that the effect of these +treaties will result in the establishment of permanent friendly +relations with such of these tribes as have been brought into +frequent and bloody collision with our outlying settlements and +emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative duty to these wards of +the Government demand our anxious and constant attention to their +material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, +and, above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of +Divine Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying +influences, the hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith. + +I suggested in my last annual message the propriety of remodeling our +Indian system. Subsequent events have satisfied me of its necessity. +The details set forth in the report of the Secretary evince the +urgent need for immediate legislative action. + +I commend the benevolent institutions established or patronized by +the Government in this District to your generous and fostering care. + +The attention of Congress during the last session was engaged to some +extent with a proposition for enlarging the water communication +between the Mississippi River and the northeastern seaboard, which +proposition, however, failed for the time. Since then, upon a call +of the greatest respectability, a convention has been held at Chicago +upon the same subject, a summary of whose views is contained in a +memorial addressed to the President and Congress, and which I now +have the honor to lay before you. That this interest is one which +ere long will force its own way I do not entertain a doubt, while it +is submitted entirely to your wisdom as to what can be done now. +Augmented interest is given to this subject by the actual +commencement of work upon the Pacific Railroad, under auspices so +favorable to rapid progress and completion. The enlarged navigation +becomes a palpable need to the great road. + +I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioner of the +Department of Agriculture, asking your attention to the developments +in that vital interest of the nation. + +When Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted nearly +twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and +sea, with varying results; the rebellion had been pressed back into +reduced limits; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion, at home +and abroad, was not satisfactory. With other signs, the popular +elections then just past indicated uneasiness among ourselves, while, +amid much that was cold and menacing, the kindest words coming from +Europe were uttered in accents of pity that we are too blind to +surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce was suffering greatly by a +few armed vessels built upon and furnished from foreign shores, and +we were threatened with such additions from the same quarter as would +sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade. We had failed +to elicit from European governments anything hopeful upon this +subject. The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in +September, was running its assigned period to the beginning of the +new year. A month later the final proclamation came, including the +announcement that colored men of suitable condition would be received +into the war service. The policy of emancipation and of employing +black soldiers gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope and +fear and doubt contended in uncertain conflict. According to our +political system, as a matter of civil administration, the General +Government had no lawful power to effect emancipation in any State, +and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion could be +suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure. It was all +the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and +that if it should the crisis of the contest would then be presented. +It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and +doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to +take another review. The rebel borders are pressed still farther +back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country +dominated by the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no +practical communication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have +been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential +citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the +beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in +their respective States. Of those States not included in the +emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which +three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of +slavery into new Territories, dispute now only as to the best mode of +removing it within their own limits. + +Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full +100,000 are now in the United States military service, about one-half +of which number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the +double advantage of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and +supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so many +white men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as +good soldiers as any. No servile insurrection or tendency to +violence or cruelty has marked the measures of emancipation and +arming the blacks. These measures have been much discussed in +foreign countries, and, contemporary with such discussion, the tone +of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same +measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and +denounced, and the annual elections following are highly encouraging +to those whose official duty it is to bear the country through this +great trial. Thus we have the new reckoning. The crisis which +threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past. + +Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a +resumption of the national authority within the States wherein that +authority has been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a +proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. On +examination of this proclamation it will appear, as is believed, that +nothing will be attempted beyond what is amply justified by the +Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given, but no man is +coerced to take it. The man is promised a pardon only in case he +voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the +Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute +discretion, and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is +fully established by judicial and other authorities. + +It is also proffered that if in any of the States named a State +government shall be in the mode prescribed set up, such government +shall be recognized and guaranteed by the United States, and that +under it the State shall, on the constitutional conditions, be +protected against invasion and domestic violence. The constitutional +obligation of the United States to guarantee to every State in the +Union a republican form of government and to protect the State in the +cases stated is explicit and full. But why tender the benefits of +this provision only to a State government set up in this particular +way? This section of the Constitution contemplates a case wherein the +element within a State favorable to republican government in the +Union may be too feeble for an opposite and hostile element external +to or even within the State, and such are precisely the cases with +which we are now dealing. + +An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government, +constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element +against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply +absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing +elements, so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a +sufficiently liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make a +sworn recantation of his former unsoundness. + +But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the +political body an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the +United States and to the Union under it, why also to the laws and +proclamations in regard to slavery? Those laws and proclamations were +enacted and put forth for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of +the rebellion. To give them their fullest effect there had to be a +pledge for their maintenance. In my judgment, they have aided and +will further aid the cause for which they were intended. To now +abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but +would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith. I may add +at this point that while I remain in my present position I shall not +attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall +I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that +proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress. For these and other +reasons it is thought best that support of these measures shall be +included in the oath, and it is believed the Executive may lawfully +claim it in return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, +which he has clear constitutional power to withhold altogether or +grant upon the terms which he shall deem wisest for the public +interest. It should be observed also that this part of the oath is +subject to the modifying and abrogating power of legislation and +supreme judicial decision. + +The proposed acquiescence of the National Executive in any reasonable +temporary State arrangement for the freed people is made with the +view of possibly modifying the confusion and destitution which must +at best attend all classes by a total revolution of labor throughout +whole States. It is hoped that the already deeply afflicted people +in those States may be somewhat more ready to give up the cause of +their affliction if to this extent this vital matter be left to +themselves, while no power of the National Executive to prevent an +abuse is abridged by the proposition. + +The suggestion in the proclamation as to maintaining the political +framework of the States on what is called reconstruction is made in +the hope that it may do good without danger of harm. It will save +labor and avoid great confusion. + +But why any proclamation now upon this subject? This question is +beset with the conflicting views that the step might be delayed too +long or be taken too soon. In some States the elements for +resumption seem ready for action, but remain inactive apparently for +want of a rallying point--a plan of action. Why shall A adopt the +plan of B rather than B that of A? And if A and B should agree, how +can they know but that the General Government here will reject their +plan? By the proclamation a plan is presented which may be accepted +by them as a rallying point, and which they are assured in advance +will not be rejected here. This may bring them to act sooner than +they otherwise would. + +The objections to a premature presentation of a plan by the National +Executive consist in the danger of committals on points which could +be more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken to +so shape the document as to avoid embarrassments from this source. +Saying that on certain terms certain classes will be pardoned with +rights restored, it is not said that other classes or other terms +will never be included. Saying that reconstruction will be accepted +if presented in a specified way, it is not said it will never be +accepted in any other way. + +The movements by State action for emancipation in several of the +States not included in the emancipation proclamation are matters of +profound gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I +have heretofore so earnestly urged upon this subject my general views +and feelings remain unchanged and I trust that Congress will omit no +fair opportunity of aiding these important steps to a great +consummation. + +In the midst of other cares, however important we must not lose sight +of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that +power alone we look yet for a time to give confidence to the people +in the contested regions that the insurgent power will not again +overrun them. Until that confidence shall be established little can +be done anywhere what is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest +care must still be directed to the Army and Navy who have thus far +borne their harder part so nobly and well; and it may be esteemed +fortunate that giving the greatest efficiency to these indispensable +arms we do also honorably recognize the gallant men, from commander +to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom more than to others the +world must stand indebted for the home of freedom disenthralled, +regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Captain John Rogers United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks +from Congress for the eminent skill and gallantry exhibited by him in +the engagement with the rebel armed ironclad steamer Fingal, alias +Atlanta, whilst in command of the United States ironclad steamer +Weehawken, which led to her capture on the 17th June, 1863, and also +for the zeal, bravery, and general good conduct shown by this officer +on many occasions. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with +the enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Congress, on my recommendation, passed a resolution, approved 7th +February, 1863, tendering its thanks to Commander D. D. Porter "for +the bravery and skill displayed in the attack on the post of Arkansas +on the 10th January, 1863," and in consideration of those services, +together with his efficient labors and vigilance subsequently +displayed in thwarting the efforts of the rebels to obstruct the +Mississippi and its tributaries and the important part rendered by +the squadron under his command, which led to the surrender of +Vicksburg. + +I do therefore, in conformity to the seventh section of the act +approved 16th July, 1862, nominate Commander D. D. Porter to be a +rear-admiral in the Navy on the active list from the 4th July, 1863, +to fill an existing vacancy. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, December 8, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT: +Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now +secure, I wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more +than thanks, my profoundest gratitude, for the skill, courage, and +perseverance with which you and they, over so great difficulties, +have effected that important object. God bless you all! + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 9, 1863 + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. G. CURTIN, +Governor of Pennsylvania. +DEAR SIR:--I have to urge my illness, and the preparation of the +message, in excuse for not having sooner transmitted you the inclosed +from the Secretary of War and Provost Marshal General in response to +yours in relation to recruiting in Pennsylvania. Though not quite +as you desire, I hope the grounds taken will be reasonably +satisfactory to you. Allow me to exchange congratulations with you +on the organization of the House of Representatives, and especially +on recent military events in Georgia and Tennessee. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 10, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Please suspend execution in any and all sentences of death in your +department until further order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 11, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Lieut. Col. James B. Knox, Tenth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves, +offers his resignation under circumstances inducing me to wish to +accept it. But I prefer to know your pleasure upon the subject. +Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JUDGE HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +December 15, 1863. + +HON. OGDEN HOFFMAN, U. S. District Judge, San Francisco, Cal.: + +The oath in the proclamation of December 8 is intended for those who +may voluntarily take it, and not for those who may be constrained to +take it in order to escape actual imprisonment or punishment. It is +intended that the latter class shall abide the granting or +withholding of the pardoning power in the ordinary way. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MARY GONYEAG. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 15, 1863. + +MOTHER MARY GONYEAG, Superior, Academy of Visitation, +Keokuk, Iowa: + +The President has no authority as to whether you may raffle for the +benevolent object you mention. If there is no objection in the Iowa +laws, there is none here. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING DISCRIMINATING DUTIES, +DECEMBER 16, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of +May, 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act +concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost' and to +equalize the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is +provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President +of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no +discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in +the ports of the said nation upon vessels wholly belonging to +citizens of the United States or upon the produce, manufactures, or +merchandise imported in the same from the United States or from any +foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to issue his +proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of +tonnage and impost within the United States are and shall be +suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said +foreign nation and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported +into the United States in the same from the said foreign nation or +from any other foreign country, the said suspension to take effect +from the time of such notification being given to the President of +the United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption +of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States and their +cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no longer; and + +Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me through +an official communication of Senor Don Luis Molina, Envoy +Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of +Nicaragua, under date of the 28th of November, 1863, that no other or +higher duties of tonnage and impost have been imposed or levied since +the second day of August, 1838, in the ports of Nicaragua, upon +vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, and upon +the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from +the United States, and from any foreign country whatever, than are +levied on Nicaraguan ships and their cargoes in the same ports under +like circumstances: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several +acts imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the +United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as +respects the vessels of Nicaragua, and the produce, manufactures, and +the merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the +dominions of Nicaragua, and from any other foreign country whatever; +the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned, and +to continue thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the +vessels of the United States, and the produce, manufactures, and +merchandise imported into the dominions of Nicaragua in the same, as +aforesaid, shall be continued on the part of the government of +Nicaragua. + +Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the sixteenth day of +December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and +sixty-three, and the eighty-eighth of the Independence of the United +States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 17, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Herewith I lay before you a letter addressed to myself by a committee +of gentlemen representing the freedmen's aid societies in Boston, New +York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The subject of the letter, as +indicated above, is one of great magnitude and importance, and one +which these gentlemen, of known ability and high character, seem to +have considered with great attention and care. Not having the time +to form a mature judgment of my own as to whether the plan they +suggest is the best, I submit the whole subject to Congress, deeming +that their attention thereto is almost imperatively demanded. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HURLBUT. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 17, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT, Memphis, Tenn.: + +I understand you have under sentence of death, a tall old man, by the +name of Henry F. Luckett. I personally knew him, and did not think +him a bad man. Please do not let him be executed unless upon +further order from me, and in the meantime send me a transcript of +the record. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, December 19, 1863. + +GENERAL GRANT, Chattanooga, Tennessee: + +The Indiana delegation in Congress, or at least a large part of them, +are very anxious that General Milroy shall enter active service +again, and I share in this feeling. He is not a difficult man to +satisfy, sincerity and courage being his strong traits. Believing in +our cause, and wanting to fight for it, is the whole matter with him. +Could you, without embarrassment, assign him a place, if directed to +report to you? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 21, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Sending a note to the Secretary of the Navy, as I +promised, he called over and said that the strikes in the ship-yards +had thrown the completion of vessels back so much that he thought +General Gilimore's proposition entirely proper. He only wishes (and +in which I concur) that General Gillmore will courteously confer +with, and explain to, Admiral Dahlgren. + +In regard to the Western matter, I believe the program will have to +stand substantially as I first put it. Henderson, and especially +Brown, believe that the social influence of St. Louis would +inevitably tell injuriously upon General Pope in the particular +difficulty existing there, and I think there is some force in that +view. + +As to retaining General Schofield temporarily, if this should be +done, I believe I should scarcely be able to get his nomination +through the Senate. Send me over his nomination, which, however, I +am not quite ready to send to the Senate. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO O. D. FILLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +O. D. FILLEY, ST. Louis, Missouri: + +I have just looked over a petition signed by some three dozen +citizens of St. Louis, and three accompanying letters, one by +yourself, one by a Mr. Nathan Ranney, and one by a Mr. John D. +Coalter, the whole relating to the Rev. Dr. McPheeters. The +petition prays, in the name of justice and mercy, that I will restore +Dr. McPheeters to all his ecclesiastical rights. This gives no +intimation as to what ecclesiastical rights are withheld. + +Your letter states that Provost-Marshal Dick, about a year ago, +ordered the arrest of Dr. McPheeters, pastor of the Vine Street +Church, prohibited him from officiating, and placed the management of +the affairs of the church out of the control of its chosen trustees; +and near the close you state that a certain course "would insure his +release." Mr. Ranney's letter says: "Dr. Samuel S. McPheeters is +enjoying all the rights of a civilian, but cannot preach the +Gospel!!!!" Mr. Coalter, in his letter, asks: "Is it not a strange +illustration of the condition of things, that the question of who +shall be allowed to preach in a church in St. Louis shall be decided +by the President of the United States?" + +Now, all this sounds very strangely; and, withal, a little as if you +gentlemen making the application do not understand the case alike; +one affirming that the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a +civilian, and another pointing out to me what will secure his +release! On the second day of January last, I wrote to General Curtis +in relation to Mr. Dick's order upon Dr. McPheeters; and, as I +suppose the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a civilian, I only +quote that part of my letter which relates to the church. It is as +follows: "But I must add that the United States Government must not, +as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When an individual, +in a church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest, +he must be checked; but the churches, as such, must take care of +themselves. It will not do for the United States to appoint +trustees, supervisors, or other agents for the churches." + +This letter going to General Curtis, then in command there, I +supposed, of course, it was obeyed, especially as I heard no further +complaint from Dr. McPheeters or his friends for nearly an entire +year. I have never interfered, nor thought of interfering, as to who +shall or shall not preach in any church; nor have I knowingly or +believingly tolerated any one else to so interfere by my authority. +If any one is so interfering by color of my authority, I would like +to have it specifically made known to me. If, after all, what is +now sought is to have me put Dr. McPheeters back over the heads of a +majority of his own congregation, that, too, will be declined. I +will not have control of any church on any side. + +Yours respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you have a prisoner by the name Linder--Daniel Linder, I think, +and certainly the son of U. F. Linder, of Illinois, please send him +to me by an officer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 24, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you send Linder to me as directed a day or two ago, also send +Edwin C. Claybrook, of Ninth Virginia rebel cavalry. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO U. F. LINDER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D. C., December 26, 1863. + +HON. U. F. LINDER, Chicago, Ill.: +Your son Dan has just left me with my order to the Secretary of War, +to administer to him the oath of allegiance, discharge him and send +him to you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL N. P. BANKS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 29, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BANKS: + +Yours of the sixteenth is received, and I send you, as covering the +ground of it, a copy of my answer to yours of the sixth, it being +possible the original may not reach you. I intend you to be master +in every controversy made with you. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Jacob Bowers is fully pardoned for past offence, upon condition that +he returns to duty and re-enlists for three years or during the war. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, December 31, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--Please fix up the department to which Curtis is to go, without +waiting to wind up the Missouri matter. Lane is very anxious to have +Fort Smith in it, and I am willing, unless there be decided military +reasons to the contrary, in which case of course, I am not for it. +It will oblige me to have the Curtis department fixed at once. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1864 + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SULLIVAN. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., January 1, 1864. 3.30 p.m. + +GENERAL SULLIVAN, Harper's Ferry: + +Have you anything new from Winchester, Martinsburg or thereabouts? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PIERPOINT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 2, 1864. + +GOVERNOR PIERPOINT, Alexandria, Va.: + +Please call and see me to-day if not too inconvenient. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 2, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. + +SIR:--The Secretary of War and myself have concluded to discharge of +the prisoners at Point Lookout the following classes: First, those +who will take the oath prescribed in the proclamation of December 8, +and issued by the consent of General Marston, will enlist in our +service. Second, those who will take the oath and be discharged and +whose homes lie safely within our military lines. + +I send by Mr. Hay this letter and a blank-book and some other blanks, +the way of using which I propose for him to explain verbally better +than I can in writing. + +Yours, very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +If not inconsistent with the service, please allow General William +Harrow as long a leave of absence as the rules permit with the +understanding that I may lengthen it if I see fit. He is an +acquaintance and friend of mine, and his family matters very urgently +require his presence. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +JANUARY 5, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +By a joint resolution of your honorable bodies approved December 23, +1863, the paying of bounties to veteran volunteers, as now practiced +by the War Department, is, to the extent of three hundred dollars in +each case, prohibited after this 5th day of the present month. I +transmit for your consideration a communication from the Secretary of +War, accompanied by one from the Provost-Marshal General to him, both +relating to the subject above mentioned. I earnestly recommend that +the law be so modified as to allow bounties to be paid as they now +are, at least until the ensuing 1st day of February. + +I am not without anxiety lest I appear to be importunate in thus +recalling your attention to a subject upon which you have so recently +acted, and nothing but a deep conviction that the public interest +demands it could induce me to incur the hazard of being misunderstood +on this point. The Executive approval was given by me to the +resolution mentioned, and it is now by a closer attention and a +fuller knowledge of facts that I feel constrained to recommend a +reconsideration of the subject. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 6, 1864. 2 P.M. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Kentucky: + +Yours of yesterday received. Nothing is known here about General +Foster's order, of which you complain, beyond the fair presumption +that it comes from General Grant, and that it has an object which, if +you understood, you would be loath to frustrate. True, these troops +are, in strict law, only to be removed by my order; but General +Grant's judgment would be the highest incentive to me to make such +order. Nor can I understand how doing so is bad faith and dishonor, +nor yet how it so exposes Kentucky to ruin. Military men here do not +perceive how it exposes Kentucky, and I am sure Grant would not +permit it if it so appeared to him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL Q. A. GILLMORE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GILLMORE: + +I understand an effort is being made by some worthy gentlemen to +reconstruct a legal State government in Florida. Florida is in your +Department, and it is not unlikely you may be there in person. I +have given Mr. Hay a commission of major, and sent him to you, with +some blank-books and other blanks, to aid in the reconstruction. He +will explain as to the manner of using the blanks, and also my +general views on the subject. It is desirable for all to co-operate, +but if irreconcilable differences of opinion shall arise, you are +master. I wish the thing done in the most speedy way, so that when +done it be within the range of the late proclamation on the subject. +The detail labor will, of course, have to be done by others; but I +will be greatly obliged if you will give it such general supervision +as you can find consistent with your more strictly military duties. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +If Private William G. Toles, of Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteers, returns +to his regiment and faithfully serves out his term, he is fully +pardoned for all military offenses prior to this. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 16, 1864. + +MESSRS. CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +GENTLEMEN: The number for this month and year of the North American +Review was duly received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of +course I am not the most impartial judge; yet, with due allowance for +this, I venture to hope that the article entitled "The President's +Policy" will be of value to the country. I fear I am not worthy of +all which is therein kindly said of me personally. + +The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 252, I +could wish to be not exactly what it is. In what is there expressed, +the writer has not correctly understood me. I have never had a +theory that secession could absolve States or people from their +obligations. Precisely the contrary is asserted in the inaugural +address; and it was because of my belief in the continuation of those +obligations that I was puzzled, for a time, as to denying the legal +rights of those citizens who remained individually innocent of +treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call +attention to this point. + +Yours respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +Sundry citizens of the State of Arkansas petition me that an election +may be held in that State, at which to elect a Governor; that it be +assumed at that election, and thenceforward, that the constitution +and laws of the State, as before the rebellion, are in full force, +except that the constitution is so modified as to declare that there +shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in the +punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly +convicted; that the General Assembly may make such provisions for the +freed people as shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, +and provide for their education, and which may yet be construed as a +temporary arrangement suitable to their condition as a laboring, +landless, and homeless class; that said election shall be held on the +28th of March, 1864, at all the usual places of the State, or all +such as voters may attend for that purpose, that the voters attending +at eight o'clock in the morning of said day may choose judges and +clerks of election for such purpose; that all persons qualified by +said constitution and laws, and taking the oath presented in the +President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, either before or at the +election, and none others, may be voters; that each set of judges and +clerks may make returns directly to you on or before the __th day of +____next; that in all other respects said election may be conducted +according to said constitution and laws: that on receipt of said +returns, when five thousand four hundred and six votes shall have +been cast, you can receive said votes, and ascertain all who shall +thereby appear to have been elected; that on the ___th day of +_______next, all persons so appearing to have been elected, who shall +appear before you at Little Rock, and take the oath, to be by you +severally administered, to support the Constitution of the United +States and said modified Constitution of the State of Arkansas, may +be declared by you qualified and empowered to enter immediately upon +the duties of the offices to which they shall have been respectively +elected. + +You will please order an election to take place on the 28th of March, +1864, and returns to be made in fifteen days thereafter. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 20, 1864 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In accordance with a letter addressed by the Secretary of State, with +my approval, to the Hon. Joseph A. Wright, of Indiana, that patriotic +and distinguished gentleman repaired to Europe and attended the +International Agricultural Exhibition, held at Hamburg last year, and +has since his return made a report to me, which, it is believed, can +not fail to be of general interest, and especially so to the +agricultural community. I transmit for your consideration copies of +the letters and report. While it appears by the letter that no +reimbursement of expenses or compensation was promised him, I submit +whether reasonable allowance should not be made him for them. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPROVING TRADE REGULATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 26, 1864. + +I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States having seen and +considered the additional regulations of trade prescribed by the +Secretary of the Treasury, and numbered LI, LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and +LVI, do hereby approve the same; and I further declare and order that +all property brought in for sale, in good faith, and actually sold in +pursuance of said Regulations LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, +after the same shall have taken effect and come in force as provided +in Regulation LVI, shall be exempt from confiscation or forfeiture to +the United States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Is a supposed correspondence between General Longstreet and yourself +about the amnesty proclamation, which is now in the newspapers, +genuine? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864 + +HON. EDWARD STANLEY, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Yours of yesterday received. We have rumors similar to the dispatch +received by you, but nothing very definite from North Carolina. +Knowing Mr. Stanley to be an able man, and not doubting that he is a +patriot, I should be glad for him to be with his old acquaintances +south of Virginia, but I am unable to suggest anything definite upon +the subject. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864. +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK: + +Some citizens of Missouri, vicinity of Kansas City, are apprehensive +that there is special danger of renewed troubles in that +neighborhood, and thence on the route toward New Mexico. I am not +impressed that the danger is very great or imminent, but I will thank +you to give Generals Rosecrans and Curtis, respectively, such orders +as may turn their attention thereto and prevent as far as possible +the apprehended disturbance. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SICKLES, New York: + +Could you, without it being inconvenient or disagreeable to yourself, +immediately take a trip to Arkansas for me? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 31, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +General Boyle's resignation is accepted, so that your Excellency can +give him the appointment proposed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +COLONIZATION EXPERIMENT + +ORDER TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 1, 1864 + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + +SIR:-You are directed to have a transport (either a steam or sailing +vessel, as may be deemed proper by the Quartermaster-General) sent to +the colored colony established by the United States at the island of +Vache, on the coast of San Domingo, to bring back to this country +such of the colonists there as desire to return. You will have the +transport furnished with suitable supplies for that purpose, and +detail an officer of the Quartermaster's Department, who, under +special instructions to be given, shall have charge of the business. +The colonists will be brought to Washington, unless otherwise +hereafter directed, and be employed and provided for at the camps for +colored persons around that city. Those only will be brought from +the island who desire to return, and their effects will be brought +with them. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER FOR A DRAFT OF FIVE HUNDRED +THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 1, 1864. + +Ordered, That a draft of five hundred thousand (500,000) men, to +serve for three years or during the war, be made on the tenth (10th) +day of March next, for the military service of the United States, +crediting and deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted +or drafted into the service prior to the first (1st) day of March, +and not before credited. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1864. + +GOVERNOR YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +The United States Government lot in Springfield can be used for a +soldiers' home, with the understanding that the Government does not +incur any expense in the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. +WASHINGTON, February 6, 1864. + +GOVERNOR J. MURPHY: + +My order to General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of +the action your convention had taken or would take. A subsequent +letter directs General Steele to aid you on your own plan, and not to +thwart or hinder you. Show this to him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + +TOLD BY THE PRESIDENT, +TO THE ARTIST F. B. CARPENTER, +FEBRUARY 6, 1864. + +"It had got to be," said Mr. Lincoln, "midsummer, 1862. Things had +gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end +of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we +had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose +the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation +policy; and without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the +Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and, +after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the +subject. This was the last of July or the first part of the month of +August, 1862. [The exact date was July 22, 1862.] . . . All +were present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was +absent at the opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently. I +said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not +called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the +subject-matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to which +would be in order after they had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy was in +error when he informed you that it excited no comment excepting on the +part of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions were offered. +Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the +arming of the blacks. + +"Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy on the ground +that it would cost the administration the fall elections. Nothing, +however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated and +settled in my mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in +substance, 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I +question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The +depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, +is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be +viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for +help; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead +of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.' His +idea," said the President, "was that it would be considered our last +shriek on the retreat." [This was his precise expression.] 'Now,' +continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, +that you postpone its issue until you can give it to the country +supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the +case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war.' Mr. Lincoln +continued "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me +with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my +thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was +that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch +for a picture, waiting for a victory. + +"From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and +there, anxiously watching the process of events. Well, the next news +we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than +ever. Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined +to wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the +advantage was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home +[three miles out of Washington]. Here I finished writing the second +draft of the preliminary proclamation; came up on Saturday; called +the Cabinet together to hear it, and it was published on the +following Monday." + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SEDGWICK. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SEDGWICK, Army of Potomac: + +Unless there be some strong reason to the contrary, please send +General Kilpatrick to us here, for two or three days. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE MAYNARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 13, 1864. + +HON. HORACE MAYNARD, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Your letter of [the] second received. Of course Governor Johnson +will proceed with reorganization as the exigencies of the case appear +to him to require. I do not apprehend he will think it necessary to +deviate from my views to any ruinous extent. On one hasty reading I +see no such deviation in his program, which you send. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. M. FISHBACK. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance +that your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the +latter fact I have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. +I have sent two letters to General Steele, and three or four +despatches to you and others, saying that he, General Steele, must be +master, but that it will probably be best for him to merely help the +convention on its own plan. Some single mind must be master, else +there will be no agreement in anything, and General Steele, +commanding the military and being on the ground, is the best man to +be that master. Even now citizens are telegraphing me to postpone +the election to a later day than either that fixed by the convention +or by me. This discord must be silenced. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +The day fixed by the convention for the election is probably the +best, but you on the ground, and in consultation with gentlemen +there, are to decide. I should have fixed no day for an election, +presented no plan for reconstruction, had I known the convention was +doing the same things. It is probably best that you merely assist +the convention on their own plan, as to election day and all other +matters I have already written and telegraphed this half a dozen +times. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. ROBINSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 18, 1864. + +A. ROBINSON, Leroy, N. Y.: + +The law only obliges us to keep accounts with States, or at most +Congressional Districts, and it would overwhelm us to attempt in +counties, cities and towns. Nevertheless we do what we can to oblige +in particular cases. In this view I send your dispatch to the +Provost-Marshal General, asking him to do the best he can for you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, +FEBRUARY 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by my proclamation of the nineteenth of April, one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-one, the ports of the States of South +Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and +Texas were, for reasons therein set forth, placed under blockade; and +whereas, the port of Brownsville, in the district of Brazos Santiago, +in the State of Texas, has since been blockaded, but as the blockade +of said port may now be safely relaxed with advantage to the +interests of commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth +section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, +entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on +imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade +of the said port of Brownsville shall so far cease and determine from +and after this date, that commercial intercourse with said port, +except as to persons, things, and information hereinafter specified, +may, from this date, be carried on, subject to the laws of the United +States, to the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the +Treasury, and, until the rebellion shall have been suppressed, to +such orders as may be promulgated by the general commanding the +department, or by an officer duly authorized by him and commanding at +said port. This proclamation does not authorize or allow the +shipment or conveyance of persons in, or intending to enter, the +service of the insurgents, or of things or information intended for +their use, or for their aid or comfort, nor, except upon the +permission of the Secretary of War, or of some officer duly +authorized by him, of the following prohibited articles, namely: +cannon, mortars, firearms, pistols, bombs, grenades, powder, +saltpeter, sulphur, balls, bullets, pikes, swords, boarding-caps +(always excepting the quantity of the said articles which may be +necessary for the defense of the ship and those who compose the +crew), saddles, bridles, cartridge-bag material, percussion and other +caps, clothing adapted for uniforms; sail-cloth of all kinds, hemp +and cordage, intoxicating drinks other than beer and light native +wines. + +To vessels clearing from foreign ports and destined to the port of +Brownsville, opened by this proclamation, licenses will be granted by +consuls of the United States upon satisfactory evidence that the +vessel so licensed will convey no persons, property, or information +excepted or prohibited above, either to or from the said port; which +licenses shall be exhibited to the collector of said port immediately +on arrival, and, if required, to any officer in charge of the +blockade, and on leaving said port every vessel will be required to +have a clearance from the collector of the customs, according to law, +showing no violation of the conditions of the license. Any violations +of said conditions will involve the forfeiture and condemnation of +the vessel and cargo, and the exclusion of all parties concerned from +any further privilege of entering the United States during the war +for any purpose whatever. + +In all respects, except as herein specified, the existing blockade +remains in full force and effect as hitherto established and +maintained, nor is it relaxed by this proclamation except in regard +to the port to which relaxation is or has been expressly applied. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States the eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COMMANDER BLAKE. +EXECUTIVE, MANSION, February 19, 1864. + +COMMANDER GEORGE S. BLAKE, +Commandant Naval Academy, Newport, R. I.: + +I desire the case of Midshipman C. Lyon re-examined and if not +clearly inconsistent I shall be much obliged to have the +recommendation changed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM WARREN JORDAN. +NASHVILLE, February 20, 1864. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.: + +In county and State elections, must citizens of Tennessee take the +oath prescribed by Governor Johnson, or will the President's oath of +amnesty entitle them to vote? I have been appointed to hold the March +election in Cheatham County, and wish to act understandingly. + +WARREN JORDAN. + + + + +WASHINGTON, February 20, 1864. + +WARREN JORDAN, NASHVILLE: + +In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson's plan; +otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his +plan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint LOUIS, MO.: + +Colonel Sanderson will be ordered to you to-day, a mere omission that +it was not done before. The other questions in your despatch I am not +yet prepared to answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours of yesterday received. Your conference with citizens approved. +Let the election be on the 14th of March as they agreed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL F. STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, February 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +General Sickles is not going to Arkansas. He probably will make a +tour down the Mississippi and home by the gulf and ocean, but he will +not meddle in your affairs. + +At one time I did intend to have him call on you and explain more +fully than I could do by letter or telegraph, so as to avoid a +difficulty coming of my having made a plan here, while the convention +made one there, for reorganizing Arkansas; but even his doing that +has been given up for more than two weeks. Please show this to +Governor Murphy to save me telegraphing him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +DESERTERS DEATH SENTENCES REMITTED + +GENERAL ORDERS, NO.76. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +ADJUTANT-GENERALS OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +Sentence of Deserters. + +The President directs that the sentences of all deserters who have +been condemned by court-martial to death, and that have not been +otherwise acted upon by him, be mitigated to imprisonment during the +war at the Dry Tortugas, Florida, where they will be sent under +suitable guards by orders from army commanders. + +The commanding generals, who have power to act on proceedings of +courts-martial in such cases, are authorized in special cases to +restore to duty deserters under sentence, when in their judgment the +service will be thereby benefited. + +Copies of all orders issued under the foregoing instructions will be +immediately forwarded to the Adjutant-General and to the +Judge-Advocate General. + +By order of the Secretary of War: +B. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General + + + + +FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort. Monroe, Va.: + +I cannot remember at whose request it was that I gave the pass to +Mrs. Bulky. Of course detain her, if the evidence of her being a spy +is strong against her. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. JAYNE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +HON. W. JAYNE. + +DEAR SIR--I dislike to make changes in office so long as they can be +avoided. It multiplies my embarrassments immensely. I dislike two +appointments when one will do. Send me the name of some man not the +present marshal, and I will nominate him to be Provost-Marshal for +Dakota. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO E. H. EAST. + +WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864. + +HON. E. H: EAST, Secretary of State, Nashville, Tennessee + +Your telegram of the twenty-sixth instant asking for a copy of my +despatch to Warren Jordan, Esq., at Nashville Press office, has just +been referred to me by Governor Johnson. In my reply to Mr. Jordan, +which was brief and hurried, I intended to say that in the county and +State elections of Tennessee, the oath prescribed in the proclamation +of Governor Johnson on the twenty-sixth of January, 1864, ordering an +election in Tennessee on the first Saturday in March next, is +entirely satisfactory to me as a test of loyalty of all persons +proposing or offering to vote in said elections; and coming from him +would better be observed and followed. There is no conflict between +the oath of amnesty in my proclamation of eighth December, 1863, and +that prescribed by Governor Johnson in his proclamation of the +twenty-sixth ultimo. + +No person who has taken the oath of amnesty of eighth December, 1863, +and obtained a pardon thereby, and who intends to observe the same in +good faith, should have any objection to taking that prescribed by +Governor Johnson as a test of loyalty. + +I have seen and examined Governor Johnson's proclamation, and am +entirely satisfied with his plan, which is to restore the State +government and place it under the control of citizens truly loyal to +the Government of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. + +Please send above to Governor Johnson. +A. L. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864 + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--You ask some instructions from me in relation to the Report of +Special Commission constituted by an order of the War Department, +dated December 5, 1863, "to revise the enrolment and quotas of the +City and State of New York, and report whether there be any, and +what, errors or irregularities therein, and what corrections, if any, +should be made." + +In the correspondence between the Governor of New York and myself +last summer, I understood him to complain that the enrolments in +several of the districts of that State had been neither accurately +nor honestly made; and in view of this, I, for the draft then +immediately ensuing, ordered an arbitrary reduction of the quotas in +several of the districts wherein they seemed too large, and said: +"After this drawing, these four districts, and also the seventeenth +and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled, and, if you please, +agents of yours may witness every step of the process." In a +subsequent letter I believe some additional districts were put into +the list of those to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work over +according to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and +thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. The +commission, whose work I am considering, seem to have proceeded upon +a totally different idea. Not going forth to find men at all, they +have proceeded altogether upon paper examinations and mental +processes. One of their conclusions, as I understand, is that, as +the law stands, and attempting to follow it, the enrolling officers +could not have made the enrolments much more accurately than they +did. The report on this point might be useful to Congress. The +commission conclude that the quotas for the draft should be based +upon entire population, and they proceed upon this basis to give a +table for the State of New York, in which some districts are reduced +and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, let the quotas stand +as made by the enrolling officers, in the districts wherein this +table requires them to be increased; and let them be reduced +according to the table in the others: this to be no precedent for +subsequent action. But, as I think this report may, on full +consideration, be shown to have much that is valuable in it, I +suggest that such consideration be given it, and that it be +especially considered whether its suggestions can be conformed to +without an alteration of the law. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 28, 1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +I see your despatch of yesterday to the Secretary of War. + +I wish you would go to the Mississippi River at once, and take hold +of and be master in the contraband and leasing business. You +understand it better than any other man does. Mr. Miller's system +doubtless is well intended, but from what I hear I fear that, if +persisted in, it would fall dead within its own entangling details. +Go there and be the judge. A Mr. Lewis will probably follow you with +something from me on this subject, but do not wait for him. Nor is +this to induce you to violate or neglect any military order from the +General-in-Chief or Secretary of War. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 29, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I would have taken time to answer yours of the 22d +inst. sooner, only that I did not suppose any evil could result from +the delay, especially as, by a note, I promptly acknowledged the +receipt of yours, and promised a fuller answer. Now, on +consideration I find there is really very little to say. My +knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made public came to me +only the day you wrote; but I had, in spite of myself, known of its +existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I think I +shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the +letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and +of secret issues which, I supposed, came from it, and of secret +agents who, I supposed, were sent out by it for several weeks. I +have known just as little a these things as my friends have allowed +me to know. They bring the documents to me, but I do not read them; +they tell me what they think fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for +more. + +I fully concur with you that neither of us can justly be held +responsible for what our respective friends may do without our +instigation or countenance and I assure you, as you have assured me, +that no assault has been made upon you by my instigation, or with my +countenance. + +Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a +question which I will not allow myself to consider from any +standpoint other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that +view, I do not perceive occasion for a change. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL THOMAS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, March 1,1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS: + +This introduces Mr. Lewis, mentioned in my despatch sent you at +Louisville some days ago. I have but little personal acquaintance +with him; but he has the confidence of several members of Congress +here who seem to know him well. He hopes to be useful, without +charge to the government, in facilitating the introduction of the +free-labor system on the Mississippi plantations. He is acquainted +with, and has access to, many of the planters who wish to adopt the +system. He will show you two letters of mine on this subject, one +somewhat General, and the other relating to named persons; they are +not different in principle. He will also show you some suggestions +coming from some of the planters themselves. I desire that all I +promise in these letters, so far as practicable, may be in good faith +carried out, and that suggestions from the planters may be heard and +adopted, so far as they may not contravene the principles stated, nor +justice, nor fairness, to laborers. I do not herein intend to +overrule your own mature judgment on any point. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 3, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours including address to people of Arkansas is received. I approve +the address and thank you for it. Yours in relation to William M. +Randolph also received. Let him take the oath of December 8, +and go to work for the new constitution, and on your notifying me of +it, I will immediately issue the special pardon for him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 4,1864. +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Admiral Dahlgren is here, and of course is very anxious about his +son. Please send me at once all you know or can learn of his fate. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER IN REGARD TO THE EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO BELONGING TO THE FRENCH +GOVERNMENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +Whereas, by an Executive order of the 10th of November last +permission was given to export certain tobacco belonging to the +French government from insurgent territory, which tobacco was +supposed to have been purchased and paid for prior to the 4th day of +March, 1861; but whereas it was subsequently ascertained that a part +at least of the said tobacco had been purchased subsequently to that +date, which fact made it necessary to suspend the carrying into +effect of the said order; but whereas, pursuant to mutual +explanations, a satisfactory understanding upon the subject has now +been reached, it is directed that the order aforesaid may be carried +into effect, it being understood that the quantity of French tobacco +so to be exported shall not exceed seven thousand hogsheads, and that +it is the same tobacco respecting the exportation of which +application Was originally made by the French government. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO UNITED STATES MARSHAL, LOUISVILLE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +U.S. MARSHAL, Louisville, Ky.: + +Until further order suspend sale of property and further proceedings +in cases of the United States against Dr. John B. English, and S. S. +English, qt al., sureties for John L. Hill. Also same against same +sureties for Thomas A. Ireland. + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send the above dispatch. +JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 9, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +New York City votes ninety-five hundred majority for allowing +soldiers to vote, and the rest of the State nearly all on the same +side. Tell the soldiers. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO SENATE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 9, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES + +In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, +respecting the points of commencement of the Union Pacific Railroad, +on the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and of the branch +road, from the western boundary of Iowa to the said one hundredth +degree of longitude, I transmit the accompanying report from the +Secretary of the Interior, containing the information called for. + +I deem it proper to add that on the 17th day of November last an +Executive order was made upon this subject and delivered to the +vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which fixed the +point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa from which the +company should construct their branch road to the one hundredth degree +of west longitude, and declared it to be within the limits of the +township in Iowa opposite the town of Omaha, in Nebraska. Since then +the company has represented to me that upon actual surveys made it has +determined upon the precise point of departure of their said branch +road from the Missouri River, and located the same as described in the +accompanying report of the Secretary of the Interior, which point is +within the limits designated in the order of November last; and +inasmuch as that order is not of record in any of the Executive +Departments, and the company having desired a more definite one, I +have made the order of which a copy is herewith, and caused the same +to be filed in the Department of the Interior. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO GENERAL GRANT, + +MARCH 9, 1864. + +GENERAL GRANT:--The expression of the nation's approbation of what +you have already done, and its reliance on you for what remains to do +in the existing great struggle, is now presented with this commission +constituting you Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States. + +With this high honor, devolves on you an additional responsibility. +As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it win sustain you. +I scarcely need add, that with what I here speak for the country, +goes my own hearty personal concurrence. + + + +GENERAL GRANT'S REPLY. + +Mr. PRESIDENT:--I accept this commission, with gratitude for the high +honor conferred. + +With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields +for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to +disappoint your expectations. + +I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, +and I know that if they are met, it will be due to those armies; and +above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations +and men. + + + + +ORDER ASSIGNING U. S. GRANT TO THE COMMAND OF +THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 10, 1864. + +Under the authority of an act of Congress to revive the grade of +lieutenant-General in the United States Army, approved February 29, +1864, Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, United States Army, is +assigned to the command of the Armies of the United States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 12, 1864. + +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am not appointing officers for Arkansas now, and I will try to +remember your request. Do your best to get out the largest vote +possible, and of course as much of it as possible on the right side. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HAHN. +(Private.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864 + +HON. MICHAEL HAHN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history +as the first free-state governor of Louisiana. Now, you are about to +have a convention, which among other things will probably define the +elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, +whether some of the colored people may not be let in,--as, for +instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought +gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying +time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of +freedom. But this is only a suggestion,--not to the public, but to +you alone. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, MARCH 14, 1864. + +In order to supply the force required to be drafted for the Navy and +to provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies, in +addition to the five hundred thousand men called for February 1, +1864, a call is hereby made and a draft ordered for two hundred +thousand men for the military service (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) +of the United States. + +The proportional quotas for the different wards, towns, townships, +precincts, or election districts, or counties, will be made known +through the Provost Marshal-General's Bureau, and account will be +taken of the credits and deficiencies on former quotas. + +The 15th day of April, 1864, is designated as the time up to which +the numbers required from each ward of a city, town, etc., may be +raised by voluntary enlistment, and drafts will be made in each ward +of a city, town, etc., which shall not have filled the quota assigned +to it within the time designated for the number required to fill said +quotas. The drafts will be commenced as soon after the 15th of April +as practicable. + +The Government bounties as now paid continue until April I, 1864, at +which time the additional bounties cease. On and after that date +one hundred dollars bounty only will be paid, as provided by the act +approved July 22, 1861. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Nashville, Tenn.: + +General McPherson having been assigned to the command of a +department, could not General Frank Blair, without difficulty or +detriment to the service, be assigned to command the Corps he +commanded a while last autumn? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PASS FOR GENERAL D. E. SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN + +Major-General Sickles is making a tour for me from here by way of +Cairo, New Orleans, and returning by the gulf, and ocean, and all +land and naval officers and, employees are directed to furnish +reasonable transportation and other reasonable facilities to himself +and personal staff not inconsistent with the public service. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO GOVERNOR HAHN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY MICHAEL HAHN, Governor of Louisiana + +Until further order, you are hereby invested with the powers +exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +REMARKS AT A FAIR IN THE PATENT OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, MARCH 16, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I appear to say but a word. This extraordinary war in which we are +engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people but the most heavily +upon the soldier. For it has been said, "All that a man hath will he +give for his life;" and while all contribute of their substance, the +soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his +country's cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier. + +In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have manifested +themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars; and among +these manifestations nothing has been more remarkable than these +fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And +the chief agents of these fairs are the women of America. + +I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy: I have never +studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say, that +if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of +the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it +would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will +close by saying, God bless the women of America. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM +THE WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, + +MARCH 21, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +The honorary membership in your association, as generously tendered, +is gratefully accepted. + +You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing rebellion +means more and tends to do more than the perpetuation of African +slavery--that it is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all working +people. Partly to show that this view has not escaped my attention, +and partly that I cannot better express myself, I read a passage from +the message to Congress in December, 1861: + +"It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not +exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government, +the rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of this is found in +the most grave and maturely considered public documents, as well as +in the General tone of the insurgents. In those documents we find +the abridgment of the existing right of suffrage, and the denial to +the people of all right to participate in the selection of public +officers, except the legislature, boldly advocated, with labored +argument to prove that large control of the people in government is +the source of all political evil. Monarchy itself is sometimes +hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my +present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising +a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. + +"It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a General argument should +be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, +with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask +a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal +footing, if not above labor, in the structure of government. It is +assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that +nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the +use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered +whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce +them to work by their own consent or buy them, and drive them to it +without their consent. Having proceeded so it is naturally concluded +that all laborers are either hired laborers, or what we call slaves. +And, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer, is +fixed in that condition for life. Now there is no such relation +between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as +a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. +Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are +groundless. + +"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the +fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first +existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the +higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of +protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and +probably always will be, a relation between capital and labor, +producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole +labor of a community exists within that relation. A few men own +capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and, with their +capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority +belong to neither class--neither work for others, nor have others +working for them. In most of the Southern States, a majority of the +whole people, of all colors, are neither slaves nor masters; while in +the Northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men +with their families, wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves, +on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole +product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one +hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not +forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own +labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands, and +also buy or hire others to labor for them, but this is only a mixed +and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the +existence of this mixed class. + +"Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, any such +thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for +life. Many independent men everywhere in these States, a few years +back in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent penniless +beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with +which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own +account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to +help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which +opens the way to all--gives hope to all, and consequent energy and +progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are +more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty--none +less inclined to touch or take aught which they have not honestly +earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power they +already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to +close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new +disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be +lost." + +The views then expressed remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. +None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the +working people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and +hostility among themselves. The most notable feature of a +disturbance in your city last summer was the hanging of some working +people by other working people. It should never be so. The +strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, +should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and +tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war upon property, +or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; property +is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be +rich shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just +encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is +houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor +diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that +his own shall be safe from violence when built. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Hon. W. R. Morrison says he has requested you by letter to effect a +special exchange of Lieut. Col. A. F. Rogers, of Eightieth Illinois +Volunteers, now in Libby Prison, and I shall be glad if you can +effect it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL C. SCHURZ. +( Private.) + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SCHURZ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of February 29 reached me only four days ago; but +the delay was of little consequence, because I found, on feeling +around, I could not invite you here without a difficulty which at +least would be unpleasant, and perhaps would be detrimental to the +public service. Allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in +the military service, it is very dangerous for you to get temporarily +out of it; because, with a major-general once out, it is next to +impossible for even the President to get him in again. With my +appreciation of your ability and correct principle, of course I would +be very glad to have your service for the country in the approaching +political canvass; but I fear we cannot properly have it without +separating you from the military. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ABOUT AMNESTY, +MARCH 26, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, it has become necessary to define the cases in which +insurgent enemies are entitled to the benefits of the Proclamation of +the President of the United States, which was made on the 8th day of +December, 1863, and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail +themselves of these benefits; and whereas the objects of that +Proclamation were to suppress the insurrection and to restore the +authority of the United States; and whereas the amnesty therein +proposed by the President was offered with reference to these objects +alone: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby proclaim and declare that the said Proclamation does not +apply to the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to +obtain the benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed, +are in military, naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under +bonds, or on parole of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or +agents of the United States, as prisoners of war, or persons detained +for offences of any kind, either before or after conviction; and that +on the contrary it does apply only to those persons who, being yet at +large, and free from any arrest, confinement, or duress, shall +voluntarily come forward and take the said oath, with the purpose of +restoring peace, and establishing the national authority. + +Persons excluded from the amnesty offered in the said Proclamation +may apply to the President for clemency, like all other offenders, +and their application will receive due consideration. + +I do further declare and proclaim that the oath presented in the +aforesaid proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, may be taken and +subscribed before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or +naval, in the service of the United States, or any civil or military +officer of a State or Territory not in insurrection, who, by the laws +thereof, may be qualified for administering oaths. + +All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give +certificates thereof to the persons respectively by whom they are +made, and such officers are hereby required to transmit the original +records of such oaths, at as early a day as may be convenient, to the +Department of State, where they will be deposited, and remain in the +archives of the Government. + +The Secretary of State will keep a registry thereof, and will, on +application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such records in +the customary form of official certificates. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed............ + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 28, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--The Governor of Kentucky is here, and desires to have +the following points definitely fixed: + +First. That the quotas of troops furnished, and to be furnished, by +Kentucky may be adjusted upon the basis as actually reduced by +able-bodied men of hers having gone into the rebel service; and that +she be required to furnish no more than her just quotas upon fair +adjustment upon such basis. + +Second. To whatever extent the enlistment and drafting, one or both, +of colored troops may be found necessary within the State, it may be +conducted within the law of Congress; and, so far as practicable, +free from collateral embarrassments, disorders, and provocations. + +I think these requests of the Governor are reasonable; and I shall be +obliged if you will give him a full hearing, and do the best you can +to effect these objects. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Your letter to Colonel Townsend, inclosing a slip from +the "Herald," and asking a court of inquiry, has been laid before me +by the Secretary of War, with the request that I would consider it. +It is quite natural that you should feel some sensibility on the +subject; yet I am not impressed, nor do I think the country is +impressed, with the belief that your honor demands, or the public +interest demands, such an inquiry. The country knows that at all +events you have done good service; and I believe it agrees with me +that it is much better for you to be engaged in trying to do more, +than to be diverted, as you necessarily would be, by a court of +inquiry. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Army of the Potomac: + +Captain Kinney, of whom I spoke to you as desiring to go on your +staff, is now in your camp, in company with Mrs. Senator Dixon. Mrs. +Grant and I, and some others, agreed last night that I should, by +this despatch, kindly call your attention to Captain Kinney. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. G. HODGES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 4, 1864. + +A. G. HODGES, ESQ., Frankfort, Kentucky: + +MY DEAR SIR:--You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I +verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Governor Bramlette +and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: + +"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is +wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I +have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an +unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. +It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability +preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. +I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my +view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in +using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil +administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my +primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had +publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver +that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to +my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, +however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my +ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every +indispensable means, that government, that nation, of which that +Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation +and yet preserve the Constitution? By General law, life and limb must +be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but +a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, +otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming +indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through the +preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, +and now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability I +had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or +any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, +and Constitution, altogether. When, early in the war, General +Fremont attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did +not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, +General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the +blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable +necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military +emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the +indispensable necessity had come. When, in March, and May, and July, +1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border States to +favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable +necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, +unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I +was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either +surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying +strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In +choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was +not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss +by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, +none in our white military force, no loss by it any how, or anywhere. +On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite one hundred and thirty +thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, +about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; +and we could not have had them without the measure. + +"And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself +by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by +force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred +and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where +they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his +case so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth." + +I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling +this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to +have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have +controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the +nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or +expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems +plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also +that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly +for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein +new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MRS. HORACE MANN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +April 5, 1864. + +MRS HORACE MANN: + +MADAM:--The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would +free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears +you wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please +tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so +full of just and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the +power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, +and that, as it seems, he wills to do it. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 12, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +I am pressed to get from Libby, by special exchange, Jacob C. +Hagenbuek, first lieutenant, Company H, Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania +Volunteers. Please do it if you can without detriment or +embarrassment. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private William Collins of Company B, of the Sixty-ninth New York +Volunteers, has been convicted of desertion, and execution suspended +as in numerous other cases. Now Captain O'Neill, commanding the +regiment, and nearly all its other regimental and company officers, +petition for his full pardon and restoration to his company. Is +there any good objection? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LECTURE ON LIBERTY + +ADDRESS AT SANITARY FAIR IN BALTIMORE, + +APRIL 18, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we +cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many +people assembled here to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the +Union, it occurs at once that three years ago the same soldiers could +not so much as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now +is both great and gratifying. Blessings on the brave men who have +wrought the change, and the fair women who strive to reward them for +it! + +But Baltimore suggests more than could happen within Baltimore. The +change within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the +war began, three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it +would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere +to-day. Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery would be +much affected by the war. But here we are; the war has not ended, +and slavery has been much affected how much needs not now to be +recounted. So true is it that man proposes and God disposes. + +But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it; +and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for +the future. + +The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and +the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all +declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean +the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to +do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while +with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please +with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, +not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name, +liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the +respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names +--liberty and tyranny. + +The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the +sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces +him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the +sheep was a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not +agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same +difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the +North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold +the process by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke +of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by +others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the +people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty, and +thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary +has been repudiated. + +It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at +length; but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought +to say a word. A painful rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the +massacre, by the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of +Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, of some three hundred colored +soldiers and white officers [I believe it latter turned out to be +500], who had just been overpowered by their assailants [numbering +5000]. There seems to be some anxiety in the public mind whether the +Government is doing its duty to the colored soldier, and to the +service, at this point. At the beginning of the war, and for some +time, the use of colored troops was not contemplated; and how the +change of purpose was wrought I will not now take time to explain. +Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to turn that element of +strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American +people, to the Christian world, to history, and in my final account +to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no +way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. +The difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically +applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the Government is +indifferent to this matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard +to it. We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, or white +officer commanding colored soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels +when made a prisoner. We fear it, we believe it, I may say,--but we +do not know it. To take the life of one of their prisoners on the +assumption that they murder ours, when it is short of certainty that +they do murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake. We +are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; and such +investigation will probably show conclusively how the truth is. If +after all that has been said it shall turn out that there has been no +massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say there has been +none, and will be none, elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of +three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will +be conclusively proved; and being so proved, the retribution shall as +surely come. It will be matter of grave consideration in what exact +course to apply the retribution; but in the supposed case it must +come. + +[There was a massacre of a black company and their officers at Fort +Pillow--they were prisoners who later on, the day of their capture, +were ordered executed. The black soldiers were tied alive to +individual planks--then man and plank were cobbled up like cord wood +and burned. The white officers were shot. D.W.] + + + + +TO CALVIN TRUESDALE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +CALVIN TRUESDALE, ESQ., Postmaster, Rock Island, Ill.: + +Thomas J. Pickett, late agent of the Quartermaster 's Department for +the island of Rock Island, has been removed or suspended from that +position on a charge of having sold timber and stone from the island +for his private benefit. Mr. Pickett is an old acquaintance and +friend of mine, and I will thank you, if you will, to set a day or +days and place on and at which to take testimony on the point. +Notify Mr. Pickett and one J. B. Danforth (who, as I understand, +makes the charge) to be present with their witnesses. Take the +testimony in writing offered by both sides, and report it in full to +me. Please do this for me. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +OFFICER IN MILITARY COMMAND, +Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +If there is a man by the name of Charles Carpenter, under sentence of +death for desertion, at Fort Warren, suspend execution until further +order and send the record of his trial. If sentenced for any other +offence, telegraph what it is and when he is to be executed. Answer +at all events. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 21,1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT FORT WARREN, +Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +The order I sent yesterday in regard to Charles Carpenter is hereby +withdrawn and you are to act as if it never existed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 21, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, New York: + +Yesterday I was induced to telegraph the officer in military command +at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, suspending the +execution of Charles Carpenter, to be executed tomorrow for +desertion. Just now, on reaching your order in the case, I +telegraphed the same officer withdrawing the suspension, and leave +the case entirely with you. The man's friends are pressing me, but I +refer them to you, intending to take no further action myself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Senator Ten Eyck is very anxious to have a special exchange of Capt. +Frank J. McLean, of Ninth Tennessee Cavalry now, or lately, at +Johnson's Island, for Capt. T. Ten Eyck, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry, +and now at Richmond. I would like to have it done. Can it be? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON OFFER OF TROOPS, APRIL 23, 1864. + +TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +1. The Governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin +offer to the President infantry troops for the approaching campaign +as follows: Ohio, thirty thousand; Indiana, twenty thousand; +Illinois, twenty thousand; Iowa, ten thousand; Wisconsin, five +thousand. + +2. The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoned from the date +of muster into the service of the United States, unless sooner +discharged. + +3. The troops to be mustered into the service of the United States by +regiments, when the regiments are filled up, according to +regulations, to the minimum strength--the regiments to be organized +according to the regulations of the War Department. The whole number +to be furnished within twenty days from date of notice of the +acceptance of this proposition. + +4. The troops to be clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted; transported, +and paid as other United States infantry volunteers, and to serve in +fortifications,--or wherever their services may be required, within +or without their respective States. + +5. No bounty to be paid the troops, nor the service charged or +credited on any draft. + +6. The draft for three years' service to go on in any State or +district where the quota is not filled up; but if any officer or +soldier in this special service should be drafted, he shall be +credited for the service rendered. + +JOHN BROUGH, Governor of Ohio. +O. P. MORTON, Governor of Indiana. +RICHARD PATES, Governor of Illinois. +WILLIAM M. STONE, Governor of Iowa. +JAMES T. LEWIS, Governor of Wisconsin + +(Indorsement.) + +April 23, 1864. + +The foregoing proposition of the governors is accepted, and the +Secretary of War is directed to carry it into execution. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +MY DEAR SIR:--According to our understanding with Major-General Frank +P. Blair at the time he took his seat in Congress last winter, he now +asks to withdraw his resignation as Major-General, then tendered, and +be sent to the field. Let this be done. Let the order sending him +be such as shown me to-day by the Adjutant-General, only dropping +from it the names of Maguire and Tompkins. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JOHN WILLIAMS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Yours of the 15th is just received. Thanks for your kind +remembrance. I would accept your offer at once, were it not that I +fear there might be some impropriety in it, though I do not see that +there would. I will think of it a while. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +A Mr. Corby brought you a note from me at the foot of a petition I +believe, in the case of Dawson, to be executed to-day. The record +has been examined here, and it shows too strong a case for a pardon +or commutation, unless there is something in the poor man's favor +outside of the record, which you on the ground may know, but I do +not. My note to you only means that if you know of any such +thing rendering a suspension of the execution proper, on your own +judgment, you are at liberty to suspend it. Otherwise I do not +interfere. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 26, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Chattanooga, Term.: + +Suspend execution of death sentence of young Perry, of Wisconsin, +condemned for sleeping on his post, till further orders, and forward +record for examination. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am much gratified to learn that you got out so large a vote, so +nearly all the right way, at the late election; and not less so that +your State government including the legislature, is organized and in +good working order. Whatever I can I will do to protect you; +meanwhile you must do your utmost to protect yourselves. Present my +greeting to all. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +I have the honor to transmit herewith an address to the President of +the United States, and through him to both Houses of Congress, on the +condition and wants of the people of east Tennessee, and asking their +attention to the necessity of some action on the part of the +Government for their relief, and which address is presented by a +committee of an organization called "The East Tennessee Relief +Association." + +Deeply commiserating the condition of these most loyal and suffering +people, I am unprepared to make any specific recommendation for their +relief. The military is doing and will continue to do the best for +them within its power. Their address represents that the +construction of direct railroad communication between Knoxville and +Cincinnati by way of central Kentucky would be of great consequence +in the present emergency. It may be remembered that in the annual +message of December, 1861, such railroad construction was +recommended. I now add that, with the hearty concurrence of +Congress, I would yet be pleased to construct a road, both for the +relief of these people and for its continuing military importance. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + +APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In obedience to the resolution of your honorable body, a copy of +which is herewith returned, I have the honor to make the following +brief statement, which is believed to contain the information sought: + +Prior to and at the meeting of the present Congress, Robert C. +Schenck, of Ohio, and Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, members elect +thereto, by and with the consent of the Senate held commissions from +the Executive as major-generals in the volunteer army. General +Schenck tendered the resignation of his said commission, and took his +seat in the House of Representatives, at the assembling thereof, upon +the distinct verbal understanding with the Secretary of War and the +Executive that he might, at any time during the session, at his own +pleasure, withdraw said resignation and return to the field. + +General Blair was, by temporary assignment of General Sherman, in +command of a corps through the battles in front of Chattanooga, and +in the march to the relief of Knoxville, which occurred in the latter +days of November and early days of December last, and of course was +not present at the assembling of Congress. When he subsequently +arrived here, he sought, and was allowed by the Secretary of War and +the Executive, the same conditions and promise as allowed and made to +General Schenck. + +General Schenck has not applied to withdraw his resignation; but when +General Grant was made Lieutenant-General, producing some change of +commanders, General Blair sought to be assigned to the command of a +corps. This was made known to Generals Grant and Sherman, and +assented to by them, and the particular corps for him designated. + +This was all arranged and understood, as now remembered, so much as a +month ago; but the formal withdrawal of General Blair's resignation, +and making the order assigning him to the command of the corps, were +not consummated at the War Department until last week, perhaps on the +23d of April instant. As a summary of the whole, it may be stated +that General Blair holds no military commission or appointment other +than as herein stated, and that it is believed he is now acting as +major-General upon the assumed validity of the commission herein +stated, in connection with the facts herein stated, and not +otherwise. There are some letters, notes, telegrams, orders, +entries, and perhaps other documents in connection with this subject, +which it is believed would throw no additional light upon it, but +which will be cheerfully furnished if desired. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 30, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up +to this time, so far as I understand it. + +The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You +are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to +obtrude any restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very +anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great number +shall be avoided, I know that these points are less likely to escape +your attention than they would be mine. If there be anything wanting +which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. + +And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +MAY 2, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In compliance with the request contained in your resolution of the +29th ultimo, a copy of which resolution is herewith returned, I have +the honor to transmit the following: + +[Correspondence and orders relating to the resignation and +reinstatement of Major-General Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri.] + +The foregoing constitutes all sought by the resolution so far as is +remembered or has been found upon diligent search. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 4, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +I have an imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens who say your +Order No.8 will compel them to go north of Nashville. This is in no +sense an order, nor is it even a request that you will do anything +which in the least shall be a drawback upon your military operations, +but anything you can do consistently with those operations for those +suffering people I shall be glad of. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Commanding, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +The President directs me to inquire whether a day has yet been fixed +for the execution of citizen Robert Louden, and if so what day? + +JOHN HAY, +Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. + + + + +TO MRS. S. B. McCONKEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864. + +MRS. SARAH B. McCONKEY, West Chester, Pa.: + +MADAM:--Our mutual friend, Judge Lewis, tells me you do me the honor +to inquire for my personal welfare. I have been very anxious for +some days in regard to our armies in the field, but am considerably +cheered, just now, by favorable news from them. + +I am sure you will join me in the hope for their further success; +while yourself, and other good mothers, wives, sisters, and +daughters, do all you and they can, to relieve and comfort the +gallant soldiers who compose them. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RECOMMENDATION OF THANKSGIVING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864 + +TO THE FRIENDS OF UNION AND LIBERTY: + +Enough is known of army operations, within the last five days, to +claim our special gratitude to God. While what remains undone +demands our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him (without +whom all effort is vain), I recommend that all patriots at their +homes, in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, +unite in common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +MAY 9, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am very much obliged to you for the compliment of +this call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news +received to-day from the Army, than to a desire to see me. I am +indeed very grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with +the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who have directed +them, and especially to our Maker. Our commanders are following up +their victories resolutely and successfully. I think, without +knowing the particulars of the plans of General Grant, that what has +been accomplished is of more importance than at first appears. I +believe, I know (and am especially grateful to know) that General +Grant has not been jostled in his purposes, that he has made all his +points, and to-day he is on his line as he purposed before he moved +his armies. I will volunteer to say that I am very glad at what has +happened, but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are +grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past +few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who +gives us victory. + +There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to +perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest +General at the head of our armies, and sink all personal +consideration for the sake of the country. I commend you to keep +yourselves in the same tranquil mood that is characteristic of that +brave and loyal man. I have said more than I expected when I came +before you. Repeating my thanks for this call, I bid you good-bye. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL LEW WALLACE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WALLACE, Baltimore: + +Please tell me what is the trouble with Dr. Hawks. Also please ask +Bishop Whittington to give me his view of the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS, +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaints are coming to me of disturbances in Canoll, Platte, and +Buchanan counties. Please ascertain the truth, correct what is +found wrong, and telegraph me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. B. LOOMIS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 12, 1864 + +F. B. LOOMIS, ESQ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your +communication of the 28th April, in which you offer to replace the +present garrison at Port Trumbull with volunteers, which you propose +to raise at your own expense. While it seems inexpedient at this +time to accept this proposition on account of the special duties now +devolving upon the garrison mentioned, I cannot pass unnoticed such a +meritorious instance of individual patriotism. Permit me, for the +Government, to express my cordial thanks to you for this generous and +public-spirited offer, which is worthy of note among the many called +forth in these times of national trial. + +I am very truly, your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A METHODIST DELEGATION, MAY 14, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:-In response to your address, allow me to attest the +accuracy of its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it +expresses, and thank you in the nation's name for the sure promise it +gives. Nobly sustained, as the Government has been, by all the +churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear +invidious against any. Yet without this, it may fairly be said, that +the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is by +its greatest numbers the most important of all. It is no fault in +others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, +more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than--any +other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the churches; and +blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the churches. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +His EXCELLENCY RICHARD YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +If any such proclamation has appeared, it is a forgery. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE NEWSPAPER +REPORTERS AND EDITORS + +ORDER TO GENERAL J. A. DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, +Commanding at New York: + +Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and +published this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of +Commerce, newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a +false and spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the +President and to be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which +publication is of a treasonable nature, designed to give aid and +comfort to the enemies of the United States and to the rebels now at +war against the Government and their aiders and abettors, you are +therefore hereby commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison in any +fort or military prison in your command, the editors, proprietors, +and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all such persons as, +after public notice has been given of the falsehood of said +publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and +comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in +close custody until they can be brought to trial before a military +commission for their offense. You will also take possession by +military force of the printing establishments of the New York World +and Journal of Commerce, and hold the same until further orders, and +prohibit any further publication therefrom. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[On the morning of May 18, 3864, a forged proclamation was published +in the World, and Journal of Commerce, of New York. The proclamation +named a day for fasting and prayer, called for 400,000 fresh troops, +and purposed to raise by an "immediate and peremptory draft," +whatever quotas were not furnished on the day specified. Ed.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. P. BUTLER. +(Cipher.) +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Until receiving your dispatch of yesterday, the idea of commissions +in the volunteers expiring at the end of three years had not occurred +to me. I think no trouble will come of it; and, at all events, +I shall take care of it so far as in me lies. As to the +major-generalships in the regular army, I think I shall not dispose of +another, at least until the combined operations now in progress, under +direction of General Grant, and within which yourself and command are +included, shall be terminated. + +Meanwhile, on behalf of yourself, officers, and men, please accept my +hearty thanks for what you and they have so far done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXEMPTION OF +AMERICAN CONSULS FROM MILITARY SERVICE, + +MAY 19, 1864. + +It is officially announced by the State Department that citizens of +the United States holding commissions and recognized as Consuls of +foreign powers, are not by law exempt from military service if +drafted: + +Therefore the mere enrolment of a citizen holding a foreign consulate +will not be held to vacate his commission, but if he shall be drafted +his exequatur will be revoked unless he shall have previously +resigned in order that another Consul may be received. + +An exequatur bearing date the 3d day of May, 1858, having been issued +to Charles Hunt, a citizen of the United States, recognizing him as a +Consul of Belgium for St. Louis, Missouri, and declaring him free to +exercise and enjoy such functions, powers, and privileges as are +allowed to the Consuls of the most favored nations in the United +States, and the said Hunt having sought to screen himself from his +military duty to his country, in consequence of thus being invested +with the consular functions of a foreign power in the United States, +it is deemed advisable that the said Charles Hunt should no longer be +permitted to continue in the exercise of said functions, powers, and +privileges. + +These are therefore to declare that I no longer recognize the said +Hunt as Consul of Belgium, for St. Louis, Missouri, and will not +permit him to exercise or enjoy any of the functions, powers or +privileges allowed to consuls of that nation, and that I do hereby +wholly revoke and annul the said exequatur heretofore given, and do +declare the same to be absolutely null and void from this day +forward. + +In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, +and the seal of the United States of America to be hereunto +affixed................ + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MORTON AND OTHERS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 21, 1864 + +GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON: + +The getting forward of hundred-day troops to sustain General +Sherman's lengthening lines promises much good. Please put your best +efforts into the work. + +A. LINCOLN. + +Same to Governor Yates, Springfield, Illinois; Governor Stone, +Davenport, Iowa; Governor Lewis, Madison, Wisconsin. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO CHRISTIANA A. SACK. +WAR DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21, 1864 + +CHRISTIANA A. SACK, Baltimore, Md.: + +I cannot postpone the execution of a convicted spy on a mere +telegraphic despatch signed with a name I never heard before. +General Wallace may give you a pass to see him if he chooses. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. +WASHINGTON CITY, May 24, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +Yours to Secretary of War [received] asking for something cheering. +We have nothing bad from anywhere. I have just seen a despatch of +Grant, of 11 P.M., May 23, on the North Anna and partly across it, +which ends as follows: "Everything looks exceedingly favorable for +us." We have nothing later from him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 25,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Mr. J. C. Swift wishes a pass from me to follow your army to pick up +rags and cast-off clothing. I will give it to him if you say so, +otherwise not. + +A. LINCOLN. + +["No job to big or too small" for this president--not even a request +from a Rag Picker. D.W.] + + + + +MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF +THE NEW YORK NAVAL BRIGADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 26, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +I am again pressed with the claim of Mr. Marshall O. Roberts, for +transportation of what was called the Naval Brigade from New York to +Fortress Monroe. This force was a special organization got up by one +Bartlett, in pretended pursuance of written authority from me, but in +fact, pursuing the authority in scarcely anything whatever. The +credit given him by Mr. Roberts, was given in the teeth of the +express declaration that the Government would not be responsible for +the class of expenses to which it belonged. After all some part of +the transportation became useful to the Government, and equitably +should be paid for; but I have neither time nor means to ascertain +this equitable amount, or any appropriation to pay it with if +ascertained. If the Quartermaster at New York can ascertain what +would compensate for so much of the transportation as did result +usefully to the Government, it might be a step towards reaching +justice. I write this from memory, but I believe it is substantially +correct. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 3, 1864. + +HON. F. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter, inviting me to be present at a mass meeting +of loyal citizens, to be held at New York on the 4th instant, for the +purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for his +signal services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to +attend. I approve, nevertheless, of whatever may tend to strengthen +and sustain General Grant and the noble armies now under his +direction. My previous high estimate of General Grant has been +maintained and heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable +campaign he is now conducting, while the magnitude and difficulty of +the task before him does not prove less than I expected. He and his +brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust +that at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they may +turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER TOUCHING THE +REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. + +JUNE 5, 1864. + +(Indorsement.) + +Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had +not heard or thought of him for Vice-President. Wish not to +interfere about Vice-President. Cannot interfere about platform. +Convention must judge for itself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 6, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private James McCarthy, of the One-hundred and fortieth New York +Volunteers, is here under sentence to the Dry Tortugas for an attempt +to desert. His friends appeal to me and if his colonel and you +consent, I will send him to his regiment. Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WASHINGTON, June 8, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of to-day received. I am unable to conceive how a message can +be less safe by the express than by a staff-officer. If you send a +verbal message, the messenger is one additional person let into the +secret. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE NOTIFYING PRESIDENT LINCOLN OF HIS +RENOMINATION, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression +of my gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in +their continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me +not unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to +doubt that I shall accept the nomination tendered; and yet perhaps I +should not declare definitely before reading and considering what is +called the platform. I will say now, however, I approve the +declaration in favor of so amending the Constitution as to prohibit +slavery throughout the nation. When the people in revolt, with a +hundred days of explicit notice that they could within those days +resume their allegiance without the overthrow of their institution, +and that they could not so resume it afterward, elected to stand out, +such amendment of the Constitution as now proposed became a fitting +and necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause. +Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now the unconditional +Union men, North and South, perceive its importance and embrace it. +In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it +legal form and practical effect. + + + + +PLATFORM OF THE UNION NATIONAL CONVENTION +HELD IN BALTIMORE, MD., JUNE 7 AND 8, 1864. + +1. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen +to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and +the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United +States; and that, laying aside all differences of political opinion, +we pledge ourselves, as Union men, animated by a common sentiment and +aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the +Government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging +against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their +crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. + +2. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Government of +the United States not to compromise with rebels, or to offer them any +terms of peace, except such as may be based upon an unconditional +surrender of their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to +the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that we call upon +the Government to maintain this position, and to prosecute the war +with the utmost possible vigor to the complete suppression of the +rebellion, in full reliance upon the self-sacrificing patriotism, the +heroic valor, and the undying devotion of the American people to +their Country and its free institutions. + +3. Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the +strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be, always and +everywhere, hostile to the principles of republican government, +justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete +extirpation from the soil of the republic; and that while we uphold +and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in +its own defense, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil, we are +in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to +be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall +terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the +limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. + +4. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to the +soldiers and sailors of the Army and Navy, who have periled their +lives in defense of their country and in vindication of the honor of +its flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of +their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision +for those of their survivors who have received disabling and +honorable wounds in the service of the country; and that the memories +of those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and +everlasting remembrance. + +5. Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the +unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity to the Constitution +and the principles of American liberty, with which Abraham Lincoln +has discharged under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty the +great duties and responsibilities of the Presidential office; that we +approve and indorse as demanded by the emergency and essential to the +preservation of the nation, and as within the provisions of the +Constitution, the measures and acts which he has adopted to defend +the nation against its open and secret foes; that we approve, +especially, the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the employment as +Union soldiers of men heretofore held in slavery; and that we have +full confidence in his determination to carry these and all other +constitutional measures essential to the salvation of the country +into full and complete effect. + +6. Resolved, That we deem it essential to the General welfare that +harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we regard as +worthy of public confidence and official trust those only who +cordially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and +which should characterize the administration of the Government. + +7. Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed in its +armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protection +of the laws of war, and that any violation of these laws, or of the +usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the rebels now in +arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress. + +8. Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has added +so much to the wealth, development of resources, and increase of +power to this nation, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, +should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. + +9. Resolved, That we are in favor of the speedy construction of the +railroad to the Pacific coast. + +10. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of +the public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this purpose we +recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public +expenditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation: and that it +is the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit and promote +the use of the national currency. + +11. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the Government +that the people of the United States can never regard with +indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force +or to supplant by fraud the institutions of any republican government +on the Western Continent, and that they will view with extreme +jealousy, as menacing to the peace and independence of their own +country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for +monarchical governments, sustained by foreign military force, in near +proximity to the United States. + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN--I can only say in response to the remarks of your +chairman, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which +has been accorded to me, both by the convention and by the National +League. I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there +is in this, yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small +portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. +The convention and the nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a +higher view of the interests of the country, for the present and the +great future, and the part I am entitled to appropriate as a +compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the +opinion of the convention and of the League, that I am not entirely +unworthy to be intrusted with the place I have occupied for the last +three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude +that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this +connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a +companion once that "it was not best to swap horses when crossing a +stream." + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:--I am very much obliged to you for this compliment. I +have just been saying, and will repeat it, that the hardest of all +speeches I have to answer is a serenade. I never know what to say on +these occasions. I suppose that you have done me this kindness in +connection with the action of the Baltimore convention, which has +recently taken place, and with which, of course, I am very well +satisfied. What we want still more than Baltimore conventions, or +Presidential elections, is success under General Grant. I propose +that you constantly bear in mind that the support you owe to the +brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first +importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that +point. Now without detaining you any longer, I propose that you help +me to close up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for +General Grant and the officers and soldiers under his command. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE ENVOY FROM +THE HAWAIIAN +ISLANDS, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +SIR:--In every light in which the State of the Hawaiian Islands can +be contemplated, it is an object of profound interest for the United +States. Virtually it was once a colony. It is now a near and +intimate neighbor. It is a haven of shelter and refreshment for our +merchants, fishermen, seamen, and other citizens, when on their +lawful occasions they are navigating the eastern seas and oceans. +Its people are free, and its laws, language, and religion are largely +the fruit of our own teaching and example. The distinguished part +which you, Mr. Minister, have acted in the history of that +interesting country, is well known here. It gives me pleasure to +assure you of my sincere desire to do what I can to render now your +sojourn in the United States agreeable to yourself, satisfactory to +your sovereign, and beneficial to the Hawaiian people. + + + + +REMARKS TO AN OHIO REGIMENT, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +Soldiers! I understand you have just come from Ohio; come to help us +in this the nation's day of trial, and also of its hopes. I thank +you for your promptness in responding to the call for troops. Your +services were never needed more than now. I know not where you are +going. You may stay here and take the places of those who will be +sent to the front, or you may go there yourselves. Wherever you go I +know you will do your best. Again I thank you. Good-by. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL L. THOMAS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +Complaint is made to me that in the vicinity of Henderson, our +militia is seizing negroes and carrying them off without their own +consent, and according to no rules whatever, except those of absolute +violence. I wish you would look into this and inform me, and see +that the making soldiers of negroes is done according to the rules +you are acting upon, so that unnecessary provocation and irritation +be avoided. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO THOMAS WEBSTER. +WASHINGTON, D. C., June 13, 1864. + +THOMAS WEBSTER, Philadelphia: + +Will try to leave here Wednesday afternoon, say at 4 P.M., remain +till Thursday afternoon and then return. This subject to events. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, June 15, 1864. 7 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, +Headquarters Army of the Potomac: + +I have just received your dispatch of 1 P.M. yesterday. I begin to +see it: you will succeed. God bless you all. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT A SANITARY FAIR IN PHILADELPHIA, + +JUNE 16, 1864. + +I suppose that this toast is intended to open the way for me to say +something. War at the best is terrible, and this of ours in its +magnitude and duration is one of the most terrible the world has ever +known. It has deranged business totally in many places, and perhaps +in all. It has destroyed property, destroyed life, and ruined homes. +It has produced a national debt and a degree of taxation +unprecedented in the history of this country. It has caused mourning +among us until the heavens may almost be said to be hung in black. +And yet it continues. It has had accompaniments not before known in +the history of the world. I mean the Sanitary and Christian +Commissions, with their labors for the relief of the soldiers, and +the Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, understood better by those who +hear me than by myself, and these fairs, first begun at Chicago and +next held in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities. The motive and +object that lie at the bottom of them are worthy of the most that we +can do for the soldier who goes to fight the battles of his country. +From the fair and tender hand of women is much, very much, done for +the soldier, continually reminding him of the care and thought for +him at home. The knowledge that he is not forgotten is grateful to +his heart. Another view of these institutions is worthy of thought. +They are voluntary contributions, giving proof that the national +resources are not at all exhausted, and that the national patriotism +will sustain us through all. It is a pertinent question, When is +this war to end? I do not wish to name the day when it will end, lest +the end should not come at the given time. We accepted this war, and +did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, and when that object +is accomplished the war will end, and I hope to God that it will +never end until that object is accomplished. We are going through +with our task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us three years +longer. I have not been in the habit of making predictions, but I am +almost tempted now to hazard one. I will. It is, that Grant is this +evening in a position, with Meade and Hancock, of Pennsylvania, +whence he can never be dislodged by the enemy until Richmond is +taken. If I shall discover that General Grant may be greatly +facilitated in the capture of Richmond by rapidly pouring to him a +large number of armed men at the briefest notice, will you go? Will +you march on with him? [Cries of "Yes, yes."] Then I shall call upon +you when it is necessary. + + + + +TO ATTORNEY-GENERAL BATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, Jun. 24, 1864 + +HONORABLE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. + +SIR:--By authority of the Constitution, and moved thereto by the +fourth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act making +appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the +thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and for other +purposes, approved June is, 1864," I require your opinion in writing +as to what pay, bounty, and clothing are allowed by law to persons of +color who were free on the nineteenth day of April, 1861, and who +have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the +United States between the month of December, 1862, and the sixteenth +of June, 1864. + +Please answer as you would do, on my requirement, if the act of June +15, 1864, had not been passed, and I will so use your opinion as to +satisfy that act. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MRS. A. LINCOLN, Boston, Massachusetts: + +All well and very warm. Tad and I have been to General Grant's army. +Returned yesterday safe and sound. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaint is made to me that General Brown does not do his best to +suppress bushwhackers. Please ascertain and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 27, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM DENNISON AND OTHERS, +a Committee of the Union National Convention. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter of the 14th inst.., formally notifying me +that I have been nominated by the convention you represent for the +Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March +next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as +the resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily +approved. + +While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican +government upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there +might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the +Government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed +through the State Department and indorsed by the convention among the +measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so +long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent and +applicable. + +I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not +forgotten by the convention, as they forever must and will be +remembered by the grateful country for whose salvation they devote +their lives. + +Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have +communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the convention, +I subscribe myself, + +Your obedient servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons +sent as Senators and Representatives from Arkansas. These persons +apprehend that, in consequence, you may not support the new State +government there as you otherwise would. My wish is that you give +that government and the people there the same support and protection +that you would if the members had been admitted, because in no event, +nor in any view of the case, can this do any harm, while it will be +the best you can do toward suppressing the rebellion. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Dr. Worster wishes to visit you with a view of getting your +permission to introduce into the army "Harmon's Sandal Sock." Shall I +give him a pass for that object? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO DAVID TOD. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 30, 1864. + +HON. DAVID TOD, Youngstown, Ohio: +I have nominated you to be Secretary of the Treasury, in place of +Governor Chase, who has resigned. Please come without a moment's +delay. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. L. SCRIPPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 4, 1864. + +To JOHN L. SCRIPPS, ESQ. + +DEAR SIR:--Complaint is made to me that you are using your official +power to defeat Mr. Arnold's nomination to Congress. I am well +satisfied with Mr. Arnold as a member of Congress, and I do not know +that the man who might supplant him would be as satisfactory; but the +correct principle, I think, is that all our friends should have +absolute freedom of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is +that you will do just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the +case, and not constrain any of your subordinates to [do] other than +[as] he thinks fit with his. This is precisely the rule I inculcated +and adhered to on my part, when a certain other nomination, now +recently made, was being canvassed for. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. +WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +J. W. GARRETT, President [B. & 0. R. R.], Camden Station: + +You say telegraphic communication is re-established with Sandy Hook. +Well, what does Sandy Hook say about operations of enemy and of Sigel +during to-day? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY HORATIO SEYMOUR, +Governor of New York, Albany: + +The President directs me to inform you that a rebel force, variously +estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men, have invaded the +State of Maryland, and have taken Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, and +are threatening other points; that the public safety requires him to +call upon the State executives for a militia force to repel this +invasion. He therefore directs me to call on you for a militia force +of twelve thousand men from your State to serve not more than one +hundred days, and to request that you will with the utmost despatch +forward the troops to Washington by rail or steamboat as may be most +expeditious. + +Please favor me with an answer at your earliest convenience. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, + +Secretary of War. + + + + +PROCLAMATION +SUSPENDING THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, + +JULY 5, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued on the 15th day of April, +1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that +the laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then +were, opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in certain States +therein mentioned, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by +the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the power vested in +the marshals by law; and + +Whereas, immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation the +land and naval forces of the United States were put into activity to +suppress the said insurrections and rebellion; and + +Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by an act approved on the +third day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion +the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the +public safety may require it, is authorized to suspend the privilege +of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the United +States, or any part thereof; and + +Whereas, the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, +endangering the existence of the Constitution and Government of the +United States; and + +Whereas, the military forces of the United States are now actively +engaged in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various +parts of the States where the said rebellion has been successful in +obstructing the laws and public authorities, especially in the States +of Virginia and Georgia; and + +Whereas, on the fifteenth day of September last, the President of the +United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended +throughout the United States, in Cases whereby the authority of the +President of the United States, the military, naval, and civil +officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons under +their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, +or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen +enrolled or drafted, or mustered, or enlisted in, or belonging to the +land or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, +or otherwise amenable to military law, or the rules and articles of +war, or the rules and regulations prescribed for the military and +naval service by authority of the President of the United States, or +for resisting a draft, or for any other offence against the military +or naval service; and + +Whereas, many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the +forces of the insurgents, who have on several occasions entered the +said State of Kentucky in large force and not without aid and comfort +furnished by disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United States +residing therein, have not only greatly disturbed the public peace +but have overborne the civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, +destroying property and life in various parts of the State; and + +Whereas, it has been made known to the President of the United +States, by the officers commanding the National armies, that +combinations have been formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a +purpose of inciting the rebel forces to renew the said operations of +civil war within the said State, and thereby to embarrass the United +States armies now operating in the said States of Virginia and +Georgia, and even to endanger their safety. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, +do hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially +requires that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas +corpus so proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of +September, 1863, be made effectual and be duly enforced in and +throughout the said State of Kentucky, and that martial law be for +the present declared therein. I do therefore hereby require of the +military officers of the said State that the privilege of the habeas +corpus be effectually suspended within the said State, according to +the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law be established +therein to take effect from the date of this proclamation, the said +suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until this +proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period +when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end. +And I do hereby require and command, as well as military officers, +all civil officers and authorities existing or found within the said +State of Kentucky, to take notice of this proclamation and to give +full effect to the same. The martial laws herein proclaimed and the +things in that respect herein ordered will not be deemed or taken to +interfere with the holding of lawful elections, or with the +proceedings of the constitutional Legislature of Kentucky, or with +the administration of justice in the courts of law existing therein +between citizens of the United States in suits or proceedings which +do not affect the military operations or the constituted authorities +of the government of the United States. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington this 5th day of July, in the year of +our Lord 1864, and of the independence of the United States the +eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER, JULY 7, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives at their last +session adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the +second day of July instant, and which `was in the words following, +namely: + +That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day +of humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States, that he +request his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive +Departments to unite with him, as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at +the City of Washington, and the members of Congress, and all +magistrates, all civil, military, and naval officers, all soldiers, +sailors, and marines, with all loyal and law-abiding people, to +convene at their usual places of worship, or wherever they may be, to +confess and to repent of their manifold sins, to implore the +compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that, if consistent with +His will, the existing rebellion may be speedily suppressed, and the +supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States may be +established throughout all the States; to implore Him, as the Supreme +Ruler of the world, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer us to +be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations, or by +obstinate adhesion to our own counsels which may be in conflict with +His eternal, purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of +the nation to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in +accordance with His will that our place should be maintained as a +united people among the family of nations; to implore Him to grant to +our armed defenders, and the masses of the people, that courage, +power of resistance, and endurance necessary to secure that result; +to implore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the hearts, +enlighten the minds, and quicken the conscience of those in +rebellion, that they may lay down their arms, and speedily return to +their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly +destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity +and fraternity may be restored, and peace established throughout all +our borders. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the `United States, +cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States, in the +penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid +resolutions, and heartily approving of the devotional design and +purpose thereof, do hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next +to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of +national humiliation and prayer. + +I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive +Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all +judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in +the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, +seamen, and marines in the national service, and all other loyal and +law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their +preferred places of public worship on that day, and there to render +to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the Universe, such homage and +such confessions, and to offer to Him such supplications as the +Congress of the United States have, in their aforesaid resolution, so +solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently recommended. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington +this seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States +the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES, WHOSE +GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF +GOVERNMENT," AND CONCERNING RECONSTRUCTION, + +JULY 8, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to +certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a +republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; +and + +Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United +States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die +adjournment of said session, and was not signed by him; and + +Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for +restoring the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation +in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that +subject, and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the +people for their consideration: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in +December last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for +restoration) unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be +inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration, and while I +am also unprepared to declare that the free State constitutions and +governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana +shall be set aside and held for naught, thereby repelling and +discouraging the loyal citizens who have set up the same as to +further effort, or to declare a constitutional competency in Congress +to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same time sincerely +hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment abolishing +slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully +satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as +one very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to +adopt it, and that I am and at all times shall be prepared to give +the Executive aid and assistance to any such people so soon as the +military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed +in any such States and the people thereof shall have sufficiently +returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the +United States, in which cases militia-governors will be appointed +with directions to proceed according to the bill. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.............. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO HORACE GREELEY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., +July 9, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +DEAR SIR:--Your letter of the 7th, with inclosures, received. + +If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any +proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the +restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it +embraces, say to him he may come to me with you; and that if he +really brings such proposition, he shall at the least have safe +conduct with the paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the +point where you shall have to meet him. The same if there be two or +more persons. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 9, 1864 + +J. W. GARRETT, Camden Station: + +What have you heard about a battle at Monocacy to-day? We have +nothing about it here except what you say. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK +TO GENERAL WALLACE. +WASHINGTON, July 9, 1864. 11.57 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL L. WALLACE, Commanding Middle Department: + +I am directed by the President to say that you will rally your forces +and make every possible effort to retard the enemy's march on +Baltimore. + +H. W. HALLECK, Major-General and Chief of Staff. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. SWAN AND OTHERS. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 10, 1864. 9.20 A.M. + +THOMAS SWAN AND OTHERS, Baltimore, Maryland: + +Yours of last night received. I have not a single soldier but whom +is being disposed by the military for the best protection of all. By +latest accounts the enemy is moving on Washington. They cannot fly +to either place. Let us be vigilant, but keep cool. I hope neither +Baltimore nor Washington will be sacked. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON CITY, July TO, 1864.2 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Your dispatch to General Halleck, referring to what I may think in +the present emergency, is shown me. General Halleck says we have +absolutely no force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with +the hundred-day men and invalids we have here we can defend +Washington, and, scarcely, Baltimore. Besides these there are about +eight thousand, not very reliable, under Howe, at Harper's Ferry with +Hunter approaching that point very slowly, with what number I suppose +you know better than I. Wallace, with some odds and ends, and part of +what came up with Ricketts, was so badly beaten yesterday at +Monocacy, that what is left can attempt no more than to defend +Baltimore. What we shall get in from Pennsylvania and New York will +scarcely be worth counting, I fear. Now, what I think is, that you +should provide to retain your hold where you are, certainly, and +bring the rest with you personally, and make a vigorous effort to +destroy the enemy's forces in this vicinity. I think there is really +a fair chance to do this, if the movement is prompt. This is what I +think upon your suggestion, and is not an order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, July 11, 1864. 8 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of 10.30 P.M. yesterday received, and very satisfactory. The +enemy will learn of Wright's arrival, and then the difficulty will be +to unite Wright and Hunter south of the enemy before he will recross +the Potomac. Some firing between Rockville and here now. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 12, 1864. 11.30 AM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Vague rumors have been reaching us for two or three days that +Longstreet's corps is also on its way [to] this vicinity. Look out +for its absence from your front. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM AND LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 12, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I suppose you received my letter of the 9th. I have just received +yours of the 13th, and am disappointed by it. I was not expecting +you to send me a letter, but to bring me a man, or men. Mr. Hay goes +to you with my answer to yours of the 13th. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[Carried by Major John Hay.] + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, JULY 15, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +MY DEAR SIR:-Yours of the 13th is just received, and I am +disappointed that you have not already reached here with those +commissioners, if they would consent to come on being shown my letter +to you of the 9th instant. Show that and this to them, and if they +will come on the terms stated in the former, bring them. I not only +intend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend that you shall be a +personal witness that it is made. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SAFE CONDUCT FOR CLEMENT C. CLAY AND OTHERS, + +JULY 16, 1864. + +The President of the United States directs that the four persons +whose names follow, to wit, HON. Clement C. Clay, HON. Jacob +Thompson, Professor James P. Holcombe, George N. Sanders, shall have +safe conduct to the city of Washington in company with the HON. +HORACE GREELEY, and shall be exempt from arrest or annoyance of any +kind from any officer of the United States during their journey to +the said city of Washington. + +By order of the President: +JOHN HAY, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +[WASHINGTON] July 17. 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +In your dispatch of yesterday to General Sherman, I find the +following, to wit: + +"I shall make a desperate effort to get a position here, which will +hold the enemy without the necessity of so many men." + +Pressed as we are by lapse of time I am glad to hear you say this; +and yet I do hope you may find a way that the effort shall not be +desperate in the sense of great loss of life. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER +WASHINGTON JULY 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Yours of this morning received. You misconceive. The order you +complain of was only nominally mine, and was framed by those who +really made it with no thought of making you a scapegoat. It seemed +to be General Grant's wish that the forces under General Wright and +those under you should join and drive at the enemy under General +Wright. Wright had the larger part of the force, but you had the +rank. It was thought that you would prefer Crook's commanding your +part to your serving in person under Wright. That is all of it. +General Grant wishes you to remain in command of the department, and +I do not wish to order otherwise. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattahoochee River, Georgia: + +I have seen your despatches objecting to agents of Northern States +opening recruiting stations near your camps. An act of Congress +authorizes this, giving the appointment of agents to the States, and +not to the Executive Government. It is not for the War Department, +or myself, to restrain or modify the law, in its execution, further +than actual necessity may require. To be candid, I was for the +passage of the law, not apprehending at the time that it would +produce such inconvenience to the armies in the field as you now +cause me to fear. Many of the States were very anxious for it, and I +hoped that, with their State bounties, and active exertions, they +would get out substantial additions to our colored forces, which, +unlike white recruits, help us where they come from, as well as where +they go to. I still hope advantage from the law; and being a law, it +must be treated as such by all of us. We here will do what we +consistently can to save you from difficulties arising out of it. +May I ask, therefore, that you will give your hearty co-operation. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING TERMS OF PEACE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. + +TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the +integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and +which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now +at war against the United States, will be received and considered by +the Executive Government of the United States, and will be met by +liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points; and the +bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe conduct both ways. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS, + +JULY 18, 1864, + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to +regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national +forces and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of +the United States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, +call for any number of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of +one, two, and three years for military service," and "that in case +the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, +precinct, or election district, or of a county not so subdivided, +shall not be filled within the space of fifty days after such call, +then the President shall immediately order a draft for one year to +fill such quota or any part thereof which may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas the new enrolment heretofore ordered is so far completed as +that the aforementioned act of Congress may now be put in operation +for recruiting and keeping up the strength of the armies in the +field, for garrisons, and such military operations as may be required +for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the +authority of the United States Government in the insurgent States: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do issue this my last call for five hundred thousand volunteers for +the military service: Provided, nevertheless, That this call shall +be reduced by all credits which may be established under section +eight of the aforesaid act on account of persons who have entered the +naval service during the present rebellion and by credits for men +furnished to the military service in excess of calls heretofore made. +Volunteers will be accepted under this call for one, two, or three +years, as they may elect, and will be entitled to the bounty provided +by the law for the period of services for which they enlist. + +And I hereby proclaim, order, and direct that immediately after the +5th day of September, 1864, being fifty days from the date of this +call, a draft for troops to serve for one year shall be had in every +town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or +county not so subdivided, to fill the quota which shall be assigned +to it under this call or any part thereof which may be unfilled by +volunteers on the said 5th day of September, 1864. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington, this 18th day of July, A.D. 1864, and +of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 20, 1864. 4.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of yesterday, about a call for three hundred thousand, is +received. I suppose you had not seen the call for five hundred +thousand, made the day before, and which, I suppose, covers the case. +Always glad to have your suggestions. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. L. WRIGHT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY. 20, 1864. + +J. L. WRIGHT, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +All a mistake. Mr. Stanton has not resigned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER. +(Cipher.) + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Are you able to take care of the enemy, when he turns back upon you, +as he probably will on finding that Wright has left? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, ENCLOSING A LETTER TO WILLIAM O. SNIDER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN: + +Herewith is the manuscript letter for the gentleman who sent me a +cane through your hands. For my life I cannot make out his name; and +therefore I cut it from his letter and pasted it on, as you see. I +suppose [sic] will remember who he is, and I will thank you to +forward him the letter. He dates his letter at Philadelphia. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + +WILLIAM O. SNIDER: + +The cane you did me the honor to present through Governor Curtin was +duly placed in my hand by him. Please accept my thanks; and, at the +same time, pardon me for not having sooner found time to tender them. +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM JOHN HAY TO J. C. WELLING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. +July 25, 1864. + +J. C. WELLING, ESQ. + +SIR:--According to the request contained in your note, I have placed +Mr. Gibson's letter of resignation in the hands of the President. He +has read the letter, and says he accepts the resignation, as he will +be glad to do with any other, which may be tendered, as this is, for +the purpose of taking an attitude of hostility against him. + +He says he was not aware that he was so much indebted to Mr. Gibson +for having accepted the office at first, not remembering that he ever +pressed him to do so, or that he gave it otherwise than as was usual, +upon request made on behalf of Mr. Gibson. + +He thanks Mr. Gibson for his acknowledgment that he has been treated +with personal kindness and consideration, and says he knows of but +two small drawbacks upon Mr. Gibson's right to still receive such +treatment, one of which is that he never could learn of his giving +much attention to the duties of his office, and the other is this +studied attempt of Mr. Gibson's to stab him. + +I am very truly, + +Your obedient servant, + +JOHN HAY. + + + + +TO COLONEL, FIRST N. Y. VETERAN CAVALRY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, JULY 25, 1864. + +Thomas Connor, a private in the First Veteran New York Cavalry, is +now imprisoned at hard labor for desertion. If the Colonel of said +Regiment will say in writing on this sheets that he is willing to +receive him back to the Regiment, I will pardon, and send him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, July 26, 1864. 2.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta: + +I have just seen yours complaining of the appointment of Hovey and +Osterhaus. The point you make is unquestionably a good one, and yet +please hear a word from us. My recollection is that both General +Grant and yourself recommended both H [ovey] and O [sterhaus] for +promotion, and these, with other strong recommendations, drew +committals from us which we could neither honorably or safely +disregard. We blamed H [ovey] for coming away in the manner in which +he did, but he knew he had apparent reason to feel disappointed and +mortified, and we felt it was not best to crush one who certainly had +been a good soldier. As to [Osterhaus], we did not know of his +leaving at the time we made the appointment, and do not now know the +terms on which he left. Not to have appointed him, as the case +appeared to us at the time, would have been almost, if not quite, a +violation of our word. The word was given on what we thought was +high merit and somewhat on his nationality. I beg you to believe we +do not act in a spirit of disregarding merit. We expect to await +your programme for further changes and promotions in your army. My +profoundest thanks to you and your whole army for the present +campaign so far. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL HALLECK. + +WASHINGTON CITY, +July 27, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, +Chief of Staff of the Army: + +GENERAL:--Lieutenant-General Grant having signified that, owing to +the difficulties and delay of communication between his headquarters +and Washington, it is necessary that in the present emergency +military orders must be issued directly from Washington, the +President directs me to instruct you that all the military operations +for the defense of the Middle Department, the Department of the +Susquehanna, the Department of Washington, and the Department of West +Virginia, and all the forces in those departments, are placed under +your general command, and that you will be expected to take all +military measures necessary for defense against any attack of the +enemy and for his capture and destruction. You will issue from time +to time such orders to the commanders of the respective departments +and to the military authorities therein as may be proper. + +Your obedient servant, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +WASHINGTON, July 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours in relation to General A. C. Gillam just received. Will look +after the matter to-day. + +I also received yours about General Carl Schurz. I appreciate him +certainly, as highly as you do; but you can never know until you have +the trial, how difficult it is to find a place for an officer of so +high rank when there is no place seeking him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +July 29, 1864. + +Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON. + +MADAM:--The plaid you send me is just now placed in my hands. I +thank you for that pretty and useful present, but still more for +those good wishes for myself and our country, which prompted you to +present it. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT, AUGUST 3, 1864. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, August 2, 1864. + +MR. PRESIDENT:--This note will introduce to you Mr. Schley of +Baltimore, who desires to appeal to you for the revocation of an +order of General Hunter, removing some persons, citizens of +Frederick, beyond his lines, and imprisoning others. This Department +has no information of the reasons or proofs on which General Hunter +acts, and I do not therefore feel at liberty to suspend or interfere +with his action except under your direction. + +Yours truly, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + +[Indorsement.] + +August 3, 1864. + +The Secretary of War will suspend the order of General Hunter +mentioned within, until further order and direct him to send to the +Department a brief report of what is known against each one proposed +to be dealt with. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U, S. GRANT. +(Cipher.) + +WASHINGTON, D. C.. August 3, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch in which you say, "I want Sheridan put in +command of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put +himself south of the enemy, and follow him to the death. Wherever +the enemy goes, let our troops go also." + +This, I think, is exactly right as to how our forces should move; but +please look over the despatches you may have received from here, ever +since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is +any idea in the head of any one here of "putting our army south of +the enemy," or of following him to the "death," in any direction. I +repeat to you, it will neither be done nor attempted, unless you +watch it every day and hour, and force it. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[Here the President was mistaken in thinking that Sherman and Grant +had the same inability of most of his previous general officers. No +one needed to watch Grant or Sherman, they only needed to get out of +their way. D.W.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 6, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +Yours to Major Hay about publication of our correspondence received. +With the suppression of a few passages in your letters in regard to +which I think you and I would not disagree, I should be glad of the +publication. Please come over and see me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 8, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I telegraphed you Saturday. Did you receive the despatch? Please +answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DISLOYAL FAMILY MEMBER + +TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., +August 8, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +Last December Mrs. Emily T. Helm, half-sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and +widow of the rebel general, Ben Hardin Helm, stopped here on her way +from Georgia to Kentucky, and I gave her a paper, as I remember, to +protect her against the mere fact of her being General Helm's widow. +I hear a rumor to-day that you recently sought to arrest her, but +were prevented by her presenting the paper from me. I do not intend +to protect her against the consequences of disloyal words or acts, +spoken or done by her since her return to Kentucky, and if the paper +given her by me can be construed to give her protection for such +words and acts, it is hereby revoked pro tanto. Deal with her for +current conduct just as you would with any other. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., August 14, 1864. 1.30 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +The Secretary of War and I concur that you had better confer with +General Lee, and stipulate for a mutual discontinuance of +house-burning and other destruction of private property. The time and +manner of conference and particulars of stipulation we leave, on our +part, to your convenience and judgment. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 15,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta, Ga.: + +If the Government should purchase, on its own account, cotton +northward of you, and on the line of your communications, would it be +an inconvenience to you, or detriment to the military service, for it +to come to the north on the railroad? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH JOHN T. MILLS, + +AUGUST [15?], 1864. + + +"Mr. President," said Governor Randall, "why can't you seek seclusion, +and play hermit for a fortnight? It would reinvigorate you." + +"Ah," said the President, "two or three weeks would do me no good. I +cannot fly from my thoughts--my solicitude for this great country +follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or +ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot +but feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in +November. There is no program offered by any wing of the Democratic +party but that must result in the permanent destruction of the Union." + +"But, Mr. President, General McClellan is in favor of crushing out +this rebellion by force. He will be the Chicago candidate." + +"Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man +that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It +would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are +now in the service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty +thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending +and acquiring Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that +these forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by +restoring them to slavery. The black men who now assist Union +prisoners to escape are to be converted into our enemies, in the vain +hope of gaining the good-will of their masters. We shall have to +fight two nations instead of one. + +"You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them ultimate +success; and the experience of the present war proves their success +is inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black +men into their side of the scale. Will you give our enemies such +military advantages as insure success, and then depend on coaxing, +flattery, and concession to get them back into the Union? Abandon all +the posts now garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty +thousand men from our side and put them in the battle-field or +corn-field against us, and we would be compelled to abandon the war +in three weeks. + +"We have to hold territory in inclement and sickly places; where are +the Democrats to do this? It was a free fight, and the field was open +to the war Democrats to put down this rebellion by fighting against +both master and slave, long before the present policy was +inaugurated. + +"There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to +slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win +the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should +deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what will, I will +keep my faith with friend and foe. My enemies pretend I am now +carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I +am President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of +restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion +without the use of the emancipation policy, and every other policy +calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion. + +"Freedom has given us one hundred and fifty thousand men, raised on +Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has +subtracted from the enemy, and, instead of alienating the South, +there are now evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our +men and the rank and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies +prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is not necessary +to a restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue." + + + + +ENDORSEMENT OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT, +AUGUST 15, 1864. + +I am always for the man who wishes to work; and I shall be glad for +this man to get suitable employment at Cavalry Depot, or elsewhere. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. J. RAYMOND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, August 15, 1864 + +HON. HENRY J. RAYMOND. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara +correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his +letters over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy which I +herewith send. He declines giving his consent to the publication of +his letters unless these parts be published with the rest. I have +concluded that it is better for me to submit, for the time, to the +consequences of the false position in which I consider he has placed +me, than to subject the country to the consequences of publishing +these discouraging and injurious parts. I send you this, and the +accompanying copy, not for publication, but merely to explain to you, +and that you may preserve them until their proper time shall come. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 17, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your +hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog +grip, and chew and choke as much as possible. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS, +AUGUST 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the 28th of September, 1850, entitled +"An act to create additional collection districts in the State of +California, and to change the existing districts therein, and to +modify the existing collection districts in the United States," +extends to merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege of being +exported to the British North American provinces adjoining the United +States, in the manner prescribed in the act of Congress of the 3d of +March, 1845, which designates certain frontier ports through which +merchandise may be exported, and further provides "that such other +ports, situated on the frontiers of the United States adjoining the +British North American provinces, as may hereafter be found +expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges, on the +recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation +duly made by the President of the United States, specially +designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be +extended." + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of +the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of +Newport, in the State of Vermont, is and shall be entitled to all the +privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the +British North American provinces adjoining the United States, which +are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of the +act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after +the date of this proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States of America, the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, AUGUST 18, 1864. + +If General Hitchcock can effect a special exchange of Thomas D. +Armesy, now under conviction as a spy, or something of the sort, and +in prison at for Major Nathan Goff, made a prisoner of war, and now +in prison at Richmond, let it be done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 164TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 18, 1864. + +SOLDIERS:--You are about to return to your homes and your friends, +after having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short +term of duty in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and +to all who have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it +might be more generally and universally understood what the country +is now engaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free government, +where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In +this great struggle, this form of government and every form of human +right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved +in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in +this struggle, the question whether your children and my children +shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this, in order to +impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small +matter should divert us from our great purpose. + +There may be some inequalities in the practical application of our +system. It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion +to the value of his property; but if we should wait, before +collecting a tax, to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact +proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at +all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; and things may be done +wrong, while the officers of the Government do all they can to +prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great +Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we +have before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted +from it by any small matter. When you return to your homes, rise up +to the height of a generation of men worthy of a free government, and +we will carry out the great work we have commenced. I return to you +my sincere thanks, soldiers, for the honor you have done me this +afternoon. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Please allow Judge Snead to go to his family on Eastern Shore, or +give me some good reason why not. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 166TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 22, 1864. + +SOLDIERS--I suppose you are going home to see your families and +friends. For the services you have done in this great struggle in +which we are engaged, I present you sincere thanks for myself and the +country. + +I almost always feel inclined, when I say anything to soldiers, to +impress upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success +in this contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all time to +come, that we should perpetuate for our children's children that +great and free government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg +you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I +happen, temporarily, to occupy this big White House. I am a living +witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my +father's child has. It is in order that each one of you may have, +through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field, +and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence; +that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life with all +its desirable human aspirations--it is for this that the struggle +should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthrights--not only +for one, but for two or three years, if necessary. The nation is +worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +August 23, 1864. + +This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable +that this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my +duty to so co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union +between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured +his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it +afterward. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, 1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Thanks to General Gillam for making the news and also to you for +sending it. Does Joe Heiskell's "walking to meet us" mean any more +than that "Joe" was scared and wanted to save his skin? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO B. H. BREWSTER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 30,1864. + +HON. B. H. BREWSTER, Astor House, New York: + +Your letter of yesterday received. Thank you for it. Please have no +fears. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING COTTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, August 31, 1864. + +Any person or persons engaged in bringing out cotton, in strict +conformity with authority given by W. P. Fessenden, Secretary of the +United States Treasury, must not be hindered by the War, Navy, or any +other Department of the Government, or any person engaged under any +of said Departments. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO COLONEL HUIDEKOPER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +SEPTEMBER 1, 1864 + +COLONEL H. C. HUIDEKOPER, Meadville, Penn. + +SIR: It is represented to me that there are at Rock Island, +Illinois, as rebel prisoners of war, many persons of Northern and +foreign birth who are unwilling to be exchanged and sent South, but +who wish to take the oath of allegiance and enter the military +service of the Union. Colonel Huidekoper, on behalf of the people of +some parts of Pennsylvania, wishes to pay the bounties the Government +would have to pay to proper persons of this class, have them enter +the service of the United States, and be credited to the localities +furnishing the bounty money. He will therefore proceed to Rock +Island, ascertain the names of such persons (not including any +who have attractions Southward), and telegraph them to the +Provost-Marshal-General here, whereupon direction will be given to +discharge the persons named upon their taking the oath of allegiance; +and then upon the official evidence being furnished that they shall +have been duly received and mustered into the service of the United +States, their number will be credited as may be directed by Colonel +Huidekoper. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, +September 3, 1864. + +The signal success that Divine Providence has recently vouchsafed to +the operations of the United States fleet and army in the harbor of +Mobile, and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort +Morgan, and the glorious achievements of the army under Major-General +Sherman, in the State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of the +city of Atlanta, call for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being +in whose hands are the destinies of nations. It is therefore +requested that on next Sunday, in all places of worship in the United +States, thanksgivings be offered to Him for His mercy in preserve our +national existence against the insurgent rebels who have been waging +a cruel war against the Government of the United States for its +overthrow, and also that prayer be made for Divine protection to our +brave soldiers and their leaders in the field who have so often and +so gallantly periled their lives in battling with the enemy, and for +blessings and comfort from the Father of mercies to the sick, +wounded, and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who +have fallen in the service of their country, and that He will +continue to uphold the Government of the United States against all +the efforts of public enemies and secret foes. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDERS OF GRATITUDE AND REJOICING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Admiral Farragut +and Major-General Canby, for the skill and harmony with which the +recent operations in Mobile Harbor and against Fort Powell, Fort +Gaines, and Fort Morgan were planned and carried into execution. +Also to Admiral Farragut and Major-General Granger, under whose +immediate command they were conducted, and to the gallant commanders +on sea and land, and to the sailors and soldiers engaged in the +operations, for their energy and courage, which, under the blessing +of Providence, have been crowned with brilliant success, and have won +for them the applause and thanks of the nation. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Major-General +William T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his +command before Atlanta, for the distinguished ability, courage, and +perseverance displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which under Divine +power resulted in the capture of the city of Atlanta. The marches, +battles, sieges, and other military operations that have signalized +this campaign must render it famous in the annals of war, and have +entitled those who have participated therein to the applause and +thanks of the nation. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +Ordered: First, That on Monday, the fifth day of September, +commencing at the hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be given a +salute of one hundred guns at the arsenal and navy-yard, at +Washington, and on Tuesday, the 6th of September, or on the day after +the receipt of this order, at each arsenal and navy-yard in the +United States, for the recent brilliant achievements of the fleet and +land forces of the United States in the harbor of Mobile, and in the +reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan. The +Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy will issue the +necessary directions in their respective departments for the +execution of this order. + +Second, That on Wednesday, the 7th of September, commencing at the +hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be fired a salute of one +hundred guns at the arsenal at Washington, and at New York, Boston, +Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Newport (Ky.), and St. Louis, +and New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola, Hilton Head, and Newbern, the +day after the receipt of this order, for the brilliant achievements +of the army under command of Major-General Sherman, in the State of +Georgia, and for the capture of Atlanta. The Secretary of War will +issue directions for the execution of this order. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President Of the United States. + + + + +TO MRS. GURNEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 4, 1864. + +ELIZA P. GURNEY. + +MY ESTEEMED FRIEND:--I have not forgotten probably never shall forget +the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on +a Sabbath forenoon two years ago--nor has your kind letter, written +nearly a year later, even been for gotten. In all, it has been your +purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the +good Christian people of the country for their constant prayer and +consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself. The +purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we +erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We +hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; +but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet +acknowledge His wisdom, and our own error therein. Mean while we +must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so +working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He +intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no +mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. + +Your people--the Friends--have had, and are having, a very great +trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, +they can only practically oppose oppression by war. For those +appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, +the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the +law. That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it, I shall +still receive, for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our +Father in Heaven. + +Your sincere friend, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF COLORED PEOPLE FROM BALTIMORE WHO PRESENTED +HIM WITH A BIBLE, + +SEPTEMBER 7, 1864. + +I can only say now, as I have often said before, it has always been a +sentiment with me, that all mankind should be free. So far as I have +been able, so far as came within my sphere, I have always acted as I +believed was just and right, and done all I could for the good of +mankind. I have, in letters sent forth from this office, expressed +myself better than I can now. + +In regard to the great Book, I have only to say it is the best gift +which God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of +the world is communicated to us through this book. But for that +Book, we could not know right from wrong. All those things desirable +to man are contained in it. I return you sincere thanks for this +very elegant copy of this great Book of God which you present. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PICKERING. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 8, 1864: + +GOVERNOR PICKERING, Olympia, W. T.: + +Your patriotic despatch of yesterday received and will be published. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER OF THANKS TO HUNDRED-DAY TROOPS FROM OHIO. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, September 10, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which the National Guard of Ohio +volunteered having expired, the President directs an official +acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic and valuable services +during the recent campaigns. The term of service of their enlistment +was short, but distinguished by memorable events. In the Valley of +the Shenandoah, on the Peninsula, in the operations on the James +River, around Petersburg and Richmond, in the battle of Monocacy, and +in the intrenchments of Washington, and in other important service, +the National Guard of Ohio performed with alacrity the duty of +patriotic volunteers, for which they are entitled to and are hereby +tendered, through the Governor of their State, the national thanks. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 12, 1864. + + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Sheridan and Early are facing each other at a dead-lock. Could we +not pick up a regiment here and there, to the number of say ten +thousand men, and quietly but suddenly concentrate them at Sheridan's +camp and enable him to make a strike? + +This is but a suggestion. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JAMES G. BLAINE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 13, 1864. + +HON. J. G. BLAINE, Augusta, Me.: +On behalf of the Union, thanks to Maine. Thanks to you personally +for sending the news. + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--Send same to L. B. Smith and M. A. Blanchard, Portland, Me. +A. L. + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 13, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint Louis: + +Postpone the execution of S. H. Anderson for two weeks. Hear what +his friends can say in mitigation and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send the above telegram. + +JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SLOUGH. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 16, 1864. + +GENERAL SLOUGH, Alexandria, Va.: + +On the 14th I commuted the sentence of Conley, but fearing you may +not have received notice I send this. Do not execute him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 17,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +I feel great interest in the subjects of your despatch mentioning +corn and sorghum, and the contemplated visit to you. + +A. LINCOLN, President of the United States. + + + + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 19, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN: + +The State election of Indiana occurs on the 11th of October, and the +loss of it to the friends of the Government would go far towards +losing the whole Union cause. The bad effect upon the November +election, and especially the giving the State government to those who +will oppose the war in every possible way, are too much to risk if it +can be avoided. The draft proceeds, notwithstanding its strong +tendency to lose us the State. Indiana is the only important State +voting in October whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Anything +you can safely do to let her soldiers or any part of them go home and +vote at the State election will be greatly in point. They need not +remain for the Presidential election, but may return to you at once. +This is in no sense an order, but is merely intended to impress you +with the importance to the Army itself of your doing all you safely +can, yourself being the judge of what you can safely do. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, SEPTEMBER 1864. + +The writer of this, who appeals for his brother, is our minister to +Ecuador, and whom, if at all compatible, I would like to have obliged +by a special exchange of his brother. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. SHERIDAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 20, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN, Winchester, Va.: + +Have just heard of your great victory. God bless you all, officers +and men. Strongly inclined to come up and See you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HITCHCOCK, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 21, 1864. + +GENERAL HITCHCOCK: + +Please see the bearer, Mr. Broadwell, on a question about a mutual +supplying of clothes to prisoners. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 22, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I send this as an explanation to you, and to do justice to the +Secretary of War. I was induced, upon pressing application, to +authorize the agents of one of the districts of Pennsylvania to +recruit in one of the prison depots in Illinois; and the thing went +so far before it came to the knowledge of the Secretary that, in my +judgment, it could not be abandoned without greater evil than would +follow its going through. I did not know at the time that you had +protested against that class of thing being done; and I now say that +while this particular job must be completed, no other of the sort +will be authorized, without an understanding with you, if at all. +The Secretary of War is wholly free of any part in this blunder. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 23, 1864. + + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--You have generously said to me, more than once, that +whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my +disposal. The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds +from no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. +Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any other +friend, and while it is true that the war does not so greatly add to +the difficulties of your department as to those of some others, it is +yet much to say, as I most truly can, that in the three years and a +half during which you have administered the General Post-Office, I +remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith. + +Yours, as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS IN INSURRECTIONARY STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 24, 1864. + +I. Congress having authorized the purchase for the United States of +the products of States declared in insurrection, and the Secretary of +the Treasury having designated New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, +Pensacola, Port Royal, Beaufort (North Carolina), and Norfolk, as +places of purchase, and, with my approval, appointed agents and made +regulations under which said products may be purchased, therefore: + +II. All persons except such as may be in the civil, military, or +naval service of the government, having in their possession any +products of States or parts of States declared in insurrection, which +said agents are authorized to purchase; and all persons owning or +controlling such products therein are authorized to convey such +products to either of the places which have been hereby or may +hereafter be designated as places of purchase, and such products so +destined shall not be liable to detention, seizure, or forfeiture +while in transitu, or in store waiting transportation. + +III. Any person having the certificate of a purchasing agent, as +prescribed by Treasury Regulation VIII, is authorized to pass with +the necessary means of transportation to the points named in said +certificate, and to return therefrom with the products required for +the fulfilment of the stipulations set forth in said certificate. + +IV. Any person having sold and delivered to a purchasing agent any +products of an insurrectionary State in accordance with the +regulations in relation thereto, and having in his possession a +certificate setting forth the fact of such purchase and sale; the +character and quantity of products, and the aggregate amount paid +therefor, as prescribed by Regulation I, shall be permitted by the +military authority commanding at the place of sale to purchase from +any authorized dealer at such place merchandise and other articles +not contraband of war nor prohibited by order of the War Department, +nor coin, bullion, or foreign exchange, to an amount not exceeding in +value one-third of the aggregate value of the products sold by him as +certified by the agents purchasing, and the merchandise and other +articles so purchased may be transported by the same route, and to +the same place, from and by which the products sold and delivered +reached the purchasing agent, as set forth in the certificate, and +such merchandise and other articles shall have safe conduct, and +shall not be subject to detention, seizure, or forfeiture while being +transported to the places and by the routes set forth in the said +certificate. + +V. Generals commanding military districts, and commandants of +military posts and detachments, and officers commanding fleets, +flotillas, and gunboats, will give safe conduct to persons and +products, merchandise, and other articles duly authorized as +aforesaid, and not contraband of war, or prohibited by order of the +War Department, or of the order of such generals commanding, or other +duly authorized military or naval officer, made in pursuance hereof, +and all persons hindering or preventing such safe conduct of persons +or property will, be deemed guilty of a military offense and punished +accordingly. + +VI. Any person transporting or attempting to transport any +merchandise or other articles except in pursuance of regulations of +the Secretary of the Treasury, dated July 29, 1864, or in pursuance +of this order, or transporting or attempting to transport any +merchandise or other articles contraband of war or forbidden by any +order of the War Department, will be deemed guilty of a military +offense and punished accordingly; and all products of insurrectionary +States found in transitu to any other person or than a purchasing +agent and a designated of purchase shall be seized and forfeited to +the States, except such as may be moving to a loyal state under duly +authorized permits of a proper officer of the Treasury Department, as +prescribed by Regulation XXXVIII, concerning commercial intercourse, +dated July 29, 1864, or such as may have been found abandoned, or +have been captured and are moving in pursuance of the act of March +12, 1864. + +VII. No military or naval officer of the United States, or person in +the military or naval service, nor any civil officer, except such as +are appointed for that purpose, shall engage in trade or traffic in +the products of the insurrectionary States, or furnish transportation +therefor under pain of being deemed guilty of unlawful trading with +the enemy and punished accordingly. + +VIII. The Secretary of War will make such general orders or +regulations as will insure the proper observance and execution of,, +this order, and the Secretary of the Navy will give instructions to +officers commanding fleets, flotillas, and gunboats in conformity +therewith. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +You say Jefferson Davis is on a visit to Hood. I judge that Brown +and Stephens are the objects of his visit. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I hope it will have no constraint on you, nor do harm any way, for me +to say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends reinforcements to Early, +and thus enables him to turn upon Sheridan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT. + +September 29, 1864. + +I think the bearer of this, Second Lieutenant Albee, deserves a +hearing. Will the Secretary of War please accord it to him? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER RETURNING THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS FOR ONE HUNDRED DAYS FROM +THE STATES OF INDIANA, ILLINOIS, IOWA, AND WISCONSIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, October 1, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which volunteers from the States of +Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin volunteered, under the call of +their respective governors, in the months of May and June, to aid in +the campaign of General Sherman, having expired; the President +directs an official acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic +service. It was their good fortune to render efficient service in the +brilliant operations in the Southwest and to contribute to the +victories of the national arms over the rebel forces in Georgia under +command of Johnston and Hood. On all occasions and in every service +to which they were assigned their duty as patriotic volunteers was +performed with alacrity and courage, for which they are entitled to +and are hereby tendered the national thanks through the governors of +their respective States. + +The Secretary of War is directed to transmit a copy of this order to +the governors of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin and to cause +a certificate of their honorable service to be delivered to the +officers and soldiers of the States above named who recently served +in the military force of the United States as volunteers for one +hundred days. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +October 5, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I inclose you a copy of a correspondence in regard to a contemplated +exchange of naval prisoners through your lines, and not very distant +from your headquarters. It only came to the knowledge of the War +Department and of myself yesterday, and it gives us some uneasiness. +I therefore send it to you with the statement that, as the numbers to +be exchanged under it are small, and so much has already been done to +effect the exchange, I hope you may find it consistent to let it go +forward under the general supervision of General Butler, and +particularly in reference to the points he holds vital in exchanges. +Still, you are at liberty to arrest the whole operation if in your +judgment the public good requires it. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A MEMORANDUM BY GENERAL McDOWELL, +OCTOBER 7, 1864 + +I well remember the meetings herein narrated. See nothing for me to +object to in the narrative as being made by General McDowell, except +the phrase attributed to me "of the Jacobinism of Congress," + + [This memorandum describes the private discussions that + preceded the transfer of McClellan's army from the Potomac, + where it had confronted the Confederates at Manassas. See H. + J. Raymond: Life of Lincoln, p. 772] + +which phrase I do not remember using literally or in substance, and +which I wish not to be published in any event. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. W. HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, October 10, 1864. + +HON. HENRY W. HOFFMAN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution +for the State; a public meeting is called for this evening at +Baltimore to aid in securing its ratification by the people, and you +ask a word from me for the occasion. I presume the only feature of +the instrument about which there is serious controversy is that which +provides for the extinction of slavery. It needs not to be a secret +and I presume it is no secret, that I wish success to this provision. +I desire it on every consideration. I wish all men to be free. I +wish the material prosperity of the already free, which I feel sure +the extinction of slavery would bring. I wish to see in process of +disappearing that only thing which ever could bring this nation to +civil war. I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is +already exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more immediately +interested sons of Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be +gratified exceedingly if the good people of the State shall, by their +votes, ratify the new constitution. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 10, 1864, 5 P.M. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: + +Yours of to-day just this moment received, and the Secretary having +left it is impossible for me to answer to-day. I have not received +your letter from Erie. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Cambridge, Mass.: + +Your letter makes us a little uneasy about your health. Telegraph us +how you are. If you think it would help you, make us a visit. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 12, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours about election. +Pennsylvania very close, and still in doubt on home vote. Ohio +largely for us, with all the members of Congress but two or three. +Indiana largely for us,--Governor, it is said, by fifteen thousand, +and eight of the eleven members of Congress. Send us what you may +know of your army vote. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +OCTOBER 19, 1864. + + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am notified that this is a compliment +paid me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer +that the adoption of the new constitution for the State furnishes the +occasion, and that in your view the extirpation of slavery +constitutes the chief merit of the new constitution. Most heartily +do I congratulate you, and Maryland, and the nation, and the world, +upon this event. I regret that it did not occur two years sooner, +which, I am sure, would have saved the nation more money than would +have met all the private loss incident to the measure; but it has +come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully realize all +their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may by +its effects be agreeably and profitably disappointed. + +A word upon another subject. Something said by the Secretary of +State in his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into +a threat, that if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between +then and the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to +ruin the Government. + +Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not +sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular +individual, as the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee +shall be elected he will at once seize control of the Government. I +hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness +on either point. I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to +overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from +overthrowing it. I therefore say, that if I live, I shall remain +President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be +constitutionally elected, in November, shall be duly installed as +President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do my +utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall +start with the best possible chance of saving the ship. This is due +to the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their +will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If +they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the +loss of their country and their liberties, I know not the power or +the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do +as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still +resolved to preserve their country and their liberties; and in this, +in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add, +that in this purpose to save the country and its liberties, no +classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the +field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? +Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and +seamen, with all their brave commanders. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 20, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another +year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs +from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal +victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also +pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their +homes as our soldiers in their camps, and our sailors on the rivers +and seas, with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free +population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to +us new: sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our +working-men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. +Moreover, he has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and +hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the +great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our +adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to +afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance +from all our dangers and afflictions. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as +a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, +wherever they may be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to +Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And +I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that +occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from +thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the +great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of +peace, union, and harmony throughout the, land which it has pleased +him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity +throughout all generations. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of October, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of +the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM To J. G. NICOLAY. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 21, 1864. 9.45 P.M. + +J. G. NICOLAY, Saint Louis, Missouri: + +While Curtis is fighting Price, have you any idea where the force +under Rosecrans is, or what it is doing? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., +October 22, 1864. + + +MESSRS WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL, THOMAS A. R. NELSON, JAMES T. P. CARTER, +JOHN WILLIAMS, A. BLIZZARD, HENRY COOPER, BAILLIE PEYTON, JOHN +LELLYET, EMERSON ETHERIDGE, and JOHN D. PERRYMAN. + +GENTLEMEN:--On the 15th day of this month, as I remember, a printed +paper manuscript, with a few manuscript interlineations, called a +protest, with your names appended thereto, and accompanied by another +printed paper, purporting to be a proclamation by Andrew Johnson, +Military Governor of Tennessee, and also a manuscript paper, +purporting to be extracts from the Code of Tennessee, were laid +before me. + +The protest, proclamation, and extracts are respectively as follows: + +[The protest is here recited, and also the proclamation of Governor +Johnson, dated September 30, to which it refers, together with a list +of the counties in East, Middle, and West Tennessee; also extracts +from the Code of Tennessee in relation to electors of President and +Vice-President, qualifications of voters for members of the General +Assembly, places of holding elections, and officers of popular +elections.] + +At the time these papers were presented, as before stated, I had +never seen either of them, nor heard of the subject to which they +related, except in a general way one day previously. + +Up to the present moment, nothing whatever upon the subject has +passed between Governor Johnson, or any one else, connected with the +proclamation, and myself. + +Since receiving the papers, as stated, I have given the subject such +brief consideration as I have been able to do, in the midst of so +many pressing public duties. + +My conclusion is, that I can have nothing to do with the matter, +either to sustain the plan as the convention and Governor Johnson +have initiated it, or to revoke or modify it as you demand. + +By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty +in the presidential election in any State, nor do I in this case +perceive any military reason for his interference in the matter. + +The movement set on foot by the convention and Governor Johnson does +not, as seems to be assumed by you, emanate from the National +Executive. + +In no proper sense can it be considered other than an independent +movement of, at least, a portion of the loyal people of Tennessee. + +I do not perceive in the plan any menace, or violence, or coercion +towards any one. + +Governor Johnson, like any other loyal citizen of Tennessee, has the +right to favor any political plan he chooses, and, as military +governor, it is his duty to keep peace among and for the loyal people +of the State. + +I cannot discern that by this plan he purposes any more. But you +object to the plan. + +Leaving it alone will be your perfect security against it. It is not +proposed to force you into it. Do as you please, on your own +account, peaceably and loyally, and Governor Johnson will not molest +you, but will protect you against violence as far as in his power. + +I presume that the conducting of a presidential election in Tennessee +in strict accordance with the old Code of the State, is not now a +possibility. + +It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any election shall be held +and any votes shall be cast in the State of Tennessee for President +and Vice-President of the United States, it will belong, not to the +military agents, nor yet to the Executive Department, but exclusively +to another department of the Government, to determine whether they +are entitled to be counted in conformity with the Constitution and +laws of the United States. + +Except it be to give protection against violence, I decline to +interfere in any way with any presidential election. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 22, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN: + +With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of +the nation, and my own personal admiration and gratitude, for the +month's operations in the Shenandoah Valley; and especially for the +splendid work of October 19, 1864. + +Your obedient servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 23, 1864 5 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +I have received information to-day, having great appearance of +authenticity, that there is to be a rebel raid into Western Kentucky; +that it is to consist of four thousand infantry and three thousand +cavalry, and is to start from Corinth, Mississippi, On the fourth day +of November. + +A. LINCOLN, President. + +Send copy to General Washburn at Memphis. +A. L. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. T. DAVIS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 1864. + +HON. THOMAS T. DAVIS, Syracuse, N.Y.: + +I have ordered that Milton D. Norton be discharged on taking the +oath. Please notify his mother. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ADMITTING NEVADA INTO THE UNION + +OCTOBER 31, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas the Congress of the United States passed an act, which was +approved on the 21st day of March last, entitled "An act to enable +the people of Nevada to form a constitution and State government, and +for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing +with the original States;" and, + +Whereas the said constitution and State government have been formed, +pursuant to the conditions prescribed by the fifth section of the act +of Congress aforesaid, and the certificate required by the said act +and also a copy of the constitution and ordinances have been +submitted to the President of the United States: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act +of Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said +State of Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with +the original States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.......... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURBRIDGE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 4, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky. + +Suspend execution of all the deserters ordered to be executed on +Sunday at Louisville, until further order, and send me the records in +the cases. Acknowledge receipt. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO NAVAL OFFICER AT MOBILE BAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. 9 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL CANBY, New Orleans, La.: + +Please forward with all possible despatch to the naval officer +commanding at Mobile Bay the following order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + +(Inclosure.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. + +NAVAL OFFICER IN COMMAND AT MOBILE BAY + +Do not on any account, or on any showing of authority whatever, from +whomsoever purporting to come, allow the blockade to be violated. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SAILORS' FAIR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 8, 1864. + +TO THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SAILORS' FAIR, +Boston, Massachusetts + +Allow me to wish you a great success. With the old fame of the Navy +made brighter in the present war you cannot fail. I name none lest I +wrong others by omission. To all, from rear-admiral to honest Jack, +I tender the nation's admiration and gratitude. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. H. RICE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. A. H. RICE, Boston, Massachusetts: + +Yours received. I have no other notice that the ox is mine. If it be +really so, I present it to the Sailors' Fair as a contribution. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Auburn, New York: + +News from Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Rosecrans satisfactory, but not +important. Pirate Florida captured by the Wachusett October 7, on +the coast of Brazil. The information is certain. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +NOVEMBER 9, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Even before I had been informed by you +that this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, +friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my +countrymen who think that the best interests of the nation are to be +subserved by the support of the present administration. I do not +pretend to say that you, who think so, embrace all the patriotism and +loyalty of the country, but I do believe, and I trust without +personal interest, that the welfare of the country does require that +such support and indorsement should be given. + +I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work, if it +be as you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting +advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the country. I cannot +at this hour say what has been the result of the election. But, +whatever it may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion: that all +who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union have wrought for the +best interests of the country and the world; not only for the +present, but for all future ages. + +I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while +deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my +heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do +not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure +to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for +this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government +and the rights of humanity. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. W. HOFFMAN. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. November 10, 1864. + +H. HOFFMAN, Baltimore, Md.: + +The Maryland soldiers in the Army of the Potomac cast a total vote of +fourteen hundred and twenty-eight, out of which we get eleven hundred +and sixty majority. This is directly from General Meade and General +Grant. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +NOVEMBER 10, 1864. + +It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too +strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to +maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point the +present rebellion brought our government to a severe test, and a +presidential election occurring in regular course during the +rebellion, added not a little to the strain. + +If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their strength +by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially +paralyzed by a political war among themselves? But the election was a +necessity. We cannot have free government without elections; and if +the election could force us to forego or postpone a national +election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined +us. The strife of the election is but human nature practically +applied to the facts of the case. What has occurred in this case +must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In +any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we +will have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as +good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy +to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. + +But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, +has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government +can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. +Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a +possibility. It shows, also, how sound and strong we still are. It +shows that even among the candidates of the same party, he who is +most devoted to the Union and most opposed to treason can receive +most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to the extent yet known, +that we have more men now than we had when the war began. Gold is +good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better +than gold. + +But the rebellion continues, and, now that the election is over, may +not all have a common interest to reunite in a common effort to save +our common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive +to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been +here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While +I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, and duly +grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God, for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their good, it adds +nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed by +the result. + +May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this +same spirit towards those who have? And now, let me close by asking +three hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their +gallant and skillful commanders. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. +WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +I have just received a telegram from Governor Bramlette saying: +"General John B. Houston, a loyal man and prominent citizen, was +arrested, and yesterday, started off by General Burbridge, to be sent +beyond our lines by way of Catlettsburg, for no other offense than +opposition to your re-election," and I have answered him as follows +below, of which please take notice and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of yesterday received. I can scarcely believe that General +John B. Houston has been arrested "for no other offense than +opposition to my re-election;" for, if that had been deemed +sufficient cause of arrest, I should have heard of more than one +arrest in Kentucky on election day. If, however, General Houston has +been arrested for no other cause than opposition to my re-election, +General Burbridge will discharge him at once, I sending him a copy of +this as an order to that effect. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT: + +Few things since I have been here have impressed me more painfully +than what, for four or five months past, has appeared a bitter +military opposition to the new State government of Louisiana. I +still indulged some hope that I was mistaken in the fact; but copies +of a correspondence on the subject between General Canby and +yourself, and shown me to-day, dispel that hope. A very fair +proportion of the people of Louisiana have inaugurated a new State +government, making an excellent new constitution--better for the poor +black man than we have in Illinois. This was done under military +protection, directed by me, in the belief, still sincerely +entertained, that with such a nucleus around which to build we could +get the State into position again sooner than otherwise. In this +belief a general promise of protection and support, applicable alike +to Louisiana and other States, was given in the last annual message. +During the formation of the new government and constitution they were +supported by nearly every loyal person, and opposed by every +secessionist. And this support and this opposition, from the +respective standpoints of the parties, was perfectly consistent and +logical. Every Unionist ought to wish the new government to succeed; +and every disunionist must desire it to fail. Its failure would +gladden the heart of Slidell in Europe, and of every enemy of the old +flag in the world. Every advocate of slavery naturally desires to +see blasted and crushed the liberty promised the black man by the new +constitution. But why General Canby and General Hurlbut should join +on the same side is to me incomprehensible. + +Of course, in the condition of things at New Orleans, the military +must not be thwarted by the civil authority; but when the +Constitutional Convention, for what it deems a breach of privilege, +arrests an editor in no way connected with the military, the military +necessity for insulting the convention and forcibly discharging the +editor is difficult to perceive. Neither is the military necessity +for protecting the people against paying large salaries fixed by a +legislature of their own choosing very apparent. Equally difficult +to perceive is the military necessity for forcibly interposing to +prevent a bank from loaning its own money to the State. These +things, if they have occurred, are, at the best, no better than +gratuitous hostility. I wish I could hope that they may be shown not +to have occurred. To make assurance against misunderstanding, I +repeat that in the existing condition of things in Louisiana, the +military must not be thwarted by the civil authority; and I add that +on points of difference the commanding general must be judge and +master. But I also add that in the exercise of this judgment and +control, a purpose, obvious, and scarcely unavowed, to transcend all +military necessity, in order to crush out the civil government, will +not be overlooked. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO MARYLAND UNION COMMITTEE, +NOVEMBER 17, 1864. + +The President, in reply, said that he had to confess he had been duly +notified of the intention to make this friendly call some days ago, +and in this he had had a fair opportunity afforded to be ready with a +set speech; but he had not prepared one, being too busy for that +purpose. He would say, however, that he was gratified with the +result of the presidential election. He had kept as near as he could +to the exercise of his best judgment for the interest of the whole +country, and to have the seal of approbation stamped on the course he +had pursued was exceedingly grateful to his feelings. He thought he +could say, in as large a sense as any other man, that his pleasure +consisted in belief that the policy he had pursued was the best, if +not the only one, for the safety of the country. + +He had said before, and now repeated, that he indulged in no feeling +of triumph over any man who thought or acted differently from +himself. He had no such feeling toward any living man. When he +thought of Maryland, in particular, he was of the opinion that she +had more than double her share in what had occurred in the recent +elections. The adoption of a free-State constitution was a greater +thing than the part taken by the people of the State in the +presidential election. He would any day have stipulated to lose +Maryland in the presidential election to save it by the adoption of a +free-State constitution, because the presidential election comes +every four years, while that is a thing which, being done, cannot be +undone. He therefore thought that in that they had a victory for +the right worth a great deal more than their part in the presidential +election, though of the latter he thought highly. He had once before +said, but would say again, that those who have differed with us and +opposed us will see that the result of the presidential election is +better for their own good than if they had been successful. + +Thanking the committee for their compliment, he brought his brief +speech to a close. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, +NOVEMBER 19, 1864 + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, it was +declared that the ports of certain States, including those of +Norfolk, in the State of Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, in the +State of Florida, were, for reasons therein set forth, intended to be +placed under blockade; and: + +Whereas the said ports were subsequently blockaded accordingly, but +having for some time past been in the military possession of the +United States, it is deeemd advisable that they should be opened to +domestic and foreign commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth +section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, +entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on +imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade +of the said ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola shall so far +cease and determine, from and after the first day of December next, +that commercial intercourse with those ports, except as to persons, +things, and information contraband of war, may, from that time, be +carried on, subject to the laws of the United States, to the +limitations and in pursuance of the regulations which may be +prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and to such military and +naval regulations as are now in force, or may hereafter be found +necessary. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +FIVE-STAR MOTHER + +TO MRS. BIXBY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 21, 1864. + +MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts. + +DEAR MADAM:--I have been shown in the files of the War Department a +statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the +mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. +I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should +attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But +I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be +found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that +our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and +leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the +solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice +upon the altar of freedom. + +Yours very sincerely and respectfully, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. PHILLIPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 21, 1864. + +DEACON JOHN PHILLIPS. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, +in which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of +writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment +paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable. + +The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have +already been extended an average lifetime beyond the Psalmist's +limit, cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself +only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so +long and so well, that I thank you. + +Your friend and servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. +WASHINGTON, D. C. NOVEMBER 22, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of to-day received. It seems that Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs +and Colonel Wolford are stationary now. General Sudarth and Mr. +Hodges are here, and the Secretary of War and myself are trying to +devise means of pacification and harmony for Kentucky, which we hope +to effect soon, now that the passion-exciting subject of the election +is past. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, +WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 25, 1864 + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; + +I have no knowledge, information, or belief, that three States--or +any States, offer to resume allegiance. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. 26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS: + +Please telegraph me briefly on what charge and evidence Mrs. Anna B. +Martin has been sent to the penitentiary at Alton. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM, + +DECEMBER 3, 1864. + +On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee came before the +President, asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of +war at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they +came again, and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the +interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious +man, and on Saturday the President ordered the release of the +prisoners, when he said to this lady: "You say your husband is a +religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say I am not much +of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that +sets men to rebel and fight against their own government, because, as +they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to +eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of +religion upon which people can get to heaven." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE STEAMER "FUNAYMA SOLACE." + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 3, 1864. + +A war steamer, called the Funayma Solace, having been built in this +country, for the Japanese government and at the instance of that +government, it is deemed to comport with the public interest, in view +of the unsettled condition of the relations of the United States with +that Empire, that the steamer should not be allowed to proceed to +Japan. If, however, the Secretary of the Navy should ascertain that +the steamer is adapted to our service, he is authorized to purchase +her, but the purchase money will be held in trust toward satisfying +any valid claims which may be presented by the Japanese on account of +the construction of the steamer and the failure to deliver the same, +as above set forth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864 + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Captain John A. Winslow, United States Navy, receive a vote of +thanks from Congress for the skill and gallantry exhibited by him in +the brilliant action whilst in command of the United States steamer +Keaysarge, which led to the total destruction of the piratical craft +Alabama, on the 19th of June, 1864., a vessel superior in tonnage, +superior in number of guns, and superior in number of crew. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade, if, upon recommendation by the President by name he receives +the thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict +with the enemy, or far extraordinary heroism in the line of his +profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Lieutenant William B. Gushing, United States Navy, receive a +vote of thanks from Congress for his important, gallant, and perilous +achievement in destroying the rebel ironclad steamer Albemarle on the +night of the 27th of October, 1864., at Plymouth, N. C. + +The destruction of so formidable a vessel, which had resisted the +continued attacks of a number of our vessels on former occasions, is +an important event touching our future naval and military operations, +and would reflect honor on any officer, and redounds to the credit of +this young officer and the few brave comrades who assisted in this +successful and daring undertaking. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the Aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, namely: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with +the enemy, or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his +profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES: + +Again the blessings of health and abundant harvests claim our +profoundest gratitude to Almighty God. + +The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably satisfactory. + +Mexico continues to be a theater of civil war. While our political +relations with that country have undergone no change, we have at the +same time strictly maintained neutrality between the belligerents. + +At the request of the States of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a competent +engineer has been authorized to make a survey of the river San Juan +and the port of San Juan. It is a source of much satisfaction that +the difficulties which for a moment excited some political +apprehensions and caused a closing of the interoceanic transit route +have been amicably adjusted, and that there is a good prospect that +the route will soon be reopened with an increase of capacity and +adaptation. We could not exaggerate either the commercial or the +political importance of that great improvement. + +It would be doing injustice to an important South American State not +to acknowledge the directness, frankness, and cordiality with which +the United States of Colombia have entered into intimate relations +with this government. A claims convention has been constituted to +complete the unfinished work of the one which closed its session in +1861. + +The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having gone into effect +with the universal acquiescence of the people, the government under +it has been recognized and diplomatic intercourse with it has opened +in a cordial and friendly spirit. The long-deferred Aves Island +claim has been satisfactorily paid and discharged. + +Mutual payments have been made of the claims awarded by the late +joint commission for the settlement of claims between the United +States and Peru. An earnest and cordial friendship continues to +exist between the two countries, and such efforts as were in my power +have been used to remove misunderstanding, and avert a threatened war +between Peru and Spain. + +Our relations are of the most friendly nature with Chile, the +Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salvador, and +Haiti. + +During the past year no differences of any kind have arisen with any +of these republics, and on the other hand, their sympathies with the +United States are constantly expressed with cordiality and +earnestness. + +The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo of the brig +Macedonian in 1821 has been paid in full by the Government of Chile. + +Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San Domingo, apparently +without prospect of an early close. + +Official correspondence has been freely opened with Liberia, and it +gives us a pleasing view of social and political progress in that +republic. It may be expected to derive new vigor from American +influence improved by the rapid disappearance of slavery in the +United States. + +I solicit your authority to furnish to the republic a gunboat, at +moderate cost, to be reimbursed to the United States by instalments. +Such a vessel is needed for the safety of that state against the +native African races, and in Liberian hands it would be more +effective in arresting the African slave-trade than a squadron in our +own hands. The possession of the least organized naval force would +stimulate a generous ambition in the republic, and the confidence +which we should manifest by furnishing it would win forbearance and +favor toward the colony from all civilized nations. + +The proposed overland telegraph between America and Europe, by the +way of Bering Straits and Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by +Congress at the last session, has been undertaken, under very +favorable circumstances, by an association of American citizens, with +the cordial good-will and support as well of this Government as of +those of Great Britain and Russia. Assurances have been received +from most of the South American States of their high appreciation of +the enterprise and their readiness to co-operate in constructing +lines tributary to that world-encircling communication. I learn with +much satisfaction that the noble design of a telegraphic +communication between the eastern coast of America and Great Britain +has been renewed, with full expectation of its early accomplishment. + +Thus it is hoped that with the return of domestic peace the country +will be able to resume with energy and advantage its former high +career of commerce and civilization. + +Our very popular and estimable representative in Egypt died in April +last. An unpleasant altercation which arose between the temporary +incumbent of the office and the Government of the Pasha resulted in a +suspension of intercourse. The evil was promptly corrected on the +arrival of the successor in the consulate, and our relations with +Egypt, as well as our relations with the Barbary Powers, are entirely +satisfactory. + +The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in China has at last +been suppressed, with the co-operating good offices of this +Government and of the other Western commercial States. The judicial +consular establishment there has become very difficult and onerous, +and it will need legislative revision to adapt it to the extension of +our commerce and to the more intimate intercourse which has been +instituted with the Government and people of that vast Empire. China +seems to be accepting with hearty good-will the conventional laws +which regulate commercial and social intercourse among the Western +nations. + +Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan and the anomalous form of +its Government, the action of that empire in performing treaty +stipulations is inconstant and capricious. Nevertheless, good +progress has been effected by the Western powers, moving with +enlightened concert. Our own pecuniary claims have been allowed or +put in course of settlement, and the inland sea has been reopened to +commerce. There is reason also to believe that these proceedings +have increased rather than diminished the friendship of Japan toward +the United States. + +The ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola have been opened by +proclamation. It is hoped that foreign merchants will now consider +whether it is not safer and more profitable to themselves, as well as +just to the United States, to resort to these and other open ports +than it is to pursue, through many hazards and at vast cost, a +contraband trade with other ports which are closed, if not by actual +military occupation, at least by a lawful and effective blockade. + +For myself, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive, +under the law of nations, to exclude enemies of the human race from +an asylum in the United States. If Congress should think that +proceedings in such cases lack the authority of law, or ought to be +further regulated by it, I recommend that provision be made for +effectually preventing foreign slave traders from acquiring domicile +and facilities for their criminal occupation in our country. + +It is possible that if it were a new and open question the maritime +powers, with the lights they now enjoy, would not concede the +privileges of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the United +States, destitute, as they are, and always have been, equally of +ships of war and of ports and harbors. Disloyal emissaries have been +neither assiduous nor more successful during the last year than they +were before that time in their efforts, under favor of that +privilege, to embroil our country in foreign wars. The desire and +determination of the governments of the maritime states to defeat +that design are believed to be as sincere as and can not be more +earnest than our own. Nevertheless, unforeseen political +difficulties have arisen, especially in Brazilian and British ports +and on the northern boundary of the United States, which have +required, and are likely to continue to require, the practice of +constant vigilance and a just and conciliatory spirit on the part of +the United States, as well as of the nations concerned and their +governments. + +Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great Britain +on the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound +Agricultural Companies, in Oregon, and are now proceeding to the +execution of the trust assigned to them. + +In view of the insecurity of life and property in the region adjacent +to the Canadian border, by reason of recent assaults and depredations +committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, +it has been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration +of six months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing +arrangement with Great Britain, the United States must hold +themselves at liberty to increase their naval armament upon the Lakes +if they shall find that proceeding necessary. The condition of the +border will necessarily come into consideration in connection with +the question of continuing or modifying the rights of transit from +Canada through the United States, as well as the regulation of +imposts, which were temporarily established by the reciprocity treaty +of the 5th June, 1854. + +I desire, however, to be understood while making this statement that +the colonial authorities of Canada are not deemed to be intentionally +unjust or unfriendly toward the United States, but, on the contrary, +there is every reason to expect that, with the approval of the +Imperial Government, they will take the necessary measures to prevent +new incursions across the border. + +The act passed at the last session for the encouragement of +immigration has so far as was possible been put into operation. It +seems to need amendment which will enable the officers of the +Government to prevent the practice of frauds against the immigrants +while on their way and on their arrival in the ports, so as to secure +them here a free choice of avocations and places of settlement. A +liberal disposition toward this great national policy is manifested +by most of the European States, and ought to be reciprocated on our +part by giving the immigrants effective national protection. I +regard our immigrants as one of the principal replenishing streams +which are appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of internal +war and its wastes of national strength and health. All that is +necessary is to secure the flow of that stream in its present +fullness, and to that end the Government must in every way make it +manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose involuntary +military service upon those who come from other lands to cast their +lot in our country. The financial affairs of the Government have +been successfully administered during the last year. The legislation +of the last session of Congress has beneficially affected the +revenues, although sufficient time has not yet elapsed to experience +the full effect of several of the provisions of the acts of Congress +imposing increased taxation. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, upon the basis of +warrants signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans +and the balance in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1863, were +$1,394,196,007.62, and the aggregate disbursements, upon the same basis, +were $1,298,056,101.89, leaving a balance in the Treasury, as shown +by warrants, of $96,739,905.73. + +Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public +debt redeemed and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and +the actual cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, +$884,076,646.57; disbursements, $865,234,087.86; which leaves a cash +balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558.71. + +Of the receipts there were derived from customs $102,316,152.99, +from lands $588,333.29, from direct taxes $475,648.96, from +internal revenue $109,741,134.10, from miscellaneous sources +$47,511,448.10, and from loans applied to actual expenditures, +including former balance, $623,443,929.13. + +There were disbursed for the civil service $27,505,599.46, for +pensions and Indians $7,517,930.97, for the War Department +$690,791,842.97, for the Navy Department $85,733,292.77, for interest +on the public debt $53,685,421.69, making an aggregate of +$865,234,087.86, and leaving a balance in the Treasury of +$18,842,558.71, as before stated. + +For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and +the estimated receipts and disbursements for the three remaining +quarters of the current fiscal year, and the general operations of +the Treasury in detail, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of +the Treasury. I concur with him in the opinion that the proportion +of moneys required to meet the expenses consequent upon the war +derived from taxation should be still further increased; and I +earnestly invite your attention to this subject to the end that there +be such additional legislation as shall be required to meet the just +expectations of the Secretary. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, as appears by the +books of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489.49. Probably, +should the war continue for another year, that amount may be +increased by not far from $500,000,000. Held, as it is, for the most +part by our own people, it has become a substantial branch of +national, though private, property. For obvious reasons the more +nearly this property can be distributed among all the people the +better. To favor such general distribution, greater inducements to +become owners might, perhaps, with good effect and without injury be +presented to persons of limited means. With this view I suggest +whether it might not be both competent and expedient for Congress to +provide that a limited amount of some future issue of public +securities might be held by any bona fide purchaser exempt from +taxation and from seizure for debt, under such restrictions and +limitations as might be necessary to guard against abuse of so +important a privilege. This would enable every prudent person to set +aside a small annuity against a possible day of want. + +Privileges like these would render the possession of such securities +to the amount limited most desirable to every person of small means +who might be able to save enough for the purpose. The great +advantage of citizens being creditors as well as debtors with +relation to the public debt is obvious. Men readily perceive that +they can not be much oppressed by a debt which they owe to +themselves. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, although somewhat +exceeding the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to +Congress at the commencement of the last session, falls short of the +estimate of that officer made in the preceding December as to its +probable amount at the beginning of this year by the sum of +$3,995,097.31. This fact exhibits a satisfactory condition and +conduct of the operations of the Treasury. + +The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to +capitalists and to the people. On the twenty-fifth day of November +five hundred and eighty-four national banks had been organized, a +considerable number of which were conversions from State banks. +Changes from State systems to the national system are rapidly taking +place, and it is hoped that very soon there will be in the United +States no banks of issue not authorized by Congress and no bank-note +circulation not secured by the Government. That the Government and +the people will derive great benefit from this change in the banking +systems of the country can hardly be questioned. The national system +will create a reliable and permanent influence in support of the +national credit and protect the people against losses in the use of +paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is advisable for +the suppression of State-bank issues, it will be for Congress to +determine. It seems quite clear that the Treasury can not be +satisfactorily conducted unless the Government can exercise a +restraining power over the bank-note circulation of the country. + +The report of the Secretary of War and the accompanying documents +will detail the campaigns of the armies in the field since the date +of the last annual message, and also the operations of the several +administrative bureaus of the War Department during the last year. +It will also specify the measures deemed essential for the national +defense and to keep up and supply the requisite military force. + +The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehensive and +satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that Department and of the +naval service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable pride +to our countrymen that a Navy of such vast proportions has been +organized in so brief a period and conducted with so much efficiency +and success. + +The general exhibit of the Navy, including vessels under construction +on the first of December, 1864, shows a total of 671 vessels, +carrying 4610 guns, and of 510,396 tons, being an actual increase +during the year, over and above all losses by shipwreck or in battle, +of 83 vessels, 167 guns, and 42,427 tons. + +The total number of men at this time in the naval service, including +officers, is about 51,000. + +There have been captured by the Navy during the year 324 vessels, and +the whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced is +1379, of which 267 are steamers. + +The gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property +thus far reported amount to $14,369,250.51. A large amount of such +proceeds is still under adjudication and yet to be reported. + +The total expenditure of the Navy Department of every description, +including the cost of the immense squadrons that have been called +into existence from the fourth of March, 1861, to the first of +November, 1864, is $238,647,262.35. + +Your favorable consideration is invited to the various +recommendations of the Secretary of the Navy, especially in regard to +a navy-yard and suitable establishment for the construction and +repair of iron vessels and the machinery and armature for our ships, +to which reference was made in my last annual message. + +Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the report +in relation to the legislation of Congress at its last session in +respect to prize on our inland waters. + +I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to the +propriety of creating the new rank of vice-admiral in our naval +service. + +Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster-General for +a detailed account of the operations and financial condition of the +Post-Office Department. + +The postal revenues for the year ending June 30, 1864, amounted to +$12,438,253.78, and the expenditures to $12,644,786.20, the excess of +expenditures over receipts being $206,532.42. + +The views presented by the Postmaster-General on the subject of +special grants by the Government in aid of the establishment of new +lines of ocean mail steamships and the policy he recommends for the +development of increased commercial intercourse with adjacent and +neighboring countries should receive the careful consideration of +Congress. + +It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of population, +improvement, and governmental institutions over the new and +unoccupied portions of our country have scarcely been checked, much +less impeded or destroyed, by our great civil war, which at first +glance would seem to have absorbed almost the entire energies of the +nation. + +The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been +completed in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is +firmly established in the mountains, which once seemed a barren and +uninhabitable waste between the Atlantic States and those which have +grown up on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. + +The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of +prosperity and rapid growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their +great distance and the interruption of communication with them by +Indian hostilities, have been only partially organized; but it is +understood that these difficulties are about to disappear, which will +permit their governments, like those of the others, to go into speedy +and full operation. + +As intimately connected with and promotive of this material growth of +the nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the valuable +information and important recommendations relating to the public +lands, Indian affairs, the Pacific Railroad, and mineral discoveries +contained in the report of the Secretary of the Interior which is +herewith transmitted, and which report also embraces the subjects of +patents, pensions, and other topics of public interest pertaining to +his Department. + +The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters +ending on the thirtieth of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of +which 1,538,614 acres were entered under the homestead law. The +remainder was located with military land warrants, agricultural scrip +certified to States for railroads, and sold for cash. The cash +received from sales and location fees was $1,019,446. + +The income from sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, +was $678,007.21, against $136,077.95 received during the preceding +year. The aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has +been equal to the quantity disposed of, and there is open to +settlement about 133,000,000 acres of surveyed land. + +The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific +States by railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a +vigor that gives assurance of success, notwithstanding the +embarrassments arising from the prevailing high prices of materials +and labor. The route of the main line of the road has been +definitely located for one hundred miles westward from the initial +point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location of the +Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento eastward +to the great bend of the Truckee River in Nevada. + +Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been +added to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the +Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains and the subordinate ranges now +teems with enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is +believed that the produce of the mines of precious metals in that +region has during the year reached, if not exceeded, $100,000,000 in +value. + +It was recommended in my last annual message that our Indian system +be remodeled. Congress at its last session, acting upon the +recommendation, did provide for reorganizing the system in +California, and it is believed that under the present organization +the management of the Indians there will be attended with reasonable +success. Much yet remains to be done to provide for the proper +government of the Indians in other parts of the country, to render it +secure for the advancing settler, and to provide for the welfare of +the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recommendations, and to +them the attention of Congress is invited. + + +The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to +invalid soldiers and sailors of the Republic and to the widows, +orphans, and dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle or +died of disease contracted or of wounds received in the service of +their country have been diligently administered. There have been +added to the pension rolls during the year ending the 30th day of +June last the names of 16,770 invalid soldiers and of 271 disabled +seamen, making the present number of army invalid pensioners 22,767 +and of navy invalid pensioners 712. + +Of widows, orphans, and mothers 22,198 have been placed on the army +pension rolls and 248 on the navy rolls. The present number of army +pensioners of this class is 25,433 and of navy pensioners 793. At +the beginning of the year the number of Revolutionary pensioners was +1430. Only twelve of them were soldiers, of whom seven have since +died. The remainder are those who under the law receive pensions +because of relationship to Revolutionary soldiers. During the year +ending the thirtieth of June, 1864, $4,504,616.92 have been paid to +pensioners of all classes. + +I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent +institutions of the District of Columbia which have hitherto been +established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer for +information concerning them and in relation to the Washington +Aqueduct, the Capitol, and other matters of local interest to the +report of the Secretary. + +The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present +energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself to the +great and vital interest it was created to advance. It is peculiarly +the people's department, in which they feel more directly concerned +than in any other. I commend it to the continued attention and +fostering care of Congress. + +The war continues. Since the last annual message all the important +lines and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained +and our arms have steadily advanced, thus liberating the regions left +in rear, so that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other +States have again produced reasonably fair crops. + +The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year is +General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles directly +through the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of +our relative strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to +confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet +to detach a well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition. +The result not yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not +here indulged. + +Important movements have also occurred during the year to the effect +of molding society for durability in the Union. Although short of +complete success, it is much in the right direction that twelve +thousand citizens in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana +have organized loyal State governments, with free constitutions, and +are earnestly struggling to maintain and administer them. The +movements in the same direction more extensive though less definite +in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, should not be overlooked. But +Maryland presents the example of complete success. Maryland is +secure to liberty and union for all the future. The genius of +rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit +being driven out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no +more. + +At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the +Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United States passed +the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in +the House of Representatives. Although the present is the same +Congress and nearly the same members, and without questioning the +wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to +recommend the reconsideration and passage of the measure at the +present session. Of course the abstract question is not changed; but +an intervening election shows almost certainly that the next Congress +will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is only a +question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the +States for their action. And as it is to so go at all events, may we +not agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the +election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their +votes any further than, as an additional element to be considered, +their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people +now for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national +crisis like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common +end is very desirable, almost indispensable. And yet no approach to +such unanimity is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to +the will of the majority simply because it is the will of the +majority. In this case the common end is the maintenance of the +Union, and among the means to secure that end such will, through the +election, is most clearly declared in favor of such Constitutional +amendment. + +The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is +derived through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass +and its result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to +maintain the integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more +nearly unanimous than now. The extraordinary calmness and good order +with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls give +strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union +ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party also +may be fairly claimed to entertain and to be actuated by the same +purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this effect that no +candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek +votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There have +been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy as to the +proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause, but on the +distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their +instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. +In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to +another and to the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the +election has been of vast value to the national cause. + +The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be +known--the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most +important branch of national resources, that of living men. While it +is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many graves and +carried mourning to so many hearts, it is some relief to know that, +compared with the surviving, the fallen have been so few. While +corps and divisions and brigades and regiments have formed and fought +and dwindled and gone out of existence, a great majority of the men +who composed them are still living. The same is true of the naval +service. The election returns prove this. So many voters could not +else be found. The States regularly holding elections, both now and +four years ago, to wit, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, +Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, +Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and +Wisconsin, cast 3,982,011 votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then, +showing an aggregate now of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 +cast now in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States did not +vote in 1860, thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,773 and the net +increase during the three years and a half of war to 145,551. A +table is appended showing particulars. To this again should be added +the number of all soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode +Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who +by the laws of those States could not vote away from their homes, and +which number can not be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. The +number in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years +ago--while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms +press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively and +negatively, by the election. It is not material to inquire how the +increase has been produced or to show that it would have been greater +but for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains +demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war +began; that we are not exhausted nor in process of exhaustion; that +we are gaining strength and may if need be maintain the contest +indefinitely. [This sentence recognizes the concern of a guerilla +war after the main war finished.]This as to men. Material resources +are now more complete and abundant than ever. + +The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe, +inexhaustible. The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the +national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. +The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful +consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that no +attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any +good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union, +precisely what we will not and can not give. His declarations to +this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does not attempt to +deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He can +not voluntarily reaccept the Union; we can not voluntarily yield it. +Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It +is an issue which can only be tried by war and decided by victory. +If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, he is +beaten. Either way it would be the victory and defeat following war. +What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause is not +necessarily true of those who follow. Although he can not reaccept +the Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire peace and +reunion. The number of such may increase. They can at any moment +have peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the +national authority under the Constitution. After so much the +Government could not, if it would, maintain war against them. The +loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should +remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legislation, +conference, courts, and votes, operating only in Constitutional and +lawful channels. Some certain, and other possible, questions are and +would be beyond the Executive power to adjust; as, for instance, the +admission of members into Congress and whatever might require the +appropriation of money. The Executive power itself would be greatly +diminished by the cessation of actual war. Pardons and remissions of +forfeitures, however, would still be within Executive control. In +what spirit and temper this control would be exercised can be fairly +judged of by the past. + +A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, were +offered to all except certain designated classes, and it was at the +same time made known that the excepted classes were still within +contemplation of special clemency. During the year many availed +themselves of the general provision, and many more would, only that +the signs of bad faith in some led to such precautionary measures as +rendered the practical process less easy and certain. During the +same time also special pardons have been granted to individuals of +the excepted classes, and no voluntary application has been denied. +Thus practically the door has been for a full year open to all except +such as were not in condition to make free choice; that is, such as +were in custody or under constraint. It is still so open to all. +But the time may come, probably will come, when public duty shall +demand that it be closed and that in lieu more rigorous measures than +heretofore shall be adopted. + +In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national +authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable +condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract +nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made +a year ago, that "while I remain in my present position I shall not +attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall +I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that +proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress." If the people +should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to +re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument +to perform it. + +In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the +war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have +ceased on the part of those who began it. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I believe I shall never be old enough +to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. I +have no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news to tell. +We have talked of elections until there is nothing more to say about +them. The most interesting news now we have is from Sherman. We all +know where he went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. +I will now close by proposing three cheers for General Sherman and +his army. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR HALL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 7, 1864. + +GOVERNOR HALL, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Complaint is made to me of the doings of a man at Hannibal, Mo., by +the name of Haywood, who, as I am told, has charge of some militia +force, and is not in the United States service. Please inquire into +the matter and correct anything you may find amiss if in your power. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL FASLEIGH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1864. + +COLONEL FASLEIGH, Louisville, Ky.: + +I am appealed to in behalf of a man by the name of Frank Fairbairns, +said to have been for a long time and still in prison, without any +definite ground stated. How is it? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPOINTING COMMISSIONERS TO INVESTIGATE THE MILITARY DIVISION +WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 10, 1864. + +ORDERED, First, that Major-General William P. Smith and the Hon. +Henry Stanbery be, and they are hereby, appointed special +commissioners to investigate and report, for the information of the +President; upon the civil and military administration in the military +division bordering upon and west of the Mississippi, under such +instructions as shall be issued by authority of the President and the +War Department. + +Second, said commissioners shall have power to examine witnesses +upon oath, and to take such proofs orally or in writing, upon the +subject-matters of investigation as they may deem expedient, and +return the same together with their report. + +Third, all officers and persons in the military, naval and revenue +services, or in any branch of the public service under the authority +of the United States Government, are required, upon subpoena issued +by direction of the said commissioners, to appear before them at such +time and place as may be designated in said subpoena and to give +testimony on oath touching such matters as may be inquired of by the +commissioners, and to produce such books, papers, writings, and +documents as they may be notified or required to produce by the +commissioners, and as may be in their possession. + +Fourth, said special commissioners shall also investigate and report +upon any other matters that may hereafter be directed by the +Secretary of War, and shall with all convenient dispatch make report +to him in writing of their investigation, and shall also from time to +time make special reports to the Secretary of War upon such matters +as they may deem of importance to the public interests. + +Fifth, the Secretary of War shall assign to the said commissioners +such aid and assistance as may be required for the performance of +their duties, and make such just and reasonable allowances and +compensation for the said commissioners and for the persons employed +by them as he may deem proper. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G, H. THOMAS. +WASHINGTON, D.C., December 16, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Please accept for yourself, officers, and men, the nation's thanks +for your good work of yesterday. You made a magnificent beginning; a +grand consummation is within your easy reach. Do not let it slip. + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +ORIGIN OF THE "GREENBACK" CURRENCY + +TO COLONEL B. D. TAYLOR + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December [16 ?], 1864. + +DEAR COLONEL DICK:--I have long determined to make public the origin +of the greenback and tell the world that it is Dick Taylor's +creation. You had always been friendly to me, and when troublous +times fell on us, and my shoulders, though broad and willing, were +weak, and myself surrounded by such circumstances and such people +that I knew not whom to trust, then I said in my extremity: "I will +send for Colonel Taylor; he will know what to do." I think it was in +January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that I did so. You came, and I +said to you: + +"What can we do?" Said you, "Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no +interest, printed on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off +the Army expenses and declare it legal tender." + +Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accomplished it, +and gave the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever +had-their own paper to pay their own debts. + +It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the +people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known. +How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was +too lazy to be anything but a lawyer. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT CHATTANOOGA. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 16, 1864 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +It is said that Harry Walters, a private in the Anderson cavalry, is +now and for a long time has been in prison at Chattanooga. Please +report to me what is his condition, and for what he is imprisoned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR 300,000 VOLUNTEERS, DECEMBER 19, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further +to regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the +national forces, and for other purposes," it is provided that the +President of the United States may, "at his discretion, at any time +hereafter, call for any number of men, as volunteers for the +respective terms of one, two, and three years for military service," +and "that in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, +township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any +country not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the space of +fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately +order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part thereof +which may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas, by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of +Congress on the call for 500,000 men, made July 18, 1864, the number +of men to be obtained under that call was reduced to 280,000; and + +Whereas, the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered +it impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops +under said call; and + +Whereas, from the foregoing causes but 240,000 men have been put into +the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, +1864, leaving a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty +thousand (260,000): + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency and to provide +for casualties in the military and naval service of the United +States, do issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) +volunteers to serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the +States, districts, and subdistricts under this call will be assigned +by the War Department through the bureau of the Provost-Marshal +General of the United States, and "in case the quota or any part +thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election +district, or of any county not so subdivided, shall not be filled" +before the fifteenth of February, 1865, then a draft shall be made to +fill such quota or any part thereof under this call which may be +unfilled on said fifteenth day of February, 1865. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.......... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864 + +MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN:--Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, +the capture of Savannah. + +When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was +anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, +and remembering that "nothing risked, nothing gained," I did not +interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all +yours; for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce. + +And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be +taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the +obvious and immediate military advantages; but in showing to the +world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to +an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old +opposing force of the whole,--Hood's army,--it brings those who sat +in darkness to see a great light. But what next? + +I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to +decide. + +Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army of +officers and men. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT LEXINGTON. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Lexington, Ky.: + +If within your power send me the particulars of the causes for which +Lieutenant-Governor Jacob was arrested and sent away. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. MACLEAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + + +Dr. JOHN MACLEAN: + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your +note of the twentieth of December, conveying the announcement that +the Trustees of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the +degree of Doctor of Laws. + +The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of +the Government which I represent, has received the approval of a body +of gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of +public trial, is most grateful to me. + +Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this +continent is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most +gratifying proofs of this conviction is the hearty devotion +everywhere exhibited by our schools and colleges to the national +cause. + +I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct to the +preservation of those institutions, under which alone we can expect +good government and in its train sound learning, and the progress of +the liberal arts. + +I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 28, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn.: + +Suspend execution of James R. Mallory, for six weeks from Friday the +thirtieth of this month, which time I have given his friends to make +proof, if they can, upon certain points. + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1864. 5.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of +the Wilmington expedition, present and prospective. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER: + +There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, First +Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, at Chapin's Farm, +Va.; under the assumed name of William Stanley, but whose real name +is Frank R. Judd, and who is under arrest, and probably about to be +tried for desertion. He is the son of our present minister to +Prussia, who is a close personal friend of Senator Trumbull and +myself. We are not willing for the boy to be shot, but we think it +as well that his trial go regularly on, suspending execution until +further order from me and reporting to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL WARNER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 30, 1864. + +COLONEL WARNER, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +It is said that you were on the court-martial that tried John Lennon, +and that you are disposed to advise his being pardoned and sent to +his regiment. If this be true, telegraph me to that effect at once. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. WILLIAMS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 4, 1865. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Let Trumbo's substitute be regularly mustered in, send me the +evidence that it is done and I will then discharge Trumbo. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, a +"joint resolution to correct certain clerical errors in the internal +revenue act," without my approval. + +My reason for so doing is that I am informed that this joint +resolution was prepared during the last moments of the last session +of Congress for the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference +in the internal revenue act, which were discovered on an examination +of an official copy procured from the State Department a few hours +only before the adjournment. It passed the House and went to the +Senate, where a vote was taken upon it, but by some accident it was +not presented to the President of the Senate for his signature. + +Since the adjournment of the last session of Congress, other errors +of a kind similar to those which this resolution was designed to +correct, have been discovered in the law, and it is now thought most +expedient to include all the necessary corrections in one act or +resolution. + +The attention of the proper committee of the House has, I am +informed, been already directed to the preparation of a bill for this +purpose. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Richard T. Jacob, Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, is at the +Spotswood House, in Richmond, under an order of General Burbridge not +to return to Kentucky. Please communicate leave to him to pass our +lines, and come to me here at Washington. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 6, 1865, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +If there is a man at City Point by the name of Waterman Thornton who +is in trouble about desertion, please have his case briefly stated to +me and do not let him be executed meantime. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I transmit to Congress a +copy of two treaties between the United States and Belgium, for the +extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, etc., concluded on the twentieth +of May, 1863, and twentieth of July, 1863, respectively, the +ratifications of which were exchanged at Brussels on the +twenty-fourth of June last; and I recommend an appropriation to carry +into effect the provisions thereof relative to the payment of the +proportion of the United States toward the capitalization of the said +dues. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SCHUYLER COLFAX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, +Speaker of the House of Representatives. + +SIR:--I transmit herewith the letter of the Secretary of War, with +accompanying report of the Adjutant-General, in reply to the +resolution of the House of Representatives, dated December 7, 1864, +requesting me "to communicate to the House the report made by Col. +Thomas M. Key of an interview between himself and General Howell Cobb +on the fourteenth [15th] day of June, 1862, on the banks of the +Chickahominy, on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war." + +I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCE, +JANUARY 10, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the twenty-eighth of September, 1850, +entitled "An act to create additional collection districts in the +State of California, and to change the existing districts therein, +and to modify the existing collection districts in the United +States," extends to merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege +of being exported to the British North American provinces adjoining +the United States, in the manner prescribed in the act of Congress of +the third of March, 1845, which designates certain frontier ports +through which merchandise may be exported, and further provides "that +such other ports situated on the frontiers of the United States, +adjoining the British North American provinces, as may hereafter be +found expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges on the +recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation +duly made by the President of the United States, specially +designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be +extended;" + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of +the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of St. +Albans, in the State of Vermont, is, and shall be, entitled to all +the privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to +the British North American provinces adjoining the United States, +which are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of +the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and +after the date of this proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of January, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred-and sixty-five, and of +the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 10, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +No principal report of yours on the Wilmington expedition has ever +reached the War Department, as I am informed there. A preliminary +report did reach here, but was returned to General Grant at his +request. Of course, leave to publish cannot be given without +inspection of the paper, and not then if it should be deemed to be +detrimental to the public service. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Yours asking leave to come to Washington is received. You have been +summoned by the Committee on the Conduct of the War to attend here, +which, of course, you will do. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 15, 1865. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours announcing ordinance of emancipation received. Thanks to the +convention and to you. When do you expect to be here? Would be glad +to have your suggestion as to supplying your place of military +governor. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +It is represented to me that there is so much irregular violence in +northern Missouri as to be driving away the people and almost +depopulating it. Please gather information, and consider whether an +appeal to the people there to go to their homes and let one another +alone recognizing as a full right of protection for each that he lets +others alone, and banning only him who refuses to let others alone +may not enable you to withdraw the troops, their presence itself +[being] a cause of irritation and constant apprehension, and thus +restore peace and quiet, and returning prosperity. Please consider +this and telegraph or write me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FIRST OVERTURES FOR SURRENDER FROM DAVIS + +TO P. P. BLAIR, SR. + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:-You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but +only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having +graduated at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it +ends. I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a +commission, to which those who have already served long are better +entitled and better qualified to hold. Could he, without +embarrassment to you, or detriment to the service, go into your +military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, +furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the least +hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that you +shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +If Mrs. Beattie, alias Mrs. Wolff, shall be sentenced to death, +notify me, and postpone the execution till further order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD: + +You have a man in arrest for desertion passing by the name of +Stanley. William Stanley, I think, but whose real name is different. +He is the son of so close a friend of mine that I must not let him be +executed. Please let me know what is his present and prospective +condition. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Mo.: + +It is said an old lady in Clay County, Missouri, by name Mrs. +Winifred B. Price, is about being sent South. If she is not +misbehaving let her remain. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Several members of the Cabinet, with myself, considered the question, +to-day, as to the time of your coming on here. While we fully +appreciate your wish to remain in Tennessee until her State +government shall be completely reinaugurated, it is our unanimous +conclusion that it is unsafe for you to not be here on the 4th of +March. Be sure to reach here by that time. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE, JANUARY 24, 1865. + +REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I accept with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift +you have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect +that I acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so +well, that for me to attempt to say more may perhaps only serve to +weaken the force of that which has already been said. A most +graceful and eloquent tribute was paid to the patriotism and +self-denying labors of the American ladies, on the occasion of the +consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, by our +illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed from earth. +His life was a truly great one, and I think the greatest part of it +was that which crowned its closing years, I wish you to read, if you +have not already done so, the eloquent and truthful words which he +then spoke of the women of America. Truly, the services they have +rendered to the defenders of our country in this perilous time, and +are yet rendering, can never be estimated as they ought to be. For +your kind wishes to me personally, I beg leave to render you likewise +my sincerest thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated. And now, +gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point + +If Newell W. Root, of First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, is under +sentence of death, please telegraph me briefly the circumstances. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Having received the report in the case of Newell W. Root, I do not +interfere further in the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EARLY CONSULTATIONS WITH REBELS + +INSTRUCTIONS TO MAJOR ECKERT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. + +SIR:-You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on +reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by +the Secretary of War. Then, by General Ord's assistance procure an +interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of +them, deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is +written. Note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and +to whom delivered. Receive their answer in writing, waiting a +reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to +come through without further condition, will be your warrant to ask +General Ord to pass them through as directed in the letter of the +Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or +propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this being +your whole duty, return and report to me. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY OF WAR TO GENERAL ORD. +(Cipher.) +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Headquarters Army of the James: + +By direction of the President you are instructed to inform the three +gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, that a messenger +will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are, without +unnecessary delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER FROM J. M. ASHLEY. + +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, +January 31, 1865. + +DEAR SIR:--The report is in circulation in the House that Peace +Commissioners are on their way or in the city, and is being used +against us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. Please +authorize me to contradict it, if it is not true. + +Respectfully, +J. M. ASHLEY. + +To the President. + + +(Indorsement.) + +So far as I know there are no Peace Commissioners in the city or +likely to be in it. + +A. LINCOLN. +January 31, 1865 + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your +despatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he +arrives, and then act upon the message he brings, as far as +applicable, it having been made up to pass through General Ord's +hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INSTRUCTIONS TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and +informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on +the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a +copy of which you have. You will make known to them that three +things are indispensable to wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the +States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message +to Congress, and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not +inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a +spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to +say and report it to me. You will not assume to definitely +consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PASSAGE THROUGH CONGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE +ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, JANUARY 31, 1865. + +He supposed the passage through Congress of the Constitutional +amendment for the abolishing of slavery throughout the United States +was the occasion to which he was indebted for the honor of this call. + +The occasion was one of congratulation to the country, and to the +whole world. But there is a task yet before us--to go forward and +consummate by the votes of the States that which Congress so nobly +began yesterday. He had the honor to inform those present that +Illinois had already done the work. Maryland was about half through, +but he felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead. + +He thought this measure was a very fitting if not an indispensable +adjunct to the winding up of the great difficulty. He wished the +reunion of all the States perfected, and so effected as to remove all +causes of disturbance in the future; and, to attain this end, it was +necessary that the original disturbing cause should, if possible, be +rooted out. He thought all would bear him witness that he had never +shirked from doing all that he could to eradicate slavery, by issuing +an Emancipation Proclamation. But that proclamation falls short of +what the amendment will be when fully consummated. A question might +be raised whether the proclamation was legally valid. It might be +added, that it only aided those who came into our lines, and that it +was inoperative as to those who did not give themselves up; or that +it would have no effect upon the children of the slaves born +hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet the evil. +But this amendment is a king's cure for all evils. It winds the +whole thing up. He would repeat, that it was the fitting if not the +indispensable adjunct to the consummation of the great game we are +playing. He could not but congratulate all present--himself, the +country, and the whole world upon this great moral victory. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, February 1, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your +military movements or plans. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MAJOR ECKERT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, +Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe, and put yourself under direction of Mr. +Seward, whom you will find there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe +as soon as I can get there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va. + +Induced by a despatch of General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe, as +soon as I can come. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE DRAFT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, February 6, 1865 + +Whereas complaints are made in some localities respecting the +assignments of quotas and credits allowed for the pending call of +troops to fill up the armies: Now, in order to determine all +controversies in respect thereto, and to avoid any delay in +filling up the armies, it is ordered, + +1. That the Attorney-General, Brigadier-General Richard Delafield, and +Colonel C. W. Foster, be, and they are hereby constituted, a board to +examine into the proper quotas and credits of the respective States +and districts under the call of December 19, 1864, with directions, +if any errors be found therein, to make such corrections as the +law and facts may require, and report their determination to the +Provost-Marshal-General. The determination of said board to be final +and conclusive, and the draft to be made in conformity therewith. + +2. The Provost-Marshal-General is ordered to make the draft in the +respective districts as speedily as the same can be done after the +fifteenth of this month. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 6, 1865. + +PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL: + +These gentlemen distinctly say to me this morning that what they want +is the means from your office of showing their people that the quota +assigned to them is right. They think it will take but little time +--two hours, they say. Please give there double the time and every +facility you can. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +February 6, 1865. + +The Provost-Marshal brings this letter back to me and says he cannot +give the facility required without detriment to the service, and +thereupon he is excused from doing it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 7, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN, +Commanding Post at Henderson, Ky.: + +Complaint is made to me that you are forcing negroes into the +military service, and even torturing them--riding them on rails and +the like to extort their consent. I hope this may be a mistake. The +like must not be done by you, or any one under you. You must not +force negroes any more than white men. Answer me on this. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR SMITH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865. + +HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SMITH, of Vermont: + +Complaint is made to me, by Vermont, that the assignment of her quota +for the draft on the pending call is intrinsically unjust, and also +in bad faith of the Government's promise to fairly allow credits for +men previously furnished. To illustrate, a supposed case is stated +as follows: + +Vermont and New Hampshire must between them furnish six thousand men +on the pending call; and being equal, each must furnish as many as +the other in the long run. But the Government finds that on former +calls Vermont furnished a surplus of five hundred, and New Hampshire +a surplus, of fifteen hundred. These two surpluses making two +thousand and added to the six thousand, making eight thousand to be +furnished by the two States, or four thousand each less, by fair +credits. Then subtract Vermont's surplus of five hundred from her +four thousand, leaves three thousand five hundred as her quota on the +pending call; and likewise subtract New Hampshire's surplus of +fifteen hundred from her four thousand, leaves two thousand five +hundred as her quota on the pending call. These three thousand five +hundred and two thousand five hundred make precisely six thousand, +which the supposed case requires from the two States, and it is just +equal for Vermont to furnish one thousand more now than New +Hampshire, because New Hampshire has heretofore furnished one +thousand more than Vermont, which equalizes the burdens of the two in +the long run. And this result, so far from being bad faith to +Vermont, is indispensable to keeping good faith with New Hampshire. +By no other result can the six thousand men be obtained from the two +States, and, at the same time deal justly and keep faith with both, +and we do but confuse ourselves in questioning the process by which +the right result is reached. The supposed case is perfect as an +illustration. + +The pending call is not for three hundred thousand men subject to +fair credits, but is for three hundred thousand remaining after all +fair credits have been deducted, and it is impossible to concede what +Vermont asks without coming out short of three hundred thousand men, +or making other localities pay for the partiality shown her. + +This upon the case stated. If there be different reasons for making +an allowance to Vermont, let them be presented and considered. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 8, 1865. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES: + +The joint resolution entitled "Joint resolution declaring certain +States not entitled to representation in the electoral college" has +been signed by the Executive in deference to the view of Congress +implied in its passage and presentation to him. In his own view, +however, the two Houses of Congress, convened under the twelfth +article of the Constitution, have complete power to exclude from +counting all electoral votes deemed by them to be illegal, and it is +not competent for the Executive to defeat or obstruct that power by a +veto, as would be the case if his action were at all essential in the +matter. He disclaims all right of the Executive to interfere in any +way in the matter of canvassing or counting electoral votes, and he +also disclaims that by signing said resolution he has expressed any +opinion on the recitals of the preamble or any judgment of his own +upon the subject of the resolution. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point. Va.: + +I am called on by the House of Representatives to give an account of +my interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, and it is +very desirable to me to put your despatch of February 1, to the +Secretary of War, in which, among other things, you say: "I fear now +their going back without any expression from any one in authority +will have a bad influence." I think the despatch does you credit, +while I do not see that it can embarrass you. May I use it? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS, REPORTING +THE RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL COUNT, + +FEBRUARY 9, 1865. + +With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their +confidence; with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty +required under the most favorable circumstances, and now rendered +doubly difficult by existing national perils; yet with a firm +reliance on the strength of our free government, and the eventual +loyalty of the people to the just principles upon which it is +founded, and above all with an unshaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of +nations, I accept this trust. Be pleased to signify this to the +respective Houses of Congress. + + + + +CHRONOLOGIC REVIEW OF PEACE PROPOSALS + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 10, 1865 + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In response to your resolution of the eighth instant, requesting +information in relation to a conference recently held in Hampton +Roads, I have the honor to state that on the day of the date I gave +Francis P. Blair, Sr., a card, written on as follows, to wit: + +December 28, 1864. + +Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go South, and +return. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +That at the time I was informed that Mr. Blair sought the card as a +means of getting to Richmond, Va., but he was given no authority to +speak or act for the Government, nor was I informed of anything he +would say or do on his own account or otherwise. Afterwards Mr. +Blair told me that he had been to Richmond and had seen Mr. Jefferson +Davis; and he (Mr. B.) at the same time left with me a manuscript +letter, as follows, to wit: + +RICHMOND, VA., January 12, 1865. +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR: I have deemed it proper, and probably desirable to you, to give +you in this for in the substance of remarks made by me, to be +repeated by you to President Lincoln, etc., etc. + +I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and am willing, now +as heretofore, to enter into negotiations for the restoration of +peace, and am ready to send a commission whenever I have reason to +suppose it will be received, or to receive a commission if the United +States Government shall choose to send one. That notwithstanding the +rejection of our former offers, I would, if you could promise that a +commissioner, minister, or other agent would be received, appoint one +immediately, and renew the effort to enter into conference with a +view to secure peace to the two countries. + +Yours, etc., +JEFFERSON DAVIS. + + +Afterwards, and with the view that it should be shown to Mr. Davis, I +wrote and delivered to Mr. Blair a letter, as follows, to wit: + + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +P. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards Mr. Blair dictated for and authorized me to make an entry +on the back of my retained copy of the letter last above recited, +which entry is as follows: + +January 28, 1865 + +To-day Mr. Blair tells me that on the twenty-first instant he +delivered to Mr. Davis the original of which the within is a copy, +and left it with him; that at the time of delivering it Mr. Davis +read it over twice in Mr. Blair's presence, at the close of which he +(Mr. Blair) remarked that the part about "our one common country" +related to the part of Mr. Davis' letter about "the two countries," +to which Mr. Davis replied that he so understood it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards the Secretary of War placed in my hands the following +telegram, indorsed by him, as appears: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington January 29, 1865, from +headquarters Army of James, + +6.30 P.M., January 29, 1865: + +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON," Secretary of War: + +"The following despatch just received from Major-General Parke, +who refers it to me for my action. I refer it to you in +Lieutenant-General Grant's absence: + +"E. O. C. ORD, Major-General, Commanding. +HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC, +January 29, 1863. 4 P.M." + +'MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, +'Headquarters Army of James: +'The following despatch is forwarded to you for your action. Since I +have no knowledge of General Grant's having had any understanding of +this kind, I refer the matter to you as the ranking officer present +in the two armies. +'JNO. G. PARKE, Major-General, Commanding.' + + +"'FROM HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY Cos, 29th. +'MAJOR-GENERAL JNO. G. PARKE, 'Headquarters Army of Potomac: +'Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and J. A. Campbell desire to +cross my lines, in accordance with an understanding claimed to exist +with Lieutenant-General Grant, on their way to Washington as peace +commissioners. Shall they be admitted? They desire an early answer, +to come through immediately. Would like to reach City Point tonight +if they can. If they can not do this, they would like to come +through at 10 A.M. to-morrow morning. +'O. B. WILCOX, +'Major-General, Commanding Ninth Corps.' + + +"January 29, 8.30 P.M. +"Respectfully referred to the President for such instructions as he +may be pleased to give. +"EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War." + + + + +It appears that about the time of placing the foregoing telegram in +my hands the Secretary of War dispatched General Ord as follows, to +wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, January 29, 1865. 10 P.M. +(Sent at 2 A.M., 30th.) +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD. + +SIR:--This Department has no knowledge of any understanding by +General Grant to allow any person to come within his lines as +commissioner of any sort. You will therefore allow no one to come +into your lines under such character or profession until you receive +the President's instructions, to whom your telegraph will be +submitted for his directions. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + + + +Afterwards, by my direction, the Secretary of War telegraphed General +Ord as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D.C., January 30. 10.30 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, +Headquarters Army of the James. + +SIR:--By direction of the President, you are instructed to inform the +three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, that a +messenger will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are +without unnecessary delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +Afterwards I prepared and put into the hands of Major Thomas T. +Eckert the following instructions and message: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865 + +SIR:--You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and +on reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him +by the Secretary of War; then, by General Ord's assistance, procure +an interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of +them. Deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is +written. Note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and +to whom delivered. Receive their answer in writing, waiting a +reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to +come through without further condition, will be your warrant to ask +General Ord to pass them through, as directed in the letter of the +Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or +propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this being +your whole duty, return and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +CITY POINT, VA.. February 1, 1865. + +MESSRS. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, J. A. CAMPBELL AND +R. M. T. HUNTER. + +GENTLEMEN:--I am instructed by the President of the United States to +place this paper in your hands, with the information that if you pass +through the United States military lines it will be understood that +you do so for the purpose of an informal conference on the basis of +the letter a copy of which is on the reverse side of this sheet, and +that if you choose to pass on such understanding, and so notify me in +writing, I will procure the commanding general to pass you through +the lines and to Fortress Monroe under such military precautions as +he may deem prudent, and at which place you will be met in due time +by some person or persons for the purpose of such informal +conference; and, further, that you shall have protection, safe +conduct, and safe return in all events. + +THOMAS T. ECKERT, +Major and Aide-de-Camp. + + + + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards, but before Major Eckert had departed, the following +dispatch was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington January 30, 1865, from +City Point, Va., 10.30 A.M., January 30, 1865: + +"His EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President of the United States: + +"The following communication was received here last evening: + +"'PETERSBURG, VA., January 30, 1865. +'LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U.S. GRANT, +Commanding Armies United States. +'SIR: We desire to pass your lines under safe conduct, and to proceed +to Washington to hold a conference with President Lincoln upon the +subject of the existing war, and with a view of ascertaining upon +what terms it may be terminated, in pursuance of the course indicated +by him in his letter to Mr. Blair of January 18, 1865, of which we +presume you have a copy; and if not, we wish to see you in person, if +convenient, and to confer with you upon the subject. +'Very respectfully, yours, +'ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. +'J. A. CAMPBELL. +'R. M. T. HUNTER.'" + + +"I have sent directions to receive these gentlemen, and expect to +have them at my quarters this evening, awaiting your instructions. +U.S. GRANT, +Lieutenant-General, Commanding +Armies United States." + + + + +This, it will be perceived, transferred General Ord's agency in the +matter to General Grant. I resolved, however, to send Major Eckert +forward with his message, and accordingly telegraphed General Grant +as follows, to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865 +(Sent at 1.30 P.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your +despatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he +arrives, and then act upon the message he brings as far as +applicable, it having been made up to pass through General Ord's +hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +When Major Eckert departed, he bore with him a letter of the +Secretary of War to General Grant, as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Commanding, etc. + +GENERAL:--The President desires that you will please procure for the +bearer, Major Thomas T. Eckert, an interview with Messrs. Stephens, +Hunter, and Campbell, and if on his return to you he requests it pass +them through our lines to Fortress Monroe by such route and under +such military precautions as you may deem prudent, giving them +protection and comfortable quarters while there, and that you let +none of this have any effect upon your movements or plans. + +By order of the President: +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +Supposing the proper point to be then reached, I dispatched the +Secretary of State with the following instructions, Major Eckert, +however, going ahead of him: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State: + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Va., there to meet and +informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on the +basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy +of which you have. + +You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to +Wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the +States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message +to Congress and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs not inconsistent +with the above will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of +sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and +report it to me. + +You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +On the day of its date the following telegram was sent to General +Grant: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1,1865 +(Sent at 9.30 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your +military movements or plans. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards the following despatch was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH +WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington, 2.30 P.M., February 1, +1865, from City Point, Va., February 1, 12.30 PM., 1865: + +"His EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President United States: + +"Your despatch received. There will be no armistice in consequence of +the presence of Mr. Stephens and others within our lines. The troops +are kept in readiness to move at the shortest notice if occasion +should justify it. + +"U.S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + + + + +To notify Major Eckert that the Secretary of State would be at +Fortress Monroe, and to put them in communication, the following +despatch was sent: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, +Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe and put yourself under direction of Mr. S., +whom you will find there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +On the morning of the 2d instant the following telegrams were +received by me respectively from the Secretary of State and Major +Eckert: + +FORT MONROE, VA., +February 1,1865. 11.30 PM. + +THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Arrived at 10 this evening. Richmond party not here. I remain here. + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + + +CITY POINT, VA., +February 1, 1865. 10 P.M. + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President of the United States: +I have the honor to report the delivery of your communication and my +letter at 4.15 this afternoon, to which I received a reply at 6 P.M., +but not satisfactory. + + + + +At 8 P.M. the following note, addressed to General Grant, was +received: + +CITY POINT, VA., +February 1, 1865 + +"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. + +"SIR:--We desire to go to Washington City to confer informally with +the President personally in reference to the matters mentioned in his +letter to Mr. Blair of the 18th January ultimo, without any personal +compromise on any question in the letter. We have the permission to +do so from the authorities in Richmond. + +Very respectfully yours, + +ALEX. H. STEPHENS +R. M. T. HUNTER. +J. A. CAMPBELL." + + +At 9.30 P.M. I notified them that they could not proceed further +unless they complied with the terms expressed in my letter. The +point of meeting designated in the above note would not, in my +opinion, be insisted upon. Think Fort Monroe would be acceptable. +Having complied with my instructions, I will return to Washington +to-morrow unless otherwise ordered. + +THOS. T. ECKERT, Major, etc. + + + + +On reading this despatch of Major Eckert I was about to recall him +and the Secretary of State, when the following telegram of General +Grant to the Secretary of War was shown me: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington +4.35 A.M., February 2, 1865, from City Point, Va., February 1, 10.30 +P.M., 1865: + +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War: + +"Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written +instructions, and Mr. Stephens and party has ended, I will state +confidentially, but not officially to become a matter of record, that +I am convinced upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter +that their intentions are good and their desire sincere to restore +peace and union. I have not felt myself at liberty to express even +views of my own or to account for my reticency. This has placed me +in an awkward position, which I could have avoided by not seeing them +in the first instance. I fear now their going back without any +expression from anyone in authority will have a bad influence. At +the same time, I recognize the difficulties in the way of receiving +these informal commissioners at this time, and do not know what to +recommend. I am sorry, however, that Mr. Lincoln can not have an +interview with the two named in this despatch, if not all three now +within our lines. Their letter to me was all that the President's +instructions contemplated to secure their safe conduct if they had +used the same language to Major Eckert. + +"U.S. GRANT +"Lieutenant-General," + + + + +This despatch of General Grant changed my purpose, and accordingly I +telegraphed him and the Secretary of State, respectively, as follows: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe +as soon as I can get there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va.: + +Induced by a despatch from General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe +as soon as I can come. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Before starting, the following despatch was shown me. I proceeded, +nevertheless: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington, February 2, 1865, from +City Point, Va., 9 A.M., February 2, 1865: + +"HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +"The gentlemen here have accepted the proposed terms, and will leave +for Fort Monroe at 9.30 A.M. + +"U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + +(Copy to HON. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington.) + + + + +On the night of the 2nd I reached Hampton Roads, found the Secretary +of State and Major Eckert on a steamer anchored offshore, and learned +of them that the Richmond gentlemen were on another steamer also +anchored offshore, in the Roads, and that the Secretary of State had +not yet seen or communicated with them. I ascertained that Major +Eckert had literally complied with his instructions, and I saw for +the first time the answer of the Richmond gentlemen to him, which in +his despatch to me of the 1st he characterizes as "not satisfactory." +That answer is as follows, to wit: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865. +THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aid-de-Camp. +MAJOR:-Your note, delivered by yourself this day, has been +considered. In reply we have to say that we were furnished with a +copy of the letter of President Lincoln to Francis P. Blair, Esq., of +the 18th of January ultimo, another copy of which is appended to your +note. Our instructions are contained in a letter of which the +following is a copy: + +"RICHMOND, January 28, 1865. +"In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing +is a copy, you are to proceed to Washington City for informal +conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and +for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries. +"With great respect, your obedient servant, +"JEFFERSON DAVIS." + + +The substantial object to be obtained by the informal conference is +to ascertain upon what terms the existing war can be terminated +honorably. + +Our instructions contemplate a personal interview between President +Lincoln and ourselves at Washington City, but with this explanation +we are ready to meet any person or persons that President Lincoln may +appoint at such place as he may designate. + +Our earnest desire is that a just and honorable peace may be agreed +upon, and we are prepared to receive or to submit propositions which +may possibly lead to the attainment of that end. + +Very respectfully, yours, +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. +R. M. T. HUNTER. +JOHN A. CAMPBELL. + + + + +A note of these gentlemen, subsequently addressed to General Grant, +has already been given in Major Eckert's despatch of the 1st instant. + +I also here saw, for the first time, the following note, addressed by +the Richmond gentlemen to Major Eckert: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 2, 1865. +THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aid-de-Camp. +MAJOR:--In reply to your verbal statement that your instructions did +not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a passport could be +given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to Fortress Monroe +and there to have an informal conference with any person or persons +that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter to +Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other +terms or conditions that he may hereafter propose not inconsistent +with the essential principles of self-government and popular rights, +upon which our institutions are founded. + +It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of +ideas and information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just +and honorable peace can be established without the further effusion +of blood, and to contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a +result. + +We think it better to add that in accepting your passport we are not +to be understood as committing ourselves to anything but to carry to +this informal conference the views and feelings above expressed. + +Very respectfully, yours, etc., + +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, +J. A. CAMPBELL, +R. M. T. HUNTER. + + +Note.-The above communication was delivered to me at Fort Monroe at +4.30 P.M. February 2 by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, of General +Grant's staff. + +THOMAS T. ECKERT +Major and Aid-de-Camp. + + + + +On the morning of the third the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, +Hunter, and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer and had an interview +with the Secretary of State and myself of several hours' duration. +No question of preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made +or mentioned; no other person was present; no papers were exchanged +or produced; and it was in advance agreed that the conversation was +to be informal and verbal merely. On our part the whole substance of +the instructions to the Secretary of State hereinbefore recited was +stated and insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent +therewith; while by the other party it was not said that in any event +or on any condition they ever would consent to reunion, and yet they +equally omitted to declare that they never would consent. They +seemed to desire a postponement of that question and the adoption of +some other course first, which, as some of them seemed to argue, +might or might not lead to reunion, but which course we thought would +amount to an indefinite postponement. The conference ended without +result. + +The foregoing, containing, as is believed, all the information sought +is respectfully submitted. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. + +WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865 + +To THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the eighth instant, +requesting information concerning recent conversations or +communications with insurgents, under executive sanction, I transmit +a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was +referred. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO THE PRESIDENT: + +The Secretary of State, to whom was referred a resolution of the +Senate of the 8th instant, requesting "the President of the United +States, if, in his opinion, not incompatible with the public +interests, to furnish to the Senate any information in his possession +concerning recent conversations or communications with certain +rebels, said to have taken place under executive sanction, including +communications with the rebel Jefferson Davis, and any correspondence +relating thereto," has the honor to report that the Senate may +properly be referred to a special message of the President bearing +upon the subject of the resolution, and transmitted to the House this +day. Appended to this report is a copy of an instruction which has +been addressed to Charles Francis Adams, Esq., envoy extraordinary +and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, and +which is the only correspondence found in this department touching +the subject referred to in the resolution. + +Respectfully submitted, +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865. + + + + +MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS. +(Extract.) +No. 1258. + +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 7,1865 + +On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the Secretary, +received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on board the United +States steam transport River Queen in Hampton Roads. The conference +was altogether informal. There was no attendance of secretaries, +clerks, or other witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The +conversation, although earnest and free, was calm, and courteous, and +kind on both sides. The Richmond party approached the discussion +rather indirectly, and at no time did they either make categorical +demands, or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals. +Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four hours, the +several points at issue between the Government and the insurgents +were distinctly raised, and discussed fully, intelligently, and in an +amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor +was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war +is waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of the Government, as +well as those of the insurgents, to some extrinsic policy or scheme +for a season during which passions might be expected to subside, and +the armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people +of both sections resumed. It was suggested by them that through such +postponement we might now have immediate peace, with some not very +certain prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political +relations between this Government and the States, section, or people +now engaged in conflict with it. + +This suggestion, though deliberately considered, was nevertheless +regarded by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he +announced that we can agree to no cessation or suspension of +hostilities, except on the basis of the disbandment of the insurgent +forces, and the restoration of the national authority throughout all +the States in the Union. Collaterally, and in subordination to the +proposition which was thus announced, the antislavery policy of the +United States was reviewed in all its bearings, and the President +announced that he must not be expected to depart from the positions +he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation of emancipation and +other documents, as these positions were reiterated in his last +annual message. It was further declared by the President that the +complete restoration of the national authority was an indispensable +condition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might +be proposed. The President assured the other party that, while he +must adhere to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as power +is lodged with the Executive, to exercise liberality. His power, +however, is limited by the Constitution; and when peace should be +made, Congress must necessarily act in regard to appropriations +of money and to the admission of representatives from the +insurrectionary States. The Richmond party were then informed that +Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, adopted by a constitutional +majority a joint resolution submitting to the several States the +proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that there +is every reason to expect that it will be soon accepted by three +fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national organic +law. + +The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without +producing an agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, +or any of them. Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that +we have been able to submit our opinions and views directly to +prominent insurgents, and to hear them in answer in a courteous and +not unfriendly manner. + +I am, sir, your obedient servant, + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + + + +TO ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 10, 1865 + +REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER, +Commanding North Atlantic Squadron, Hampton Roads, Va. + +SIR:--It is made my agreeable duty to enclose herewith the joint +resolution approved 24th January, 1865, tendering the thanks of +Congress to yourself, the officers and men under your command for +their gallantry and good conduct in the capture of Fort Fisher, and +through you to all who participated in that brilliant and decisive +victory under your command. + +Very respectfully, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 12, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +I understand that provost-marshals in different parts of Missouri are +assuming to decide that the conditions of bonds are forfeited, and +therefore are seizing and selling property to pay damages. This, if +true, is both outrageous and ridiculous. Do not allow it. The +courts, and not provost-marshals, are to decide such questions unless +when military necessity makes an exception. Also excuse John Eaton, +of Clay County, and Wesley Martin, of Platte, from being sent South, +and let them go East if anywhere. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS IN WEST TENNESSEE + +WASHINGTON, +February 13, 1865. + +TO THE MILITARY OFFICERS COMMANDING IN WEST +TENNESSEE: + +While I cannot order as within requested, allow me to say that it is +my wish for you to relieve the people from all burdens, harassments, +and oppressions, so far as is possible consistently with your +military necessities; that the object of the war being to restore and +maintain the blessings of peace and good government, I desire you to +help, and not hinder, every advance in that direction. + +Of your military necessities you must judge and execute, but please +do so in the spirit and with the purpose above indicated. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 14, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of yesterday about provost-marshal system received. As part of +the same subject, let me say I am now pressed in regard to a pending +assessment in St. Louis County. Please examine and satisfy yourself +whether this assessment should proceed or be abandoned; and if you +decide that it is to proceed, please examine as to the propriety of +its application to a gentleman by the name of Charles McLaran. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON February 15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please ascertain whether General Fisk's administration is as good as +it might be, and answer me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONVENING THE SENATE IN EXTRA SESSION, + +FEBRUARY 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the +Senate should be convened at twelve o'clock on the fourth of March +next to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it +on the part of the Executive; + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +have considered it to be my duty to issue this, my proclamation, +declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the +United States to convene for the transaction of business at the +Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the fourth day of March next, +at twelve o'clock at noon on that day, of which all who shall at that +time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required +to take notice. + +Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at +Washington............... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1865 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY: + +Chaplain Fitzgibbon yesterday sent me a despatch invoking Clemency +for Jackson, Stewart, and Randall, who are to be shot to-day. The +despatch is so vague that there is no means here of ascertaining +whether or not the execution of sentence of one or more of them may +not already have been ordered. If not suspend execution of sentence +m their cases until further orders and forward records of trials for +examination. + +A. LINCOLN + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send above telegram +JNO. G. NICOLAY. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +I am in a little perplexity. I was induced to authorize a gentleman +to bring Roger A. Pryor here with a view of effecting an exchange of +him; but since then I have seen a despatch of yours showing that you +specially object to his exchange. Meantime he has reached here and +reported to me. It is an ungracious thing for me to send him back to +prison, and yet inadmissible for him to remain here long. Cannot +you help me out with it? I can conceive that there may be difference +to you in days, and I can keep him a few days to accommodate on that +point. I have not heard of my son's reaching you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 24, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Please inquire and report to me whether there is any propriety of +longer keeping in Gratiott Street Prison a man said to be there by +the name of Riley Whiting. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, February 25, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +General Sheridan's despatch to you, of to-day, in which he says he +"will be off on Monday," and that he "will leave behind about two +thousand men," causes the Secretary of War and myself considerable +anxiety. Have you well considered whether you do not again leave +open the Shenandoah Valley entrance to Maryland and Pennsylvania, or, +at least, to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +Subsequent reflection, conference with General Halleck, your +despatch, and one from General Sheridan, have relieved my anxiety; +and so I beg that you will dismiss any concern you may have on my +account, in the matter of my last despatch. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO T. W. CONWAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 1, 1865. + +MR. THOMAS W. CONWAY, +General Superintendent Freedmen, +Department of the Gulf. + +SIR:--Your statement to Major-General Hurlbut of the condition of the +freedmen of your department, and of your success in the work of their +moral and physical elevation, has reached me and given me much +pleasure. + +That we shall be entirely successful in our efforts I firmly believe. + +The blessing of God and the efforts of good and faithful men will +bring us an earlier and happier consummation than the most sanguine +friends of the freedmen could reasonably expect. + +Yours, + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +You have not sent contents of Richmond papers for Tuesday or +Wednesday. Did you not receive them? If not, does it indicate +anything? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY STANTON +TO GENERAL GRANT. +WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865. 12 PM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no +conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of +General Lee's army, or on some minor and purely military matter. He +instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer +upon any political question. Such questions the President holds in +his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or +conventions. Meantime you are to press to the utmost your military +advantages. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + +SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, + +MARCH 4, 1865. + + +FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:--At this second appearing to take the oath of the +presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address +than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of +a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the +expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been +constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest +which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the +nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our +arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the +public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and +encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in +regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts +were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, +all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being +delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union +without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it +without war seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by +negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make +war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept +war rather than let it perish, and the war came. + +One eighth of the whole population was colored slaves, not +distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern +part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful +interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the +war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the +object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, +while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the +territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war +the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither +anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even +before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier +triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against +the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a +just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other +men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The +prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been +answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the +world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, +but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose +that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the +providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued +through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives +to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by +whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from +those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always +ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this +mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that +it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred +and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every +drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with +the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be +said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." + +With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him +who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to +do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among +ourselves and with all nations. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL JOHN POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please state briefly, by telegraph, what you concluded about the +assessments in St. Louis County. Early in the war one Samuel B. +Churchill was sent from St. Louis to Louisville, where I have quite +satisfactory evidence that he has not misbehaved. Still I am told +his property at St. Louis is subjected to the assessment, which I +think it ought not to be. Still I wish to know what you think. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 8, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va: + +Your two despatches to the Secretary of War, one relating to supplies +for the enemy going by the Blackwater, and the other to General +Singleton and Judge Hughes, have been laid before me by him. As to +Singleton and Hughes, I think they are not in Richmond by any +authority, unless it be from you. I remember nothing from me which +could aid them in getting there, except a letter to you, as follows, +to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, February 7, 1865. +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: +General Singleton, who bears you this, claims that he already has +arrangements made, if you consent, to bring a large amount of +Southern produce through your lines. For its bearing on our +finances, I would be glad for this to be done, if it can be, without +injuriously disturbing your military operations, or supplying the +enemy. I wish you to be judge and master on these points. Please +see and hear him fully, and decide whether anything, and, if +anything, what, can be done in the premises. +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + +I believe I gave Hughes a card putting him with Singleton on the same +letter. However this may be, I now authorize you to get Singleton +and Hughes away from Richmond, if you choose, and can. I also +authorize you, by an order, or in what form you choose, to suspend +all operations on the Treasury trade permits, in all places +southeastward of the Alleghenies. If you make such order, notify me +of it, giving a copy, so that I can give corresponding direction to +the Navy. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OFFERING PARDON TO DESERTERS, + +MARCH 11, 1865 + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES +OF AMERICA + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, the twenty-first section of the act of Congress, approved on +the 3d instant, entitled "An Act to amend the several acts heretofore +passed to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national +forces and for other purposes," requires that in addition to the +other lawful penalties of the crime of desertion from the military or +naval service, all persons who have deserted the military or naval +service of the United States who shall not return to said service or +report themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the +proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall be deemed and taken to have +voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their citizenship and their +right to become citizens, and such deserters shall be forever +incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the United +States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all +persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and +all persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction +of the district in which they are enrolled, or go beyond the limits +of the United States with intent to avoid any draft into the military +or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of +this section; and the President is hereby authorized and required +forthwith, on the passage of this act, to issue his proclamation +setting forth the provisions of this section, in which proclamation +the President is requested to notify all deserters returning within +sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be pardoned on condition of +returning to their regiments and companies, or to such other +organizations as they may be assigned to, until they shall have +served for a period of time equal to their original term of +enlistment: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do issue this my proclamation as required by said act, +ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; +and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall within sixty +days from the date of this proclamation, viz., on or before the 10th +day of May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a +provost-marshal, shall be pardoned on condition that they return to +their regiments or companies or to such other organization as they +may be assigned to, and serve the remainder of their original terms +of enlistment, and in addition thereto a period equal to the time +lost by desertion. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed............... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. T. BLOW. + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1865. + +HON. HENRY T. BLOW, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +A Miss E. Snodgrass, who was banished from Saint Louis in May,1863, +wishes to take the oath and return home. What say you? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER TO THURLOW WEED, + +MARCH 15, 1865. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C. + +DEAR Mr. WEED: + +Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little +notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect +the latter to wear as well as perhaps better than--anything I have +produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not +flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose +between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is +to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which +I thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is +in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford +for me to tell it. + +Truly yours, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL ROUGH AND OTHERS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 17, 1865. + +COL. R. M. ROUGH AND OTHERS, Chicago, Ill.: + +Yours received. The best I can do with it is, to refer it to the War +Department. The Rock Island case referred to, was my individual +enterprise; and it caused so much difficulty in so many ways that I +promised to never undertake another. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO AN INDIANA REGIMENT, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It will be but a very few words that I shall +undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and +lived in Illinois; and now I am here, where it is my business to care +equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an +Indiana regiment on this day able to present the captured flag to the +Governor of Indiana. I am not disposed, in saying this, to make a +distinction between the States, for all have done equally well. + +There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I +have not said or written something whereby my own opinions might be +known. But there is one--the recent attempt of our erring brethren, +as they are sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. +I have neither written nor made a speech on that subject, because +that was their business, not mine, and if I had a wish on the +subject, I had not the power to introduce it, or make it effective. +The great question with them was whether the negro, being put into +the army, will fight for them. I do not know, and therefore cannot +decide. They ought to know better than me. I have in my lifetime +heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be slaves; but if they +fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it will be a better +argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for that, +ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at last, to take one out +of four of the slaves and put them in the army, and that one out of +the four who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a +slave himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often +said that all men ought to be free, yet would I allow those colored +persons to be slaves who want to be, and next to them those white +people who argue in favor of making other people slaves. I am in +favor of giving an appointment to such white men to try it on for +these slaves. I will say one thing in regard to the negroes being +employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay at +home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as the +other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of +having them try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that, +and I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast +it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. But they cannot fight +and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. +They will stand out as long as they can, and if the negro will fight +for them they must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their +last branch of resources, and we can now see the bottom. I am glad +to see the end so near at hand. I have said now more than I +intended, and will therefore bid you good-by. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING INDIANS, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas reliable information has been received that hostile Indians, +within the limits of the United States, have been furnished with arms +and munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign +territory, and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare +upon the exposed and sparse settlements of the frontier; + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all +persons detected in that nefarious traffic shall be arrested and +tried by court-martial at the nearest military post, and if +convicted, shall receive the punishment due to their deserts. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed................... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ORDER ANNULLING THE SENTENCE AGAINST +BENJAMIN G. SMITH AND FRANKLIN W. SMITH, + +MARCH 18, 1865. + + +I am unwilling for the sentence to stand, and be executed, to any +extent in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than +the evidence discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the +existence of criminal or fraudulent intent on the part of men of such +well established good character. If the evidence went as far to +establish a guilty profit of one or two hundred thousand dollars, as +it does of one or two hundred dollars, the case would, on the +question of guilt, bear a far different aspect. That on this +contract, involving some twelve hundred thousand dollars, the +contractors would plan, and attempt to execute a fraud which, at the +most, could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand +dollars, is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That +they did not, in such a case, make far greater gains, proves that +they did not, with guilty or fraudulent intent, make at all. The +judgment and sentence are disapproved, and declared null, and the +defendants are fully discharged. + +A. LINCOLN +March 18, 1865. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Understanding that the plan of action for Missouri contained in your +letter to the Governor of that State, and your other letter to me, is +concurred in by the Governor, it is approved by me, and you will be +sustained in proceeding upon it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May [March] 20, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Army of the James + +Is it true that George W. Lane is detained at Norfolk without any +charge against him? And if so why is it done? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JUDGE SCATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 21, 1865. + +HON. WALTER B. SCATES, Centralia, Illinois: + +If you choose to go to New Mexico and reside, I will appoint you +chief justice there. What say you? Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 22, 1865. +MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK, Winchester, Va.: + +Seeing your despatch about General Crook, and fearing that through +misapprehension something unpleasant may occur, I send you below two +despatches of General Grant, which I suppose will fully explain +General Crook's movements. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANOTHER FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 23, 1865. + +GENERAL DODGE, +Commanding, &c, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Allow Mrs. R. S. Ewell the benefit of my amnesty proclamation on her +taking the oath. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 25, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C.: + +Arrived here all safe about 9 P.M. yesterday. No war news. General +Grant does not seem to know very much about Yeatman, but thinks very +well of him so far as he does know. + +I like Mr. Whiting very much, and hence would wish him to remain or +resign as best suits himself. Hearing this much from me, do as you +think best in the matter. General Lee has sent the Russell letter +back, concluding, as I understand from Grant, that their dignity does +not admit of their receiving the document from us. Robert just now +tells me there was a little rumpus up the line this morning, ending +about where it began. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +(Cipher.) +HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, +March 25, 1865. (Received 5 P.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +I am here within five miles of the scene of this morning's action. I +have nothing to add to what General Meade reports except that I have +seen the prisoners myself and they look like there might be the +number he states--1600. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., March 26, 1865. (Received 11.30 A.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I approve your Fort Sumter programme. Grant don't seem to know +Yeatman very well, but thinks very well of him so far as he knows. +Thinks it probable that Y. is here now, for the place. I told you +this yesterday as well as that you should do as you think best about +Mr. Whiting's resignation, but I suppose you did not receive the +dispatch. I am on the boat and have no later war news than went to +you last night. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 27, 1865.3.35 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +Yours inclosing Fort Sumter order received. I think of but one +suggestion. I feel quite confident that Sumter fell on the 13th, and +not on the 14th of April, as you have it. It fell on Saturday, the +13th; the first call for troops on our part was got up on Sunday, the +14th, and given date and issued on Monday, the 15th. Look up the old +almanac and other data, and see if I am not right. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 28, 1865. 12 M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: +After your explanation, I think it is little or no difference whether +the Fort Sumter ceremony takes place on the 13th or 14th. + +General Sherman tells me he is well acquainted with James Yeatman, +and that he thinks him almost the best man in the country for +anything he will undertake. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., March 30, 1865. 7.30 P.M. +(Received 8.30 P.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I begin to feel that I ought to be at home and yet I dislike to leave +without seeing nearer to the end of General Grant's present movement. +He has now been out since yesterday morning and although he has not +been diverted from his programme no considerable effort has yet been +produced so far as we know here. Last night at 10.15 P. M. when it +was dark as a rainy night without a moon could be, a furious +cannonade soon joined in by a heavy musketry fire opened near +Petersburg and lasted about two hours. The sound was very distinct +here as also were the flashes of the guns up the clouds. It seemed +to me a great battle, but the older hands here scarcely noticed it +and sure enough this morning it was found that very little had been +done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 31, 1865. 3 P.M. + +SECRETARY STANTON: + +At 12.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphed me as follows: +"There has been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our +left from near Dabney's house back well toward the Boydton plank +road. We are now about to take the offensive at that point, and I +hope will more than recover the lost ground." + +Later he telegraphed again as follows: +"Our troops, after being driven back to the Boydton plank road, +turned and drove the enemy in turn, and took the White Oak road, +which we now have. This gives us the ground occupied by the enemy +this morning. I will send you a rebel flag captured by our troops in +driving the enemy back. There have been four flags captured to-day." + +Judging by the two points from which General Grant telegraphs, I +infer that he moved his headquarters about one mile since he sent the +first of the two despatches. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours to Colonel Bowers about the Secretary of War is shown to me. +He is not here, nor have I any notice that he is coming. I presume +the mistake comes of the fact that the Secretary of State was here. +He started back to Washington this morning. I have your two +despatches of this morning, and am anxious to hear from Sheridan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. 12.50 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +I have had two despatches from General Grant since my last to you, +but they contain little additional, except that Sheridan also had +pretty hot work yesterday, that infantry was sent to his support +during the night, and that he (Grant) has not since heard from +Sheridan. + +Mrs. Lincoln has started home, and I will thank you to see that our +coachman is at the Arsenal wharf at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, +there to wait until she arrives. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +CITY POINT, VA., April, 1865. 5.30 ?.M. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +Despatch just received, showing that Sheridan, aided by Warren, had, +at 2 P.M., pushed the enemy back, so as to retake the Five Forks and +bring his own headquarters up to J. Boisseau's. The Five Forks were +barricaded by the enemy and carried by Devin's division of cavalry. +This part of the enemy seem to now be trying to work along the White +Oak road, to join the main force in front of Grant, while Sheridan +and Warren are pressing them as closely as possible. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours showing Sheridan's success of to-day is just received and +highly appreciated. Having no great deal to do here, I am still +sending the substance of your despatches to the Secretary of War. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +CITY POINT, VA., April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. (Received 9 A.M.) + +MRS. A. LINCOLN, Executive Mansion: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps had captured three brigades of infantry, +a train of wagons, and several batteries, prisoners amounting to +several thousand. This morning General Grant having ordered an +attack along the whole line telegraphs as follows. + +Robert yesterday wrote a little cheerful note to Captain Penrose, +which is all he has heard of him since you left. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAMS TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan, with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps, had captured three brigades of infantry, +a train of wagons, and several batteries; the prisoners amounting to +several thousand. + +This morning General Grant, having ordered an attack along the whole +line, telegraphs as follows: + +"Both Wright and Parke got through the enemy's lines. The battle now +rages furiously. General Sheridan, with his cavalry, the Fifth +corps, and Miles's Division of the Second Corps, which was sent to +him this morning, is now sweeping down from the west. + +"All now looks highly favorable. General Ord is engaged, but I have +not yet heard the result in his front." + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, April 1. 11.00 A.M. + +Despatches are frequently coming in. All is going on finely. +Generals Parke, Wright, and Ord's lines are extending from the +Appomattox to Hatcher's Run. They have all broken through the +enemy's intrenched lines, taking some forts, guns, and prisoners. +Sheridan, with his own cavalry, the Fifth Corps, and part of the +Second, is coming in from the west on the enemy's flank. Wright is +already tearing up the Southside Railroad. + +A. LINCOLN + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 2 P.M. + +At 10.45 A.M. General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"Everything has been carried from the left of the Ninth Corps. The +Sixth Corps alone captured more than three thousand prisoners. The +Second and Twenty-fourth Corps captured forts, guns, and prisoners +from the enemy, but I cannot tell the numbers. We are now closing +around the works of the line immediately enveloping Petersburg. All +looks remarkably well. I have not yet heard from Sheridan. His +headquarters have been moved up to Banks's house, near the Boydton +road, about three miles southwest of Petersburg." + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 8.30 P.M. + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"We are now up and have a continuous line of troops, and in a few +hours will be intrenched from the Appomattox below Petersburg to the +river above. The whole captures since the army started out will not +amount to less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of +artillery. I do not know the number of men and guns accurately, +however. A portion of Foster's Division, Twenty Fourth Corps, made a +most gallant charge this afternoon, and captured a very important +fort from the enemy, with its entire garrison. All seems well with +us, and everything is quiet just now." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +CITY POINT, VA., April 1, 1865. + +MRS. LINCOLN: + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs that he has Petersburg +completely enveloped from river below to river above, and has +captured, since he started last Wednesday, about twelve thousand +prisoners and fifty guns. He suggests that I shall go out and see +him in the morning, which I think I will do. Tad and I are both +well, and will be glad to see you and your party here at the time you +name. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Allow me to tender to you and all with you the nation's grateful +thanks for this additional and magnificent success. At your kind +suggestion I think I will meet you to-morrow. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 3, 1865.8.30 A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +This morning Lieutenant-General Grant reports Petersburg evacuated, +and he is confident that Richmond also is. He is pushing forward to +cut off, if possible, the retreating rebel army. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 3, 1865. 5 P.M. + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to +Petersburg. Staid with General Grant an hour and a half and returned +here. It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I +will go there to-morrow. I will take care of myself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 4, 1865 +(Received 8.45 A.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +General Weitzel telegraphs from Richmond that of railroad stock he +found there twenty-eight locomotives, forty-four passenger and +baggage cars, and one hundred and six freight cars. At 3.30 this +evening General Grant, from Sutherland's Station, ten miles from +Petersburg toward Burkevllle, telegraphs as follows: + +"General Sheridan picked up twelve hundred prisoners to-day, and from +three hundred to five hundred more have been gathered by other +troops. The majority of the arms that were left in the hands of the +remnant of Lee's army are now scattered between Richmond and where +his troops are. The country is also full of stragglers; the line of +retreat marked with artillery, ammunition, burned or charred wagons, +caissons, ambulances, etc." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +CITY POINT, APRIL 5, 1865. +(Received 11.55 PM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF STATE: + +Yours of to-day received. I think there is no probability of my +remaining here more than two days longer. If that is too long come +down. I passed last night at Richmond and have just returned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, +CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, in the Field: + +Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yesterday and seriously +injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. +I was at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge +Campbell, who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February, +called on me, and made such representations as induced me to put in +his hands an informal paper, repeating the propositions in my letter +of instructions to Mr. Seward, which you remember, and adding that if +the war be now further persisted in by the rebels, confiscated +property shall at the least bear the additional cost, and that +confiscation shall be remitted to the people of any State which will +now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops and other support +from resistance to the Government. + +Judge Campbell thought it not impossible that the rebel legislature +of Virginia would do the latter if permitted; and accordingly I +addressed a private letter to General Weitzel, with permission to +Judge Campbell to see it, telling him (General Weitzel) that if they +attempt this, to permit and protect them, unless they attempt +something hostile to the United States, in which case to give them +notice and time to leave, and to arrest any remaining after such +time. + +I do not think it very probable that anything win come of this, but I +have thought best to notify you so that if you should see signs you +may understand them. + +From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually +withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the Government. +Nothing that I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, +or interfere with your work. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES +CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the +legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion may now desire to +assemble at Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia +troops and other support from resistance to the General Government. +If they attempt it, give them permission and protection, until, if at +all, they attempt some action hostile to the United States, in which +case you will notify them, give them reasonable time to leave, and at +the end of which time arrest any who remain. Allow Judge Campbell to +see this, but do not make it public. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 7, 1865 +(Received 10.30 AM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +At 11.15 P.M. yesterday at Burkesville Station, General Grant sends +me the following from General Sheridan: + +"April 6, 11.15 P.M. +"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: +I have the honor to report that the enemy made a stand at the +intersection of the Burks Station road with the road upon which they +were retreating. I attacked them with two divisions of the Sixth +Army Corps and routed them handsomely, making a connection with the +cavalry. I am still pressing on with both cavalry and infantry. Up +to the present time we have captured Generals Ewell, Kershaw, Button, +Corse, DeBare, and Custis Lee, several thousand prisoners, fourteen +pieces of artillery with caissons and a large number of wagons. If +the thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender. +"P. H. SHERIDAN, +"Major-General, Commanding." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, + +CITY POINT, April 7, 11 A.M., 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Gen. Sheridan says: + +"If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender." + +Let the thing be pressed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +NOTE ON A CARD TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +April 10, 1865. + +Tad wants some flags--can he be accommodated? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A CALL, + +APRIL 10, 1865 + +If the company had assembled by appointment, some mistake had crept +in their understanding. He had appeared before a larger audience +than this one to-day, and he would repeat what he then said, namely, +he supposed owing to the great, good news, there would be some +demonstration. He would prefer to-morrow evening, when he should be +quite willing, and he hoped ready, to say something. He desired to +be particular, because every thing he said got into print. Occupying +the position he did, a mistake would produce harm, and therefore he +wanted to be careful not to make a mistake. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. GORDON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 11, 1865. + +BRIG. GEN. G. H. GORDON, Norfolk, Va.: + +Send to me at once a full statement as to the cause or causes for +which, and by authority of what tribunal George W. Lane, Charles +Whitlock, Ezra Baler, J. M. Renshaw, and others are restrained of +their liberty. Do this promptly and fully. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLOSING CERTAIN PORTS, +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamations of the 19th and 27th days of April, A.D. +1861, the ports of the United States in the States of Virginia, North +Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, +Louisiana, and Texas were declared to be subject to blockade; but + +Whereas the said blockade has, in consequence of actual military +occupation by this Government, since been conditionally set aside or +relaxed in respect to the ports of Norfolk and Alexandria, in the +State of Virginia; Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina; Port +Royal, in the State of South Carolina; Pensacola and Fernandina, in +the State of Florida; and New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana; and + +Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress approved on the +13th of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the +collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes," the +President, for the reasons therein set forth, is authorized to close +certain ports of entry: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of the +United States, do hereby proclaim that the ports of Richmond, +Tappahannock, Cherrystone, Yorktown, and Petersburg, in Virginia; of +Camden (Elizabeth City), Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Newbern, +Ocracoke, and Wilmington in North Carolina; of Charleston, +Georgetown, and Beaufort, in South Carolina; of Savannah, St. Marys, +and Brunswick (Darien), in Georgia; of Mobile, in Alabama; of Pearl +River (Shieldsboro), Natchez and Vicksburg, in Mississippi; of St. +Augustine, Key West, St. Marks (Port Leon), St. Johns (Jacksonville), +and Apalachicola, in Florida; of Teche (Franklin), in Louisiana; of +Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago (Point Isabel), and +Brownsville, in Texas, are hereby closed, and all right of +importation, warehousing, and other privileges shall, in respect to +the ports aforesaid, cease until they shall have again been opened by +order of the President; and if while said parts are so closed any +ship or vessel from beyond the United States or having on board any +articles subject to duties shall attempt to enter any such port, the +same, together with its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, shall +be forfeited to the United States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D., +1865, and of the independence of the United States of America, the +eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF KEY WEST, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of this date the port of Key West, in the +State of Florida, was inadvertently included among those which are +not open to commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do hereby declare and make known that the said port of +Key West is and shall remain open to foreign and domestic commerce +upon the same conditions by which that commerce has there hitherto +been governed. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D. +1865, and of the independence of the United States of America the +eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLAIMING EQUALITY OF RIGHTS +WITH ALL MARITIME NATIONS, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas for some time past vessels of war of the United States have +been refused in certain foreign ports, privileges and immunities to +which they were entitled by treaty, public law, or the community of +nations, at the same time that vessels of war of the country wherein +the said privileges and immunities have been withheld have enjoyed +them fully and uninterruptedly in ports of the United States, which +condition of things has not always been forcibly resisted by the +United States, although, on the other hand, they have not at any time +failed to protest against and declare their dissatisfaction with the +same. In the view of the United States, no condition any longer +exists which can be claimed to justify the denial to them by any one +of such nations of customary naval rights as has heretofore been so +unnecessarily persisted in....... + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby make known that if, after a reasonable time shall have +elapsed for intelligence of this proclamation to have reached any +foreign country in whose ports the said privileges and immunities +shall have been refused as aforesaid, they shall continue to be so +refused, then and thenceforth the same privileges and immunities +shall be refused to the vessels of war of that country in the ports +of the United States, and this refusal shall continue until war +vessels of the United States shall have been placed upon an entire +equality in the foreign ports aforesaid with similar vessels of other +countries. The United States, whatever claim or pretense may have +existed heretofore, are now, at least, entitled to claim and concede +an entire and friendly equality of rights and hospitalities with all +maritime nations. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.................. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS, + +APRIL 11, 1865 + +FELLOW-CITIZENS--We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness +of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the +surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous +and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In +the midst of this, however, He from whom blessings flow must not be +forgotten. + +A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly +promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of +rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with +others. I myself was near the front, and had the pleasure of +transmitting much of the good news to you. But no part of the honor +for plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful +officers, and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, +but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes, +the reinauguration of the national authority--reconstruction which has +had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more +closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. +Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no +authorized organ for us to treat with--no one man has authority to +give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with and +mould from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small +additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among +ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. As a +general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon +myself, Wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly +offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my +knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting +up and seeking to sustain the new State government of Louisiana. In +this I have done just so much and no more than the public knows. In +the Annual Message of December, 1863, and the accompanying +proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the phrase +goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, would be acceptable +to and sustained by the Executive Government of the nation. I +distinctly stated that this was not the only plan that might possibly +be acceptable, and I also distinctly protested that the Executive +claimed no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to +seats in Congress from such States. This plan was in advance submitted +to the then Cabinet, and approved by every member of it. One of them +suggested that I should then and in that connection apply the +Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of +Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about +apprenticeship for freed people, and that I should omit the protest +against my own power in regard to the admission of members of +Congress. But even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which +has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The +new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole +State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously +excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and is +silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of +members to Congress. So that, as it applied to Louisiana, every member +of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, +and I received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and +not a single objection to it from any professed emancipationist came +to my knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the +people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From +about July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposed +to be interested in seeking a reconstruction of a State government for +Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, +reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident that +the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct +substantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try it. +They tried it, and the result is known. Such has been my only agency +in getting up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it my promise +is out, as before stated. But, as bad promises are better broken than +kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise and break it, whenever I +shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest; +but I have not yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on +this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer +expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed +upon the question whether the seceded States, so called, are in the +Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment to his regret +were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men +endeavoring to answer that question, I have purposely forborne any +public expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not +been nor yet is a practically material one, and that any discussion of +it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect +other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, +whatever it may become, that question is bad as the basis of a +controversy, and good for nothing at all--a merely pernicious +abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out +of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole +object of the Government, civil and military, in regard to those +States, is to again get them into their proper practical relation. I +believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this +without deciding or even considering whether those States have ever +been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at +home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had been abroad. Let +us all join in doing the acts necessary to restore the proper +practical relations between these States and the Union, and each +forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the +acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave +them proper assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount +of constituency, so to speak, on which the Louisiana government rests, +would be more satisfactory to all if it contained fifty thousand, or +thirty thousand, or even twenty thousand, instead of twelve thousand, +as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective +franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that +it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve +our cause as soldiers. Still, the question is not whether the +Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. +The question is, Will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to +improve it, or to reject and disperse? Can Louisiana be brought into +proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by +discarding her new State government? Some twelve thousand voters in +the heretofore Slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the +Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held +elections, organized a State government, adopted a Free State +constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black +and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective +franchise upon the colored man. This Legislature has already voted to +ratify the Constitutional Amendment recently passed by Congress, +abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve thousand +persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetuate +freedom in the State--committed to the very things, and nearly all +things, the nation wants--and they ask the nation's recognition and +its assistance to make good this committal. Now, if we reject and +spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in +fact, say to the white man: You are worthless or worse; we will +neither help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say: This cup +of liberty which these, your old masters, held to your lips, we will +dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled +and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and +how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, +has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations +with the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the +contrary, we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, +the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and +nerve the arms of twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue +for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow +it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in +seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and +daring to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, +will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps +towards it, than by running backward over them? Concede that the new +government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to +the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by +smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in +favor of the proposed amendment to the National Constitution. To meet +this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three fourths +of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to +validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this, +further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, +and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three +fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I +repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical +relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new +State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply to other +States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such +important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so +new and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and +inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and +collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a +new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. In +the present situation as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make +some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, +and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action will be proper. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1865. +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch to Colonel Hardie about the matter of +prayers. I do not remember hearing prayers spoken of while I was in +Richmond; but I have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you +to be the spirit and temper manifested by me while there. Is there +any sign of the rebel legislature coming together on the +understanding of my letter to you? If there is any such sign, inform +me what it is; if there is no such sign, you may withdraw the offer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. +WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have just seen Judge Campbell's letter to you of the 7th. He +assumes, as appears to me, that I have called the insurgent +legislature of Virginia together, as the rightful legislature of the +State, to settle all differences with the United States. I have done +no such thing. I spoke of them, not as a legislature, but as "the +gentlemen who have acted as the legislature of Virginia in support of +the rebellion." I did this on purpose to exclude the assumption that +I was recognizing them as a rightful body. I deal with them as men +having power de facto to do a specific thing, to wit: "To withdraw +the Virginia troops and other support from resistance to the General +Government," for which, in the paper handed Judge Campbell, I +promised a specific equivalent, to wit: a remission to the people of +the State, except in certain cases, of the confiscation of their +property. I meant this, and no more. Inasmuch, however, as Judge +Campbell misconstrues this, and is still pressing for an armistice, +contrary to the explicit statement of the paper I gave him, and +particularly as General Grant has since captured the Virginia troops, +so that giving a consideration for their withdrawal is no longer +applicable, let my letter to you and the paper to Judge Campbell both +be withdrawn, or countermanded, and he be notified of it. Do not now +allow them to assemble, but if any have come, allow them safe return +to their homes. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH SCHUYLER COLFAX ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 14, 1865. + +Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from me to the miners whom +you visit. I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our +nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over +the Western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its +development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were +adding a couple of millions of dollars every day to our national +debt, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of +our precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now that +the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of +our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, we make the +payment of that debt so much the easier. "Now," said he, speaking +with more emphasis, "I am going to encourage that in every possible +way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and +many have feared that their return home in such great numbers might +paralyze industry, by furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply of labor +than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them to +the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough +for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land +upon our shores hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded +Europe. I intend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for +them in the West. Tell the miners for me, that I shall promote their +interests to the utmost of my ability; because their prosperity is +the prosperity of the nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with +enthusiasm, "we shall prove, in a very few years, that we are indeed +the treasury of the world." + + + + +TO GENERAL VAN ALLEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +April 14, 1865 + +GENERAL VAN ALLEN: + +I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precaution.... +I thank you for the assurance you give me that I shall be +supported by conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may +make to restore the Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a +Union of hearts and hands as well as of States. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS + +Allow Mr. Ashmer and friend to come in at 9 A.M. to-morrow. + +A. LINCOLN. +April 14, 1865 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, +Volume 7, 1863-1865, by Abraham Lincoln + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 2659.txt or 2659.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/2/6/5/2659/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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MILROY'S DIVISION. + +October 27, 1863. + +In June last a division was substantially lost at or near Winchester, +Va. At the time, it was under General Milroy as immediate commander +in the field, General Schenck as department commander at Baltimore, +and General Halleck as general-in-chief at Washington. + +General Milroy, as immediate commander, was put in arrest, and +subsequently a court of inquiry examined chiefly with reference to +disobedience of orders, and reported the evidence. + +The foregoing is a synoptical statement of the evidence, together +with the judge-advocate-general's conclusions. The disaster, when it +came, was a surprise to all. It was very well known to Generals +Shenck and Milroy for some time before, that General Halleck thought +the division was in great danger of a surprise at Winchester; that it +was of no service commensurate with the risk it incurred, and that it +ought to be withdrawn; but, although he more than once advised its +withdrawal, he never positively ordered it. General Schenck, on the +contrary, believed the service of the force at Winchester was worth +the hazard, and so did not positively order its withdrawal until it +was so late that the enemy cut the wire and prevented the order +reaching General Milroy. + +General Milroy seems to have concurred with General Schenck in the +opinion that the force should be kept at Winchester at least until +the approach of danger, but he disobeyed no order upon the subject. + +Some question can be made whether some of General Halleck's +dispatches to General Schenk should not have been construed to be +orders to withdraw the force, and obeyed accordingly; but no such +question can be made against General Milroy. In fact, the last order +he received was to be prepared to withdraw, but not to actually +withdraw until further order, which further order never reached him. + +Serious blame is not necessarily due to any serious disaster, and I +cannot say that in this case any of the officers are deserving of +serious blame. No court-martial is deemed necessary or proper in the +case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + +Private and confidential + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, October 28, 1863. + +GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD: + +There have recently reached the War Department, and thence been laid +before me, from Missouri, three communications, all similar in import +and identical in object. One of them, addressed to nobody, and +without place or date, but having the signature of (apparently) the +writer, is a letter of eight closely written foolscap pages. The +other two are written by a different person, at St. Joseph, Mo., and +of the dates, respectively, October 12 and 13, 1863, and each +inclosing a large number of affidavits. The general statements of +the whole are that the Federal and State authorities are arming the +disloyal and disarming the loyal, and that the latter will all be +killed or driven out of the State unless there shall be a change. In +particular, no loyal man who has been disarmed is named, but the +affidavits show by name forty-two persons as disloyal who have been +armed. They are as follows: [The names are omitted.] + +A majority of these are shown to have been in the rebel service. I +believe it could be shown that the government here has deliberately +armed more than ten times as many captured at Gettysburg, to say +nothing of similar operations in East Tennessee. These papers +contain altogether thirty--one manuscript pages, and one newspaper in +extenso, and yet I do not find it anywhere charged in them that any +loyal man has been harmed by reason of being disarmed, or that any +disloyal one has harmed anybody by reason of being armed by the +Federal or State Government. Of course, I have not had time to +carefully examine all; but I have had most of them examined and +briefed by others, and the result is as stated. The remarkable fact +that the actual evil is yet only anticipated--inferred--induces me to +suppose I understand the case; but I do not state my impression, +because I might be mistaken, and because your duty and mine is plain +in any event. The locality of nearly all this seems to be St. +Joseph and Buchanan County. I wish you to give special attention to +this region, particularly on election day. Prevent violence from +whatever quarter, and see that the soldiers themselves do no wrong. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 28, 1863. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: +If not too inconvenient, please come at once and have a personal +conversation with me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO VICE-PRESIDENT HAMLIN. + +AN ACT TO REGULATE THE DUTIES OF THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES IN PREPARING FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. + +Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States of America in Congress assembled, that, before the +first meeting of the next Congress, and of every subsequent Congress, +the clerk of the next preceding House of Representatives shall make a +roll of the Representatives elect, and place thereon the names of all +persons, and of such persons only, whose credentials show that they +were regularly elected in accordance with the laws of their States +respectively, or the laws of the United States. + +Approved March 3, 1863. + + + + +TO J. W. GRIMES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 1863. + +HON. JAMES W. GRIMES. + +MY DEAR SIR :--The above act of Congress was passed, as I suppose, +for the purpose of shutting out improper applicants for seats in the +House of Representatives; and I fear there is some danger that it +will be used to shut out proper ones. Iowa, having an entire Union +delegation, will be one of the States the attempt will be made, if +upon any. The Governor doubtless has made out the certificates, and +they are already in the hands of the members. I suggest that they +come on with them; but that, for greater caution, you, and perhaps +Mr. Harlan with you, consult with the Governor, and have an +additional set made out according to the form on the other half of +this sheet; and still another set, if you can, by studying the law, +think of a form that in your judgment, promises additional security, +and quietly bring the whole on with you, to be used in case of +necessity. Let what you do be kept still. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO P. F. LOWE. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +HON. F. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Below is an act of Congress, passed last session, intended to exclude +applicants not entitled to seats, but which, there is reason to fear, +will be used to exclude some who are entitled. Please get with the +Governor and one or two other discreet friends, study the act +carefully, and make certificates m two or three forms, according to +your best judgement, and have them sent to me, so as to multiply the +chances of the delegation getting their seats. Let it be done +without publicity. Below is a form which may answer for one. If you +could procure the same to be done for the Oregon member it might be +well. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Much obliged for the information about deserters contained in your +dispatch of yesterday, while I have to beg your pardon for troubling +you in regard to some of them, when, as it appears by yours, I had +the means of answering my own questions. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, October 31, 1863. + +The Provost-Marshal-General has issued no proclamation at all. He +has in no form announced anything recently in regard to troops in New +York, except in his letter to Governor Seymour of October 21, which +has been published in the newspapers of that State. It has not been +announced or decided in any form by the Provost-Marshal-General, or +any one else in authority of the Government, that every citizen who +has paid his three hundred dollars commutation is liable to be +immediately drafted again, or that towns that have just raised the +money to pay their quotas will have again to be subject to similar +taxation or suffer the operations of the new conscription, nor it is +probable that the like of them ever will be announced or decided. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 1, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N.Y.: + +No important news. Details of Hooker's night fight do great credit +to his command, and particularly to the Eleventh Corps and Geary's +part of the Twelfth. No discredit on any. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Some days ago I understood you to say that your +brother, General Frank Blair, desires to be guided by my wishes as to +whether he will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. +My wish, then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for the +country; and it is that he will come here, put his military +commission in my hands, take his seat, go into caucus with our +friends, abide the nominations, help elect the nominees, and thus aid +to organize a House of Representatives which will really support the +Government in the war. If the result shall be the election of +himself as Speaker, let him serve in that position. If not, let him +retake his commission and return to the army for the benefit of the +country. + +This will heal a dangerous schism for him. It will relieve him from +a dangerous position or a misunderstanding, as I think he is in +danger of being permanently separated from those with whom only he +can ever have a real sympathy--the sincere opponents of slavery. + +It will be a mistake if he shall allow the provocations offered him +by insincere time-servers to drive him from the house of his own +building. He is young yet. He has abundant talents--quite enough to +occupy all his time without devoting any to temper. + +He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His recent +appointment to the command of a corps, by one so competent to judge +as General Sherman, proves this. In that line he can serve both the +country and himself more profitably than he could as a member of +Congress upon the floor. + +The foregoing is what I would say if Frank Blair was my brother +instead of yours. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR BRADFORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +His EXCELLENCY A. W. BRADFORD, Governor of Maryland. + +SIR:--Yours of the 31st ult. was received yesterday about noon, and +since then I have been giving most earnest attention to the subject- +matter of it. At my call General Schenck has attended, and he +assures me it is almost certain that violence will be used at some of +the voting places on election day unless prevented by his provost- +guards. He says that at some of those places Union voters will not +attend at all, or run a ticket, unless they have some assurance of +protection. This makes the Missouri case, of my action in regard to +which you express your approval. + +The remaining point of your letter is a protest against any person +offering to vote being put to any test not found in the laws of +Maryland. This brings us to a difference between Missouri and +Maryland. With the same reason in both States, Missouri has, by law, +provided a test for the voter with reference to the present +rebellion, while Maryland has not. For example, General Trimble, +captured fighting us at Gettysburg, is, without recanting his +treason, a legal voter by the laws of Maryland. Even General +Schenck's order admits him to vote, if he recants upon oath. I think +that is cheap enough. My order in Missouri, which you approve, and +General Scherick's order here, reach precisely the same end. Bach +assures the right of voting to all loyal men, and whether a man is +loyal, each allows that man to fix by his own oath. Your suggestion +that nearly all the candidates are loyal, I do not think quite meets +the case. In this struggle for the nation's life, I cannot so +confidently rely on those whose elections may have depended upon +disloyal votes. Such men, when elected, may prove true; but such +votes are given them in the expectation that they will prove false. + +Nor do I think that to keep the peace at the polls, and to prevent +the persistently disloyal from voting, constitutes just cause of +offense to Maryland. I think she has her own example for it. If I +mistake not, it is precisely what General Dix did when your +Excellency was elected Governor. + +I revoke the first of the three propositions in General Schenek's +General Order No. 53; not that it is wrong in principle, but because +the military, being of necessity exclusive judges as to who shall be +arrested, the provision is too liable to abuse. For the revoked part +I substitute the following: + +That, all provost-marshals and other military officers do prevent all +disturbance and violence at or about the polls, whether offered by +such persons as above described, or by any other person or persons +whomsoever. + +The other two propositions of the order I allow to stand. General +Schenek is fully determined, and has my strict orders besides, that +all loyal men may vote, and vote for whom they please. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. H. HACKETT +[Private.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 2, 1863. + +JAMES H. HACKETT. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of October 22d is received, as also was, in due +course, that of October 3d. I look forward with pleasure to the +fulfillment of the promise made in the former to visit Washington the +following winter and to "call." + +Give yourself no uneasiness on the subject mentioned in that +of the 22d. My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in +print, yet I have not been much shocked by the newspaper comments +upon it. + +Those comments constitute a fair specimen of what has occurred +to me through life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule, without +much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness not quite +free from ridicule. I am used to it. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, November 3, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N. Y.: + +Nothing new. Dispatches up to 12 last night from Chattanooga show +all quiet and doing well. How is your son? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 3, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Samuel Wellers, private in Company B, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania +Volunteers, writes that he is to be shot for desertion on the 6th +instant. His own story is rather a bad one, and yet he tells it so +frankly, that I am somewhat interested in him. Has he been a good +soldier except the desertion? About how old is he? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE, MANSION +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 5, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Please suspend the execution of Samuel Wellers, Forty-ninth +Pennsylvania Volunteers, until further +orders. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863.4 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Have seen dispatch from General Grant about your loss at Rogersville. +Per contra, about the same time, Averell and Duffle got considerable +advantage of the enemy at and about Lewisburg, Virginia: and on +Saturday, the seventh, Meade drove the enemy from Rappahannock +Station and Kelly's Ford, capturing eight battle-flags, four guns, +and over 1800 prisoners, with very little loss to himself. Let me +hear from you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. +WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863 7.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +I have seen your dispatches about operations on the Rappahannock on +Saturday, and I wish to say, "Well done!" Do the 1500 prisoners +reported by General Sedgwick include the 400 taken by General French, +or do the Whole amount to 1900? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXPORT OF TOBACCO PURCHASED BY FOREIGN NATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, November 10, 1863. + +In consideration of the peculiar circumstances and pursuant to the +comity deemed to be due to friendly powers, any tobacco in the United +States belonging to the government either of France, Austria, or any +other state with which this country is at peace, and which tobacco +was purchased and paid for by such government prior to the 4th day of +March, 1861, may be exported from any port of the United States under +the supervision and upon the responsibility of naval officers of such +governments and in conformity to such regulations as may be presented +by the Secretary of State of the United States, and not otherwise. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 10, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + + I see a dispatch here from Saint Louis, which is a little difficult +for me to understand. It says "General Schofield has refused leave +of absence to members in military service to attend the legislature. +All such are radical and administration men. The election of two +Senators from this place on Thursday will probably turn upon this +thing." what does this mean? Of course members of the legislation +must be allowed to attend its sessions. But how is there a session +before the recent election returns are in? And how is it to be at +"this place"--and that is Saint Louis? Please inform me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C.,November 11, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +I believe the Secretary of War has telegraphed you about members of +the legislation. At all events, allow those in the service to attend +the session, and we can afterward decide whether they can stay +through the entire session. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HIRAM BARNEY. + [Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +HON. HIRAM BARNEY, New York; +I would like an interview with you. Can you not come? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. MILDERBORGER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +JOHN MILDERBORGER, Peru, Ind.: + +I cannot comprehend the object of your dispatch. I do not often +decline seeing people who call upon me, and probably will see you if +you call. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM to E. H. AND E. JAMESON. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 13, 1863. + +E. H. and E. JAMESON, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Yours saying Brown and Henderson are elected Senators is received. I +understand this is one and one. If so it is knocking heads together +to some + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1863. 12.15 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Cincinnati, Ohio: + +I have received and considered your dispatch of yesterday. Of the +reports you mention, I have not the means of seeing any except your +own. Besides this, the publication might be improper in view of the +court of inquiry which has been ordered. With every disposition, not +merely to do justice, but to oblige you, I feel constrained to say I +think the publications better not be made now. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, November 16, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +What is the news? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 17, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I expected to see you here at Cabinet meeting, and to +say something about going to Gettysburg. There will be a train to +take and return us. The time for starting is not yet fixed, but when +it shall be I will notify you. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG + +NOVEMBER 19, 1863. + +Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation +or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here +gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether +fitting and proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate-- +we can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add +or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we +say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us +the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which +they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather +for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-- +that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause +for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here +highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this +nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that +government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not +perish from the earth. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +If there is a man by the name of King under sentence to be shot, +please suspend execution till further order, and send record. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +An intelligent woman in deep distress, called this morning, saying +her husband, a lieutenant in the Army of Potomac, was to be shot next +Monday for desertion, and putting a letter in my hand, upon which I +relied for particulars, she left without mentioning a name or other +particular by which to identify the case. On opening the letter I +found it equally vague, having nothing to identify by, except her own +signature, which seems to be "Mrs. Anna S. King." I could not again +find her. If you have a case which you shall think is probably the +one intended, please apply my dispatch of this morning to it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. P. EVANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +E. P. EVANS, West Union, Adams County, Ohio: + +Yours to Governor Chase in behalf of John A Welch is before me. Can +there be a worse case than to desert and with letters persuading +others to desert? I cannot interpose without a better showing than +you make. When did he desert? when did he write the letters? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Two despatches since I saw you; one not quite so late +on firing as we had before, but giving the points that Burnside +thinks he can hold the place, that he is not closely invested, and +that he forages across the river. The other brings the firing up to +11 A.M. yesterday, being twenty-three hours later than we had before. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. +WASHINGTON, November 25, 1863. 8.40 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL U.S. GRANT: + +Your despatches as to fighting on Monday and Tuesday are here. Well +done! Many thanks to all. Remember Burnside. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO C. P. KIRKLAND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 7, 1863. + +CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, ESQ., New York: + +I have just received and have read your published letter to the HON. +Benjamin R. Curtis. Under the circumstances I may not be the most +competent judge, but it appears to me to be a paper of great ability, +and for the country's sake more than for my own I thank you for it. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF UNION SUCCESS IN EAST TENNESSEE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., +December 7, 1863. + +Reliable information being received that the insurgent force is +retreating from East Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it +probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from +that important position; and esteeming this to be of high national +consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this +information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special +homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of +the national cause. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION +DECEMBER 8, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas in and by the Constitution of the United States it is +provided that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and +pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of +impeachment;" and, + +Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of +several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons +have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United +States; and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been +enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of +property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions +therein stated, and also declaring that the President was thereby +authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to +persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any +State or part thereof pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at +such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the +public welfare; and + +Whereas the Congressional declaration for limited and conditional +pardon accords with well-established judicial exposition of the +pardoning power; and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the +United States has issued several proclamations with provisions in +regard to the liberation of slaves; and + +Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said +rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States and to +reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective +States: + +Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly +or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as +hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them +and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except +as to slaves and in property cases where rights of third parties +shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person +shall take and subscribe an oath and thenceforward keep and maintain +said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for permanent +preservation and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit: + +I, ________, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I +will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the +Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States +thereunder; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully +support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion +with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, +modified, or held void by Congress or by decision of the Supreme +Court; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support +all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion +having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or +declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God." + +The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions +are all who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers or +agents of the so-called Confederate Government; all who have left +judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all +who are or shall have been military or naval officers of said so- +called Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in the army +or of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States +Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the +Army or Navy of the United States and afterwards aided the rebellion; +and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or +white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners +of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States +service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity. + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in +any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, +Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North +Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of +the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of the year +A.D. 1860, each having taken oath aforesaid, and not having since +violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the +State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and +excluding all others, shall reestablish a State government which +shall be republican and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall +be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State +shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision +which declares that "the United States shall guarantee to every State +in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each +of them against invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or +the EXECUTIVE (when the legislature can not be convened), against +domestic violence." + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision +which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the +freed people of such State which shall recognize and declare their +permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be +consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as +a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by +the National EXECUTIVE. + +And it is suggested as not improper that in constructing a loyal +State government in any State the name of the State, the boundary, +the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws as +before the rebellion be maintained, subject only to the modifications +made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such +others, if any, not contravening said co and which may be deemed +expedient by those framing the new State government. + +To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this +proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has no +reference to States wherein loyal State governments have all the +while been maintained. And for the same reason it may be proper to +further say that whether members sent to Congress from any State +shall be admitted to seats constitutionally rests exclusively with +the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the EXECUTIVE. And, +still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the +people of the States wherein the national authority has been +suspended and loyal State governments have been subverted a mode in +and by which the national authority and loyal State governments may +be re-established within said States or in any of them; and while the +mode presented is the best the EXECUTIVE can suggest, with his +present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible +mode would be acceptable. + +Given under my hand at the city of WASHINGTON, the 8th day of +December, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of +America the eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 8, 1863. + + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES:--Another year of health, and of sufficiently +abundant harvests, has passed. For these, and especially for the +improved condition cf our national affairs, our renewed and +profoundest gratitude to God is due. + +We remain in peace and friendship with foreign powers. + +The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us +in foreign wars, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been +unavailing. Her Britannic Majesty's government, as was justly +expected, have exercised their authority to prevent the departure of +new hostile expeditions from British ports. The Emperor of France +has, by a like proceeding, promptly vindicated the neutrality which +he proclaimed at the beginning of the contest. Questions of great +intricacy and importance have arisen out of the blockade, and other +belligerent operations, between the Government and several of the +maritime powers, but they have been discussed, and, as far as was +possible, accommodated, in a spirit of frankness, justice, and mutual +good-will. It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by the +impartiality of their adjudications, have commanded the respect and +confidence of maritime powers. + +The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain +for the suppression of the African slave-trade, made on the 17th day +of February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. +It is believed that, so far as American ports and American citizens +are concerned, that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an +end. + +I shall submit, for the consideration of the Senate, a convention for +the adjustment of possessory claims in Washington Territory, arising +out of the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, between the United +States and Great Britain, and which have been the source of some +disquiet among the citizens of that now rapidly improving part of the +country. + +A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime +jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the island of +Cuba, has been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is +proposed, in an amicable spirit, to refer it to the arbitrament of a +friendly power. A convention for that purpose will be submitted to +the Senate. + +I have thought it proper, subject to the approval of the Senate, to +concur with the interested commercial powers in an arrangement for +the liquidation of the Scheldt dues upon the principles which have +been heretofore adopted in regard to the imposts upon navigation in +the waters of Denmark. + +The long-pending controversy between this government and that of +Chile touching the seizure at Sitana, in Peru, by Chilean officers, +of a large amount in treasure belonging to citizens of the United +States has been brought to a close by the award of His Majesty the +King of the Belgians, to whose arbitration the question was referred +by the parties. The subject was thoroughly and patiently examined by +that justly respected magistrate, and although the sum awarded to the +claimants may not have been as large as they expected there is no +reason to distrust the wisdom of His Majesty's decision. That +decision was promptly complied with by Chile when intelligence in +regard to it reached that country. + +The joint commission under the act of the last session of carrying +into effect the convention with Peru on the subject of claims has +been organized at Lima, and is engaged in the business intrusted to +it. + +Difficulties concerning interoceanic transit through Nicaragua are in +course of amicable adjustment. + +In conformity with principles set forth in my last annual message, I +have received a representative from the United States of Colombia, +and have accredited a minister to that Republic. + +Incidents occurring in the progress of our civil war have forced upon +my attention the uncertain state of international questions touching +the rights of foreigners in this country and of United States +citizens abroad. In regard to some governments these rights are at +least partially defined by treaties. In no instance, however, is it +expressly stipulated that in the event of civil war a foreigner +residing in this country within the lines of the insurgents is to be +exempted from the rule which classes him as a belligerent, in whose +behalf the government of his country can not expect any privileges or +immunities distinct from that character. I regret to say, however, +that such claims have been put forward, and in some instances in +behalf of foreigners who have lived in the United States the greater +part of their lives. + +There is reason to believe that many persons born in foreign +countries who have declared their intention to become citizens, or +who have been fully naturalized have evaded the military duty +required of them by denying the fact and thereby throwing upon the +Government the burden of proof. It has been found difficult or +impracticable to obtain this proof. from the want of guides to the +proper sources of information. These might be supplied by requiring +clerks of courts where declarations of intention may be made or +naturalizations effected to send periodically lists of the names of +the persons naturalized or declaring their intention to become +citizens to the Secretary of the Interior, in whose Department those +names might be arranged and printed for general information. + +There is also reason to believe that foreigners frequently become +citizens of the United States for the sole purpose of evading duties +imposed by the laws of their native countries, to which on becoming +naturalized here they at once repair, and though never returning to +the United States they still claim the interposition of this +government as citizens. Many altercations and great prejudices have +heretofore arisen out of this abuse. It is therefore submitted to +your serious consideration. It might be advisable to fix a limit +beyond which no citizen of the United States residing abroad may +claim the interposition of his government. + +The right of suffrage has often been assumed and exercised by aliens +under pretenses of naturalization, which they have disavowed when +drafted into the military service. I submit the expediency of such +an amendment of the law as will make the fact of voting an estoppe +against any plea of exemption from military service or other civil +obligation on the ground of alienage. + +In common with other Western powers, our relations with Japan have +been brought into serious jeopardy through the perverse opposition of +the hereditary aristocracy of the Empire to the enlightened and +liberal policy of the Tycoon, designed to bring the country into the +society of nations. It is hoped, although not with entire +confidence, that these difficulties may be peacefully overcome. I +ask your attention to the claim of the minister residing there for +the damages he sustained in the destruction by fire of the residence +of the legation at Yedo. + +Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the Emperor of Russia, +which, it is believed, will result in effecting a continuous line of +telegraph through that Empire from our Pacific coast. + +I recommend to your favorable consideration the subject of an +international telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, and also of a +telegraph between this capital and the national forts along the +Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Such communications, +established with any reasonable outlay, would be economical as well +as effective aids to the diplomatic, military, and naval service. + +The consular system of the United States, under the enactments of the +last Congress, begins to be self-sustaining, and there is reason to +hope that it may become entirely so with the increase of trade which +will ensue whenever peace is restored. Our ministers abroad have +been faithful in defending American rights. In protecting commercial +interests our consuls have necessarily had to encounter increased +labors and responsibilities growing out of the war. These they have +for the most part met and discharged with zeal and efficiency. This +acknowledgment justly includes those consuls who, residing in +Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, China, and other Oriental countries, +are charged with complex functions and extraordinary powers. + +The condition of the several organized Territories is generally +satisfactory, although Indian disturbances in New Mexico have not +been entirely suppressed. The mineral resources of Colorado, Nevada, +Idaho, New Mexico, and Arizona are proving far richer than has been +heretofore understood. I lay before you a communication on this +subject from the Governor of New Mexico. I again submit to your +consideration the expediency of establishing a system for the +encouragement of immigration. Although this source of national +wealth and strength is again flowing with greater freedom than for +several years before the insurrection occurred, there is still a +great deficiency of laborers in every field of industry, especially +in agriculture and in our mines, as well of iron and coal as of the +precious metals. While the demand for labor is much increased here, +tens of thousands of persons, destitute of remunerative occupation, +are thronging our foreign consulates and offering to emigrate to the +United States if essential, but very cheap, assistance can be +afforded them. It is easy to see that under the sharp discipline of +civil war the nation is beginning a new life. This noble effort +demands the aid and ought to receive the attention and support of the +Government. + +Injuries unforeseen by the Government and unintended may in some +cases have been inflicted on the subjects or citizens of foreign +countries, both at sea and on land, by persons in the service of the +United States. As this government expects redress from other powers +when similar injuries are inflicted by persons in their service upon +citizens of the United States, we must be prepared to do justice to +foreigners. If the existing judicial tribunals are inadequate to +this purpose, a special court may be authorized, with power to hear +and decide such claims of the character referred to as may have +arisen under treaties and the public law. Conventions for adjusting +the claims by joint commission have been proposed to some +governments, but no definitive answer to the proposition has yet been +received from any. + +In the course of the session I shall probably have occasion to +request you to provide indemnification to claimants where decrees of +restitution have been rendered and damages awarded by admiralty +courts, and in other cases where this government may be acknowledged +to be liable in principle and where the amount of that liability has +been ascertained by an informal arbitration. + +The proper officers of the Treasury have deemed themselves required +by the law of the United States upon the subject to demand a tax upon +the incomes of foreign consuls in this country. While such a demand +may not in strictness be in derogation of public law, or perhaps of +any existing treaty between the United States and a foreign country, +the expediency of so far modifying the act as to exempt from tax the +income of such consuls as are not citizens of the United States, +derived from the emoluments of their office or from property not +situated in the United States, is submitted to your serious +consideration. I make this suggestion upon the ground that a comity +which ought to be reciprocated exempts our consuls in all other +countries from taxation to the extent thus indicated. The United +States, I think, ought not to be exceptionally illiberal to +international trade and commerce. + +The operations of the Treasury during the last year have been +successfully conducted. The enactment by Congress of a national +banking law has proved a valuable support of the public credit, and +the general legislation in relation to loans has fully answered the +expectations of its favorers. Some amendments may be required to +perfect existing laws, but no change in their principles or general +scope is believed to be needed. + +Since these measures have been in operation all demands on the +Treasury, including the pay of the Army and Navy, have been promptly +met and fully satisfied. No considerable body of troops, it is +believed, were ever more amply provided and more liberally and +punctually paid, and it may be added that by no people were the +burdens incident to a great war ever more cheerfully borne. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, including loans and +balance in the Treasury at its commencement, were $901,125,674.86, +and the aggregate disbursements $895,796,630.65, leaving a balance on +the 1st of July, 1863, of $5,329,044.21. Of the receipts there were +derived from customs $69,059,642.40, from internal revenue +$37,640,787.95, from direct tax $1,485,103.61, from lands +$167,617.17, from miscellaneous sources $3,046,615.35, and from loans +$776,682,361.57, making the aggregate $901,125,674.86. Of the +disbursements there were for the civil service $23,253,922.08, for +pensions and Indians $4,216,520.79, for interest on public debt +$24,729,846.51, for the War Department $599,298,600.83, for the Navy +Department $63,211,105.27, for payment of funded and temporary debt +$181,086,635.07,making the aggregate $895,796,630.65 and leaving the +balance of $5,329,044.21. But the payment of funded and temporary +debt, having been made from moneys borrowed during the year, must be +regarded as merely nominal payments and the moneys borrowed to make +them as merely nominal receipts, and their amount, $181,086,635.07, +should therefore be deducted both from receipts and disbursements. +This being done there remains as actual receipts $720,039,039.79 and +the actual disbursements $714,709,995.58, leaving the balance as +already stated. + +The actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the +estimated receipts and disbursements for the remaining three-quarters +of the current fiscal year (1864) will be shown in detail by the +report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to which I invite your +attention. It is sufficient to say here that it is not believed +that actual results will exhibit a state of the finances less +favorable to the country than the estimates of that officer +heretofore submitted while it is confidently expected that at the +close of the year both disbursements and debt will be found very +considerably less than has been anticipated. + +The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. +It consists of: +1.The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of the +General in Chief. +2.The organization of colored persons into the war service. +3.The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of General +Hitchcock. +4.The operations under the act for enrolling and calling out the +national forces, detailed in the report of the Provost Marshal +General. +5.The organization of the invalid corps, and +6.The operation of the several departments of the Quartermaster- +General, Commissary-General, Paymaster-General, Chief of Engineers, +Chief of Ordnance, and Surgeon-General. + +It has appeared impossible to make a valuable summary of this report, +except such as would be too extended for this place, and hence I +content myself by asking your careful attention to the report itself. + +The duties devolving on the naval branch of the service during the +year and throughout the whole of this unhappy contest have been +discharged with fidelity and eminent success. The extensive blockade +has been constantly increasing in efficiency as the Navy has +expanded, yet on so long a line it has so far been impossible to +entirely suppress illicit trade. From returns received at the Navy +Department it appears that more than 1,000 vessels have been captured +since the blockade was instituted? and that the value of prizes +already sent in for adjudication amounts to over $13,000,000. + +The naval force of the United States consists at this time of five +hundred and eighty-eight vessels completed and in the course of +completion, and of these seventy-five are ironclad or armored +steamers. The events of the war give an increased interest and +importance to the Navy which will probably extend beyond the war +itself. + +The armored vessels in our Navy completed and in service, or which +are under contract and approaching completion, are believed to exceed +in number those of any other power; but while these may be relied +upon for harbor defense and coast service, others of greater strength +and capacity will be necessary for cruising purposes and to maintain +our rightful position on the ocean. + +The change that has taken place in naval vessels and naval warfare +since the introduction of steam as a motive power for ships of war +demands either a corresponding change in some of our existing navy +yards or the establishment of new ones for the construction and +necessary repair of modern naval vessels. No inconsiderable +embarrassment, delay, and public injury have been experienced from +the want of such governmental establishments. The necessity of such +a navy-yard, so furnished, at some suitable place upon the Atlantic +seaboard has on repeated occasions been brought to the attention of +Congress by the Navy Department, and is again presented in the report +of the Secretary which accompanies this communication. I think it my +duty to invite your special attention to this subject, and also to +that of establishing a yard and depot for naval purposes upon one of +the Western rivers. A naval force has been created on those interior +waters, and under many disadvantages, within little more than two +years, exceeding in numbers the whole naval force of the country at +the commencement of the present Administration. Satisfactory and +important as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy +at this interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the +success of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war +vessels, which has created a new form of naval power. + +Our country has advantages superior to any other nation in our +resources of iron and timber, with inexhaustible quantities of fuel +in the immediate vicinity of both, and all available and in close +proximity to navigable waters. Without the advantage of public +works, the resources of the nation have been developed and its power +displayed in the construction of a Navy of such magnitude, which has +at the very period of its creation rendered signal service to the +Union. + +The increase of the number of seamen in the public service from 7,500 +men in the spring of 1861 to about 34,000 at the present time has +been accomplished without special legislation or extraordinary +bounties to promote that increase. It has been found, however, that +the operation of the draft, with the high bounties paid for army +recruits, is beginning to affect injuriously the naval service, and +will, if not corrected, be likely to impair its efficiency by +detaching seamen from their proper vocation and inducing them to +enter the Army. I therefore respectfully suggest that Congress +might aid both the army and naval services by a definite provision on +this subject which would at the same time be equitable to the +communities more especially interested. + +I commend to your consideration the suggestions of the Secretary of +the Navy in regard to the policy of fostering and training seamen and +also the education of officers and engineers for the naval service. +The Naval Academy is rendering signal service in preparing midshipmen +for the highly responsible duties which in after life they will be +required to perform. In order that the country should not be +deprived of the proper quota of educated officers, for which legal +provision has been made at the naval school, the vacancies caused by +the neglect or omission to make nominations from the States in +insurrection have been filled by the Secretary of the Navy. The +school is now more full and complete than at any former period, and +in every respect entitled to the favorable consideration of Congress. + +During the past fiscal year the financial condition of the Post- +Office Department has been one of increasing prosperity, and I am +gratified in being able to state that the actual postal revenue has +nearly equaled the entire expenditures, the latter amounting to +$11,314,206.84 and the former to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency +of but $150,417.25. In 1860, the year immediately preceding the +rebellion, the deficiency amounted to $5,656,705.49, the postal +receipts of that year being $2,645,722.19 less that those of 1863. +The decrease since 1860 in the annual amount of transportation has +been only about twenty-five per cent, but the annual expenditure on +account of the same has been reduced thirty-five per cent. It is +manifest, therefore, that the Post-Office Department may become self- +sustaining in a few years, even with the restoration of the whole +service. + +The international conference of postal delegates from the principal +countries of Europe and America, which was called at the suggestion +of the Postmaster-General, met at Paris on the 11th of May last and +concluded its deliberations on the 8th of June. The principles +established by the conference as best adapted to facilitate postal +intercourse between nations and as the basis of future postal +conventions inaugurate a general system of uniform international +charges at reduced rates of postage, and can not fail to produce +beneficial results. + +I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is +herewith laid before you, for useful and varied information in +relation to the public lands, Indian affairs, patents, pensions, and +other matters of public concern pertaining to his Department. + +The quantity of land disposed of during the last and the first +quarter of the present fiscal years was 3,841,549 acres, of which +161,911 acres were sold for cash, 1,456,514 acres were taken up under +the homestead law, and the residue disposed of under laws granting +lands for military bounties, for railroad and other purposes. It +also appears that the sale of the public lands is largely on the +increase. + +It has long been a cherished opinion of some of our wisest statesmen +that the people of the United States had a higher and more enduring +interest in the early settlement and substantial cultivation of the +public lands than in the amount of direct revenue to be derived from +the sale of them. This opinion has had a controlling influence in +shaping legislation upon the subject of our national domain. I may +cite as evidence of this the liberal measures adopted in reference to +actual settlers; the grant to the States of the overflowed lands +within their limits, in order to their being reclaimed and rendered +fit for cultivation; the grants to railway companies of alternate +sections of land upon the contemplated lines of their roads, which +when completed will so largely multiply the facilities for reaching +our distant possessions. This policy has received its most signal +and beneficent illustration in the recent enactment granting +homesteads to actual settlers. Since the 1st day of January last the +before-mentioned quantity of 1,456,514 acres of land have been taken +up under its provisions. This fact and the amount of sales furnish +gratifying evidence of increasing settlement upon the public lands, +notwithstanding the great struggle in which the energies of the +nation have been engaged, and which has required so large a +withdrawal of our citizens from their accustomed pursuits. I +cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary of the +Interior suggesting a modification of the act in favor of those +engaged in the military and naval service of the United States. I +doubt not that Congress will cheerfully adopt such measures as will, +without essentially changing the general features of the system, +secure to the greatest practicable extent its benefits to those who +have left their homes in the defense of the country in this arduous +crisis. + +I invite your attention to the views of the Secretary as to the +propriety of raising by appropriate legislation a revenue from the +mineral lands of the United States. + +The measures provided at your last session for the removal of certain +Indian tribes have been carried into effect. Sundry treaties have +been negotiated, which will in due time be submitted for the +constitutional action of the Senate. They contain stipulations for +extinguishing the possessory rights of the Indians to large and +valuable tracts of lands. It is hoped that the effect of these +treaties will result in the establishment of permanent friendly +relations with such of these tribes as have been brought into +frequent and bloody collision with our outlying settlements and +emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative duty to these wards of +the Government demand our anxious and constant attention to their +material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, +and, above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of +Divine Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying +influences, the hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith. + +I suggested in my last annual message the propriety of remodeling our +Indian system. Subsequent events have satisfied me of its necessity. +The details set forth in the report of the Secretary evince the +urgent need for immediate legislative action. + +I commend the benevolent institutions established or patronized by +the Government in this District to your generous and fostering care. + +The attention of Congress during the last session was engaged to some +extent with a proposition for enlarging the water communication +between the Mississippi River and the northeastern seaboard, which +proposition, however, failed for the time. Since then, upon a call +of the greatest respectability, a convention has been held at Chicago +upon the same subject, a summary of whose views is contained in a +memorial addressed to the President and Congress, and which I now +have the honor to lay before you. That this interest is one which +ere long will force its own way I do not entertain a doubt, while it +is submitted entirely to your wisdom as to what can be done now. +Augmented interest is given to this subject by the actual +commencement of work upon the Pacific Railroad, under auspices so +favorable to rapid progress and completion. The enlarged navigation +becomes a palpable need to the great road. + +I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioner of the +Department of Agriculture, asking your attention to the developments +in that vital interest of the nation. + +When Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted nearly +twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and +sea, with varying results; the rebellion had been pressed back into +reduced limits; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion, at home +and abroad, was not satisfactory. With other signs, the popular +elections then just past indicated uneasiness among ourselves, while, +amid much that was cold and menacing, the kindest words coming from +Europe were uttered in accents of pity that we are too blind to +surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce was suffering greatly by a +few armed vessels built upon and furnished from foreign shores, and +we were threatened with such additions from the same quarter as would +sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade. We had failed +to elicit from European governments anything hopeful upon this +subject. The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in +September, was running its assigned period to the beginning of the +new year. A month later the final proclamation came, including the +announcement that colored men of suitable condition would be received +into the war service. The policy of emancipation and of employing +black soldiers gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope and +fear and doubt contended in uncertain conflict. According to our +political system, as a matter of civil administration, the General +Government had no lawful power to effect emancipation in any State, +and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion could be +suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure. It was all +the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and +that if it should the crisis of the contest would then be presented. +It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and +doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to +take another review. The rebel borders are pressed still farther +back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country +dominated by the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no +practical communication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have +been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential +citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the +beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in +their respective States. Of those States not included in the +emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which +three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of +slavery into new Territories, dispute now only as to the best mode of +removing it within their own limits. + +Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full +100,000 are now in the United States military service, about one-half +of which number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the +double advantage of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and +supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so many +white men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as +good soldiers as any. No servile insurrection or tendency to +violence or cruelty has marked the measures of emancipation and +arming the blacks. These measures have been much discussed in +foreign countries, and, contemporary with such discussion, the tone +of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same +measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and +denounced, and the annual elections following are highly encouraging +to those whose official duty it is to bear the country through this +great trial. Thus we have the new reckoning. The crisis which +threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past. + +Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a +resumption of the national authority within the States wherein that +authority has been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a +proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. On +examination of this proclamation it will appear, as is believed, that +nothing will be attempted beyond what is amply justified by the +Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given, but no man is +coerced to take it. The man is promised a pardon only in case he +voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the +Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute +discretion, and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is +fully established by judicial and other authorities. + +It is also proffered that if in any of the States named a State +government shall be in the mode prescribed set up, such government +shall be recognized and guaranteed by the United States, and that +under it the State shall, on the constitutional conditions, be +protected against invasion and domestic violence. The constitutional +obligation of the United States to guarantee to every State in the +Union a republican form of government and to protect the State in the +cases stated is explicit and full. But why tender the benefits of +this provision only to a State government set up in this particular +way? This section of the Constitution contemplates a case wherein the +element within a State favorable to republican government in the +Union may be too feeble for an opposite and hostile element external +to or even within the State, and such are precisely the cases with +which we are now dealing. + +An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government, +constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element +against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply +absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing +elements, so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a +sufficiently liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make a +sworn recantation of his former unsoundness. + +But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the +political body an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the +United States and to the Union under it, why also to the laws and +proclamations in regard to slavery? Those laws and proclamations were +enacted and put forth for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of +the rebellion. To give them their fullest effect there had to be a +pledge for their maintenance. In my judgment, they have aided and +will further aid the cause for which they were intended. To now +abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but +would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith. I may add +at this point that while I remain in my present position I shall not +attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall +I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that +proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress. For these and other +reasons it is thought best that support of these measures shall be +included in the oath, and it is believed the Executive may lawfully +claim it in return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, +which he has clear constitutional power to withhold altogether or +grant upon the terms which he shall deem wisest for the public +interest. It should be observed also that this part of the oath is +subject to the modifying and abrogating power of legislation and +supreme judicial decision. + +The proposed acquiescence of the National Executive in any reasonable +temporary State arrangement for the freed people is made with the +view of possibly modifying the confusion and destitution which must +at best attend all classes by a total revolution of labor throughout +whole States. It is hoped that the already deeply afflicted people +in those States may be somewhat more ready to give up the cause of +their affliction if to this extent this vital matter be left to +themselves, while no power of the National Executive to prevent an +abuse is abridged by the proposition. + +The suggestion in the proclamation as to maintaining the political +framework of the States on what is called reconstruction is made in +the hope that it may do good without danger of harm. It will save +labor and avoid great confusion. + +But why any proclamation now upon this subject? This question is +beset with the conflicting views that the step might be delayed too +long or be taken too soon. In some States the elements for +resumption seem ready for action, but remain inactive apparently for +want of a rallying point--a plan of action. Why shall A adopt the +plan of B rather than B that of A? And if A and B should agree, how +can they know but that the General Government here will reject their +plan? By the proclamation a plan is presented which may be accepted +by them as a rallying point, and which they are assured in advance +will not be rejected here. This may bring them to act sooner than +they otherwise would. + +The objections to a premature presentation of a plan by the National +Executive consist in the danger of committals on points which could +be more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken to +so shape the document as to avoid embarrassments from this source. +Saying that on certain terms certain classes will be pardoned with +rights restored, it is not said that other classes or other terms +will never be included. Saying that reconstruction will be accepted +if presented in a specified way, it is not said it will never be +accepted in any other way. + +The movements by State action for emancipation in several of the +States not included in the emancipation proclamation are matters of +profound gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I +have heretofore so earnestly urged upon this subject my general views +and feelings remain unchanged and I trust that Congress will omit no +fair opportunity of aiding these important steps to a great +consummation. + +In the midst of other cares, however important we must not lose sight +of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that +power alone ( we look yet for a time to give confidence to the people +in the contested regions that the insurgent power will not again +overrun them. Until that confidence shall be established little can +be done anywhere what is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest +care must still be directed to the Army and Navy who have thus far +borne their harder part so nobly and well; and it may be esteemed +fortunate that giving the greatest efficiency to these indispensable +arms we do also honorably recognize the gallant men, from commander +to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom more than to others the +world must stand indebted for the home of freedom disenthralled, +regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Captain John Rogers United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks +from Congress for the eminent skill and gallantry exhibited by him in +the engagement with the rebel armed ironclad steamer Fingal, alias +Atlanta, whilst in command of the United States ironclad steamer +Weehawken, which led to her capture on the 17th June, 1863, and also +for the zeal, bravery, and general good conduct shown by this officer +on many occasions. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with +the enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Congress, on my recommendation, passed a resolution, approved 7th +February, 1863, tendering its thanks to Commander D. D. Porter "for +the bravery and skill displayed in the attack on the post of Arkansas +on the 10th January, 1863," and in consideration of those services, +together with his efficient labors and vigilance subsequently +displayed in thwarting the efforts of the rebels to obstruct the +Mississippi and its tributaries and the important part rendered by +the squadron under his command, which led to the surrender of +Vicksburg. + +I do therefore, in conformity to the seventh section of the act +approved 16th July, 1862, nominate Commander D. D. Porter to be a +rear-admiral in the Navy on the active list from the 4th July, 1863, +to fill an existing vacancy. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, December 8, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT: +Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now +secure, I wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more +than thanks, my profoundest gratitude, for the skill, courage, and +perseverance with which you and they, over so great difficulties, +have effected that important object. God bless you all! + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 9, 1863 + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. G. CURTIN, +Governor of Pennsylvania. +DEAR SIR:--I have to urge my illness, and the preparation of the +message, in excuse for not having sooner transmitted you the inclosed +from the Secretary of War and Provost Marshal General in response to +yours in relation to recruiting in Pennsylvania. Though not quite +as you desire, I hope the grounds taken will be reasonably +satisfactory to you. Allow me to exchange congratulations with you +on the organization of the House of Representatives, and especially +on recent military events in Georgia and Tennessee. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 10, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Please suspend execution in any and all sentences of death in your +department until further order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 11, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Lieut. Col. James B. Knox, Tenth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves, +offers his resignation under circumstances inducing me to wish to +accept it. But I prefer to know your pleasure upon the subject. +Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JUDGE HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +December 15, 1863. + +HON. OGDEN HOFFMAN, U. S. District Judge, San Francisco, Cal.: + +The oath in the proclamation of December 8 is intended for those who +may voluntarily take it, and not for those who may be constrained to +take it in order to escape actual imprisonment or punishment. It is +intended that the latter class shall abide the granting or +withholding of the pardoning power in the ordinary way. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MARY GONYEAG. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 15, 1863. + +MOTHER MARY GONYEAG, Superior, Academy of Visitation, +Keokuk, Iowa: + +The President has no authority as to whether you may raffle for the +benevolent object you mention. If there is no objection in the Iowa +laws, there is none here. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING DISCRIMINATING DUTIES, +DECEMBER 16, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of +May, 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act +concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost' and to +equalize the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is +provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President +of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no +discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in +the ports of the said nation upon vessels wholly belonging to +citizens of the United States or upon the produce, manufactures, or +merchandise imported in the same from the United States or from any +foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to issue his +proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of +tonnage and impost within the United States are and shall be +suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said +foreign nation and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported +into the United States in the same from the said foreign nation or +from any other foreign country, the said suspension to take effect +from the time of such notification being given to the President of +the United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption +of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States and their +cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no longer; and + +Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me through +an official communication of Senor Don Luis Molina, Envoy +Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of +Nicaragua, under date of the 28th of November, 1863, that no other or +higher duties of tonnage and impost have been imposed or levied since +the second day of August, 1838, in the ports of Nicaragua, upon +vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, and upon +the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from +the United States, and ,from any foreign country whatever, than are +levied on Nicaraguan ships and their cargoes in the same ports under +like circumstances: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several +acts imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the +United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as +respects the vessels of Nicaragua, and the produce, manufactures, and +the merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the +dominions of Nicaragua, and from any other foreign country whatever; +the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned, and +to continue thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the +vessels of the United States, and the produce, manufactures, and +merchandise imported into the dominions of Nicaragua in the same, as +aforesaid, shall be continued on the part of the government of +Nicaragua. + +Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the sixteenth day of +December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and +sixty-three, and the eighty-eighth of the Independence of the United +States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 17, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Herewith I lay before you a letter addressed to myself by a committee +of gentlemen representing the freedmen's aid societies in Boston, New +York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The subject of the letter, as +indicated above, is one of great magnitude and importance, and one +which these gentlemen, of known ability and high character, seem to +have considered with great attention and care. Not having the time +to form a mature judgment of my own as to whether the plan they +suggest is the best, I submit the whole subject to Congress, deeming +that their attention thereto is almost imperatively demanded. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HURLBUT. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 17, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT, Memphis, Tenn.: + +I understand you have under sentence of death, a tall old man, by the +name of Henry F. Luckett. I personally knew him, and did not think +him a bad man. Please do not let him be executed unless upon +further order from me, and in the meantime send me a transcript of +the record. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, December 19, 1863. + +GENERAL GRANT, Chattanooga, Tennessee: + +The Indiana delegation in Congress, or at least a large part of them, +are very anxious that General Milroy shall enter active service +again, and I share in this feeling. He is not a difficult man to +satisfy, sincerity and courage being his strong traits. Believing in +our cause, and wanting to fight for it, is the whole matter with him. +Could you, without embarrassment, assign him a place, if directed to +report to you? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 21, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Sending a note to the Secretary of the Navy, as I +promised, he called over and said that the strikes in the ship-yards +had thrown the completion of vessels back so much that he thought +General Gilimore's proposition entirely proper. He only wishes (and +in which I concur) that General Gillmore will courteously confer +with, and explain to, Admiral Dahlgren. + +In regard to the Western matter, I believe the program will have to +stand substantially as I first put it. Henderson, and especially +Brown, believe that the social influence of St. Louis would +inevitably tell injuriously upon General Pope in the particular +difficulty existing there, and I think there is some force in that +view. + +As to retaining General Schofield temporarily, if this should be +done, I believe I should scarcely be able to get his nomination +through the Senate. Send me over his nomination, which, however, I +am not quite ready to send to the Senate. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO O. D. FILLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +O. D. FILLEY, ST. Louis, Missouri: + +I have just looked over a petition signed by some three dozen +citizens of St. Louis, and three accompanying letters, one by +yourself, one by a Mr. Nathan Ranney, and one by a Mr. John D. +Coalter, the whole relating to the Rev. Dr. McPheeters. The +petition prays, in the name of justice and mercy, that I will restore +Dr. McPheeters to all his ecclesiastical rights. This gives no +intimation as to what ecclesiastical rights are withheld. + +Your letter states that Provost-Marshal Dick, about a year ago, +ordered the arrest of Dr. McPheeters, pastor of the Vine Street +Church, prohibited him from officiating, and placed the management of +the affairs of the church out of the control of its chosen trustees; +and near the close you state that a certain course "would insure his +release." Mr. Ranney's letter says: "Dr. Samuel S. McPheeters is +enjoying all the rights of a civilian, but cannot preach the +Gospel!!!!" Mr. Coalter, in his letter, asks: "Is it not a strange +illustration of the condition of things, that the question of who +shall be allowed to preach in a church in St. Louis shall be decided +by the President of the United States?" + +Now, all this sounds very strangely; and, withal, a little as if you +gentlemen making the application do not understand the case alike; +one affirming that the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a +civilian, and another pointing out to me what will secure his +release! On the second day of January last, I wrote to General Curtis +in relation to Mr. Dick's order upon Dr. McPheeters; and, as I +suppose the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a civilian, I only +quote that part of my letter which relates to the church. It is as +follows: "But I must add that the United States Government must not, +as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When an individual, +in a church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest, +he must be checked; but the churches, as such, must take care of +themselves. It will not do for the United States to appoint +trustees, supervisors, or other agents for the churches." + +This letter going to General Curtis, then in command there, I +supposed, of course, it was obeyed, especially as I heard no further +complaint from Dr. McPheeters or his friends for nearly an entire +year. I have never interfered, nor thought of interfering, as to who +shall or shall not preach in any church; nor have I knowingly or +believingly tolerated any one else to so interfere by my authority. +If any one is so interfering by color of my authority, I would like +to have it specifically made known to me. If, after all, what is +now sought is to have me put Dr. McPheeters back over the heads of a +majority of his own congregation, that, too, will be declined. I +will not have control of any church on any side. + +Yours respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you have a prisoner by the name Linder--Daniel Linder, I think, +and certainly the son of U. F. Linder, of Illinois, please send him +to me by an officer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 24, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you send Linder to me as directed a day or two ago, also send +Edwin C. Claybrook, of Ninth Virginia rebel cavalry. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO U. F. LINDER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D. C., December 26, 1863. + +HON. U. F. LINDER, Chicago, Ill.: +Your son Dan has just left me with my order to the Secretary of War, +to administer to him the oath of allegiance, discharge him and send +him to you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL N. P. BANKS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 29, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BANKS: + +Yours of the sixteenth is received, and I send you, as covering the +ground of it, a copy of my answer to yours of the sixth, it being +possible the original may not reach you. I intend you to be master +in every controversy made with you. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Jacob Bowers is fully pardoned for past offence, upon condition that +he returns to duty and re-enlists for three years or during the war. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, December 31, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--Please fix up the department to which Curtis is to go, without +waiting to wind up the Missouri matter. Lane is very anxious to have +Fort Smith in it, and I am willing, unless there be decided military +reasons to the contrary, in which case of course, I am not for it. +It will oblige me to have the Curtis department fixed at once. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1864 + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SULLIVAN. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., January 1, 1864. 3.30pm + +GENERAL SULLIVAN, Harper's Ferry: + +Have you anything new from Winchester, Martinsburg or thereabouts? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PIERPOINT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 2, 1864. + +GOVERNOR PIERPOINT, Alexandria, Va.: + +Please call and see me to-day if not too inconvenient. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 2, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. + +SIR:--The Secretary of War and myself have concluded to discharge of +the prisoners at Point Lookout the following classes: First, those +who will take the oath prescribed in the proclamation of December 8, +and issued by the consent of General Marston, will enlist in our +service. Second, those who will take the oath and be discharged and +whose homes lie safely within our military lines. + +I send by Mr. Hay this letter and a blank-book and some other blanks, +the way of using which I propose for him to explain verbally better +than I can in writing. + +Yours, very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +If not inconsistent with the service, please allow General William +Harrow as long a leave of absence as the rules permit with the +understanding that I may lengthen it if I see fit. He is an +acquaintance and friend of mine, and his family matters very urgently +require his presence. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +JANUARY 5, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +By a joint resolution of your honorable bodies approved December 23, +1863, the paying of bounties to veteran volunteers, as now practiced +by the War Department, is, to the extent of three hundred dollars in +each case, prohibited after this 5th day of the present month. I +transmit for your consideration a communication from the Secretary of +War, accompanied by one from the Provost-Marshal General to him, both +relating to the subject above mentioned. I earnestly recommend that +the law be so modified as to allow bounties to be paid as they now +are, at least until the ensuing 1st day of February. + +I am not without anxiety lest I appear to be importunate in thus +recalling your attention to a subject upon which you have so recently +acted, and nothing but a deep conviction that the public interest +demands it could induce me to incur the hazard of being misunderstood +on this point. The Executive approval was given by me to the +resolution mentioned, and it is now by a closer attention and a +fuller knowledge of facts that I feel constrained to recommend a +reconsideration of the subject. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 6, 1864. 2 P.M. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Kentucky: + +Yours of yesterday received. Nothing is known here about General +Foster's order, of which you complain, beyond the fair presumption +that it comes from General Grant, and that it has an object which, if +you understood, you would be loath to frustrate. True, these troops +are, in strict law, only to be removed by my order; but General +Grant's judgment would be the highest incentive to me to make such +order. Nor can I understand how doing so is bad faith and dishonor, +nor yet how it so exposes Kentucky to ruin. Military men here do not +perceive how it exposes Kentucky, and I am sure Grant would not +permit it if it so appeared to him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL Q. A. GILLMORE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GILLMORE: + +I understand an effort is being made by some worthy gentlemen to +reconstruct a legal State government in Florida. Florida is in your +Department, and it is not unlikely you may be there in person. I +have given Mr. Hay a commission of major, and sent him to you, with +some blank-books and other blanks, to aid in the reconstruction. He +will explain as to the manner of using the blanks, and also my +general views on the subject. It is desirable for all to co-operate, +but if irreconcilable differences of opinion shall arise, you are +master. I wish the thing done in the most speedy way, so that when +done it be within the range of the late proclamation on the subject. +The detail labor will, of course, have to be done by others; but I +will be greatly obliged if you will give it such general supervision +as you can find consistent with your more strictly military duties. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +If Private William G. Toles, of Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteers, returns +to his regiment and faithfully serves out his term, he is fully +pardoned for all military offenses prior to this. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 16, 1864. + +MESSRS. CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +GENTLEMEN : The number for this month and year of the North American +Review was duly received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of +course I am not the most impartial judge; yet, with due allowance for +this, I venture to hope that the article entitled The President's +Policy" will be of value to the country. I fear I am not worthy of +all which is therein kindly said of me personally. + +The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 252, I +could wish to be not exactly what it is. In what is there expressed, +the writer has not correctly understood me. I have never had a +theory that secession could absolve States or people from their +obligations. Precisely the contrary is asserted in the inaugural +address; and it was because of my belief in the continuation of those +obligations that I was puzzled, for a time, as to denying the legal +rights of those citizens who remained individually innocent of +treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call +attention to this point. + +Yours respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +Sundry citizens of the State of Arkansas petition me that an election +may be held in that State, at which to elect a Governor; that it be +assumed at that election, and thenceforward, that the constitution +and laws of the State, as before the rebellion, are in full force, +except that the constitution is so modified as to declare that there +shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in the +punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly +convicted; that the General Assembly may make such provisions for the +freed people as shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, +and provide for their education, and which may yet be construed as a +temporary arrangement suitable to their condition as a laboring, +landless, and homeless class; that said election shall be held on the +28th of March, 1864, at all the usual places of the State, or all +such as voters may attend for that purpose, that the voters attending +at eight o'clock in the morning of said day may choose judges and +clerks of election for such purpose; that all persons qualified by +said constitution and laws, and taking the oath presented in the +President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, either before or at the +election, and none others, may be voters; that each set of judges and +clerks may make returns directly to you on or before the __th day of +_____next; that in all other respects said election may be conducted +according to said constitution and laws: that on receipt of said +returns, when five thousand four hundred and six votes shall have +been cast, you can receive said votes, and ascertain all who shall +thereby appear to have been elected; that on the ___th day of +_______next, all persons so appearing to have been elected, who shall +appear before you at Little Rock, and take the oath, to be by you +severally administered, to support the Constitution of the United +States and said modified Constitution of the State of Arkansas, may +be declared by you qualified and empowered to enter immediately upon +the duties of the offices to which they shall have been respectively +elected. + +You will please order an election to take place on the 28th of March, +1864, and returns to be made in fifteen days thereafter. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 20, 1864 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In accordance with a letter addressed by the Secretary of State, with +my approval, to the Hon. Joseph A. Wright, of Indiana, that patriotic +and distinguished gentleman repaired to Europe and attended the +International Agricultural Exhibition, held at Hamburg last year, and +has since his return made a report to me, which, it is believed, can +not fail to be of general interest, and especially so to the +agricultural community. I transmit for your consideration copies of +the letters and report. While it appears by the letter that no +reimbursement of expenses or compensation was promised him, I submit +whether reasonable allowance should not be made him for them. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPROVING TRADE REGULATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 26, 1864. + +I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States having seen and +considered the additional regulations of trade prescribed by the +Secretary of the Treasury, and numbered LI, LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and +LVI, do hereby approve the same; and I further declare and order that +all property brought in for sale, in good faith, and actually sold in +pursuance of said Regulations LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, +after the same shall have taken effect and come in force as provided +in Regulation LVI, shall be exempt from confiscation or forfeiture to +the United States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Is a supposed correspondence between General Longstreet and yourself +about the amnesty proclamation, which is now in the newspapers, +genuine? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864 + +HON. EDWARD STANLEY, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Yours of yesterday received. We have rumors similar to the dispatch +received by you, but nothing very definite from North Carolina. +Knowing Mr. Stanley to be an able man, and not doubting that he is a +patriot, I should be glad for him to be with his old acquaintances +south of Virginia, but I am unable to suggest anything definite upon +the subject. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864. +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK: + +Some citizens of Missouri, vicinity of Kansas City, are apprehensive +that there is special danger of renewed troubles in that +neighborhood, and thence on the route toward New Mexico. I am not +impressed that the danger is very great or imminent, but I will thank +you to give Generals Rosecrans and Curtis, respectively, such orders +as may turn their attention thereto and prevent as far as possible +the apprehended disturbance. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SICKLES, New York: + +Could you, without it being inconvenient or disagreeable to yourself, +immediately take a trip to Arkansas for me? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 31, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +General Boyle's resignation is accepted, so that your Excellency can +give him the appointment proposed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +COLONIZATION EXPERIMENT + +ORDER TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 1, 1864 + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + +SIR:-You are directed to have a transport (either a steam or sailing +vessel, as may be deemed proper by the Quartermaster-General) sent to +the colored colony established by the United States at the island of +Vache, on the coast of San Domingo, to bring back to this country +such of the colonists there as desire to return. You will have the +transport furnished with suitable supplies for that purpose, and +detail an officer of the Quartermaster's Department, who, under +special instructions to be given, shall have charge of the business. +The colonists will be brought to Washington, unless otherwise +hereafter directed, and be employed and provided for at the camps for +colored persons around that city. Those only will be brought from +the island who desire to return, and their effects will be brought +with them. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER FOR A DRAFT OF FIVE HUNDRED +THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 1, 1864. + +Ordered, That a draft of five hundred thousand (500,000) men, to +serve for three years or during the war, be made on the tenth (10th) +day of March next, for the military service of the United States, +crediting and deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted +or drafted into the service prior to the first (1st) day of March, +and not before credited. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1864. + +GOVERNOR YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +The United States Government lot in Springfield can be used for a +soldiers' home, with the understanding that the Government does not +incur any expense +in the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. +WASHINGTON, February 6, 1864. + +GOVERNOR J. MURPHY: + +My order to General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of +the action your convention had taken or would take. A subsequent +letter directs General Steele to aid you on your own plan, and not to +thwart or hinder you. Show this to him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + +TOLD BY THE PRESIDENT, +TO THE ARTIST F. B. CARPENTER, +FEBRUARY 6, 1864. + +It had got to be," said Mr. Lincoln, "midsummer, 1862. Things had +gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end +of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we +had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose +the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation +policy; and without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the +Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and, +after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the +subject. This was the last of July or the first part of the month of +August, 1862. [The exact date was July 22, 1862.] . . . All +were present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was +absent at the opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently. I +said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not +called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject- +matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to which would +be in order after they had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy was in error +when he informed you that it excited no comment excepting on the part +of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions were offered. Secretary +Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the +blacks. + +"Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy on the ground +that it would cost the administration the fall elections. Nothing, +however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated and +settled in my mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in +substance, 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I +question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The +depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, +is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be +viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for +help; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead +of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.' His +idea," said the President, "was that it would be considered our last +shriek on the retreat. [This was his precise expression.] 'Now,' +continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, +that you postpone its issue until you can give it to the country +supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the +case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war.' "Mr. Lincoln +continued "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me +with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my +thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was +that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch +for a picture, waiting for a victory. + +"From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and +there, anxiously watching the process of events. Well, the next news +we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than +ever. Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined +to wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the +advantage was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home +[three miles out of Washington]. Here I finished writing the second +draft of the preliminary proclamation; came up on Saturday; called +the Cabinet together to hear it, and it was published on the +following Monday." + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SEDGWICK. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SEDGWICK, Army of Potomac: + +Unless there be some strong reason to the contrary, please send +General Kilpatrick to us here, for two or three days. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE MAYNARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 13, 1864. + +HON. HORACE MAYNARD, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Your letter of [the] second received. Of course Governor Johnson +will proceed with reorganization as the exigencies of the case appear +to him to require. I do not apprehend he will think it necessary to +deviate from my views to any ruinous extent. On one hasty reading I +see no such deviation in his program, which you send. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. M. FISHBACK. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance +that your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the +latter fact I have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. +I have sent two letters to General Steele, and three or four +despatches to you and others, saying that he, General Steele, must be +master, but that it will probably be best for him to merely help the +convention on its own plan. Some single mind must be master, else +there will be no agreement in anything, and General Steele, +commanding the military and being on the ground, is the best man to +be that master. Even now citizens are telegraphing me to postpone +the election to a later day than either that fixed by the convention +or by me. This discord must be silenced. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +The day fixed by the convention for the election is probably the +best, but you on the ground, and in consultation with gentlemen +there, are to decide. I should have fixed no day for an election, +presented no plan for reconstruction, had I known the convention was +doing the same things. It is probably best that you merely assist +the convention on their own plan, as to election day and all other +matters I have already written and telegraphed this half a dozen +times. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. ROBINSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 18, 1864. + +A. ROBINSON, Leroy, N. Y.: + +The law only obliges us to keep accounts with States, or at most +Congressional Districts, and it would overwhelm us to attempt in +counties, cities and towns. Nevertheless we do what we can to oblige +in particular cases. In this view I send your dispatch to the +Provost-Marshal General, asking him to do the best he can for you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, +FEBRUARY 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by my proclamation of the nineteenth of April, one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-one, the ports of the States of South +Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and +Texas were, for reasons therein set forth, placed under blockade; and +whereas, the port of Brownsville, in the district of Brazos Santiago, +in the State of Texas, has since been blockaded, but as the blockade +of said port may now be safely relaxed with advantage to the +interests of commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth +section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, +entitled " An act further to provide for the collection of duties on +imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade +of the said port of Brownsville shall so far cease and determine from +and after this date, that commercial intercourse with said port, +except as to persons, things, and information hereinafter specified, +may, from this date, be carried on, subject to the laws of the United +States, to the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the +Treasury, and, until the rebellion shall have been suppressed, to +such orders as may be promulgated by the general commanding the +department, or by an officer duly authorized by him and commanding at +said port. This proclamation does not authorize or allow the +shipment or conveyance of persons in, or intending to enter, the +service of the insurgents, or of things or information intended for +their use, or for their aid or comfort, nor, except upon the +permission of the Secretary of War, or of some officer duly +authorized by him, of the following prohibited articles, namely: +cannon, mortars, firearms, pistols, bombs, grenades, powder, +saltpeter, sulphur, balls, bullets, pikes, swords, boarding-caps +(always excepting the quantity of the said articles which may be +necessary for the defense of the ship and those who compose the +crew), saddles, bridles, cartridge-bag material, percussion and other +caps, clothing adapted for uniforms; sail-cloth of all kinds, hemp +and cordage, intoxicating drinks other than beer and light native +wines. + +To vessels clearing from foreign ports and destined to the port of +Brownsville, opened by this proclamation, licenses will be granted by +consuls of the United States upon satisfactory evidence that the +vessel so licensed will convey no persons, property, or information +excepted or prohibited above, either to or from the said port; which +licenses shall be exhibited to the collector of said port immediately +on arrival, and, if required, to any officer in charge of the +blockade, and on leaving said port every vessel will be required to +have a clearance from the collector of the customs, according to law, +showing no violation of the conditions of the license. Any violations +of said conditions will involve the forfeiture and condemnation of +the vessel and cargo, and the exclusion of all parties concerned from +any further privilege of entering the United States during the war +for any purpose whatever. + +In all respects, except as herein specified, the existing blockade +remains in full force and effect as hitherto established and +maintained, nor is it relaxed by this proclamation except in regard +to the port to which relaxation is or has been expressly applied. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States the eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COMMANDER BLAKE. +EXECUTIVE, MANSION, February 19, 1864. + +COMMANDER GEORGE S. BLAKE, +Commandant Naval Academy, Newport, R. I.: + +I desire the case of Midshipman C. Lyon re-examined and if not +clearly inconsistent I shall be much obliged to have the +recommendation changed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM WARREN JORDAN. +NASHVILLE, February 20, 1864. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.: + +In county and State elections, must citizens of Tennessee take the +oath prescribed by Governor Johnson, or will the President's oath of +amnesty entitle them to vote? I have been appointed to hold the March +election in Cheatham County, and wish to act understandingly. + +WARREN JORDAN. + + + + +WASHINGTON, February 20, 1864. + +WARREN JORDAN, NASHVILLE: + +In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson's plan; +otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his +plan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint LOUIS, MO.: + +Colonel Sanderson will be ordered to you to-day, a mere omission that +it was not done before. The other questions in your despatch I am not +yet prepared to answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours of yesterday received. Your conference with citizens approved. +Let the election be on the i4th of March as they agreed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL F. STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, February 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +General Sickles is not going to Arkansas. He probably will make a +tour down the Mississippi and home by the gulf and ocean, but he will +not meddle in your affairs. + +At one time I did intend to have him call on you and explain more +fully than I could do by letter or telegraph, so as to avoid a +difficulty coming of my having made a plan here, while the convention +made one there, for reorganizing Arkansas; but even his doing that +has been given up for more than two weeks. Please show this to +Governor Murphy to save me telegraphing him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +DESERTERS DEATH SENTENCES REMITTED + +GENERAL ORDERS, NO.76. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +ADJUTANT-GENERALS OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +Sentence of Deserters. + +The President directs that the sentences of all deserters who have +been condemned by court-martial to death, and that have not been +otherwise acted upon by him, be mitigated to imprisonment during the +war at the Dry Tortugas, Florida, where they will be sent under +suitable guards by orders from army commanders. + +The commanding generals, who have power to act on proceedings of +courts-martial in such cases, are authorized in special cases to +restore to duty deserters under sentence, when in their judgment the +service will be thereby benefited. + +Copies of all orders issued under the foregoing instructions will be +immediately forwarded to the Adjutant-General and to the Judge- +Advocate General. + +By order of the Secretary of War: +B. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General + + + + +FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort. Monroe, Va.: + +I cannot remember at whose request it was that I gave the pass to +Mrs. Bulky. Of course detain her, if the evidence of her being a spy +is strong against her. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. JAYNE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +HON. W. JAYNE. + +DEAR SIR--I dislike to make changes in office so long as they can be +avoided. It multiplies my embarrassments immensely. I dislike two +appointments when one will do. Send me the name of some man not the +present marshal, and I will nominate him to be Provost-Marshal for +Dakota. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO E. H. EAST. + +WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864. + +HON. E. H: EAST, Secretary of State, Nashville, Tennessee + +Your telegram of the twenty-sixth instant asking for a copy of my +despatch to Warren Jordan, Esq., at Nashville Press office, has just +been referred to me by Governor Johnson. In my reply to Mr. Jordan, +which was brief and hurried, I intended to say that in the county and +State elections of Tennessee, the oath prescribed in the proclamation +of Governor Johnson on the twenty-sixth of January, 1864, ordering an +election in Tennessee on the first Saturday in March next, is +entirely satisfactory to me as a test of loyalty of all persons +proposing or offering to vote in said elections; and coming from him +would better be observed and followed. There is no conflict between +the oath of amnesty in my proclamation of eighth December, 1863, and +that prescribed by Governor Johnson in his proclamation of the +twenty-sixth ultimo. + +No person who has taken the oath of amnesty of eighth December, 1863, +and obtained a pardon thereby, and who intends to observe the same in +good faith, should have any objection to taking that prescribed by +Governor Johnson as a test of loyalty. + +I have seen and examined Governor Johnson's proclamation, and am +entirely satisfied with his plan, which is to restore the State +government and place it under the control of citizens truly loyal to +the Government of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. + +Please send above to Governor Johnson. +A. L. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864 + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--You ask some instructions from me in relation to the Report of +Special Commission constituted by an order of the War Department, +dated December 5, 1863, "to revise the enrolment and quotas of the +City and State of New York, and report whether there be any, and +what, errors or irregularities therein, and what corrections, if any, +should be made." + +In the correspondence between the Governor of New York and myself +last summer, I understood him to complain that the enrolments in +several of the districts of that State had been neither accurately +nor honestly made; and in view of this, I, for the draft then +immediately ensuing, ordered an arbitrary reduction of the quotas in +several of the districts wherein they seemed too large, and said: +"After this drawing, these four districts, and also the seventeenth +and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled, and, if you please, +agents of yours may witness every step of the process." In a +subsequent letter I believe some additional districts were put into +the list of those to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work over +according to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and +thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. The +commission, whose work I am considering, seem to have proceeded upon +a totally different idea. Not going forth to find men at all, they +have proceeded altogether upon paper examinations and mental +processes. One of their conclusions, as I understand, is that, as +the law stands, and attempting to follow it, the enrolling officers +could not have made the enrolments much more accurately than they +did. The report on this point might be useful to Congress. The +commission conclude that the quotas for the draft should be based +upon entire population, and they proceed upon this basis to give a +table for the State of New York, in which some districts are reduced +and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, let the quotas stand +as made by the enrolling officers, in the districts wherein this +table requires them to be increased; and let them be reduced +according to the table in the others: this to be no precedent for +subsequent action. But, as I think this report may, on full +consideration, be shown to have much that is valuable in it, I +suggest that such consideration be given it, and that it be +especially considered whether its suggestions can be conformed to +without an alteration of the law. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 28, 1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +I see your despatch of yesterday to the Secretary of War. + +I wish you would go to the Mississippi River at once, and take hold +of and be master in the contraband and leasing business. You +understand it better than any other man does. Mr. Miller's system +doubtless is well intended, but from what I hear I fear that, if +persisted in, it would fall dead within its own entangling details. +Go there and be the judge. A Mr. Lewis will probably follow you with +something from me on this subject, but do not wait for him. Nor is +this to induce you to violate or neglect any military order from the +General-in-Chief or Secretary of War. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 29, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I would have taken time to answer yours of the 22d +inst. sooner, only that I did not suppose any evil could result from +the delay, especially as, by a note, I promptly acknowledged the +receipt of yours, and promised a fuller answer. Now, on +consideration I find there is really very little to say. My +knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made public came to me +only the day you wrote; but I had, in spite of myself, known of its +existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I think I +shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the +letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and +of secret issues which, I supposed, came from it, and of secret +agents who, I supposed, were sent out by it for several weeks. I +have known just as little a these things as my friends have allowed +me to know. They bring the documents to me, but I do not read them; +they tell me what they think fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for +more. + +I fully concur with you that neither of us can justly be held +responsible for what our respective friends may do without our +instigation or countenance and I assure you, as you have assured me, +that no assault has been made upon you by my instigation, or with my +countenance. + +Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a +question which I will not allow myself to consider from any +standpoint other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that +view, I do not perceive occasion for a change. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL THOMAS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, March 1,1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS: + +This introduces Mr. Lewis, mentioned in my despatch sent you at +Louisville some days ago. I have but little personal acquaintance +with him; but he has the confidence of several members of Congress +here who seem to know him well. He hopes to be useful, without +charge to the government, in facilitating the introduction of the +free-labor system on the Mississippi plantations. He is acquainted +with, and has access to, many of the planters who wish to adopt the +system. He will show you two letters of mine on this subject, one +somewhat General, and the other relating to named persons; they are +not different in principle. He will also show you some suggestions +coming from some of the planters themselves. I desire that all I +promise in these letters, so far as practicable, may be in good faith +carried out, and that suggestions from the planters may be heard and +adopted, so far as they may not contravene the principles stated, nor +justice, nor fairness, to laborers. I do not herein intend to +overrule your own mature judgment on any point. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 3, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours including address to people of Arkansas is received. I approve +the address and thank you for it. Yours in relation to William M. +Randolph also received. Let him take the oath of December 8, +and go to work for the new constitution, and on your notifying me of +it, I will immediately issue the special pardon for him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 4,1864. +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Admiral Dahlgren is here, and of course is very anxious about his +son. Please send me at once all you know or can learn of his fate. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER IN REGARD TO THE EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO BELONGING TO THE FRENCH +GOVERNMENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +Whereas, by an Executive order of the 10th of November last +permission was given to export certain tobacco belonging to the +French government from insurgent territory, which tobacco was +supposed to have been purchased and paid for prior to the 4th day of +March, 1861; but whereas it was subsequently ascertained that a part +at least of the said tobacco had been purchased subsequently to that +date, which fact made it necessary to suspend the carrying into +effect of the said order; but whereas, pursuant to mutual +explanations, a satisfactory understanding upon the subject has now +been reached, it is directed that the order aforesaid may be carried +into effect, it being understood that the quantity of French tobacco +so to be exported shall not exceed seven thousand hogsheads, and that +it is the same tobacco respecting the exportation of which +application Was originally made by the French government. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO UNITED STATES MARSHAL, LOUISVILLE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +U.S. MARSHAL, Louisville, Ky.: + +Until further order suspend sale of property and further proceedings +in cases of the United States against Dr. John B. English, and S. S. +English, qt al., sureties for John L. Hill. Also same against same +sureties for Thomas A. Ireland. + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send the above dispatch. +JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 9, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +New York City votes ninety-five hundred majority for allowing +soldiers to vote, and the rest of the State nearly all on the same +side. Tell the soldiers. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO SENATE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 9, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES + +In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, +respecting the points of commencement of the Union Pacific Railroad, +on the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and of the branch +road, from the western boundary of Iowa to the said one hundredth +degree of longitude, I transmit the accompanying report from the +Secretary of the Interior, containing the information called for. + +I deem it proper to add that on the 17th day of November last an +Executive order was made upon this subject and delivered to the vice- +president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which fixed the +point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa from which the +company should construct their branch road to the one hundredth +degree of west longitude, and declared it to be within the limits of +the township in Iowa opposite the town of Omaha, in Nebraska. Since +then the company has represented to me that upon actual surveys made +it has determined upon the precise point of departure of their said +branch road from the Missouri River, and located the same as +described in the accompanying report of the Secretary of the +Interior, which point is within the limits designated in the order of +November last; and inasmuch as that order is not of record in any of +the Executive Departments, and the company having desired a more +definite one, I have made the order of which a copy is herewith, and +caused the same to be filed in the Department of the Interior. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO GENERAL GRANT, + +MARCH 9, 1864. + +GENERAL GRANT:--The expression of the nation's approbation of what +you have already done, and its reliance on you for what remains to do +in the existing great struggle, is now presented with this commission +constituting you Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States. + +With this high honor, devolves on you an additional responsibility. +As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it win sustain you. +I scarcely need add, that with what I here speak for the country, +goes my own hearty personal concurrence. + + + +GENERAL GRANT'S REPLY. + +Mr. PRESIDENT:--I accept this commission, with gratitude for the high +honor conferred. + +With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields +for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to +disappoint your expectations. + +I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, +and I know that if they are met, it will be due to those armies; and +above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations +and men. + + + + +ORDER ASSIGNING U. S. GRANT TO THE COMMAND OF +THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 10, 1864. + +Under the authority of an act of Congress to revive the grade of +lieutenant-General in the United States Army, approved February 29, +1864, Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, United States Army, is +assigned to the command of the Armies of the United States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 12, 1864. +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am not appointing officers for Arkansas now, and I will try to +remember your request. Do your. best to get out the largest vote +possible, and of course as much of it as possible on the right side. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HAHN. +(Private.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864 + +HON. MICHAEL HAHN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history +as the first free-state governor of Louisiana. Now, you are about to +have a convention, which among other things will probably define the +elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, +whether some of the colored people may not be let in,--as, for +instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought +gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying +time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of +freedom. But this is only a suggestion,--not to the public, but to +you alone. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, MARCH 14, 1864. + +In order to supply the force required to be drafted for the Navy and +to provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies, in +addition to the five hundred thousand men called for February 1, +1864, a call is hereby made and a draft ordered for two hundred +thousand men for the military service (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) +of the United States. + +The proportional quotas for the different wards, towns, townships, +precincts, or election districts, or counties, will be made known +through the Provost Marshal-General's Bureau, and account will be +taken of the credits and deficiencies on former quotas. + +The 15th day of April, 1864, is designated as the time up to which +the numbers required from each ward of a city, town, etc., may be +raised by voluntary enlistment, and drafts will be made in each ward +of a city, town, etc., which shall not have filled the quota assigned +to it within the time designated for the number required to fill said +quotas. The drafts will be commenced as soon after the 15th of April +as practicable. + +The Government bounties as now paid continue until April I, 1864, at +which time the additional bounties cease. On and after that date +one hundred dollars bounty only will be paid, as provided by the act +approved July 22, 1861. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Nashville, Tenn.: + +General McPherson having been assigned to the command of a +department, could not General Frank Blair, without difficulty or +detriment to the service, be assigned to command the Corps he +commanded a while last autumn? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PASS FOR GENERAL D. E. SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN + +Major-General Sickles is making a tour for me from here by way of +Cairo, New Orleans, and returning by the gulf, and ocean, and all +land and naval officers and, employees are directed to furnish +reasonable transportation and other reasonable facilities to himself +and personal staff not inconsistent with the public service. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO GOVERNOR HAHN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY MICHAEL HAHN, Governor of Louisiana + +Until further order, you are hereby invested with the powers +exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +REMARKS AT A FAIR IN THE PATENT OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, MARCH 16, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I appear to say but a word. This extraordinary war in which we are +engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people but the most heavily +upon the soldier. For it has been said, "All that a man hath will he +give for his life;" and while all contribute of their substance, the +soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his +country's cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier. + +In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have manifested +themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars; and among +these manifestations nothing has been more remarkable than these +fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And +the chief agents of these fairs are the women of America. + +I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy: I have never +studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say, that +if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of +the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it +would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will +close by saying, God bless the women of America. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM +THE WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, + +MARCH 21, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +The honorary membership in your association, as generously tendered, +is gratefully accepted. + +You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing rebellion +means more and tends to do more than the perpetuation of African +slavery--that it is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all working +people. Partly to show that this view has not escaped my attention, +and partly that I cannot better express myself, I read a passage from +the message to Congress in December, 1861: + +"It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not +exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government, +the rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of this is found in +the most grave and maturely considered public documents, as well as +in the General tone of the insurgents. In those documents we find +the abridgment of the existing right of suffrage, and the denial to +the people of all right to participate in the selection of public +officers, except the legislature, boldly advocated, with labored +argument to prove that large control of the people in government is +the source of all political evil. Monarchy itself is sometimes +hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my +present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising +a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. + +"It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a General argument should +be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, +with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask +a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal +footing, if not above labor, in the structure of government. It is +assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that +nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the +use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered +whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce +them to work by their own consent or buy them, and drive them to it +without their consent. Having proceeded so it is naturally concluded +that all laborers are either hired laborers, or what we call slaves. +And, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer, is +fixed in that condition for life. Now there is no such relation +between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as +a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. +Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are +groundless. + +"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the +fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first +existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the +higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of +protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and +probably always will be, a relation between capital and labor, +producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole +labor of a community exists within that relation. A few men own +capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and, with their +capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority +belong to neither class--neither work for others, nor have others +working for them. In most of the Southern States, a majority of the +whole people, of all colors, are neither slaves nor masters; while in +the Northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men +with their families, wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves, +on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole +product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one +hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not +forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own +labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands, and +also buy or hire others to labor for them, but this is only a mixed +and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the +existence of this mixed class. + +Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, any such +thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for +life. Many independent men everywhere in these States, a few years +back in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent penniless +beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with +which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own +account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to +help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which +opens the way to all--gives hope to all, and consequent energy and +progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are +more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty--none +less inclined to touch or take aught which they have not honestly +earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power they +already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to +close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new +disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be +lost." + +The views then expressed remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. +None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the +working people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and +hostility among themselves. The most notable feature of a +disturbance in your city last summer was the hanging of some working +people by other working people. It should never be so. The +strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, +should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and +tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war upon property, +or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; property +is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be +rich shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just +encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is +houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor +diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that +his own shall be safe from violence when built. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Hon. W. R. Morrison says he has requested you by letter to effect a +special exchange of Lieut. Col. A. F. Rogers, of Eightieth Illinois +Volunteers, now in Libby Prison, and I shall be glad if you can +effect it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL C. SCHURZ. +( Private.) + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SCHURZ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of February 29 reached me only four days ago; but +the delay was of little consequence, because I found, on feeling +around, I could not invite you here without a difficulty which at +least would be unpleasant, and perhaps would be detrimental to the +public service. Allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in +the military service, it is very dangerous for you to get temporarily +out of it; because, with a major-general once out, it is next to +impossible for even the President to get him in again. With my +appreciation of your ability and correct principle, of course I would +be very glad to have your service for the country in the approaching +political canvass; but I fear we cannot properly have it without +separating you from the military. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ABOUT AMNESTY, +MARCH 26, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, it has become necessary to define the cases in which +insurgent enemies are entitled to the benefits of the Proclamation of +the President of the United States, which was made on the 8th day of +December, 1863, and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail +themselves of these benefits; and whereas the objects of that +Proclamation were to suppress the insurrection and to restore the +authority of the United States; and whereas the amnesty therein +proposed by the President was offered with reference to these objects +alone: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby proclaim and declare that the said Proclamation does not +apply to the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to +obtain the benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed, +are in military, naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under +bonds, or on parole of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or +agents of the United States, as prisoners of war, or persons detained +for offences of any kind, either before or after conviction; and that +on the contrary it does apply only to those persons who, being yet at +large, and free from any arrest, confinement, or duress, shall +voluntarily come forward and take the said oath, with the purpose of +restoring peace, and establishing the national authority. + +Persons excluded from the amnesty offered in the said Proclamation +may apply to the President for clemency, like all other offenders, +and their application will receive due consideration. + +I do further declare and proclaim that the oath presented in the +aforesaid proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, may be taken and +subscribed before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or +naval, in the service of the United States, or any civil or military +officer of a State or Territory not in insurrection, who, by the laws +thereof, may be qualified for administering oaths. + +All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give +certificates thereof to the persons respectively by whom they are +made, and such officers are hereby required to transmit the original +records of such oaths, at as early a day as may be convenient, to the +Department of State, where they will be deposited, and remain in the +archives of the Government. + +The Secretary of State will keep a registry thereof, and will, on +application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such records in +the customary form of official certificates. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed............ + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 28, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--The Governor of Kentucky is here, and desires to have +the following points definitely fixed: + +First. That the quotas of troops furnished, and to be furnished, by +Kentucky may be adjusted upon the basis as actually reduced by able- +bodied men of hers having gone into the rebel service; and that she +be required to furnish no more than her just quotas upon fair +adjustment upon such basis. + +Second. To whatever extent the enlistment and drafting, one or both, +of colored troops may be found necessary within the State, it may be +conducted within the law of Congress; and, so far as practicable, +free from collateral embarrassments, disorders, and provocations. + +I think these requests of the Governor are reasonable; and I shall be +obliged if you will give him a full hearing, and do the best you can +to effect these objects. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Your letter to Colonel Townsend, inclosing a slip from +the "Herald," and asking a court of inquiry, has been laid before me +by the Secretary of War, with the request that I would consider it. +It is quite natural that you should feel some sensibility on the +subject; yet I am not impressed, nor do I think the country is +impressed, with the belief that your honor demands, or the public +interest demands, such an inquiry. The country knows that at all +events you have done good service; and I believe it agrees with me +that it is much better for you to be engaged in trying to do more, +than to be diverted, as you necessarily would be, by a court of +inquiry. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Army of the Potomac: + +Captain Kinney, of whom I spoke to you as desiring to go on your +staff, is now in your camp, in company with Mrs. Senator Dixon. Mrs. +Grant and I, and some others, agreed last night that I should, by +this despatch, kindly call your attention to Captain Kinney. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. G. HODGES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 4, 1864. + +A. G. HODGES, ESQ., Frankfort, Kentucky: + +MY DEAR SIR:--You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I +verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Governor Bramlette +and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: + +"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is +wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I +have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an +unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. +It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability +preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. +I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my +view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in +using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil +administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my +primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had +publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver +that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to +my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, +however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my +ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every +indispensable means, that government, that nation, of which that +Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation +and yet preserve the Constitution? By General law, life and limb must +be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but +a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, +otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming +indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through the +preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, +and now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability I +had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or +any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, +and Constitution, altogether. When, early in the war, General +Fremont attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did +not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, +General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the +blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable +necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military +emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the +indispensable necessity had come. When, in March, and May, and July, +1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border States to +favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable +necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, +unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I +was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either +surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying +strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In +choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was +not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss +by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, +none in our white military force, no loss by it any how, or anywhere. +On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite one hundred and thirty +thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, +about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; +and we could not have had them without the measure. + +"And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself +by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by +force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred +and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where +they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his +case so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth." + +I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling +this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to +have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have +controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the +nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or +expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems +plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also +that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly +for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein +new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MRS. HORACE MANN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +April 5, 1864. + +MRS HORACE MANN: + +MADAM:--The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would +free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears +you wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please +tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so +full of just and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the +power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, +and that, as it seems, he wills to do it. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 12, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +I am pressed to get from Libby, by special exchange, Jacob C. +Hagenbuek, first lieutenant, Company H, Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania +Volunteers. Please do it if you can without detriment or +embarrassment. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private William Collins of Company B, of the Sixty-ninth New York +Volunteers, has been convicted of desertion, and execution suspended +as in numerous other cases. Now Captain O'Neill, commanding the +regiment, and nearly all its other regimental and company officers, +petition for his full pardon and restoration to his company. Is +there any good objection? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LECTURE ON LIBERTY + +ADDRESS AT SANITARY FAIR IN BALTIMORE, + +APRIL 18, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we +cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many +people assembled here to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the +Union, it occurs at once that three years ago the same soldiers could +not so much as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now +is both great and gratifying. Blessings on the brave men who have +wrought the change, and the fair women who strive to reward them for +it! + +But Baltimore suggests more than could happen within Baltimore. The +change within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the +war began, three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it +would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere +to-day. Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery would be +much affected by the war. But here we are; the war has not ended, +and slavery has been much affected how much needs not now to be +recounted. So true is it that man proposes and God disposes. + +But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it; +and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for +the future. + +The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and +the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all +declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean +the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to +do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while +with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please +with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, +not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name, +liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the +respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names-- +liberty and tyranny. + +The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the +sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces +him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the +sheep was a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not +agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same +difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the +North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold +the process by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke +of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by +others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the +people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty, and +thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary +has been repudiated. + +It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at +length; but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought +to say a word. A painful rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the +massacre, by the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of +Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, of some three hundred colored +soldiers and white officers [I believe it latter turned out to be +500], who had just been overpowered by their assailants [numbering +5000]. There seems to be some anxiety in the public mind whether the +Government is doing its duty to the colored soldier, and to the +service, at this point. At the beginning of the war, and for some +time, the use of colored troops was not contemplated; and how the +change of purpose was wrought I will not now take time to explain. +Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to turn that element of +strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American +people, to the Christian world, to history, and in my final account +to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no +way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. +The difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically +applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the Government is +indifferent to this matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard +to it. We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, or white +officer commanding colored soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels +when made a prisoner. We fear it, we believe it, I may say,--but we +do not know it. To take the life of one of their prisoners on the +assumption that they murder ours, when it is short of certainty that +they do murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake. We +are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; and such +investigation will probably show conclusively how the truth is. If +after all that has been said it shall turn out that there has been no +massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say there has been +none, and will be none, elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of +three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will +be conclusively proved; and being so proved, the retribution shall as +surely come. It will be matter of grave consideration in what exact +course to apply the retribution; but in the supposed case it must +come. + +[There was a massacre of a black company and their officers at Fort +Pillow--they were prisoners who later on, the day of their capture, +were ordered executed. The black soldiers were tied alive to +individual planks--then man and plank were cobbled up like cord wood +and burned. The white officers were shot. D.W.] + + + + +TO CALVIN TRUESDALE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +CALVIN TRUESDALE, ESQ., Postmaster, Rock Island, Ill.: + +Thomas J. Pickett, late agent of the Quartermaster 's Department for +the island of Rock Island, has been removed or suspended from that +position on a charge of having sold timber and stone from the island +for his private benefit. Mr. Pickett is an old acquaintance and +friend of mine, and I will thank you, if you will, to set a day or +days and place on and at which to take testimony on the point. +Notify Mr. Pickett and one J. B. Danforth (who, as I understand, +makes the charge) to be present with their witnesses. Take the +testimony in writing offered by both sides, and report it in full to +me. Please do this for me. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +OFFICER IN MILITARY COMMAND, +Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +If there is a man by the name of Charles Carpenter, under sentence of +death for desertion, at Fort Warren, suspend execution until further +order and send the record of his trial. If sentenced for any other +offence, telegraph what it is and when he is to be executed. Answer +at all events. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 21,1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT FORT WARREN, +Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +The order I sent yesterday in regard to Charles Carpenter is hereby +withdrawn and you are to act as if it never existed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 21, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, New York: + +Yesterday I was induced to telegraph the officer in military command +at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, suspending the +execution of Charles Carpenter, to be executed tomorrow for +desertion. Just now, on reaching your order in the case, I +telegraphed the same officer withdrawing the suspension, and leave +the case entirely with you. The man's friends are pressing me, but I +refer them to you, intending to take no further action myself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Senator Ten Eyck is very anxious to have a, special exchange of Capt. +Frank J. McLean, of Ninth Tennessee Cavalry now, or lately, at +Johnson's Island, for Capt. T. Ten Eyck, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry, +and now at Richmond. I would like to have it done. Can it be? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON OFFER OF TROOPS, APRIL 23, 1864. + +TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +1. The Governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin +offer to the President infantry troops for the approaching campaign +as follows: Ohio, thirty thousand; Indiana, twenty thousand; +Illinois, twenty thousand; Iowa, ten thousand; Wisconsin, five +thousand. + +2. The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoned from the date +of muster into the service of the United States, unless sooner +discharged. + +3. The troops to be mustered into the service of the United States by +regiments, when the regiments are filled up, according to +regulations, to the minimum strength--the regiments to be organized +according to the regulations of the War Department. The whole number +to be furnished within twenty days from date of notice of the +acceptance of this proposition. + +4. The troops to be clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted; transported, +and paid as other United States infantry volunteers, and to serve in +fortifications,--or wherever their services may be required, within +or without their respective States. + +5. No bounty to be paid the troops, nor the service charged or +credited on any draft. + +6. The draft for three years' service to go on in any State or +district where the quota is not filled up; but if any officer or +soldier in this special service should be drafted, he shall be +credited for the service rendered. + +JOHN BROUGH, Governor of Ohio. +O. P. MORTON, Governor of Indiana. +RICHARD PATES, Governor of Illinois. +WILLIAM M. STONE, Governor of Iowa. +JAMES T. LEWIS, Governor of Wisconsin + +(Indorsement.) + +April 23, 1864. + +The foregoing proposition of the governors is accepted, and the +Secretary of War is directed to carry it into execution. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +MY DEAR SIR:--According to our understanding with Major-General Frank +P. Blair at the time he took his seat in Congress last winter, he now +asks to withdraw his resignation as Major-General, then tendered, and +be sent to the field. Let this be done. Let the order sending him +be such as shown me to-day by the Adjutant-General, only dropping +from it the names of Maguire and Tompkins. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JOHN WILLIAMS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Yours of the 15th is just received. Thanks for your kind +remembrance. I would accept your offer at once, were it not that I +fear there might be some impropriety in it, though I do not see that +there would. I will think of it a while. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +A Mr. Corby brought you a note from me at the foot of a petition I +believe, in the case of Dawson, to be executed to-day. The record +has been examined here, and it shows too strong a case for a pardon +or commutation, unless there is something in the poor man's favor +outside of the record, which you on the ground may know, but I do +not. My note to you only means that if you know of any such +thing rendering a suspension of the execution proper, on your own +judgment, you are at liberty to suspend it. Otherwise I do not +interfere. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 26, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Chattanooga, Term.: + +Suspend execution of death sentence of young Perry, of Wisconsin, +condemned for sleeping on his post, till further orders, and forward +record for examination. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am much gratified to learn that you got out so large a vote, so +nearly all the right way, at the late election; and not less so that +your State government including the legislature, is organized and in +good working order. Whatever I can I will do to protect you; +meanwhile you must do your utmost to protect yourselves. Present my +greeting to all. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +I have the honor to transmit herewith an address to the President of +the United States, and through him to both Houses of Congress, on the +condition and wants of the people of east Tennessee, and asking their +attention to the necessity of some action on the part of the +Government for their relief, and which address is presented by a +committee of an organization called "The East Tennessee Relief +Association." + +Deeply commiserating the condition of these most loyal and suffering +people, I am unprepared to make any specific recommendation for their +relief. The military is doing and will continue to do the best for +them within its power. Their address represents that the +construction of direct railroad communication between Knoxville and +Cincinnati by way of central Kentucky would be of great consequence +in the present emergency. It may be remembered that in the annual +message of December, 1861, such railroad construction was +recommended. I now add that, with the hearty concurrence of +Congress, I would yet be pleased to construct a road, both for the +relief of these people and for its continuing military importance. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + +APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In obedience to the resolution of your honorable body, a copy of +which is herewith returned, I have the honor to make the following +brief statement, which is believed to contain the information sought: + +Prior to and at the meeting of the present Congress, Robert C. +Schenck, of Ohio, and Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, members elect +thereto, by and with the consent of the Senate held commissions from +the Executive as major-generals in the volunteer army. General +Schenck tendered the resignation of his said commission, and took his +seat in the House of Representatives, at the assembling thereof, upon +the distinct verbal understanding with the Secretary of War and the +Executive that he might, at any time during the session, at his own +pleasure, withdraw said resignation and return to the field. + +General Blair was, by temporary assignment of General Sherman, in +command of a corps through the battles in front of Chattanooga, and +in the march to the relief of Knoxville, which occurred in the latter +days of November and early days of December last, and of course was +not present at the assembling of Congress. When he subsequently +arrived here, he sought, and was allowed by the Secretary of War and +the Executive, the same conditions and promise as allowed and made to +General Schenck. + +General Schenck has not applied to withdraw his resignation; but when +General Grant was made Lieutenant-General, producing some change of +commanders, General Blair sought to be assigned to the command of a +corps. This was made known to Generals Grant and Sherman, and +assented to by them, and the particular corps for him designated. + +This was all arranged and understood, as now remembered, so much as a +month ago; but the formal withdrawal of General Blair's resignation, +and making the order assigning him to the command of the corps, were +not consummated at the War Department until last week, perhaps on the +23d of April instant. As a summary of the whole, it may be stated +that General Blair holds no military commission or appointment other +than as herein stated, and that it is believed he is now acting as +major-General upon the assumed validity of the commission herein +stated, in connection with the facts herein stated, and not +otherwise. There are some letters, notes, telegrams, orders, +entries, and perhaps other documents in connection with this subject, +which it is believed would throw no additional light upon it, but +which will be cheerfully furnished if desired. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 30, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up +to this time, so far as I understand it. + +The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You +are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to +obtrude any restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very +anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great number +shall be avoided, I know that these points are less likely to escape +your attention than they would be mine. If there be anything wanting +which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. + +And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +MAY 2, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In compliance with the request contained in your resolution of the +29th ultimo, a copy of which resolution is herewith returned, I have +the honor to transmit the following: +[Correspondence and orders relating to the resignation and +reinstatement of Major-General Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri.] + +The foregoing constitutes all sought by the resolution so far as is +remembered or has been found upon diligent search. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 4, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +I have an imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens who say your +Order No.8 will compel them to go north of Nashville. This is in no +sense an order, nor is it even a request that you will do anything +which in the least shall be a drawback upon your military operations, +but anything you can do consistently with those operations for those +suffering people I shall be glad of. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Commanding, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +The President directs me to inquire whether a day has yet been fixed +for the execution of citizen Robert Louden, and if so what day? + +JOHN HAY, +Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. + + + + +TO MRS. S. B. McCONKEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864. + +MRS. SARAH B. McCONKEY, West Chester, Pa.: + +MADAM:--Our mutual friend, Judge Lewis, tells me you do me the honor +to inquire for my personal welfare. I have been very anxious for +some days in regard to our armies in the field, but am considerably +cheered, just now, by favorable news from them. + +I am sure you will join me in the hope for their further success; +while yourself, and other good mothers, wives, sisters, and +daughters, do all you and they can, to relieve and comfort the +gallant soldiers who compose them. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RECOMMENDATION OF THANKSGIVING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864 + +TO THE FRIENDS OF UNION AND LIBERTY: + +Enough is known of army operations, within the last five days, to +claim our special gratitude to God. While what remains undone +demands our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him (without +whom all effort is vain), I recommend that all patriots at their +homes, in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, +unite in common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +MAY 9, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am very much obliged to you for the compliment of +this call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news +received to-day from the Army, than to a desire to see me. I am +indeed very grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with +the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who have directed +them, and especially to our Maker. Our commanders are following up +their victories resolutely and successfully. I think, without +knowing the particulars of the plans of General Grant, that what has +been accomplished is of more importance than at first appears. I +believe, I know (and am especially grateful to know) that General +Grant has not been jostled in his purposes, that he has made all his +points, and to-day he is on his line as he purposed before he moved +his armies. I will volunteer to say that I am very glad at what has +happened, but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are +grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past +few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who +gives us victory. + +There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to +perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest +General at the head of our armies, and sink all personal +consideration for the sake of the country. I commend you to keep +yourselves in the same tranquil mood that is characteristic of that +brave and loyal man. I have said more than I expected when I came +before you. Repeating my thanks for this call, I bid you good-bye. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL LEW WALLACE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WALLACE, Baltimore: + +Please tell me what is the trouble with Dr. Hawks. Also please ask +Bishop Whittington to give me his view of the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS, +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaints are coming to me of disturbances in Canoll, Platte, and +Buchanan counties. Please ascertain the truth, correct what is +found wrong, and telegraph me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. B. LOOMIS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 12, 1864 + +F. B. LOOMIS, ESQ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your +communication of the 28th April, in which you offer to replace the +present garrison at Port Trumbull with volunteers, which you propose +to raise at your own expense. While it seems inexpedient at this +time to accept this proposition on account of the special duties now +devolving upon the garrison mentioned, I cannot +pass unnoticed such a meritorious instance of individual patriotism. +Permit me, for the Government, to express my cordial thanks to you +for this generous and public-spirited offer, which is worthy of note +among the many called forth in these times of national trial. + +I am very truly, your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A METHODIST DELEGATION, MAY 14, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:-In response to your address, allow me to attest the +accuracy of its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it +expresses, and thank you in the nation's name for the sure promise it +gives. Nobly sustained, as the Government has been, by all the +churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear +invidious against any. Yet without this, it may fairly be said, that +the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is by +its greatest numbers the most important of all. It is no fault in +others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, +more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than--any +other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the churches; and +blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the churches. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +His EXCELLENCY RICHARD YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +If any such proclamation has appeared, it is a forgery. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE NEWSPAPER +REPORTERS AND EDITORS + +ORDER TO GENERAL J. A. DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, +Commanding at New York: + +Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and +published this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of +Commerce, newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a +false and spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the +President and to be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which +publication is of a treasonable nature, designed to give aid and +comfort to the enemies of the United States and to the rebels now at +war against the Government and their aiders and abettors, you are +therefore hereby commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison in any +fort or military prison in your command, the editors, proprietors, +and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all such persons as, +after public notice has been given of the falsehood of said +publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and +comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in +close custody until they can be brought to trial before a military +commission for their offense. You will also take possession by +military force of the printing establishments of the New York World +and Journal of Commerce, and hold the same until further orders, and +prohibit any further publication therefrom. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[On the morning of May 18, 3864, a forged proclamation was published +in the World, and Journal of Commerce, of New York. The proclamation +named a day for fasting and prayer, called for 400,000 fresh troops, +and purposed to raise by an "immediate and peremptory draft," +whatever quotas were not furnished on the day specified. D.W.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. P. BUTLER. +(Cipher.) +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Until receiving your dispatch of yesterday, the idea of commissions +in the volunteers expiring at the end of three years had not occurred +to me. I think no trouble will come of it; and, at all events, I +shall take care of it so far as in me lies. As to the major- +generalships in the regular army, I think I shall not dispose of +another, at least until the combined operations now in progress, +under direction of General Grant, and within which yourself and +command are included, shall be terminated. +Meanwhile, on behalf of yourself, officers, and men, please accept my +hearty thanks for what you and they have so far done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXEMPTION OF +AMERICAN CONSULS FROM MILITARY SERVICE, + +MAY 19, 1864. + +It is officially announced by the State Department that citizens of +the United States holding commissions and recognized as Consuls of +foreign powers, are not by law exempt from military service if +drafted: + +Therefore the mere enrolment of a citizen holding a foreign consulate +will not be held to vacate his commission, but if he shall be drafted +his exequatur will be revoked unless he shall have previously +resigned in order that another Consul may be received. + +An exequatur bearing date the 3d day of May, 1858, having been issued +to Charles Hunt, a citizen of the United States, recognizing him as a +Consul of Belgium for St. Louis, Missouri, and declaring him free to +exercise and enjoy such functions, powers, and privileges as are +allowed to the Consuls of the most favored nations in the United +States, and the said Hunt having sought to screen himself from his +military duty to his country, in consequence of thus being invested +with the consular functions of a foreign power in the United States, +it is deemed advisable that the said Charles Hunt should no longer be +permitted to continue in the exercise of said functions, powers, and +privileges. + +These are therefore to declare that I no longer recognize the said +Hunt as Consul of Belgium, for St. Louis, Missouri, and will not +permit him to exercise or enjoy any of the functions, powers or +privileges allowed to consuls of that nation, and that I do hereby +wholly revoke and annul the said exequatur heretofore given, and do +declare the same to be absolutely null and void from this day +forward. + +In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, +and the seal of the United States of America to be hereunto +affixed................ + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MORTON AND OTHERS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 21, 1864 + +GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON: + +The getting forward of hundred-day troops to sustain General +Sherman's lengthening lines promises much good. Please put your best +efforts into the work. + +A. LINCOLN. + +Same to Governor Yates, Springfield, Illinois; Governor Stone, +Davenport, Iowa; Governor Lewis, Madison, Wisconsin. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO CHRISTIANA A. SACK. +WAR DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21, 1864 + +CHRISTIANA A. SACK, Baltimore, Md.: + +I cannot postpone the execution of a convicted spy on a mere +telegraphic despatch signed with a name I never heard before. +General Wallace may give you a pass to see him if he chooses. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. +WASHINGTON CITY, May 24, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +Yours to Secretary of War [received] asking for something cheering. +We have nothing bad from anywhere. I have just seen a despatch of +Grant, of 11 P.M., May 23, on the North Anna and partly across it, +which ends as follows: "Everything looks exceedingly favorable for +us." We have nothing later from him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 25,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Mr. J. C. Swift wishes a pass from me to follow your army to pick up +rags and cast-off clothing. I will give it to him if you say so, +otherwise not. + +A. LINCOLN. + +["No job to big or too small" for this president--not even a request +from a Rag Picker. D.W.] + + + + +MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF +THE NEW YORK NAVAL BRIGADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 26, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +I am again pressed with the claim of Mr. Marshall O. Roberts, for +transportation of what was called the Naval Brigade from New York to +Fortress Monroe. This force was a special organization got up by one +Bartlett, in pretended pursuance of written authority from me, but in +fact, pursuing the authority in scarcely anything whatever. The +credit given him by Mr. Roberts, was given in the teeth of the +express declaration that the Government would not be responsible for +the class of expenses to which it belonged. After all some part of +the transportation became useful to the Government, and equitably +should be paid for; but I have neither time nor means to ascertain +this equitable amount, or any appropriation to pay it with if +ascertained. If the Quartermaster at New York can ascertain what +would compensate for so much of the transportation as did result +usefully to the Government, it might be a step towards reaching +justice. I write this from memory, but I believe it is substantially +correct. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 3, 1864. + +HON. F. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter, inviting me to be present at a mass meeting +of loyal citizens, to be held at New York on the 4th instant, for the +purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for his +signal services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to +attend. I approve, nevertheless, of whatever may tend to strengthen +and sustain General Grant and the noble armies now under his +direction. My previous high estimate of General Grant has been +maintained and heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable +campaign he is now conducting, while the magnitude and difficulty of +the task before him does not prove less than I expected. He and his +brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust +that at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they may +turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER TOUCHING THE +REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. + +JUNE 5, 1864. + +(Indorsement.) + +Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had +not heard or thought of him for Vice-President. Wish not to +interfere about Vice-President. Cannot interfere about platform. +Convention must judge for itself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 6, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private James McCarthy, of the One-hundred and fortieth New York +Volunteers, is here under sentence to the Dry Tortugas for an attempt +to desert. His friends appeal to me and if his colonel and you +consent, I will send him to his regiment. Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WASHINGTON, June 8, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of to-day received. I am unable to conceive how a message can +be less safe by the express than by a staff-officer. If you send a +verbal message, the messenger is one additional person let into the +secret. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE NOTIFYING PRESIDENT LINCOLN OF HIS +RENOMINATION, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression +of my gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in +their continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me +not unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to +doubt that I shall accept the nomination tendered; and yet perhaps I +should not declare definitely before reading and considering what is +called the platform. I will say now, however, I approve the +declaration in favor of so amending the Constitution as to prohibit +slavery throughout the nation. When the people in revolt, with a +hundred days of explicit notice that they could within those days +resume their allegiance without the overthrow of their institution, +and that they could not so resume it afterward, elected to stand out, +such amendment of the Constitution as now proposed became a fitting +and necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause. +Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now the unconditional +Union men, North and South, perceive its importance and embrace it. +In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it +legal form and practical effect. + + + + +PLATFORM OF THE UNION NATIONAL CONVENTION +HELD IN BALTIMORE, MD., JUNE 7 AND 8, 1864. + +1. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen +to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and +the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United +States; and that, laying aside all differences of political opinion, +we pledge ourselves, as Union men, animated by a common sentiment and +aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the +Government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging +against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their +crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. + +2. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Government of +the United States not to compromise with rebels, or to offer them any +terms of peace, except such as may be based upon an unconditional +surrender of their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to +the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that we call upon +the Government to maintain this position, and to prosecute the war +with the utmost possible vigor to the complete suppression of the +rebellion, in full reliance upon the self-sacrificing patriotism, the +heroic valor, and the undying devotion of the American people to +their Country and its free institutions. + +3. Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the +strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be, always and +everywhere, hostile to the principles of republican government, +justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete +extirpation from the soil of the republic; and that while we uphold +and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in +its own defense, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil, we are +in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to +be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall +terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the +limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. + +4. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to the +soldiers and sailors of the Army and Navy, who have periled their +lives in defense of their country and in vindication of the honor of +its flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of +their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision +for those of their survivors who have received disabling and +honorable wounds in the service of the country; and that the memories +of those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and +everlasting remembrance. + +5. Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the +unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity to the Constitution +and the principles of American liberty, with which Abraham Lincoln +has discharged under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty the +great duties and responsibilities of the Presidential office; that we +approve and indorse as demanded by the emergency and essential to the +preservation of the nation, and as within the provisions of the +Constitution, the measures and acts which he has adopted to defend +the nation against its open and secret foes; that we approve, +especially, the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the employment as +Union soldiers of men heretofore held in slavery; and that we have +full confidence in his determination to carry these and all other +constitutional measures essential to the salvation of the country +into full and complete effect. + +6. Resolved, That we deem it essential to the General welfare that +harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we regard as +worthy of public confidence and official trust those only who +cordially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and +which should characterize the administration of the Government. + +7. Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed in its +armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protection +of the laws of war, and that any violation of these laws, or of the +usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the rebels now in +arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress. + +8. Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has added +so much to the wealth, development of resources, and increase of +power to this nation, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, +should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. + +9. Resolved, That we are in favor of the speedy construction of the +railroad to the Pacific coast. + +10. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of +the public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this purpose we +recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public +expenditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation: and that it +is the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit and promote +the use of the national currency. + +11. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the Government +that the people of the United States can never regard with +indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force +or to supplant by fraud the institutions of any republican government +on the Western Continent, and that they will view with extreme +jealousy, as menacing to the peace and independence of their own +country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for +monarchical governments, sustained by foreign military force, in near +proximity to the United States. + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN--I can only say in response to the remarks of your +chairman, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which +has been accorded to me, both by the convention and by the National +League. I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there +is in this, yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small +portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. +The convention and the nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a +higher view of the interests of the country, for the present and the +great future, and the part I am entitled to appropriate as a +compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the +opinion of the convention and of the League, that I am not entirely +unworthy to be intrusted with the place I have occupied for the last +three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude +that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this +connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a +companion once that "it was not best to swap horses when crossing a +stream." + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:--I am very much obliged to you for this compliment. I +have just been saying, and will repeat it, that the hardest of all +speeches I have to answer is a serenade. I never know what to say on +these occasions. I suppose that you have done me this kindness in +connection with the action of the Baltimore convention, which has +recently taken place, and with which, of course, I am very well +satisfied. What we want still more than Baltimore conventions, or +Presidential elections, is success under General Grant. I propose +that you constantly bear in mind that the support you owe to the +brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first +importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that +point. Now without detaining you any longer, I propose that you help +me to close up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for +General Grant and the officers and soldiers under his command. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE ENVOY FROM +THE HAWAIIAN +ISLANDS, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +SIR:--In every light in which the State of the Hawaiian Islands can +be contemplated, it is an object of profound interest for the United +States. Virtually it was once a colony. It is now a near and +intimate neighbor. It is a haven of shelter and refreshment for our +merchants, fishermen, seamen, and other citizens, when on their +lawful occasions they are navigating the eastern seas and oceans. +Its people are free, and its laws, language, and religion are largely +the fruit of our own teaching and example. The distinguished part +which you, Mr. Minister, have acted in the history of that +interesting country, is well known here. It gives me pleasure to +assure you of my sincere desire to do what I can to render now your +sojourn in the United States agreeable to yourself, satisfactory to +your sovereign, and beneficial to the Hawaiian people. + + + + +REMARKS TO AN OHIO REGIMENT, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +Soldiers! I understand you have just come from Ohio; come to help us +in this the nation's day of trial, and also of its hopes. I thank +you for your promptness in responding to the call for troops. Your +services were never needed more than now. I know not where you are +going. You may stay here and take the places of those who will be +sent to the front, or you may go there yourselves. Wherever you go I +know you will do your best. Again I thank you. Good-by. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL L. THOMAS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +Complaint is made to me that in the vicinity of Henderson, our +militia is seizing negroes and carrying them off without their own +consent, and according to no rules whatever, except those of absolute +violence. I wish you would look into this and inform me, and see +that the making soldiers of negroes is done according to the rules +you are acting upon, so that unnecessary provocation and irritation +be avoided. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO THOMAS WEBSTER. +WASHINGTON, D. C., June 13, 1864. + +THOMAS WEBSTER, Philadelphia: + +Will try to leave here Wednesday afternoon, say at 4 P.M., remain +till Thursday afternoon and then return. This subject to events. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, June 15, 1864. 7 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, +Headquarters Army of the Potomac: + +I have just received your dispatch of 1 P.M. yesterday. I begin to +see it: you will succeed. God bless you all. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT A SANITARY FAIR IN PHILADELPHIA, + +JUNE 16, 1864. + +I suppose that this toast is intended to open the way for me to say +something. War at the best is terrible, and this of ours in its +magnitude and duration is one of the most terrible the world has ever +known. It has deranged business totally in many places, and perhaps +in all. It has destroyed property, destroyed life, and ruined homes. +It has produced a national debt and a degree of taxation +unprecedented in the history of this country. It has caused mourning +among us until the heavens may almost be said to be hung in black. +And yet it continues. It has had accompaniments not before known in +the history of the world. I mean the Sanitary and Christian +Commissions, with their labors for the relief of the soldiers, and +the Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, understood better by those who +hear me than by myself, and these fairs, first begun at Chicago and +next held in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities. The motive and +object that lie at the bottom of them are worthy of the most that we +can do for the soldier who goes to fight the battles of his country. +>From the fair and tender hand of women is much, very much, done for +the soldier, continually reminding him of the care and thought for +him at home. The knowledge that he is not forgotten is grateful to +his heart. Another view of these institutions is worthy of thought. +They are voluntary contributions, giving proof that the national +resources are not at all exhausted, and that the national patriotism +will sustain us through all. It is a pertinent question, When is +this war to end? I do not wish to name the day when it will end, lest +the end should not come at the given time. We accepted this war, and +did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, and when that object +is accomplished the war will end, and I hope to God that it will +never end until that object is accomplished. We are going through +with our task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us three years +longer. I have not been in the habit of making predictions, but I am +almost tempted now to hazard one. I will. It is, that Grant is this +evening in a position, with Meade and Hancock, of Pennsylvania, +whence he can never be dislodged by the enemy until Richmond is +taken. If I shall discover that General Grant may be greatly +facilitated in the capture of Richmond by rapidly pouring to him a +large number of armed men at the briefest notice, will you go? Will +you march on with him? [Cries of "Yes, yes."] Then I shall call upon +you when it is necessary. + + + + +TO ATTORNEY-GENERAL BATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, Jun. 24, 1864 + +HONORABLE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. + +SIR:--By authority of the Constitution, and moved thereto by the +fourth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act making +appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the +thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and for other +purposes, approved June is, 1864," I require your opinion in writing +as to what pay, bounty, and clothing are allowed by law to persons of +color who were free on the nineteenth day of April, 1861, and who +have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the +United States between the month of December, 1862, and the sixteenth +of June, 1864. + +Please answer as you would do, on my requirement, if the act of June +15, 1864, had not been passed, and I will so use your opinion as to +satisfy that act. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MES. A. LINCOLN, Boston, Massachusetts: +All well and very warm. Tad and I have been to General Grant's army. +Returned yesterday safe and sound. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaint is made to me that General Brown does not do his best to +suppress bushwhackers. Please ascertain and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 27, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM DENNISON AND OTHERS, +a Committee of the Union National Convention. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter of the 14th inst.., formally notifying me +that I have been nominated by the convention you represent for the +Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March +next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as +the resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily +approved. + +While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican +government upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there +might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the +Government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed +through the State Department and indorsed by the convention among the +measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so +long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent and +applicable. + +I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not +forgotten by the convention, as they forever must and will be +remembered by the grateful country for whose salvation they devote +their lives. + +Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have +communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the convention, +I subscribe myself, + +Your obedient servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons +sent as Senators and Representatives from Arkansas. These persons +apprehend that, in consequence, you may not support the new State +government there as you otherwise would. My wish is that you give +that government and the people there the same support and protection +that you would if the members had been admitted, because in no event, +nor in any view of the case, can this do any harm, while it will be +the best you can do toward suppressing the rebellion. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Dr. Worster wishes to visit you with a view of getting your +permission to introduce into the army "Harmon's Sandal Sock." Shall I +give him a pass for that object? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO DAVID TOD. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 30, 1864. + +HON. DAVID TOD, Youngstown, Ohio: +I have nominated you to be Secretary of the Treasury, in place of +Governor Chase, who has resigned. Please come without a moment's +delay. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. L. SCRIPPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 4, 1864. + +To JOHN L. SCRIPPS, E5Q. + +DEAR SIR:--Complaint is made to me that you are using your official +power to defeat Mr. Arnold's nomination to Congress. I am well +satisfied with Mr. Arnold as a member of Congress, and I do not know +that the man who might supplant him would be as satisfactory; but the +correct principle, I think, is that all our friends should have +absolute freedom of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is +that you will do just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the +case, and not constrain any of your subordinates to [do] other than +[as] he thinks fit with his. This is precisely the rule I inculcated +and adhered to on my part, when a certain other nomination, now +recently made, was being canvassed for. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. +WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +J. W. GARRETT, President [B. & 0. R. R.], Camden Station: + +You say telegraphic communication is re-established with Sandy Hook. +Well, what does Sandy Hook say about operations of enemy and of Sigel +during to-day? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY HORATIO SEYMOUR, +Governor of New York, Albany: + +The President directs me to inform you that a rebel force, variously +estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men, have invaded the +State of Maryland, and have taken Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, and +are threatening other points; that the public safety requires him to +call upon the State executives for a militia force to repel this +invasion. He therefore directs me to call on you for a militia force +of twelve thousand men from your State to serve not more than one +hundred days, and to request that you will with the utmost despatch +forward the troops to Washington by rail or steamboat as may be most +expeditious. + +Please favor me with an answer at your earliest convenience. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, + +Secretary of War. + + + + +PROCLAMATION +SUSPENDING THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, + +JULY 5, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued on the 15th day of April, +1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that +the laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then +were, opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in certain States +therein mentioned, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by +the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the power vested in +the marshals by law; and + +Whereas, immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation the +land and naval forces of the United States were put into activity to +suppress the said insurrections and rebellion; and + +Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by an act approved on the +third day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion +the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the +public safety may require it, is authorized to suspend the privilege +of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the United +States, or any part thereof; and + +Whereas, the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, +endangering the existence of the Constitution and Government of the +United States; and + +Whereas, the military forces of the United States are now actively +engaged in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various +parts of the States where the said rebellion has been successful in +obstructing the laws and public authorities, especially in the States +of Virginia and Georgia; and + +Whereas, on the fifteenth day of September last, the President of the +United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended +throughout the United States, in Cases whereby the authority of the +President of the United States, the military, naval, and civil +officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons under +their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, +or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen +enrolled or drafted, or mustered, or enlisted in, or belonging to the +land or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, +or otherwise amenable to military law, or the rules and articles of +war, or the rules and regulations prescribed for the military and +naval service by authority of the President of the United States, or +for resisting a draft, or for any other offence against the military +or naval service; and + +Whereas, many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the +forces of the insurgents, who have on several occasions entered the +said State of Kentucky in large force and not without aid and comfort +furnished by disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United States +residing therein, have not only greatly disturbed the public peace +but have overborne the civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, +destroying property and life in various parts of the State; and + +Whereas, it has been made known to the President of the United +States, by the officers commanding the National armies, that +combinations have been formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a +purpose of inciting the rebel forces to renew the said operations of +civil war within the said State, and thereby to embarrass the United +States armies now operating in the said States of Virginia and +Georgia, and even to endanger their safety. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, +do hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially +requires that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas +corpus so proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of +September, 1863, be made effectual and be duly enforced in and +throughout the said State of Kentucky, and that martial law be for +the present declared therein. I do therefore hereby require of the +military officers of the said State that the privilege of the habeas +corpus be effectually suspended within the said State, according to +the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law be established +therein to take effect from the date of this proclamation, the said +suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until this +proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period +when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end. +And I do hereby require and command, as well as military officers, +all civil officers and authorities existing or found within the said +State of Kentucky, to take notice of this proclamation and to give +full effect to the same. The martial laws herein proclaimed and the +things in that respect herein ordered will not be deemed or taken to +interfere with the holding of lawful elections, or with the +proceedings of the constitutional Legislature of Kentucky, or with +the administration of justice in the courts of law existing therein +between citizens of the United States in suits or proceedings which +do not affect the military operations or the constituted authorities +of the government of the United States. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. +Done at the City of Washington this 5th day of July, in the year of +our Lord 1864, and of the independence of the United States the +eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER, JULY 7, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives at their last +session adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the +second day of July instant, and which `was in the words following, +namely: + +That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day +of humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States, that he +request his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive +Departments to unite with him, as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at +the City of Washington, and the members of Congress, and all +magistrates, all civil, military, and naval officers, all soldiers, +sailors, and marines, with all loyal and law-abiding people, to +convene at their usual places of worship, or wherever they may be, to +confess and to repent of their manifold sins, to implore the +compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that, if consistent with +His will, the existing rebellion may be speedily suppressed, and the +supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States may be +established throughout all the States; to implore Him, as the Supreme +Ruler of the world, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer us to +be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations, or by +obstinate adhesion to our own counsels which may be in conflict with +His eternal, purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of +the nation to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in +accordance with His will that our place should be maintained as a +united people among the family of nations; to implore Him to grant to +our armed defenders, and the masses of the people, that courage, +power of resistance, and endurance necessary to secure that result; +to implore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the hearts, +enlighten the minds, and quicken the conscience of those in +rebellion, that they may lay down their arms, and speedily return to +their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly +destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity +and fraternity may be restored, and peace established throughout all +our borders. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the `United States, +cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States, in the +penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid +resolutions, and heartily approving of the devotional design and +purpose thereof, do hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next +to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of +national humiliation and prayer. + +I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive +Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all +judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in +the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, +seamen, and marines in the national service, and all other loyal and +law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their +preferred places of public worship on that day, and there to render +to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the Universe, such homage and +such confessions, and to offer to Him such supplications as the +Congress of the United States have, in their aforesaid resolution, so +solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently recommended. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington +this seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States +the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES, WHOSE +GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF +GOVERNMENT," AND CONCERNING RECONSTRUCTION, + +JULY 8, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to +certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a +republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; +and + +Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United +States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die +adjournment of said session, and was not signed by him; and + +Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for +restoring the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation +in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that +subject, and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the +people for their consideration: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in +December last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for +restoration) unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be +inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration, and while I +am also unprepared to declare that the free State constitutions and +governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana +shall be set aside and held for naught, thereby repelling and +discouraging the loyal citizens who have set up the same as to +further effort, or to declare a constitutional competency in Congress +to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same time sincerely +hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment abolishing +slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully +satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as +one very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to +adopt it, and that I am and at all times shall be prepared to give +the Executive aid and assistance to any such people so soon as the +military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed +in any such States and the people thereof shall have sufficiently +returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the +United States, in which cases militia-governors will be appointed +with directions to proceed according to the bill. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.............. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO HORACE GREELEY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., +July 9, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +DEAR SIR:--Your letter of the 7th, with inclosures, received. + +If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any +proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the +restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it +embraces, say to him he may come to me with you; and that if he +really brings such proposition, he shall at the least have safe +conduct with the paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the +point where you shall have to meet him. The same if there be two or +more persons. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 9, 1864 + +J. W. GARRETT, Camden Station: + +What have you heard about a battle at Monocacy to-day? We have +nothing about it here except what you say. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK +TO GENERAL WALLACE. +WASHINGTON, July 9, 1864. 11.57 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL L. WALLACE, Commanding Middle Department: + +I am directed by the President to say that you will rally your forces +and make every possible effort to retard the enemy's march on +Baltimore. + +H. W. HALLECK, Major-General and Chief of Staff. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. SWAN AND OTHERS. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 10, 1864. 9.20 A.M. + +THOMAS SWAN AND OTHERS, Baltimore, Maryland: + +Yours of last night received. I have not a single soldier but whom +is being disposed by the military for the best protection of all. By +latest accounts the enemy is moving on Washington. They cannot fly +to either place. Let us be vigilant, but keep cool. I hope neither +Baltimore nor Washington will be sacked. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON CITY, July TO, 1864.2 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Your dispatch to General Halleck, referring to what I may think in +the present emergency, is shown me. General Halleck says we have +absolutely no force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with +the hundred-day men and invalids we have here we can defend +Washington, and, scarcely, Baltimore. Besides these there are about +eight thousand, not very reliable, under Howe, at Harper's Ferry with +Hunter approaching that point very slowly, with what number I suppose +you know better than I. Wallace, with some odds and ends, and part of +what came up with Ricketts, was so badly beaten yesterday at +Monocacy, that what is left can attempt no more than to defend +Baltimore. What we shall get in from Pennsylvania and New York will +scarcely be worth counting, I fear. Now, what I think is, that you +should provide to retain your hold where you are, certainly, and +bring the rest with you personally, and make a vigorous effort to +destroy the enemy's forces in this vicinity. I think there is really +a fair chance to do this, if the movement is prompt. This is what I +think upon your suggestion, and is not an order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, July 11, 1864. 8 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of 10.30 P.M. yesterday received, and very satisfactory. The +enemy will learn of Wright's arrival, and then the difficulty will be +to unite Wright and Hunter south of the enemy before he will recross +the Potomac. Some firing between Rockville and here now. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 12, 1864. 11.30 AM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Vague rumors have been reaching us for two or three days that +Longstreet's corps is also on its way [to] this vicinity. Look out +for its absence from your front. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM AND LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 12, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I suppose you received my letter of the 9th. I have just received +yours of the 13th, and am disappointed by it. I was not expecting +you to send me a letter, but to bring me a man, or men. Mr. Hay goes +to you with my answer to yours of the 13th. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[Carried by Major John Hay.] + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, JULY 15, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +MY DEAR SIR:-Yours of the 13th is just received, and I am +disappointed that you have not already reached here with those +commissioners, if they would consent to come on being shown my letter +to you of the 9th instant. Show that and this to them, and if they +will come on the terms stated in the former, bring them. I not only +intend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend that you shall be a +personal witness that it is made. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SAFE CONDUCT FOR CLEMENT C. CLAY AND OTHERS, + +JULY 16, 1864. + +The President of the United States directs that the four persons +whose names follow, to wit, HON. Clement C. Clay, HON. Jacob +Thompson, Professor James P. Holcombe, George N. Sanders, shall have +safe conduct to the city of Washington in company with the HON. +HORACE GREELEY, and shall be exempt from arrest or annoyance of any +kind from any officer of the United States during their journey to +the said city of Washington. + +By order of the President: +JOHN HAY, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +[WASHINGTON] July 17. 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +In your dispatch of yesterday to General Sherman, I find the +following, to wit: + +"I shall make a desperate effort to get a position here, which will +hold the enemy without the necessity of so many men." + +Pressed as we are by lapse of time I am glad to hear you say this; +and yet I do hope you may find a way that the effort shall not be +desperate in the sense of great loss of life. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER +WASHINGTON JULY 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Yours of this morning received. You misconceive. The order you +complain of was only nominally mine, and was framed by those who +really made it with no thought of making you a scapegoat. It seemed +to be General Grant's wish that the forces under General Wright and +those under you should join and drive at the enemy under General +Wright. Wright had the larger part of the force, but you had the +rank. It was thought that you would prefer Crook's commanding your +part to your serving in person under Wright. That is all of it. +General Grant wishes you to remain in command of the department, and +I do not wish to order otherwise. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattahoochee River, Georgia: + +I have seen your despatches objecting to agents of Northern States +opening recruiting stations near your camps. An act of Congress +authorizes this, giving the appointment of agents to the States, and +not to the Executive Government. It is not for the War Department, +or myself, to restrain or modify the law, in its execution, further +than actual necessity may require. To be candid, I was for the +passage of the law, not apprehending at the time that it would +produce such inconvenience to the armies in the field as you now +cause me to fear. Many of the States were very anxious for it, and I +hoped that, with their State bounties, and active exertions, they +would get out substantial additions to our colored forces, which, +unlike white recruits, help us where they come from, as well as where +they go to. I still hope advantage from the law; and being a law, it +must be treated as such by all of us. We here will do what we +consistently can to save you from difficulties arising out of it. +May I ask, therefore, that you will give your hearty co-operation. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING TERMS OF PEACE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. + +TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the +integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and +which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now +at war against the United States, will be received and considered by +the Executive Government of the United States, and will be met by +liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points; and the +bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe conduct both ways. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS, + +JULY 18, 1864, + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to +regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national +forces and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of +the United States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, +call for any number of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of +one, two, and three years for military service," and "that in case +the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, +precinct, or election district, or of a county not so subdivided, +shall not be filled within the space of fifty days after such call, +then the +President shall immediately order a draft for one year to fill such +quota or any part thereof which may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas the new enrolment heretofore ordered is so far completed as +that the aforementioned act of Congress may now be put in operation +for recruiting and keeping up the strength of the armies in the +field, for garrisons, and such military operations as may be required +for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the +authority of the United States Government in the insurgent States: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do issue this my last call for five hundred thousand volunteers for +the military service: Provided, nevertheless, That this call shall +be reduced by all credits which may be established under section +eight of the aforesaid act on account of persons who have entered the +naval service during the present rebellion and by credits for men +furnished to the military service in excess of calls heretofore made. +Volunteers will be accepted under this call for one, two, or three +years, as they may elect, and will be entitled to the bounty provided +by the law for the period of services for which they enlist. + +And I hereby proclaim, order, and direct that immediately after the +5th day of September, 1864, being fifty days from the date of this +call, a draft for troops to serve for one year shall be had in every +town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or +county not so subdivided, to fill the quota which shall be assigned +to it under this call or any part thereof which may be unfilled by +volunteers on the said 5th day of September, 1864. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington, this i8th day of July, A.D. 1864, and +of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 20, 1864. 4.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of yesterday, about a call for three hundred thousand, is +received. I suppose you had not seen the call for five hundred +thousand, made the day before, and which, I suppose, covers the case. +Always glad to have your suggestions. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. L. WRIGHT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY. 20, 1864. + +J. L. WRIGHT, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +All a mistake. Mr. Stanton has not resigned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER. +(Cipher.) + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Are you able to take care of the enemy, when he turns back upon you, +as he probably will on finding that Wright has left? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, ENCLOSING A LETTER TO WILLIAM O. SNIDER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN: + +Herewith is the manuscript letter for the gentleman who sent me a +cane through your hands. For my life I cannot make out his name; and +therefore I cut it from his letter and pasted it on, as you see. I +suppose [sic] will remember who he is, and I will thank you to +forward him the letter. He dates his letter at Philadelphia. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, ,July 25, 1864. + +WILLIAM O. SNIDER: + +The cane you did me the honor to present through Governor Curtin was +duly placed in my hand by him. Please accept my thanks; and, at the +same time, pardon me for not having sooner found time to tender them. +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM JOHN HAY TO J. C. WELLING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. +July 25, 1864. + +J. C. WELLING, ESQ. + +SIR:--According to the request contained in your note, I have placed +Mr. Gibson's letter of resignation in the hands of the President. He +has read the letter, and says he accepts the resignation, as he will +be glad to do with any other, which may be tendered, as this is, for +the purpose of taking an attitude of hostility against him. + +He says he was not aware that he was so much indebted to Mr. Gibson +for having accepted the office at first, not remembering that he ever +pressed him to do so, or that he gave it otherwise than as was usual, +upon request made on behalf of Mr. Gibson. + +He thanks Mr. Gibson for his acknowledgment that he has been treated +with personal kindness and consideration, and says he knows of but +two small drawbacks upon Mr. Gibson's right to still receive such +treatment, one of which is that he never could learn of his giving +much attention to the duties of his office, and the other is this +studied attempt of Mr. Gibson's to stab him. + +I am very truly, + +Your obedient servant, + +JOHN HAY. + + + + +TO COLONEL, FIRST N. Y. VETERAN CAVALRY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, JULY 25, 1864. + +Thomas Connor, a private in the First Veteran New York Cavalry, is +now imprisoned at hard labor for desertion. If the Colonel of said +Regiment will say in writing on this sheets that he is willing to +receive him back to the Regiment, I will pardon, and send him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, July 26, 1864. 2.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta: + +I have just seen yours complaining of the appointment of Hovey and +Osterhaus. The point you make is unquestionably a good one, and yet +please hear a word from us. My recollection is that both General +Grant and yourself recommended both H [ovey] and O [sterhaus] for +promotion, and these, with other strong recommendations, drew +committals from us which we could neither honorably or safely +disregard. We blamed H [ovey] for coming away in the manner in which +he did, but he knew he had apparent reason to feel disappointed and +mortified, and we felt it was not best to crush one who certainly had +been a good soldier. As to [Osterhaus], we did not know of his +leaving at the time we made the appointment, and do not now know the +terms on which he left. Not to have appointed him, as the case +appeared to us at the time, would have been almost, if not quite, a +violation of our word. The word was given on what we thought was +high merit and somewhat on his nationality. I beg you to believe we +do not act in a spirit of disregarding merit. We expect to await +your programme for further changes and promotions in your army. My +profoundest thanks to you and your whole army for the present +campaign so far. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL HALLECK. + +WASHINGTON CITY, +July 27, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, +Chief of Staff of the Army: + +GENERAL:--Lieutenant-General Grant having signified that, owing to +the difficulties and delay of communication between his headquarters +and Washington, it is necessary that in the present emergency +military orders must be issued directly from Washington, the +President directs me to instruct you that all the military operations +for the defense of the Middle Department, the Department of the +Susquehanna, the Department of Washington, and the Department of West +Virginia, and all the forces in those departments, are placed under +your general command, and that you will be expected to take all +military measures necessary for defense against any attack of the +enemy and for his capture and destruction. You will issue from time +to time such orders to the commanders of the respective departments +and to the military authorities therein as may be proper. + +Your obedient servant, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +WASHINGTON, July 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours in relation to General A. C. Gillam just received. Will look +after the matter to-day. + +I also received yours about General Carl Schurz. I appreciate him +certainly, as highly as you do; but you can never know until you have +the trial, how difficult it is to find a place for an officer of so +high rank when there is no place seeking him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +July 29, 1864. + +Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON. + +MADAM:--The plaid you send me is just now placed in my hands. I +thank you for that pretty and useful present, but still more for +those good wishes for myself and our country, which prompted you to +present it. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT, AUGUST 3, 1864. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, August 2, 1864. + +MR. PRESIDENT:--This note will introduce to you Mr. Schley of +Baltimore, who desires to appeal to you for the revocation of an +order of General Hunter, removing some persons, citizens of +Frederick, beyond his lines, and imprisoning others. This Department +has no information of the reasons or proofs on which General Hunter +acts, and I do not therefore feel at liberty to suspend or interfere +with his action except under your direction. + +Yours truly, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + +[Indorsement.) + +August 3, 1864. + +The Secretary of War will suspend the order of General Hunter +mentioned within, until further order and direct him to send to the +Department a brief report of what is known against each one proposed +to be dealt with. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U, S. GRANT. +(Cipher.) + +WASHINGTON, D. C.. August 3, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch in which you say, "I want Sheridan put in +command of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put +himself south of the enemy, and follow him to the death. Wherever +the enemy goes, let our troops go also." + +This, I think, is exactly right as to how our forces should move; but +please look over the despatches you may have received from here, ever +since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is +any idea in the head of any one here of "putting our army south of +the enemy," or of following him to the "death," in any direction. I +repeat to you, it will neither be done nor attempted, unless you +watch it every day and hour, and force it. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[Here the President was mistaken in thinking that Sherman and Grant +had the same inability of most of his previous general officers. No +one needed to watch Grant or Sherman, they only needed to get out of +their way. D.W.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 6, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +Yours to Major Hay about publication of our correspondence received. +With the suppression of a few passages in your letters in regard to +which I think you and I would not disagree, I should be glad of the +publication. Please come over and see me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 8, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I telegraphed you Saturday. Did you receive the despatch? Please +answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DISLOYAL FAMILY MEMBER + +TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., +August 8, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +Last December Mrs. Emily T. Helm, half-sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and +widow of the rebel general, Ben Hardin Helm, stopped here on her way +from Georgia to Kentucky, and I gave her a paper, as I remember, to +protect her against the mere fact of her being General Helm's widow. +I hear a rumor to-day that you recently sought to arrest her, but +were prevented by her presenting the paper from me. I do not intend +to protect her against the consequences of disloyal words or acts, +spoken or done by her since her return to Kentucky, and if the paper +given her by me can be construed to give her protection for such +words and acts, it is hereby revoked pro tanto. Deal with her for +current conduct just as you would with any other. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., August 14, 1864. 1.30 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +The Secretary of War and I concur that you had better confer with +General Lee, and stipulate for a mutual discontinuance of house- +burning and other destruction of private property. The time and +manner of conference and particulars of stipulation we leave, on our +part, to your convenience and judgment. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 15,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta, Ga.: + +If the Government should purchase, on its own account, cotton +northward of you, and on the line of your communications, would it be +an inconvenience to you, or detriment to the military service, for it +to come to the north on the railroad? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH JOHN T. MILLS, + +AUGUST [15?], 1864. + + +Mr. President," said Governor Randall, "why can't you seek seclusion, +and play hermit for a fortnight? It would reinvigorate you." + +"Ah," said the President, "two or three weeks would do me no good. I +cannot fly from my thoughts--my solicitude for this great country +follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or +ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot +but feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in +November. There is no program offered by any wing of the Democratic +party but that must result in the permanent destruction of the Union. + +"But, Mr. President, General McClellan is in favor of crushing out +this rebellion by force. He will be the Chicago candidate." + +"Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man +that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It +would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are +now in the service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty +thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending +and acquiring Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that +these forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by +restoring them to slavery. The black men who now assist Union +prisoners to escape are to be converted into our enemies, in the vain +hope of gaining the good-will of their masters. We shall have to +fight two nations instead of one. + +"You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them ultimate +success; and the experience of the present war proves their success +is inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black +men into their side of the scale. Will you give our enemies such +military advantages as insure success, and then depend on coaxing, +flattery, and concession to get them back into the Union? Abandon all +the posts now garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty +thousand men from our side and put them in the battle-field or corn- +field against us, and we would be compelled to abandon the war in +three weeks. + +"We have to hold territory in inclement and sickly places; where are +the Democrats to do this? It was a free fight, and the field was open +to the war Democrats to put down this rebellion by fighting against +both master and slave, long before the present policy was +inaugurated. + +"There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to +slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win +the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should +deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what will, I will +keep my faith with friend and foe. My enemies pretend I am now +carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I +am President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of +restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion +without the use of the emancipation policy, and every other policy +calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion. + +"Freedom has given us one hundred and fifty thousand men, raised on +Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has +subtracted from the enemy, and, instead of alienating the South, +there are now evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our +men and the rank and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies +prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is not necessary +to a restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue." + + + + +ENDORSEMENT OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT, +AUGUST 15, 1864. + +I am always for the man who wishes to work; and I shall be glad for +this man to get suitable employment at Cavalry Depot, or elsewhere + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. J. RAYMOND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, August 15, 1864 + +HON. HENRY J. RAYMOND. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara +correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his +letters over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy which I +herewith send. He declines giving his consent to the publication of +his letters unless these parts be published with the rest. I have +concluded that it is better for me to submit, for the time, to the +consequences of the false position in which I consider he has placed +me, than to subject the country to the consequences of publishing +these discouraging and injurious parts. I send you this, and the +accompanying copy, not for publication, but merely to explain to you, +and that you may preserve them until their proper time shall come. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 17, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your +hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog +grip, and chew and choke as much as possible. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS, +AUGUST 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the 28th of September, 1850, entitled +"An act to create additional collection districts in the State of +California, and to change the existing districts therein, and to +modify the existing collection districts in the United States," +extends to merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege of being +exported to the British North American provinces adjoining the United +States, in the manner prescribed in the act of Congress of the 3d of +March, 1845, which designates certain frontier ports through which +merchandise may be exported, and further provides "that such other +ports, situated on the frontiers of the United States adjoining the +British North American provinces, as may hereafter be found +expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges, on the +recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation +duly made by the President of the United States, specially +designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be +extended." + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of +the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of +Newport, in the State of Vermont, is and shall be entitled to all the +privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the +British North American provinces adjoining the United States, which +are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of the +act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after +the date of this proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States of America, the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, AUGUST 18, 1864. + +If General Hitchcock can effect a special exchange of Thomas D. +Armesy, now under conviction as a spy, or something of the sort, and +in prison at for Major Nathan Goff, made a prisoner of war, and now +in prison at Richmond, let it be done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 164TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 18, 1864. + +SOLDIERS:--You are about to return to your homes and your friends, +after having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short +term of duty in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and +to all who have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it +might be more generally and universally understood what the country +is now engaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free government, +where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In +this great struggle, this form of government and every form of human +right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved +in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in +this struggle, the question whether your children and my children +shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this, in order to +impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small +matter should divert us from our great purpose. + +There may be some inequalities in the practical application of our +system. It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion +to the value of his property; but if we should wait, before +collecting a tax, to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact +proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at +all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; and things may be done +wrong, while the officers of the Government do all they can to +prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great +Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we +have before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted +from it by any small matter. When you return to your homes, rise up +to the height of a generation of men worthy of a free government, and +we will carry out the great work we have commenced. I return to you +my sincere thanks, soldiers, for the honor you have done me this +afternoon. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Please allow Judge Snead to go to his family on Eastern Shore, or +give me some good reason why not. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 166TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 22, 1864. + +SOLDIERS--I suppose you are going home to see your families and +friends. For the services you have done in this great struggle in +which we are engaged, I present you sincere thanks for myself and the +country. + +I almost always feel inclined, when I say anything to soldiers, to +impress upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success +in this contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all time to +come, that we should perpetuate for our children's children that +great and free government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg +you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I +happen, temporarily, to occupy this big White House. I am a living +witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my +father's child has. It is in order that each one of you may have, +through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field, +and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence; +that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life with all +its desirable human aspirations--it is for this that the struggle +should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthrights--not only +for one, but for two or three years, if necessary. The nation is +worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +August 23, 1864. + +This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable +that this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my +duty to so co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union +between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured +his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it +afterward. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, 1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Thanks to General Gillam for making the news and also to you for +sending it. Does Joe Heiskell's "walking to meet us" mean any more +than that "Joe" was scared and wanted to save his skin? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO B. H. BREWSTER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 30,1864. + +HON. B. H. BREWSTER, Astor House, New York: + +Your letter of yesterday received. Thank you for it. Please have no +fears. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING COTTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, August 31, 1864. + +Any person or persons engaged in bringing out cotton, in strict +conformity with authority given by W. P. Fessenden, Secretary of the +United States Treasury, must not be hindered by the War, Navy, or any +other Department of the Government, or any person engaged under any +of said Departments. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO COLONEL HUIDEKOPER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +SEPTEMBER 1, 1864 + +COLONEL H. C. HUIDEKOPER, Meadville, Penn. + +SIR: It is represented to me that there are at Rock Island, +Illinois, as rebel prisoners of war, many persons of Northern and +foreign birth who are unwilling to be exchanged and sent South, but +who wish to take the oath of allegiance and enter the military +service of the Union. Colonel Huidekoper, on behalf of the people of +some parts of Pennsylvania, wishes to pay the bounties the Government +would have to pay to proper persons of this class, have them enter +the service of the United States, and be credited to the localities +furnishing the bounty money. He will therefore proceed to Rock +Island, ascertain the names of such persons (not including any who +have attractions Southward), and telegraph them to the Provost- +Marshal-General here, whereupon direction will be given to discharge +the persons named upon their taking the oath of allegiance; and then +upon the official evidence being furnished that they shall have been +duly received and mustered into the service of the United States, +their number will be credited as may be directed by Colonel +Huidekoper. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, +September 3, 1864. + +The signal success that Divine Providence has recently vouchsafed to +the operations of the United States fleet and army in the harbor of +Mobile, and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort +Morgan, and the glorious achievements of the army under Major-General +Sherman, in the State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of the +city of Atlanta, call for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being +in whose hands are the destinies of nations. It is therefore +requested that on next Sunday, in all places of worship in the United +States, thanksgivings be offered to Him for His mercy in preserve our +national existence against the insurgent rebels who have been waging +a cruel war against the Government of the United States for its +overthrow, and also that prayer be made for Divine protection to our +brave soldiers and their leaders in the field who have so often and +so gallantly periled their lives in battling with the enemy, and for +blessings and comfort from the Father of mercies to the sick, +wounded, and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who +have fallen in the service of their country, and that He will +continue to uphold the Government of the United States against all +the efforts of public enemies and secret foes. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDERS OF GRATITUDE AND REJOICING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Admiral Farragut +and Major-General Canby, for the skill and harmony with which the +recent operations in Mobile Harbor and against Fort Powell, Fort +Gaines, and Fort Morgan were planned and carried into execution. +Also to Admiral Farragut and Major-General Granger, under whose +immediate command they were conducted, and to the gallant commanders +on sea and land, and to the sailors and soldiers engaged in the +operations, for their energy and courage, which, under the blessing +of Providence, have been crowned with brilliant success, and have won +for them the applause and thanks of the nation. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Major-General +William T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his +command before Atlanta, for the distinguished ability, courage, and +perseverance displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which under Divine +power resulted in the capture of the city of Atlanta. The marches, +battles, sieges, and other military operations that have signalized +this campaign must render it famous in the annals of war, and have +entitled those who have participated therein to the applause and +thanks of the nation. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +Ordered: First, That on Monday, the fifth day of September, +commencing at the hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be given a +salute of one hundred guns at the arsenal and navy-yard, at +Washington, and on Tuesday, the 6th of September, or on the day after +the receipt of this order, at each arsenal and navy-yard in the +United States, for the recent brilliant achievements of the fleet and +land forces of the United States in the harbor of Mobile, and in the +reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan. The +Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy will issue the +necessary directions in their respective departments for the +execution of this order. + +Second, That on Wednesday, the 7th of September, commencing at the +hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be fired a salute of one +hundred guns at the arsenal at Washington, and at New York, Boston, +Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Newport (Ky.), and St. Louis, +and New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola, Hilton Head, and Newbern, the +day after the receipt of this order, for the brilliant achievements +of the army under command of Major-General Sherman, in the State of +Georgia, and for the capture of Atlanta. The Secretary of War will +issue directions for the execution of this order. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President Of the United States. + + + + +TO MRS. GURNEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 4, 1864. + +ELIZA P. GURNEY. + +MY ESTEEMED FRIEND:--I have not forgotten probably never shall forget +the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on +a Sabbath forenoon two years ago--nor has your kind letter, written +nearly a year later, even been for gotten. In all, it has been your +purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the +good Christian people of the country for their constant prayer and +consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself. The +purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we +erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We +hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; +but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet +acknowledge His wisdom, and our own error therein. Mean while we +must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so +working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He +intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no +mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. + +Your people--the Friends--have had, and are having, a very great +trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, +they can only practically oppose oppression by war. For those +appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, +the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the +law. That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it, I shall +still receive, for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our +Father in Heaven. + +Your sincere friend, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF COLORED PEOPLE FROM BALTIMORE WHO PRESENTED +HIM WITH A BIBLE, + +SEPTEMBER 7, 1864. + +I can only say now, as I have often said before, it has always been a +sentiment with me, that all mankind should be free. So far as I have +been able, so far as came within my sphere, I have always acted as I +believed was just and right, and done all I could for the good of +mankind. I have, in letters sent forth from this office, expressed +myself better than I can now. + +In regard to the great Book, I have only to say it is the best gift +which God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of +the world is communicated to us through this book. But for that +Book, we could not know right from wrong. All those things desirable +to man are contained in it. I return you sincere thanks for this +very elegant copy of this great Book of God which you present. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PICKERING. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 8, 1864: + +GOVERNOR PICKERING, Olympia, W. T.: + +Your patriotic despatch of yesterday received and will be published. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER OF THANKS TO HUNDRED-DAY TROOPS FROM OHIO. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, September 10, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which the National Guard of Ohio +volunteered having expired, the President directs an official +acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic and valuable services +during the recent campaigns. The term of service of their enlistment +was short, but distinguished by memorable events. In the Valley of +the Shenandoah, on the Peninsula, in the operations on the James +River, around Petersburg and Richmond, in the battle of Monocacy, and +in the intrenchments of Washington, and in other important service, +the National Guard of Ohio performed with alacrity the duty of +patriotic volunteers, for which they are entitled to and are hereby +tendered, through the Governor of their State, the national thanks. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 12, 1864. + + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Sheridan and Early are facing each other at a dead-lock. Could we +not pick up a regiment here and there, to the number of say ten +thousand men, and quietly but suddenly concentrate them at Sheridan's +camp and enable him to make a strike? + +This is but a suggestion. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JAMES G. BLAINE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 13, 1864. + +HON. J. G. BLAINE, Augusta, Me.: +On behalf of the Union, thanks to Maine. Thanks to you personally +for sending the news. + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--Send same to L. B. Smith and M. A. Blanchard, Portland, Me. +A. L. + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 13, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint Louis: + +Postpone the execution of S. H. Anderson for two weeks. Hear what +his friends can say in mitigation and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send the above telegram. + +JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SLOUGH. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 16, 1864. + +GENERAL SLOUGH, Alexandria, Va.: + +On the 14th I commuted the sentence of Conley, but fearing you may +not have received notice I send this. Do not execute him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 17,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +I feel great interest in the subjects of your despatch mentioning +corn and sorghum, and the contemplated visit to you. + +A. LINCOLN, President of the United States. + + + + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 19, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN: + +The State election of Indiana occurs on the 11th of October, and the +loss of it to the friends of the Government would go far towards +losing the whole Union cause. The bad effect upon the November +election, and especially the giving the State government to those who +will oppose the war in every possible way, are too much to risk if it +can be avoided. The draft proceeds, notwithstanding its strong +tendency to lose us the State. Indiana is the only important State +voting in October whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Anything +you can safely do to let her soldiers or any part of them go home and +vote at the State election will be greatly in point. They need not +remain for the Presidential election, but may return to you at once. +This is in no sense an order, but is merely intended to impress you +with the importance to the Army itself of your doing all you safely +can, yourself being the judge of what you can safely do. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, SEPTEMBER 1864. + +The writer of this, who appeals for his brother, is our minister to +Ecuador, and whom, if at all compatible, I would like to have obliged +by a special exchange of his brother. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. SHERIDAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 20, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN, Winchester, Va.: + +Have just heard of your great victory. God bless you all, officers +and men. Strongly inclined to come up and See you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HITCHCOCK, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 21, 1864. + +GENERAL HITCHCOCK: + +Please see the bearer, Mr. Broadwell, on a question about a mutual +supplying of clothes to prisoners. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 22, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I send this as an explanation to you, and to do justice to the +Secretary of War. I was induced, upon pressing application, to +authorize the agents of one of the districts of Pennsylvania to +recruit in one of the prison depots in Illinois; and the thing went +so far before it came to the knowledge of the Secretary that, in my +judgment, it could not be abandoned without greater evil than would +follow its going through. I did not know at the time that you had +protested against that class of thing being done; and I now say that +while this particular job must be completed, no other of the sort +will be authorized, without an understanding with you, if at all. +The Secretary of War is wholly free of any part in this blunder. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 23, 1864. + + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--You have generously said to me, more than once, that +whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my +disposal. The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds +from no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. +Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any other +friend, and while it is true that the war does not so greatly add to +the difficulties of your department as to those of some others, it is +yet much to say, as I most truly can, that in the three years and a +half during which you have administered the General Post-Office, I +remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith. + +Yours, as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS IN INSURRECTIONARY STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 24, 1864. + +I. Congress having authorized the purchase for the United States of +the products of States declared in insurrection, and the Secretary of +the Treasury having designated New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, +Pensacola, Port Royal, Beaufort (North Carolina), and Norfolk, as +places of purchase, and, with my approval, appointed agents and made +regulations under which said products may be purchased, therefore: + +II. All persons except such as may be in the civil, military, or +naval service of the government, having in their possession any +products of States or parts of States declared in insurrection, which +said agents are authorized to purchase; and all persons owning or +controlling such products therein are authorized to convey such +products to either of the places which have been hereby or may +hereafter be designated as places of purchase, and such products so +destined shall not be liable to detention, seizure, or forfeiture +while in transitu, or in store waiting transportation. + +III. Any person having the certificate of a purchasing agent, as +prescribed by Treasury Regulation VIII, is authorized to pass with +the necessary means of transportation to the points named in said +certificate, and to return therefrom with the products required for +the fulfilment of the stipulations set forth in said certificate. + +IV. Any person having sold and delivered to a purchasing agent any +products of an insurrectionary State in accordance with the +regulations in relation thereto, and having in his possession a +certificate setting forth the fact of such purchase and sale; the +character and quantity of products, and the aggregate amount paid +therefor, as prescribed by Regulation I, shall be permitted by the +military authority commanding at the place of sale to purchase from +any authorized dealer at such place merchandise and other articles +not contraband of war nor prohibited by order of the War Department, +nor coin, bullion, or foreign exchange, to an amount not exceeding in +value one-third of the aggregate value of the products sold by him as +certified by the agents purchasing, and the merchandise and other +articles so purchased may be transported by the same route, and to +the same place, from and by which the products sold and delivered +reached the purchasing agent, as set forth in the certificate, and +such merchandise and other articles shall have safe conduct, and +shall not be subject to detention, seizure, or forfeiture while being +transported to the places and by the routes set forth in the said +certificate. + +V. Generals commanding military districts, and commandants of +military posts and detachments, and officers commanding fleets, +flotillas, and gunboats, will give safe conduct to persons and +products, merchandise, and other articles duly authorized as +aforesaid, and not contraband of war, or prohibited by order of the +War Department, or of the order of such generals commanding, or other +duly authorized military or naval officer, made in pursuance hereof, +and all persons hindering or preventing such safe conduct of persons +or property will, be deemed guilty of a military offense and punished +accordingly. + +VI. Any person transporting or attempting to transport any +merchandise or other articles except in pursuance of regulations of +the Secretary of the Treasury, dated July 29, 1864, or in pursuance +of this order, or transporting or attempting to transport any +merchandise or other articles contraband of war or forbidden by any +order of the War Department, will be deemed guilty of a military +offense and punished accordingly; and all products of insurrectionary +States found in transitu to any other person or than a purchasing +agent and a designated of purchase shall be seized and forfeited to +the States, except such as may be moving to a loyal state under duly +authorized permits of a proper officer of the Treasury Department, as +prescribed by Regulation XXXVIII, concerning commercial intercourse, +dated July 29, 1864, or such as may have been found abandoned, or +have been captured and are moving in pursuance of the act of March +12, 1864. + +VII. No military or naval officer of the United States, or person in +the military or naval service, nor any civil officer, except such as +are appointed for that purpose, shall engage in trade or traffic in +the products of the insurrectionary States, or furnish transportation +therefor under pain of being deemed guilty of unlawful trading with +the enemy and punished accordingly. + +VIII. The Secretary of War will make such general orders or +regulations as will insure the proper observance and execution of,, +this order, and the Secretary of the Navy will give instructions to +officers commanding fleets, flotillas, and gunboats in conformity +therewith. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +You say Jefferson Davis is on a visit to Hood. I judge that Brown +and Stephens are the objects of his visit. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I hope it will have no constraint on you, nor do harm any way, for me +to say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends reinforcements to Early, +and thus enables him to turn upon Sheridan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT. + +September 29, 1864. + +I think the bearer of this, Second Lieutenant Albee, deserves a +hearing. Will the Secretary of War please accord it to him? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER RETURNING THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS FOR ONE HUNDRED DAYS FROM +THE STATES OF INDIANA, ILLINOIS, IOWA, AND WISCONSIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, October 1, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which volunteers from the States of +Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin volunteered, under the call of +their respective governors, in the months of May and June, to aid in +the campaign of General Sherman, having expired; the President +directs an official acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic +service. It was their good fortune to render efficient service in the +brilliant operations in the Southwest and to contribute to the +victories of the national arms over the rebel forces in Georgia under +command of Johnston and Hood. On all occasions and in every service +to which they were assigned their duty as patriotic volunteers was +performed with alacrity and courage, for which they are entitled to +and are hereby tendered the national thanks through the governors of +their respective States. + +The Secretary of War is directed to transmit a copy of this order to +the governors of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin and to cause +a certificate of their honorable service to be delivered to the +officers and soldiers of the States above named who recently served +in the military force of the United States as volunteers for one +hundred days. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +October 5, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I inclose you a copy of a correspondence in regard to a contemplated +exchange of naval prisoners through your lines, and not very distant +from your headquarters. It only came to the knowledge of the War +Department and of myself yesterday, and it gives us some uneasiness. +I therefore send it to you with the statement that, as the numbers to +be exchanged under it are small, and so much has already been done to +effect the exchange, I hope you may find it consistent to let it go +forward under the general supervision of General Butler, and +particularly in reference to the points he holds vital in exchanges. +Still, you are at liberty to arrest the whole operation if in your +judgment the public good requires it + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A MEMORANDUM BY GENERAL McDOWELL, +OCTOBER 7, 1864 + +I well remember the meetings herein narrated. See nothing for me to +object to in the narrative as being made by General McDowell, except +the phrase attributed to me "of the Jacobinism of Congress," + +[This memorandum describes the private discussions that preceded the +transfer of McClellan's army from the Potomac, where it had +confronted the Confederates at Manassas. See H. J. Raymond: Life of +Lincoln, p. 772] + +which phrase I do not remember using literally or in substance, and +which I wish not to be published in any event. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. W. HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, October 10, 1864. + +HON. HENRY W. HOFFMAN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution +for the State; a public meeting is called for this evening at +Baltimore to aid in securing its ratification by the people, and you +ask a word from me for the occasion. I presume the only feature of +the instrument about which there is serious controversy is that which +provides for the extinction of slavery. It needs not to be a secret +and I presume it is no secret, that I wish success to this provision. +I desire it on every consideration. I wish all men to be free. I +wish the material prosperity of the already free, which I feel sure +the extinction of slavery would bring. I wish to see in process of +disappearing that only thing which ever could bring this nation to +civil war. I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is +already exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more immediately +interested sons of Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be +gratified exceedingly if the good people of the State shall, by their +votes, ratify the new constitution. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 10, 1864, 5 P.M. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: + +Yours of to-day just this moment received, and the Secretary having +left it is impossible for me to answer to-day. I have not received +your letter from Erie. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Cambridge, Mass.: + +Your letter makes us a little uneasy about your health. Telegraph us +how you are. If you think it would help you, make us a visit. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 12, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours about election. +Pennsylvania very close, and still in doubt on home vote. Ohio +largely for us, with all the members of Congress but two or three. +Indiana largely for us,--Governor, it is said, by fifteen thousand, +and eight of the eleven members of Congress. Send us what you may +know of your army vote. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +OCTOBER 19, 1864. + + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am notified that this is a compliment +paid me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer +that the adoption of the new constitution for the State furnishes the +occasion, and that in your view the extirpation of slavery +constitutes the chief merit of the new constitution. Most heartily +do I congratulate you, and Maryland, and the nation, and the world, +upon this event. I regret that it did not occur two years sooner, +which, I am sure, would have saved the nation more money than would +have met all the private loss incident to the measure; but it has +come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully realize all +their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may by +its effects be agreeably and profitably disappointed. + +A word upon another subject. Something said by the Secretary of +State in his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into +a threat, that if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between +then and the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to +ruin the Government. + +Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not +sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular +individual, as the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee +shall be elected he will at once seize control of the Government. I +hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness +on either point. I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to +overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from +overthrowing it. I therefore say, that if I live, I shall remain +President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be +constitutionally elected, in November, shall be duly installed as +President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do my +utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall +start with the best possible chance of saving the ship. This is due +to the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their +will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If +they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the +loss of their country and their liberties, I know not the power or +the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do +as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still +resolved to preserve their country and their liberties; and in this, +in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add, +that in this purpose to save the country and its liberties, no +classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the +field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? +Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and +seamen, with all their brave commanders. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 20, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another +year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs +from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal +victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also +pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their +homes as our soldiers in their camps, and our sailors on the rivers +and seas, with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free +population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to +us new: sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our working- +men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, +he has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds arid hearts with +fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of +civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a +nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us +reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our +dangers and afflictions. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as +a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, +wherever they may be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to +Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And +I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that +occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from +thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the +great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of +peace, union, and harmony throughout the, land which it has pleased +him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity +throughout all generations. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of October, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of +the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM To J. G. NICOLAY. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 21, 1864. 9.45 P.M. + +J. G. NICOLAY, Saint Louis, Missouri: + +While Curtis is fighting Price, have you any idea where the force +under Rosecrans is, or what it is +doing? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., +October 22, 1864. + + +MESSRS WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL, THOMAS A. R. NELSON, JAMES T. P. CARTER, +JOHN WILLIAMS, A. BLIZZARD, HENRY COOPER, BAILLIE PEYTON, JOHN +LELLYET, EMERSON ETHERIDGE, and JOHN D. PERRYMAN. + +GENTLEMEN:--On the 15th day of this month, as I remember, a printed +paper manuscript, with a few manuscript interlineations, called a +protest, with your names appended thereto, and accompanied by another +printed paper, purporting to be a proclamation by Andrew Johnson, +Military Governor of Tennessee, and also a manuscript paper, +purporting to be extracts from the Code of Tennessee, were laid +before me. + +The protest, proclamation, and extracts are respectively as follows: + +[The protest is here recited, and also the proclamation of Governor +Johnson, dated September 30, to which it refers, together with a list +of the counties in East, Middle, and West Tennessee; also extracts +from the Code of Tennessee in relation to electors of President and +Vice-President, qualifications of voters for members of the General +Assembly, places of holding elections, and officers of popular +elections.] + +At the time these papers were presented, as before stated, I had +never seen either of them, nor heard of the subject to which they +related, except in a general way one day previously. + +Up to the present moment, nothing whatever upon the subject has +passed between Governor Johnson, or any one else, connected with the +proclamation, and myself. + +Since receiving the papers, as stated, I have given the subject such +brief consideration as I have been able to do, in the midst of so +many pressing public duties. + +My conclusion is, that I can have nothing to do with the matter, +either to sustain the plan as the convention and Governor Johnson +have initiated it, or to revoke or modify it as you demand. + +By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty +in the presidential election in any State, nor do I in this case +perceive any military reason for his interference in the matter. + +The movement set on foot by the convention and Governor Johnson does +not, as seems to be assumed by you, emanate from the National +Executive. + +In no proper sense can it be considered other than an independent +movement of, at least, a portion of the loyal people of Tennessee. + +I do not perceive in the plan any menace, or violence, or coercion +towards any one. + +Governor Johnson, like any other loyal citizen of Tennessee, has the +right to favor any political plan he chooses, and, as military +governor, it is his duty to keep peace among and for the loyal people +of the State. + +I cannot discern that by this plan he purposes any more. But you +object to the plan. + +Leaving it alone will be your perfect security against it. It is not +proposed to force you into it. Do as you please, on your own +account, peaceably and loyally, and Governor Johnson will not molest +you, but will protect you against violence as far as in his power. + +I presume that the conducting of a presidential election in Tennessee +in strict accordance with the old Code of the State, is not now a +possibility. + +It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any election shall be held +and any votes shall be cast in the State of Tennessee for President +and Vice-President of the United States, it will belong, not to the +military agents, nor yet to the Executive Department, but exclusively +to another department of the Government, to determine whether they +are entitled to be counted in conformity with the Constitution and +laws of the United States. + +Except it be to give protection against violence, I decline to +interfere in any way with any presidential election. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 22, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN: + +With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of +the nation, and my own personal admiration and gratitude, for the +month's operations in the Shenandoah Valley; and especially for the +splendid work of October 19, 1864. +Your obedient servant, +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 23, 1864 5 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +I have received information to-day, having great appearance of +authenticity, that there is to be a rebel raid into Western Kentucky; +that it is to consist of four thousand infantry and three thousand +cavalry, and is to start from Corinth, Mississippi, On the fourth day +of November. + +A. LINCOLN, President. + +Send copy to General Washburn at Memphis. +A. L. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. T. DAVIS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 1864. + +HON. THOMAS T. DAVIS, Syracuse, N.Y.: + +I have ordered that Milton D. Norton be discharged on taking the +oath. Please notify his mother. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ADMITTING NEVADA INTO THE UNION + +OCTOBER 31, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas the Congress of the United States passed an act, which was +approved on the 21st day of March last, entitled "An act to enable +the people of Nevada to form a constitution and State government, and +for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing +with the original States;" and, + +Whereas the said constitution and State government have been formed, +pursuant to the conditions prescribed by the fifth section of the act +of Congress aforesaid, and the certificate required by the said act +and also a copy of the constitution and ordinances have been +submitted to the President of the United States: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act +of Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said +State of Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with +the original States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.......... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURBRIDGE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 4, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky. + +Suspend execution of all the deserters ordered to be executed on +Sunday at Louisville, until further order, and send me the records in +the cases. Acknowledge receipt. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO NAVAL OFFICER AT MOBILE BAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. 9 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL CANBY, New Orleans, La.: + +Please forward with all possible despatch to the naval officer +commanding at Mobile Bay the following order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + +(Inclosure.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. + +NAVAL OFFICER IN COMMAND AT MOBILE BAY + +Do not on any account, or on any showing of authority whatever, from +whomsoever purporting to come, allow the blockade to be violated. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SAILORS' FAIR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 8, 1864. + +TO THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SAILORS' FAIR, +Boston, Massachusetts + +Allow me to wish you a great success. With the old fame of the Navy +made brighter in the present war you cannot fail. I name none lest I +wrong others by omission. To all, from rear-admiral to honest Jack, +I tender the nation's admiration and gratitude. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. H. RICE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. A. H. RICE, Boston, Massachusetts: + +Yours received. I have no other notice that the ox is mine. If it be +really so, I present it to the Sailors' Fair as a contribution. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Auburn, New York: + +News from Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Rosecrans satisfactory, but not +important. Pirate Florida captured by the Wachusett October 7, on +the coast of Brazil. The information is certain. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +NOVEMBER 9, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Even before I had been informed by you +that this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, +friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my +countrymen who think that the best interests of the nation are to be +subserved by the support of the present administration. I do not +pretend to say that you, who think so, embrace all the patriotism and +loyalty of the country, but I do believe, and I trust without +personal interest, that the welfare of the country does require that +such support and indorsement should be given. + +I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work, if it +be as you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting +advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the country. I cannot +at this hour say what has been the result of the election. But, +whatever it may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion: that all +who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union have wrought for the +best interests of the country and the world; not only for the +present, but for all future ages. + +I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while +deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my +heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do +not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure +to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for +this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government +and the rights of humanity. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. W. HOFFMAN. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. November 10, 1864. + +H. HOFFMAN, Baltimore, Md.: + +The Maryland soldiers in the Army of the Potomac cast a total vote of +fourteen hundred and twenty-eight, out of which we get eleven hundred +and sixty majority. This is directly from General Meade and General +Grant. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +NOVEMBER 10, 1864. + +It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too +strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to +maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point the +present rebellion brought our government to a severe test, and a +presidential election occurring in regular course during the +rebellion, added not a little to the strain. + +If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their strength +by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially +paralyzed by a political war among themselves? But the election was a +necessity. We cannot have free government without elections; and if +the election could force us to forego or postpone a national +election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined +us. The strife of the election is but human nature practically +applied to the facts of the case. What has occurred in this case +must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In +any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we +will have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as +good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy +to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. + +But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, +has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government +can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. +Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a +possibility. It shows, also, how sound and strong we still are. It +shows that even among the candidates of the same party, he who is +most devoted to the Union and most opposed to treason can receive +most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to the extent yet known, +that we have more men now than we had when the war began. Gold is +good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better +than gold. + +But the rebellion continues, and, now that the election is over, may +not all have a common interest to reunite in a common effort to save +our common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive +to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been +here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While +I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, and duly +grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God, for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their good, it adds +nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed by +the result. + +May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this +same spirit towards those who have? And now, let me close by asking +three hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their +gallant and skillful commanders. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. +WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +I have just received a telegram from Governor Bramlette saying: +"General John B. Houston, a loyal man and prominent citizen, was +arrested, and yesterday, started off by General Burbridge, to be sent +beyond our lines by way of Catlettsburg, for no other offense than +opposition to your re-election," and I have answered him as follows +below, of which please take notice and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of yesterday received. I can scarcely believe that General +John B. Houston has been arrested "for no other offense than +opposition to my re-election;" for, if that had been deemed +sufficient cause of arrest, I should have heard of more than one +arrest in Kentucky on election day. If, however, General Houston has +been arrested for no other cause than opposition to my re-election, +General Burbridge will discharge him at once, I sending him a copy of +this as an order to that effect. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT: + +Few things since I have been here have impressed me more painfully +than what, for four or five months past, has appeared a bitter +military opposition to the new State government of Louisiana. I +still indulged some hope that I was mistaken in the fact; but copies +of a correspondence on the subject between General Canby and +yourself, and shown me to-day, dispel that hope. A very fair +proportion of the people of Louisiana have inaugurated a new State +government, making an excellent new constitution--better for the poor +black man than we have in Illinois. This was done under military +protection, directed by me, in the belief, still sincerely +entertained, that with such a nucleus around which to build we could +get the State into position again sooner than otherwise. In this +belief a general promise of protection and support, applicable alike +to Louisiana and other States, was given in the last annual message. +During the formation of the new government and constitution they were +supported by nearly every loyal person, and opposed by every +secessionist. And this support and this opposition, from the +respective standpoints of the parties, was perfectly consistent and +logical. Every Unionist ought to wish the new government to succeed; +and every disunionist must desire it to fail. Its failure would +gladden the heart of Slidell in Europe, and of every enemy of the old +flag in the world. Every advocate of slavery naturally desires to +see blasted and crushed the liberty promised the black man by the new +constitution. But why General Canby and General Hurlbut should join +on the same side is to me incomprehensible. + +Of course, in the condition of things at New Orleans, the military +must not be thwarted by the civil authority; but when the +Constitutional Convention, for what it deems a breach of privilege, +arrests an editor in no way connected with the military, the military +necessity for insulting the convention and forcibly discharging the +editor is difficult to perceive. Neither is the military necessity +for protecting the people against paying large salaries fixed by a +legislature of their own choosing very apparent. Equally difficult +to perceive is the military necessity for forcibly interposing to +prevent a bank from loaning its own money to the State. These +things, if they have occurred, are, at the best, no better than +gratuitous hostility. I wish I could hope that they may be shown not +to have occurred. To make assurance against misunderstanding, I +repeat that in the existing condition of things in Louisiana, the +military must not be thwarted by the civil authority; and I add that +on points of difference the commanding general must be judge and +master. But I also add that in the exercise of this judgment and +control, a purpose, obvious, and scarcely unavowed, to transcend all +military necessity, in order to crush out the civil government, will +not be overlooked. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO MARYLAND UNION COMMITTEE, +NOVEMBER 17, 1864. + +The President, in reply, said that he had to confess he had been duly +notified of the intention to make this friendly call some days ago, +and in this he had had a fair opportunity afforded to be ready with a +set speech; but he had not prepared one, being too busy for that +purpose. He would say, however, that he was gratified with the +result of the presidential election. He had kept as near as he could +to the exercise of his best judgment for the interest of the whole +country, and to have the seal of approbation stamped on the course he +had pursued was exceedingly grateful to his feelings. He thought he +could say, in as large a sense as any other man, that his pleasure +consisted in belief that the policy he had pursued was the best, if +not the only one, for the safety of the country. + +He had said before, and now repeated, that he indulged in no feeling +of triumph over any man who thought or acted differently from +himself. He had no such feeling toward any living man. When he +thought of Maryland, in particular, he was of the opinion that she +had more than double her share in what had occurred in the recent +elections. The adoption of a free-State constitution was a greater +thing than the part taken by the people of the State in the +presidential election. He would any day have stipulated to lose +Maryland in the presidential election to save it by the adoption of a +free-State constitution, because the presidential election comes +every four years, while that is a thing which, being done, cannot be +undone. He therefore thought that in that they had a victory for +the right worth a great deal more than their part in the presidential +election, though of the latter he thought highly. He had once before +said, but would say again, that those who have differed with us and +opposed us will see that the result of the presidential election is +better for their own good than if they had been successful. + +Thanking the committee for their compliment, he brought his brief +speech to a close. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, +NOVEMBER 19, 1864 + +BF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, it was +declared that the ports of certain States, including those of +Norfolk, in the State of Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, in the +State of Florida, were, for reasons therein set forth, intended to be +placed under blockade; and: + +Whereas the said ports were subsequently blockaded accordingly, but +having for some time past been in the military possession of the +United States, it is deeemd advisable that they should be opened to +domestic and foreign commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth +section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, +entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on +imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade +of the said ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola shall so far +cease and determine, from and after the first day of December next, +that commercial intercourse with those ports, except as to persons, +things, and information contraband of war, may, from that time, be +carried on, subject to the laws of the United States, to the +limitations and in pursuance of the regulations which may be +prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and to such military and +naval regulations as are now in force, or may hereafter be found +necessary. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +FIVE-STAR MOTHER + +TO MRS. BIXBY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 21, 1864. + +MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts. + +DEAR MADAM:--I have been shown in the files of the War Department a +statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the +mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. +I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should +attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But +I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be +found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that +our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and +leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the +solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice +upon the altar of freedom. + +Yours very sincerely and respectfully, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. PHILLIPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 21, 1864. + +DEACON JOHN PHILLIPS. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, +in which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of +writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment +paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable. + +The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have +already been extended an average lifetime beyond the Psalmist's +limit, cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself +only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so +long and so well, that I thank you. + +Your friend and servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. +WASHINGTON, D. C. NOVEMBER 22, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of to-day received. It seems that Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs +and Colonel Wolford are stationary now. General Sudarth and Mr. +Hodges are here, and the Secretary of War and myself are trying to +devise means of pacification and harmony for Kentucky, which we hope +to effect soon, now that the passion-exciting subject of the election +is past. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, +WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 25, 1864 + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; + +I have no knowledge, information, or belief, that three States--or +any States, offer to resume allegiance. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. 26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS: + +Please telegraph me briefly on what charge and evidence Mrs. Anna B. +Martin has been sent to the penitentiary at Alton. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM, + +DECEMBER 3, 1864. + +On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee came before the +President, asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of +war at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they +came again, and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the +interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious +man, and on Saturday the President ordered the release of the +prisoners, when he said to this lady: "You say your husband is a +religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say I am not much +of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that +sets men to rebel and fight against their own government, because, as +they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to +eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of +religion upon which people can get to heaven." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE STEAMER "FUNAYMA SOLACE." + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 3, 1864. + +A war steamer, called the Funayma Solace, having been built in this +country, for the Japanese government and at the instance of that +government, it is deemed to comport with the public interest, in view +of the unsettled condition of the relations of the United States with +that Empire, that the steamer should not be allowed to proceed to +Japan. If, however, the Secretary of the Navy should ascertain that +the steamer is adapted to our service, he is authorized to purchase +her, but the purchase money will be held in trust toward satisfying +any valid claims which may be presented by the Japanese on account of +the construction of the steamer and the failure to deliver the same, +as above set forth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864 + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: ` + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Captain John A. Winslow, United States Navy, receive a vote of +thanks from Congress for the skill and gallantry exhibited by him in +the brilliant action whilst in command of the United States steamer +Keaysarge, which led to the total destruction of the piratical craft +Alabama, on the 19th of June, 1864., a vessel superior in tonnage, +superior in number of guns, and superior in number of crew. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade, if, upon recommendation by the President by name he receives +the thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict +with the enemy, or far extraordinary heroism in the line of his +profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Lieutenant William B. Gushing, United States Navy, receive a +vote of thanks from Congress for his important, gallant, and perilous +achievement in destroying the rebel ironclad steamer Albemarle on the +night of the 27th of October, i86q., at Plymouth, N. C. + +The destruction of so formidable a vessel, which had resisted the +continued attacks of a number of our vessels on former occasions, is +an important event touching our future naval and military operations, +and would reflect honor on any officer, and redounds to the credit of +this young officer and the few brave comrades who assisted in this +successful and daring undertaking. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the Aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, namely: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with +the enemy, or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his +profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES: + +Again the blessings of health and abundant harvests claim our +profoundest gratitude to Almighty God. + +The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably satisfactory. + +Mexico continues to be a theater of civil war. While our political +relations with that country have undergone no change, we have at the +same time strictly maintained neutrality between the belligerents. + +At the request of the States of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a competent +engineer has been authorized to make a survey of the river San Juan +and the port of San Juan. It is a source of much satisfaction that +the difficulties which for a moment excited some political +apprehensions and caused a closing of the interoceanic transit route +have been amicably adjusted, and that there is a good prospect that +the route will soon be reopened with an increase of capacity and +adaptation. We could not exaggerate either the commercial or the +political importance of that great improvement. + +It would be doing injustice to an important South American State not +to acknowledge the directness, frankness, and cordiality with which +the United States of Colombia have entered into intimate relations +with this government. A claims convention has been constituted to +complete the unfinished work of the one which closed its session in +1861. + +The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having gone into effect +with the universal acquiescence of the people, the government under +it has been recognized and diplomatic intercourse with it has opened +in a cordial and friendly spirit. The long-deferred Aves Island +claim has been satisfactorily paid and discharged. + +Mutual payments have been made of the claims awarded by the late +joint commission for the settlement of claims between the United +States and Peru. An earnest and cordial friendship continues to +exist between the two countries, and such efforts as were in my power +have been used to remove misunderstanding, and avert a threatened war +between Peru and Spain. + +Our relations are of the most friendly nature with Chile, the +Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salvador, and +Haiti. + +During the past year no differences of any kind have arisen with any +of these republics, and on the other hand, their sympathies with the +United States are constantly expressed with cordiality and +earnestness. + +The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo of the brig +Macedonian in 1821 has been paid in full by the Government of Chile. + +Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San Domingo, apparently +without prospect of an early close. + +Official correspondence has been freely opened with Liberia, and it +gives us a pleasing view of social and political progress in that +republic. It may be expected to derive new vigor from American +influence improved by the rapid disappearance of slavery in the +United States. + +I solicit your authority to furnish to the republic a gunboat, at +moderate cost, to be reimbursed to the United States by instalments. +Such a vessel is needed for the safety of that state against the +native African races, and in Liberian hands it would be more +effective in arresting the African slave-trade than a squadron in our +own hands. The possession of the least organized naval force would +stimulate a generous ambition in the republic, and the confidence +which we should manifest by furnishing it would win forbearance and +favor toward the colony from all civilized nations. + +The proposed overland telegraph between America and Europe, by the +way of Bering Straits and Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by +Congress at the last session, has been undertaken, under very +favorable circumstances, by an association of American citizens, with +the cordial good-will and support as well of this Government as of +those of Great Britain and Russia. Assurances have been received +from most of the South American States of their high appreciation of +the enterprise and their readiness to co-operate in constructing +lines tributary to that world-encircling communication. I learn with +much satisfaction that the noble design of a telegraphic +communication between the eastern coast of America and Great Britain +has been renewed, with full expectation of its early accomplishment. + +Thus it is hoped that with the return of domestic peace the country +will be able to resume with energy and advantage its former high +career of commerce and civilization. + +Our very popular and estimable representative in Egypt died in April +last. An unpleasant altercation which arose between the temporary +incumbent of the office and the Government of the Pasha resulted in a +suspension of intercourse. The evil was promptly corrected on the +arrival of the successor in the consulate, and our relations with +Egypt, as well as our relations with the Barbary Powers) are entirely +satisfactory. + +The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in China has at last +been suppressed, with the co-operating good offices of this +Government and of the other Western commercial States. The judicial +consular establishment there has become very difficult and onerous, +and it will need legislative revision to adapt it to the extension of +our commerce and to the more intimate intercourse which has been +instituted with the Government and people of that vast Empire. China +seems to be accepting with hearty good-will the conventional laws +which regulate commercial and social intercourse among the Western +nations. + +Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan and the anomalous form of +its Government, the action of that empire in performing treaty +stipulations is inconstant and capricious. Nevertheless, good +progress has been effected by the Western powers, moving with +enlightened concert. Our own pecuniary claims have been allowed or +put in course of settlement, and the inland sea has been reopened to +commerce. There is reason also to believe that these proceedings +have increased rather than diminished the friendship of Japan toward +the United States. + +The ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola have been opened by +proclamation. It is hoped that foreign merchants will now consider +whether it is not safer and more profitable to themselves, as well as +just to the United States, to resort to these and other open ports +than it is to pursue, through many hazards and at vast cost, a +contraband trade with other ports which are closed, if not by actual +military occupation, at least by a lawful and effective blockade. + +For myself, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive, +under the law of nations, to exclude enemies of the human race from +an asylum in the United States. If Congress should think that +proceedings in such cases lack the authority of law, or ought to be +further regulated by it, I recommend that provision be made for +effectually preventing foreign slave traders from acquiring domicile +and facilities for their criminal occupation in our country. + +It is possible that if it were a new and open question the maritime +powers, with the lights they now enjoy, would not concede the +privileges of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the United +States, destitute, as they are, and always have been, equally of +ships of war and of ports and harbors. Disloyal emissaries have been +neither assiduous nor more successful during the last year than they +were before that time in their efforts, under favor of that +privilege, to embroil our country in foreign wars. The desire and +determination of the governments of the maritime states to defeat +that design are believed to be as sincere as and can not be more +earnest than our own. Nevertheless, unforeseen political +difficulties have arisen, especially in Brazilian and British ports +and on the northern boundary of the United States, which have +required, and are likely to continue to require, the practice of +constant vigilance and a just and conciliatory spirit on the part of +the United States, as well as of the nations concerned and their +governments. + +Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great Britain +on the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound +Agricultural Companies, in Oregon, and are now proceeding to the +execution of the trust assigned to them. + +In view of the insecurity of life and property in the region adjacent +to the Canadian border, by reason of recent assaults and depredations +committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, +it has been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration +of six months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing +arrangement with Great Britain, the United States must hold +themselves at liberty to increase their naval armament upon the Lakes +if they shall find that proceeding necessary. The condition of the +border will necessarily come into consideration in connection with +the question of continuing or modifying the rights of transit from +Canada through the United States, as well as the regulation of +imposts, which were temporarily established by the reciprocity treaty +of the 5th June, 1854. + +I desire, however, to be understood while making this statement that +the colonial authorities of Canada are not deemed to be intentionally +unjust or unfriendly toward the United States, but, on the contrary, +there is every reason to expect that, with the approval of the +Imperial Government, they will take the necessary measures to prevent +new incursions across the border. + +The act passed at the last session for the encouragement of +immigration has so far as was possible been put into operation. It +seems to need amendment which will enable the officers of the +Government to prevent the practice of frauds against the immigrants +while on their way and on their arrival in the ports, so as to secure +them here a free choice of avocations and places of settlement. A +liberal disposition toward this great national policy is manifested +by most of the European States, and ought to be reciprocated on our +part by giving the immigrants effective national protection. I +regard our immigrants as one of the principal replenishing streams +which are appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of internal +war and its wastes of national strength and health. All that is +necessary is to secure the flow of that stream in its present +fullness, and to that end the Government must in every way make it +manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose involuntary +military service upon those who come from other lands to cast their +lot in our country. The financial affairs of the Government have +been successfully administered during the last year. The legislation +of the last session of Congress has beneficially affected the +revenues, although sufficient time has not yet elapsed to experience +the full effect of several of the provisions of the acts of Congress +imposing increased taxation. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, upon the basis of +warrants signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans and +the balance in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1863, were +$1,394, +196,007.62, and the aggregate disbursements, upon the same basis, +were $1,298,056,101.89, leaving a balance in the Treasury, as shown +by warrants, of $96,739,905.73. + +Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public +debt redeemed and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and +the actual cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, +$884,076,646.57; disbursements, $865,234,087.86; which leaves a cash +balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558.71. + +Of the receipts there were derived from customs $102,316,152.99, +from lands $588,333.29, from direct taxes $475,648.96, from +internal revenue $109,741,134.10, from miscellaneous sources +$47,511,448.10, and from loans applied to actual expenditures, +including former balance, $623,443,929.13. + +There were disbursed for the civil service $27,505,599.46, for +pensions and Indians $7,517,930.97, for the War Department +$690,791,842.97, for the Navy Department $85,733,292.77, for interest +on the public debt $53,685,421.69, making an aggregate of +$865,234,087.86, and leaving a balance in the Treasury of +$18,842,558.71, as before stated. + +For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and +the estimated receipts and disbursements for the three remaining +quarters of the current fiscal year, and the general operations of +the Treasury in detail, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of +the Treasury. I concur with him in the opinion that the proportion +of moneys required to meet the expenses consequent upon the war +derived from taxation should be still further increased; and I +earnestly invite your attention to this subject to the end that there +be such additional legislation as shall be required to meet the just +expectations of the Secretary. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, as appears by the +books of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489.49. Probably, +should the war continue for another year, that amount may be +increased by not far from $500,000,000. Held, as it is, for the most +part by our own people, it has become a substantial branch of +national, though private, property. For obvious reasons the more +nearly this property can be distributed among all the people the +better. To favor such general distribution, greater inducements to +become owners might, perhaps, with good effect and without injury be +presented to persons of limited means. With this view I suggest +whether it might not be both competent and expedient for Congress to +provide that a limited amount of some future issue of public +securities might be held by any bona fide purchaser exempt from +taxation and from seizure for debt, under such restrictions and +limitations as might be necessary to guard against abuse of so +important a privilege. This would enable every prudent person to set +aside a small annuity against a possible day of want. + +Privileges like these would render the possession of such securities +to the amount limited most desirable to every person of small means +who might be able to save enough for the purpose. The great +advantage of citizens being creditors as well as debtors with +relation to the public debt is obvious. Men readily perceive that +they can not be much oppressed by a debt which they owe to +themselves. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, although somewhat +exceeding the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to +Congress at the commencement of the last session, falls short of the +estimate of that officer made in the preceding December as to its +probable amount at the beginning of this year by the sum of +$3,995,097.31. This fact exhibits a satisfactory condition and +conduct of the operations of the Treasury. + +The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to +capitalists and to the people. On the twenty-fifth day of November +five hundred and eighty-four national banks had been organized, a +considerable number of which were conversions from State banks. +Changes from State systems to the national system are rapidly taking +place, and it is hoped that very soon there will be in the United +States no banks of issue not authorized by Congress and no bank-note +circulation not secured by the Government. That the Government and +the people will derive great benefit from this change in the banking +systems of the country can hardly be questioned. The national system +will create a reliable and permanent influence in support of the +national credit and protect the people against losses in the use of +paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is advisable for +the suppression of State-bank issues, it will be for Congress to +determine. It seems quite clear that the Treasury can not be +satisfactorily conducted unless the Government can exercise a +restraining power over the bank-note circulation of the country. + +The report of the Secretary of War and the accompanying documents +will detail the campaigns of the armies in the field since the date +of the last annual message, and also the operations of the several +administrative bureaus of the War Department during the last year. +It will also specify the measures deemed essential for the national +defense and to keep up and supply the requisite military force. + +The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehensive and +satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that Department and of the +naval service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable pride +to our countrymen that a Navy of such vast proportions has been +organized in so brief a period and conducted with so much efficiency +and success. + +The general exhibit of the Navy, including vessels under construction +on the first of December, 1864, shows a total of 671 vessels, +carrying 4610 guns, and of 510,396 tons, being an actual increase +during the year, over and above all losses by shipwreck or in battle, +of 83 vessels, 167 guns, and 42,427 tons. + +The total number of men at this time in the naval service, including +officers, is about 51,000. + +There have been captured by the Navy during the year 324 vessels, and +the whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced is +1379, of which 267 are steamers. + +The gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property +thus far reported amount to $14,369,250.51. A large amount of such +proceeds is still under adjudication and yet to be reported. + +The total expenditure of the Navy Department of every description, +including the cost of the immense squadrons that have been called +into existence from the fourth of March, 1861, to the first of +November, 1864, is $238,647,262.35. + +Your favorable consideration is invited to the various +recommendations of the Secretary of the Navy, especially in regard to +a navy-yard and suitable establishment for the construction and +repair of iron vessels and the machinery and armature for our ships, +to which reference was made in my last annual message. + +Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the report +in relation to the legislation of Congress at its last session in +respect to prize on our inland waters. + +I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to the +propriety of creating the new rank of vice-admiral in our naval +service. + +Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster-General for +a detailed account of the operations and financial condition of the +Post-Office Department. + +The postal revenues for the year ending June 30, 1864, amounted to +$12,438,253.78, and the expenditures to $12,644,786.20, the excess of +expenditures over receipts being $206,532.42. + +The views presented by the Postmaster-General on the subject of +special grants by the Government in aid of the establishment of new +lines of ocean mail steamships and the policy he recommends for the +development of increased commercial intercourse with adjacent and +neighboring countries should receive the careful consideration of +Congress. + +It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of population, +improvement, and governmental institutions over the new and +unoccupied portions of our country have scarcely been checked, much +less impeded or destroyed, by our great civil war, which at first +glance would seem to have absorbed almost the entire energies of the +nation. + +The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been +completed in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is +firmly established in the mountains, which once seemed a barren and +uninhabitable waste between the Atlantic States and those which have +grown up on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. + +The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of +prosperity and rapid growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their +great distance and the interruption of communication with them by +Indian hostilities, have been only partially organized; but it is +understood that these difficulties are about to disappear, which will +permit their governments, like those of the others, to go into speedy +and full operation. + +As intimately connected with and promotive of this material growth of +the nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the valuable +information and important recommendations relating to the public +lands, Indian affairs, the Pacific Railroad, and mineral discoveries +contained in the report of the Secretary of the Interior which is +herewith transmitted, and which report also embraces the subjects of +patents, pensions, and other topics of public interest pertaining to +his Department. + +The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters +ending on the thirtieth of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of +which 1,538,614 acres were entered under the homestead law. The +remainder was located with military land warrants, agricultural scrip +certified to States for railroads, and sold for cash. The cash +received from sales and location fees was $1,019,446. + +The income from sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, +was $678,007.21, against $136,077.95 received during the preceding +year. The aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has +been equal to the quantity disposed of, and there is open to +settlement about 133,000,000 acres of surveyed land. + +The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific +States by railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a +vigor that gives assurance of success, notwithstanding the +embarrassments arising from the prevailing high prices of materials +and labor. The route of the main line of the road has been +definitely located for one hundred miles westward from the initial +point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location of the +Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento eastward +to the great bend of the Truckee River in Nevada. + +Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been +added to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the +Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains and the subordinate ranges now +teems with enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is +believed that the produce of the mines of precious metals in that +region has during the year reached, if not exceeded, $100,000,000 in +value. + +It was recommended in my last annual message that our Indian system +be remodeled. Congress at its last session, acting upon the +recommendation, did provide for reorganizing the system in +California, and it is believed that under the present organization +the management of the Indians there will be attended with reasonable +success. Much yet remains to be done to provide for the proper +government of the Indians in other parts of the country, to render it +secure for the advancing settler, and to provide for the welfare of +the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recommendations, and to +them the attention of Congress is invited. + + +The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to +invalid soldiers and sailors of the Republic and to the widows, +orphans, and dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle or +died of disease contracted or of wounds received in the service of +their country have been diligently administered. There have been +added to the pension rolls during the year ending the 3oth day of +June last the names of 16,770 invalid soldiers and of 271 disabled +seamen, making the present number of army invalid pensioners 22,767 +and of navy invalid pensioners 712. + +Of widows, orphans, and mothers 22,198 have been placed on the army +pension rolls and 248 on the navy rolls. The present number of army +pensioners of this class is 25,433 and of navy pensioners 793. At +the beginning of the year the number of Revolutionary pensioners was +1430. Only twelve of them were soldiers, of whom seven have since +died. The remainder are those who under the law receive pensions +because of relationship to Revolutionary soldiers. During the year +ending the thirtieth of June, 1864, $4,504,616.92 have been paid to +pensioners of all classes. + +I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent +institutions of the District of Columbia which have hitherto been +established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer for +information concerning them and in relation to the Washington +Aqueduct, the Capitol, and other matters of local interest to the +report of the Secretary. + +The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present +energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself to the +great and vital interest it was created to advance. It is peculiarly +the people's department, in which they feel more directly concerned +than in any other. I commend it to the continued attention and +fostering care of Congress. + +The war continues. Since the last annual message all the important +lines and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained +and our arms have steadily advanced, thus liberating the regions left +in rear, so that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other +States have again produced reasonably fair crops. + +The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year is +General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles directly +through the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of +our relative strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to +confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet +to detach a well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition. +The result not yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not +here indulged. + +Important movements have also occurred during the year to the effect +of molding society for durability in the Union. Although short of +complete success, it is much in the right direction that twelve +thousand citizens in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana +have organized loyal State governments, with free constitutions, and +are earnestly struggling to maintain and administer them. The +movements in the same direction more extensive though less definite +in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, should not be overlooked. But +Maryland presents the example of complete success. Maryland is +secure to liberty and union for all the future. The genius of +rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit +being driven out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no +more. + +At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the +Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United States passed +the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in +the House of Representatives. Although the present is the same +Congress and nearly the same members, and without questioning the +wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to +recommend the reconsideration and passage of the measure at the +present session. Of course the abstract question is not changed; but +an intervening election shows almost certainly that the next Congress +will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is only a +question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the +States for their action. And as it is to so go at all events, may we +not agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the +election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their +votes any further than, as an additional element to be considered, +their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people +now for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national +crisis like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common +end is very desirable, almost indispensable. And yet no approach to +such unanimity is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to +the will of the majority simply because it is the will of the +majority. In this case the common end is the maintenance of the +Union, and among the means to secure that end such will, through the +election, is most clearly declared in favor of such Constitutional +amendment. + +The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is +derived through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass +and its result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to +maintain the integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more +nearly unanimous than now. The extraordinary calmness and good order +with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls give +strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union +ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party also +may be fairly claimed to entertain and to be actuated by the same +purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this effect that no +candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek +votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There have +been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy as to the +proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause, but on the +distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their +instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. +In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to +another and to the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the +election has been of vast value to the national cause. + +The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be +known--the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most +important branch of national resources, that of living men. While it +is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many graves and +carried mourning to so many hearts, it is some relief to know that, +compared with the surviving, the fallen have been so few. While +corps and divisions and brigades and regiments have formed and fought +and dwindled and gone out of existence, a great majority of the men +who composed them are still living. The same is true of the naval +service. The election returns prove this. So many voters could not +else be found. The States regularly holding elections, both now and +four years ago, to wit, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, +Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, +Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and +Wisconsin, cast 3,982,011 votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then, +showing an aggregate now of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 +cast now in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States did not +vote in 1860, thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,773 and the net +increase during the three years and a half of war to 145,551. A +table is appended showing particulars. To this again should be added +the number of all soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode +Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who +by the laws of those States could not vote away from their homes, and +which number can not be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. The +number in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years +ago--while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms +press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively and +negatively, by the election. It is not material to inquire how the +increase has been produced or to show that it would have been greater +but for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains +demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war +began; that we are not exhausted nor in process of exhaustion; that +we are gaining strength and may if need be maintain the contest +indefinitely. [This sentence recognizes the concern of a guerilla +war after the main war finished.]This as to men. Material resources +are now more complete and abundant than ever. + +The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe, +inexhaustible. The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the +national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. +The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful +consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that no +attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any +good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union, +precisely what we will not and can not give. His declarations to +this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does not attempt to +deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He can +not voluntarily reaccept the Union; we can not voluntarily yield it. +Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It +is an issue which can only be tried by war and decided by victory. +If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, he is +beaten. Either way it would be the victory and defeat following war. +What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause is not +necessarily true of those who follow. Although he can not reaccept +the Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire peace and +reunion. The number of such may increase. They can at any moment +have peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the +national authority under the Constitution. After so much the +Government could not, if it would, maintain war against them. The +loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should +remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legislation, +conference, courts, and votes, operating only in Constitutional and +lawful channels. Some certain, and other possible, questions are and +would be beyond the Executive power to adjust; as, for instance, the +admission of members into Congress and whatever might require the +appropriation of money. The Executive power itself would be greatly +diminished by the cessation of actual war. Pardons and remissions of +forfeitures, however, would still be within Executive control. In +what spirit and temper this control would be exercised can be fairly +judged of by the past. + +A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, were +offered to all except certain designated classes, and it was at the +same time made known that the excepted classes were still within +contemplation of special clemency. During the year many availed +themselves of the general provision, and many more would, only that +the signs of bad faith in some led to such precautionary measures as +rendered the practical process less easy and certain. During the +same time also special pardons have been granted to individuals of +the excepted classes, and no voluntary application has been denied. +Thus practically the door has been for a full year open to all except +such as were not in condition to make free choice; that is, such as +were in custody or under constraint. It is still so open to all. +But the time may come, probably will come, when public duty shall +demand that it be closed and that in lieu more rigorous measures than +heretofore shall be adopted. + +In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national +authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable +condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract +nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made +a year ago, that "while I remain in my present position I shall not +attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall +I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that +proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress." If the people +should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re- +enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to +perform it. +In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the +war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have +ceased on the part of those who began it. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I believe I shall never be old enough +to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. I +have no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news to tell. +We have talked of elections until there is nothing more to say about +them. The most interesting news now we have is from Sherman. We all +know where he went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. +I will now close by proposing three cheers for General Sherman and +his army. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR HALL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 7, 1864. + +GOVERNOR HALL, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Complaint is made to me of the doings of a man at Hannibal, Mo., by +the name of Haywood, who, as I am told, has charge of some militia +force, and is not in the United States service. Please inquire into +the matter and correct anything you may find amiss if in your power. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL FASLEIGH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1864. + +COLONEL FASLEIGH, Louisville, Ky.: + +I am appealed to in behalf of a man by the name of Frank Fairbairns, +said to have been for a long time and still in prison, without any +definite ground stated. How is it? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPOINTING COMMISSIONERS TO INVESTIGATE THE MILITARY DIVISION +WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 10, 1864. + +ORDERED, First, that Major-General William P. Smith and the Hon. +Henry Stanbery be, and they are hereby, appointed special +commissioners to investigate and report, for the information of the +President; upon the civil and military administration in the military +division bordering upon and west of the Mississippi, under such +instructions as shall be issued by authority of the President and the +War Department. + +Second, said commissioners shall have power to examine witnesses upon +oath, and to take such proofs orally or in writing, upon the subject- +matters of investigation as they may deem expedient, and return the +same together with their report. + +Third, all officers and persons in the military, naval and revenue +services, or in any branch of the public service under the authority +of the United States Government, are required, upon subpoena issued +by direction of the said commissioners, to appear before them at such +time and place as may be designated in said subpoena and to give +testimony on oath touching such matters as may be inquired of by the +commissioners, and to produce such books, papers, writings, and +documents as they may be notified or required to produce by the +commissioners, and as may be in their possession. + +Fourth, said special commissioners shall also investigate and report +upon any other matters that may hereafter be directed by the +Secretary of War, and shall with all convenient dispatch make report +to him in writing of their investigation, and shall also from time to +time make special reports to the Secretary of War upon such matters +as they may deem of importance to the public interests. + +Fifth, the Secretary of War shall assign to the said commissioners +such aid and assistance as may be required for the performance of +their duties, and make such just and reasonable allowances and +compensation for the said commissioners and for the persons employed +by them as he may deem proper. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G, H. THOMAS. +WASHINGTON, D.C., December 16, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Please accept for yourself, officers, and men, the nation's thanks +for your good work of yesterday. You made a magnificent beginning; a +grand consummation is within your easy reach. Do not let it slip. + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +ORIGIN OF THE "GREENBACK" CURRENCY + +TO COLONEL B. D. TAYLOR + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December [16 ?], 1864. + +DEAR COLONEL DICK:--I have long determined to make public the origin +of the greenback and tell the world that it is Dick Taylor's +creation. You had always been friendly to me, and when troublous +times fell on us, and my shoulders, though broad and willing, were +weak, and myself surrounded by such circumstances and such people +that I knew not whom to trust, then I said in my extremity: "I will +send for Colonel Taylor; he will know what to do." I think it was in +January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that I did so. You came, and I +said to you: + +"What can we do?" Said you, "Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no +interest, printed on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off +the Army expenses and declare it legal tender." + +Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accomplished it, +and gave the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever +had-their own paper to pay their own debts. + +It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the +people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known. +How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was +too lazy to be anything but a lawyer. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT CHATTANOOGA. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 16, 1864 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +It is said that Harry Walters, a private in the Anderson cavalry, is +now and for a long time has been in prison at Chattanooga. Please +report to me what is his condition, and for what he is imprisoned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR 300,000 VOLUNTEERS, DECEMBER 19, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further +to regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the +national forces, and for other purposes," it is provided that the +President of the United States may, "at his discretion, at any time +hereafter, call for any number of men, as volunteers for the +respective terms of one, two, and three years for military service," +and "that in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, +township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any +country not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the space of +fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately +order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part thereof +which may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas, by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of +Congress on the call for 500,000 men, made July 18, 1864, the number +of men to be obtained under that call was reduced to 280,000; and + +Whereas, the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered +it impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops +under said call; and + +Whereas, from the foregoing causes but 240,000 men have been put into +the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, +1864, leaving a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty +thousand (260,000): + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency and to provide +for casualties in the military and naval service of the United +States, do issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) +volunteers to serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the +States, districts, and subdistricts under this call will be assigned +by the War Department through the bureau of the Provost-Marshal +General of the United States, and "in case the quota or any part +thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election +district, or of any county not so subdivided, shall not be filled" +before the fifteenth of February, 1865, then a draft shall be made to +fill such quota or any part thereof under this call which may be +unfilled on said fifteenth day of February, 1865. +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.......... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864 + +MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN:--Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, +the capture of Savannah. + +When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was +anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, +and remembering that "nothing risked, nothing gained," I did not +interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all +yours; for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce. + +And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be +taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the +obvious and immediate military advantages; but in showing to the +world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to +an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old +opposing force of the whole,--Hood's army,--it brings those who sat +in darkness to see a great light. But what next? + +I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to +decide. + +Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army of +officers and men. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT LEXINGTON. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Lexington, Ky.: + +If within your power send me the particulars of the causes for which +Lieutenant-Governor Jacob was arrested and sent away. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. MACLEAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + + +Dr. JOHN MACLEAN: + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your +note of the twentieth of December, conveying the announcement that +the Trustees of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the +degree of Doctor of Laws. + +The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of +the Government which I represent, has received the approval of a body +of gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of +public trial, is most grateful to me. + +Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this +continent is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most +gratifying proofs of this conviction is the hearty devotion +everywhere exhibited by our schools and colleges to the national +cause. + +I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct to the +preservation of those institutions, under which alone we can expect +good government and in its train sound learning, and the progress of +the liberal arts. + +I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 28, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn.: + +Suspend execution of James R. Mallory, for six weeks from Friday the +thirtieth of this month, which time I have given his friends to make +proof, if they can, upon certain points. + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1864. 5.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of +the Wilmington expedition, present and prospective. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 29, 1864. , + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER: + +There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, First +Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, at Chapin's Farm, +Va.; under the assumed name of William Stanley, but whose real name +is Frank R. Judd, and who is under arrest, and probably about to be +tried for desertion. He is the son of our present minister to +Prussia, who is a close personal friend of Senator Trumbull and +myself. We are not willing for the boy to be shot, but we think it +as well that his trial go regularly on, suspending execution until +further order from me and reporting to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL WARNER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 30, 1864. + +COLONEL WARNER, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +It is said that you were on the court-martial that tried John Lennon, +and that you are disposed to advise his being pardoned and sent to +his regiment. If this be true, telegraph me to that effect at once. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. WILLIAMS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 4, 1865. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Let Trumbo's substitute be regularly mustered in, send me the +evidence that it is done and I will then discharge Trumbo. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, a +"joint resolution to correct certain clerical errors in the internal +revenue act," without my approval. + +My reason for so doing is that I am informed that this joint +resolution was prepared during the last moments of the last session +of Congress for the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference +in the internal revenue act, which were discovered on an examination +of an official copy procured from the State Department a few hours +only before the adjournment. It passed the House and went to the +Senate, where a vote was taken upon it, but by some accident it was +not presented to the President of the Senate for his signature. + +Since the adjournment of the last session of Congress, other errors +of a kind similar to those which this resolution was designed to +correct, have been discovered in the law, and it is now thought most +expedient to include all the necessary corrections in one act or +resolution. + +The attention of the proper committee of the House has, I am +informed, been already directed to the preparation of a bill for this +purpose. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Richard T. Jacob, Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, is at the +Spotswood House, in Richmond, under an order of General Burbridge not +to return to Kentucky. Please communicate leave to him to pass our +lines, and come to me here at Washington. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 6, 1865, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +If there is a man at City Point by the name of Waterman Thornton who +is in trouble about desertion, please have his case briefly stated to +me and do not let him be executed meantime. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I transmit to Congress a +copy of two treaties between the United States and Belgium, for the +extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, etc., concluded on the twentieth +of May, 1863, and twentieth of July, 1863, respectively, the +ratifications of which were exchanged at Brussels on the twenty- +fourth of June last; and I recommend an appropriation to carry into +effect the provisions thereof relative to the payment of the +proportion of the United States toward the capitalization of the said +dues. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SCHUYLER COLFAX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, +Speaker of the House of Representatives. + +SIR:--I transmit herewith the letter of the Secretary of War, with +accompanying report of the Adjutant-General, in reply to the +resolution of the House of Representatives, dated December 7, 1864, +requesting me "to communicate to the House the report made by Col. +Thomas M. Key of an interview between himself and General Howell Cobb +on the fourteenth [15th] day of June, 1862, on the banks of the +Chickahominy, on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war." + +I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCE, +JANUARY 10, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the twenty-eighth of September, 1850, +entitled "An act to create additional collection districts in the +State of California, and to change the existing districts therein, +and to modify the existing collection districts in the United +States," extends to merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege +of being exported to the British North American provinces adjoining +the United States, in the manner prescribed in the act of Congress of +the third of March, 1845, which designates certain frontier ports +through which merchandise may be exported, and further provides "that +such other ports situated on the frontiers of the United States, +adjoining the British North American provinces, as may hereafter be +found expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges on the +recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation +duly made by the President of the United States, specially +designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be +extended;" + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of +the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of St. +Albans, in the State of Vermont, is, and shall be, entitled to all +the privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to +the British North American provinces adjoining the United States, +which are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of +the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and +after the date of this proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of January, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred-and sixty-five, and of +the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 10, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +No principal report of yours on the Wilmington expedition has ever +reached the War Department, as I am informed there. A preliminary +report did reach here, but was returned to General Grant at his +request. Of course, leave to publish cannot be given without +inspection of the paper, and not then if it should be deemed to be +detrimental to the public service. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Yours asking leave to come to Washington is received. You have been +summoned by the Committee on the Conduct of the War to attend here, +which, of course, you will do. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 15, 1865. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours announcing ordinance of emancipation received. Thanks to the +convention and to you. When do you expect to be here? Would be glad +to have your suggestion as to supplying your place of military +governor. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +It is represented to me that there is so much irregular violence in +northern Missouri as to be driving away the people and almost +depopulating it. Please gather information, and consider whether an +appeal to the people there to go to their homes and let one another +alone recognizing as a full right of protection for each that he lets +others alone, and banning only him who refuses to let others alone +may not enable you to withdraw the troops, their presence itself +[being] a cause of irritation and constant apprehension, and thus +restore peace and quiet, and returning prosperity. Please consider +this and telegraph or write me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FIRST OVERTURES FOR SURRENDER FROM DAVIS + +TO P. P. BLAIR, SR. + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:-You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but +only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having +graduated at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it +ends. I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a +commission, to which those who have already served long are better +entitled and better qualified to hold. Could he, without +embarrassment to you, or detriment to the service, go into your +military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, +furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the least +hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that you +shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +If Mrs. Beattie, alias Mrs. Wolff, shall be sentenced to death, +notify me, and postpone the execution till further order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD: + +You have a man in arrest for desertion passing by the name of +Stanley. William Stanley, I think, but whose real name is different. +He is the son of so close a friend of mine that I must not let him be +executed. Please let me know what is his present and prospective +condition. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Mo.: + +It is said an old lady in Clay County, Missouri, by name Mrs. +Winifred B. Price, is about being sent South. If she is not +misbehaving let her remain. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 2¢, 1865. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Several members of the Cabinet, with myself, considered the question, +to-day, as to the time of your coming on here. While we fully +appreciate your wish to remain in Tennessee until her State +government shall be completely reinaugurated, it is our unanimous +conclusion that it is unsafe for you to not be here on the 4th of +March. Be sure to reach here by that time. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE, JANUARY 24, 1865. + +REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I accept with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift +you have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect +that I acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so +well, that for me to attempt to say more may perhaps only serve to +weaken the force of that which has already been said. A most +graceful and eloquent tribute was paid to the patriotism and self- +denying labors of the American ladies, on the occasion of the +consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, by our +illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed from earth. +His life was a truly great one, and I think the greatest part of it +was that which crowned its closing years, I wish you to read, if you +have not already done so, the eloquent and truthful words which he +then spoke of the women of America. Truly, the services they have +rendered to the defenders of our country in this perilous time, and +are yet rendering, can never be estimated as they ought to be. For +your kind wishes to me personally, I beg leave to render you likewise +my sincerest thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated. And now, +gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point + +If Newell W. Root, of First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, is under +sentence of death, please telegraph me briefly the circumstances. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Having received the report in the case of Newell W. Root, I do not +interfere further in the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EARLY CONSULTATIONS WITH REBELS + +INSTRUCTIONS TO MAJOR ECKERT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. + +SIR:-You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on +reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by +the Secretary of War. Then, by General Ord's assistance procure an +interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of +them, deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is +written. Note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and +to whom delivered. Receive their answer in writing, waiting a +reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to +come through without further condition, will be your warrant to ask +General Ord to pass them through as directed in the letter of the +Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or +propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this being +your whole duty, return and report to me. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY OF WAR TO GENERAL ORD. +(Cipher.) +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Headquarters Army of the James: + +By direction of the President you are instructed to inform the three +gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, that a messenger +will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are, without +unnecessary delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER FROM J. M. ASHLEY. + +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, +January 31, 1865. + +DEAR SIR:--The report is in circulation in the House that Peace +Commissioners are on their way or in the city, and is being used +against us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. Please +authorize me to contradict it, if it is not true. + +Respectfully, +J. M. ASHLEY. + +To the President. + + +(Indorsement.) + +So far as I know there are no Peace Commissioners in the city or +likely to be in it. + +A. LINCOLN. +January 31, 1865 + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your +despatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he +arrives, and then act upon the message he brings, as far as +applicable, it having been made up to pass through General Ord's +hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INSTRUCTIONS TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and +informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on +the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a +copy of which you have. You will make known to them that three +things are indispensable to wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the +States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message +to Congress, and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not +inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a +spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to +say and report it to me. You will not assume to definitely +consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PASSAGE THROUGH CONGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE +ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, JANUARY 31, 1865. + +He supposed the passage through Congress of the Constitutional +amendment for the abolishing of slavery throughout the United States +was the occasion to which he was indebted for the honor of this call. + +The occasion was one of congratulation to the country, and to the +whole world. But there is a task yet before us--to go forward and +consummate by the votes of the States that which Congress so nobly +began yesterday. He had the honor to inform those present that +Illinois had already done the work. Maryland was about half through, +but he felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead. + +He thought this measure was a very fitting if not an indispensable +adjunct to the winding up of the great difficulty. He wished the +reunion of all the States perfected, and so effected as to remove all +causes of disturbance in the future; and, to attain this end, it was +necessary that the original disturbing cause should, if possible, be +rooted out. He thought all would bear him witness that he had never +shirked from doing all that he could to eradicate slavery, by issuing +an Emancipation Proclamation. But that proclamation falls short of +what the amendment will be when fully consummated. A question might +be raised whether the proclamation was legally valid. It might be +added, that it only aided those who came into our lines, and that it +was inoperative as to those who did not give themselves up; or that +it would have no effect upon the children of the slaves born +hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet the evil. +But this amendment is a king's cure for all evils. It winds the +whole thing up. He would repeat, that it was the fitting if not the +indispensable adjunct to the consummation of the great game we are +playing. He could not but congratulate all present--himself, the +country, and the whole world upon this great moral victory. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, February 1, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your +military movements or plans. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MAJOR ECKERT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, +Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe, and put yourself under direction of Mr. +Seward, whom you will find there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe +as soon as I can get there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va. + +Induced by a despatch of General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe, as +soon as I can come. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE DRAFT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, February 6, 1865 + +Whereas complaints are made in some localities respecting the +assignments of quotas and credits allowed for the pending call of +troops to fill up the armies: Now, in order to determine all +controversies in respect thereto, and to avoid any delay in filling +up the armies, it is ordered, That the Attorney-General, Brigadier- +General Richard Delafield, and Colonel C. W. Foster, be, and they are +hereby constituted, a board to examine into the proper quotas and +credits of. the respective States and districts under the call of +December 19, 1864, with directions, if any errors be found therein, +to make such corrections as the law and facts may require, and report +their determination to the Provost-Marshal-General. The +determination of said board to be final and conclusive, and the draft +to be made in conformity therewith. + +2. The Provost-Marshal-General is ordered to make the draft in the +respective districts as speedily as the same can be done after the +fifteenth of this month. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 6, 1865. + +PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL: + +These gentlemen distinctly say to me this morning that what they want +is the means from your office of showing their people that the quota +assigned to them is right. They think it will take but little time- +two hours, they say. Please give there double the time and every +facility you can. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +February 6, 1865. + +The Provost-Marshal brings this letter back to me and says he cannot +give the facility required without detriment to the service, and +thereupon he is excused from doing it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 7, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN, +Commanding Post at Henderson, Ky.: + +Complaint is made to me that you are forcing negroes into the +military service, and even torturing them--riding them on rails and +the like to extort their consent. I hope this may be a mistake. The +like must not be done by you, or any one under you. You must not +force negroes any more than white men. Answer me on this. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR SMITH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865. + +HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SMITH, of Vermont: + +Complaint is made to me, by Vermont, that the assignment of her quota +for the draft on the pending call is intrinsically unjust, and also +in bad faith of the Government's promise to fairly allow credits for +men previously furnished. To illustrate, a supposed case is stated +as follows: + +Vermont and New Hampshire must between them furnish six thousand men +on the pending call; and being equal, each must furnish as many as +the other in the long run. But the Government finds that on former +calls Vermont furnished a surplus of five hundred, and New Hampshire +a surplus, of fifteen hundred. These two surpluses making two +thousand and added to the six thousand, making eight thousand to be +furnished by the two States, or four thousand each less, by fair +credits. Then subtract Vermont's surplus of five hundred from her +four thousand, leaves three thousand five hundred as her quota on the +pending call; and likewise subtract New Hampshire's surplus of +fifteen hundred from her four thousand, leaves two thousand five +hundred as her quota on the pending call. These three thousand five +hundred and two thousand five hundred make precisely six thousand, +which the supposed case requires from the two States, and it is just +equal for Vermont to furnish one thousand more now than New +Hampshire, because New Hampshire has heretofore furnished one +thousand more than Vermont, which equalizes the burdens of the two in +the long run. And this result, so far from being bad faith to +Vermont, is indispensable to keeping good faith with New Hampshire. +By no other result can the six thousand men be obtained from the two +States, and, at the same time deal justly and keep faith with both, +and we do but confuse ourselves in questioning the process by which +the right result is reached. The supposed case is perfect as an +illustration. + +The pending call is not for three hundred thousand men subject to +fair credits, but is for three hundred thousand remaining after all +fair credits have been deducted, and it is impossible to concede what +Vermont asks without coming out short of three hundred thousand men, +or making other localities pay for the partiality shown her. + +This upon the case stated. If there be different reasons for making +an allowance to Vermont, let them be presented and considered. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 8, 1865. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES: + +The joint resolution entitled "Joint resolution declaring certain +States not entitled to representation in the electoral college" has +been signed by the Executive in deference to the view of Congress +implied in its passage and presentation to him. In his own view, +however, the two Houses of Congress, convened under the twelfth +article of the Constitution, have complete power to exclude from +counting all electoral votes deemed by them to be illegal, and it is +not competent for the Executive to defeat or obstruct that power by a +veto, as would be the case if his action were at all essential in the +matter. He disclaims all right of the Executive to interfere in any +way in the matter of canvassing or counting electoral votes, and he +also disclaims that by signing said resolution he has expressed any +opinion on the recitals of the preamble or any judgment of his own +upon the subject of the resolution. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point. Va.: + +I am called on by the House of Representatives to give an account of +my interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, and it is +very desirable to me to put your despatch of February 1, to the +Secretary of War, in which, among other things, you say: "I fear now +their going back without any expression from any one in authority +will have a bad influence." I think the despatch does you credit, +while I do not see that it can embarrass you. May I use it? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS, REPORTING +THE RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL COUNT, + +FEBRUARY 9, 1865. + +With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their +confidence; with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty +required under the most favorable circumstances, and now rendered +doubly difficult by existing national perils; yet with a firm +reliance on the strength of our free government, and the eventual +loyalty of the people to the just principles upon which it is +founded, and above all with an unshaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of +nations, I accept this trust. Be pleased to signify this to the +respective Houses of Congress. + + + + +CHRONOLOGIC REVIEW OF PEACE PROPOSALS + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 10, 1865 + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In response to your resolution of the eighth instant, requesting +information in relation to a conference recently held in Hampton +Roads, I have the honor to state that on the day of the date I gave +Francis P. Blair, Sr., a card, written on as follows, to wit: + +December 28, 1864. + +Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go South, and +return. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +That at the time I was informed that Mr. Blair sought the card as a +means of getting to Richmond, Va., but he was given no authority to +speak or act for the Government, nor was I informed of anything he +would say or do on his own account or otherwise. Afterwards Mr. +Blair told me that he had been to Richmond and had seen Mr. Jefferson +Davis; and he (Mr. B.) at the same time left with me a manuscript +letter, as follows, to wit: + +RICHMOND, VA., January 12, 1865. +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. +SIR: I have deemed it proper, and probably desirable to you, to give +you in this for in the substance of remarks made by me, to be +repeated by you to President Lincoln, etc., etc. +I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and am willing, now +as heretofore, to enter into negotiations for the restoration of +peace, and am ready to send a commission whenever I have reason to +suppose it will be received, or to receive a commission if the United +States Government shall choose to send one. That notwithstanding the +rejection of our former offers, I would, if you could promise that a +commissioner, minister, or other agent would be received, appoint one +immediately, and renew the effort to enter into conference with a +view to secure peace to the two countries. +Yours, etc., +JEFFERSON DAVIS. + + + + +Afterwards, and with the view that it should be shown to Mr. Davis, I +wrote and delivered to Mr. Blair a letter, as follows, to wit: + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +P. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards Mr. Blair dictated for and authorized me to make an entry +on the back of my retained copy of the letter last above recited, +which entry is as follows: + +January 28, 1865 + +To-day Mr. Blair tells me that on the twenty-first instant he +delivered to Mr. Davis the original of which the within is a copy, +and left it with him; that at the time of delivering it Mr. Davis +read it over twice in Mr. Blair's presence, at the close of which he +(Mr. Blair) remarked that the part about our one common country" +related to the part of Mr. Davis' letter about "the two countries," +to which Mr. Davis replied that he so understood it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards the Secretary of War placed in my hands the following +telegram, indorsed by him, as appears: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington January 29, 1865, from +headquarters Army of James, + +6.30P.M., January 29, 1865: +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War: +"The following despatch just received from Major-General Parke, who +refers it to me for my action. I refer it to you in Lieutenant- +General Grant's absence: + +"E. O. C. ORD, Major-General, Commanding. +HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC, +January 29, 1863. 4P.M. +'MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, +'Headquarters Army of James: +'The following despatch is forwarded to you for your action. Since I +have no knowledge of General Grant's having had any understanding of +this kind, I refer the matter to you as the ranking officer present +in the two armies. +'JNO. G. PARKE, Major-General, Commanding.' + + +'FROM HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY Cos, 29th. +'MAJOR-GENERAL JNO. G. PARKE, 'Headquarters Army of Potomac: +'Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and J. A. Campbell desire to +cross my lines, in accordance with an understanding claimed to exist +with Lieutenant-General Grant, on their way to Washington as peace +commissioners. Shall they be admitted? They desire an early answer, +to come through immediately. Would like to reach City Point tonight +if they can. If they can not do this, they would like to come +through at 10 A.M. to-morrow morning. +'O. B. WILCOX, +'Major-General, Commanding Ninth Corps.' + + +"January 29, 8.30 P.M. +"Respectfully referred to the President for such instructions as he +may be pleased to give. +"EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War." + + + + +It appears that about the time of placing the foregoing telegram in +my hands the Secretary of War dispatched General Ord as follows, to +wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, January 29, 1865. 10 P.M. +(Sent at 2 A.M., 30th.) +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD. + +SIR:--This Department has no knowledge of any understanding by +General Grant to allow any person to come within his lines as +commissioner of any sort. You will therefore allow no one to come +into your lines under such character or profession until you receive +the President's instructions, to whom your telegraph will be +submitted for his directions. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + + + +Afterwards, by my direction, the Secretary of War telegraphed General +Ord as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D.C., January 30. 10.30 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, +Headquarters Army of the James. + +SIR:--By direction of the President, you are instructed to inform the +three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, that a +messenger will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are +without unnecessary delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +Afterwards I prepared and put into the hands of Major Thomas T. +Eckert the following instructions and message: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865 + +SIR:--You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and +on reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him +by the Secretary of War; then, by General Ord's assistance, procure +an interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of +them. Deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is +written. Note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and +to whom delivered. Receive their answer in writing, waiting a +reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to +come through without further condition, will be your warrant to ask +General Ord to pass them through, as directed in the letter of the +Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or +propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this being +your whole duty, return and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +CITY POINT, VA.. February 1, 1865. + +MESSRS. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, J. A. CAMPBELL AND +R. M. T. HUNTER. + +GENTLEMEN :--I am instructed by the President of the United States to +place this paper in your hands, with the information that if you pass +through the United States military lines it will be understood that +you do so for the purpose of an informal conference on the basis of +the letter a copy of which is on the reverse side of this sheet, and +that if you choose to pass on such understanding, and so notify me in +writing, I will procure the commanding general to pass you through +the lines and to Fortress Monroe under such military precautions as +he may deem prudent, and at which place you will be met in due time +by some person or persons for the purpose of such informal +conference; and, further, that you shall have protection, safe +conduct, and safe return in all events. + +THOMAS T. ECKERT, +Major and Aide-de-Camp. + + + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. +Yours, etc., A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards, but before Major Eckert had departed, the following +dispatch was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington January 3J, 1865, from +City Point, Va., 10.30 A.M., January 30, 1865: + +"His EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President of the United States: + +"The following communication was received here last evening: + +'PETERSBURG, VA., January 30, 1865. +'LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U.S. GRANT, +Commanding Armies United States. +'SIR: We desire to pass your lines under safe conduct, and to proceed +to Washington to hold a conference with President Lincoln upon the +subject of the existing war, and with a view of ascertaining upon +what terms it may be terminated, in pursuance of the course indicated +by him in his letter to Mr. Blair of January 18, 1865, of which we +presume you have a copy; and if not, we wish to see you in person, if +convenient, and to confer with you upon the subject. +'Very respectfully, yours, +'ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. +'J. A. CAMPBELL. +'R. M. T. HUNTER.' + + +"I have sent directions to receive these gentlemen, and expect to +have them at my quarters this evening, awaiting your instructions. +U.S. GRANT, +Lieutenant-General, Commanding +Armies United States." + + + + +This, it will be perceived, transferred General Ord's agency in the +matter to General Grant. I resolved, however, to send Major Eckert +forward with his message, and accordingly telegraphed General Grant +as follows, to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865 +(Sent at 1.30 P.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your +despatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he +arrives, and then act upon the message he brings as far as +applicable, it having been made up to pass through General Ord's +hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +When Major Eckert departed, he bore with him a letter of the +Secretary of War to General Grant, as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Commanding, etc. + +GENERAL:--The President desires that you will please procure for the +bearer, Major Thomas T. Eckert, an interview with Messrs. Stephens, +Hunter, and Campbell, and if on his return to you he requests it pass +them through our lines to Fortress Monroe by such route and under +such military precautions as you may deem prudent, giving them +protection and comfortable quarters while there, and that you let +none of this have any effect upon your movements or plans. + +By order of the President: +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +Supposing the proper point to be then reached, I dispatched the +Secretary of State with the following instructions, Major Eckert, +however, going ahead of him: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State: + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Va., there to meet and +informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on the +basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy +of which you have. + +You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to +Wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the +States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message +to Congress and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs not inconsistent +with the above will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of +sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and +report it to me. + +You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +On the day of its date the following telegram was sent to General +Grant: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1,1865 +(Sent at 9.30 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your +military movements or plans. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards the following despatch was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH +WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington, 2.30 P.M., February 1, +1865, from City Point, Va., February 1, 12.30 PM., 1865: + +"His EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President United States: + +Your despatch received. There will be no armistice in consequence of +the presence of Mr. Stephens and others within our lines. The troops +are kept in readiness to move at the shortest notice if occasion +should justify it. + +U.S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + + + + +To notify Major Eckert that the Secretary of State would be at +Fortress Monroe, and to put them in communication, the following +despatch was sent: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, +Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe and put yourself under direction of Mr. S., +whom you will find there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +On the morning of the 2d instant the following telegrams were +received by me respectively from the Secretary of State and Major +Eckert: + +FORT MONROE, VA., +February 1,1865. 11.30 PM. + +THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Arrived at 10 this evening. Richmond party not here. I remain here. + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + + +CITY POINT, VA., +February 1, 1865. 10 P.M. + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President of the United States: +I have the honor to report the delivery of your communication and my +letter at 4.15 this afternoon, to which I received a reply at 6 P.M., +but not satisfactory. + + + + +At 8 P.M. the following note, addressed to General Grant, was +received: + +CITY POINT, VA., +February 1, 1865 + +"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. +"SIR:-We desire to go to Washington City to confer informally with +the President personally in reference to the matters mentioned in his +letter to Mr. Blair of the 18th January ultimo, without any personal +compromise on any question in the letter. We have the permission to +do so from the authorities in Richmond. +Very respectfully yours, +ALEX. H. STEPHENS +R. M. T. HUNTER. +J. A. CAMPBELL." + + +At 9.30 P.M. I notified them that they could not proceed further +unless they complied with the terms expressed in my letter. The +point of meeting designated in the above note would not, in my +opinion, be insisted upon. Think Fort Monroe would be acceptable. +Having complied with my instructions, I will return to Washington to- +morrow unless otherwise ordered. + +THOS. T. ECKERT, Major, etc. + + + + +On reading this despatch of Major Eckert I was about to recall him +and the Secretary of State, when the following telegram of General +Grant to the Secretary of War was shown me: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington +4.35A.M., February 2, 1865, from City Point, Va., February 1, 10.30 +P.M., 1865: + +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War: + +"Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written +instructions, and Mr. Stephens and party has ended, I will state +confidentially, but not officially to become a matter of record, that +I am convinced upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter +that their intentions are good and their desire sincere to restore +peace and union. I have not felt myself at liberty to express even +views of my own or to account for my reticency. This has placed me +in an awkward position, which I could have avoided by not seeing them +in the first instance. I fear now their going back without any +expression from anyone in authority will have a bad influence. At +the same time, I recognize the difficulties in the way of receiving +these informal commissioners at this time, and do not know what to +recommend. I am sorry, however, that Mr. Lincoln can not have an +interview with the two named in this despatch, if not all three now +within our lines. Their letter to me was all that the President's +instructions contemplated to secure their safe conduct if they had +used the same language to Major Eckert. + +"U.S. GRANT +"Lieutenant-General," + + + + +This despatch of General Grant changed my purpose, and accordingly I +telegraphed him and the Secretary of State, respectively, as follows: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe +as soon as I can get there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va.: + +Induced by a despatch from General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe +as soon as I can come. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Before starting, the following despatch was shown me. I proceeded, +nevertheless: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington, February 2, 1865, from +City Point, Va., 9 A.M., February2, 1865: + +"HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +"The gentlemen here have accepted the proposed terms, and will leave +for Fort Monroe at 9.30 A.M. + +"U. S. GRANT, "Lieutenant-General." + +(Copy to HON. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington.) + + + + +On the night of the 2nd I reached Hampton Roads, found the Secretary +of State and Major Eckert on a steamer anchored offshore, and learned +of them that the Richmond gentlemen were on another steamer also +anchored offshore, in the Roads, and that the Secretary of State had +not yet seen or communicated with them. I ascertained that Major +Eckert had literally complied with his instructions, and I saw for +the first time the answer of the Richmond gentlemen to him, which in +his despatch to me of the 1st he characterizes as "not satisfactory." +That answer is as follows, to wit: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865. +THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aid-de-Camp. +MAJOR:-Your note, delivered by yourself this day, has been +considered. In reply we have to say that we were furnished with a +copy of the letter of President Lincoln to Francis P. Blair, Esq., of +the 18th of January ultimo, another copy of which is appended to your +note. Our instructions are contained in a letter of which the +following is a copy: + +RICHMOND, January 28, 1865. +In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing +is a copy, you are to proceed to Washington City for informal +conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and +for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries. +"With great respect, your obedient servant, +"JEFFERSON DAVIS." + + + +The substantial object to be obtained by the informal conference is +to ascertain upon what terms the existing war can be terminated +honorably. + +Our instructions contemplate a personal interview between President +Lincoln and ourselves at Washington City, but with this explanation +we are ready to meet any person or persons that President Lincoln may +appoint at such place as he may designate. + +Our earnest desire is that a just and honorable peace may be agreed +upon, and we are prepared to receive or to submit propositions which +may possibly lead to the attainment of that end. + +Very respectfully, yours, +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. +R. M. T. HUNTER. +JOHN A. CAMPBELL. + + + + +A note of these gentlemen, subsequently addressed to General Grant, +has already been given in Major Eckert's despatch of the 1st instant. + +I also here saw, for the first time, the following note, addressed by +the Richmond gentlemen to Major Eckert: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 2, 1865. +THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aid-de-Camp. +MAJOR:--In reply to your verbal statement that your instructions did +not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a passport could be +given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to Fortress Monroe +and there to have an informal conference with any person or persons +that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter to +Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other +terms or conditions that he may hereafter propose not inconsistent +with the essential principles of self-government and popular rights, +upon which our institutions are founded. + +It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of +ideas and information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just +and honorable peace can be established without the further effusion +of blood, and to contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a +result. + +We think it better to add that in accepting your passport we are not +to be understood as committing ourselves to anything but to carry to +this informal conference the views and feelings above expressed. + +Very respectfully, yours, etc., + +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, +J. A. CAMPBELL, +R. M. T. HUNTER. + + +Note.-The above communication was delivered to me at Fort Monroe at +4.30 P.M. February 2 by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, of General +Grant's staff. +THOMAS T. ECKERT +Major and Aid-de-Camp. + + + + +On the morning of the third the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, +Hunter, and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer and had an interview +with the Secretary of State and myself of several hours' duration. +No question of preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made +or mentioned; no other person was present; no papers were exchanged +or produced; and it was in advance agreed that the conversation was +to be informal and verbal merely. On our part the whole substance of +the instructions to the Secretary of State hereinbefore recited was +stated and insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent +therewith; while by the other party it was not said that in any event +or on any condition they ever would consent to reunion, and yet they +equally omitted to declare that they never would consent. They +seemed to desire a postponement of that question and the adoption of +some other course first, which, as some of them seemed to argue, +might or might not lead to reunion, but which course we thought would +amount to an indefinite postponement. The conference ended without +result. + +The foregoing, containing, as is believed, all the information sought +is respectfully submitted. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. + +WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865 + +To THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the eighth instant, +requesting information concerning recent conversations or +communications with insurgents, under executive sanction, I transmit +a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was +referred. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO THE PRESIDENT: + +The Secretary of State, to whom was referred a resolution of the +Senate of the 8th instant, requesting "the President of the United +States, if, in his opinion, not incompatible with the public +interests, to furnish to the Senate any information in his possession +concerning recent conversations or communications with certain +rebels," said to have taken place under executive sanction, including +communications with the rebel Jefferson Davis, and any correspondence +relating thereto," has the honor to report that the Senate may +properly be referred to a special message of the President bearing +upon the subject of the resolution, and transmitted to the House this +day. Appended to this report is a copy of an instruction which has +been addressed to Charles Francis Adams, Esq., envoy extraordinary +and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, and +which is the only correspondence found in this department touching +the subject referred to in the resolution. + +Respectfully submitted, +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865. + + + + +MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS. +(Extract.) +No. 1258. + +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 7,1865 + +On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the Secretary, +received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on board the United +States steam transport River Queen in Hampton Roads. The conference +was altogether informal. There was no attendance of secretaries, +clerks, or other witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The +conversation, although earnest and free, was calm, and courteous, and +kind on both sides. The Richmond party approached the discussion +rather indirectly, and at no time did they either make categorical +demands, or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals. +Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four hours, the +several points at issue between the Government and the insurgents +were distinctly raised, and discussed fully, intelligently, and in an +amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor +was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war +is waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of the Government, as +well as those of the insurgents, to some extrinsic policy or scheme +for a season during which passions might be expected to subside, and +the armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people +of both sections resumed. It was suggested by them that through such +postponement we might now have immediate peace, with some not very +certain prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political +relations between this Government and the States, section, or people +now engaged in conflict with it. + +This suggestion, though deliberately considered, was nevertheless +regarded by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he +announced that we can agree to no cessation or suspension of +hostilities, except on the basis of the disbandment of the insurgent +forces, and the restoration of the national authority throughout all +the States in the Union. Collaterally, and in subordination to the +proposition which was thus announced, the antislavery policy of the +United States was reviewed in all its bearings, and the President +announced that he must not be expected to depart from the positions +he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation of emancipation and +other documents, as these positions were reiterated in his last +annual message. It was further declared by the President that the +complete restoration of the national authority was an indispensable +condition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might +be proposed. The President assured the other party that, while he +must adhere to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as power +is lodged with the Executive, to exercise liberality. His power, +however, is limited by the Constitution; and when peace should be +made, Congress must necessarily act in regard to appropriations of +money and to the admission of representatives from the +insurrectionary States. The Richmond party were then informed that +Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, adopted by a constitutional +majority a joint resolution submitting to the several States the +proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that there +is every reason to expect that it will be soon accepted by three +fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national organic +law. + +The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without +producing an agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, +or any of them. Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that +we have been able to submit our opinions and views directly to +prominent insurgents, and to hear them in answer in a courteous and +not unfriendly manner. + +I am, sir, your obedient servant, + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + + + +TO ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 10, 1865 + +REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER, +Commanding North Atlantic Squadron, Hampton Roads, Va. + +SIR:--It is made my agreeable duty to enclose herewith the joint +resolution approved 24th January, 1865, tendering the thanks of +Congress to yourself, the officers and men under your command for +their gallantry and good conduct in the capture of Fort Fisher, and +through you to all who participated in that brilliant and decisive +victory under your command. + +Very respectfully, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 12, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +I understand that provost-marshals in different parts of Missouri are +assuming to decide that the conditions of bonds are forfeited, and +therefore are seizing and selling property to pay damages. This, if +true, is both outrageous and ridiculous. Do not allow it. The +courts, and not provost-marshals, are to decide such questions unless +when military necessity makes an exception. Also excuse John Eaton, +of Clay County, and Wesley Martin, of Platte, from being sent South, +and let them go East if anywhere. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS IN WEST TENNESSEE + +WASHINGTON, +February 13, 1865. + +TO THE MILITARY OFFICERS COMMANDING IN WEST +TENNESSEE: + +While I cannot order as within requested, allow me to say that it is +my wish for you to relieve the people from all burdens, harassments, +and oppressions, so far as is possible consistently with your +military necessities; that the object of the war being to restore and +maintain the blessings of peace and good government, I desire you to +help, and not hinder, every advance in that direction. + +Of your military necessities you must judge and execute, but please +do so in the spirit and with the purpose above indicated. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 14, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of yesterday about provost-marshal system received. As part of +the same subject, let me say I am now pressed in regard to a pending +assessment in St. Louis County. Please examine and satisfy yourself +whether this assessment should proceed or be abandoned; and if you +decide that it is to proceed, please examine as to the propriety of +its application to a gentleman by the name of Charles McLaran. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON February 15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please ascertain whether General Fisk's administration is as good as +it might be, and answer me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONVENING THE SENATE IN EXTRA SESSION, + +FEBRUARY 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the +Senate should be convened at twelve o'clock on the fourth of March +next to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it +on the part of the Executive; + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +have considered it to be my duty to issue this, my proclamation, +declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the +United States to convene for the transaction of business at the +Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the fourth day of March next, +at twelve o'clock at noon on that day, of which all who shall at that +time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required +to take notice. + +Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at +Washington............... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1865 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY: + +Chaplain Fitzgibbon yesterday sent me a despatch invoking Clemency +for Jackson, Stewart, and Randall, who are to be shot to-day. The +despatch is so vague that there is no means here of ascertaining +whether or not the execution of sentence of one or more of them may +not already have been ordered. If not suspend execution of sentence +m their cases until further orders and forward records of trials for +examination. + +A. LINCOLN + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send above telegram +JNO. G. NICOLAY. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +I am in a little perplexity. I was induced to authorize a gentleman +to bring Roger A. Pryor here with a view of effecting an exchange of +him; but since then I have seen a despatch of yours showing that you +specially object to his exchange. Meantime he has reached here and +reported to me. It is an ungracious thing for me to send him back to +prison, and yet inadmissible for him to remain here long. Cannot +you help me out with it? I can conceive that there may be difference +to you in days, and I can keep him a few days to accommodate on that +point. I have not heard of my son's reaching you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 24, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Please inquire and report to me whether there is any propriety of +longer keeping in Gratiott Street Prison a man said to be there by +the name of Riley Whiting. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, February 25, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +General Sheridan's despatch to you, of to-day, in which he says he +"will be off on Monday," and that he "will leave behind about two +thousand men," causes the Secretary of War and myself considerable +anxiety. Have you well considered whether you do not again leave +open the Shenandoah Valley entrance to Maryland and Pennsylvania, or, +at least, to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +Subsequent reflection, conference with General Halleck, your +despatch, and one from General Sheridan, have relieved my anxiety; +and so I beg that you will dismiss any concern you may have on my +account, in the matter of my last despatch. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO T. W. CONWAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 1, 1865. + +MR. THOMAS W. CONWAY, +General Superintendent Freedmen, +Department of the Gulf. + +SIR:--Your statement to Major-General Hurlbut of the condition of the +freedmen of your department, and of your success in the work of their +moral and physical elevation, has reached me and given me much +pleasure. + +That we shall be entirely successful in our efforts I firmly believe. + +The blessing of God and the efforts of good and faithful men will +bring us an earlier and happier consummation than the most sanguine +friends of the freedmen could reasonably expect. + +Yours, + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +You have not sent contents of Richmond papers for Tuesday or +Wednesday. Did you not receive them? If not, does it indicate +anything? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY STANTON +TO GENERAL GRANT. +WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865. 12 PM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no +conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of +General Lee's army, or on some minor and purely military matter. He +instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer +upon any political question. Such questions the President holds in +his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or +conventions. Meantime you are to press to the utmost your military +advantages. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + +SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, + +MARCH 4, 1865. + + +FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN :--At this second appearing to take the oath of the +presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address +than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of +a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the +expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been +constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest +which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the +nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our +arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the +public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and +encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in +regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts +were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, +all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being +delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union +without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it +without war seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by +negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make +war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept +war rather than let it perish, and the war came. + +One eighth of the whole population was colored slaves, not +distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern +part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful +interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the +war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the +object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, +while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the +territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war +the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither +anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even +before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier +triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against +the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a +just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other +men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The +prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been +answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the +world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, +but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose +that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the +providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued +through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives +to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by +whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from +those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always +ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this +mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that +it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred +and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every +drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with +the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be +said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." + +With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him +who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to +do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among +ourselves and with all nations. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL JOHN POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please state briefly, by telegraph, what you concluded about the +assessments in St. Louis County. Early in the war one Samuel B. +Churchill was sent from St. Louis to Louisville, where I have quite +satisfactory evidence that he has not misbehaved. Still I am told +his property at St. Louis is subjected to the assessment, which I +think it ought not to be. Still I wish to know what you think. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 8, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va: + +Your two despatches to the Secretary of War, one relating to supplies +for the enemy going by the Blackwater, and the other to General +Singleton and Judge Hughes, have been laid before me by him. As to +Singleton and Hughes, I think they are not in Richmond by any +authority, unless it be from you. I remember nothing from me which +could aid them in getting there, except a letter to you, as follows, +to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, February 7, 1865. +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: +General Singleton, who bears you this, claims that he already has +arrangements made, if you consent, to bring a large amount of +Southern produce through your lines. For its bearing on our +finances, I would be glad for this to be done, if it can be, without +injuriously disturbing your military operations, or supplying the +enemy. I wish you to be judge and master on these points. Please +see and hear him fully, and decide whether anything, and, if +anything, what, can be done in the premises. +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + +I believe I gave Hughes a card putting him with Singleton on the same +letter. However this may be, I now authorize you to get Singleton +and Hughes away from Richmond, if you choose, and can. I also +authorize you, by an order, or in what form you choose, to suspend +all operations on the Treasury trade permits, in all places +southeastward of the Alleghenies. If you make such order, notify me +of it, giving a copy, so that I can give corresponding direction to +the Navy. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OFFERING PARDON TO DESERTERS, + +MARCH 11, 1865 + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES +OF AMERICA + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, the twenty-first section of the act of Congress, approved on +the 3d instant, entitled "An Act to amend the several acts heretofore +passed to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national +forces and for other purposes," requires that in addition to the +other lawful penalties of the crime of desertion from the military or +naval service, all persons who have deserted the military or naval +service of the United States who shall not return to said service or +report themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the +proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall be deemed and taken to have +voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their citizenship and their +right to become citizens, and such deserters shall be forever +incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the United +States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all +persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and +all persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction +of the district in which they are enrolled, or go beyond the limits +of the United States with intent to avoid any draft into the military +or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of +this section; and the President is hereby authorized and required +forthwith, on the passage of this act, to issue his proclamation +setting forth the provisions of this section, in which proclamation +the President is requested to notify all deserters returning within +sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be pardoned on condition of +returning to their regiments and companies, or to such other +organizations as they may be assigned to, until they shall have +served for a period of time equal to their original term of +enlistment: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do issue this my proclamation as required by said act, +ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; +and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall within sixty +days from the date of this proclamation, viz., on or before the 10th +day of May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a +provost-marshal, shall be pardoned on condition that they return to +their regiments or companies or to such other organization as they +may be assigned to, and serve the remainder of their original terms +of enlistment, and in addition thereto a period equal to the time +lost by desertion. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed............... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. T. BLOW. + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1865. + +HON. HENRY T. BLOW, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +A Miss E. Snodgrass, who was banished from Saint Louis in May,1863, +wishes to take the oath and return home. What say you? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER TO THURLOW WEED, + +MARCH 15, 1865. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C. + +DEAR Mr. WEED: + +Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little +notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect +the latter to wear as well as perhaps better than--anything I have +produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not +flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose +between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is +to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which +I thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is +in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford +for me to tell it. + +Truly yours, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL ROUGH AND OTHERS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 17, 1865. + +COL. R. M. ROUGH AND OTHERS, Chicago, Ill.: + +Yours received. The best I can do with it is, to refer it to the War +Department. The Rock Island case referred to, was my individual +enterprise; and it caused so much difficulty in so many ways that I +promised to never undertake another. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO AN INDIANA REGIMENT, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It will be but a very few words that I shall +undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and +lived in Illinois; and now I am here, where it is my business to care +equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an +Indiana regiment on this day able to present the captured flag to the +Governor of Indiana. I am not disposed, in saying this, to make a +distinction between the States, for all have done equally well. + +There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I +have not said or written something whereby my own opinions might be +known. But there is one--the recent attempt of our erring brethren, +as they are sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. +I have neither written nor made a speech on that subject, because +that was their business, not mine, and if I had a wish on the +subject, I had not the power to introduce it, or make it effective. +The great question with them was whether the negro, being put into +the army, will fight for them. I do not know, and therefore cannot +decide. They ought to know better than me. I have in my lifetime +heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be slaves; but if they +fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it will be a better +argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for that, +ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at last, to take one out +of four of the slaves and put them in the army, and that one out of +the four who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a +slave himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often +said that all men ought to be free, yet would I allow those colored +persons to be slaves who want to be, and next to them those white +people who argue in favor of making other people slaves. I am in +favor of giving an appointment to such white men to try it on for +these slaves. I will say one thing in regard to the negroes being +employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay at +home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as the +other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of +having them try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that, +and I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast +it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. But they cannot fight +and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. +They will stand out as long as they can, and if the negro will fight +for them they must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their +last branch of resources, and we can now see the bottom. I am glad +to see the end so near at hand. I have said now more than I +intended, and will therefore bid you good-by. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING INDIANS, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas reliable information has been received that hostile Indians, +within the limits of the United States, have been furnished with arms +and munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign +territory, and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare +upon the exposed and sparse settlements of the frontier; + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all +persons detected in that nefarious traffic shall be arrested and +tried by court-martial at the nearest military post, and if +convicted, shall receive the punishment due to their deserts. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, arid caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed................... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ORDER ANNULLING THE SENTENCE AGAINST +BENJAMIN G. SMITH AND FRANKLIN W. SMITH, + +MARCH 18, 1865. + + +I am unwilling for the sentence to stand, and be executed, to any +extent in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than +the evidence discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the +existence of criminal or fraudulent intent on the part of men of such +well established good character. If the evidence went as far to +establish a guilty profit of one or two hundred thousand dollars, as +it does of one or two hundred dollars, the case would, on the +question of guilt, bear a far different aspect. That on this +contract, involving some twelve hundred thousand dollars, the +contractors would plan, and attempt to execute a fraud which, at the +most, could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand +dollars, is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That +they did not, in such a case, make far greater gains, proves that +they did not, with guilty or fraudulent intent, make at all. The +judgment and sentence are disapproved, and declared null, and the +defendants are fully discharged. + +A. LINCOLN +March 18, 1865. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Understanding that the plan of action for Missouri contained in your +letter to the Governor of that State, and your other letter to me, is +concurred in by the Governor, it is approved by me, and you will be +sustained in proceeding upon it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May [March] 20, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Army of the James + +Is it true that George W. Lane is detained at Norfolk without any +charge against him? And if so why is it done? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JUDGE SCATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 21, 1865. + +HON. WALTER B. SCATES, Centralia, Illinois: + +If you choose to go to New Mexico and reside, I will appoint you +chief justice there. What say you? Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 22, 1865. +MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK, Winchester, Va.: + +Seeing your despatch about General Crook, and fearing that through +misapprehension something unpleasant may occur, I send you below two +despatches of General Grant, which I suppose will fully explain +General Crook's movements. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANOTHER FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 23, 1865. + +GENERAL DODGE, +Commanding, &c, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Allow Mrs. R. S. Ewell the benefit of my amnesty proclamation on her +taking the oath. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 25, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C.: + +Arrived here all safe about 9 P.M. yesterday. No war news. General +Grant does not seem to know very much about Yeatman, but thinks very +well of him so far as he does know. + +I like Mr. Whiting very much, and hence would wish him to remain or +resign as best suits himself. Hearing this much from me, do as you +think best in the matter. General Lee has sent the Russell letter +back, concluding, as I understand from Grant, that their dignity does +not admit of their receiving the document from us. Robert just now +tells me there was a little rumpus up the line this morning, ending +about where it began. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +(Cipher.) +HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, +March 25, 1865. (Received 5 P.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +I am here within five miles of the scene of this morning's action. I +have nothing to add to what General Meade reports except that I have +seen the prisoners myself and they look like there might be the +number he states--1600. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., March 26, 1865. (Received 11.30 A.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I approve your Fort Sumter programme. Grant don't seem to know +Yeatman very well, but thinks very well of him so far as he knows. +Thinks it probable that Y. is here now, for the place. I told you +this yesterday as well as that you should do as you think best about +Mr. Whiting's resignation, but I suppose you did not receive the +dispatch. I am on the boat and have no later war news than went to +you last night. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 27, 1865.3.35 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +Yours inclosing Fort Sumter order received. I think of but one +suggestion. I feel quite confident that Sumter fell on the 13th, and +not on the 14th of April, as you have it. It fell on Saturday, the +13th; the first call for troops on our part was got up on Sunday, the +14th, and given date and issued on Monday, the 15th. Look up the old +almanac and other data, and see if I am not right. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 28, 1865. 12 M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: +After your explanation, I think it is little or no difference whether +the Fort Sumter ceremony takes place on the 13th or 14th. + +General Sherman tells me he is well acquainted with James Yeatman, +and that he thinks him almost the best man in the country for +anything he will undertake. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., March 30, 1865. 7.30 P.M. +(Received 8.30 P.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I begin to feel that I ought to be at home and yet I dislike to leave +without seeing nearer to the end of General Grant's present movement. +He has now been out since yesterday morning and although he has not +been diverted from his programme no considerable effort has yet been +produced so far as we know here. Last night at 10.15 P. M. when it +was dark as a rainy night without a moon could be, a furious +cannonade soon joined in by a heavy musketry fire opened near +Petersburg and lasted about two hours. The sound was very distinct +here as also were the flashes of the guns up the clouds. It seemed +to me a great battle, but the older hands here scarcely noticed it +and sure enough this morning it was found that very little had been +done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA1 March 31, 1865.3 P.M. + +SECRETARY STANTON: + +At 12.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphed me as follows: +"There has been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our +left from near Dabney's house back well toward the Boydton plank +road. We are now about to take the offensive at that point, and I +hope will more than recover the lost ground." + +Later he telegraphed again as follows: +"Our troops, after being driven back to the Boydton plank road, +turned and drove the enemy in turn, and took the White Oak road, +which we now have. This gives us the ground occupied by the enemy +this morning. I will send you a rebel flag captured by our troops in +driving the enemy back. There have been four flags captured to-day." + +Judging by the two points from which General Grant telegraphs, I +infer that he moved his headquarters about one mile since he sent the +first of the two despatches. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours to Colonel Bowers about the Secretary of War is shown to me. +He is not here, nor have I any notice that he is coming. I presume +the mistake comes of the fact that the Secretary of State was here. +He started back to Washington this morning. I have your two +despatches of this morning, and am anxious to hear from Sheridan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. 12.50 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +I have had two despatches from General Grant since my last to you, +but they contain little additional, except that Sheridan also had +pretty hot work yesterday, that infantry was sent to his support +during the night, and that he (Grant) has not since heard from +Sheridan. + +Mrs. Lincoln has started home, and I will thank you to see that our +coachman is at the Arsenal wharf at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, +there to wait until she arrives. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +CITY POINT, VA., April, 1865. 5.30 ?.M. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +Despatch just received, showing that Sheridan, aided by Warren, had, +at 2 P.M., pushed the enemy back, so as to retake the Five Forks and +bring his own headquarters up to J. Boisseau's. The Five Forks were +barricaded by the enemy and carried by Devin's division of cavalry. +This part of the enemy seem to now be trying to work along the White +Oak road, to join the main force in front of Grant, while Sheridan +and Warren are pressing them as closely as possible. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours showing Sheridan's success of to-day is just received and +highly appreciated. Having no great deal to do here, I am still +sending the substance of your despatches to the Secretary of War. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +CITY POINT, VA., April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. (Received 9 A.M.) + +MRS. A. LINCOLN, Executive Mansion: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps had captured three brigades of infantry, +a train of wagons, and several batteries, prisoners amounting to +several thousand. This morning General Grant having ordered an +attack along the whole line telegraphs as follows. + +Robert yesterday wrote a little cheerful note to Captain Penrose, +which is all he has heard of him since you left. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAMS TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan, with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps, had captured three brigades of infantry, +a train of wagons, and several batteries; the prisoners amounting to +several thousand. + +This morning General Grant, having ordered an attack along the whole +line, telegraphs as follows: + +"Both Wright and Parke got through the enemy's lines. The battle now +rages furiously. General Sheridan, with his cavalry, the Fifth +corps, and Miles's Division of the Second Corps, which was sent to +him this morning, is now sweeping down from the west. + +"All now looks highly favorable. General Ord is engaged, but I have +not yet heard the result in his front." + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, April 1. 11.00 A.M. + +Despatches are frequently coming in. All is going on finely. +Generals Parke, Wright, and Ord's lines are extending from the +Appomattox to Hatcher's Run. They have all broken through the +enemy's intrenched lines, taking some forts, guns, and prisoners. +Sheridan, with his own cavalry, the Fifth Corps, and part of the +Second, is coming in from the west on the enemy's flank. Wright is +already tearing up the Southside Railroad. + +A. LINCOLN + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 2 P.M. + +At 10.45 A.M. General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"Everything has been carried from the left of the Ninth Corps. The +Sixth Corps alone captured more than three thousand prisoners. The +Second and Twenty-fourth Corps captured forts, guns, and prisoners +from the enemy, but I cannot tell the numbers. We are now closing +around the works of the line immediately enveloping Petersburg. All +looks remarkably well. I have not yet heard from Sheridan. His +headquarters have been moved up to Banks's house, near the Boydton +road, about three miles southwest of Petersburg." + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 8.30 P.M. + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"We are now up and have a continuous line of troops, and in a few +hours will be intrenched from the Appomattox below Petersburg to the +river above. The whole captures since the army started out will not +amount to less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of +artillery. I do not know the number of men and guns accurately, +however. A portion of Foster's Division, Twenty Fourth Corps, made a +most gallant charge this afternoon, and captured a very important +fort from the enemy, with its entire garrison. All seems well with +us, and everything is quiet just now." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +CITY POINT, VA., April 1, 1865. + +MRS. LINCOLN: + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs that he has Petersburg +completely enveloped from river below to river above, and has +captured, since he started last Wednesday, about twelve thousand +prisoners and fifty guns. He suggests that I shall go out and see +him in the morning, which I think I will do. Tad and I are both +well, and will be glad to see you and your party here at the time you +name. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Allow me to tender to you and all with you the nation's grateful +thanks for this additional and magnificent success. At your kind +suggestion I think I will meet you to-morrow. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 3, 1865.8.30 A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +This morning Lieutenant-General Grant reports Petersburg evacuated, +and he is confident that Richmond also is. He is pushing forward to +cut off, if possible, the retreating rebel army. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 3, 1865. 5 P.M. + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to +Petersburg. Staid with General Grant an hour and a half and returned +here. It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I +will go there to-morrow. I will take care of myself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 4, 1865 +(Received 8.45 A.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +General Weitzel telegraphs from Richmond that of railroad stock he +found there twenty-eight locomotives, forty-four passenger and +baggage cars, and one hundred and six freight cars. At 3.30 this +evening General Grant, from Sutherland's Station, ten miles from +Petersburg toward Burkevllle, telegraphs as follows: + +General Sheridan picked up twelve hundred prisoners to-day, and from +three hundred to five hundred more have been gathered by other +troops. The majority of the arms that were left in the hands of the +remnant of Lee's army are now scattered between Richmond and where +his troops are. The country is also full of stragglers; the line of +retreat marked with artillery, ammunition, burned or charred wagons, +caissons, ambulances, etc." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +CITY POINT, APRIL 5, 1865. +(Received 11.55 PM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF STATE: + +Yours of to-day received. I think there is no probability of my +remaining here more than two days longer. If that is too long come +down. I passed last night at Richmond and have just returned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, +CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, in the Field: + +Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yesterday and seriously +injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. +I was at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge +Campbell, who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February, +called on me, and made such representations as induced me to put in +his hands an informal paper, repeating the propositions in my letter +of instructions to Mr. Seward, which you remember, and adding that if +the war be now further persisted in by the rebels, confiscated +property shall at the least bear the additional cost, and that +confiscation shall be remitted to the people of any State which will +now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops and other support +from resistance to the Government. + +Judge Campbell thought it not impossible that the rebel legislature +of Virginia would do the latter if permitted; and accordingly I +addressed a private letter to General Weitzel, with permission to +Judge Campbell to see it, telling him (General Weitzel) that if they +attempt this, to permit and protect them, unless they attempt +something hostile to the United States, in which case to give them +notice and time to leave, and to arrest any remaining after such +time. + +I do not think it very probable that anything win come of this, but I +have thought best to notify you so that if you should see signs you +may understand them. + +>From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually +withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the Government. +Nothing that I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, +or interfere with your work. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES +CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the +legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion may now desire to +assemble at Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia +troops and other support from resistance to the General Government. +If they attempt it, give them permission and protection, until, if at +all, they attempt some action hostile to the United States, in which +case you will notify them, give them reasonable time to leave) and at +the end of which time arrest any who remain. Allow Judge Campbell to +see this, but do not make it public. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 7, 1865 +(Received 10.30 AM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +At 11.15 P.M. yesterday at Burkesville Station, General Grant sends +me the following from General Sheridan: + +April 6, 11.15 P.M. +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: +I have the honor to report that the enemy made a stand at the +intersection of the Burks Station road with the road upon which they +were retreating. I attacked them with two divisions of the Sixth +Army Corps and routed them handsomely, making a connection with the +cavalry. I am still pressing on with both cavalry and infantry. Up +to the present time we have captured Generals Ewell, Kershaw, Button, +Corse, DeBare, and Custis Lee, several thousand prisoners, fourteen +pieces of artillery with caissons and a large number of wagons. If +the thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender. +P. H. SHERIDAN, +Major-General, Commanding." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, + +CITY POINT, April 7, 11 A.M., 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Gen. Sheridan says: + +"If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender." + +Let the thing be pressed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +NOTE ON A CARD TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +April 10, 1865. + +Tad wants some flags--can he be accommodated? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A CALL, + +APRIL 10, 1865 + +If the company had assembled by appointment, some mistake had crept +in their understanding. He had appeared before a larger audience +than this one to-day, and he would repeat what he then said, namely, +he supposed owing to the great, good news, there would be some +demonstration. He would prefer to-morrow evening, when he should be +quite willing, and he hoped ready, to say something. He desired to +be particular, because every thing he said got into print. Occupying +the position he did, a mistake would produce harm, and therefore he +wanted to be careful not to make a mistake. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. GORDON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 11, 1865. + +BRIG. GEN. G. H. GORDON, Norfolk, Va.: + +Send to me at once a full statement as to the cause or causes for +which, and by authority of what tribunal George W. Lane, Charles +Whitlock, Ezra Baler, J. M. Renshaw, and others are restrained of +their liberty. Do this promptly and fully. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLOSING CERTAIN PORTS, +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamations of the 19th and 27th days of April, A.D. +1861, the ports of the United States in the States of Virginia, North +Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, +Louisiana, and Texas were declared to be subject to blockade; but + +Whereas the said blockade has, in consequence of actual military +occupation by this Government, since been conditionally set aside or +relaxed in respect to the ports of Norfolk and Alexandria, in the +State of Virginia; Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina; Port +Royal, in the State of South Carolina; Pensacola and Fernandina, in +the State of Florida; and New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana; and + +Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress approved on the +13th of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the +collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes," the +President, for the reasons therein set forth, is authorized to close +certain ports of entry: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of the +United States, do hereby proclaim that the ports of Richmond, +Tappahannock, Cherrystone, Yorktown, and Petersburg, in Virginia; of +Camden (Elizabeth City), Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Newbern, +Ocracoke, and Wilmington in North Carolina; of Charleston, +Georgetown, and Beaufort, in South Carolina; of Savannah, St. Marys, +and Brunswick (Darien), in Georgia; of Mobile, in Alabama; of Pearl +River (Shieldsboro), Natchez and Vicksburg, in Mississippi; of St. +Augustine, Key West, St. Marks (Port Leon), St. Johns (Jacksonville), +and Apalachicola, in Florida; of Teche (Franklin), in Louisiana; of +Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago (Point Isabel), and +Brownsville, in Texas, are hereby closed, and all right of +importation, warehousing, and other privileges shall, in respect to +the ports aforesaid, cease until they shall have again been opened by +order of the President; and if while said parts are so closed any +ship or vessel from beyond the United States or having on board any +articles subject to duties shall attempt to enter any such port, the +same, together with its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, shall +be forfeited to the United States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D., +1865, and of the independence of the United States of America, the +eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF KEY WEST, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of this date the port of Key West, in the +State of Florida, was inadvertently included among those which are +not open to commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do hereby declare and make known that the said port of +Key West is and shall remain open to foreign and domestic commerce +upon the same conditions by which that commerce has there hitherto +been governed. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D. +1865, and of the independence of the United States of America the +eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLAIMING EQUALITY OF RIGHTS +WITH ALL MARITIME NATIONS, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas for some time past vessels of war of the United States have +been refused in certain foreign ports, privileges and immunities to +which they were entitled by treaty, public law, or the community of +nations, at the same time that vessels of war of the country wherein +the said privileges and immunities have been withheld have enjoyed +them fully and uninterruptedly in ports of the United States, which +condition of things has not always been forcibly resisted by the +United States, although, on the other hand, they have not at any time +failed to protest against and declare their dissatisfaction with the +same. In the view of the United States, no condition any longer +exists which can be claimed to justify the denial to them by any one +of such nations of customary naval rights as has heretofore been so +unnecessarily persisted in....... + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby make known that if, after a reasonable time shall have +elapsed for intelligence of this proclamation to have reached any +foreign country in whose ports the said privileges and immunities +shall have been refused as aforesaid, they shall continue to be so +refused, then and thenceforth the same privileges and immunities +shall be refused to the vessels of war of that country in the ports +of the United States, and this refusal shall continue until war +vessels of the United States shall have been placed upon an entire +equality in the foreign ports aforesaid with similar vessels of other +countries. The United States, whatever claim or pretense may have +existed heretofore, are now, at least, entitled to claim and concede +an entire and friendly equality of rights and hospitalities with all +maritime nations. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.................. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS, + +APRIL 11, 1865 + +FELLOW-CITIZENS--We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness +of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the +surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous +and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In +the midst of this, however, He from whom blessings flow must not be +forgotten. + +A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be +duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the +cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled +out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the pleasure +of transmitting much of the good news to you. But no part of the +honor for plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful +officers, and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, +but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes, +the reinauguration of the national authority--reconstruction which +has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more +closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. +Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no +authorized organ for us to treat with--no one man has authority to +give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with +and mould from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a +small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ +among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of +reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the +reports of attacks upon myself, Wishing not to be provoked by that to +which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this +precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured +for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new +State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much and +no more than the public knows. In the Annual Message of December, +1863, and the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of +reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by +any State, would be acceptable to and sustained by the Executive +Government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the +only plan that might possibly be acceptable, and I also distinctly +protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when or whether +members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. +This plan was in advance submitted to the then Cabinet, and approved +by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then and +in that connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the +theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should +drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I +should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the +admission of members of Congress. But even he approved every part +and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by +the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, +declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the +proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt +apprenticeship for freed people, and is silent, as it could not well +be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, +as it applied to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully +approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I received many +commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not a single +objection to it from any professed emancipationist came to my +knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of +Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, +1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be +interested in seeking a reconstruction of a State government for +Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, +reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident +that the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct +substantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try +it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such has been my only +agency in getting up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it +my promise is out, as before stated. But, as bad promises are better +broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise and break it, +whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the +public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I have been +shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which +the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be +definitely fixed upon the question whether the seceded States, so +called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add +astonishment to his regret were he to learn that since I have found +professed Union men endeavoring to answer that question, I have +purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me, +that question has not been nor yet is a practically material one, and +that any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically +immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of +dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may become, that question +is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all--a +merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, +so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, +and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in +regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper +practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in +fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether +those States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding +themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether +they had been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to +restore the proper practical relations between these States and the +Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion +whether, in doing the acts he brought the States from without into +the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having +been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which +the Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if +it contained fifty thousand, or thirty thousand, or even twenty +thousand, instead of twelve thousand, as it does. It is also +unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to +the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on +the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. +Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it +stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be +wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and +disperse? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation +with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State +government? Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore Slave State +of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the +rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a +State government, adopted a Free State constitution, giving the +benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering +the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored +man. This Legislature has already voted to ratify the Constitutional +Amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout +the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed +to the Union and to perpetuate freedom in the State--committed to the +very things, and nearly all things, the nation wants--and they ask +the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good this +committal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to +disorganize and disperse them. We, in fact, say to the white man: +You are worthless or worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by +you. To the blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these, your +old masters, held to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you +to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in +some vague and undefined when, where, and how. If this course, +discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to +bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I +have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we +recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse +of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms +of twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and +proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and +ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all +united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring to +the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he +not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, +than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government +of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, +we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing +it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor +of the proposed amendment to the National Constitution. To meet +this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three fourths +of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to +validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this, +further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, +and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three +fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. +I repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical +relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new +State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply to +other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, +and such important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and +withal so new and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive +and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and +collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become +a new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. +In the present situation as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to +make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am +considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action +will be proper. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1865. +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch to Colonel Hardie about the matter of +prayers. I do not remember hearing prayers spoken of while I was in +Richmond; but I have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you +to be the spirit and temper manifested by me while there. Is there +any sign of the rebel legislature coming together on the +understanding of my letter to you? If there is any such sign, inform +me what it is; if there is no such sign, you may withdraw the offer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. +WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have just seen Judge Campbell's letter to you of the 7th. He +assumes, as appears to me, that I have called the insurgent +legislature of Virginia together, as the rightful legislature of the +State, to settle all differences with the United States. I have done +no such thing. I spoke of them, not as a legislature, but as "the +gentlemen who have acted as the legislature of Virginia in support of +the rebellion." I did this on purpose to exclude the assumption that +I was recognizing them as a rightful body. I deal with them as men +having power de facto to do a specific thing, to wit: "To withdraw +the Virginia troops and other support from resistance to the General +Government," for which, in the paper handed Judge Campbell, I +promised a specific equivalent, to wit: a remission to the people of +the State, except in certain cases, of the confiscation of their +property. I meant this, and no more. Inasmuch, however, as Judge +Campbell misconstrues this, and is still pressing for an armistice, +contrary to the explicit statement of the paper I gave him, and +particularly as General Grant has since captured the Virginia troops, +so that giving a consideration for their withdrawal is no longer +applicable, let my letter to you and the paper to Judge Campbell both +be withdrawn, or countermanded, and he be notified of it. Do not now +allow them to assemble, but if any have come, allow them safe return +to their homes. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH SCHUYLER COLFAX ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 14, 1865. + +Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from me to the miners whom +you visit. I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our +nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over +the Western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its +development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were +adding a couple of millions of dollars every day to our national +debt, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of +our precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now that +the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of +our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, we make the +payment of that debt so much the easier. Now," said he, speaking +with more emphasis, "I am going to encourage that in every possible +way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and +many have feared that their return home in such great numbers might +paralyze industry, by furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply of labor +than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them to +the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough +for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land +upon our shores hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded +Europe. I intend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for +them in the West. Tell the miners for me, that I shall promote their +interests to the utmost of my ability; because their prosperity is +the prosperity of the nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with +enthusiasm, "we shall prove, in a very few years, that we are indeed +the treasury of the world." + + + + +TO GENERAL VAN ALLEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +April 14, 1865 + +GENERAL VAN ALLEN: + +I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precaution.... +I thank you for the assurance you give me that I shall be +supported by conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may +make to restore the Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a +Union of hearts and hands as well as of States. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS + +Allow Mr. Ashmer and friend to come in at 9 A.M. to-morrow. + +A. LINCOLN. +April 14, 1865 + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Vol 7 +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln + +[Note. . .there was a Volume 8 in this particular edition. . .but it was a +reprint of a much earlier work ABOUT Lincoln, not BY Lincoln, so left out] + diff --git a/old/7linc10.zip b/old/7linc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..68893e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7linc10.zip diff --git a/old/7linc11.txt b/old/7linc11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00b8bf2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7linc11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12792 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, v7 +#7 in our series of the Writings of Abraham Lincoln + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. 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At the time, it was under General Milroy as immediate commander +in the field, General Schenck as department commander at Baltimore, +and General Halleck as general-in-chief at Washington. + +General Milroy, as immediate commander, was put in arrest, and +subsequently a court of inquiry examined chiefly with reference to +disobedience of orders, and reported the evidence. + +The foregoing is a synoptical statement of the evidence, together +with the judge-advocate-general's conclusions. The disaster, when it +came, was a surprise to all. It was very well known to Generals +Shenck and Milroy for some time before, that General Halleck thought +the division was in great danger of a surprise at Winchester; that it +was of no service commensurate with the risk it incurred, and that it +ought to be withdrawn; but, although he more than once advised its +withdrawal, he never positively ordered it. General Schenck, on the +contrary, believed the service of the force at Winchester was worth +the hazard, and so did not positively order its withdrawal until it +was so late that the enemy cut the wire and prevented the order +reaching General Milroy. + +General Milroy seems to have concurred with General Schenck in the +opinion that the force should be kept at Winchester at least until +the approach of danger, but he disobeyed no order upon the subject. + +Some question can be made whether some of General Halleck's +dispatches to General Schenk should not have been construed to be +orders to withdraw the force, and obeyed accordingly; but no such +question can be made against General Milroy. In fact, the last order +he received was to be prepared to withdraw, but not to actually +withdraw until further order, which further order never reached him. + +Serious blame is not necessarily due to any serious disaster, and I +cannot say that in this case any of the officers are deserving of +serious blame. No court-martial is deemed necessary or proper in the +case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. + +Private and confidential + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, October 28, 1863. + +GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD: + +There have recently reached the War Department, and thence been laid +before me, from Missouri, three communications, all similar in import +and identical in object. One of them, addressed to nobody, and +without place or date, but having the signature of (apparently) the +writer, is a letter of eight closely written foolscap pages. The +other two are written by a different person, at St. Joseph, Mo., and +of the dates, respectively, October 12 and 13, 1863, and each +inclosing a large number of affidavits. The general statements of +the whole are that the Federal and State authorities are arming the +disloyal and disarming the loyal, and that the latter will all be +killed or driven out of the State unless there shall be a change. In +particular, no loyal man who has been disarmed is named, but the +affidavits show by name forty-two persons as disloyal who have been +armed. They are as follows: [The names are omitted.] + +A majority of these are shown to have been in the rebel service. I +believe it could be shown that the government here has deliberately +armed more than ten times as many captured at Gettysburg, to say +nothing of similar operations in East Tennessee. These papers +contain altogether thirty--one manuscript pages, and one newspaper in +extenso, and yet I do not find it anywhere charged in them that any +loyal man has been harmed by reason of being disarmed, or that any +disloyal one has harmed anybody by reason of being armed by the +Federal or State Government. Of course, I have not had time to +carefully examine all; but I have had most of them examined and +briefed by others, and the result is as stated. The remarkable fact +that the actual evil is yet only anticipated--inferred--induces me to +suppose I understand the case; but I do not state my impression, +because I might be mistaken, and because your duty and mine is plain +in any event. The locality of nearly all this seems to be St. +Joseph and Buchanan County. I wish you to give special attention to +this region, particularly on election day. Prevent violence from +whatever quarter, and see that the soldiers themselves do no wrong. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 28, 1863. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: +If not too inconvenient, please come at once and have a personal +conversation with me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO VICE-PRESIDENT HAMLIN. + +AN ACT TO REGULATE THE DUTIES OF THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES IN PREPARING FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. + +Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the +United States of America in Congress assembled, that, before the +first meeting of the next Congress, and of every subsequent Congress, +the clerk of the next preceding House of Representatives shall make a +roll of the Representatives elect, and place thereon the names of all +persons, and of such persons only, whose credentials show that they +were regularly elected in accordance with the laws of their States +respectively, or the laws of the United States. + +Approved March 3, 1863. + + + + +TO J. W. GRIMES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 1863. + +HON. JAMES W. GRIMES. + +MY DEAR SIR :--The above act of Congress was passed, as I suppose, +for the purpose of shutting out improper applicants for seats in the +House of Representatives; and I fear there is some danger that it +will be used to shut out proper ones. Iowa, having an entire Union +delegation, will be one of the States the attempt will be made, if +upon any. The Governor doubtless has made out the certificates, and +they are already in the hands of the members. I suggest that they +come on with them; but that, for greater caution, you, and perhaps +Mr. Harlan with you, consult with the Governor, and have an +additional set made out according to the form on the other half of +this sheet; and still another set, if you can, by studying the law, +think of a form that in your judgment, promises additional security, +and quietly bring the whole on with you, to be used in case of +necessity. Let what you do be kept still. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO P. F. LOWE. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +HON. F. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Below is an act of Congress, passed last session, intended to exclude +applicants not entitled to seats, but which, there is reason to fear, +will be used to exclude some who are entitled. Please get with the +Governor and one or two other discreet friends, study the act +carefully, and make certificates m two or three forms, according to +your best judgement, and have them sent to me, so as to multiply the +chances of the delegation getting their seats. Let it be done +without publicity. Below is a form which may answer for one. If you +could procure the same to be done for the Oregon member it might be +well. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Much obliged for the information about deserters contained in your +dispatch of yesterday, while I have to beg your pardon for troubling +you in regard to some of them, when, as it appears by yours, I had +the means of answering my own questions. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, October 31, 1863. + +The Provost-Marshal-General has issued no proclamation at all. He +has in no form announced anything recently in regard to troops in New +York, except in his letter to Governor Seymour of October 21, which +has been published in the newspapers of that State. It has not been +announced or decided in any form by the Provost-Marshal-General, or +any one else in authority of the Government, that every citizen who +has paid his three hundred dollars commutation is liable to be +immediately drafted again, or that towns that have just raised the +money to pay their quotas will have again to be subject to similar +taxation or suffer the operations of the new conscription, nor it is +probable that the like of them ever will be announced or decided. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 1, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N.Y.: + +No important news. Details of Hooker's night fight do great credit +to his command, and particularly to the Eleventh Corps and Geary's +part of the Twelfth. No discredit on any. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Some days ago I understood you to say that your +brother, General Frank Blair, desires to be guided by my wishes as to +whether he will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. +My wish, then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for the +country; and it is that he will come here, put his military +commission in my hands, take his seat, go into caucus with our +friends, abide the nominations, help elect the nominees, and thus aid +to organize a House of Representatives which will really support the +Government in the war. If the result shall be the election of +himself as Speaker, let him serve in that position. If not, let him +retake his commission and return to the army for the benefit of the +country. + +This will heal a dangerous schism for him. It will relieve him from +a dangerous position or a misunderstanding, as I think he is in +danger of being permanently separated from those with whom only he +can ever have a real sympathy--the sincere opponents of slavery. + +It will be a mistake if he shall allow the provocations offered him +by insincere time-servers to drive him from the house of his own +building. He is young yet. He has abundant talents--quite enough to +occupy all his time without devoting any to temper. + +He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His recent +appointment to the command of a corps, by one so competent to judge +as General Sherman, proves this. In that line he can serve both the +country and himself more profitably than he could as a member of +Congress upon the floor. + +The foregoing is what I would say if Frank Blair was my brother +instead of yours. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR BRADFORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 2, 1863. + +His EXCELLENCY A. W. BRADFORD, Governor of Maryland. + +SIR:--Yours of the 31st ult. was received yesterday about noon, and +since then I have been giving most earnest attention to the subject- +matter of it. At my call General Schenck has attended, and he +assures me it is almost certain that violence will be used at some of +the voting places on election day unless prevented by his provost- +guards. He says that at some of those places Union voters will not +attend at all, or run a ticket, unless they have some assurance of +protection. This makes the Missouri case, of my action in regard to +which you express your approval. + +The remaining point of your letter is a protest against any person +offering to vote being put to any test not found in the laws of +Maryland. This brings us to a difference between Missouri and +Maryland. With the same reason in both States, Missouri has, by law, +provided a test for the voter with reference to the present +rebellion, while Maryland has not. For example, General Trimble, +captured fighting us at Gettysburg, is, without recanting his +treason, a legal voter by the laws of Maryland. Even General +Schenck's order admits him to vote, if he recants upon oath. I think +that is cheap enough. My order in Missouri, which you approve, and +General Scherick's order here, reach precisely the same end. Bach +assures the right of voting to all loyal men, and whether a man is +loyal, each allows that man to fix by his own oath. Your suggestion +that nearly all the candidates are loyal, I do not think quite meets +the case. In this struggle for the nation's life, I cannot so +confidently rely on those whose elections may have depended upon +disloyal votes. Such men, when elected, may prove true; but such +votes are given them in the expectation that they will prove false. + +Nor do I think that to keep the peace at the polls, and to prevent +the persistently disloyal from voting, constitutes just cause of +offense to Maryland. I think she has her own example for it. If I +mistake not, it is precisely what General Dix did when your +Excellency was elected Governor. + +I revoke the first of the three propositions in General Schenek's +General Order No. 53; not that it is wrong in principle, but because +the military, being of necessity exclusive judges as to who shall be +arrested, the provision is too liable to abuse. For the revoked part +I substitute the following: + +That, all provost-marshals and other military officers do prevent all +disturbance and violence at or about the polls, whether offered by +such persons as above described, or by any other person or persons +whomsoever. + +The other two propositions of the order I allow to stand. General +Schenek is fully determined, and has my strict orders besides, that +all loyal men may vote, and vote for whom they please. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. H. HACKETT +[Private.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 2, 1863. + +JAMES H. HACKETT. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of October 22d is received, as also was, in due +course, that of October 3d. I look forward with pleasure to the +fulfillment of the promise made in the former to visit Washington the +following winter and to "call." + +Give yourself no uneasiness on the subject mentioned in that +of the 22d. My note to you I certainly did not expect to see in +print, yet I have not been much shocked by the newspaper comments +upon it. + +Those comments constitute a fair specimen of what has occurred +to me through life. I have endured a great deal of ridicule, without +much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness not quite +free from ridicule. I am used to it. + + + + + +TELEGRAM TO W. H. SEWARD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, November 3, 1863. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Auburn, N. Y.: + +Nothing new. Dispatches up to 12 last night from Chattanooga show +all quiet and doing well. How is your son? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 3, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Samuel Wellers, private in Company B, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania +Volunteers, writes that he is to be shot for desertion on the 6th +instant. His own story is rather a bad one, and yet he tells it so +frankly, that I am somewhat interested in him. Has he been a good +soldier except the desertion? About how old is he? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE, MANSION +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 5, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Please suspend the execution of Samuel Wellers, Forty-ninth +Pennsylvania Volunteers, until further +orders. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863.4 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Have seen dispatch from General Grant about your loss at Rogersville. +Per contra, about the same time, Averell and Duffle got considerable +advantage of the enemy at and about Lewisburg, Virginia: and on +Saturday, the seventh, Meade drove the enemy from Rappahannock +Station and Kelly's Ford, capturing eight battle-flags, four guns, +and over 1800 prisoners, with very little loss to himself. Let me +hear from you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. +WASHINGTON, November 9, 1863 7.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +I have seen your dispatches about operations on the Rappahannock on +Saturday, and I wish to say, "Well done!" Do the 1500 prisoners +reported by General Sedgwick include the 400 taken by General French, +or do the Whole amount to 1900? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXPORT OF TOBACCO PURCHASED BY FOREIGN NATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, November 10, 1863. + +In consideration of the peculiar circumstances and pursuant to the +comity deemed to be due to friendly powers, any tobacco in the United +States belonging to the government either of France, Austria, or any +other state with which this country is at peace, and which tobacco +was purchased and paid for by such government prior to the 4th day of +March, 1861, may be exported from any port of the United States under +the supervision and upon the responsibility of naval officers of such +governments and in conformity to such regulations as may be presented +by the Secretary of State of the United States, and not otherwise. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 10, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + + I see a dispatch here from Saint Louis, which is a little difficult +for me to understand. It says "General Schofield has refused leave +of absence to members in military service to attend the legislature. +All such are radical and administration men. The election of two +Senators from this place on Thursday will probably turn upon this +thing." what does this mean? Of course members of the legislation +must be allowed to attend its sessions. But how is there a session +before the recent election returns are in? And how is it to be at +"this place"--and that is Saint Louis? Please inform me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +I believe the Secretary of War has telegraphed you about members of +the legislation. At all events, allow those in the service to attend +the session, and we can afterward decide whether they can stay +through the entire session. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HIRAM BARNEY. + [Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +HON. HIRAM BARNEY, New York; +I would like an interview with you. Can you not come? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. MILDERBORGER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 11, 1863. + +JOHN MILDERBORGER, Peru, Ind.: + +I cannot comprehend the object of your dispatch. I do not often +decline seeing people who call upon me, and probably will see you if +you call. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM to E. H. AND E. JAMESON. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 13, 1863. + +E. H. and E. JAMESON, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Yours saying Brown and Henderson are elected Senators is received. I +understand this is one and one. If so it is knocking heads together +to some + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1863. 12.15 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Cincinnati, Ohio: + +I have received and considered your dispatch of yesterday. Of the +reports you mention, I have not the means of seeing any except your +own. Besides this, the publication might be improper in view of the +court of inquiry which has been ordered. With every disposition, not +merely to do justice, but to oblige you, I feel constrained to say I +think the publications better not be made now. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, November 16, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +What is the news? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 17, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I expected to see you here at Cabinet meeting, and to +say something about going to Gettysburg. There will be a train to +take and return us. The time for starting is not yet fixed, but when +it shall be I will notify you. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG + +NOVEMBER 19, 1863. + +Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation +or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here +gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether +fitting and proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate-- +we can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add +or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we +say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us +the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which +they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather +for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-- +that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause +for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here +highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this +nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that +government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not +perish from the earth. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +If there is a man by the name of King under sentence to be shot, +please suspend execution till further order, and send record. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. November 20, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +An intelligent woman in deep distress, called this morning, saying +her husband, a lieutenant in the Army of Potomac, was to be shot next +Monday for desertion, and putting a letter in my hand, upon which I +relied for particulars, she left without mentioning a name or other +particular by which to identify the case. On opening the letter I +found it equally vague, having nothing to identify by, except her own +signature, which seems to be "Mrs. Anna S. King." I could not again +find her. If you have a case which you shall think is probably the +one intended, please apply my dispatch of this morning to it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. P. EVANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +E. P. EVANS, West Union, Adams County, Ohio: + +Yours to Governor Chase in behalf of John A Welch is before me. Can +there be a worse case than to desert and with letters persuading +others to desert? I cannot interpose without a better showing than +you make. When did he desert? when did he write the letters? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 23, 1863. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Two despatches since I saw you; one not quite so late +on firing as we had before, but giving the points that Burnside +thinks he can hold the place, that he is not closely invested, and +that he forages across the river. The other brings the firing up to +11 A.M. yesterday, being twenty-three hours later than we had before. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. +WASHINGTON, November 25, 1863. 8.40 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL U.S. GRANT: + +Your despatches as to fighting on Monday and Tuesday are here. Well +done! Many thanks to all. Remember Burnside. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO C. P. KIRKLAND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 7, 1863. + +CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, ESQ., New York: + +I have just received and have read your published letter to the HON. +Benjamin R. Curtis. Under the circumstances I may not be the most +competent judge, but it appears to me to be a paper of great ability, +and for the country's sake more than for my own I thank you for it. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF UNION SUCCESS IN EAST TENNESSEE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., +December 7, 1863. + +Reliable information being received that the insurgent force is +retreating from East Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it +probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from +that important position; and esteeming this to be of high national +consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this +information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special +homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of +the national cause. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION +DECEMBER 8, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas in and by the Constitution of the United States it is +provided that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and +pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of +impeachment;" and, + +Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of +several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons +have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United +States; and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been +enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of +property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions +therein stated, and also declaring that the President was thereby +authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to +persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any +State or part thereof pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at +such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the +public welfare; and + +Whereas the Congressional declaration for limited and conditional +pardon accords with well-established judicial exposition of the +pardoning power; and + +Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the +United States has issued several proclamations with provisions in +regard to the liberation of slaves; and + +Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said +rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States and to +reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective +States: + +Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do +proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly +or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as +hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them +and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except +as to slaves and in property cases where rights of third parties +shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person +shall take and subscribe an oath and thenceforward keep and maintain +said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for permanent +preservation and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit: + +"I, ________, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I +will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the +Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States +thereunder; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully +support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion +with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, +modified, or held void by Congress or by decision of the Supreme +Court; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support +all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion +having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or +declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God." + +The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions +are all who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers or +agents of the so-called Confederate Government; all who have left +judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all +who are or shall have been military or naval officers of said so- +called Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in the army +or of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States +Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the +Army or Navy of the United States and afterwards aided the rebellion; +and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or +white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners +of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States +service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity. + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in +any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, +Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North +Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of +the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of the year +A.D. 1860, each having taken oath aforesaid, and not having since +violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the +State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and +excluding all others, shall reestablish a State government which +shall be republican and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall +be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State +shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision +which declares that "the United States shall guarantee to every State +in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each +of them against invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or +the EXECUTIVE (when the legislature can not be convened), against +domestic violence." + +And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision +which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the +freed people of such State which shall recognize and declare their +permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be +consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as +a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by +the National EXECUTIVE. + +And it is suggested as not improper that in constructing a loyal +State government in any State the name of the State, the boundary, +the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws as +before the rebellion be maintained, subject only to the modifications +made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such +others, if any, not contravening said co and which may be deemed +expedient by those framing the new State government. + +To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this +proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has no +reference to States wherein loyal State governments have all the +while been maintained. And for the same reason it may be proper to +further say that whether members sent to Congress from any State +shall be admitted to seats constitutionally rests exclusively with +the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the EXECUTIVE. And, +still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the +people of the States wherein the national authority has been +suspended and loyal State governments have been subverted a mode in +and by which the national authority and loyal State governments may +be re-established within said States or in any of them; and while the +mode presented is the best the EXECUTIVE can suggest, with his +present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible +mode would be acceptable. + +Given under my hand at the city of WASHINGTON, the 8th day of +December, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of +America the eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 8, 1863. + + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES:--Another year of health, and of sufficiently +abundant harvests, has passed. For these, and especially for the +improved condition cf our national affairs, our renewed and +profoundest gratitude to God is due. + +We remain in peace and friendship with foreign powers. + +The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us +in foreign wars, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been +unavailing. Her Britannic Majesty's government, as was justly +expected, have exercised their authority to prevent the departure of +new hostile expeditions from British ports. The Emperor of France +has, by a like proceeding, promptly vindicated the neutrality which +he proclaimed at the beginning of the contest. Questions of great +intricacy and importance have arisen out of the blockade, and other +belligerent operations, between the Government and several of the +maritime powers, but they have been discussed, and, as far as was +possible, accommodated, in a spirit of frankness, justice, and mutual +good-will. It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by the +impartiality of their adjudications, have commanded the respect and +confidence of maritime powers. + +The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain +for the suppression of the African slave-trade, made on the 17th day +of February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. +It is believed that, so far as American ports and American citizens +are concerned, that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an +end. + +I shall submit, for the consideration of the Senate, a convention for +the adjustment of possessory claims in Washington Territory, arising +out of the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, between the United +States and Great Britain, and which have been the source of some +disquiet among the citizens of that now rapidly improving part of the +country. + +A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime +jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the island of +Cuba, has been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is +proposed, in an amicable spirit, to refer it to the arbitrament of a +friendly power. A convention for that purpose will be submitted to +the Senate. + +I have thought it proper, subject to the approval of the Senate, to +concur with the interested commercial powers in an arrangement for +the liquidation of the Scheldt dues upon the principles which have +been heretofore adopted in regard to the imposts upon navigation in +the waters of Denmark. + +The long-pending controversy between this government and that of +Chile touching the seizure at Sitana, in Peru, by Chilean officers, +of a large amount in treasure belonging to citizens of the United +States has been brought to a close by the award of His Majesty the +King of the Belgians, to whose arbitration the question was referred +by the parties. The subject was thoroughly and patiently examined by +that justly respected magistrate, and although the sum awarded to the +claimants may not have been as large as they expected there is no +reason to distrust the wisdom of His Majesty's decision. That +decision was promptly complied with by Chile when intelligence in +regard to it reached that country. + +The joint commission under the act of the last session of carrying +into effect the convention with Peru on the subject of claims has +been organized at Lima, and is engaged in the business intrusted to +it. + +Difficulties concerning interoceanic transit through Nicaragua are in +course of amicable adjustment. + +In conformity with principles set forth in my last annual message, I +have received a representative from the United States of Colombia, +and have accredited a minister to that Republic. + +Incidents occurring in the progress of our civil war have forced upon +my attention the uncertain state of international questions touching +the rights of foreigners in this country and of United States +citizens abroad. In regard to some governments these rights are at +least partially defined by treaties. In no instance, however, is it +expressly stipulated that in the event of civil war a foreigner +residing in this country within the lines of the insurgents is to be +exempted from the rule which classes him as a belligerent, in whose +behalf the government of his country can not expect any privileges or +immunities distinct from that character. I regret to say, however, +that such claims have been put forward, and in some instances in +behalf of foreigners who have lived in the United States the greater +part of their lives. + +There is reason to believe that many persons born in foreign +countries who have declared their intention to become citizens, or +who have been fully naturalized have evaded the military duty +required of them by denying the fact and thereby throwing upon the +Government the burden of proof. It has been found difficult or +impracticable to obtain this proof. from the want of guides to the +proper sources of information. These might be supplied by requiring +clerks of courts where declarations of intention may be made or +naturalizations effected to send periodically lists of the names of +the persons naturalized or declaring their intention to become +citizens to the Secretary of the Interior, in whose Department those +names might be arranged and printed for general information. + +There is also reason to believe that foreigners frequently become +citizens of the United States for the sole purpose of evading duties +imposed by the laws of their native countries, to which on becoming +naturalized here they at once repair, and though never returning to +the United States they still claim the interposition of this +government as citizens. Many altercations and great prejudices have +heretofore arisen out of this abuse. It is therefore submitted to +your serious consideration. It might be advisable to fix a limit +beyond which no citizen of the United States residing abroad may +claim the interposition of his government. + +The right of suffrage has often been assumed and exercised by aliens +under pretenses of naturalization, which they have disavowed when +drafted into the military service. I submit the expediency of such +an amendment of the law as will make the fact of voting an estoppe +against any plea of exemption from military service or other civil +obligation on the ground of alienage. + +In common with other Western powers, our relations with Japan have +been brought into serious jeopardy through the perverse opposition of +the hereditary aristocracy of the Empire to the enlightened and +liberal policy of the Tycoon, designed to bring the country into the +society of nations. It is hoped, although not with entire +confidence, that these difficulties may be peacefully overcome. I +ask your attention to the claim of the minister residing there for +the damages he sustained in the destruction by fire of the residence +of the legation at Yedo. + +Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the Emperor of Russia, +which, it is believed, will result in effecting a continuous line of +telegraph through that Empire from our Pacific coast. + +I recommend to your favorable consideration the subject of an +international telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, and also of a +telegraph between this capital and the national forts along the +Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Such communications, +established with any reasonable outlay, would be economical as well +as effective aids to the diplomatic, military, and naval service. + +The consular system of the United States, under the enactments of the +last Congress, begins to be self-sustaining, and there is reason to +hope that it may become entirely so with the increase of trade which +will ensue whenever peace is restored. Our ministers abroad have +been faithful in defending American rights. In protecting commercial +interests our consuls have necessarily had to encounter increased +labors and responsibilities growing out of the war. These they have +for the most part met and discharged with zeal and efficiency. This +acknowledgment justly includes those consuls who, residing in +Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, China, and other Oriental countries, +are charged with complex functions and extraordinary powers. + +The condition of the several organized Territories is generally +satisfactory, although Indian disturbances in New Mexico have not +been entirely suppressed. The mineral resources of Colorado, Nevada, +Idaho, New Mexico, and Arizona are proving far richer than has been +heretofore understood. I lay before you a communication on this +subject from the Governor of New Mexico. I again submit to your +consideration the expediency of establishing a system for the +encouragement of immigration. Although this source of national +wealth and strength is again flowing with greater freedom than for +several years before the insurrection occurred, there is still a +great deficiency of laborers in every field of industry, especially +in agriculture and in our mines, as well of iron and coal as of the +precious metals. While the demand for labor is much increased here, +tens of thousands of persons, destitute of remunerative occupation, +are thronging our foreign consulates and offering to emigrate to the +United States if essential, but very cheap, assistance can be +afforded them. It is easy to see that under the sharp discipline of +civil war the nation is beginning a new life. This noble effort +demands the aid and ought to receive the attention and support of the +Government. + +Injuries unforeseen by the Government and unintended may in some +cases have been inflicted on the subjects or citizens of foreign +countries, both at sea and on land, by persons in the service of the +United States. As this government expects redress from other powers +when similar injuries are inflicted by persons in their service upon +citizens of the United States, we must be prepared to do justice to +foreigners. If the existing judicial tribunals are inadequate to +this purpose, a special court may be authorized, with power to hear +and decide such claims of the character referred to as may have +arisen under treaties and the public law. Conventions for adjusting +the claims by joint commission have been proposed to some +governments, but no definitive answer to the proposition has yet been +received from any. + +In the course of the session I shall probably have occasion to +request you to provide indemnification to claimants where decrees of +restitution have been rendered and damages awarded by admiralty +courts, and in other cases where this government may be acknowledged +to be liable in principle and where the amount of that liability has +been ascertained by an informal arbitration. + +The proper officers of the Treasury have deemed themselves required +by the law of the United States upon the subject to demand a tax upon +the incomes of foreign consuls in this country. While such a demand +may not in strictness be in derogation of public law, or perhaps of +any existing treaty between the United States and a foreign country, +the expediency of so far modifying the act as to exempt from tax the +income of such consuls as are not citizens of the United States, +derived from the emoluments of their office or from property not +situated in the United States, is submitted to your serious +consideration. I make this suggestion upon the ground that a comity +which ought to be reciprocated exempts our consuls in all other +countries from taxation to the extent thus indicated. The United +States, I think, ought not to be exceptionally illiberal to +international trade and commerce. + +The operations of the Treasury during the last year have been +successfully conducted. The enactment by Congress of a national +banking law has proved a valuable support of the public credit, and +the general legislation in relation to loans has fully answered the +expectations of its favorers. Some amendments may be required to +perfect existing laws, but no change in their principles or general +scope is believed to be needed. + +Since these measures have been in operation all demands on the +Treasury, including the pay of the Army and Navy, have been promptly +met and fully satisfied. No considerable body of troops, it is +believed, were ever more amply provided and more liberally and +punctually paid, and it may be added that by no people were the +burdens incident to a great war ever more cheerfully borne. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, including loans and +balance in the Treasury at its commencement, were $901,125,674.86, +and the aggregate disbursements $895,796,630.65, leaving a balance on +the 1st of July, 1863, of $5,329,044.21. Of the receipts there were +derived from customs $69,059,642.40, from internal revenue +$37,640,787.95, from direct tax $1,485,103.61, from lands +$167,617.17, from miscellaneous sources $3,046,615.35, and from loans +$776,682,361.57, making the aggregate $901,125,674.86. Of the +disbursements there were for the civil service $23,253,922.08, for +pensions and Indians $4,216,520.79, for interest on public debt +$24,729,846.51, for the War Department $599,298,600.83, for the Navy +Department $63,211,105.27, for payment of funded and temporary debt +$181,086,635.07, making the aggregate $895,796,630.65 and leaving the +balance of $5,329,044.21. But the payment of funded and temporary +debt, having been made from moneys borrowed during the year, must be +regarded as merely nominal payments and the moneys borrowed to make +them as merely nominal receipts, and their amount, $181,086,635.07, +should therefore be deducted both from receipts and disbursements. +This being done there remains as actual receipts $720,039,039.79 and +the actual disbursements $714,709,995.58, leaving the balance as +already stated. + +The actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the +estimated receipts and disbursements for the remaining three-quarters +of the current fiscal year (1864) will be shown in detail by the +report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to which I invite your +attention. It is sufficient to say here that it is not believed +that actual results will exhibit a state of the finances less +favorable to the country than the estimates of that officer +heretofore submitted while it is confidently expected that at the +close of the year both disbursements and debt will be found very +considerably less than has been anticipated. + +The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. +It consists of: +1.The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of the +General in Chief. +2.The organization of colored persons into the war service. +3.The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of General +Hitchcock. +4.The operations under the act for enrolling and calling out the +national forces, detailed in the report of the Provost Marshal +General. +5.The organization of the invalid corps, and +6.The operation of the several departments of the Quartermaster- +General, Commissary-General, Paymaster-General, Chief of Engineers, +Chief of Ordnance, and Surgeon-General. + +It has appeared impossible to make a valuable summary of this report, +except such as would be too extended for this place, and hence I +content myself by asking your careful attention to the report itself. + +The duties devolving on the naval branch of the service during the +year and throughout the whole of this unhappy contest have been +discharged with fidelity and eminent success. The extensive blockade +has been constantly increasing in efficiency as the Navy has +expanded, yet on so long a line it has so far been impossible to +entirely suppress illicit trade. From returns received at the Navy +Department it appears that more than 1,000 vessels have been captured +since the blockade was instituted? and that the value of prizes +already sent in for adjudication amounts to over $13,000,000. + +The naval force of the United States consists at this time of five +hundred and eighty-eight vessels completed and in the course of +completion, and of these seventy-five are ironclad or armored +steamers. The events of the war give an increased interest and +importance to the Navy which will probably extend beyond the war +itself. + +The armored vessels in our Navy completed and in service, or which +are under contract and approaching completion, are believed to exceed +in number those of any other power; but while these may be relied +upon for harbor defense and coast service, others of greater strength +and capacity will be necessary for cruising purposes and to maintain +our rightful position on the ocean. + +The change that has taken place in naval vessels and naval warfare +since the introduction of steam as a motive power for ships of war +demands either a corresponding change in some of our existing navy +yards or the establishment of new ones for the construction and +necessary repair of modern naval vessels. No inconsiderable +embarrassment, delay, and public injury have been experienced from +the want of such governmental establishments. The necessity of such +a navy-yard, so furnished, at some suitable place upon the Atlantic +seaboard has on repeated occasions been brought to the attention of +Congress by the Navy Department, and is again presented in the report +of the Secretary which accompanies this communication. I think it my +duty to invite your special attention to this subject, and also to +that of establishing a yard and depot for naval purposes upon one of +the Western rivers. A naval force has been created on those interior +waters, and under many disadvantages, within little more than two +years, exceeding in numbers the whole naval force of the country at +the commencement of the present Administration. Satisfactory and +important as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy +at this interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the +success of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war +vessels, which has created a new form of naval power. + +Our country has advantages superior to any other nation in our +resources of iron and timber, with inexhaustible quantities of fuel +in the immediate vicinity of both, and all available and in close +proximity to navigable waters. Without the advantage of public +works, the resources of the nation have been developed and its power +displayed in the construction of a Navy of such magnitude, which has +at the very period of its creation rendered signal service to the +Union. + +The increase of the number of seamen in the public service from 7,500 +men in the spring of 1861 to about 34,000 at the present time has +been accomplished without special legislation or extraordinary +bounties to promote that increase. It has been found, however, that +the operation of the draft, with the high bounties paid for army +recruits, is beginning to affect injuriously the naval service, and +will, if not corrected, be likely to impair its efficiency by +detaching seamen from their proper vocation and inducing them to +enter the Army. I therefore respectfully suggest that Congress +might aid both the army and naval services by a definite provision on +this subject which would at the same time be equitable to the +communities more especially interested. + +I commend to your consideration the suggestions of the Secretary of +the Navy in regard to the policy of fostering and training seamen and +also the education of officers and engineers for the naval service. +The Naval Academy is rendering signal service in preparing midshipmen +for the highly responsible duties which in after life they will be +required to perform. In order that the country should not be +deprived of the proper quota of educated officers, for which legal +provision has been made at the naval school, the vacancies caused by +the neglect or omission to make nominations from the States in +insurrection have been filled by the Secretary of the Navy. The +school is now more full and complete than at any former period, and +in every respect entitled to the favorable consideration of Congress. + +During the past fiscal year the financial condition of the Post- +Office Department has been one of increasing prosperity, and I am +gratified in being able to state that the actual postal revenue has +nearly equaled the entire expenditures, the latter amounting to +$11,314,206.84 and the former to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency +of but $150,417.25. In 1860, the year immediately preceding the +rebellion, the deficiency amounted to $5,656,705.49, the postal +receipts of that year being $2,645,722.19 less that those of 1863. +The decrease since 1860 in the annual amount of transportation has +been only about twenty-five per cent, but the annual expenditure on +account of the same has been reduced thirty-five per cent. It is +manifest, therefore, that the Post-Office Department may become self- +sustaining in a few years, even with the restoration of the whole +service. + +The international conference of postal delegates from the principal +countries of Europe and America, which was called at the suggestion +of the Postmaster-General, met at Paris on the 11th of May last and +concluded its deliberations on the 8th of June. The principles +established by the conference as best adapted to facilitate postal +intercourse between nations and as the basis of future postal +conventions inaugurate a general system of uniform international +charges at reduced rates of postage, and can not fail to produce +beneficial results. + +I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is +herewith laid before you, for useful and varied information in +relation to the public lands, Indian affairs, patents, pensions, and +other matters of public concern pertaining to his Department. + +The quantity of land disposed of during the last and the first +quarter of the present fiscal years was 3,841,549 acres, of which +161,911 acres were sold for cash, 1,456,514 acres were taken up under +the homestead law, and the residue disposed of under laws granting +lands for military bounties, for railroad and other purposes. It +also appears that the sale of the public lands is largely on the +increase. + +It has long been a cherished opinion of some of our wisest statesmen +that the people of the United States had a higher and more enduring +interest in the early settlement and substantial cultivation of the +public lands than in the amount of direct revenue to be derived from +the sale of them. This opinion has had a controlling influence in +shaping legislation upon the subject of our national domain. I may +cite as evidence of this the liberal measures adopted in reference to +actual settlers; the grant to the States of the overflowed lands +within their limits, in order to their being reclaimed and rendered +fit for cultivation; the grants to railway companies of alternate +sections of land upon the contemplated lines of their roads, which +when completed will so largely multiply the facilities for reaching +our distant possessions. This policy has received its most signal +and beneficent illustration in the recent enactment granting +homesteads to actual settlers. Since the 1st day of January last the +before-mentioned quantity of 1,456,514 acres of land have been taken +up under its provisions. This fact and the amount of sales furnish +gratifying evidence of increasing settlement upon the public lands, +notwithstanding the great struggle in which the energies of the +nation have been engaged, and which has required so large a +withdrawal of our citizens from their accustomed pursuits. I +cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary of the +Interior suggesting a modification of the act in favor of those +engaged in the military and naval service of the United States. I +doubt not that Congress will cheerfully adopt such measures as will, +without essentially changing the general features of the system, +secure to the greatest practicable extent its benefits to those who +have left their homes in the defense of the country in this arduous +crisis. + +I invite your attention to the views of the Secretary as to the +propriety of raising by appropriate legislation a revenue from the +mineral lands of the United States. + +The measures provided at your last session for the removal of certain +Indian tribes have been carried into effect. Sundry treaties have +been negotiated, which will in due time be submitted for the +constitutional action of the Senate. They contain stipulations for +extinguishing the possessory rights of the Indians to large and +valuable tracts of lands. It is hoped that the effect of these +treaties will result in the establishment of permanent friendly +relations with such of these tribes as have been brought into +frequent and bloody collision with our outlying settlements and +emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative duty to these wards of +the Government demand our anxious and constant attention to their +material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, +and, above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of +Divine Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying +influences, the hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith. + +I suggested in my last annual message the propriety of remodeling our +Indian system. Subsequent events have satisfied me of its necessity. +The details set forth in the report of the Secretary evince the +urgent need for immediate legislative action. + +I commend the benevolent institutions established or patronized by +the Government in this District to your generous and fostering care. + +The attention of Congress during the last session was engaged to some +extent with a proposition for enlarging the water communication +between the Mississippi River and the northeastern seaboard, which +proposition, however, failed for the time. Since then, upon a call +of the greatest respectability, a convention has been held at Chicago +upon the same subject, a summary of whose views is contained in a +memorial addressed to the President and Congress, and which I now +have the honor to lay before you. That this interest is one which +ere long will force its own way I do not entertain a doubt, while it +is submitted entirely to your wisdom as to what can be done now. +Augmented interest is given to this subject by the actual +commencement of work upon the Pacific Railroad, under auspices so +favorable to rapid progress and completion. The enlarged navigation +becomes a palpable need to the great road. + +I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioner of the +Department of Agriculture, asking your attention to the developments +in that vital interest of the nation. + +When Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted nearly +twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and +sea, with varying results; the rebellion had been pressed back into +reduced limits; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion, at home +and abroad, was not satisfactory. With other signs, the popular +elections then just past indicated uneasiness among ourselves, while, +amid much that was cold and menacing, the kindest words coming from +Europe were uttered in accents of pity that we are too blind to +surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce was suffering greatly by a +few armed vessels built upon and furnished from foreign shores, and +we were threatened with such additions from the same quarter as would +sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade. We had failed +to elicit from European governments anything hopeful upon this +subject. The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in +September, was running its assigned period to the beginning of the +new year. A month later the final proclamation came, including the +announcement that colored men of suitable condition would be received +into the war service. The policy of emancipation and of employing +black soldiers gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope and +fear and doubt contended in uncertain conflict. According to our +political system, as a matter of civil administration, the General +Government had no lawful power to effect emancipation in any State, +and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion could be +suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure. It was all +the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and +that if it should the crisis of the contest would then be presented. +It came, and, as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and +doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to +take another review. The rebel borders are pressed still farther +back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country +dominated by the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no +practical communication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have +been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential +citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the +beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in +their respective States. Of those States not included in the +emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which +three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of +slavery into new Territories, dispute now only as to the best mode of +removing it within their own limits. + +Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full +100,000 are now in the United States military service, about one-half +of which number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the +double advantage of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and +supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so many +white men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as +good soldiers as any. No servile insurrection or tendency to +violence or cruelty has marked the measures of emancipation and +arming the blacks. These measures have been much discussed in +foreign countries, and, contemporary with such discussion, the tone +of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same +measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and +denounced, and the annual elections following are highly encouraging +to those whose official duty it is to bear the country through this +great trial. Thus we have the new reckoning. The crisis which +threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past. + +Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a +resumption of the national authority within the States wherein that +authority has been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a +proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. On +examination of this proclamation it will appear, as is believed, that +nothing will be attempted beyond what is amply justified by the +Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given, but no man is +coerced to take it. The man is promised a pardon only in case he +voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the +Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute +discretion, and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is +fully established by judicial and other authorities. + +It is also proffered that if in any of the States named a State +government shall be in the mode prescribed set up, such government +shall be recognized and guaranteed by the United States, and that +under it the State shall, on the constitutional conditions, be +protected against invasion and domestic violence. The constitutional +obligation of the United States to guarantee to every State in the +Union a republican form of government and to protect the State in the +cases stated is explicit and full. But why tender the benefits of +this provision only to a State government set up in this particular +way? This section of the Constitution contemplates a case wherein the +element within a State favorable to republican government in the +Union may be too feeble for an opposite and hostile element external +to or even within the State, and such are precisely the cases with +which we are now dealing. + +An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government, +constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element +against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply +absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing +elements, so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a +sufficiently liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make a +sworn recantation of his former unsoundness. + +But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the +political body an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the +United States and to the Union under it, why also to the laws and +proclamations in regard to slavery? Those laws and proclamations were +enacted and put forth for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of +the rebellion. To give them their fullest effect there had to be a +pledge for their maintenance. In my judgment, they have aided and +will further aid the cause for which they were intended. To now +abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but +would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith. I may add +at this point that while I remain in my present position I shall not +attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall +I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that +proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress. For these and other +reasons it is thought best that support of these measures shall be +included in the oath, and it is believed the Executive may lawfully +claim it in return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, +which he has clear constitutional power to withhold altogether or +grant upon the terms which he shall deem wisest for the public +interest. It should be observed also that this part of the oath is +subject to the modifying and abrogating power of legislation and +supreme judicial decision. + +The proposed acquiescence of the National Executive in any reasonable +temporary State arrangement for the freed people is made with the +view of possibly modifying the confusion and destitution which must +at best attend all classes by a total revolution of labor throughout +whole States. It is hoped that the already deeply afflicted people +in those States may be somewhat more ready to give up the cause of +their affliction if to this extent this vital matter be left to +themselves, while no power of the National Executive to prevent an +abuse is abridged by the proposition. + +The suggestion in the proclamation as to maintaining the political +framework of the States on what is called reconstruction is made in +the hope that it may do good without danger of harm. It will save +labor and avoid great confusion. + +But why any proclamation now upon this subject? This question is +beset with the conflicting views that the step might be delayed too +long or be taken too soon. In some States the elements for +resumption seem ready for action, but remain inactive apparently for +want of a rallying point--a plan of action. Why shall A adopt the +plan of B rather than B that of A? And if A and B should agree, how +can they know but that the General Government here will reject their +plan? By the proclamation a plan is presented which may be accepted +by them as a rallying point, and which they are assured in advance +will not be rejected here. This may bring them to act sooner than +they otherwise would. + +The objections to a premature presentation of a plan by the National +Executive consist in the danger of committals on points which could +be more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken to +so shape the document as to avoid embarrassments from this source. +Saying that on certain terms certain classes will be pardoned with +rights restored, it is not said that other classes or other terms +will never be included. Saying that reconstruction will be accepted +if presented in a specified way, it is not said it will never be +accepted in any other way. + +The movements by State action for emancipation in several of the +States not included in the emancipation proclamation are matters of +profound gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I +have heretofore so earnestly urged upon this subject my general views +and feelings remain unchanged and I trust that Congress will omit no +fair opportunity of aiding these important steps to a great +consummation. + +In the midst of other cares, however important we must not lose sight +of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that +power alone we look yet for a time to give confidence to the people +in the contested regions that the insurgent power will not again +overrun them. Until that confidence shall be established little can +be done anywhere what is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest +care must still be directed to the Army and Navy who have thus far +borne their harder part so nobly and well; and it may be esteemed +fortunate that giving the greatest efficiency to these indispensable +arms we do also honorably recognize the gallant men, from commander +to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom more than to others the +world must stand indebted for the home of freedom disenthralled, +regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Captain John Rogers United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks +from Congress for the eminent skill and gallantry exhibited by him in +the engagement with the rebel armed ironclad steamer Fingal, alias +Atlanta, whilst in command of the United States ironclad steamer +Weehawken, which led to her capture on the 17th June, 1863, and also +for the zeal, bravery, and general good conduct shown by this officer +on many occasions. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with +the enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Congress, on my recommendation, passed a resolution, approved 7th +February, 1863, tendering its thanks to Commander D. D. Porter "for +the bravery and skill displayed in the attack on the post of Arkansas +on the 10th January, 1863," and in consideration of those services, +together with his efficient labors and vigilance subsequently +displayed in thwarting the efforts of the rebels to obstruct the +Mississippi and its tributaries and the important part rendered by +the squadron under his command, which led to the surrender of +Vicksburg. + +I do therefore, in conformity to the seventh section of the act +approved 16th July, 1862, nominate Commander D. D. Porter to be a +rear-admiral in the Navy on the active list from the 4th July, 1863, +to fill an existing vacancy. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, December 8, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT: +Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now +secure, I wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more +than thanks, my profoundest gratitude, for the skill, courage, and +perseverance with which you and they, over so great difficulties, +have effected that important object. God bless you all! + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 9, 1863 + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. G. CURTIN, +Governor of Pennsylvania. +DEAR SIR:--I have to urge my illness, and the preparation of the +message, in excuse for not having sooner transmitted you the inclosed +from the Secretary of War and Provost Marshal General in response to +yours in relation to recruiting in Pennsylvania. Though not quite +as you desire, I hope the grounds taken will be reasonably +satisfactory to you. Allow me to exchange congratulations with you +on the organization of the House of Representatives, and especially +on recent military events in Georgia and Tennessee. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 10, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Please suspend execution in any and all sentences of death in your +department until further order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 11, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Lieut. Col. James B. Knox, Tenth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves, +offers his resignation under circumstances inducing me to wish to +accept it. But I prefer to know your pleasure upon the subject. +Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JUDGE HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +December 15, 1863. + +HON. OGDEN HOFFMAN, U. S. District Judge, San Francisco, Cal.: + +The oath in the proclamation of December 8 is intended for those who +may voluntarily take it, and not for those who may be constrained to +take it in order to escape actual imprisonment or punishment. It is +intended that the latter class shall abide the granting or +withholding of the pardoning power in the ordinary way. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MARY GONYEAG. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 15, 1863. + +MOTHER MARY GONYEAG, Superior, Academy of Visitation, +Keokuk, Iowa: + +The President has no authority as to whether you may raffle for the +benevolent object you mention. If there is no objection in the Iowa +laws, there is none here. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING DISCRIMINATING DUTIES, +DECEMBER 16, 1863. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of +May, 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act +concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost' and to +equalize the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is +provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President +of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no +discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in +the ports of the said nation upon vessels wholly belonging to +citizens of the United States or upon the produce, manufactures, or +merchandise imported in the same from the United States or from any +foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to issue his +proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of +tonnage and impost within the United States are and shall be +suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said +foreign nation and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported +into the United States in the same from the said foreign nation or +from any other foreign country, the said suspension to take effect +from the time of such notification being given to the President of +the United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption +of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States and their +cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no longer; and + +Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me through +an official communication of Senor Don Luis Molina, Envoy +Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of +Nicaragua, under date of the 28th of November, 1863, that no other or +higher duties of tonnage and impost have been imposed or levied since +the second day of August, 1838, in the ports of Nicaragua, upon +vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, and upon +the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from +the United States, and from any foreign country whatever, than are +levied on Nicaraguan ships and their cargoes in the same ports under +like circumstances: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several +acts imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the +United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as +respects the vessels of Nicaragua, and the produce, manufactures, and +the merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the +dominions of Nicaragua, and from any other foreign country whatever; +the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned, and +to continue thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the +vessels of the United States, and the produce, manufactures, and +merchandise imported into the dominions of Nicaragua in the same, as +aforesaid, shall be continued on the part of the government of +Nicaragua. + +Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the sixteenth day of +December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and +sixty-three, and the eighty-eighth of the Independence of the United +States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 17, 1863. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Herewith I lay before you a letter addressed to myself by a committee +of gentlemen representing the freedmen's aid societies in Boston, New +York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The subject of the letter, as +indicated above, is one of great magnitude and importance, and one +which these gentlemen, of known ability and high character, seem to +have considered with great attention and care. Not having the time +to form a mature judgment of my own as to whether the plan they +suggest is the best, I submit the whole subject to Congress, deeming +that their attention thereto is almost imperatively demanded. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HURLBUT. +[Cipher.] +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 17, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT, Memphis, Tenn.: + +I understand you have under sentence of death, a tall old man, by the +name of Henry F. Luckett. I personally knew him, and did not think +him a bad man. Please do not let him be executed unless upon +further order from me, and in the meantime send me a transcript of +the record. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, December 19, 1863. + +GENERAL GRANT, Chattanooga, Tennessee: + +The Indiana delegation in Congress, or at least a large part of them, +are very anxious that General Milroy shall enter active service +again, and I share in this feeling. He is not a difficult man to +satisfy, sincerity and courage being his strong traits. Believing in +our cause, and wanting to fight for it, is the whole matter with him. +Could you, without embarrassment, assign him a place, if directed to +report to you? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 21, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Sending a note to the Secretary of the Navy, as I +promised, he called over and said that the strikes in the ship-yards +had thrown the completion of vessels back so much that he thought +General Gilimore's proposition entirely proper. He only wishes (and +in which I concur) that General Gillmore will courteously confer +with, and explain to, Admiral Dahlgren. + +In regard to the Western matter, I believe the program will have to +stand substantially as I first put it. Henderson, and especially +Brown, believe that the social influence of St. Louis would +inevitably tell injuriously upon General Pope in the particular +difficulty existing there, and I think there is some force in that +view. + +As to retaining General Schofield temporarily, if this should be +done, I believe I should scarcely be able to get his nomination +through the Senate. Send me over his nomination, which, however, I +am not quite ready to send to the Senate. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO O. D. FILLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +O. D. FILLEY, ST. Louis, Missouri: + +I have just looked over a petition signed by some three dozen +citizens of St. Louis, and three accompanying letters, one by +yourself, one by a Mr. Nathan Ranney, and one by a Mr. John D. +Coalter, the whole relating to the Rev. Dr. McPheeters. The +petition prays, in the name of justice and mercy, that I will restore +Dr. McPheeters to all his ecclesiastical rights. This gives no +intimation as to what ecclesiastical rights are withheld. + +Your letter states that Provost-Marshal Dick, about a year ago, +ordered the arrest of Dr. McPheeters, pastor of the Vine Street +Church, prohibited him from officiating, and placed the management of +the affairs of the church out of the control of its chosen trustees; +and near the close you state that a certain course "would insure his +release." Mr. Ranney's letter says: "Dr. Samuel S. McPheeters is +enjoying all the rights of a civilian, but cannot preach the +Gospel!!!!" Mr. Coalter, in his letter, asks: "Is it not a strange +illustration of the condition of things, that the question of who +shall be allowed to preach in a church in St. Louis shall be decided +by the President of the United States?" + +Now, all this sounds very strangely; and, withal, a little as if you +gentlemen making the application do not understand the case alike; +one affirming that the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a +civilian, and another pointing out to me what will secure his +release! On the second day of January last, I wrote to General Curtis +in relation to Mr. Dick's order upon Dr. McPheeters; and, as I +suppose the doctor is enjoying all the rights of a civilian, I only +quote that part of my letter which relates to the church. It is as +follows: "But I must add that the United States Government must not, +as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When an individual, +in a church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest, +he must be checked; but the churches, as such, must take care of +themselves. It will not do for the United States to appoint +trustees, supervisors, or other agents for the churches." + +This letter going to General Curtis, then in command there, I +supposed, of course, it was obeyed, especially as I heard no further +complaint from Dr. McPheeters or his friends for nearly an entire +year. I have never interfered, nor thought of interfering, as to who +shall or shall not preach in any church; nor have I knowingly or +believingly tolerated any one else to so interfere by my authority. +If any one is so interfering by color of my authority, I would like +to have it specifically made known to me. If, after all, what is +now sought is to have me put Dr. McPheeters back over the heads of a +majority of his own congregation, that, too, will be declined. I +will not have control of any church on any side. + +Yours respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 22, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you have a prisoner by the name Linder--Daniel Linder, I think, +and certainly the son of U. F. Linder, of Illinois, please send him +to me by an officer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO MILITARY COMMANDER AT POINT LOOKOUT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 24, 1863. + +MILITARY COMMANDER, Point Lookout, Md.: + +If you send Linder to me as directed a day or two ago, also send +Edwin C. Claybrook, of Ninth Virginia rebel cavalry. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO U. F. LINDER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D. C., December 26, 1863. + +HON. U. F. LINDER, Chicago, Ill.: +Your son Dan has just left me with my order to the Secretary of War, +to administer to him the oath of allegiance, discharge him and send +him to you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL N. P. BANKS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 29, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BANKS: + +Yours of the sixteenth is received, and I send you, as covering the +ground of it, a copy of my answer to yours of the sixth, it being +possible the original may not reach you. I intend you to be master +in every controversy made with you. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., December 30, 1863. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Jacob Bowers is fully pardoned for past offence, upon condition that +he returns to duty and re-enlists for three years or during the war. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, December 31, 1863. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--Please fix up the department to which Curtis is to go, without +waiting to wind up the Missouri matter. Lane is very anxious to have +Fort Smith in it, and I am willing, unless there be decided military +reasons to the contrary, in which case of course, I am not for it. +It will oblige me to have the Curtis department fixed at once. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1864 + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SULLIVAN. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., January 1, 1864. 3.30 p.m. + +GENERAL SULLIVAN, Harper's Ferry: + +Have you anything new from Winchester, Martinsburg or thereabouts? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PIERPOINT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 2, 1864. + +GOVERNOR PIERPOINT, Alexandria, Va.: + +Please call and see me to-day if not too inconvenient. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 2, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. + +SIR:--The Secretary of War and myself have concluded to discharge of +the prisoners at Point Lookout the following classes: First, those +who will take the oath prescribed in the proclamation of December 8, +and issued by the consent of General Marston, will enlist in our +service. Second, those who will take the oath and be discharged and +whose homes lie safely within our military lines. + +I send by Mr. Hay this letter and a blank-book and some other blanks, +the way of using which I propose for him to explain verbally better +than I can in writing. + +Yours, very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE: + +If not inconsistent with the service, please allow General William +Harrow as long a leave of absence as the rules permit with the +understanding that I may lengthen it if I see fit. He is an +acquaintance and friend of mine, and his family matters very urgently +require his presence. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +JANUARY 5, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +By a joint resolution of your honorable bodies approved December 23, +1863, the paying of bounties to veteran volunteers, as now practiced +by the War Department, is, to the extent of three hundred dollars in +each case, prohibited after this 5th day of the present month. I +transmit for your consideration a communication from the Secretary of +War, accompanied by one from the Provost-Marshal General to him, both +relating to the subject above mentioned. I earnestly recommend that +the law be so modified as to allow bounties to be paid as they now +are, at least until the ensuing 1st day of February. + +I am not without anxiety lest I appear to be importunate in thus +recalling your attention to a subject upon which you have so recently +acted, and nothing but a deep conviction that the public interest +demands it could induce me to incur the hazard of being misunderstood +on this point. The Executive approval was given by me to the +resolution mentioned, and it is now by a closer attention and a +fuller knowledge of facts that I feel constrained to recommend a +reconsideration of the subject. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 6, 1864. 2 P.M. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Kentucky: + +Yours of yesterday received. Nothing is known here about General +Foster's order, of which you complain, beyond the fair presumption +that it comes from General Grant, and that it has an object which, if +you understood, you would be loath to frustrate. True, these troops +are, in strict law, only to be removed by my order; but General +Grant's judgment would be the highest incentive to me to make such +order. Nor can I understand how doing so is bad faith and dishonor, +nor yet how it so exposes Kentucky to ruin. Military men here do not +perceive how it exposes Kentucky, and I am sure Grant would not +permit it if it so appeared to him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL Q. A. GILLMORE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL GILLMORE: + +I understand an effort is being made by some worthy gentlemen to +reconstruct a legal State government in Florida. Florida is in your +Department, and it is not unlikely you may be there in person. I +have given Mr. Hay a commission of major, and sent him to you, with +some blank-books and other blanks, to aid in the reconstruction. He +will explain as to the manner of using the blanks, and also my +general views on the subject. It is desirable for all to co-operate, +but if irreconcilable differences of opinion shall arise, you are +master. I wish the thing done in the most speedy way, so that when +done it be within the range of the late proclamation on the subject. +The detail labor will, of course, have to be done by others; but I +will be greatly obliged if you will give it such general supervision +as you can find consistent with your more strictly military duties. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +If Private William G. Toles, of Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteers, returns +to his regiment and faithfully serves out his term, he is fully +pardoned for all military offenses prior to this. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 16, 1864. + +MESSRS. CROSBY AND NICHOLS. + +GENTLEMEN: The number for this month and year of the North American +Review was duly received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of +course I am not the most impartial judge; yet, with due allowance for +this, I venture to hope that the article entitled "The President's +Policy" will be of value to the country. I fear I am not worthy of +all which is therein kindly said of me personally. + +The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 252, I +could wish to be not exactly what it is. In what is there expressed, +the writer has not correctly understood me. I have never had a +theory that secession could absolve States or people from their +obligations. Precisely the contrary is asserted in the inaugural +address; and it was because of my belief in the continuation of those +obligations that I was puzzled, for a time, as to denying the legal +rights of those citizens who remained individually innocent of +treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call +attention to this point. + +Yours respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +Sundry citizens of the State of Arkansas petition me that an election +may be held in that State, at which to elect a Governor; that it be +assumed at that election, and thenceforward, that the constitution +and laws of the State, as before the rebellion, are in full force, +except that the constitution is so modified as to declare that there +shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in the +punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly +convicted; that the General Assembly may make such provisions for the +freed people as shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, +and provide for their education, and which may yet be construed as a +temporary arrangement suitable to their condition as a laboring, +landless, and homeless class; that said election shall be held on the +28th of March, 1864, at all the usual places of the State, or all +such as voters may attend for that purpose, that the voters attending +at eight o'clock in the morning of said day may choose judges and +clerks of election for such purpose; that all persons qualified by +said constitution and laws, and taking the oath presented in the +President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, either before or at the +election, and none others, may be voters; that each set of judges and +clerks may make returns directly to you on or before the __th day of +_____next; that in all other respects said election may be conducted +according to said constitution and laws: that on receipt of said +returns, when five thousand four hundred and six votes shall have +been cast, you can receive said votes, and ascertain all who shall +thereby appear to have been elected; that on the ___th day of +_______next, all persons so appearing to have been elected, who shall +appear before you at Little Rock, and take the oath, to be by you +severally administered, to support the Constitution of the United +States and said modified Constitution of the State of Arkansas, may +be declared by you qualified and empowered to enter immediately upon +the duties of the offices to which they shall have been respectively +elected. + +You will please order an election to take place on the 28th of March, +1864, and returns to be made in fifteen days thereafter. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 20, 1864 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In accordance with a letter addressed by the Secretary of State, with +my approval, to the Hon. Joseph A. Wright, of Indiana, that patriotic +and distinguished gentleman repaired to Europe and attended the +International Agricultural Exhibition, held at Hamburg last year, and +has since his return made a report to me, which, it is believed, can +not fail to be of general interest, and especially so to the +agricultural community. I transmit for your consideration copies of +the letters and report. While it appears by the letter that no +reimbursement of expenses or compensation was promised him, I submit +whether reasonable allowance should not be made him for them. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPROVING TRADE REGULATIONS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 26, 1864. + +I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States having seen and +considered the additional regulations of trade prescribed by the +Secretary of the Treasury, and numbered LI, LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and +LVI, do hereby approve the same; and I further declare and order that +all property brought in for sale, in good faith, and actually sold in +pursuance of said Regulations LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, +after the same shall have taken effect and come in force as provided +in Regulation LVI, shall be exempt from confiscation or forfeiture to +the United States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER, Knoxville, Tenn.: + +Is a supposed correspondence between General Longstreet and yourself +about the amnesty proclamation, which is now in the newspapers, +genuine? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864 + +HON. EDWARD STANLEY, San Francisco, Cal.: + +Yours of yesterday received. We have rumors similar to the dispatch +received by you, but nothing very definite from North Carolina. +Knowing Mr. Stanley to be an able man, and not doubting that he is a +patriot, I should be glad for him to be with his old acquaintances +south of Virginia, but I am unable to suggest anything definite upon +the subject. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864. +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK: + +Some citizens of Missouri, vicinity of Kansas City, are apprehensive +that there is special danger of renewed troubles in that +neighborhood, and thence on the route toward New Mexico. I am not +impressed that the danger is very great or imminent, but I will thank +you to give Generals Rosecrans and Curtis, respectively, such orders +as may turn their attention thereto and prevent as far as possible +the apprehended disturbance. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SICKLES, New York: + +Could you, without it being inconvenient or disagreeable to yourself, +immediately take a trip to Arkansas for me? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 31, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +General Boyle's resignation is accepted, so that your Excellency can +give him the appointment proposed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +COLONIZATION EXPERIMENT + +ORDER TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 1, 1864 + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + +SIR:-You are directed to have a transport (either a steam or sailing +vessel, as may be deemed proper by the Quartermaster-General) sent to +the colored colony established by the United States at the island of +Vache, on the coast of San Domingo, to bring back to this country +such of the colonists there as desire to return. You will have the +transport furnished with suitable supplies for that purpose, and +detail an officer of the Quartermaster's Department, who, under +special instructions to be given, shall have charge of the business. +The colonists will be brought to Washington, unless otherwise +hereafter directed, and be employed and provided for at the camps for +colored persons around that city. Those only will be brought from +the island who desire to return, and their effects will be brought +with them. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER FOR A DRAFT OF FIVE HUNDRED +THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 1, 1864. + +Ordered, That a draft of five hundred thousand (500,000) men, to +serve for three years or during the war, be made on the tenth (10th) +day of March next, for the military service of the United States, +crediting and deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted +or drafted into the service prior to the first (1st) day of March, +and not before credited. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1864. + +GOVERNOR YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +The United States Government lot in Springfield can be used for a +soldiers' home, with the understanding that the Government does not +incur any expense +in the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. +WASHINGTON, February 6, 1864. + +GOVERNOR J. MURPHY: + +My order to General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of +the action your convention had taken or would take. A subsequent +letter directs General Steele to aid you on your own plan, and not to +thwart or hinder you. Show this to him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + +TOLD BY THE PRESIDENT, +TO THE ARTIST F. B. CARPENTER, +FEBRUARY 6, 1864. + +It had got to be," said Mr. Lincoln, "midsummer, 1862. Things had +gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end +of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we +had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose +the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation +policy; and without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the +Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and, +after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the +subject. This was the last of July or the first part of the month of +August, 1862. [The exact date was July 22, 1862.] . . . All +were present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was +absent at the opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently. I +said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not +called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject- +matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to which would +be in order after they had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy was in error +when he informed you that it excited no comment excepting on the part +of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions were offered. Secretary +Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the +blacks. + +"Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy on the ground +that it would cost the administration the fall elections. Nothing, +however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated and +settled in my mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in +substance, 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I +question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The +depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, +is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be +viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for +help; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead +of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.' His +idea," said the President, "was that it would be considered our last +shriek on the retreat. [This was his precise expression.] 'Now,' +continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, +that you postpone its issue until you can give it to the country +supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the +case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war.' "Mr. Lincoln +continued "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me +with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my +thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was +that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch +for a picture, waiting for a victory. + +"From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and +there, anxiously watching the process of events. Well, the next news +we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than +ever. Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined +to wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the +advantage was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home +[three miles out of Washington]. Here I finished writing the second +draft of the preliminary proclamation; came up on Saturday; called +the Cabinet together to hear it, and it was published on the +following Monday." + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SEDGWICK. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SEDGWICK, Army of Potomac: + +Unless there be some strong reason to the contrary, please send +General Kilpatrick to us here, for two or three days. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE MAYNARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 13, 1864. + +HON. HORACE MAYNARD, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Your letter of [the] second received. Of course Governor Johnson +will proceed with reorganization as the exigencies of the case appear +to him to require. I do not apprehend he will think it necessary to +deviate from my views to any ruinous extent. On one hasty reading I +see no such deviation in his program, which you send. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. M. FISHBACK. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance +that your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the +latter fact I have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. +I have sent two letters to General Steele, and three or four +despatches to you and others, saying that he, General Steele, must be +master, but that it will probably be best for him to merely help the +convention on its own plan. Some single mind must be master, else +there will be no agreement in anything, and General Steele, +commanding the military and being on the ground, is the best man to +be that master. Even now citizens are telegraphing me to postpone +the election to a later day than either that fixed by the convention +or by me. This discord must be silenced. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +The day fixed by the convention for the election is probably the +best, but you on the ground, and in consultation with gentlemen +there, are to decide. I should have fixed no day for an election, +presented no plan for reconstruction, had I known the convention was +doing the same things. It is probably best that you merely assist +the convention on their own plan, as to election day and all other +matters I have already written and telegraphed this half a dozen +times. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. ROBINSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 18, 1864. + +A. ROBINSON, Leroy, N. Y.: + +The law only obliges us to keep accounts with States, or at most +Congressional Districts, and it would overwhelm us to attempt in +counties, cities and towns. Nevertheless we do what we can to oblige +in particular cases. In this view I send your dispatch to the +Provost-Marshal General, asking him to do the best he can for you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, +FEBRUARY 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by my proclamation of the nineteenth of April, one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-one, the ports of the States of South +Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and +Texas were, for reasons therein set forth, placed under blockade; and +whereas, the port of Brownsville, in the district of Brazos Santiago, +in the State of Texas, has since been blockaded, but as the blockade +of said port may now be safely relaxed with advantage to the +interests of commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth +section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, +entitled " An act further to provide for the collection of duties on +imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade +of the said port of Brownsville shall so far cease and determine from +and after this date, that commercial intercourse with said port, +except as to persons, things, and information hereinafter specified, +may, from this date, be carried on, subject to the laws of the United +States, to the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the +Treasury, and, until the rebellion shall have been suppressed, to +such orders as may be promulgated by the general commanding the +department, or by an officer duly authorized by him and commanding at +said port. This proclamation does not authorize or allow the +shipment or conveyance of persons in, or intending to enter, the +service of the insurgents, or of things or information intended for +their use, or for their aid or comfort, nor, except upon the +permission of the Secretary of War, or of some officer duly +authorized by him, of the following prohibited articles, namely: +cannon, mortars, firearms, pistols, bombs, grenades, powder, +saltpeter, sulphur, balls, bullets, pikes, swords, boarding-caps +(always excepting the quantity of the said articles which may be +necessary for the defense of the ship and those who compose the +crew), saddles, bridles, cartridge-bag material, percussion and other +caps, clothing adapted for uniforms; sail-cloth of all kinds, hemp +and cordage, intoxicating drinks other than beer and light native +wines. + +To vessels clearing from foreign ports and destined to the port of +Brownsville, opened by this proclamation, licenses will be granted by +consuls of the United States upon satisfactory evidence that the +vessel so licensed will convey no persons, property, or information +excepted or prohibited above, either to or from the said port; which +licenses shall be exhibited to the collector of said port immediately +on arrival, and, if required, to any officer in charge of the +blockade, and on leaving said port every vessel will be required to +have a clearance from the collector of the customs, according to law, +showing no violation of the conditions of the license. Any violations +of said conditions will involve the forfeiture and condemnation of +the vessel and cargo, and the exclusion of all parties concerned from +any further privilege of entering the United States during the war +for any purpose whatever. + +In all respects, except as herein specified, the existing blockade +remains in full force and effect as hitherto established and +maintained, nor is it relaxed by this proclamation except in regard +to the port to which relaxation is or has been expressly applied. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States the eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COMMANDER BLAKE. +EXECUTIVE, MANSION, February 19, 1864. + +COMMANDER GEORGE S. BLAKE, +Commandant Naval Academy, Newport, R. I.: + +I desire the case of Midshipman C. Lyon re-examined and if not +clearly inconsistent I shall be much obliged to have the +recommendation changed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM WARREN JORDAN. +NASHVILLE, February 20, 1864. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.: + +In county and State elections, must citizens of Tennessee take the +oath prescribed by Governor Johnson, or will the President's oath of +amnesty entitle them to vote? I have been appointed to hold the March +election in Cheatham County, and wish to act understandingly. + +WARREN JORDAN. + + + + +WASHINGTON, February 20, 1864. + +WARREN JORDAN, NASHVILLE: + +In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson's plan; +otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his +plan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint LOUIS, MO.: + +Colonel Sanderson will be ordered to you to-day, a mere omission that +it was not done before. The other questions in your despatch I am not +yet prepared to answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours of yesterday received. Your conference with citizens approved. +Let the election be on the i4th of March as they agreed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL F. STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, February 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +General Sickles is not going to Arkansas. He probably will make a +tour down the Mississippi and home by the gulf and ocean, but he will +not meddle in your affairs. + +At one time I did intend to have him call on you and explain more +fully than I could do by letter or telegraph, so as to avoid a +difficulty coming of my having made a plan here, while the convention +made one there, for reorganizing Arkansas; but even his doing that +has been given up for more than two weeks. Please show this to +Governor Murphy to save me telegraphing him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +DESERTERS DEATH SENTENCES REMITTED + +GENERAL ORDERS, NO.76. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +ADJUTANT-GENERALS OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +Sentence of Deserters. + +The President directs that the sentences of all deserters who have +been condemned by court-martial to death, and that have not been +otherwise acted upon by him, be mitigated to imprisonment during the +war at the Dry Tortugas, Florida, where they will be sent under +suitable guards by orders from army commanders. + +The commanding generals, who have power to act on proceedings of +courts-martial in such cases, are authorized in special cases to +restore to duty deserters under sentence, when in their judgment the +service will be thereby benefited. + +Copies of all orders issued under the foregoing instructions will be +immediately forwarded to the Adjutant-General and to the Judge- +Advocate General. + +By order of the Secretary of War: +B. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General + + + + +FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort. Monroe, Va.: + +I cannot remember at whose request it was that I gave the pass to +Mrs. Bulky. Of course detain her, if the evidence of her being a spy +is strong against her. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO W. JAYNE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864. + +HON. W. JAYNE. + +DEAR SIR--I dislike to make changes in office so long as they can be +avoided. It multiplies my embarrassments immensely. I dislike two +appointments when one will do. Send me the name of some man not the +present marshal, and I will nominate him to be Provost-Marshal for +Dakota. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO E. H. EAST. + +WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864. + +HON. E. H: EAST, Secretary of State, Nashville, Tennessee + +Your telegram of the twenty-sixth instant asking for a copy of my +despatch to Warren Jordan, Esq., at Nashville Press office, has just +been referred to me by Governor Johnson. In my reply to Mr. Jordan, +which was brief and hurried, I intended to say that in the county and +State elections of Tennessee, the oath prescribed in the proclamation +of Governor Johnson on the twenty-sixth of January, 1864, ordering an +election in Tennessee on the first Saturday in March next, is +entirely satisfactory to me as a test of loyalty of all persons +proposing or offering to vote in said elections; and coming from him +would better be observed and followed. There is no conflict between +the oath of amnesty in my proclamation of eighth December, 1863, and +that prescribed by Governor Johnson in his proclamation of the +twenty-sixth ultimo. + +No person who has taken the oath of amnesty of eighth December, 1863, +and obtained a pardon thereby, and who intends to observe the same in +good faith, should have any objection to taking that prescribed by +Governor Johnson as a test of loyalty. + +I have seen and examined Governor Johnson's proclamation, and am +entirely satisfied with his plan, which is to restore the State +government and place it under the control of citizens truly loyal to +the Government of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. + +Please send above to Governor Johnson. +A. L. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864 + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +SIR:--You ask some instructions from me in relation to the Report of +Special Commission constituted by an order of the War Department, +dated December 5, 1863, "to revise the enrolment and quotas of the +City and State of New York, and report whether there be any, and +what, errors or irregularities therein, and what corrections, if any, +should be made." + +In the correspondence between the Governor of New York and myself +last summer, I understood him to complain that the enrolments in +several of the districts of that State had been neither accurately +nor honestly made; and in view of this, I, for the draft then +immediately ensuing, ordered an arbitrary reduction of the quotas in +several of the districts wherein they seemed too large, and said: +"After this drawing, these four districts, and also the seventeenth +and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled, and, if you please, +agents of yours may witness every step of the process." In a +subsequent letter I believe some additional districts were put into +the list of those to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work over +according to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and +thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. The +commission, whose work I am considering, seem to have proceeded upon +a totally different idea. Not going forth to find men at all, they +have proceeded altogether upon paper examinations and mental +processes. One of their conclusions, as I understand, is that, as +the law stands, and attempting to follow it, the enrolling officers +could not have made the enrolments much more accurately than they +did. The report on this point might be useful to Congress. The +commission conclude that the quotas for the draft should be based +upon entire population, and they proceed upon this basis to give a +table for the State of New York, in which some districts are reduced +and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, let the quotas stand +as made by the enrolling officers, in the districts wherein this +table requires them to be increased; and let them be reduced +according to the table in the others: this to be no precedent for +subsequent action. But, as I think this report may, on full +consideration, be shown to have much that is valuable in it, I +suggest that such consideration be given it, and that it be +especially considered whether its suggestions can be conformed to +without an alteration of the law. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 28, 1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +I see your despatch of yesterday to the Secretary of War. + +I wish you would go to the Mississippi River at once, and take hold +of and be master in the contraband and leasing business. You +understand it better than any other man does. Mr. Miller's system +doubtless is well intended, but from what I hear I fear that, if +persisted in, it would fall dead within its own entangling details. +Go there and be the judge. A Mr. Lewis will probably follow you with +something from me on this subject, but do not wait for him. Nor is +this to induce you to violate or neglect any military order from the +General-in-Chief or Secretary of War. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY CHASE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 29, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I would have taken time to answer yours of the 22d +inst. sooner, only that I did not suppose any evil could result from +the delay, especially as, by a note, I promptly acknowledged the +receipt of yours, and promised a fuller answer. Now, on +consideration I find there is really very little to say. My +knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made public came to me +only the day you wrote; but I had, in spite of myself, known of its +existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I think I +shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the +letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and +of secret issues which, I supposed, came from it, and of secret +agents who, I supposed, were sent out by it for several weeks. I +have known just as little a these things as my friends have allowed +me to know. They bring the documents to me, but I do not read them; +they tell me what they think fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for +more. + +I fully concur with you that neither of us can justly be held +responsible for what our respective friends may do without our +instigation or countenance and I assure you, as you have assured me, +that no assault has been made upon you by my instigation, or with my +countenance. + +Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a +question which I will not allow myself to consider from any +standpoint other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that +view, I do not perceive occasion for a change. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL THOMAS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, March 1,1864. + +GENERAL L. THOMAS: + +This introduces Mr. Lewis, mentioned in my despatch sent you at +Louisville some days ago. I have but little personal acquaintance +with him; but he has the confidence of several members of Congress +here who seem to know him well. He hopes to be useful, without +charge to the government, in facilitating the introduction of the +free-labor system on the Mississippi plantations. He is acquainted +with, and has access to, many of the planters who wish to adopt the +system. He will show you two letters of mine on this subject, one +somewhat General, and the other relating to named persons; they are +not different in principle. He will also show you some suggestions +coming from some of the planters themselves. I desire that all I +promise in these letters, so far as practicable, may be in good faith +carried out, and that suggestions from the planters may be heard and +adopted, so far as they may not contravene the principles stated, nor +justice, nor fairness, to laborers. I do not herein intend to +overrule your own mature judgment on any point. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 3, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.: + +Yours including address to people of Arkansas is received. I approve +the address and thank you for it. Yours in relation to William M. +Randolph also received. Let him take the oath of December 8, +and go to work for the new constitution, and on your notifying me of +it, I will immediately issue the special pardon for him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 4,1864. +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Admiral Dahlgren is here, and of course is very anxious about his +son. Please send me at once all you know or can learn of his fate. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER IN REGARD TO THE EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO BELONGING TO THE FRENCH +GOVERNMENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +Whereas, by an Executive order of the 10th of November last +permission was given to export certain tobacco belonging to the +French government from insurgent territory, which tobacco was +supposed to have been purchased and paid for prior to the 4th day of +March, 1861; but whereas it was subsequently ascertained that a part +at least of the said tobacco had been purchased subsequently to that +date, which fact made it necessary to suspend the carrying into +effect of the said order; but whereas, pursuant to mutual +explanations, a satisfactory understanding upon the subject has now +been reached, it is directed that the order aforesaid may be carried +into effect, it being understood that the quantity of French tobacco +so to be exported shall not exceed seven thousand hogsheads, and that +it is the same tobacco respecting the exportation of which +application Was originally made by the French government. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO UNITED STATES MARSHAL, LOUISVILLE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1864. + +U.S. MARSHAL, Louisville, Ky.: + +Until further order suspend sale of property and further proceedings +in cases of the United States against Dr. John B. English, and S. S. +English, qt al., sureties for John L. Hill. Also same against same +sureties for Thomas A. Ireland. + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send the above dispatch. +JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 9, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +New York City votes ninety-five hundred majority for allowing +soldiers to vote, and the rest of the State nearly all on the same +side. Tell the soldiers. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO SENATE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 9, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES + +In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, +respecting the points of commencement of the Union Pacific Railroad, +on the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and of the branch +road, from the western boundary of Iowa to the said one hundredth +degree of longitude, I transmit the accompanying report from the +Secretary of the Interior, containing the information called for. + +I deem it proper to add that on the 17th day of November last an +Executive order was made upon this subject and delivered to the vice- +president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which fixed the +point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa from which the +company should construct their branch road to the one hundredth +degree of west longitude, and declared it to be within the limits of +the township in Iowa opposite the town of Omaha, in Nebraska. Since +then the company has represented to me that upon actual surveys made +it has determined upon the precise point of departure of their said +branch road from the Missouri River, and located the same as +described in the accompanying report of the Secretary of the +Interior, which point is within the limits designated in the order of +November last; and inasmuch as that order is not of record in any of +the Executive Departments, and the company having desired a more +definite one, I have made the order of which a copy is herewith, and +caused the same to be filed in the Department of the Interior. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO GENERAL GRANT, + +MARCH 9, 1864. + +GENERAL GRANT:--The expression of the nation's approbation of what +you have already done, and its reliance on you for what remains to do +in the existing great struggle, is now presented with this commission +constituting you Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States. + +With this high honor, devolves on you an additional responsibility. +As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it win sustain you. +I scarcely need add, that with what I here speak for the country, +goes my own hearty personal concurrence. + + + +GENERAL GRANT'S REPLY. + +Mr. PRESIDENT:--I accept this commission, with gratitude for the high +honor conferred. + +With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields +for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to +disappoint your expectations. + +I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, +and I know that if they are met, it will be due to those armies; and +above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations +and men. + + + + +ORDER ASSIGNING U. S. GRANT TO THE COMMAND OF +THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 10, 1864. + +Under the authority of an act of Congress to revive the grade of +lieutenant-General in the United States Army, approved February 29, +1864, Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, United States Army, is +assigned to the command of the Armies of the United States. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 12, 1864. +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am not appointing officers for Arkansas now, and I will try to +remember your request. Do your. best to get out the largest vote +possible, and of course as much of it as possible on the right side. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HAHN. +(Private.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864 + +HON. MICHAEL HAHN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history +as the first free-state governor of Louisiana. Now, you are about to +have a convention, which among other things will probably define the +elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, +whether some of the colored people may not be let in,--as, for +instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought +gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying +time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of +freedom. But this is only a suggestion,--not to the public, but to +you alone. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, MARCH 14, 1864. + +In order to supply the force required to be drafted for the Navy and +to provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies, in +addition to the five hundred thousand men called for February 1, +1864, a call is hereby made and a draft ordered for two hundred +thousand men for the military service (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) +of the United States. + +The proportional quotas for the different wards, towns, townships, +precincts, or election districts, or counties, will be made known +through the Provost Marshal-General's Bureau, and account will be +taken of the credits and deficiencies on former quotas. + +The 15th day of April, 1864, is designated as the time up to which +the numbers required from each ward of a city, town, etc., may be +raised by voluntary enlistment, and drafts will be made in each ward +of a city, town, etc., which shall not have filled the quota assigned +to it within the time designated for the number required to fill said +quotas. The drafts will be commenced as soon after the 15th of April +as practicable. + +The Government bounties as now paid continue until April I, 1864, at +which time the additional bounties cease. On and after that date +one hundred dollars bounty only will be paid, as provided by the act +approved July 22, 1861. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Nashville, Tenn.: + +General McPherson having been assigned to the command of a +department, could not General Frank Blair, without difficulty or +detriment to the service, be assigned to command the Corps he +commanded a while last autumn? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PASS FOR GENERAL D. E. SICKLES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN + +Major-General Sickles is making a tour for me from here by way of +Cairo, New Orleans, and returning by the gulf, and ocean, and all +land and naval officers and, employees are directed to furnish +reasonable transportation and other reasonable facilities to himself +and personal staff not inconsistent with the public service. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO GOVERNOR HAHN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 15, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY MICHAEL HAHN, Governor of Louisiana + +Until further order, you are hereby invested with the powers +exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +REMARKS AT A FAIR IN THE PATENT OFFICE, + +WASHINGTON, MARCH 16, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I appear to say but a word. This extraordinary war in which we are +engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people but the most heavily +upon the soldier. For it has been said, "All that a man hath will he +give for his life;" and while all contribute of their substance, the +soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his +country's cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier. + +In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have manifested +themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars; and among +these manifestations nothing has been more remarkable than these +fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And +the chief agents of these fairs are the women of America. + +I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy: I have never +studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say, that +if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of +the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it +would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will +close by saying, God bless the women of America. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM +THE WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK, + +MARCH 21, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +The honorary membership in your association, as generously tendered, +is gratefully accepted. + +You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing rebellion +means more and tends to do more than the perpetuation of African +slavery--that it is, in fact, a war upon the rights of all working +people. Partly to show that this view has not escaped my attention, +and partly that I cannot better express myself, I read a passage from +the message to Congress in December, 1861: + +"It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not +exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government, +the rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of this is found in +the most grave and maturely considered public documents, as well as +in the General tone of the insurgents. In those documents we find +the abridgment of the existing right of suffrage, and the denial to +the people of all right to participate in the selection of public +officers, except the legislature, boldly advocated, with labored +argument to prove that large control of the people in government is +the source of all political evil. Monarchy itself is sometimes +hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my +present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising +a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. + +"It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a General argument should +be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, +with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask +a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal +footing, if not above labor, in the structure of government. It is +assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that +nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the +use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered +whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce +them to work by their own consent or buy them, and drive them to it +without their consent. Having proceeded so it is naturally concluded +that all laborers are either hired laborers, or what we call slaves. +And, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer, is +fixed in that condition for life. Now there is no such relation +between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as +a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. +Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are +groundless. + +"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the +fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first +existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the +higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of +protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and +probably always will be, a relation between capital and labor, +producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole +labor of a community exists within that relation. A few men own +capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and, with their +capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority +belong to neither class--neither work for others, nor have others +working for them. In most of the Southern States, a majority of the +whole people, of all colors, are neither slaves nor masters; while in +the Northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men +with their families, wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves, +on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole +product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one +hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not +forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own +labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands, and +also buy or hire others to labor for them, but this is only a mixed +and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the +existence of this mixed class. + +"Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, any such +thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for +life. Many independent men everywhere in these States, a few years +back in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent penniless +beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with +which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own +account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to +help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which +opens the way to all--gives hope to all, and consequent energy and +progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are +more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty--none +less inclined to touch or take aught which they have not honestly +earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power they +already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to +close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new +disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be +lost." + +The views then expressed remain unchanged, nor have I much to add. +None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the +working people. Let them beware of prejudices, working division and +hostility among themselves. The most notable feature of a +disturbance in your city last summer was the hanging of some working +people by other working people. It should never be so. The +strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, +should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and +tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war upon property, +or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; property +is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be +rich shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just +encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is +houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor +diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that +his own shall be safe from violence when built. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 22, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Hon. W. R. Morrison says he has requested you by letter to effect a +special exchange of Lieut. Col. A. F. Rogers, of Eightieth Illinois +Volunteers, now in Libby Prison, and I shall be glad if you can +effect it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL C. SCHURZ. +( Private.) + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SCHURZ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of February 29 reached me only four days ago; but +the delay was of little consequence, because I found, on feeling +around, I could not invite you here without a difficulty which at +least would be unpleasant, and perhaps would be detrimental to the +public service. Allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in +the military service, it is very dangerous for you to get temporarily +out of it; because, with a major-general once out, it is next to +impossible for even the President to get him in again. With my +appreciation of your ability and correct principle, of course I would +be very glad to have your service for the country in the approaching +political canvass; but I fear we cannot properly have it without +separating you from the military. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ABOUT AMNESTY, +MARCH 26, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, it has become necessary to define the cases in which +insurgent enemies are entitled to the benefits of the Proclamation of +the President of the United States, which was made on the 8th day of +December, 1863, and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail +themselves of these benefits; and whereas the objects of that +Proclamation were to suppress the insurrection and to restore the +authority of the United States; and whereas the amnesty therein +proposed by the President was offered with reference to these objects +alone: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby proclaim and declare that the said Proclamation does not +apply to the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to +obtain the benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed, +are in military, naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under +bonds, or on parole of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or +agents of the United States, as prisoners of war, or persons detained +for offences of any kind, either before or after conviction; and that +on the contrary it does apply only to those persons who, being yet at +large, and free from any arrest, confinement, or duress, shall +voluntarily come forward and take the said oath, with the purpose of +restoring peace, and establishing the national authority. + +Persons excluded from the amnesty offered in the said Proclamation +may apply to the President for clemency, like all other offenders, +and their application will receive due consideration. + +I do further declare and proclaim that the oath presented in the +aforesaid proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, may be taken and +subscribed before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or +naval, in the service of the United States, or any civil or military +officer of a State or Territory not in insurrection, who, by the laws +thereof, may be qualified for administering oaths. + +All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give +certificates thereof to the persons respectively by whom they are +made, and such officers are hereby required to transmit the original +records of such oaths, at as early a day as may be convenient, to the +Department of State, where they will be deposited, and remain in the +archives of the Government. + +The Secretary of State will keep a registry thereof, and will, on +application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such records in +the customary form of official certificates. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed............ + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 28, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--The Governor of Kentucky is here, and desires to have +the following points definitely fixed: + +First. That the quotas of troops furnished, and to be furnished, by +Kentucky may be adjusted upon the basis as actually reduced by able- +bodied men of hers having gone into the rebel service; and that she +be required to furnish no more than her just quotas upon fair +adjustment upon such basis. + +Second. To whatever extent the enlistment and drafting, one or both, +of colored troops may be found necessary within the State, it may be +conducted within the law of Congress; and, so far as practicable, +free from collateral embarrassments, disorders, and provocations. + +I think these requests of the Governor are reasonable; and I shall be +obliged if you will give him a full hearing, and do the best you can +to effect these objects. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE. + +MY DEAR SIR:--Your letter to Colonel Townsend, inclosing a slip from +the "Herald," and asking a court of inquiry, has been laid before me +by the Secretary of War, with the request that I would consider it. +It is quite natural that you should feel some sensibility on the +subject; yet I am not impressed, nor do I think the country is +impressed, with the belief that your honor demands, or the public +interest demands, such an inquiry. The country knows that at all +events you have done good service; and I believe it agrees with me +that it is much better for you to be engaged in trying to do more, +than to be diverted, as you necessarily would be, by a court of +inquiry. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Army of the Potomac: + +Captain Kinney, of whom I spoke to you as desiring to go on your +staff, is now in your camp, in company with Mrs. Senator Dixon. Mrs. +Grant and I, and some others, agreed last night that I should, by +this despatch, kindly call your attention to Captain Kinney. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. G. HODGES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 4, 1864. + +A. G. HODGES, ESQ., Frankfort, Kentucky: + +MY DEAR SIR:--You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I +verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Governor Bramlette +and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: + +"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is +wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I +have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an +unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. +It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability +preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. +I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my +view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in +using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil +administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my +primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had +publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver +that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to +my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, +however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my +ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every +indispensable means, that government, that nation, of which that +Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation +and yet preserve the Constitution? By General law, life and limb must +be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but +a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, +otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming +indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through the +preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, +and now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability I +had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or +any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, +and Constitution, altogether. When, early in the war, General +Fremont attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did +not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, +General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the +blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable +necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military +emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the +indispensable necessity had come. When, in March, and May, and July, +1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border States to +favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable +necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, +unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I +was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either +surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying +strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In +choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was +not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss +by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, +none in our white military force, no loss by it any how, or anywhere. +On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite one hundred and thirty +thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, +about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; +and we could not have had them without the measure. + +"And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself +by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by +force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred +and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where +they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his +case so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth." + +I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling +this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to +have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have +controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the +nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or +expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems +plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also +that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly +for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein +new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MRS. HORACE MANN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +April 5, 1864. + +MRS HORACE MANN: + +MADAM:--The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would +free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears +you wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please +tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so +full of just and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the +power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, +and that, as it seems, he wills to do it. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 12, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +I am pressed to get from Libby, by special exchange, Jacob C. +Hagenbuek, first lieutenant, Company H, Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania +Volunteers. Please do it if you can without detriment or +embarrassment. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private William Collins of Company B, of the Sixty-ninth New York +Volunteers, has been convicted of desertion, and execution suspended +as in numerous other cases. Now Captain O'Neill, commanding the +regiment, and nearly all its other regimental and company officers, +petition for his full pardon and restoration to his company. Is +there any good objection? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LECTURE ON LIBERTY + +ADDRESS AT SANITARY FAIR IN BALTIMORE, + +APRIL 18, 1864. + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we +cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many +people assembled here to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the +Union, it occurs at once that three years ago the same soldiers could +not so much as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now +is both great and gratifying. Blessings on the brave men who have +wrought the change, and the fair women who strive to reward them for +it! + +But Baltimore suggests more than could happen within Baltimore. The +change within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the +war began, three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it +would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere +to-day. Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery would be +much affected by the war. But here we are; the war has not ended, +and slavery has been much affected how much needs not now to be +recounted. So true is it that man proposes and God disposes. + +But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it; +and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for +the future. + +The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and +the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all +declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean +the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to +do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while +with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please +with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, +not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name, +liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the +respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names-- +liberty and tyranny. + +The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the +sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces +him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the +sheep was a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not +agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same +difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the +North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold +the process by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke +of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by +others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the +people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty, and +thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary +has been repudiated. + +It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at +length; but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought +to say a word. A painful rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the +massacre, by the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of +Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, of some three hundred colored +soldiers and white officers [I believe it latter turned out to be +500], who had just been overpowered by their assailants [numbering +5000]. There seems to be some anxiety in the public mind whether the +Government is doing its duty to the colored soldier, and to the +service, at this point. At the beginning of the war, and for some +time, the use of colored troops was not contemplated; and how the +change of purpose was wrought I will not now take time to explain. +Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to turn that element of +strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American +people, to the Christian world, to history, and in my final account +to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no +way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. +The difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically +applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the Government is +indifferent to this matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard +to it. We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, or white +officer commanding colored soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels +when made a prisoner. We fear it, we believe it, I may say,--but we +do not know it. To take the life of one of their prisoners on the +assumption that they murder ours, when it is short of certainty that +they do murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel, a mistake. We +are having the Fort Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; and such +investigation will probably show conclusively how the truth is. If +after all that has been said it shall turn out that there has been no +massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say there has been +none, and will be none, elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of +three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will +be conclusively proved; and being so proved, the retribution shall as +surely come. It will be matter of grave consideration in what exact +course to apply the retribution; but in the supposed case it must +come. + +[There was a massacre of a black company and their officers at Fort +Pillow--they were prisoners who later on, the day of their capture, +were ordered executed. The black soldiers were tied alive to +individual planks--then man and plank were cobbled up like cord wood +and burned. The white officers were shot. D.W.] + + + + +TO CALVIN TRUESDALE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +CALVIN TRUESDALE, ESQ., Postmaster, Rock Island, Ill.: + +Thomas J. Pickett, late agent of the Quartermaster 's Department for +the island of Rock Island, has been removed or suspended from that +position on a charge of having sold timber and stone from the island +for his private benefit. Mr. Pickett is an old acquaintance and +friend of mine, and I will thank you, if you will, to set a day or +days and place on and at which to take testimony on the point. +Notify Mr. Pickett and one J. B. Danforth (who, as I understand, +makes the charge) to be present with their witnesses. Take the +testimony in writing offered by both sides, and report it in full to +me. Please do this for me. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 20, 1864. + +OFFICER IN MILITARY COMMAND, +Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +If there is a man by the name of Charles Carpenter, under sentence of +death for desertion, at Fort Warren, suspend execution until further +order and send the record of his trial. If sentenced for any other +offence, telegraph what it is and when he is to be executed. Answer +at all events. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER COMMANDING AT FORT WARREN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 21,1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT FORT WARREN, +Boston Harbor, Mass.: + +The order I sent yesterday in regard to Charles Carpenter is hereby +withdrawn and you are to act as if it never existed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 21, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, New York: + +Yesterday I was induced to telegraph the officer in military command +at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, suspending the +execution of Charles Carpenter, to be executed tomorrow for +desertion. Just now, on reaching your order in the case, I +telegraphed the same officer withdrawing the suspension, and leave +the case entirely with you. The man's friends are pressing me, but I +refer them to you, intending to take no further action myself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Senator Ten Eyck is very anxious to have a, special exchange of Capt. +Frank J. McLean, of Ninth Tennessee Cavalry now, or lately, at +Johnson's Island, for Capt. T. Ten Eyck, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry, +and now at Richmond. I would like to have it done. Can it be? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON OFFER OF TROOPS, APRIL 23, 1864. + +TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +1. The Governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin +offer to the President infantry troops for the approaching campaign +as follows: Ohio, thirty thousand; Indiana, twenty thousand; +Illinois, twenty thousand; Iowa, ten thousand; Wisconsin, five +thousand. + +2. The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoned from the date +of muster into the service of the United States, unless sooner +discharged. + +3. The troops to be mustered into the service of the United States by +regiments, when the regiments are filled up, according to +regulations, to the minimum strength--the regiments to be organized +according to the regulations of the War Department. The whole number +to be furnished within twenty days from date of notice of the +acceptance of this proposition. + +4. The troops to be clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted; transported, +and paid as other United States infantry volunteers, and to serve in +fortifications,--or wherever their services may be required, within +or without their respective States. + +5. No bounty to be paid the troops, nor the service charged or +credited on any draft. + +6. The draft for three years' service to go on in any State or +district where the quota is not filled up; but if any officer or +soldier in this special service should be drafted, he shall be +credited for the service rendered. + +JOHN BROUGH, Governor of Ohio. +O. P. MORTON, Governor of Indiana. +RICHARD PATES, Governor of Illinois. +WILLIAM M. STONE, Governor of Iowa. +JAMES T. LEWIS, Governor of Wisconsin + +(Indorsement.) + +April 23, 1864. + +The foregoing proposition of the governors is accepted, and the +Secretary of War is directed to carry it into execution. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 23, 1864. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +MY DEAR SIR:--According to our understanding with Major-General Frank +P. Blair at the time he took his seat in Congress last winter, he now +asks to withdraw his resignation as Major-General, then tendered, and +be sent to the field. Let this be done. Let the order sending him +be such as shown me to-day by the Adjutant-General, only dropping +from it the names of Maguire and Tompkins. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JOHN WILLIAMS. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Yours of the 15th is just received. Thanks for your kind +remembrance. I would accept your offer at once, were it not that I +fear there might be some impropriety in it, though I do not see that +there would. I will think of it a while. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 25, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +A Mr. Corby brought you a note from me at the foot of a petition I +believe, in the case of Dawson, to be executed to-day. The record +has been examined here, and it shows too strong a case for a pardon +or commutation, unless there is something in the poor man's favor +outside of the record, which you on the ground may know, but I do +not. My note to you only means that if you know of any such +thing rendering a suspension of the execution proper, on your own +judgment, you are at liberty to suspend it. Otherwise I do not +interfere. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 26, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Chattanooga, Term.: + +Suspend execution of death sentence of young Perry, of Wisconsin, +condemned for sleeping on his post, till further orders, and forward +record for examination. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR MURPHY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR MURPHY, Little Rock, Arkansas: + +I am much gratified to learn that you got out so large a vote, so +nearly all the right way, at the late election; and not less so that +your State government including the legislature, is organized and in +good working order. Whatever I can I will do to protect you; +meanwhile you must do your utmost to protect yourselves. Present my +greeting to all. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +I have the honor to transmit herewith an address to the President of +the United States, and through him to both Houses of Congress, on the +condition and wants of the people of east Tennessee, and asking their +attention to the necessity of some action on the part of the +Government for their relief, and which address is presented by a +committee of an organization called "The East Tennessee Relief +Association." + +Deeply commiserating the condition of these most loyal and suffering +people, I am unprepared to make any specific recommendation for their +relief. The military is doing and will continue to do the best for +them within its power. Their address represents that the +construction of direct railroad communication between Knoxville and +Cincinnati by way of central Kentucky would be of great consequence +in the present emergency. It may be remembered that in the annual +message of December, 1861, such railroad construction was +recommended. I now add that, with the hearty concurrence of +Congress, I would yet be pleased to construct a road, both for the +relief of these people and for its continuing military importance. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + +APRIL 28, 1864. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In obedience to the resolution of your honorable body, a copy of +which is herewith returned, I have the honor to make the following +brief statement, which is believed to contain the information sought: + +Prior to and at the meeting of the present Congress, Robert C. +Schenck, of Ohio, and Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, members elect +thereto, by and with the consent of the Senate held commissions from +the Executive as major-generals in the volunteer army. General +Schenck tendered the resignation of his said commission, and took his +seat in the House of Representatives, at the assembling thereof, upon +the distinct verbal understanding with the Secretary of War and the +Executive that he might, at any time during the session, at his own +pleasure, withdraw said resignation and return to the field. + +General Blair was, by temporary assignment of General Sherman, in +command of a corps through the battles in front of Chattanooga, and +in the march to the relief of Knoxville, which occurred in the latter +days of November and early days of December last, and of course was +not present at the assembling of Congress. When he subsequently +arrived here, he sought, and was allowed by the Secretary of War and +the Executive, the same conditions and promise as allowed and made to +General Schenck. + +General Schenck has not applied to withdraw his resignation; but when +General Grant was made Lieutenant-General, producing some change of +commanders, General Blair sought to be assigned to the command of a +corps. This was made known to Generals Grant and Sherman, and +assented to by them, and the particular corps for him designated. + +This was all arranged and understood, as now remembered, so much as a +month ago; but the formal withdrawal of General Blair's resignation, +and making the order assigning him to the command of the corps, were +not consummated at the War Department until last week, perhaps on the +23d of April instant. As a summary of the whole, it may be stated +that General Blair holds no military commission or appointment other +than as herein stated, and that it is believed he is now acting as +major-General upon the assumed validity of the commission herein +stated, in connection with the facts herein stated, and not +otherwise. There are some letters, notes, telegrams, orders, +entries, and perhaps other documents in connection with this subject, +which it is believed would throw no additional light upon it, but +which will be cheerfully furnished if desired. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 30, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish to +express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up +to this time, so far as I understand it. + +The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You +are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to +obtrude any restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very +anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great number +shall be avoided, I know that these points are less likely to escape +your attention than they would be mine. If there be anything wanting +which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. + +And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +MAY 2, 1864. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In compliance with the request contained in your resolution of the +29th ultimo, a copy of which resolution is herewith returned, I have +the honor to transmit the following: +[Correspondence and orders relating to the resignation and +reinstatement of Major-General Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri.] + +The foregoing constitutes all sought by the resolution so far as is +remembered or has been found upon diligent search. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 4, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +I have an imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens who say your +Order No.8 will compel them to go north of Nashville. This is in no +sense an order, nor is it even a request that you will do anything +which in the least shall be a drawback upon your military operations, +but anything you can do consistently with those operations for those +suffering people I shall be glad of. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 5, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Commanding, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +The President directs me to inquire whether a day has yet been fixed +for the execution of citizen Robert Louden, and if so what day? + +JOHN HAY, +Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. + + + + +TO MRS. S. B. McCONKEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864. + +MRS. SARAH B. McCONKEY, West Chester, Pa.: + +MADAM:--Our mutual friend, Judge Lewis, tells me you do me the honor +to inquire for my personal welfare. I have been very anxious for +some days in regard to our armies in the field, but am considerably +cheered, just now, by favorable news from them. + +I am sure you will join me in the hope for their further success; +while yourself, and other good mothers, wives, sisters, and +daughters, do all you and they can, to relieve and comfort the +gallant soldiers who compose them. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RECOMMENDATION OF THANKSGIVING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 9, 1864 + +TO THE FRIENDS OF UNION AND LIBERTY: + +Enough is known of army operations, within the last five days, to +claim our special gratitude to God. While what remains undone +demands our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him (without +whom all effort is vain), I recommend that all patriots at their +homes, in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, +unite in common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +MAY 9, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am very much obliged to you for the compliment of +this call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news +received to-day from the Army, than to a desire to see me. I am +indeed very grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with +the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who have directed +them, and especially to our Maker. Our commanders are following up +their victories resolutely and successfully. I think, without +knowing the particulars of the plans of General Grant, that what has +been accomplished is of more importance than at first appears. I +believe, I know (and am especially grateful to know) that General +Grant has not been jostled in his purposes, that he has made all his +points, and to-day he is on his line as he purposed before he moved +his armies. I will volunteer to say that I am very glad at what has +happened, but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are +grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past +few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who +gives us victory. + +There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to +perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest +General at the head of our armies, and sink all personal +consideration for the sake of the country. I commend you to keep +yourselves in the same tranquil mood that is characteristic of that +brave and loyal man. I have said more than I expected when I came +before you. Repeating my thanks for this call, I bid you good-bye. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL LEW WALLACE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WALLACE, Baltimore: + +Please tell me what is the trouble with Dr. Hawks. Also please ask +Bishop Whittington to give me his view of the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS, +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 11, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaints are coming to me of disturbances in Canoll, Platte, and +Buchanan counties. Please ascertain the truth, correct what is +found wrong, and telegraph me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. B. LOOMIS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 12, 1864 + +F. B. LOOMIS, ESQ. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your +communication of the 28th April, in which you offer to replace the +present garrison at Port Trumbull with volunteers, which you propose +to raise at your own expense. While it seems inexpedient at this +time to accept this proposition on account of the special duties now +devolving upon the garrison mentioned, I cannot +pass unnoticed such a meritorious instance of individual patriotism. +Permit me, for the Government, to express my cordial thanks to you +for this generous and public-spirited offer, which is worthy of note +among the many called forth in these times of national trial. + +I am very truly, your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A METHODIST DELEGATION, MAY 14, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:-In response to your address, allow me to attest the +accuracy of its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it +expresses, and thank you in the nation's name for the sure promise it +gives. Nobly sustained, as the Government has been, by all the +churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear +invidious against any. Yet without this, it may fairly be said, that +the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is by +its greatest numbers the most important of all. It is no fault in +others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, +more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than--any +other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the churches; and +blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the churches. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +His EXCELLENCY RICHARD YATES, Springfield, Ill.: + +If any such proclamation has appeared, it is a forgery. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE NEWSPAPER +REPORTERS AND EDITORS + +ORDER TO GENERAL J. A. DIX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, +Commanding at New York: + +Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and +published this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of +Commerce, newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a +false and spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the +President and to be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which +publication is of a treasonable nature, designed to give aid and +comfort to the enemies of the United States and to the rebels now at +war against the Government and their aiders and abettors, you are +therefore hereby commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison in any +fort or military prison in your command, the editors, proprietors, +and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all such persons as, +after public notice has been given of the falsehood of said +publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and +comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in +close custody until they can be brought to trial before a military +commission for their offense. You will also take possession by +military force of the printing establishments of the New York World +and Journal of Commerce, and hold the same until further orders, and +prohibit any further publication therefrom. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[On the morning of May 18, 3864, a forged proclamation was published +in the World, and Journal of Commerce, of New York. The proclamation +named a day for fasting and prayer, called for 400,000 fresh troops, +and purposed to raise by an "immediate and peremptory draft," +whatever quotas were not furnished on the day specified. D.W.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. P. BUTLER. +(Cipher.) +WASHINGTON, D. C., May 18, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Until receiving your dispatch of yesterday, the idea of commissions +in the volunteers expiring at the end of three years had not occurred +to me. I think no trouble will come of it; and, at all events, I +shall take care of it so far as in me lies. As to the major- +generalships in the regular army, I think I shall not dispose of +another, at least until the combined operations now in progress, +under direction of General Grant, and within which yourself and +command are included, shall be terminated. +Meanwhile, on behalf of yourself, officers, and men, please accept my +hearty thanks for what you and they have so far done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE EXEMPTION OF +AMERICAN CONSULS FROM MILITARY SERVICE, + +MAY 19, 1864. + +It is officially announced by the State Department that citizens of +the United States holding commissions and recognized as Consuls of +foreign powers, are not by law exempt from military service if +drafted: + +Therefore the mere enrolment of a citizen holding a foreign consulate +will not be held to vacate his commission, but if he shall be drafted +his exequatur will be revoked unless he shall have previously +resigned in order that another Consul may be received. + +An exequatur bearing date the 3d day of May, 1858, having been issued +to Charles Hunt, a citizen of the United States, recognizing him as a +Consul of Belgium for St. Louis, Missouri, and declaring him free to +exercise and enjoy such functions, powers, and privileges as are +allowed to the Consuls of the most favored nations in the United +States, and the said Hunt having sought to screen himself from his +military duty to his country, in consequence of thus being invested +with the consular functions of a foreign power in the United States, +it is deemed advisable that the said Charles Hunt should no longer be +permitted to continue in the exercise of said functions, powers, and +privileges. + +These are therefore to declare that I no longer recognize the said +Hunt as Consul of Belgium, for St. Louis, Missouri, and will not +permit him to exercise or enjoy any of the functions, powers or +privileges allowed to consuls of that nation, and that I do hereby +wholly revoke and annul the said exequatur heretofore given, and do +declare the same to be absolutely null and void from this day +forward. + +In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, +and the seal of the United States of America to be hereunto +affixed................ + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MORTON AND OTHERS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 21, 1864 + +GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON: + +The getting forward of hundred-day troops to sustain General +Sherman's lengthening lines promises much good. Please put your best +efforts into the work. + +A. LINCOLN. + +Same to Governor Yates, Springfield, Illinois; Governor Stone, +Davenport, Iowa; Governor Lewis, Madison, Wisconsin. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO CHRISTIANA A. SACK. +WAR DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21, 1864 + +CHRISTIANA A. SACK, Baltimore, Md.: + +I cannot postpone the execution of a convicted spy on a mere +telegraphic despatch signed with a name I never heard before. +General Wallace may give you a pass to see him if he chooses. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BROUGH. +WASHINGTON CITY, May 24, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BROUGH, Columbus, Ohio: + +Yours to Secretary of War [received] asking for something cheering. +We have nothing bad from anywhere. I have just seen a despatch of +Grant, of 11 P.M., May 23, on the North Anna and partly across it, +which ends as follows: "Everything looks exceedingly favorable for +us." We have nothing later from him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 25,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac: + +Mr. J. C. Swift wishes a pass from me to follow your army to pick up +rags and cast-off clothing. I will give it to him if you say so, +otherwise not. + +A. LINCOLN. + +["No job to big or too small" for this president--not even a request +from a Rag Picker. D.W.] + + + + +MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF +THE NEW YORK NAVAL BRIGADE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May 26, 1864. + +WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +I am again pressed with the claim of Mr. Marshall O. Roberts, for +transportation of what was called the Naval Brigade from New York to +Fortress Monroe. This force was a special organization got up by one +Bartlett, in pretended pursuance of written authority from me, but in +fact, pursuing the authority in scarcely anything whatever. The +credit given him by Mr. Roberts, was given in the teeth of the +express declaration that the Government would not be responsible for +the class of expenses to which it belonged. After all some part of +the transportation became useful to the Government, and equitably +should be paid for; but I have neither time nor means to ascertain +this equitable amount, or any appropriation to pay it with if +ascertained. If the Quartermaster at New York can ascertain what +would compensate for so much of the transportation as did result +usefully to the Government, it might be a step towards reaching +justice. I write this from memory, but I believe it is substantially +correct. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO P. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 3, 1864. + +HON. F. A. CONKLING AND OTHERS. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter, inviting me to be present at a mass meeting +of loyal citizens, to be held at New York on the 4th instant, for the +purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for his +signal services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to +attend. I approve, nevertheless, of whatever may tend to strengthen +and sustain General Grant and the noble armies now under his +direction. My previous high estimate of General Grant has been +maintained and heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable +campaign he is now conducting, while the magnitude and difficulty of +the task before him does not prove less than I expected. He and his +brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust +that at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they may +turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER TOUCHING THE +REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. + +JUNE 5, 1864. + +(Indorsement.) + +Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had +not heard or thought of him for Vice-President. Wish not to +interfere about Vice-President. Cannot interfere about platform. +Convention must judge for itself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 6, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac: + +Private James McCarthy, of the One-hundred and fortieth New York +Volunteers, is here under sentence to the Dry Tortugas for an attempt +to desert. His friends appeal to me and if his colonel and you +consent, I will send him to his regiment. Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WASHINGTON, June 8, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of to-day received. I am unable to conceive how a message can +be less safe by the express than by a staff-officer. If you send a +verbal message, the messenger is one additional person let into the +secret. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE NOTIFYING PRESIDENT LINCOLN OF HIS +RENOMINATION, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: + +I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression +of my gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in +their continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me +not unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to +doubt that I shall accept the nomination tendered; and yet perhaps I +should not declare definitely before reading and considering what is +called the platform. I will say now, however, I approve the +declaration in favor of so amending the Constitution as to prohibit +slavery throughout the nation. When the people in revolt, with a +hundred days of explicit notice that they could within those days +resume their allegiance without the overthrow of their institution, +and that they could not so resume it afterward, elected to stand out, +such amendment of the Constitution as now proposed became a fitting +and necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause. +Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now the unconditional +Union men, North and South, perceive its importance and embrace it. +In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it +legal form and practical effect. + + + + +PLATFORM OF THE UNION NATIONAL CONVENTION +HELD IN BALTIMORE, MD., JUNE 7 AND 8, 1864. + +1. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen +to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and +the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United +States; and that, laying aside all differences of political opinion, +we pledge ourselves, as Union men, animated by a common sentiment and +aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the +Government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging +against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their +crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. + +2. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Government of +the United States not to compromise with rebels, or to offer them any +terms of peace, except such as may be based upon an unconditional +surrender of their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to +the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that we call upon +the Government to maintain this position, and to prosecute the war +with the utmost possible vigor to the complete suppression of the +rebellion, in full reliance upon the self-sacrificing patriotism, the +heroic valor, and the undying devotion of the American people to +their Country and its free institutions. + +3. Resolved, That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the +strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be, always and +everywhere, hostile to the principles of republican government, +justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete +extirpation from the soil of the republic; and that while we uphold +and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in +its own defense, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil, we are +in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to +be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall +terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the +limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. + +4. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to the +soldiers and sailors of the Army and Navy, who have periled their +lives in defense of their country and in vindication of the honor of +its flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of +their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision +for those of their survivors who have received disabling and +honorable wounds in the service of the country; and that the memories +of those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and +everlasting remembrance. + +5. Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the +unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity to the Constitution +and the principles of American liberty, with which Abraham Lincoln +has discharged under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty the +great duties and responsibilities of the Presidential office; that we +approve and indorse as demanded by the emergency and essential to the +preservation of the nation, and as within the provisions of the +Constitution, the measures and acts which he has adopted to defend +the nation against its open and secret foes; that we approve, +especially, the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the employment as +Union soldiers of men heretofore held in slavery; and that we have +full confidence in his determination to carry these and all other +constitutional measures essential to the salvation of the country +into full and complete effect. + +6. Resolved, That we deem it essential to the General welfare that +harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we regard as +worthy of public confidence and official trust those only who +cordially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and +which should characterize the administration of the Government. + +7. Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed in its +armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protection +of the laws of war, and that any violation of these laws, or of the +usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the rebels now in +arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress. + +8. Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has added +so much to the wealth, development of resources, and increase of +power to this nation, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, +should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. + +9. Resolved, That we are in favor of the speedy construction of the +railroad to the Pacific coast. + +10. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of +the public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this purpose we +recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public +expenditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation: and that it +is the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit and promote +the use of the national currency. + +11. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the Government +that the people of the United States can never regard with +indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force +or to supplant by fraud the institutions of any republican government +on the Western Continent, and that they will view with extreme +jealousy, as menacing to the peace and independence of their own +country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for +monarchical governments, sustained by foreign military force, in near +proximity to the United States. + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN--I can only say in response to the remarks of your +chairman, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which +has been accorded to me, both by the convention and by the National +League. I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there +is in this, yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small +portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. +The convention and the nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a +higher view of the interests of the country, for the present and the +great future, and the part I am entitled to appropriate as a +compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the +opinion of the convention and of the League, that I am not entirely +unworthy to be intrusted with the place I have occupied for the last +three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude +that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this +connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a +companion once that "it was not best to swap horses when crossing a +stream." + + + + +REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO, + +JUNE 9, 1864. + +GENTLEMEN:--I am very much obliged to you for this compliment. I +have just been saying, and will repeat it, that the hardest of all +speeches I have to answer is a serenade. I never know what to say on +these occasions. I suppose that you have done me this kindness in +connection with the action of the Baltimore convention, which has +recently taken place, and with which, of course, I am very well +satisfied. What we want still more than Baltimore conventions, or +Presidential elections, is success under General Grant. I propose +that you constantly bear in mind that the support you owe to the +brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first +importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that +point. Now without detaining you any longer, I propose that you help +me to close up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for +General Grant and the officers and soldiers under his command. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE ENVOY FROM +THE HAWAIIAN +ISLANDS, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +SIR:--In every light in which the State of the Hawaiian Islands can +be contemplated, it is an object of profound interest for the United +States. Virtually it was once a colony. It is now a near and +intimate neighbor. It is a haven of shelter and refreshment for our +merchants, fishermen, seamen, and other citizens, when on their +lawful occasions they are navigating the eastern seas and oceans. +Its people are free, and its laws, language, and religion are largely +the fruit of our own teaching and example. The distinguished part +which you, Mr. Minister, have acted in the history of that +interesting country, is well known here. It gives me pleasure to +assure you of my sincere desire to do what I can to render now your +sojourn in the United States agreeable to yourself, satisfactory to +your sovereign, and beneficial to the Hawaiian people. + + + + +REMARKS TO AN OHIO REGIMENT, + +JUNE 11, 1864. + +Soldiers! I understand you have just come from Ohio; come to help us +in this the nation's day of trial, and also of its hopes. I thank +you for your promptness in responding to the call for troops. Your +services were never needed more than now. I know not where you are +going. You may stay here and take the places of those who will be +sent to the front, or you may go there yourselves. Wherever you go I +know you will do your best. Again I thank you. Good-by. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL L. THOMAS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 13, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky: + +Complaint is made to me that in the vicinity of Henderson, our +militia is seizing negroes and carrying them off without their own +consent, and according to no rules whatever, except those of absolute +violence. I wish you would look into this and inform me, and see +that the making soldiers of negroes is done according to the rules +you are acting upon, so that unnecessary provocation and irritation +be avoided. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO THOMAS WEBSTER. +WASHINGTON, D. C., June 13, 1864. + +THOMAS WEBSTER, Philadelphia: + +Will try to leave here Wednesday afternoon, say at 4 P.M., remain +till Thursday afternoon and then return. This subject to events. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, June 15, 1864. 7 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, +Headquarters Army of the Potomac: + +I have just received your dispatch of 1 P.M. yesterday. I begin to +see it: you will succeed. God bless you all. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS AT A SANITARY FAIR IN PHILADELPHIA, + +JUNE 16, 1864. + +I suppose that this toast is intended to open the way for me to say +something. War at the best is terrible, and this of ours in its +magnitude and duration is one of the most terrible the world has ever +known. It has deranged business totally in many places, and perhaps +in all. It has destroyed property, destroyed life, and ruined homes. +It has produced a national debt and a degree of taxation +unprecedented in the history of this country. It has caused mourning +among us until the heavens may almost be said to be hung in black. +And yet it continues. It has had accompaniments not before known in +the history of the world. I mean the Sanitary and Christian +Commissions, with their labors for the relief of the soldiers, and +the Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, understood better by those who +hear me than by myself, and these fairs, first begun at Chicago and +next held in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities. The motive and +object that lie at the bottom of them are worthy of the most that we +can do for the soldier who goes to fight the battles of his country. +From the fair and tender hand of women is much, very much, done for +the soldier, continually reminding him of the care and thought for +him at home. The knowledge that he is not forgotten is grateful to +his heart. Another view of these institutions is worthy of thought. +They are voluntary contributions, giving proof that the national +resources are not at all exhausted, and that the national patriotism +will sustain us through all. It is a pertinent question, When is +this war to end? I do not wish to name the day when it will end, lest +the end should not come at the given time. We accepted this war, and +did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, and when that object +is accomplished the war will end, and I hope to God that it will +never end until that object is accomplished. We are going through +with our task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us three years +longer. I have not been in the habit of making predictions, but I am +almost tempted now to hazard one. I will. It is, that Grant is this +evening in a position, with Meade and Hancock, of Pennsylvania, +whence he can never be dislodged by the enemy until Richmond is +taken. If I shall discover that General Grant may be greatly +facilitated in the capture of Richmond by rapidly pouring to him a +large number of armed men at the briefest notice, will you go? Will +you march on with him? [Cries of "Yes, yes."] Then I shall call upon +you when it is necessary. + + + + +TO ATTORNEY-GENERAL BATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, Jun. 24, 1864 + +HONORABLE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. + +SIR:--By authority of the Constitution, and moved thereto by the +fourth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act making +appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the +thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and for other +purposes, approved June is, 1864," I require your opinion in writing +as to what pay, bounty, and clothing are allowed by law to persons of +color who were free on the nineteenth day of April, 1861, and who +have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the +United States between the month of December, 1862, and the sixteenth +of June, 1864. + +Please answer as you would do, on my requirement, if the act of June +15, 1864, had not been passed, and I will so use your opinion as to +satisfy that act. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MES. A. LINCOLN, Boston, Massachusetts: +All well and very warm. Tad and I have been to General Grant's army. +Returned yesterday safe and sound. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. +WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Complaint is made to me that General Brown does not do his best to +suppress bushwhackers. Please ascertain and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 27, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM DENNISON AND OTHERS, +a Committee of the Union National Convention. + +GENTLEMEN:--Your letter of the 14th inst.., formally notifying me +that I have been nominated by the convention you represent for the +Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March +next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as +the resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily +approved. + +While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican +government upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there +might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the +Government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed +through the State Department and indorsed by the convention among the +measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so +long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent and +applicable. + +I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not +forgotten by the convention, as they forever must and will be +remembered by the grateful country for whose salvation they devote +their lives. + +Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have +communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the convention, +I subscribe myself, + +Your obedient servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL P. STEELE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE: + +I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons +sent as Senators and Representatives from Arkansas. These persons +apprehend that, in consequence, you may not support the new State +government there as you otherwise would. My wish is that you give +that government and the people there the same support and protection +that you would if the members had been admitted, because in no event, +nor in any view of the case, can this do any harm, while it will be +the best you can do toward suppressing the rebellion. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Dr. Worster wishes to visit you with a view of getting your +permission to introduce into the army "Harmon's Sandal Sock." Shall I +give him a pass for that object? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO DAVID TOD. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 30, 1864. + +HON. DAVID TOD, Youngstown, Ohio: +I have nominated you to be Secretary of the Treasury, in place of +Governor Chase, who has resigned. Please come without a moment's +delay. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. L. SCRIPPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 4, 1864. + +To JOHN L. SCRIPPS, E5Q. + +DEAR SIR:--Complaint is made to me that you are using your official +power to defeat Mr. Arnold's nomination to Congress. I am well +satisfied with Mr. Arnold as a member of Congress, and I do not know +that the man who might supplant him would be as satisfactory; but the +correct principle, I think, is that all our friends should have +absolute freedom of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is +that you will do just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the +case, and not constrain any of your subordinates to [do] other than +[as] he thinks fit with his. This is precisely the rule I inculcated +and adhered to on my part, when a certain other nomination, now +recently made, was being canvassed for. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. +WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +J. W. GARRETT, President [B. & 0. R. R.], Camden Station: + +You say telegraphic communication is re-established with Sandy Hook. +Well, what does Sandy Hook say about operations of enemy and of Sigel +during to-day? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864. + +HIS EXCELLENCY HORATIO SEYMOUR, +Governor of New York, Albany: + +The President directs me to inform you that a rebel force, variously +estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men, have invaded the +State of Maryland, and have taken Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, and +are threatening other points; that the public safety requires him to +call upon the State executives for a militia force to repel this +invasion. He therefore directs me to call on you for a militia force +of twelve thousand men from your State to serve not more than one +hundred days, and to request that you will with the utmost despatch +forward the troops to Washington by rail or steamboat as may be most +expeditious. + +Please favor me with an answer at your earliest convenience. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, + +Secretary of War. + + + + +PROCLAMATION +SUSPENDING THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, + +JULY 5, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued on the 15th day of April, +1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that +the laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then +were, opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in certain States +therein mentioned, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by +the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the power vested in +the marshals by law; and + +Whereas, immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation the +land and naval forces of the United States were put into activity to +suppress the said insurrections and rebellion; and + +Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by an act approved on the +third day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion +the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the +public safety may require it, is authorized to suspend the privilege +of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the United +States, or any part thereof; and + +Whereas, the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, +endangering the existence of the Constitution and Government of the +United States; and + +Whereas, the military forces of the United States are now actively +engaged in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various +parts of the States where the said rebellion has been successful in +obstructing the laws and public authorities, especially in the States +of Virginia and Georgia; and + +Whereas, on the fifteenth day of September last, the President of the +United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended +throughout the United States, in Cases whereby the authority of the +President of the United States, the military, naval, and civil +officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons under +their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, +or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen +enrolled or drafted, or mustered, or enlisted in, or belonging to the +land or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, +or otherwise amenable to military law, or the rules and articles of +war, or the rules and regulations prescribed for the military and +naval service by authority of the President of the United States, or +for resisting a draft, or for any other offence against the military +or naval service; and + +Whereas, many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the +forces of the insurgents, who have on several occasions entered the +said State of Kentucky in large force and not without aid and comfort +furnished by disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United States +residing therein, have not only greatly disturbed the public peace +but have overborne the civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, +destroying property and life in various parts of the State; and + +Whereas, it has been made known to the President of the United +States, by the officers commanding the National armies, that +combinations have been formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a +purpose of inciting the rebel forces to renew the said operations of +civil war within the said State, and thereby to embarrass the United +States armies now operating in the said States of Virginia and +Georgia, and even to endanger their safety. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, +do hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially +requires that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas +corpus so proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of +September, 1863, be made effectual and be duly enforced in and +throughout the said State of Kentucky, and that martial law be for +the present declared therein. I do therefore hereby require of the +military officers of the said State that the privilege of the habeas +corpus be effectually suspended within the said State, according to +the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law be established +therein to take effect from the date of this proclamation, the said +suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until this +proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period +when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end. +And I do hereby require and command, as well as military officers, +all civil officers and authorities existing or found within the said +State of Kentucky, to take notice of this proclamation and to give +full effect to the same. The martial laws herein proclaimed and the +things in that respect herein ordered will not be deemed or taken to +interfere with the holding of lawful elections, or with the +proceedings of the constitutional Legislature of Kentucky, or with +the administration of justice in the courts of law existing therein +between citizens of the United States in suits or proceedings which +do not affect the military operations or the constituted authorities +of the government of the United States. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. +Done at the City of Washington this 5th day of July, in the year of +our Lord 1864, and of the independence of the United States the +eighty-eighth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER, JULY 7, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives at their last +session adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the +second day of July instant, and which `was in the words following, +namely: + +That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day +of humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States, that he +request his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive +Departments to unite with him, as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at +the City of Washington, and the members of Congress, and all +magistrates, all civil, military, and naval officers, all soldiers, +sailors, and marines, with all loyal and law-abiding people, to +convene at their usual places of worship, or wherever they may be, to +confess and to repent of their manifold sins, to implore the +compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that, if consistent with +His will, the existing rebellion may be speedily suppressed, and the +supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States may be +established throughout all the States; to implore Him, as the Supreme +Ruler of the world, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer us to +be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations, or by +obstinate adhesion to our own counsels which may be in conflict with +His eternal, purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of +the nation to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in +accordance with His will that our place should be maintained as a +united people among the family of nations; to implore Him to grant to +our armed defenders, and the masses of the people, that courage, +power of resistance, and endurance necessary to secure that result; +to implore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the hearts, +enlighten the minds, and quicken the conscience of those in +rebellion, that they may lay down their arms, and speedily return to +their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly +destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity +and fraternity may be restored, and peace established throughout all +our borders. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the `United States, +cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States, in the +penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid +resolutions, and heartily approving of the devotional design and +purpose thereof, do hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next +to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of +national humiliation and prayer. + +I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive +Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all +judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in +the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, +seamen, and marines in the national service, and all other loyal and +law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their +preferred places of public worship on that day, and there to render +to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the Universe, such homage and +such confessions, and to offer to Him such supplications as the +Congress of the United States have, in their aforesaid resolution, so +solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently recommended. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington +this seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States +the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES, WHOSE +GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF +GOVERNMENT," AND CONCERNING RECONSTRUCTION, + +JULY 8, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to +certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a +republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed; +and + +Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United +States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die +adjournment of said session, and was not signed by him; and + +Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for +restoring the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation +in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that +subject, and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the +people for their consideration: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in +December last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for +restoration) unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be +inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration, and while I +am also unprepared to declare that the free State constitutions and +governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana +shall be set aside and held for naught, thereby repelling and +discouraging the loyal citizens who have set up the same as to +further effort, or to declare a constitutional competency in Congress +to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same time sincerely +hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment abolishing +slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully +satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as +one very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to +adopt it, and that I am and at all times shall be prepared to give +the Executive aid and assistance to any such people so soon as the +military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed +in any such States and the people thereof shall have sufficiently +returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the +United States, in which cases militia-governors will be appointed +with directions to proceed according to the bill. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.............. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TO HORACE GREELEY. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., +July 9, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +DEAR SIR:--Your letter of the 7th, with inclosures, received. + +If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any +proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the +restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it +embraces, say to him he may come to me with you; and that if he +really brings such proposition, he shall at the least have safe +conduct with the paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the +point where you shall have to meet him. The same if there be two or +more persons. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 9, 1864 + +J. W. GARRETT, Camden Station: + +What have you heard about a battle at Monocacy to-day? We have +nothing about it here except what you say. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK +TO GENERAL WALLACE. +WASHINGTON, July 9, 1864. 11.57 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL L. WALLACE, Commanding Middle Department: + +I am directed by the President to say that you will rally your forces +and make every possible effort to retard the enemy's march on +Baltimore. + +H. W. HALLECK, Major-General and Chief of Staff. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. SWAN AND OTHERS. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 10, 1864. 9.20 A.M. + +THOMAS SWAN AND OTHERS, Baltimore, Maryland: + +Yours of last night received. I have not a single soldier but whom +is being disposed by the military for the best protection of all. By +latest accounts the enemy is moving on Washington. They cannot fly +to either place. Let us be vigilant, but keep cool. I hope neither +Baltimore nor Washington will be sacked. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON CITY, July TO, 1864.2 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Your dispatch to General Halleck, referring to what I may think in +the present emergency, is shown me. General Halleck says we have +absolutely no force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with +the hundred-day men and invalids we have here we can defend +Washington, and, scarcely, Baltimore. Besides these there are about +eight thousand, not very reliable, under Howe, at Harper's Ferry with +Hunter approaching that point very slowly, with what number I suppose +you know better than I. Wallace, with some odds and ends, and part of +what came up with Ricketts, was so badly beaten yesterday at +Monocacy, that what is left can attempt no more than to defend +Baltimore. What we shall get in from Pennsylvania and New York will +scarcely be worth counting, I fear. Now, what I think is, that you +should provide to retain your hold where you are, certainly, and +bring the rest with you personally, and make a vigorous effort to +destroy the enemy's forces in this vicinity. I think there is really +a fair chance to do this, if the movement is prompt. This is what I +think upon your suggestion, and is not an order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, July 11, 1864. 8 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of 10.30 P.M. yesterday received, and very satisfactory. The +enemy will learn of Wright's arrival, and then the difficulty will be +to unite Wright and Hunter south of the enemy before he will recross +the Potomac. Some firing between Rockville and here now. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., July 12, 1864. 11.30 AM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Vague rumors have been reaching us for two or three days that +Longstreet's corps is also on its way [to] this vicinity. Look out +for its absence from your front. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM AND LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 12, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I suppose you received my letter of the 9th. I have just received +yours of the 13th, and am disappointed by it. I was not expecting +you to send me a letter, but to bring me a man, or men. Mr. Hay goes +to you with my answer to yours of the 13th. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[Carried by Major John Hay.] + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, JULY 15, 1864. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +MY DEAR SIR:-Yours of the 13th is just received, and I am +disappointed that you have not already reached here with those +commissioners, if they would consent to come on being shown my letter +to you of the 9th instant. Show that and this to them, and if they +will come on the terms stated in the former, bring them. I not only +intend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend that you shall be a +personal witness that it is made. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SAFE CONDUCT FOR CLEMENT C. CLAY AND OTHERS, + +JULY 16, 1864. + +The President of the United States directs that the four persons +whose names follow, to wit, HON. Clement C. Clay, HON. Jacob +Thompson, Professor James P. Holcombe, George N. Sanders, shall have +safe conduct to the city of Washington in company with the HON. +HORACE GREELEY, and shall be exempt from arrest or annoyance of any +kind from any officer of the United States during their journey to +the said city of Washington. + +By order of the President: +JOHN HAY, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +[WASHINGTON] July 17. 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +In your dispatch of yesterday to General Sherman, I find the +following, to wit: + +"I shall make a desperate effort to get a position here, which will +hold the enemy without the necessity of so many men." + +Pressed as we are by lapse of time I am glad to hear you say this; +and yet I do hope you may find a way that the effort shall not be +desperate in the sense of great loss of life. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER +WASHINGTON JULY 17, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Yours of this morning received. You misconceive. The order you +complain of was only nominally mine, and was framed by those who +really made it with no thought of making you a scapegoat. It seemed +to be General Grant's wish that the forces under General Wright and +those under you should join and drive at the enemy under General +Wright. Wright had the larger part of the force, but you had the +rank. It was thought that you would prefer Crook's commanding your +part to your serving in person under Wright. That is all of it. +General Grant wishes you to remain in command of the department, and +I do not wish to order otherwise. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. 11.25 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Chattahoochee River, Georgia: + +I have seen your despatches objecting to agents of Northern States +opening recruiting stations near your camps. An act of Congress +authorizes this, giving the appointment of agents to the States, and +not to the Executive Government. It is not for the War Department, +or myself, to restrain or modify the law, in its execution, further +than actual necessity may require. To be candid, I was for the +passage of the law, not apprehending at the time that it would +produce such inconvenience to the armies in the field as you now +cause me to fear. Many of the States were very anxious for it, and I +hoped that, with their State bounties, and active exertions, they +would get out substantial additions to our colored forces, which, +unlike white recruits, help us where they come from, as well as where +they go to. I still hope advantage from the law; and being a law, it +must be treated as such by all of us. We here will do what we +consistently can to save you from difficulties arising out of it. +May I ask, therefore, that you will give your hearty co-operation. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING TERMS OF PEACE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. + +TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + +Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the +integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and +which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now +at war against the United States, will be received and considered by +the Executive Government of the United States, and will be met by +liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points; and the +bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe conduct both ways. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS, + +JULY 18, 1864, + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to +regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national +forces and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of +the United States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, +call for any number of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of +one, two, and three years for military service," and "that in case +the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, +precinct, or election district, or of a county not so subdivided, +shall not be filled within the space of fifty days after such call, +then the +President shall immediately order a draft for one year to fill such +quota or any part thereof which may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas the new enrolment heretofore ordered is so far completed as +that the aforementioned act of Congress may now be put in operation +for recruiting and keeping up the strength of the armies in the +field, for garrisons, and such military operations as may be required +for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the +authority of the United States Government in the insurgent States: + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do issue this my last call for five hundred thousand volunteers for +the military service: Provided, nevertheless, That this call shall +be reduced by all credits which may be established under section +eight of the aforesaid act on account of persons who have entered the +naval service during the present rebellion and by credits for men +furnished to the military service in excess of calls heretofore made. +Volunteers will be accepted under this call for one, two, or three +years, as they may elect, and will be entitled to the bounty provided +by the law for the period of services for which they enlist. + +And I hereby proclaim, order, and direct that immediately after the +5th day of September, 1864, being fifty days from the date of this +call, a draft for troops to serve for one year shall be had in every +town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or +county not so subdivided, to fill the quota which shall be assigned +to it under this call or any part thereof which may be unfilled by +volunteers on the said 5th day of September, 1864. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington, this 18th day of July, A.D. 1864, and +of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 20, 1864. 4.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Yours of yesterday, about a call for three hundred thousand, is +received. I suppose you had not seen the call for five hundred +thousand, made the day before, and which, I suppose, covers the case. +Always glad to have your suggestions. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. L. WRIGHT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY. 20, 1864. + +J. L. WRIGHT, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +All a mistake. Mr. Stanton has not resigned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. HUNTER. +(Cipher.) + +WAR DEPARTMENT, JULY 23, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER, Harper's Ferry, West Va. + +Are you able to take care of the enemy, when he turns back upon you, +as he probably will on finding that Wright has left? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, ENCLOSING A LETTER TO WILLIAM O. SNIDER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN: + +Herewith is the manuscript letter for the gentleman who sent me a +cane through your hands. For my life I cannot make out his name; and +therefore I cut it from his letter and pasted it on, as you see. I +suppose [sic] will remember who he is, and I will thank you to +forward him the letter. He dates his letter at Philadelphia. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, July 25, 1864. + +WILLIAM O. SNIDER: + +The cane you did me the honor to present through Governor Curtin was +duly placed in my hand by him. Please accept my thanks; and, at the +same time, pardon me for not having sooner found time to tender them. +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM JOHN HAY TO J. C. WELLING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. +July 25, 1864. + +J. C. WELLING, ESQ. + +SIR:--According to the request contained in your note, I have placed +Mr. Gibson's letter of resignation in the hands of the President. He +has read the letter, and says he accepts the resignation, as he will +be glad to do with any other, which may be tendered, as this is, for +the purpose of taking an attitude of hostility against him. + +He says he was not aware that he was so much indebted to Mr. Gibson +for having accepted the office at first, not remembering that he ever +pressed him to do so, or that he gave it otherwise than as was usual, +upon request made on behalf of Mr. Gibson. + +He thanks Mr. Gibson for his acknowledgment that he has been treated +with personal kindness and consideration, and says he knows of but +two small drawbacks upon Mr. Gibson's right to still receive such +treatment, one of which is that he never could learn of his giving +much attention to the duties of his office, and the other is this +studied attempt of Mr. Gibson's to stab him. + +I am very truly, + +Your obedient servant, + +JOHN HAY. + + + + +TO COLONEL, FIRST N. Y. VETERAN CAVALRY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, JULY 25, 1864. + +Thomas Connor, a private in the First Veteran New York Cavalry, is +now imprisoned at hard labor for desertion. If the Colonel of said +Regiment will say in writing on this sheets that he is willing to +receive him back to the Regiment, I will pardon, and send him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, July 26, 1864. 2.30 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta: + +I have just seen yours complaining of the appointment of Hovey and +Osterhaus. The point you make is unquestionably a good one, and yet +please hear a word from us. My recollection is that both General +Grant and yourself recommended both H [ovey] and O [sterhaus] for +promotion, and these, with other strong recommendations, drew +committals from us which we could neither honorably or safely +disregard. We blamed H [ovey] for coming away in the manner in which +he did, but he knew he had apparent reason to feel disappointed and +mortified, and we felt it was not best to crush one who certainly had +been a good soldier. As to [Osterhaus], we did not know of his +leaving at the time we made the appointment, and do not now know the +terms on which he left. Not to have appointed him, as the case +appeared to us at the time, would have been almost, if not quite, a +violation of our word. The word was given on what we thought was +high merit and somewhat on his nationality. I beg you to believe we +do not act in a spirit of disregarding merit. We expect to await +your programme for further changes and promotions in your army. My +profoundest thanks to you and your whole army for the present +campaign so far. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL HALLECK. + +WASHINGTON CITY, +July 27, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, +Chief of Staff of the Army: + +GENERAL:--Lieutenant-General Grant having signified that, owing to +the difficulties and delay of communication between his headquarters +and Washington, it is necessary that in the present emergency +military orders must be issued directly from Washington, the +President directs me to instruct you that all the military operations +for the defense of the Middle Department, the Department of the +Susquehanna, the Department of Washington, and the Department of West +Virginia, and all the forces in those departments, are placed under +your general command, and that you will be expected to take all +military measures necessary for defense against any attack of the +enemy and for his capture and destruction. You will issue from time +to time such orders to the commanders of the respective departments +and to the military authorities therein as may be proper. + +Your obedient servant, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +WASHINGTON, July 27, 1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours in relation to General A. C. Gillam just received. Will look +after the matter to-day. + +I also received yours about General Carl Schurz. I appreciate him +certainly, as highly as you do; but you can never know until you have +the trial, how difficult it is to find a place for an officer of so +high rank when there is no place seeking him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +July 29, 1864. + +Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON. + +MADAM:--The plaid you send me is just now placed in my hands. I +thank you for that pretty and useful present, but still more for +those good wishes for myself and our country, which prompted you to +present it. + +Your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT, AUGUST 3, 1864. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, August 2, 1864. + +MR. PRESIDENT:--This note will introduce to you Mr. Schley of +Baltimore, who desires to appeal to you for the revocation of an +order of General Hunter, removing some persons, citizens of +Frederick, beyond his lines, and imprisoning others. This Department +has no information of the reasons or proofs on which General Hunter +acts, and I do not therefore feel at liberty to suspend or interfere +with his action except under your direction. + +Yours truly, + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + +[Indorsement.] + +August 3, 1864. + +The Secretary of War will suspend the order of General Hunter +mentioned within, until further order and direct him to send to the +Department a brief report of what is known against each one proposed +to be dealt with. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U, S. GRANT. +(Cipher.) + +WASHINGTON, D. C.. August 3, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch in which you say, "I want Sheridan put in +command of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put +himself south of the enemy, and follow him to the death. Wherever +the enemy goes, let our troops go also." + +This, I think, is exactly right as to how our forces should move; but +please look over the despatches you may have received from here, ever +since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is +any idea in the head of any one here of "putting our army south of +the enemy," or of following him to the "death," in any direction. I +repeat to you, it will neither be done nor attempted, unless you +watch it every day and hour, and force it. + +A. LINCOLN. + +[Here the President was mistaken in thinking that Sherman and Grant +had the same inability of most of his previous general officers. No +one needed to watch Grant or Sherman, they only needed to get out of +their way. D.W.] + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 6, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +Yours to Major Hay about publication of our correspondence received. +With the suppression of a few passages in your letters in regard to +which I think you and I would not disagree, I should be glad of the +publication. Please come over and see me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO HORACE GREELEY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 8, 1864 + +HON. HORACE GREELEY, New York: + +I telegraphed you Saturday. Did you receive the despatch? Please +answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DISLOYAL FAMILY MEMBER + +TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., +August 8, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +Last December Mrs. Emily T. Helm, half-sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and +widow of the rebel general, Ben Hardin Helm, stopped here on her way +from Georgia to Kentucky, and I gave her a paper, as I remember, to +protect her against the mere fact of her being General Helm's widow. +I hear a rumor to-day that you recently sought to arrest her, but +were prevented by her presenting the paper from me. I do not intend +to protect her against the consequences of disloyal words or acts, +spoken or done by her since her return to Kentucky, and if the paper +given her by me can be construed to give her protection for such +words and acts, it is hereby revoked pro tanto. Deal with her for +current conduct just as you would with any other. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., August 14, 1864. 1.30 P.M. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +The Secretary of War and I concur that you had better confer with +General Lee, and stipulate for a mutual discontinuance of house- +burning and other destruction of private property. The time and +manner of conference and particulars of stipulation we leave, on our +part, to your convenience and judgment. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 15,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, near Atlanta, Ga.: + +If the Government should purchase, on its own account, cotton +northward of you, and on the line of your communications, would it be +an inconvenience to you, or detriment to the military service, for it +to come to the north on the railroad? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH JOHN T. MILLS, + +AUGUST [15?], 1864. + + +Mr. President," said Governor Randall, "why can't you seek seclusion, +and play hermit for a fortnight? It would reinvigorate you." + +"Ah," said the President, "two or three weeks would do me no good. I +cannot fly from my thoughts--my solicitude for this great country +follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or +ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot +but feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in +November. There is no program offered by any wing of the Democratic +party but that must result in the permanent destruction of the Union. + +"But, Mr. President, General McClellan is in favor of crushing out +this rebellion by force. He will be the Chicago candidate." + +"Sir, the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man +that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy. It +would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are +now in the service of the United States nearly one hundred and fifty +thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them under arms, defending +and acquiring Union territory. The Democratic strategy demands that +these forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by +restoring them to slavery. The black men who now assist Union +prisoners to escape are to be converted into our enemies, in the vain +hope of gaining the good-will of their masters. We shall have to +fight two nations instead of one. + +"You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them ultimate +success; and the experience of the present war proves their success +is inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black +men into their side of the scale. Will you give our enemies such +military advantages as insure success, and then depend on coaxing, +flattery, and concession to get them back into the Union? Abandon all +the posts now garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty +thousand men from our side and put them in the battle-field or corn- +field against us, and we would be compelled to abandon the war in +three weeks. + +"We have to hold territory in inclement and sickly places; where are +the Democrats to do this? It was a free fight, and the field was open +to the war Democrats to put down this rebellion by fighting against +both master and slave, long before the present policy was +inaugurated. + +"There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to +slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win +the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should +deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what will, I will +keep my faith with friend and foe. My enemies pretend I am now +carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I +am President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of +restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion +without the use of the emancipation policy, and every other policy +calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion. + +"Freedom has given us one hundred and fifty thousand men, raised on +Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has +subtracted from the enemy, and, instead of alienating the South, +there are now evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our +men and the rank and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies +prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is not necessary +to a restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue." + + + + +ENDORSEMENT OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT, +AUGUST 15, 1864. + +I am always for the man who wishes to work; and I shall be glad for +this man to get suitable employment at Cavalry Depot, or elsewhere + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. J. RAYMOND. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, August 15, 1864 + +HON. HENRY J. RAYMOND. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara +correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his +letters over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy which I +herewith send. He declines giving his consent to the publication of +his letters unless these parts be published with the rest. I have +concluded that it is better for me to submit, for the time, to the +consequences of the false position in which I consider he has placed +me, than to subject the country to the consequences of publishing +these discouraging and injurious parts. I send you this, and the +accompanying copy, not for publication, but merely to explain to you, +and that you may preserve them until their proper time shall come. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 17, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your +hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog +grip, and chew and choke as much as possible. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS, +AUGUST 18, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the 28th of September, 1850, entitled +"An act to create additional collection districts in the State of +California, and to change the existing districts therein, and to +modify the existing collection districts in the United States," +extends to merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege of being +exported to the British North American provinces adjoining the United +States, in the manner prescribed in the act of Congress of the 3d of +March, 1845, which designates certain frontier ports through which +merchandise may be exported, and further provides "that such other +ports, situated on the frontiers of the United States adjoining the +British North American provinces, as may hereafter be found +expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges, on the +recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation +duly made by the President of the United States, specially +designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be +extended." + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of +the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of +Newport, in the State of Vermont, is and shall be entitled to all the +privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the +British North American provinces adjoining the United States, which +are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of the +act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after +the date of this proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States of America, the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, AUGUST 18, 1864. + +If General Hitchcock can effect a special exchange of Thomas D. +Armesy, now under conviction as a spy, or something of the sort, and +in prison at for Major Nathan Goff, made a prisoner of war, and now +in prison at Richmond, let it be done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 164TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 18, 1864. + +SOLDIERS:--You are about to return to your homes and your friends, +after having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short +term of duty in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and +to all who have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it +might be more generally and universally understood what the country +is now engaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free government, +where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In +this great struggle, this form of government and every form of human +right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved +in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in +this struggle, the question whether your children and my children +shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this, in order to +impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small +matter should divert us from our great purpose. + +There may be some inequalities in the practical application of our +system. It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion +to the value of his property; but if we should wait, before +collecting a tax, to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact +proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at +all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; and things may be done +wrong, while the officers of the Government do all they can to +prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great +Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we +have before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted +from it by any small matter. When you return to your homes, rise up +to the height of a generation of men worthy of a free government, and +we will carry out the great work we have commenced. I return to you +my sincere thanks, soldiers, for the honor you have done me this +afternoon. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 20, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Bermuda Hundred, Va.: + +Please allow Judge Snead to go to his family on Eastern Shore, or +give me some good reason why not. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE 166TH OHIO REGIMENT, + +AUGUST 22, 1864. + +SOLDIERS--I suppose you are going home to see your families and +friends. For the services you have done in this great struggle in +which we are engaged, I present you sincere thanks for myself and the +country. + +I almost always feel inclined, when I say anything to soldiers, to +impress upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success +in this contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all time to +come, that we should perpetuate for our children's children that +great and free government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg +you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I +happen, temporarily, to occupy this big White House. I am a living +witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my +father's child has. It is in order that each one of you may have, +through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field, +and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence; +that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life with all +its desirable human aspirations--it is for this that the struggle +should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthrights--not only +for one, but for two or three years, if necessary. The nation is +worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel. + + + + +MEMORANDUM. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +August 23, 1864. + +This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable +that this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my +duty to so co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union +between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured +his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it +afterward. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 26, 1864. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.: + +Thanks to General Gillam for making the news and also to you for +sending it. Does Joe Heiskell's "walking to meet us" mean any more +than that "Joe" was scared and wanted to save his skin? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO B. H. BREWSTER. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 30,1864. + +HON. B. H. BREWSTER, Astor House, New York: + +Your letter of yesterday received. Thank you for it. Please have no +fears. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING COTTON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, August 31, 1864. + +Any person or persons engaged in bringing out cotton, in strict +conformity with authority given by W. P. Fessenden, Secretary of the +United States Treasury, must not be hindered by the War, Navy, or any +other Department of the Government, or any person engaged under any +of said Departments. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO COLONEL HUIDEKOPER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +SEPTEMBER 1, 1864 + +COLONEL H. C. HUIDEKOPER, Meadville, Penn. + +SIR: It is represented to me that there are at Rock Island, +Illinois, as rebel prisoners of war, many persons of Northern and +foreign birth who are unwilling to be exchanged and sent South, but +who wish to take the oath of allegiance and enter the military +service of the Union. Colonel Huidekoper, on behalf of the people of +some parts of Pennsylvania, wishes to pay the bounties the Government +would have to pay to proper persons of this class, have them enter +the service of the United States, and be credited to the localities +furnishing the bounty money. He will therefore proceed to Rock +Island, ascertain the names of such persons (not including any who +have attractions Southward), and telegraph them to the Provost- +Marshal-General here, whereupon direction will be given to discharge +the persons named upon their taking the oath of allegiance; and then +upon the official evidence being furnished that they shall have been +duly received and mustered into the service of the United States, +their number will be credited as may be directed by Colonel +Huidekoper. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, +September 3, 1864. + +The signal success that Divine Providence has recently vouchsafed to +the operations of the United States fleet and army in the harbor of +Mobile, and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort +Morgan, and the glorious achievements of the army under Major-General +Sherman, in the State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of the +city of Atlanta, call for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being +in whose hands are the destinies of nations. It is therefore +requested that on next Sunday, in all places of worship in the United +States, thanksgivings be offered to Him for His mercy in preserve our +national existence against the insurgent rebels who have been waging +a cruel war against the Government of the United States for its +overthrow, and also that prayer be made for Divine protection to our +brave soldiers and their leaders in the field who have so often and +so gallantly periled their lives in battling with the enemy, and for +blessings and comfort from the Father of mercies to the sick, +wounded, and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who +have fallen in the service of their country, and that He will +continue to uphold the Government of the United States against all +the efforts of public enemies and secret foes. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDERS OF GRATITUDE AND REJOICING. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Admiral Farragut +and Major-General Canby, for the skill and harmony with which the +recent operations in Mobile Harbor and against Fort Powell, Fort +Gaines, and Fort Morgan were planned and carried into execution. +Also to Admiral Farragut and Major-General Granger, under whose +immediate command they were conducted, and to the gallant commanders +on sea and land, and to the sailors and soldiers engaged in the +operations, for their energy and courage, which, under the blessing +of Providence, have been crowned with brilliant success, and have won +for them the applause and thanks of the nation. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +The national thanks are tendered by the President to Major-General +William T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his +command before Atlanta, for the distinguished ability, courage, and +perseverance displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which under Divine +power resulted in the capture of the city of Atlanta. The marches, +battles, sieges, and other military operations that have signalized +this campaign must render it famous in the annals of war, and have +entitled those who have participated therein to the applause and +thanks of the nation. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +September 3, 1864. + +Ordered: First, That on Monday, the fifth day of September, +commencing at the hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be given a +salute of one hundred guns at the arsenal and navy-yard, at +Washington, and on Tuesday, the 6th of September, or on the day after +the receipt of this order, at each arsenal and navy-yard in the +United States, for the recent brilliant achievements of the fleet and +land forces of the United States in the harbor of Mobile, and in the +reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan. The +Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy will issue the +necessary directions in their respective departments for the +execution of this order. + +Second, That on Wednesday, the 7th of September, commencing at the +hour of twelve o'clock noon, there shall be fired a salute of one +hundred guns at the arsenal at Washington, and at New York, Boston, +Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Newport (Ky.), and St. Louis, +and New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola, Hilton Head, and Newbern, the +day after the receipt of this order, for the brilliant achievements +of the army under command of Major-General Sherman, in the State of +Georgia, and for the capture of Atlanta. The Secretary of War will +issue directions for the execution of this order. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President Of the United States. + + + + +TO MRS. GURNEY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 4, 1864. + +ELIZA P. GURNEY. + +MY ESTEEMED FRIEND:--I have not forgotten probably never shall forget +the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on +a Sabbath forenoon two years ago--nor has your kind letter, written +nearly a year later, even been for gotten. In all, it has been your +purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the +good Christian people of the country for their constant prayer and +consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself. The +purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we +erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We +hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; +but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet +acknowledge His wisdom, and our own error therein. Mean while we +must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so +working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He +intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no +mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. + +Your people--the Friends--have had, and are having, a very great +trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, +they can only practically oppose oppression by war. For those +appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, +the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the +law. That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it, I shall +still receive, for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our +Father in Heaven. + +Your sincere friend, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF COLORED PEOPLE FROM BALTIMORE WHO PRESENTED +HIM WITH A BIBLE, + +SEPTEMBER 7, 1864. + +I can only say now, as I have often said before, it has always been a +sentiment with me, that all mankind should be free. So far as I have +been able, so far as came within my sphere, I have always acted as I +believed was just and right, and done all I could for the good of +mankind. I have, in letters sent forth from this office, expressed +myself better than I can now. + +In regard to the great Book, I have only to say it is the best gift +which God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of +the world is communicated to us through this book. But for that +Book, we could not know right from wrong. All those things desirable +to man are contained in it. I return you sincere thanks for this +very elegant copy of this great Book of God which you present. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PICKERING. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 8, 1864: + +GOVERNOR PICKERING, Olympia, W. T.: + +Your patriotic despatch of yesterday received and will be published. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER OF THANKS TO HUNDRED-DAY TROOPS FROM OHIO. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, September 10, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which the National Guard of Ohio +volunteered having expired, the President directs an official +acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic and valuable services +during the recent campaigns. The term of service of their enlistment +was short, but distinguished by memorable events. In the Valley of +the Shenandoah, on the Peninsula, in the operations on the James +River, around Petersburg and Richmond, in the battle of Monocacy, and +in the intrenchments of Washington, and in other important service, +the National Guard of Ohio performed with alacrity the duty of +patriotic volunteers, for which they are entitled to and are hereby +tendered, through the Governor of their State, the national thanks. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 12, 1864. + + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Sheridan and Early are facing each other at a dead-lock. Could we +not pick up a regiment here and there, to the number of say ten +thousand men, and quietly but suddenly concentrate them at Sheridan's +camp and enable him to make a strike? + +This is but a suggestion. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JAMES G. BLAINE. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 13, 1864. + +HON. J. G. BLAINE, Augusta, Me.: +On behalf of the Union, thanks to Maine. Thanks to you personally +for sending the news. + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--Send same to L. B. Smith and M. A. Blanchard, Portland, Me. +A. L. + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 13, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint Louis: + +Postpone the execution of S. H. Anderson for two weeks. Hear what +his friends can say in mitigation and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send the above telegram. + +JNO. G. NICOLAY, Private Secretary. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SLOUGH. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 16, 1864. + +GENERAL SLOUGH, Alexandria, Va.: + +On the 14th I commuted the sentence of Conley, but fearing you may +not have received notice I send this. Do not execute him. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 17,1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +I feel great interest in the subjects of your despatch mentioning +corn and sorghum, and the contemplated visit to you. + +A. LINCOLN, President of the United States. + + + + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 19, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN: + +The State election of Indiana occurs on the 11th of October, and the +loss of it to the friends of the Government would go far towards +losing the whole Union cause. The bad effect upon the November +election, and especially the giving the State government to those who +will oppose the war in every possible way, are too much to risk if it +can be avoided. The draft proceeds, notwithstanding its strong +tendency to lose us the State. Indiana is the only important State +voting in October whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Anything +you can safely do to let her soldiers or any part of them go home and +vote at the State election will be greatly in point. They need not +remain for the Presidential election, but may return to you at once. +This is in no sense an order, but is merely intended to impress you +with the importance to the Army itself of your doing all you safely +can, yourself being the judge of what you can safely do. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT CONCERNING AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, SEPTEMBER 1864. + +The writer of this, who appeals for his brother, is our minister to +Ecuador, and whom, if at all compatible, I would like to have obliged +by a special exchange of his brother. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. SHERIDAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 20, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN, Winchester, Va.: + +Have just heard of your great victory. God bless you all, officers +and men. Strongly inclined to come up and See you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL HITCHCOCK, + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 21, 1864. + +GENERAL HITCHCOCK: + +Please see the bearer, Mr. Broadwell, on a question about a mutual +supplying of clothes to prisoners. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 22, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I send this as an explanation to you, and to do justice to the +Secretary of War. I was induced, upon pressing application, to +authorize the agents of one of the districts of Pennsylvania to +recruit in one of the prison depots in Illinois; and the thing went +so far before it came to the knowledge of the Secretary that, in my +judgment, it could not be abandoned without greater evil than would +follow its going through. I did not know at the time that you had +protested against that class of thing being done; and I now say that +while this particular job must be completed, no other of the sort +will be authorized, without an understanding with you, if at all. +The Secretary of War is wholly free of any part in this blunder. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL BLAIR. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +September 23, 1864. + + +HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. + +MY DEAR SIR:--You have generously said to me, more than once, that +whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my +disposal. The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds +from no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. +Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any other +friend, and while it is true that the war does not so greatly add to +the difficulties of your department as to those of some others, it is +yet much to say, as I most truly can, that in the three years and a +half during which you have administered the General Post-Office, I +remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith. + +Yours, as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS IN INSURRECTIONARY STATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 24, 1864. + +I. Congress having authorized the purchase for the United States of +the products of States declared in insurrection, and the Secretary of +the Treasury having designated New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, +Pensacola, Port Royal, Beaufort (North Carolina), and Norfolk, as +places of purchase, and, with my approval, appointed agents and made +regulations under which said products may be purchased, therefore: + +II. All persons except such as may be in the civil, military, or +naval service of the government, having in their possession any +products of States or parts of States declared in insurrection, which +said agents are authorized to purchase; and all persons owning or +controlling such products therein are authorized to convey such +products to either of the places which have been hereby or may +hereafter be designated as places of purchase, and such products so +destined shall not be liable to detention, seizure, or forfeiture +while in transitu, or in store waiting transportation. + +III. Any person having the certificate of a purchasing agent, as +prescribed by Treasury Regulation VIII, is authorized to pass with +the necessary means of transportation to the points named in said +certificate, and to return therefrom with the products required for +the fulfilment of the stipulations set forth in said certificate. + +IV. Any person having sold and delivered to a purchasing agent any +products of an insurrectionary State in accordance with the +regulations in relation thereto, and having in his possession a +certificate setting forth the fact of such purchase and sale; the +character and quantity of products, and the aggregate amount paid +therefor, as prescribed by Regulation I, shall be permitted by the +military authority commanding at the place of sale to purchase from +any authorized dealer at such place merchandise and other articles +not contraband of war nor prohibited by order of the War Department, +nor coin, bullion, or foreign exchange, to an amount not exceeding in +value one-third of the aggregate value of the products sold by him as +certified by the agents purchasing, and the merchandise and other +articles so purchased may be transported by the same route, and to +the same place, from and by which the products sold and delivered +reached the purchasing agent, as set forth in the certificate, and +such merchandise and other articles shall have safe conduct, and +shall not be subject to detention, seizure, or forfeiture while being +transported to the places and by the routes set forth in the said +certificate. + +V. Generals commanding military districts, and commandants of +military posts and detachments, and officers commanding fleets, +flotillas, and gunboats, will give safe conduct to persons and +products, merchandise, and other articles duly authorized as +aforesaid, and not contraband of war, or prohibited by order of the +War Department, or of the order of such generals commanding, or other +duly authorized military or naval officer, made in pursuance hereof, +and all persons hindering or preventing such safe conduct of persons +or property will, be deemed guilty of a military offense and punished +accordingly. + +VI. Any person transporting or attempting to transport any +merchandise or other articles except in pursuance of regulations of +the Secretary of the Treasury, dated July 29, 1864, or in pursuance +of this order, or transporting or attempting to transport any +merchandise or other articles contraband of war or forbidden by any +order of the War Department, will be deemed guilty of a military +offense and punished accordingly; and all products of insurrectionary +States found in transitu to any other person or than a purchasing +agent and a designated of purchase shall be seized and forfeited to +the States, except such as may be moving to a loyal state under duly +authorized permits of a proper officer of the Treasury Department, as +prescribed by Regulation XXXVIII, concerning commercial intercourse, +dated July 29, 1864, or such as may have been found abandoned, or +have been captured and are moving in pursuance of the act of March +12, 1864. + +VII. No military or naval officer of the United States, or person in +the military or naval service, nor any civil officer, except such as +are appointed for that purpose, shall engage in trade or traffic in +the products of the insurrectionary States, or furnish transportation +therefor under pain of being deemed guilty of unlawful trading with +the enemy and punished accordingly. + +VIII. The Secretary of War will make such general orders or +regulations as will insure the proper observance and execution of,, +this order, and the Secretary of the Navy will give instructions to +officers commanding fleets, flotillas, and gunboats in conformity +therewith. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. +WASHINGTON, D. C., September 27, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia: + +You say Jefferson Davis is on a visit to Hood. I judge that Brown +and Stephens are the objects of his visit. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29,1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +I hope it will have no constraint on you, nor do harm any way, for me +to say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends reinforcements to Early, +and thus enables him to turn upon Sheridan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT. + +September 29, 1864. + +I think the bearer of this, Second Lieutenant Albee, deserves a +hearing. Will the Secretary of War please accord it to him? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER RETURNING THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS FOR ONE HUNDRED DAYS FROM +THE STATES OF INDIANA, ILLINOIS, IOWA, AND WISCONSIN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, October 1, 1864. + +The term of one hundred days for which volunteers from the States of +Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin volunteered, under the call of +their respective governors, in the months of May and June, to aid in +the campaign of General Sherman, having expired; the President +directs an official acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic +service. It was their good fortune to render efficient service in the +brilliant operations in the Southwest and to contribute to the +victories of the national arms over the rebel forces in Georgia under +command of Johnston and Hood. On all occasions and in every service +to which they were assigned their duty as patriotic volunteers was +performed with alacrity and courage, for which they are entitled to +and are hereby tendered the national thanks through the governors of +their respective States. + +The Secretary of War is directed to transmit a copy of this order to +the governors of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin and to cause +a certificate of their honorable service to be delivered to the +officers and soldiers of the States above named who recently served +in the military force of the United States as volunteers for one +hundred days. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +October 5, 1864 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +I inclose you a copy of a correspondence in regard to a contemplated +exchange of naval prisoners through your lines, and not very distant +from your headquarters. It only came to the knowledge of the War +Department and of myself yesterday, and it gives us some uneasiness. +I therefore send it to you with the statement that, as the numbers to +be exchanged under it are small, and so much has already been done to +effect the exchange, I hope you may find it consistent to let it go +forward under the general supervision of General Butler, and +particularly in reference to the points he holds vital in exchanges. +Still, you are at liberty to arrest the whole operation if in your +judgment the public good requires it + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A MEMORANDUM BY GENERAL McDOWELL, +OCTOBER 7, 1864 + +I well remember the meetings herein narrated. See nothing for me to +object to in the narrative as being made by General McDowell, except +the phrase attributed to me "of the Jacobinism of Congress," + +[This memorandum describes the private discussions that preceded the +transfer of McClellan's army from the Potomac, where it had +confronted the Confederates at Manassas. See H. J. Raymond: Life of +Lincoln, p. 772] + +which phrase I do not remember using literally or in substance, and +which I wish not to be published in any event. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO H. W. HOFFMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, October 10, 1864. + +HON. HENRY W. HOFFMAN. + +MY DEAR SIR:--A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution +for the State; a public meeting is called for this evening at +Baltimore to aid in securing its ratification by the people, and you +ask a word from me for the occasion. I presume the only feature of +the instrument about which there is serious controversy is that which +provides for the extinction of slavery. It needs not to be a secret +and I presume it is no secret, that I wish success to this provision. +I desire it on every consideration. I wish all men to be free. I +wish the material prosperity of the already free, which I feel sure +the extinction of slavery would bring. I wish to see in process of +disappearing that only thing which ever could bring this nation to +civil war. I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is +already exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more immediately +interested sons of Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be +gratified exceedingly if the good people of the State shall, by their +votes, ratify the new constitution. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 10, 1864, 5 P.M. + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: + +Yours of to-day just this moment received, and the Secretary having +left it is impossible for me to answer to-day. I have not received +your letter from Erie. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Cambridge, Mass.: + +Your letter makes us a little uneasy about your health. Telegraph us +how you are. If you think it would help you, make us a visit. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 12, 1864. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours about election. +Pennsylvania very close, and still in doubt on home vote. Ohio +largely for us, with all the members of Congress but two or three. +Indiana largely for us,--Governor, it is said, by fifteen thousand, +and eight of the eleven members of Congress. Send us what you may +know of your army vote. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, + +OCTOBER 19, 1864. + + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am notified that this is a compliment +paid me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer +that the adoption of the new constitution for the State furnishes the +occasion, and that in your view the extirpation of slavery +constitutes the chief merit of the new constitution. Most heartily +do I congratulate you, and Maryland, and the nation, and the world, +upon this event. I regret that it did not occur two years sooner, +which, I am sure, would have saved the nation more money than would +have met all the private loss incident to the measure; but it has +come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully realize all +their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may by +its effects be agreeably and profitably disappointed. + +A word upon another subject. Something said by the Secretary of +State in his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into +a threat, that if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between +then and the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to +ruin the Government. + +Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not +sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular +individual, as the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee +shall be elected he will at once seize control of the Government. I +hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness +on either point. I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to +overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from +overthrowing it. I therefore say, that if I live, I shall remain +President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be +constitutionally elected, in November, shall be duly installed as +President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do my +utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall +start with the best possible chance of saving the ship. This is due +to the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their +will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If +they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the +loss of their country and their liberties, I know not the power or +the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do +as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still +resolved to preserve their country and their liberties; and in this, +in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add, +that in this purpose to save the country and its liberties, no +classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the +field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? +Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and +seamen, with all their brave commanders. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 20, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another +year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs +from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal +victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also +pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their +homes as our soldiers in their camps, and our sailors on the rivers +and seas, with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free +population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to +us new: sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our working- +men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, +he has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds arid hearts with +fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of +civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a +nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us +reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our +dangers and afflictions. + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as +a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, +wherever they may be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to +Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And +I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that +occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from +thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the +great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of +peace, union, and harmony throughout the, land which it has pleased +him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity +throughout all generations. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of October, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of +the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM To J. G. NICOLAY. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 21, 1864. 9.45 P.M. + +J. G. NICOLAY, Saint Louis, Missouri: + +While Curtis is fighting Price, have you any idea where the force +under Rosecrans is, or what it is +doing? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., +October 22, 1864. + + +MESSRS WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL, THOMAS A. R. NELSON, JAMES T. P. CARTER, +JOHN WILLIAMS, A. BLIZZARD, HENRY COOPER, BAILLIE PEYTON, JOHN +LELLYET, EMERSON ETHERIDGE, and JOHN D. PERRYMAN. + +GENTLEMEN:--On the 15th day of this month, as I remember, a printed +paper manuscript, with a few manuscript interlineations, called a +protest, with your names appended thereto, and accompanied by another +printed paper, purporting to be a proclamation by Andrew Johnson, +Military Governor of Tennessee, and also a manuscript paper, +purporting to be extracts from the Code of Tennessee, were laid +before me. + +The protest, proclamation, and extracts are respectively as follows: + +[The protest is here recited, and also the proclamation of Governor +Johnson, dated September 30, to which it refers, together with a list +of the counties in East, Middle, and West Tennessee; also extracts +from the Code of Tennessee in relation to electors of President and +Vice-President, qualifications of voters for members of the General +Assembly, places of holding elections, and officers of popular +elections.] + +At the time these papers were presented, as before stated, I had +never seen either of them, nor heard of the subject to which they +related, except in a general way one day previously. + +Up to the present moment, nothing whatever upon the subject has +passed between Governor Johnson, or any one else, connected with the +proclamation, and myself. + +Since receiving the papers, as stated, I have given the subject such +brief consideration as I have been able to do, in the midst of so +many pressing public duties. + +My conclusion is, that I can have nothing to do with the matter, +either to sustain the plan as the convention and Governor Johnson +have initiated it, or to revoke or modify it as you demand. + +By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty +in the presidential election in any State, nor do I in this case +perceive any military reason for his interference in the matter. + +The movement set on foot by the convention and Governor Johnson does +not, as seems to be assumed by you, emanate from the National +Executive. + +In no proper sense can it be considered other than an independent +movement of, at least, a portion of the loyal people of Tennessee. + +I do not perceive in the plan any menace, or violence, or coercion +towards any one. + +Governor Johnson, like any other loyal citizen of Tennessee, has the +right to favor any political plan he chooses, and, as military +governor, it is his duty to keep peace among and for the loyal people +of the State. + +I cannot discern that by this plan he purposes any more. But you +object to the plan. + +Leaving it alone will be your perfect security against it. It is not +proposed to force you into it. Do as you please, on your own +account, peaceably and loyally, and Governor Johnson will not molest +you, but will protect you against violence as far as in his power. + +I presume that the conducting of a presidential election in Tennessee +in strict accordance with the old Code of the State, is not now a +possibility. + +It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any election shall be held +and any votes shall be cast in the State of Tennessee for President +and Vice-President of the United States, it will belong, not to the +military agents, nor yet to the Executive Department, but exclusively +to another department of the Government, to determine whether they +are entitled to be counted in conformity with the Constitution and +laws of the United States. + +Except it be to give protection against violence, I decline to +interfere in any way with any presidential election. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 22, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN: + +With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of +the nation, and my own personal admiration and gratitude, for the +month's operations in the Shenandoah Valley; and especially for the +splendid work of October 19, 1864. +Your obedient servant, +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. +WASHINGTON, D. C., October 23, 1864 5 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +I have received information to-day, having great appearance of +authenticity, that there is to be a rebel raid into Western Kentucky; +that it is to consist of four thousand infantry and three thousand +cavalry, and is to start from Corinth, Mississippi, On the fourth day +of November. + +A. LINCOLN, President. + +Send copy to General Washburn at Memphis. +A. L. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO T. T. DAVIS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 1864. + +HON. THOMAS T. DAVIS, Syracuse, N.Y.: + +I have ordered that Milton D. Norton be discharged on taking the +oath. Please notify his mother. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION ADMITTING NEVADA INTO THE UNION + +OCTOBER 31, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas the Congress of the United States passed an act, which was +approved on the 21st day of March last, entitled "An act to enable +the people of Nevada to form a constitution and State government, and +for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing +with the original States;" and, + +Whereas the said constitution and State government have been formed, +pursuant to the conditions prescribed by the fifth section of the act +of Congress aforesaid, and the certificate required by the said act +and also a copy of the constitution and ordinances have been +submitted to the President of the United States: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act +of Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said +State of Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with +the original States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.......... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURBRIDGE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 4, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky. + +Suspend execution of all the deserters ordered to be executed on +Sunday at Louisville, until further order, and send me the records in +the cases. Acknowledge receipt. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO NAVAL OFFICER AT MOBILE BAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. 9 P.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL CANBY, New Orleans, La.: + +Please forward with all possible despatch to the naval officer +commanding at Mobile Bay the following order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + +(Inclosure.) + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. + +NAVAL OFFICER IN COMMAND AT MOBILE BAY + +Do not on any account, or on any showing of authority whatever, from +whomsoever purporting to come, allow the blockade to be violated. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SAILORS' FAIR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., November 8, 1864. + +TO THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SAILORS' FAIR, +Boston, Massachusetts + +Allow me to wish you a great success. With the old fame of the Navy +made brighter in the present war you cannot fail. I name none lest I +wrong others by omission. To all, from rear-admiral to honest Jack, +I tender the nation's admiration and gratitude. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO A. H. RICE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. A. H. RICE, Boston, Massachusetts: + +Yours received. I have no other notice that the ox is mine. If it be +really so, I present it to the Sailors' Fair as a contribution. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Auburn, New York: + +News from Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Rosecrans satisfactory, but not +important. Pirate Florida captured by the Wachusett October 7, on +the coast of Brazil. The information is certain. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +NOVEMBER 9, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Even before I had been informed by you +that this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, +friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my +countrymen who think that the best interests of the nation are to be +subserved by the support of the present administration. I do not +pretend to say that you, who think so, embrace all the patriotism and +loyalty of the country, but I do believe, and I trust without +personal interest, that the welfare of the country does require that +such support and indorsement should be given. + +I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work, if it +be as you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting +advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the country. I cannot +at this hour say what has been the result of the election. But, +whatever it may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion: that all +who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union have wrought for the +best interests of the country and the world; not only for the +present, but for all future ages. + +I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while +deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my +heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do +not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure +to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for +this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government +and the rights of humanity. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. W. HOFFMAN. +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. November 10, 1864. + +H. HOFFMAN, Baltimore, Md.: + +The Maryland soldiers in the Army of the Potomac cast a total vote of +fourteen hundred and twenty-eight, out of which we get eleven hundred +and sixty majority. This is directly from General Meade and General +Grant. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +NOVEMBER 10, 1864. + +It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too +strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to +maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point the +present rebellion brought our government to a severe test, and a +presidential election occurring in regular course during the +rebellion, added not a little to the strain. + +If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their strength +by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially +paralyzed by a political war among themselves? But the election was a +necessity. We cannot have free government without elections; and if +the election could force us to forego or postpone a national +election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined +us. The strife of the election is but human nature practically +applied to the facts of the case. What has occurred in this case +must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In +any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we +will have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as +good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy +to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. + +But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, +has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government +can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. +Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a +possibility. It shows, also, how sound and strong we still are. It +shows that even among the candidates of the same party, he who is +most devoted to the Union and most opposed to treason can receive +most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to the extent yet known, +that we have more men now than we had when the war began. Gold is +good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better +than gold. + +But the rebellion continues, and, now that the election is over, may +not all have a common interest to reunite in a common effort to save +our common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive +to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been +here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While +I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, and duly +grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God, for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their good, it adds +nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed by +the result. + +May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this +same spirit towards those who have? And now, let me close by asking +three hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their +gallant and skillful commanders. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. +WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: + +I have just received a telegram from Governor Bramlette saying: +"General John B. Houston, a loyal man and prominent citizen, was +arrested, and yesterday, started off by General Burbridge, to be sent +beyond our lines by way of Catlettsburg, for no other offense than +opposition to your re-election," and I have answered him as follows +below, of which please take notice and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864. +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of yesterday received. I can scarcely believe that General +John B. Houston has been arrested "for no other offense than +opposition to my re-election;" for, if that had been deemed +sufficient cause of arrest, I should have heard of more than one +arrest in Kentucky on election day. If, however, General Houston has +been arrested for no other cause than opposition to my re-election, +General Burbridge will discharge him at once, I sending him a copy of +this as an order to that effect. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT. +(Private.) +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 14, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT: + +Few things since I have been here have impressed me more painfully +than what, for four or five months past, has appeared a bitter +military opposition to the new State government of Louisiana. I +still indulged some hope that I was mistaken in the fact; but copies +of a correspondence on the subject between General Canby and +yourself, and shown me to-day, dispel that hope. A very fair +proportion of the people of Louisiana have inaugurated a new State +government, making an excellent new constitution--better for the poor +black man than we have in Illinois. This was done under military +protection, directed by me, in the belief, still sincerely +entertained, that with such a nucleus around which to build we could +get the State into position again sooner than otherwise. In this +belief a general promise of protection and support, applicable alike +to Louisiana and other States, was given in the last annual message. +During the formation of the new government and constitution they were +supported by nearly every loyal person, and opposed by every +secessionist. And this support and this opposition, from the +respective standpoints of the parties, was perfectly consistent and +logical. Every Unionist ought to wish the new government to succeed; +and every disunionist must desire it to fail. Its failure would +gladden the heart of Slidell in Europe, and of every enemy of the old +flag in the world. Every advocate of slavery naturally desires to +see blasted and crushed the liberty promised the black man by the new +constitution. But why General Canby and General Hurlbut should join +on the same side is to me incomprehensible. + +Of course, in the condition of things at New Orleans, the military +must not be thwarted by the civil authority; but when the +Constitutional Convention, for what it deems a breach of privilege, +arrests an editor in no way connected with the military, the military +necessity for insulting the convention and forcibly discharging the +editor is difficult to perceive. Neither is the military necessity +for protecting the people against paying large salaries fixed by a +legislature of their own choosing very apparent. Equally difficult +to perceive is the military necessity for forcibly interposing to +prevent a bank from loaning its own money to the State. These +things, if they have occurred, are, at the best, no better than +gratuitous hostility. I wish I could hope that they may be shown not +to have occurred. To make assurance against misunderstanding, I +repeat that in the existing condition of things in Louisiana, the +military must not be thwarted by the civil authority; and I add that +on points of difference the commanding general must be judge and +master. But I also add that in the exercise of this judgment and +control, a purpose, obvious, and scarcely unavowed, to transcend all +military necessity, in order to crush out the civil government, will +not be overlooked. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO MARYLAND UNION COMMITTEE, +NOVEMBER 17, 1864. + +The President, in reply, said that he had to confess he had been duly +notified of the intention to make this friendly call some days ago, +and in this he had had a fair opportunity afforded to be ready with a +set speech; but he had not prepared one, being too busy for that +purpose. He would say, however, that he was gratified with the +result of the presidential election. He had kept as near as he could +to the exercise of his best judgment for the interest of the whole +country, and to have the seal of approbation stamped on the course he +had pursued was exceedingly grateful to his feelings. He thought he +could say, in as large a sense as any other man, that his pleasure +consisted in belief that the policy he had pursued was the best, if +not the only one, for the safety of the country. + +He had said before, and now repeated, that he indulged in no feeling +of triumph over any man who thought or acted differently from +himself. He had no such feeling toward any living man. When he +thought of Maryland, in particular, he was of the opinion that she +had more than double her share in what had occurred in the recent +elections. The adoption of a free-State constitution was a greater +thing than the part taken by the people of the State in the +presidential election. He would any day have stipulated to lose +Maryland in the presidential election to save it by the adoption of a +free-State constitution, because the presidential election comes +every four years, while that is a thing which, being done, cannot be +undone. He therefore thought that in that they had a victory for +the right worth a great deal more than their part in the presidential +election, though of the latter he thought highly. He had once before +said, but would say again, that those who have differed with us and +opposed us will see that the result of the presidential election is +better for their own good than if they had been successful. + +Thanking the committee for their compliment, he brought his brief +speech to a close. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, +NOVEMBER 19, 1864 + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, it was +declared that the ports of certain States, including those of +Norfolk, in the State of Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, in the +State of Florida, were, for reasons therein set forth, intended to be +placed under blockade; and: + +Whereas the said ports were subsequently blockaded accordingly, but +having for some time past been in the military possession of the +United States, it is deeemd advisable that they should be opened to +domestic and foreign commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth +section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, +entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on +imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade +of the said ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola shall so far +cease and determine, from and after the first day of December next, +that commercial intercourse with those ports, except as to persons, +things, and information contraband of war, may, from that time, be +carried on, subject to the laws of the United States, to the +limitations and in pursuance of the regulations which may be +prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and to such military and +naval regulations as are now in force, or may hereafter be found +necessary. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, +this nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United +States the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +FIVE-STAR MOTHER + +TO MRS. BIXBY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 21, 1864. + +MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts. + +DEAR MADAM:--I have been shown in the files of the War Department a +statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the +mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. +I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should +attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But +I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be +found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that +our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and +leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the +solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice +upon the altar of freedom. + +Yours very sincerely and respectfully, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. PHILLIPS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +November 21, 1864. + +DEACON JOHN PHILLIPS. + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, +in which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of +writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment +paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable. + +The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have +already been extended an average lifetime beyond the Psalmist's +limit, cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself +only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so +long and so well, that I thank you. + +Your friend and servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE. +WASHINGTON, D. C. NOVEMBER 22, 1864. + +GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.: + +Yours of to-day received. It seems that Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs +and Colonel Wolford are stationary now. General Sudarth and Mr. +Hodges are here, and the Secretary of War and myself are trying to +devise means of pacification and harmony for Kentucky, which we hope +to effect soon, now that the passion-exciting subject of the election +is past. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, +WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 25, 1864 + +GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; + +I have no knowledge, information, or belief, that three States--or +any States, offer to resume allegiance. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. 26, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS: + +Please telegraph me briefly on what charge and evidence Mrs. Anna B. +Martin has been sent to the penitentiary at Alton. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MEMORANDUM, + +DECEMBER 3, 1864. + +On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee came before the +President, asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of +war at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they +came again, and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the +interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious +man, and on Saturday the President ordered the release of the +prisoners, when he said to this lady: "You say your husband is a +religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say I am not much +of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that +sets men to rebel and fight against their own government, because, as +they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to +eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of +religion upon which people can get to heaven." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER CONCERNING THE STEAMER "FUNAYMA SOLACE." + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 3, 1864. + +A war steamer, called the Funayma Solace, having been built in this +country, for the Japanese government and at the instance of that +government, it is deemed to comport with the public interest, in view +of the unsettled condition of the relations of the United States with +that Empire, that the steamer should not be allowed to proceed to +Japan. If, however, the Secretary of the Navy should ascertain that +the steamer is adapted to our service, he is authorized to purchase +her, but the purchase money will be held in trust toward satisfying +any valid claims which may be presented by the Japanese on account of +the construction of the steamer and the failure to deliver the same, +as above set forth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864 + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: ` + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Captain John A. Winslow, United States Navy, receive a vote of +thanks from Congress for the skill and gallantry exhibited by him in +the brilliant action whilst in command of the United States steamer +Keaysarge, which led to the total destruction of the piratical craft +Alabama, on the 19th of June, 1864., a vessel superior in tonnage, +superior in number of guns, and superior in number of crew. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, viz: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade, if, upon recommendation by the President by name he receives +the thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict +with the enemy, or far extraordinary heroism in the line of his +profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +WASHINGTON CITY, December 5, 1864. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend +that Lieutenant William B. Gushing, United States Navy, receive a +vote of thanks from Congress for his important, gallant, and perilous +achievement in destroying the rebel ironclad steamer Albemarle on the +night of the 27th of October, 1864., at Plymouth, N. C. + +The destruction of so formidable a vessel, which had resisted the +continued attacks of a number of our vessels on former occasions, is +an important event touching our future naval and military operations, +and would reflect honor on any officer, and redounds to the credit of +this young officer and the few brave comrades who assisted in this +successful and daring undertaking. + +This recommendation is specially made in order to comply with the +requirements of the ninth section of the Aforesaid act, which is in +the following words, namely: + +That any line officer of the navy or marine corps may be advanced one +grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he receives the +thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in conflict with +the enemy, or for extraordinary heroism in the line of his +profession. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES: + +Again the blessings of health and abundant harvests claim our +profoundest gratitude to Almighty God. + +The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably satisfactory. + +Mexico continues to be a theater of civil war. While our political +relations with that country have undergone no change, we have at the +same time strictly maintained neutrality between the belligerents. + +At the request of the States of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a competent +engineer has been authorized to make a survey of the river San Juan +and the port of San Juan. It is a source of much satisfaction that +the difficulties which for a moment excited some political +apprehensions and caused a closing of the interoceanic transit route +have been amicably adjusted, and that there is a good prospect that +the route will soon be reopened with an increase of capacity and +adaptation. We could not exaggerate either the commercial or the +political importance of that great improvement. + +It would be doing injustice to an important South American State not +to acknowledge the directness, frankness, and cordiality with which +the United States of Colombia have entered into intimate relations +with this government. A claims convention has been constituted to +complete the unfinished work of the one which closed its session in +1861. + +The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having gone into effect +with the universal acquiescence of the people, the government under +it has been recognized and diplomatic intercourse with it has opened +in a cordial and friendly spirit. The long-deferred Aves Island +claim has been satisfactorily paid and discharged. + +Mutual payments have been made of the claims awarded by the late +joint commission for the settlement of claims between the United +States and Peru. An earnest and cordial friendship continues to +exist between the two countries, and such efforts as were in my power +have been used to remove misunderstanding, and avert a threatened war +between Peru and Spain. + +Our relations are of the most friendly nature with Chile, the +Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salvador, and +Haiti. + +During the past year no differences of any kind have arisen with any +of these republics, and on the other hand, their sympathies with the +United States are constantly expressed with cordiality and +earnestness. + +The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo of the brig +Macedonian in 1821 has been paid in full by the Government of Chile. + +Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San Domingo, apparently +without prospect of an early close. + +Official correspondence has been freely opened with Liberia, and it +gives us a pleasing view of social and political progress in that +republic. It may be expected to derive new vigor from American +influence improved by the rapid disappearance of slavery in the +United States. + +I solicit your authority to furnish to the republic a gunboat, at +moderate cost, to be reimbursed to the United States by instalments. +Such a vessel is needed for the safety of that state against the +native African races, and in Liberian hands it would be more +effective in arresting the African slave-trade than a squadron in our +own hands. The possession of the least organized naval force would +stimulate a generous ambition in the republic, and the confidence +which we should manifest by furnishing it would win forbearance and +favor toward the colony from all civilized nations. + +The proposed overland telegraph between America and Europe, by the +way of Bering Straits and Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by +Congress at the last session, has been undertaken, under very +favorable circumstances, by an association of American citizens, with +the cordial good-will and support as well of this Government as of +those of Great Britain and Russia. Assurances have been received +from most of the South American States of their high appreciation of +the enterprise and their readiness to co-operate in constructing +lines tributary to that world-encircling communication. I learn with +much satisfaction that the noble design of a telegraphic +communication between the eastern coast of America and Great Britain +has been renewed, with full expectation of its early accomplishment. + +Thus it is hoped that with the return of domestic peace the country +will be able to resume with energy and advantage its former high +career of commerce and civilization. + +Our very popular and estimable representative in Egypt died in April +last. An unpleasant altercation which arose between the temporary +incumbent of the office and the Government of the Pasha resulted in a +suspension of intercourse. The evil was promptly corrected on the +arrival of the successor in the consulate, and our relations with +Egypt, as well as our relations with the Barbary Powers, are entirely +satisfactory. + +The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in China has at last +been suppressed, with the co-operating good offices of this +Government and of the other Western commercial States. The judicial +consular establishment there has become very difficult and onerous, +and it will need legislative revision to adapt it to the extension of +our commerce and to the more intimate intercourse which has been +instituted with the Government and people of that vast Empire. China +seems to be accepting with hearty good-will the conventional laws +which regulate commercial and social intercourse among the Western +nations. + +Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan and the anomalous form of +its Government, the action of that empire in performing treaty +stipulations is inconstant and capricious. Nevertheless, good +progress has been effected by the Western powers, moving with +enlightened concert. Our own pecuniary claims have been allowed or +put in course of settlement, and the inland sea has been reopened to +commerce. There is reason also to believe that these proceedings +have increased rather than diminished the friendship of Japan toward +the United States. + +The ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola have been opened by +proclamation. It is hoped that foreign merchants will now consider +whether it is not safer and more profitable to themselves, as well as +just to the United States, to resort to these and other open ports +than it is to pursue, through many hazards and at vast cost, a +contraband trade with other ports which are closed, if not by actual +military occupation, at least by a lawful and effective blockade. + +For myself, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive, +under the law of nations, to exclude enemies of the human race from +an asylum in the United States. If Congress should think that +proceedings in such cases lack the authority of law, or ought to be +further regulated by it, I recommend that provision be made for +effectually preventing foreign slave traders from acquiring domicile +and facilities for their criminal occupation in our country. + +It is possible that if it were a new and open question the maritime +powers, with the lights they now enjoy, would not concede the +privileges of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the United +States, destitute, as they are, and always have been, equally of +ships of war and of ports and harbors. Disloyal emissaries have been +neither assiduous nor more successful during the last year than they +were before that time in their efforts, under favor of that +privilege, to embroil our country in foreign wars. The desire and +determination of the governments of the maritime states to defeat +that design are believed to be as sincere as and can not be more +earnest than our own. Nevertheless, unforeseen political +difficulties have arisen, especially in Brazilian and British ports +and on the northern boundary of the United States, which have +required, and are likely to continue to require, the practice of +constant vigilance and a just and conciliatory spirit on the part of +the United States, as well as of the nations concerned and their +governments. + +Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great Britain +on the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound +Agricultural Companies, in Oregon, and are now proceeding to the +execution of the trust assigned to them. + +In view of the insecurity of life and property in the region adjacent +to the Canadian border, by reason of recent assaults and depredations +committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, +it has been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration +of six months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing +arrangement with Great Britain, the United States must hold +themselves at liberty to increase their naval armament upon the Lakes +if they shall find that proceeding necessary. The condition of the +border will necessarily come into consideration in connection with +the question of continuing or modifying the rights of transit from +Canada through the United States, as well as the regulation of +imposts, which were temporarily established by the reciprocity treaty +of the 5th June, 1854. + +I desire, however, to be understood while making this statement that +the colonial authorities of Canada are not deemed to be intentionally +unjust or unfriendly toward the United States, but, on the contrary, +there is every reason to expect that, with the approval of the +Imperial Government, they will take the necessary measures to prevent +new incursions across the border. + +The act passed at the last session for the encouragement of +immigration has so far as was possible been put into operation. It +seems to need amendment which will enable the officers of the +Government to prevent the practice of frauds against the immigrants +while on their way and on their arrival in the ports, so as to secure +them here a free choice of avocations and places of settlement. A +liberal disposition toward this great national policy is manifested +by most of the European States, and ought to be reciprocated on our +part by giving the immigrants effective national protection. I +regard our immigrants as one of the principal replenishing streams +which are appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of internal +war and its wastes of national strength and health. All that is +necessary is to secure the flow of that stream in its present +fullness, and to that end the Government must in every way make it +manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose involuntary +military service upon those who come from other lands to cast their +lot in our country. The financial affairs of the Government have +been successfully administered during the last year. The legislation +of the last session of Congress has beneficially affected the +revenues, although sufficient time has not yet elapsed to experience +the full effect of several of the provisions of the acts of Congress +imposing increased taxation. + +The receipts during the year from all sources, upon the basis of +warrants signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans and +the balance in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1863, were +$1,394, +196,007.62, and the aggregate disbursements, upon the same basis, +were $1,298,056,101.89, leaving a balance in the Treasury, as shown +by warrants, of $96,739,905.73. + +Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public +debt redeemed and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and +the actual cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, +$884,076,646.57; disbursements, $865,234,087.86; which leaves a cash +balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558.71. + +Of the receipts there were derived from customs $102,316,152.99, +from lands $588,333.29, from direct taxes $475,648.96, from +internal revenue $109,741,134.10, from miscellaneous sources +$47,511,448.10, and from loans applied to actual expenditures, +including former balance, $623,443,929.13. + +There were disbursed for the civil service $27,505,599.46, for +pensions and Indians $7,517,930.97, for the War Department +$690,791,842.97, for the Navy Department $85,733,292.77, for interest +on the public debt $53,685,421.69, making an aggregate of +$865,234,087.86, and leaving a balance in the Treasury of +$18,842,558.71, as before stated. + +For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and +the estimated receipts and disbursements for the three remaining +quarters of the current fiscal year, and the general operations of +the Treasury in detail, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of +the Treasury. I concur with him in the opinion that the proportion +of moneys required to meet the expenses consequent upon the war +derived from taxation should be still further increased; and I +earnestly invite your attention to this subject to the end that there +be such additional legislation as shall be required to meet the just +expectations of the Secretary. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, as appears by the +books of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489.49. Probably, +should the war continue for another year, that amount may be +increased by not far from $500,000,000. Held, as it is, for the most +part by our own people, it has become a substantial branch of +national, though private, property. For obvious reasons the more +nearly this property can be distributed among all the people the +better. To favor such general distribution, greater inducements to +become owners might, perhaps, with good effect and without injury be +presented to persons of limited means. With this view I suggest +whether it might not be both competent and expedient for Congress to +provide that a limited amount of some future issue of public +securities might be held by any bona fide purchaser exempt from +taxation and from seizure for debt, under such restrictions and +limitations as might be necessary to guard against abuse of so +important a privilege. This would enable every prudent person to set +aside a small annuity against a possible day of want. + +Privileges like these would render the possession of such securities +to the amount limited most desirable to every person of small means +who might be able to save enough for the purpose. The great +advantage of citizens being creditors as well as debtors with +relation to the public debt is obvious. Men readily perceive that +they can not be much oppressed by a debt which they owe to +themselves. + +The public debt on the first day of July last, although somewhat +exceeding the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to +Congress at the commencement of the last session, falls short of the +estimate of that officer made in the preceding December as to its +probable amount at the beginning of this year by the sum of +$3,995,097.31. This fact exhibits a satisfactory condition and +conduct of the operations of the Treasury. + +The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to +capitalists and to the people. On the twenty-fifth day of November +five hundred and eighty-four national banks had been organized, a +considerable number of which were conversions from State banks. +Changes from State systems to the national system are rapidly taking +place, and it is hoped that very soon there will be in the United +States no banks of issue not authorized by Congress and no bank-note +circulation not secured by the Government. That the Government and +the people will derive great benefit from this change in the banking +systems of the country can hardly be questioned. The national system +will create a reliable and permanent influence in support of the +national credit and protect the people against losses in the use of +paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is advisable for +the suppression of State-bank issues, it will be for Congress to +determine. It seems quite clear that the Treasury can not be +satisfactorily conducted unless the Government can exercise a +restraining power over the bank-note circulation of the country. + +The report of the Secretary of War and the accompanying documents +will detail the campaigns of the armies in the field since the date +of the last annual message, and also the operations of the several +administrative bureaus of the War Department during the last year. +It will also specify the measures deemed essential for the national +defense and to keep up and supply the requisite military force. + +The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehensive and +satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that Department and of the +naval service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable pride +to our countrymen that a Navy of such vast proportions has been +organized in so brief a period and conducted with so much efficiency +and success. + +The general exhibit of the Navy, including vessels under construction +on the first of December, 1864, shows a total of 671 vessels, +carrying 4610 guns, and of 510,396 tons, being an actual increase +during the year, over and above all losses by shipwreck or in battle, +of 83 vessels, 167 guns, and 42,427 tons. + +The total number of men at this time in the naval service, including +officers, is about 51,000. + +There have been captured by the Navy during the year 324 vessels, and +the whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced is +1379, of which 267 are steamers. + +The gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property +thus far reported amount to $14,369,250.51. A large amount of such +proceeds is still under adjudication and yet to be reported. + +The total expenditure of the Navy Department of every description, +including the cost of the immense squadrons that have been called +into existence from the fourth of March, 1861, to the first of +November, 1864, is $238,647,262.35. + +Your favorable consideration is invited to the various +recommendations of the Secretary of the Navy, especially in regard to +a navy-yard and suitable establishment for the construction and +repair of iron vessels and the machinery and armature for our ships, +to which reference was made in my last annual message. + +Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the report +in relation to the legislation of Congress at its last session in +respect to prize on our inland waters. + +I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to the +propriety of creating the new rank of vice-admiral in our naval +service. + +Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster-General for +a detailed account of the operations and financial condition of the +Post-Office Department. + +The postal revenues for the year ending June 30, 1864, amounted to +$12,438,253.78, and the expenditures to $12,644,786.20, the excess of +expenditures over receipts being $206,532.42. + +The views presented by the Postmaster-General on the subject of +special grants by the Government in aid of the establishment of new +lines of ocean mail steamships and the policy he recommends for the +development of increased commercial intercourse with adjacent and +neighboring countries should receive the careful consideration of +Congress. + +It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of population, +improvement, and governmental institutions over the new and +unoccupied portions of our country have scarcely been checked, much +less impeded or destroyed, by our great civil war, which at first +glance would seem to have absorbed almost the entire energies of the +nation. + +The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been +completed in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is +firmly established in the mountains, which once seemed a barren and +uninhabitable waste between the Atlantic States and those which have +grown up on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. + +The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of +prosperity and rapid growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their +great distance and the interruption of communication with them by +Indian hostilities, have been only partially organized; but it is +understood that these difficulties are about to disappear, which will +permit their governments, like those of the others, to go into speedy +and full operation. + +As intimately connected with and promotive of this material growth of +the nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the valuable +information and important recommendations relating to the public +lands, Indian affairs, the Pacific Railroad, and mineral discoveries +contained in the report of the Secretary of the Interior which is +herewith transmitted, and which report also embraces the subjects of +patents, pensions, and other topics of public interest pertaining to +his Department. + +The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters +ending on the thirtieth of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of +which 1,538,614 acres were entered under the homestead law. The +remainder was located with military land warrants, agricultural scrip +certified to States for railroads, and sold for cash. The cash +received from sales and location fees was $1,019,446. + +The income from sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, +was $678,007.21, against $136,077.95 received during the preceding +year. The aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has +been equal to the quantity disposed of, and there is open to +settlement about 133,000,000 acres of surveyed land. + +The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific +States by railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a +vigor that gives assurance of success, notwithstanding the +embarrassments arising from the prevailing high prices of materials +and labor. The route of the main line of the road has been +definitely located for one hundred miles westward from the initial +point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location of the +Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento eastward +to the great bend of the Truckee River in Nevada. + +Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been +added to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the +Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains and the subordinate ranges now +teems with enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is +believed that the produce of the mines of precious metals in that +region has during the year reached, if not exceeded, $100,000,000 in +value. + +It was recommended in my last annual message that our Indian system +be remodeled. Congress at its last session, acting upon the +recommendation, did provide for reorganizing the system in +California, and it is believed that under the present organization +the management of the Indians there will be attended with reasonable +success. Much yet remains to be done to provide for the proper +government of the Indians in other parts of the country, to render it +secure for the advancing settler, and to provide for the welfare of +the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recommendations, and to +them the attention of Congress is invited. + + +The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to +invalid soldiers and sailors of the Republic and to the widows, +orphans, and dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle or +died of disease contracted or of wounds received in the service of +their country have been diligently administered. There have been +added to the pension rolls during the year ending the 3oth day of +June last the names of 16,770 invalid soldiers and of 271 disabled +seamen, making the present number of army invalid pensioners 22,767 +and of navy invalid pensioners 712. + +Of widows, orphans, and mothers 22,198 have been placed on the army +pension rolls and 248 on the navy rolls. The present number of army +pensioners of this class is 25,433 and of navy pensioners 793. At +the beginning of the year the number of Revolutionary pensioners was +1430. Only twelve of them were soldiers, of whom seven have since +died. The remainder are those who under the law receive pensions +because of relationship to Revolutionary soldiers. During the year +ending the thirtieth of June, 1864, $4,504,616.92 have been paid to +pensioners of all classes. + +I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent +institutions of the District of Columbia which have hitherto been +established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer for +information concerning them and in relation to the Washington +Aqueduct, the Capitol, and other matters of local interest to the +report of the Secretary. + +The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present +energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself to the +great and vital interest it was created to advance. It is peculiarly +the people's department, in which they feel more directly concerned +than in any other. I commend it to the continued attention and +fostering care of Congress. + +The war continues. Since the last annual message all the important +lines and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained +and our arms have steadily advanced, thus liberating the regions left +in rear, so that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other +States have again produced reasonably fair crops. + +The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year is +General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles directly +through the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of +our relative strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to +confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet +to detach a well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition. +The result not yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not +here indulged. + +Important movements have also occurred during the year to the effect +of molding society for durability in the Union. Although short of +complete success, it is much in the right direction that twelve +thousand citizens in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana +have organized loyal State governments, with free constitutions, and +are earnestly struggling to maintain and administer them. The +movements in the same direction more extensive though less definite +in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, should not be overlooked. But +Maryland presents the example of complete success. Maryland is +secure to liberty and union for all the future. The genius of +rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit +being driven out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no +more. + +At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the +Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United States passed +the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in +the House of Representatives. Although the present is the same +Congress and nearly the same members, and without questioning the +wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to +recommend the reconsideration and passage of the measure at the +present session. Of course the abstract question is not changed; but +an intervening election shows almost certainly that the next Congress +will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there is only a +question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the +States for their action. And as it is to so go at all events, may we +not agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the +election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their +votes any further than, as an additional element to be considered, +their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people +now for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national +crisis like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common +end is very desirable, almost indispensable. And yet no approach to +such unanimity is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to +the will of the majority simply because it is the will of the +majority. In this case the common end is the maintenance of the +Union, and among the means to secure that end such will, through the +election, is most clearly declared in favor of such Constitutional +amendment. + +The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is +derived through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass +and its result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to +maintain the integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more +nearly unanimous than now. The extraordinary calmness and good order +with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls give +strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union +ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party also +may be fairly claimed to entertain and to be actuated by the same +purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this effect that no +candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek +votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There have +been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy as to the +proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause, but on the +distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their +instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. +In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to +another and to the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the +election has been of vast value to the national cause. + +The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be +known--the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most +important branch of national resources, that of living men. While it +is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many graves and +carried mourning to so many hearts, it is some relief to know that, +compared with the surviving, the fallen have been so few. While +corps and divisions and brigades and regiments have formed and fought +and dwindled and gone out of existence, a great majority of the men +who composed them are still living. The same is true of the naval +service. The election returns prove this. So many voters could not +else be found. The States regularly holding elections, both now and +four years ago, to wit, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, +Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, +Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and +Wisconsin, cast 3,982,011 votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then, +showing an aggregate now of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 +cast now in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States did not +vote in 1860, thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,773 and the net +increase during the three years and a half of war to 145,551. A +table is appended showing particulars. To this again should be added +the number of all soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode +Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who +by the laws of those States could not vote away from their homes, and +which number can not be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. The +number in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years +ago--while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms +press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown, affirmatively and +negatively, by the election. It is not material to inquire how the +increase has been produced or to show that it would have been greater +but for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains +demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war +began; that we are not exhausted nor in process of exhaustion; that +we are gaining strength and may if need be maintain the contest +indefinitely. [This sentence recognizes the concern of a guerilla +war after the main war finished.]This as to men. Material resources +are now more complete and abundant than ever. + +The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe, +inexhaustible. The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the +national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. +The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful +consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that no +attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any +good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union, +precisely what we will not and can not give. His declarations to +this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does not attempt to +deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He can +not voluntarily reaccept the Union; we can not voluntarily yield it. +Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It +is an issue which can only be tried by war and decided by victory. +If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, he is +beaten. Either way it would be the victory and defeat following war. +What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause is not +necessarily true of those who follow. Although he can not reaccept +the Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire peace and +reunion. The number of such may increase. They can at any moment +have peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the +national authority under the Constitution. After so much the +Government could not, if it would, maintain war against them. The +loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should +remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legislation, +conference, courts, and votes, operating only in Constitutional and +lawful channels. Some certain, and other possible, questions are and +would be beyond the Executive power to adjust; as, for instance, the +admission of members into Congress and whatever might require the +appropriation of money. The Executive power itself would be greatly +diminished by the cessation of actual war. Pardons and remissions of +forfeitures, however, would still be within Executive control. In +what spirit and temper this control would be exercised can be fairly +judged of by the past. + +A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, were +offered to all except certain designated classes, and it was at the +same time made known that the excepted classes were still within +contemplation of special clemency. During the year many availed +themselves of the general provision, and many more would, only that +the signs of bad faith in some led to such precautionary measures as +rendered the practical process less easy and certain. During the +same time also special pardons have been granted to individuals of +the excepted classes, and no voluntary application has been denied. +Thus practically the door has been for a full year open to all except +such as were not in condition to make free choice; that is, such as +were in custody or under constraint. It is still so open to all. +But the time may come, probably will come, when public duty shall +demand that it be closed and that in lieu more rigorous measures than +heretofore shall be adopted. + +In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national +authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable +condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract +nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made +a year ago, that "while I remain in my present position I shall not +attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall +I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that +proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress." If the people +should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re- +enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to +perform it. +In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the +war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have +ceased on the part of those who began it. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, +DECEMBER 6, 1864. + +FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I believe I shall never be old enough +to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. I +have no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news to tell. +We have talked of elections until there is nothing more to say about +them. The most interesting news now we have is from Sherman. We all +know where he went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. +I will now close by proposing three cheers for General Sherman and +his army. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR HALL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 7, 1864. + +GOVERNOR HALL, Jefferson City, Mo.: + +Complaint is made to me of the doings of a man at Hannibal, Mo., by +the name of Haywood, who, as I am told, has charge of some militia +force, and is not in the United States service. Please inquire into +the matter and correct anything you may find amiss if in your power. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL FASLEIGH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 8, 1864. + +COLONEL FASLEIGH, Louisville, Ky.: + +I am appealed to in behalf of a man by the name of Frank Fairbairns, +said to have been for a long time and still in prison, without any +definite ground stated. How is it? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER APPOINTING COMMISSIONERS TO INVESTIGATE THE MILITARY DIVISION +WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 10, 1864. + +ORDERED, First, that Major-General William P. Smith and the Hon. +Henry Stanbery be, and they are hereby, appointed special +commissioners to investigate and report, for the information of the +President; upon the civil and military administration in the military +division bordering upon and west of the Mississippi, under such +instructions as shall be issued by authority of the President and the +War Department. + +Second, said commissioners shall have power to examine witnesses upon +oath, and to take such proofs orally or in writing, upon the subject- +matters of investigation as they may deem expedient, and return the +same together with their report. + +Third, all officers and persons in the military, naval and revenue +services, or in any branch of the public service under the authority +of the United States Government, are required, upon subpoena issued +by direction of the said commissioners, to appear before them at such +time and place as may be designated in said subpoena and to give +testimony on oath touching such matters as may be inquired of by the +commissioners, and to produce such books, papers, writings, and +documents as they may be notified or required to produce by the +commissioners, and as may be in their possession. + +Fourth, said special commissioners shall also investigate and report +upon any other matters that may hereafter be directed by the +Secretary of War, and shall with all convenient dispatch make report +to him in writing of their investigation, and shall also from time to +time make special reports to the Secretary of War upon such matters +as they may deem of importance to the public interests. + +Fifth, the Secretary of War shall assign to the said commissioners +such aid and assistance as may be required for the performance of +their duties, and make such just and reasonable allowances and +compensation for the said commissioners and for the persons employed +by them as he may deem proper. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G, H. THOMAS. +WASHINGTON, D.C., December 16, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Please accept for yourself, officers, and men, the nation's thanks +for your good work of yesterday. You made a magnificent beginning; a +grand consummation is within your easy reach. Do not let it slip. + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +ORIGIN OF THE "GREENBACK" CURRENCY + +TO COLONEL B. D. TAYLOR + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December [16 ?], 1864. + +DEAR COLONEL DICK:--I have long determined to make public the origin +of the greenback and tell the world that it is Dick Taylor's +creation. You had always been friendly to me, and when troublous +times fell on us, and my shoulders, though broad and willing, were +weak, and myself surrounded by such circumstances and such people +that I knew not whom to trust, then I said in my extremity: "I will +send for Colonel Taylor; he will know what to do." I think it was in +January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that I did so. You came, and I +said to you: + +"What can we do?" Said you, "Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no +interest, printed on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off +the Army expenses and declare it legal tender." + +Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accomplished it, +and gave the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever +had-their own paper to pay their own debts. + +It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the +people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known. +How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was +too lazy to be anything but a lawyer. + +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT CHATTANOOGA. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 16, 1864 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Chattanooga, Tenn.: + +It is said that Harry Walters, a private in the Anderson cavalry, is +now and for a long time has been in prison at Chattanooga. Please +report to me what is his condition, and for what he is imprisoned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +CALL FOR 300,000 VOLUNTEERS, DECEMBER 19, 1864. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further +to regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the +national forces, and for other purposes," it is provided that the +President of the United States may, "at his discretion, at any time +hereafter, call for any number of men, as volunteers for the +respective terms of one, two, and three years for military service," +and "that in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, +township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any +country not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the space of +fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately +order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part thereof +which may be unfilled;" and + +Whereas, by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of +Congress on the call for 500,000 men, made July 18, 1864, the number +of men to be obtained under that call was reduced to 280,000; and + +Whereas, the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered +it impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops +under said call; and + +Whereas, from the foregoing causes but 240,000 men have been put into +the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, +1864, leaving a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty +thousand (260,000): + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency and to provide +for casualties in the military and naval service of the United +States, do issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) +volunteers to serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the +States, districts, and subdistricts under this call will be assigned +by the War Department through the bureau of the Provost-Marshal +General of the United States, and "in case the quota or any part +thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election +district, or of any county not so subdivided, shall not be filled" +before the fifteenth of February, 1865, then a draft shall be made to +fill such quota or any part thereof under this call which may be +unfilled on said fifteenth day of February, 1865. +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.......... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA + +TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864 + +MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN:--Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, +the capture of Savannah. + +When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was +anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, +and remembering that "nothing risked, nothing gained," I did not +interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all +yours; for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce. + +And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be +taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the +obvious and immediate military advantages; but in showing to the +world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to +an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old +opposing force of the whole,--Hood's army,--it brings those who sat +in darkness to see a great light. But what next? + +I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to +decide. + +Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army of +officers and men. + +Yours very truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT LEXINGTON. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Lexington, Ky.: + +If within your power send me the particulars of the causes for which +Lieutenant-Governor Jacob was arrested and sent away. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO J. MACLEAN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. + + +Dr. JOHN MACLEAN: + +MY DEAR SIR:--I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your +note of the twentieth of December, conveying the announcement that +the Trustees of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the +degree of Doctor of Laws. + +The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of +the Government which I represent, has received the approval of a body +of gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of +public trial, is most grateful to me. + +Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this +continent is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most +gratifying proofs of this conviction is the hearty devotion +everywhere exhibited by our schools and colleges to the national +cause. + +I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct to the +preservation of those institutions, under which alone we can expect +good government and in its train sound learning, and the progress of +the liberal arts. + +I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 28, 1864. + +OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn.: + +Suspend execution of James R. Mallory, for six weeks from Friday the +thirtieth of this month, which time I have given his friends to make +proof, if they can, upon certain points. + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1864. 5.30 p.m. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of +the Wilmington expedition, present and prospective. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 29, 1864. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER: + +There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, First +Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, at Chapin's Farm, +Va.; under the assumed name of William Stanley, but whose real name +is Frank R. Judd, and who is under arrest, and probably about to be +tried for desertion. He is the son of our present minister to +Prussia, who is a close personal friend of Senator Trumbull and +myself. We are not willing for the boy to be shot, but we think it +as well that his trial go regularly on, suspending execution until +further order from me and reporting to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL WARNER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, December 30, 1864. + +COLONEL WARNER, Indianapolis, Ind.: + +It is said that you were on the court-martial that tried John Lennon, +and that you are disposed to advise his being pardoned and sent to +his regiment. If this be true, telegraph me to that effect at once. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO J. WILLIAMS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 4, 1865. + +JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.: + +Let Trumbo's substitute be regularly mustered in, send me the +evidence that it is done and I will then discharge Trumbo. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES: + +I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, a +"joint resolution to correct certain clerical errors in the internal +revenue act," without my approval. + +My reason for so doing is that I am informed that this joint +resolution was prepared during the last moments of the last session +of Congress for the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference +in the internal revenue act, which were discovered on an examination +of an official copy procured from the State Department a few hours +only before the adjournment. It passed the House and went to the +Senate, where a vote was taken upon it, but by some accident it was +not presented to the President of the Senate for his signature. + +Since the adjournment of the last session of Congress, other errors +of a kind similar to those which this resolution was designed to +correct, have been discovered in the law, and it is now thought most +expedient to include all the necessary corrections in one act or +resolution. + +The attention of the proper committee of the House has, I am +informed, been already directed to the preparation of a bill for this +purpose. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 5, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Richard T. Jacob, Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, is at the +Spotswood House, in Richmond, under an order of General Burbridge not +to return to Kentucky. Please communicate leave to him to pass our +lines, and come to me here at Washington. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 6, 1865, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +If there is a man at City Point by the name of Waterman Thornton who +is in trouble about desertion, please have his case briefly stated to +me and do not let him be executed meantime. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, + +WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I transmit to Congress a +copy of two treaties between the United States and Belgium, for the +extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, etc., concluded on the twentieth +of May, 1863, and twentieth of July, 1863, respectively, the +ratifications of which were exchanged at Brussels on the twenty- +fourth of June last; and I recommend an appropriation to carry into +effect the provisions thereof relative to the payment of the +proportion of the United States toward the capitalization of the said +dues. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO SCHUYLER COLFAX. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 9, 1865. + +HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, +Speaker of the House of Representatives. + +SIR:--I transmit herewith the letter of the Secretary of War, with +accompanying report of the Adjutant-General, in reply to the +resolution of the House of Representatives, dated December 7, 1864, +requesting me "to communicate to the House the report made by Col. +Thomas M. Key of an interview between himself and General Howell Cobb +on the fourteenth [15th] day of June, 1862, on the banks of the +Chickahominy, on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war." + +I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING COMMERCE, +JANUARY 10, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas the act of Congress of the twenty-eighth of September, 1850, +entitled "An act to create additional collection districts in the +State of California, and to change the existing districts therein, +and to modify the existing collection districts in the United +States," extends to merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege +of being exported to the British North American provinces adjoining +the United States, in the manner prescribed in the act of Congress of +the third of March, 1845, which designates certain frontier ports +through which merchandise may be exported, and further provides "that +such other ports situated on the frontiers of the United States, +adjoining the British North American provinces, as may hereafter be +found expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges on the +recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation +duly made by the President of the United States, specially +designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be +extended;" + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of +America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of +the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of St. +Albans, in the State of Vermont, is, and shall be, entitled to all +the privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to +the British North American provinces adjoining the United States, +which are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of +the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and +after the date of this proclamation. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of January, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred-and sixty-five, and of +the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 10, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +No principal report of yours on the Wilmington expedition has ever +reached the War Department, as I am informed there. A preliminary +report did reach here, but was returned to General Grant at his +request. Of course, leave to publish cannot be given without +inspection of the paper, and not then if it should be deemed to be +detrimental to the public service. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.: + +Yours asking leave to come to Washington is received. You have been +summoned by the Committee on the Conduct of the War to attend here, +which, of course, you will do. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 15, 1865. + +GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Yours announcing ordinance of emancipation received. Thanks to the +convention and to you. When do you expect to be here? Would be glad +to have your suggestion as to supplying your place of military +governor. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +It is represented to me that there is so much irregular violence in +northern Missouri as to be driving away the people and almost +depopulating it. Please gather information, and consider whether an +appeal to the people there to go to their homes and let one another +alone recognizing as a full right of protection for each that he lets +others alone, and banning only him who refuses to let others alone +may not enable you to withdraw the troops, their presence itself +[being] a cause of irritation and constant apprehension, and thus +restore peace and quiet, and returning prosperity. Please consider +this and telegraph or write me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +FIRST OVERTURES FOR SURRENDER FROM DAVIS + +TO P. P. BLAIR, SR. + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:-You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but +only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having +graduated at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it +ends. I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a +commission, to which those who have already served long are better +entitled and better qualified to hold. Could he, without +embarrassment to you, or detriment to the service, go into your +military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, +furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the least +hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that you +shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +If Mrs. Beattie, alias Mrs. Wolff, shall be sentenced to death, +notify me, and postpone the execution till further order. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 19, 1864 + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD: + +You have a man in arrest for desertion passing by the name of +Stanley. William Stanley, I think, but whose real name is different. +He is the son of so close a friend of mine that I must not let him be +executed. Please let me know what is his present and prospective +condition. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Mo.: + +It is said an old lady in Clay County, Missouri, by name Mrs. +Winifred B. Price, is about being sent South. If she is not +misbehaving let her remain. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 24, 1865. + +HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee: + +Several members of the Cabinet, with myself, considered the question, +to-day, as to the time of your coming on here. While we fully +appreciate your wish to remain in Tennessee until her State +government shall be completely reinaugurated, it is our unanimous +conclusion that it is unsafe for you to not be here on the 4th of +March. Be sure to reach here by that time. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE, JANUARY 24, 1865. + +REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: + +I accept with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift +you have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect +that I acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so +well, that for me to attempt to say more may perhaps only serve to +weaken the force of that which has already been said. A most +graceful and eloquent tribute was paid to the patriotism and self- +denying labors of the American ladies, on the occasion of the +consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, by our +illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed from earth. +His life was a truly great one, and I think the greatest part of it +was that which crowned its closing years, I wish you to read, if you +have not already done so, the eloquent and truthful words which he +then spoke of the women of America. Truly, the services they have +rendered to the defenders of our country in this perilous time, and +are yet rendering, can never be estimated as they ought to be. For +your kind wishes to me personally, I beg leave to render you likewise +my sincerest thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated. And now, +gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point + +If Newell W. Root, of First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, is under +sentence of death, please telegraph me briefly the circumstances. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 25, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Having received the report in the case of Newell W. Root, I do not +interfere further in the case. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +EARLY CONSULTATIONS WITH REBELS + +INSTRUCTIONS TO MAJOR ECKERT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. + +SIR:-You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on +reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by +the Secretary of War. Then, by General Ord's assistance procure an +interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of +them, deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is +written. Note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and +to whom delivered. Receive their answer in writing, waiting a +reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to +come through without further condition, will be your warrant to ask +General Ord to pass them through as directed in the letter of the +Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or +propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this being +your whole duty, return and report to me. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY OF WAR TO GENERAL ORD. +(Cipher.) +WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Headquarters Army of the James: + +By direction of the President you are instructed to inform the three +gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, that a messenger +will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are, without +unnecessary delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + + + +INDORSEMENT ON A LETTER FROM J. M. ASHLEY. + +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, +January 31, 1865. + +DEAR SIR:--The report is in circulation in the House that Peace +Commissioners are on their way or in the city, and is being used +against us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. Please +authorize me to contradict it, if it is not true. + +Respectfully, +J. M. ASHLEY. + +To the President. + + +(Indorsement.) + +So far as I know there are no Peace Commissioners in the city or +likely to be in it. + +A. LINCOLN. +January 31, 1865 + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your +despatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he +arrives, and then act upon the message he brings, as far as +applicable, it having been made up to pass through General Ord's +hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INSTRUCTIONS TO SECRETARY SEWARD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and +informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on +the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a +copy of which you have. You will make known to them that three +things are indispensable to wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the +States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message +to Congress, and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not +inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a +spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to +say and report it to me. You will not assume to definitely +consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +PASSAGE THROUGH CONGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE +ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY + +RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, JANUARY 31, 1865. + +He supposed the passage through Congress of the Constitutional +amendment for the abolishing of slavery throughout the United States +was the occasion to which he was indebted for the honor of this call. + +The occasion was one of congratulation to the country, and to the +whole world. But there is a task yet before us--to go forward and +consummate by the votes of the States that which Congress so nobly +began yesterday. He had the honor to inform those present that +Illinois had already done the work. Maryland was about half through, +but he felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead. + +He thought this measure was a very fitting if not an indispensable +adjunct to the winding up of the great difficulty. He wished the +reunion of all the States perfected, and so effected as to remove all +causes of disturbance in the future; and, to attain this end, it was +necessary that the original disturbing cause should, if possible, be +rooted out. He thought all would bear him witness that he had never +shirked from doing all that he could to eradicate slavery, by issuing +an Emancipation Proclamation. But that proclamation falls short of +what the amendment will be when fully consummated. A question might +be raised whether the proclamation was legally valid. It might be +added, that it only aided those who came into our lines, and that it +was inoperative as to those who did not give themselves up; or that +it would have no effect upon the children of the slaves born +hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet the evil. +But this amendment is a king's cure for all evils. It winds the +whole thing up. He would repeat, that it was the fitting if not the +indispensable adjunct to the consummation of the great game we are +playing. He could not but congratulate all present--himself, the +country, and the whole world upon this great moral victory. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, February 1, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your +military movements or plans. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MAJOR ECKERT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, +Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe, and put yourself under direction of Mr. +Seward, whom you will find there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe +as soon as I can get there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va. + +Induced by a despatch of General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe, as +soon as I can come. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ORDER TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE DRAFT. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, February 6, 1865 + +Whereas complaints are made in some localities respecting the +assignments of quotas and credits allowed for the pending call of +troops to fill up the armies: Now, in order to determine all +controversies in respect thereto, and to avoid any delay in filling +up the armies, it is ordered, That the Attorney-General, Brigadier- +General Richard Delafield, and Colonel C. W. Foster, be, and they are +hereby constituted, a board to examine into the proper quotas and +credits of. the respective States and districts under the call of +December 19, 1864, with directions, if any errors be found therein, +to make such corrections as the law and facts may require, and report +their determination to the Provost-Marshal-General. The +determination of said board to be final and conclusive, and the draft +to be made in conformity therewith. + +2. The Provost-Marshal-General is ordered to make the draft in the +respective districts as speedily as the same can be done after the +fifteenth of this month. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 6, 1865. + +PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL: + +These gentlemen distinctly say to me this morning that what they want +is the means from your office of showing their people that the quota +assigned to them is right. They think it will take but little time- +two hours, they say. Please give there double the time and every +facility you can. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +February 6, 1865. + +The Provost-Marshal brings this letter back to me and says he cannot +give the facility required without detriment to the service, and +thereupon he is excused from doing it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 7, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN, +Commanding Post at Henderson, Ky.: + +Complaint is made to me that you are forcing negroes into the +military service, and even torturing them--riding them on rails and +the like to extort their consent. I hope this may be a mistake. The +like must not be done by you, or any one under you. You must not +force negroes any more than white men. Answer me on this. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GOVERNOR SMITH. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865. + +HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SMITH, of Vermont: + +Complaint is made to me, by Vermont, that the assignment of her quota +for the draft on the pending call is intrinsically unjust, and also +in bad faith of the Government's promise to fairly allow credits for +men previously furnished. To illustrate, a supposed case is stated +as follows: + +Vermont and New Hampshire must between them furnish six thousand men +on the pending call; and being equal, each must furnish as many as +the other in the long run. But the Government finds that on former +calls Vermont furnished a surplus of five hundred, and New Hampshire +a surplus, of fifteen hundred. These two surpluses making two +thousand and added to the six thousand, making eight thousand to be +furnished by the two States, or four thousand each less, by fair +credits. Then subtract Vermont's surplus of five hundred from her +four thousand, leaves three thousand five hundred as her quota on the +pending call; and likewise subtract New Hampshire's surplus of +fifteen hundred from her four thousand, leaves two thousand five +hundred as her quota on the pending call. These three thousand five +hundred and two thousand five hundred make precisely six thousand, +which the supposed case requires from the two States, and it is just +equal for Vermont to furnish one thousand more now than New +Hampshire, because New Hampshire has heretofore furnished one +thousand more than Vermont, which equalizes the burdens of the two in +the long run. And this result, so far from being bad faith to +Vermont, is indispensable to keeping good faith with New Hampshire. +By no other result can the six thousand men be obtained from the two +States, and, at the same time deal justly and keep faith with both, +and we do but confuse ourselves in questioning the process by which +the right result is reached. The supposed case is perfect as an +illustration. + +The pending call is not for three hundred thousand men subject to +fair credits, but is for three hundred thousand remaining after all +fair credits have been deducted, and it is impossible to concede what +Vermont asks without coming out short of three hundred thousand men, +or making other localities pay for the partiality shown her. + +This upon the case stated. If there be different reasons for making +an allowance to Vermont, let them be presented and considered. + +Yours truly, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 8, 1865. + +TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF +REPRESENTATIVES: + +The joint resolution entitled "Joint resolution declaring certain +States not entitled to representation in the electoral college" has +been signed by the Executive in deference to the view of Congress +implied in its passage and presentation to him. In his own view, +however, the two Houses of Congress, convened under the twelfth +article of the Constitution, have complete power to exclude from +counting all electoral votes deemed by them to be illegal, and it is +not competent for the Executive to defeat or obstruct that power by a +veto, as would be the case if his action were at all essential in the +matter. He disclaims all right of the Executive to interfere in any +way in the matter of canvassing or counting electoral votes, and he +also disclaims that by signing said resolution he has expressed any +opinion on the recitals of the preamble or any judgment of his own +upon the subject of the resolution. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 8, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point. Va.: + +I am called on by the House of Representatives to give an account of +my interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, and it is +very desirable to me to put your despatch of February 1, to the +Secretary of War, in which, among other things, you say: "I fear now +their going back without any expression from any one in authority +will have a bad influence." I think the despatch does you credit, +while I do not see that it can embarrass you. May I use it? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +REPLY TO A COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS, REPORTING +THE RESULT OF THE ELECTORAL COUNT, + +FEBRUARY 9, 1865. + +With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their +confidence; with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty +required under the most favorable circumstances, and now rendered +doubly difficult by existing national perils; yet with a firm +reliance on the strength of our free government, and the eventual +loyalty of the people to the just principles upon which it is +founded, and above all with an unshaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of +nations, I accept this trust. Be pleased to signify this to the +respective Houses of Congress. + + + + +CHRONOLOGIC REVIEW OF PEACE PROPOSALS + +MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 10, 1865 + +TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +In response to your resolution of the eighth instant, requesting +information in relation to a conference recently held in Hampton +Roads, I have the honor to state that on the day of the date I gave +Francis P. Blair, Sr., a card, written on as follows, to wit: + +December 28, 1864. + +Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go South, and +return. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +That at the time I was informed that Mr. Blair sought the card as a +means of getting to Richmond, Va., but he was given no authority to +speak or act for the Government, nor was I informed of anything he +would say or do on his own account or otherwise. Afterwards Mr. +Blair told me that he had been to Richmond and had seen Mr. Jefferson +Davis; and he (Mr. B.) at the same time left with me a manuscript +letter, as follows, to wit: + +RICHMOND, VA., January 12, 1865. +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. +SIR: I have deemed it proper, and probably desirable to you, to give +you in this for in the substance of remarks made by me, to be +repeated by you to President Lincoln, etc., etc. +I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and am willing, now +as heretofore, to enter into negotiations for the restoration of +peace, and am ready to send a commission whenever I have reason to +suppose it will be received, or to receive a commission if the United +States Government shall choose to send one. That notwithstanding the +rejection of our former offers, I would, if you could promise that a +commissioner, minister, or other agent would be received, appoint one +immediately, and renew the effort to enter into conference with a +view to secure peace to the two countries. +Yours, etc., +JEFFERSON DAVIS. + + + + +Afterwards, and with the view that it should be shown to Mr. Davis, I +wrote and delivered to Mr. Blair a letter, as follows, to wit: + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. + +P. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. + +Yours, etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards Mr. Blair dictated for and authorized me to make an entry +on the back of my retained copy of the letter last above recited, +which entry is as follows: + +January 28, 1865 + +To-day Mr. Blair tells me that on the twenty-first instant he +delivered to Mr. Davis the original of which the within is a copy, +and left it with him; that at the time of delivering it Mr. Davis +read it over twice in Mr. Blair's presence, at the close of which he +(Mr. Blair) remarked that the part about "our one common country" +related to the part of Mr. Davis' letter about "the two countries," +to which Mr. Davis replied that he so understood it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards the Secretary of War placed in my hands the following +telegram, indorsed by him, as appears: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington January 29, 1865, from +headquarters Army of James, + +6.30 P.M., January 29, 1865: +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War: +"The following despatch just received from Major-General Parke, who +refers it to me for my action. I refer it to you in Lieutenant- +General Grant's absence: + +"E. O. C. ORD, Major-General, Commanding. +HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC, +January 29, 1863. 4 P.M. +'MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, +'Headquarters Army of James: +'The following despatch is forwarded to you for your action. Since I +have no knowledge of General Grant's having had any understanding of +this kind, I refer the matter to you as the ranking officer present +in the two armies. +'JNO. G. PARKE, Major-General, Commanding.' + + +"'FROM HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY Cos, 29th. +'MAJOR-GENERAL JNO. G. PARKE, 'Headquarters Army of Potomac: +'Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and J. A. Campbell desire to +cross my lines, in accordance with an understanding claimed to exist +with Lieutenant-General Grant, on their way to Washington as peace +commissioners. Shall they be admitted? They desire an early answer, +to come through immediately. Would like to reach City Point tonight +if they can. If they can not do this, they would like to come +through at 10 A.M. to-morrow morning. +'O. B. WILCOX, +'Major-General, Commanding Ninth Corps.' + + +"January 29, 8.30 P.M. +"Respectfully referred to the President for such instructions as he +may be pleased to give. +"EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War." + + + + +It appears that about the time of placing the foregoing telegram in +my hands the Secretary of War dispatched General Ord as follows, to +wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON CITY, January 29, 1865. 10 P.M. +(Sent at 2 A.M., 30th.) +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD. + +SIR:--This Department has no knowledge of any understanding by +General Grant to allow any person to come within his lines as +commissioner of any sort. You will therefore allow no one to come +into your lines under such character or profession until you receive +the President's instructions, to whom your telegraph will be +submitted for his directions. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, +Secretary of War. + + + + +Afterwards, by my direction, the Secretary of War telegraphed General +Ord as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D.C., January 30. 10.30 A.M. + +MAJOR-GENERAL E. O. C. ORD, +Headquarters Army of the James. + +SIR:--By direction of the President, you are instructed to inform the +three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, that a +messenger will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are +without unnecessary delay. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +Afterwards I prepared and put into the hands of Major Thomas T. +Eckert the following instructions and message: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT. WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865 + +SIR:--You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and +on reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him +by the Secretary of War; then, by General Ord's assistance, procure +an interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of +them. Deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is +written. Note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and +to whom delivered. Receive their answer in writing, waiting a +reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to +come through without further condition, will be your warrant to ask +General Ord to pass them through, as directed in the letter of the +Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or +propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this being +your whole duty, return and report to me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +CITY POINT, VA.. February 1, 1865. + +MESSRS. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, J. A. CAMPBELL AND +R. M. T. HUNTER. + +GENTLEMEN :--I am instructed by the President of the United States to +place this paper in your hands, with the information that if you pass +through the United States military lines it will be understood that +you do so for the purpose of an informal conference on the basis of +the letter a copy of which is on the reverse side of this sheet, and +that if you choose to pass on such understanding, and so notify me in +writing, I will procure the commanding general to pass you through +the lines and to Fortress Monroe under such military precautions as +he may deem prudent, and at which place you will be met in due time +by some person or persons for the purpose of such informal +conference; and, further, that you shall have protection, safe +conduct, and safe return in all events. + +THOMAS T. ECKERT, +Major and Aide-de-Camp. + + + +WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865. +F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. + +SIR:--Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth +instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and +shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other +influential person now resisting the national authority may +informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people +of our one common country. +Yours, etc., A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards, but before Major Eckert had departed, the following +dispatch was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington January 30, 1865, from +City Point, Va., 10.30 A.M., January 30, 1865: + +"His EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, +President of the United States: + +"The following communication was received here last evening: + +"'PETERSBURG, VA., January 30, 1865. +'LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U.S. GRANT, +Commanding Armies United States. +'SIR: We desire to pass your lines under safe conduct, and to proceed +to Washington to hold a conference with President Lincoln upon the +subject of the existing war, and with a view of ascertaining upon +what terms it may be terminated, in pursuance of the course indicated +by him in his letter to Mr. Blair of January 18, 1865, of which we +presume you have a copy; and if not, we wish to see you in person, if +convenient, and to confer with you upon the subject. +'Very respectfully, yours, +'ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. +'J. A. CAMPBELL. +'R. M. T. HUNTER.'" + + +"I have sent directions to receive these gentlemen, and expect to +have them at my quarters this evening, awaiting your instructions. +U.S. GRANT, +Lieutenant-General, Commanding +Armies United States." + + + + +This, it will be perceived, transferred General Ord's agency in the +matter to General Grant. I resolved, however, to send Major Eckert +forward with his message, and accordingly telegraphed General Grant +as follows, to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION +WASHINGTON, January 13, 1865 +(Sent at 1.30 P.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your +despatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he +arrives, and then act upon the message he brings as far as +applicable, it having been made up to pass through General Ord's +hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +When Major Eckert departed, he bore with him a letter of the +Secretary of War to General Grant, as follows, to wit: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, Commanding, etc. + +GENERAL:--The President desires that you will please procure for the +bearer, Major Thomas T. Eckert, an interview with Messrs. Stephens, +Hunter, and Campbell, and if on his return to you he requests it pass +them through our lines to Fortress Monroe by such route and under +such military precautions as you may deem prudent, giving them +protection and comfortable quarters while there, and that you let +none of this have any effect upon your movements or plans. + +By order of the President: +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + + + +Supposing the proper point to be then reached, I dispatched the +Secretary of State with the following instructions, Major Eckert, +however, going ahead of him: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865. + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State: + +You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Va., there to meet and +informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on the +basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy +of which you have. + +You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to +Wit: + +1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the +States. + +2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery +question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message +to Congress and in preceding documents. + +3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the +disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. + +You will inform them that all propositions of theirs not inconsistent +with the above will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of +sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and +report it to me. + +You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. + +Yours, etc., + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +On the day of its date the following telegram was sent to General +Grant: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1,1865 +(Sent at 9.30 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your +military movements or plans. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Afterwards the following despatch was received from General Grant: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH +WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington, 2.30 P.M., February 1, +1865, from City Point, Va., February 1, 12.30 PM., 1865: + +"His EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President United States: + +"Your despatch received. There will be no armistice in consequence of +the presence of Mr. Stephens and others within our lines. The troops +are kept in readiness to move at the shortest notice if occasion +should justify it. + +"U.S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + + + + +To notify Major Eckert that the Secretary of State would be at +Fortress Monroe, and to put them in communication, the following +despatch was sent: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1865. + +MAJOR T. T. ECKERT, +Care of General Grant, City Point, Va.: + +Call at Fortress Monroe and put yourself under direction of Mr. S., +whom you will find there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +On the morning of the 2d instant the following telegrams were +received by me respectively from the Secretary of State and Major +Eckert: + +FORT MONROE, VA., +February 1,1865. 11.30 PM. + +THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: + +Arrived at 10 this evening. Richmond party not here. I remain here. + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + + +CITY POINT, VA., +February 1, 1865. 10 P.M. + +HIS EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President of the United States: +I have the honor to report the delivery of your communication and my +letter at 4.15 this afternoon, to which I received a reply at 6 P.M., +but not satisfactory. + + + + +At 8 P.M. the following note, addressed to General Grant, was +received: + +CITY POINT, VA., +February 1, 1865 + +"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. +"SIR:-We desire to go to Washington City to confer informally with +the President personally in reference to the matters mentioned in his +letter to Mr. Blair of the 18th January ultimo, without any personal +compromise on any question in the letter. We have the permission to +do so from the authorities in Richmond. +Very respectfully yours, +ALEX. H. STEPHENS +R. M. T. HUNTER. +J. A. CAMPBELL." + + +At 9.30 P.M. I notified them that they could not proceed further +unless they complied with the terms expressed in my letter. The +point of meeting designated in the above note would not, in my +opinion, be insisted upon. Think Fort Monroe would be acceptable. +Having complied with my instructions, I will return to Washington to- +morrow unless otherwise ordered. + +THOS. T. ECKERT, Major, etc. + + + + +On reading this despatch of Major Eckert I was about to recall him +and the Secretary of State, when the following telegram of General +Grant to the Secretary of War was shown me: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. + +The following telegram received at Washington +4.35 A.M., February 2, 1865, from City Point, Va., February 1, 10.30 +P.M., 1865: + +"HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, "Secretary of War: + +"Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written +instructions, and Mr. Stephens and party has ended, I will state +confidentially, but not officially to become a matter of record, that +I am convinced upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter +that their intentions are good and their desire sincere to restore +peace and union. I have not felt myself at liberty to express even +views of my own or to account for my reticency. This has placed me +in an awkward position, which I could have avoided by not seeing them +in the first instance. I fear now their going back without any +expression from anyone in authority will have a bad influence. At +the same time, I recognize the difficulties in the way of receiving +these informal commissioners at this time, and do not know what to +recommend. I am sorry, however, that Mr. Lincoln can not have an +interview with the two named in this despatch, if not all three now +within our lines. Their letter to me was all that the President's +instructions contemplated to secure their safe conduct if they had +used the same language to Major Eckert. + +"U.S. GRANT +"Lieutenant-General," + + + + +This despatch of General Grant changed my purpose, and accordingly I +telegraphed him and the Secretary of State, respectively, as follows: + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe +as soon as I can get there. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1865. (Sent at 9 A.M.) + +HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Fortress Monroe, Va.: + +Induced by a despatch from General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe +as soon as I can come. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +Before starting, the following despatch was shown me. I proceeded, +nevertheless: + +OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH, +WAR DEPARTMENT. +The following telegram received at Washington, February 2, 1865, from +City Point, Va., 9 A.M., February 2, 1865: + +"HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +"The gentlemen here have accepted the proposed terms, and will leave +for Fort Monroe at 9.30 A.M. + +"U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General." + +(Copy to HON. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington.) + + + + +On the night of the 2nd I reached Hampton Roads, found the Secretary +of State and Major Eckert on a steamer anchored offshore, and learned +of them that the Richmond gentlemen were on another steamer also +anchored offshore, in the Roads, and that the Secretary of State had +not yet seen or communicated with them. I ascertained that Major +Eckert had literally complied with his instructions, and I saw for +the first time the answer of the Richmond gentlemen to him, which in +his despatch to me of the 1st he characterizes as "not satisfactory." +That answer is as follows, to wit: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 1, 1865. +THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aid-de-Camp. +MAJOR:-Your note, delivered by yourself this day, has been +considered. In reply we have to say that we were furnished with a +copy of the letter of President Lincoln to Francis P. Blair, Esq., of +the 18th of January ultimo, another copy of which is appended to your +note. Our instructions are contained in a letter of which the +following is a copy: + +"RICHMOND, January 28, 1865. +"In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing +is a copy, you are to proceed to Washington City for informal +conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and +for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries. +"With great respect, your obedient servant, +"JEFFERSON DAVIS." + + + +The substantial object to be obtained by the informal conference is +to ascertain upon what terms the existing war can be terminated +honorably. + +Our instructions contemplate a personal interview between President +Lincoln and ourselves at Washington City, but with this explanation +we are ready to meet any person or persons that President Lincoln may +appoint at such place as he may designate. + +Our earnest desire is that a just and honorable peace may be agreed +upon, and we are prepared to receive or to submit propositions which +may possibly lead to the attainment of that end. + +Very respectfully, yours, +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. +R. M. T. HUNTER. +JOHN A. CAMPBELL. + + + + +A note of these gentlemen, subsequently addressed to General Grant, +has already been given in Major Eckert's despatch of the 1st instant. + +I also here saw, for the first time, the following note, addressed by +the Richmond gentlemen to Major Eckert: + +CITY POINT, VA., February 2, 1865. +THOMAS T. ECKERT, Major and Aid-de-Camp. +MAJOR:--In reply to your verbal statement that your instructions did +not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a passport could be +given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to Fortress Monroe +and there to have an informal conference with any person or persons +that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter to +Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other +terms or conditions that he may hereafter propose not inconsistent +with the essential principles of self-government and popular rights, +upon which our institutions are founded. + +It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of +ideas and information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just +and honorable peace can be established without the further effusion +of blood, and to contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a +result. + +We think it better to add that in accepting your passport we are not +to be understood as committing ourselves to anything but to carry to +this informal conference the views and feelings above expressed. + +Very respectfully, yours, etc., + +ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, +J. A. CAMPBELL, +R. M. T. HUNTER. + + +Note.-The above communication was delivered to me at Fort Monroe at +4.30 P.M. February 2 by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, of General +Grant's staff. +THOMAS T. ECKERT +Major and Aid-de-Camp. + + + + +On the morning of the third the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, +Hunter, and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer and had an interview +with the Secretary of State and myself of several hours' duration. +No question of preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made +or mentioned; no other person was present; no papers were exchanged +or produced; and it was in advance agreed that the conversation was +to be informal and verbal merely. On our part the whole substance of +the instructions to the Secretary of State hereinbefore recited was +stated and insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent +therewith; while by the other party it was not said that in any event +or on any condition they ever would consent to reunion, and yet they +equally omitted to declare that they never would consent. They +seemed to desire a postponement of that question and the adoption of +some other course first, which, as some of them seemed to argue, +might or might not lead to reunion, but which course we thought would +amount to an indefinite postponement. The conference ended without +result. + +The foregoing, containing, as is believed, all the information sought +is respectfully submitted. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. + +WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865 + +To THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: + +In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the eighth instant, +requesting information concerning recent conversations or +communications with insurgents, under executive sanction, I transmit +a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was +referred. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TO THE PRESIDENT: + +The Secretary of State, to whom was referred a resolution of the +Senate of the 8th instant, requesting "the President of the United +States, if, in his opinion, not incompatible with the public +interests, to furnish to the Senate any information in his possession +concerning recent conversations or communications with certain +rebels, said to have taken place under executive sanction, including +communications with the rebel Jefferson Davis, and any correspondence +relating thereto," has the honor to report that the Senate may +properly be referred to a special message of the President bearing +upon the subject of the resolution, and transmitted to the House this +day. Appended to this report is a copy of an instruction which has +been addressed to Charles Francis Adams, Esq., envoy extraordinary +and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, and +which is the only correspondence found in this department touching +the subject referred to in the resolution. + +Respectfully submitted, +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 10, 1865. + + + + +MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS. +(Extract.) +No. 1258. + +DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, February 7,1865 + +On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the Secretary, +received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on board the United +States steam transport River Queen in Hampton Roads. The conference +was altogether informal. There was no attendance of secretaries, +clerks, or other witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The +conversation, although earnest and free, was calm, and courteous, and +kind on both sides. The Richmond party approached the discussion +rather indirectly, and at no time did they either make categorical +demands, or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals. +Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four hours, the +several points at issue between the Government and the insurgents +were distinctly raised, and discussed fully, intelligently, and in an +amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor +was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war +is waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of the Government, as +well as those of the insurgents, to some extrinsic policy or scheme +for a season during which passions might be expected to subside, and +the armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people +of both sections resumed. It was suggested by them that through such +postponement we might now have immediate peace, with some not very +certain prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political +relations between this Government and the States, section, or people +now engaged in conflict with it. + +This suggestion, though deliberately considered, was nevertheless +regarded by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he +announced that we can agree to no cessation or suspension of +hostilities, except on the basis of the disbandment of the insurgent +forces, and the restoration of the national authority throughout all +the States in the Union. Collaterally, and in subordination to the +proposition which was thus announced, the antislavery policy of the +United States was reviewed in all its bearings, and the President +announced that he must not be expected to depart from the positions +he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation of emancipation and +other documents, as these positions were reiterated in his last +annual message. It was further declared by the President that the +complete restoration of the national authority was an indispensable +condition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might +be proposed. The President assured the other party that, while he +must adhere to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as power +is lodged with the Executive, to exercise liberality. His power, +however, is limited by the Constitution; and when peace should be +made, Congress must necessarily act in regard to appropriations of +money and to the admission of representatives from the +insurrectionary States. The Richmond party were then informed that +Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, adopted by a constitutional +majority a joint resolution submitting to the several States the +proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that there +is every reason to expect that it will be soon accepted by three +fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national organic +law. + +The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without +producing an agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, +or any of them. Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that +we have been able to submit our opinions and views directly to +prominent insurgents, and to hear them in answer in a courteous and +not unfriendly manner. + +I am, sir, your obedient servant, + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD. + + + + +TO ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +February 10, 1865 + +REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER, +Commanding North Atlantic Squadron, Hampton Roads, Va. + +SIR:--It is made my agreeable duty to enclose herewith the joint +resolution approved 24th January, 1865, tendering the thanks of +Congress to yourself, the officers and men under your command for +their gallantry and good conduct in the capture of Fort Fisher, and +through you to all who participated in that brilliant and decisive +victory under your command. + +Very respectfully, + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 12, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +I understand that provost-marshals in different parts of Missouri are +assuming to decide that the conditions of bonds are forfeited, and +therefore are seizing and selling property to pay damages. This, if +true, is both outrageous and ridiculous. Do not allow it. The +courts, and not provost-marshals, are to decide such questions unless +when military necessity makes an exception. Also excuse John Eaton, +of Clay County, and Wesley Martin, of Platte, from being sent South, +and let them go East if anywhere. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO THE COMMANDING OFFICERS IN WEST TENNESSEE + +WASHINGTON, +February 13, 1865. + +TO THE MILITARY OFFICERS COMMANDING IN WEST +TENNESSEE: + +While I cannot order as within requested, allow me to say that it is +my wish for you to relieve the people from all burdens, harassments, +and oppressions, so far as is possible consistently with your +military necessities; that the object of the war being to restore and +maintain the blessings of peace and good government, I desire you to +help, and not hinder, every advance in that direction. + +Of your military necessities you must judge and execute, but please +do so in the spirit and with the purpose above indicated. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 14, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Yours of yesterday about provost-marshal system received. As part of +the same subject, let me say I am now pressed in regard to a pending +assessment in St. Louis County. Please examine and satisfy yourself +whether this assessment should proceed or be abandoned; and if you +decide that it is to proceed, please examine as to the propriety of +its application to a gentleman by the name of Charles McLaran. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON February 15, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please ascertain whether General Fisk's administration is as good as +it might be, and answer me. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONVENING THE SENATE IN EXTRA SESSION, + +FEBRUARY 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation + +Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the +Senate should be convened at twelve o'clock on the fourth of March +next to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it +on the part of the Executive; + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +have considered it to be my duty to issue this, my proclamation, +declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the +United States to convene for the transaction of business at the +Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the fourth day of March next, +at twelve o'clock at noon on that day, of which all who shall at that +time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required +to take notice. + +Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at +Washington............... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1865 + +OFFICER IN COMMAND AT HARPER'S FERRY: + +Chaplain Fitzgibbon yesterday sent me a despatch invoking Clemency +for Jackson, Stewart, and Randall, who are to be shot to-day. The +despatch is so vague that there is no means here of ascertaining +whether or not the execution of sentence of one or more of them may +not already have been ordered. If not suspend execution of sentence +m their cases until further orders and forward records of trials for +examination. + +A. LINCOLN + +MAJOR ECKERT: +Please send above telegram +JNO. G. NICOLAY. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +I am in a little perplexity. I was induced to authorize a gentleman +to bring Roger A. Pryor here with a view of effecting an exchange of +him; but since then I have seen a despatch of yours showing that you +specially object to his exchange. Meantime he has reached here and +reported to me. It is an ungracious thing for me to send him back to +prison, and yet inadmissible for him to remain here long. Cannot +you help me out with it? I can conceive that there may be difference +to you in days, and I can keep him a few days to accommodate on that +point. I have not heard of my son's reaching you. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 24, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Please inquire and report to me whether there is any propriety of +longer keeping in Gratiott Street Prison a man said to be there by +the name of Riley Whiting. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, February 25, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +General Sheridan's despatch to you, of to-day, in which he says he +"will be off on Monday," and that he "will leave behind about two +thousand men," causes the Secretary of War and myself considerable +anxiety. Have you well considered whether you do not again leave +open the Shenandoah Valley entrance to Maryland and Pennsylvania, or, +at least, to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Virginia: + +Subsequent reflection, conference with General Halleck, your +despatch, and one from General Sheridan, have relieved my anxiety; +and so I beg that you will dismiss any concern you may have on my +account, in the matter of my last despatch. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO T. W. CONWAY. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 1, 1865. + +MR. THOMAS W. CONWAY, +General Superintendent Freedmen, +Department of the Gulf. + +SIR:--Your statement to Major-General Hurlbut of the condition of the +freedmen of your department, and of your success in the work of their +moral and physical elevation, has reached me and given me much +pleasure. + +That we shall be entirely successful in our efforts I firmly believe. + +The blessing of God and the efforts of good and faithful men will +bring us an earlier and happier consummation than the most sanguine +friends of the freedmen could reasonably expect. + +Yours, + +A. LINCOLN, + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: + +You have not sent contents of Richmond papers for Tuesday or +Wednesday. Did you not receive them? If not, does it indicate +anything? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY STANTON +TO GENERAL GRANT. +WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865. 12 PM. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no +conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of +General Lee's army, or on some minor and purely military matter. He +instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer +upon any political question. Such questions the President holds in +his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or +conventions. Meantime you are to press to the utmost your military +advantages. + +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. + + +SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, + +MARCH 4, 1865. + + +FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN :--At this second appearing to take the oath of the +presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address +than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of +a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the +expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been +constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest +which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the +nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our +arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the +public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and +encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in +regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts +were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, +all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being +delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union +without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it +without war seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by +negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make +war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept +war rather than let it perish, and the war came. + +One eighth of the whole population was colored slaves, not +distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern +part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful +interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the +war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the +object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, +while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the +territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war +the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither +anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even +before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier +triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against +the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a +just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other +men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The +prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been +answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the +world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, +but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose +that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the +providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued +through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives +to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by +whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from +those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always +ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this +mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that +it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred +and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every +drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with +the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be +said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." + +With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him +who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to +do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among +ourselves and with all nations. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL JOHN POPE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1865 + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Please state briefly, by telegraph, what you concluded about the +assessments in St. Louis County. Early in the war one Samuel B. +Churchill was sent from St. Louis to Louisville, where I have quite +satisfactory evidence that he has not misbehaved. Still I am told +his property at St. Louis is subjected to the assessment, which I +think it ought not to be. Still I wish to know what you think. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 8, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va: + +Your two despatches to the Secretary of War, one relating to supplies +for the enemy going by the Blackwater, and the other to General +Singleton and Judge Hughes, have been laid before me by him. As to +Singleton and Hughes, I think they are not in Richmond by any +authority, unless it be from you. I remember nothing from me which +could aid them in getting there, except a letter to you, as follows, +to wit: + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON CITY, February 7, 1865. +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.: +General Singleton, who bears you this, claims that he already has +arrangements made, if you consent, to bring a large amount of +Southern produce through your lines. For its bearing on our +finances, I would be glad for this to be done, if it can be, without +injuriously disturbing your military operations, or supplying the +enemy. I wish you to be judge and master on these points. Please +see and hear him fully, and decide whether anything, and, if +anything, what, can be done in the premises. +Yours truly, +A. LINCOLN. + +I believe I gave Hughes a card putting him with Singleton on the same +letter. However this may be, I now authorize you to get Singleton +and Hughes away from Richmond, if you choose, and can. I also +authorize you, by an order, or in what form you choose, to suspend +all operations on the Treasury trade permits, in all places +southeastward of the Alleghenies. If you make such order, notify me +of it, giving a copy, so that I can give corresponding direction to +the Navy. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OFFERING PARDON TO DESERTERS, + +MARCH 11, 1865 + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES +OF AMERICA + +A Proclamation + +Whereas, the twenty-first section of the act of Congress, approved on +the 3d instant, entitled "An Act to amend the several acts heretofore +passed to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national +forces and for other purposes," requires that in addition to the +other lawful penalties of the crime of desertion from the military or +naval service, all persons who have deserted the military or naval +service of the United States who shall not return to said service or +report themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the +proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall be deemed and taken to have +voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their citizenship and their +right to become citizens, and such deserters shall be forever +incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the United +States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all +persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and +all persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction +of the district in which they are enrolled, or go beyond the limits +of the United States with intent to avoid any draft into the military +or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of +this section; and the President is hereby authorized and required +forthwith, on the passage of this act, to issue his proclamation +setting forth the provisions of this section, in which proclamation +the President is requested to notify all deserters returning within +sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be pardoned on condition of +returning to their regiments and companies, or to such other +organizations as they may be assigned to, until they shall have +served for a period of time equal to their original term of +enlistment: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do issue this my proclamation as required by said act, +ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; +and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall within sixty +days from the date of this proclamation, viz., on or before the 10th +day of May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a +provost-marshal, shall be pardoned on condition that they return to +their regiments or companies or to such other organization as they +may be assigned to, and serve the remainder of their original terms +of enlistment, and in addition thereto a period equal to the time +lost by desertion. + +In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed............... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State + + + + +TELEGRAM TO H. T. BLOW. + +WASHINGTON, March 13, 1865. + +HON. HENRY T. BLOW, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +A Miss E. Snodgrass, who was banished from Saint Louis in May,1863, +wishes to take the oath and return home. What say you? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LETTER TO THURLOW WEED, + +MARCH 15, 1865. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C. + +DEAR Mr. WEED: + +Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little +notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect +the latter to wear as well as perhaps better than--anything I have +produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not +flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose +between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is +to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which +I thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is +in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford +for me to tell it. + +Truly yours, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO COLONEL ROUGH AND OTHERS. + +WAR DEPARTMENT, +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 17, 1865. + +COL. R. M. ROUGH AND OTHERS, Chicago, Ill.: + +Yours received. The best I can do with it is, to refer it to the War +Department. The Rock Island case referred to, was my individual +enterprise; and it caused so much difficulty in so many ways that I +promised to never undertake another. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ADDRESS TO AN INDIANA REGIMENT, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It will be but a very few words that I shall +undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and +lived in Illinois; and now I am here, where it is my business to care +equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an +Indiana regiment on this day able to present the captured flag to the +Governor of Indiana. I am not disposed, in saying this, to make a +distinction between the States, for all have done equally well. + +There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I +have not said or written something whereby my own opinions might be +known. But there is one--the recent attempt of our erring brethren, +as they are sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. +I have neither written nor made a speech on that subject, because +that was their business, not mine, and if I had a wish on the +subject, I had not the power to introduce it, or make it effective. +The great question with them was whether the negro, being put into +the army, will fight for them. I do not know, and therefore cannot +decide. They ought to know better than me. I have in my lifetime +heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be slaves; but if they +fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it will be a better +argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for that, +ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at last, to take one out +of four of the slaves and put them in the army, and that one out of +the four who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a +slave himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often +said that all men ought to be free, yet would I allow those colored +persons to be slaves who want to be, and next to them those white +people who argue in favor of making other people slaves. I am in +favor of giving an appointment to such white men to try it on for +these slaves. I will say one thing in regard to the negroes being +employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay at +home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as the +other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of +having them try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that, +and I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast +it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. But they cannot fight +and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. +They will stand out as long as they can, and if the negro will fight +for them they must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their +last branch of resources, and we can now see the bottom. I am glad +to see the end so near at hand. I have said now more than I +intended, and will therefore bid you good-by. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CONCERNING INDIANS, + +MARCH 17, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas reliable information has been received that hostile Indians, +within the limits of the United States, have been furnished with arms +and munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign +territory, and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare +upon the exposed and sparse settlements of the frontier; + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all +persons detected in that nefarious traffic shall be arrested and +tried by court-martial at the nearest military post, and if +convicted, shall receive the punishment due to their deserts. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, arid caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed................... + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +ORDER ANNULLING THE SENTENCE AGAINST +BENJAMIN G. SMITH AND FRANKLIN W. SMITH, + +MARCH 18, 1865. + + +I am unwilling for the sentence to stand, and be executed, to any +extent in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than +the evidence discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the +existence of criminal or fraudulent intent on the part of men of such +well established good character. If the evidence went as far to +establish a guilty profit of one or two hundred thousand dollars, as +it does of one or two hundred dollars, the case would, on the +question of guilt, bear a far different aspect. That on this +contract, involving some twelve hundred thousand dollars, the +contractors would plan, and attempt to execute a fraud which, at the +most, could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand +dollars, is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That +they did not, in such a case, make far greater gains, proves that +they did not, with guilty or fraudulent intent, make at all. The +judgment and sentence are disapproved, and declared null, and the +defendants are fully discharged. + +A. LINCOLN +March 18, 1865. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, March 19, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri: + +Understanding that the plan of action for Missouri contained in your +letter to the Governor of that State, and your other letter to me, is +concurred in by the Governor, it is approved by me, and you will be +sustained in proceeding upon it. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, May [March] 20, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Army of the James + +Is it true that George W. Lane is detained at Norfolk without any +charge against him? And if so why is it done? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO JUDGE SCATES. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, + +WASHINGTON, March 21, 1865. + +HON. WALTER B. SCATES, Centralia, Illinois: + +If you choose to go to New Mexico and reside, I will appoint you +chief justice there. What say you? Please answer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., March 22, 1865. +MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK, Winchester, Va.: + +Seeing your despatch about General Crook, and fearing that through +misapprehension something unpleasant may occur, I send you below two +despatches of General Grant, which I suppose will fully explain +General Crook's movements. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +ANOTHER FEMALE SPY + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 23, 1865. + +GENERAL DODGE, +Commanding, &c, Saint Louis, Mo.: + +Allow Mrs. R. S. Ewell the benefit of my amnesty proclamation on her +taking the oath. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 25, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C.: + +Arrived here all safe about 9 P.M. yesterday. No war news. General +Grant does not seem to know very much about Yeatman, but thinks very +well of him so far as he does know. + +I like Mr. Whiting very much, and hence would wish him to remain or +resign as best suits himself. Hearing this much from me, do as you +think best in the matter. General Lee has sent the Russell letter +back, concluding, as I understand from Grant, that their dignity does +not admit of their receiving the document from us. Robert just now +tells me there was a little rumpus up the line this morning, ending +about where it began. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +(Cipher.) +HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, +March 25, 1865. (Received 5 P.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +I am here within five miles of the scene of this morning's action. I +have nothing to add to what General Meade reports except that I have +seen the prisoners myself and they look like there might be the +number he states--1600. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., March 26, 1865. (Received 11.30 A.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I approve your Fort Sumter programme. Grant don't seem to know +Yeatman very well, but thinks very well of him so far as he knows. +Thinks it probable that Y. is here now, for the place. I told you +this yesterday as well as that you should do as you think best about +Mr. Whiting's resignation, but I suppose you did not receive the +dispatch. I am on the boat and have no later war news than went to +you last night. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 27, 1865.3.35 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +Yours inclosing Fort Sumter order received. I think of but one +suggestion. I feel quite confident that Sumter fell on the 13th, and +not on the 14th of April, as you have it. It fell on Saturday, the +13th; the first call for troops on our part was got up on Sunday, the +14th, and given date and issued on Monday, the 15th. Look up the old +almanac and other data, and see if I am not right. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 28, 1865. 12 M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: +After your explanation, I think it is little or no difference whether +the Fort Sumter ceremony takes place on the 13th or 14th. + +General Sherman tells me he is well acquainted with James Yeatman, +and that he thinks him almost the best man in the country for +anything he will undertake. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., March 30, 1865. 7.30 P.M. +(Received 8.30 P.M.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +I begin to feel that I ought to be at home and yet I dislike to leave +without seeing nearer to the end of General Grant's present movement. +He has now been out since yesterday morning and although he has not +been diverted from his programme no considerable effort has yet been +produced so far as we know here. Last night at 10.15 P. M. when it +was dark as a rainy night without a moon could be, a furious +cannonade soon joined in by a heavy musketry fire opened near +Petersburg and lasted about two hours. The sound was very distinct +here as also were the flashes of the guns up the clouds. It seemed +to me a great battle, but the older hands here scarcely noticed it +and sure enough this morning it was found that very little had been +done. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 31, 1865. 3 P.M. + +SECRETARY STANTON: + +At 12.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphed me as follows: +"There has been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our +left from near Dabney's house back well toward the Boydton plank +road. We are now about to take the offensive at that point, and I +hope will more than recover the lost ground." + +Later he telegraphed again as follows: +"Our troops, after being driven back to the Boydton plank road, +turned and drove the enemy in turn, and took the White Oak road, +which we now have. This gives us the ground occupied by the enemy +this morning. I will send you a rebel flag captured by our troops in +driving the enemy back. There have been four flags captured to-day." + +Judging by the two points from which General Grant telegraphs, I +infer that he moved his headquarters about one mile since he sent the +first of the two despatches. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours to Colonel Bowers about the Secretary of War is shown to me. +He is not here, nor have I any notice that he is coming. I presume +the mistake comes of the fact that the Secretary of State was here. +He started back to Washington this morning. I have your two +despatches of this morning, and am anxious to hear from Sheridan. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. 12.50 P.M. + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: + +I have had two despatches from General Grant since my last to you, +but they contain little additional, except that Sheridan also had +pretty hot work yesterday, that infantry was sent to his support +during the night, and that he (Grant) has not since heard from +Sheridan. + +Mrs. Lincoln has started home, and I will thank you to see that our +coachman is at the Arsenal wharf at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, +there to wait until she arrives. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +CITY POINT, VA., April, 1865. 5.30 ?.M. + +HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe: + +Despatch just received, showing that Sheridan, aided by Warren, had, +at 2 P.M., pushed the enemy back, so as to retake the Five Forks and +bring his own headquarters up to J. Boisseau's. The Five Forks were +barricaded by the enemy and carried by Devin's division of cavalry. +This part of the enemy seem to now be trying to work along the White +Oak road, to join the main force in front of Grant, while Sheridan +and Warren are pressing them as closely as possible. +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Yours showing Sheridan's success of to-day is just received and +highly appreciated. Having no great deal to do here, I am still +sending the substance of your despatches to the Secretary of War. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +CITY POINT, VA., April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. (Received 9 A.M.) + +MRS. A. LINCOLN, Executive Mansion: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps had captured three brigades of infantry, +a train of wagons, and several batteries, prisoners amounting to +several thousand. This morning General Grant having ordered an +attack along the whole line telegraphs as follows. + +Robert yesterday wrote a little cheerful note to Captain Penrose, +which is all he has heard of him since you left. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAMS TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2, 1865. 8.30 A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Last night General Grant telegraphed that General Sheridan, with his +cavalry and the Fifth Corps, had captured three brigades of infantry, +a train of wagons, and several batteries; the prisoners amounting to +several thousand. + +This morning General Grant, having ordered an attack along the whole +line, telegraphs as follows: + +"Both Wright and Parke got through the enemy's lines. The battle now +rages furiously. General Sheridan, with his cavalry, the Fifth +corps, and Miles's Division of the Second Corps, which was sent to +him this morning, is now sweeping down from the west. + +"All now looks highly favorable. General Ord is engaged, but I have +not yet heard the result in his front." + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, April 1. 11.00 A.M. + +Despatches are frequently coming in. All is going on finely. +Generals Parke, Wright, and Ord's lines are extending from the +Appomattox to Hatcher's Run. They have all broken through the +enemy's intrenched lines, taking some forts, guns, and prisoners. +Sheridan, with his own cavalry, the Fifth Corps, and part of the +Second, is coming in from the west on the enemy's flank. Wright is +already tearing up the Southside Railroad. + +A. LINCOLN + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 2 P.M. + +At 10.45 A.M. General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"Everything has been carried from the left of the Ninth Corps. The +Sixth Corps alone captured more than three thousand prisoners. The +Second and Twenty-fourth Corps captured forts, guns, and prisoners +from the enemy, but I cannot tell the numbers. We are now closing +around the works of the line immediately enveloping Petersburg. All +looks remarkably well. I have not yet heard from Sheridan. His +headquarters have been moved up to Banks's house, near the Boydton +road, about three miles southwest of Petersburg." + +A. LINCOLN. + + +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 2. 8.30 P.M. + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs as follows: + +"We are now up and have a continuous line of troops, and in a few +hours will be intrenched from the Appomattox below Petersburg to the +river above. The whole captures since the army started out will not +amount to less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of +artillery. I do not know the number of men and guns accurately, +however. A portion of Foster's Division, Twenty Fourth Corps, made a +most gallant charge this afternoon, and captured a very important +fort from the enemy, with its entire garrison. All seems well with +us, and everything is quiet just now." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. +CITY POINT, VA., April 1, 1865. + +MRS. LINCOLN: + +At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs that he has Petersburg +completely enveloped from river below to river above, and has +captured, since he started last Wednesday, about twelve thousand +prisoners and fifty guns. He suggests that I shall go out and see +him in the morning, which I think I will do. Tad and I are both +well, and will be glad to see you and your party here at the time you +name. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +CITY POINT, April 2, 1865 + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Allow me to tender to you and all with you the nation's grateful +thanks for this additional and magnificent success. At your kind +suggestion I think I will meet you to-morrow. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 3, 1865.8.30 A.M. + +HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +This morning Lieutenant-General Grant reports Petersburg evacuated, +and he is confident that Richmond also is. He is pushing forward to +cut off, if possible, the retreating rebel army. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 3, 1865. 5 P.M. + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to +Petersburg. Staid with General Grant an hour and a half and returned +here. It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I +will go there to-morrow. I will take care of myself. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 4, 1865 +(Received 8.45 A.M.) + +HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: + +General Weitzel telegraphs from Richmond that of railroad stock he +found there twenty-eight locomotives, forty-four passenger and +baggage cars, and one hundred and six freight cars. At 3.30 this +evening General Grant, from Sutherland's Station, ten miles from +Petersburg toward Burkevllle, telegraphs as follows: + +"General Sheridan picked up twelve hundred prisoners to-day, and from +three hundred to five hundred more have been gathered by other +troops. The majority of the arms that were left in the hands of the +remnant of Lee's army are now scattered between Richmond and where +his troops are. The country is also full of stragglers; the line of +retreat marked with artillery, ammunition, burned or charred wagons, +caissons, ambulances, etc." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. +CITY POINT, APRIL 5, 1865. +(Received 11.55 PM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF STATE: + +Yours of to-day received. I think there is no probability of my +remaining here more than two days longer. If that is too long come +down. I passed last night at Richmond and have just returned. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, +CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, in the Field: + +Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yesterday and seriously +injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. +I was at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge +Campbell, who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February, +called on me, and made such representations as induced me to put in +his hands an informal paper, repeating the propositions in my letter +of instructions to Mr. Seward, which you remember, and adding that if +the war be now further persisted in by the rebels, confiscated +property shall at the least bear the additional cost, and that +confiscation shall be remitted to the people of any State which will +now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops and other support +from resistance to the Government. + +Judge Campbell thought it not impossible that the rebel legislature +of Virginia would do the latter if permitted; and accordingly I +addressed a private letter to General Weitzel, with permission to +Judge Campbell to see it, telling him (General Weitzel) that if they +attempt this, to permit and protect them, unless they attempt +something hostile to the United States, in which case to give them +notice and time to leave, and to arrest any remaining after such +time. + +I do not think it very probable that anything win come of this, but I +have thought best to notify you so that if you should see signs you +may understand them. + +From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually +withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the Government. +Nothing that I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, +or interfere with your work. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES +CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the +legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion may now desire to +assemble at Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia +troops and other support from resistance to the General Government. +If they attempt it, give them permission and protection, until, if at +all, they attempt some action hostile to the United States, in which +case you will notify them, give them reasonable time to leave, and at +the end of which time arrest any who remain. Allow Judge Campbell to +see this, but do not make it public. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON. +CITY POINT, VA., April 7, 1865 +(Received 10.30 AM.) + +HON. SECRETARY OF WAR: + +At 11.15 P.M. yesterday at Burkesville Station, General Grant sends +me the following from General Sheridan: + +"April 6, 11.15 P.M. +"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: +I have the honor to report that the enemy made a stand at the +intersection of the Burks Station road with the road upon which they +were retreating. I attacked them with two divisions of the Sixth +Army Corps and routed them handsomely, making a connection with the +cavalry. I am still pressing on with both cavalry and infantry. Up +to the present time we have captured Generals Ewell, Kershaw, Button, +Corse, DeBare, and Custis Lee, several thousand prisoners, fourteen +pieces of artillery with caissons and a large number of wagons. If +the thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender. +"P. H. SHERIDAN, +"Major-General, Commanding." + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. +HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, + +CITY POINT, April 7, 11 A.M., 1865. + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT: + +Gen. Sheridan says: + +"If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender." + +Let the thing be pressed. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +NOTE ON A CARD TO SECRETARY STANTON. + +April 10, 1865. + +Tad wants some flags--can he be accommodated? + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO A CALL, + +APRIL 10, 1865 + +If the company had assembled by appointment, some mistake had crept +in their understanding. He had appeared before a larger audience +than this one to-day, and he would repeat what he then said, namely, +he supposed owing to the great, good news, there would be some +demonstration. He would prefer to-morrow evening, when he should be +quite willing, and he hoped ready, to say something. He desired to +be particular, because every thing he said got into print. Occupying +the position he did, a mistake would produce harm, and therefore he +wanted to be careful not to make a mistake. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. GORDON. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, +WASHINGTON, April 11, 1865. + +BRIG. GEN. G. H. GORDON, Norfolk, Va.: + +Send to me at once a full statement as to the cause or causes for +which, and by authority of what tribunal George W. Lane, Charles +Whitlock, Ezra Baler, J. M. Renshaw, and others are restrained of +their liberty. Do this promptly and fully. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLOSING CERTAIN PORTS, +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamations of the 19th and 27th days of April, A.D. +1861, the ports of the United States in the States of Virginia, North +Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, +Louisiana, and Texas were declared to be subject to blockade; but + +Whereas the said blockade has, in consequence of actual military +occupation by this Government, since been conditionally set aside or +relaxed in respect to the ports of Norfolk and Alexandria, in the +State of Virginia; Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina; Port +Royal, in the State of South Carolina; Pensacola and Fernandina, in +the State of Florida; and New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana; and + +Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress approved on the +13th of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the +collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes," the +President, for the reasons therein set forth, is authorized to close +certain ports of entry: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of the +United States, do hereby proclaim that the ports of Richmond, +Tappahannock, Cherrystone, Yorktown, and Petersburg, in Virginia; of +Camden (Elizabeth City), Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Newbern, +Ocracoke, and Wilmington in North Carolina; of Charleston, +Georgetown, and Beaufort, in South Carolina; of Savannah, St. Marys, +and Brunswick (Darien), in Georgia; of Mobile, in Alabama; of Pearl +River (Shieldsboro), Natchez and Vicksburg, in Mississippi; of St. +Augustine, Key West, St. Marks (Port Leon), St. Johns (Jacksonville), +and Apalachicola, in Florida; of Teche (Franklin), in Louisiana; of +Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago (Point Isabel), and +Brownsville, in Texas, are hereby closed, and all right of +importation, warehousing, and other privileges shall, in respect to +the ports aforesaid, cease until they shall have again been opened by +order of the President; and if while said parts are so closed any +ship or vessel from beyond the United States or having on board any +articles subject to duties shall attempt to enter any such port, the +same, together with its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, shall +be forfeited to the United States. + +In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D., +1865, and of the independence of the United States of America, the +eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF KEY WEST, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas by my proclamation of this date the port of Key West, in the +State of Florida, was inadvertently included among those which are +not open to commerce: + +Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the +United States, do hereby declare and make known that the said port of +Key West is and shall remain open to foreign and domestic commerce +upon the same conditions by which that commerce has there hitherto +been governed. + +In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of April, A.D. +1865, and of the independence of the United States of America the +eighty-ninth. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +PROCLAMATION CLAIMING EQUALITY OF RIGHTS +WITH ALL MARITIME NATIONS, + +APRIL 11, 1865. + +BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: + +A Proclamation. + +Whereas for some time past vessels of war of the United States have +been refused in certain foreign ports, privileges and immunities to +which they were entitled by treaty, public law, or the community of +nations, at the same time that vessels of war of the country wherein +the said privileges and immunities have been withheld have enjoyed +them fully and uninterruptedly in ports of the United States, which +condition of things has not always been forcibly resisted by the +United States, although, on the other hand, they have not at any time +failed to protest against and declare their dissatisfaction with the +same. In the view of the United States, no condition any longer +exists which can be claimed to justify the denial to them by any one +of such nations of customary naval rights as has heretofore been so +unnecessarily persisted in....... + +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +do hereby make known that if, after a reasonable time shall have +elapsed for intelligence of this proclamation to have reached any +foreign country in whose ports the said privileges and immunities +shall have been refused as aforesaid, they shall continue to be so +refused, then and thenceforth the same privileges and immunities +shall be refused to the vessels of war of that country in the ports +of the United States, and this refusal shall continue until war +vessels of the United States shall have been placed upon an entire +equality in the foreign ports aforesaid with similar vessels of other +countries. The United States, whatever claim or pretense may have +existed heretofore, are now, at least, entitled to claim and concede +an entire and friendly equality of rights and hospitalities with all +maritime nations. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.................. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS, + +APRIL 11, 1865 + +FELLOW-CITIZENS--We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness +of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the +surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous +and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In +the midst of this, however, He from whom blessings flow must not be +forgotten. + +A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be +duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the +cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled +out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the pleasure +of transmitting much of the good news to you. But no part of the +honor for plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful +officers, and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, +but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes, +the reinauguration of the national authority--reconstruction which +has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more +closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. +Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no +authorized organ for us to treat with--no one man has authority to +give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with +and mould from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a +small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ +among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of +reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the +reports of attacks upon myself, Wishing not to be provoked by that to +which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this +precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured +for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new +State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much and +no more than the public knows. In the Annual Message of December, +1863, and the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of +reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by +any State, would be acceptable to and sustained by the Executive +Government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the +only plan that might possibly be acceptable, and I also distinctly +protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when or whether +members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. +This plan was in advance submitted to the then Cabinet, and approved +by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then and +in that connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the +theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should +drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I +should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the +admission of members of Congress. But even he approved every part +and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by +the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, +declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the +proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt +apprenticeship for freed people, and is silent, as it could not well +be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, +as it applied to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully +approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I received many +commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not a single +objection to it from any professed emancipationist came to my +knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of +Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, +1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be +interested in seeking a reconstruction of a State government for +Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, +reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident +that the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct +substantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try +it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such has been my only +agency in getting up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it +my promise is out, as before stated. But, as bad promises are better +broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise and break it, +whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the +public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I have been +shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which +the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be +definitely fixed upon the question whether the seceded States, so +called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add +astonishment to his regret were he to learn that since I have found +professed Union men endeavoring to answer that question, I have +purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me, +that question has not been nor yet is a practically material one, and +that any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically +immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of +dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may become, that question +is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all--a +merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, +so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, +and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in +regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper +practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in +fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether +those States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding +themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether +they had been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to +restore the proper practical relations between these States and the +Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion +whether, in doing the acts he brought the States from without into +the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having +been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which +the Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if +it contained fifty thousand, or thirty thousand, or even twenty +thousand, instead of twelve thousand, as it does. It is also +unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to +the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on +the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. +Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it +stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be +wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and +disperse? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation +with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State +government? Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore Slave State +of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the +rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a +State government, adopted a Free State constitution, giving the +benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering +the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored +man. This Legislature has already voted to ratify the Constitutional +Amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout +the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed +to the Union and to perpetuate freedom in the State--committed to the +very things, and nearly all things, the nation wants--and they ask +the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good this +committal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to +disorganize and disperse them. We, in fact, say to the white man: +You are worthless or worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by +you. To the blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these, your +old masters, held to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you +to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in +some vague and undefined when, where, and how. If this course, +discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to +bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I +have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we +recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse +of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms +of twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and +proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and +ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all +united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring to +the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he +not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, +than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government +of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, +we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing +it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor +of the proposed amendment to the National Constitution. To meet +this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three fourths +of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to +validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this, +further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, +and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three +fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. +I repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical +relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new +State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply to +other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, +and such important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and +withal so new and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive +and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and +collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become +a new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. +In the present situation as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to +make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am +considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action +will be proper. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1865. +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have seen your despatch to Colonel Hardie about the matter of +prayers. I do not remember hearing prayers spoken of while I was in +Richmond; but I have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you +to be the spirit and temper manifested by me while there. Is there +any sign of the rebel legislature coming together on the +understanding of my letter to you? If there is any such sign, inform +me what it is; if there is no such sign, you may withdraw the offer. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. +WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 1865. + +MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: + +I have just seen Judge Campbell's letter to you of the 7th. He +assumes, as appears to me, that I have called the insurgent +legislature of Virginia together, as the rightful legislature of the +State, to settle all differences with the United States. I have done +no such thing. I spoke of them, not as a legislature, but as "the +gentlemen who have acted as the legislature of Virginia in support of +the rebellion." I did this on purpose to exclude the assumption that +I was recognizing them as a rightful body. I deal with them as men +having power de facto to do a specific thing, to wit: "To withdraw +the Virginia troops and other support from resistance to the General +Government," for which, in the paper handed Judge Campbell, I +promised a specific equivalent, to wit: a remission to the people of +the State, except in certain cases, of the confiscation of their +property. I meant this, and no more. Inasmuch, however, as Judge +Campbell misconstrues this, and is still pressing for an armistice, +contrary to the explicit statement of the paper I gave him, and +particularly as General Grant has since captured the Virginia troops, +so that giving a consideration for their withdrawal is no longer +applicable, let my letter to you and the paper to Judge Campbell both +be withdrawn, or countermanded, and he be notified of it. Do not now +allow them to assemble, but if any have come, allow them safe return +to their homes. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +INTERVIEW WITH SCHUYLER COLFAX ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 14, 1865. + +Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from me to the miners whom +you visit. I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our +nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over +the Western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its +development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were +adding a couple of millions of dollars every day to our national +debt, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of +our precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now that +the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of +our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, we make the +payment of that debt so much the easier. "Now," said he, speaking +with more emphasis, "I am going to encourage that in every possible +way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and +many have feared that their return home in such great numbers might +paralyze industry, by furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply of labor +than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them to +the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough +for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land +upon our shores hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded +Europe. I intend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for +them in the West. Tell the miners for me, that I shall promote their +interests to the utmost of my ability; because their prosperity is +the prosperity of the nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with +enthusiasm, "we shall prove, in a very few years, that we are indeed +the treasury of the world." + + + + +TO GENERAL VAN ALLEN. + +EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, +April 14, 1865 + +GENERAL VAN ALLEN: + +I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precaution.... +I thank you for the assurance you give me that I shall be +supported by conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may +make to restore the Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a +Union of hearts and hands as well as of States. + +Yours truly, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS + +Allow Mr. Ashmer and friend to come in at 9 A.M. to-morrow. + +A. LINCOLN. +April 14, 1865 + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Lincoln, v7 +by Abraham Lincoln + diff --git a/old/7linc11.zip b/old/7linc11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae8ed31 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7linc11.zip |