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 mihtary prison in your command, the
editors, proprietors, and pubhshers of the afore-
said 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 J
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
prevent
any
further
publication therefrom.
A. Lincoln,
President of the United States.
By the President:
William H. Seward, Secretary of
State.
GOVERNORS
OF
MAINE,
NEW
HAMPSHIRE,
VER-
MONT, CONNECTICUT, NEW YORK, NEW JER-
SEY,
PENNSYLVANIA,
MARYLAND,
VIRGINIA,
MICHIGAN, TENNESSEE,
MISSOURI, INDIANA,
OHIO,
MINNESOTA,
ILLINOIS,
WISCONSIN,
AND
THE
PRESIDENT
OF
THE
MILITARY
BOARD OF KENTUCKY.
On June
the above
State
executives,
inspired by
the
President,
asked
the
President
to
"call
upon
the
several
States
for
such number
of men
as may
be
re-
quired
to
fill up
all
military
organizations now
in
the
field, and add to the armies heretofore organized
such
additional number of men as may, in [his] judgment, be
necessary
to garrison and hold
all
the numerous
cities
and
military
positions
that have
been captured by our
armies,
and
to
speedily
crush
the
rebellion
that
still
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
141
exists
in
several
of
our
Southern
States,
thus
prac-
tically
restoring
to
the
civilized
world
our
great and
good
government."
In
reply
the
President
wrote
as
follows
:
Executive Mansion, July
i,
1862.
Gentlemen
:
Fully
concurring
in
the wisdom
of
the views expressed
to me
in
so patriotic a
manner
by
you,
in
the
communication
of
the
twenty-eighth
day
of
June,
I
have
decided
to
call
into the service an additional force of 300,-
000 men.
I
suggest
and recommend
that
the
troops should be chiefly of infantry.
The quota
of your
State would be
.
I trust that they
may be
enrolled
without
delay,
so
as
to bring
this
unnecessary
and
injurious
civil war
to
a
speedy
and
satisfactory
conclusion.
An
order
fixing
the
quotas
of
the
respective
States
will
be issued by the War Department to-morrow.
Abraham Lincoln.
[Circular Letter.
Private and Confidential.']
War Department, July 3, 1862.
10.30 a. m.
Governor Washburn, Maine
[and other govern-
ors].
I
should
not want
the
half
of
300,000 new
troops if I could have them now.
If
I had 50,000
additional
troops
here
now,
I
believe
I
could
substantially
close the war
in two weeks.
But
time
is everything, and
if
I get 50,000 new men
in
a month,
I
shall have
lost
20,000
old
ones
during the same month, having gained only 30,-
000,
with
the
difference between
old and new
troops
still
against me. The
quicker you
send,
the fewer you will have to send.
Time
is every-
thing.
Please
act
in view of
this.
The enemy
142
i^niinr^C)
/ii\u
i ni^rL^ji'i/iivio
having given up Corinth,
it
is not wonderful that
he
is thereby enabled
to check us
for a time at
Richmond.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Andrew H. Foote.
[Message
to
Congress.^
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I
most
cordially recommend
that
Captain An-
drew H.
Foote, of the United
States Navy,
re-
ceive a vote of thanks of Congress
for his emi-
nent
services
in
organizing
the
flotilla
on
the
western
waters,
and
for
his
gallantry
at
Fort
Henry, Fort Donelson, Island Number Ten, and
at
various
other
places,
whilst
in command
of
the
naval
forces, embracing
a period
of nearly
ten months.
Abraham Lincoln.
Washington, D. C, July
i,
1862.
Naval Officers.
[Message
to
Congress.']
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I
recommend
that
the
thanks
of
Congress
be
given
to
the
following
officers
of
the
United
States Navy:
Captain John L. Lardner, for meritorious con-
duct
at
the
battle
of
Port
Royal,
and
distin-
guished
services
on
the
coast
of
the
United
States against the enemy.
Captain
Charles
Henry
Davis,
for
distin-
guished
services
in
conflict
with
the enemy
at
Fort
Pillow,
at
Memphis,
and
for
successful
operations
at
other
points
in the waters of the
Mississippi
River.
Commander
John
A.
Dahlgren,
for
distin-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
143
guished
services
in
the
line
of
his
profession,
improvements
in
ordnance,
and
zealous
and
efficient
labors
in
the
ordnance
branch
of
the
service.
Commander
Stephen
C.
Rowan,
for
distin-
guished
services
in the waters
of North Caro-
lina, and particularly in the capture of Newbern,
being in chief command of the naval forces.
Commander
David
D.
Porter,
for
distin-
guished
services
in the conception and prepara-
tion
of the means used
for
the
capture
of the
forts below New Orleans, and
for highly meri-
torious conduct
in the management of the mor-
tar
flotilla
during
the
bombardment
of
Forts
Jackson and
St.
Philip.
Captain
Silas H.
Stringham, now on the
re-
tired
list,
for
distinguished
services
in the cap-
ture of Forts Hatteras and Clark.
Abraham
Lincoln.
Washington, D. C, July
11,
1862.
J. T. Boyle.
On July
13,
1862,
the
President
telegraphed General
J. T. Boyle at Louisville,
Ky.,
that "we cannot venture
to
order
troops
from
General
Buell ... he may
be
attacked
himself," and
that
he
should
call
on General
Halleck, "who commands, and whose business
it
is
to
understand and care for the whole
field."
On
September
12,
1862,
the
President
again
tele-
graphed General Boyle
in reply to further importunity
:
"For us
to control him
[General Halleck]
there on the
ground would be
a babel
of confusion which would be
utterly ruinous.
Where do you understand Buell
to be,
and what
is he
doing?
A.
Lincoln.
On
February
i,
1863,
President
Lincoln
wrote
to
General
Boyle
enclosing
his
endorsement
of
Senator
Powell's request that moneys collected from
citizens
in
144
LtTTEKS AND TELEGRAMS
certain Kentucky
counties be refunded
them.
Of
this
collection
the
President
says:
"This
course
of
pro-
cedure, though just and politic in some cases,
is so liable
to gross abuse as
to do great
injustice
in some others,
and give the Government immense
trouble."
Cornelius Vanderbilt.
On
July
17,
1862,
the
President
informed
Congress
by message
that
Cornelius
Vanderbilt,
of New
York,
had
"gratuitously
presented
to
the
United
States
the
ocean-steamer
Vanderbilt, by many considered the
finest
steamer
in
the
world.
She
has
ever
since
been,
and
still
is, doing valuable service
to the Government.
For
the patriotic act in making this magnificent and valuable
present to
the country,
I recommend that some suitable
acknowledgment be made."
CuTHBERT Bullitt.
[Private.']
Washington, D. C, July
28,
1862.
Cuthbert
Bullitt,
Esq., New Orleans, Louisiana.
Sir
: The copy of a
letter addressed
to your-
self by Mr. Thomas
J. Durant has been shown
to me.
The writer appears
to. be an able, a dis-
passionate,
and
an
entirely
sincere man.
The
first part of the
letter
is devoted to an effort to
show
that the secession ordinance of Louisiana
was adopted
against
the
will
of
a majority
of
the
people.
This
is probably
true, and
in
that
fact may be found some
instruction.
Why
did
they
allow
the
ordinance
to
go
into
effect?
Why
did
they
not
assert
themselves?
Why
stand passive and allow themselves to be trodden
down by a minority?
Why
did the^
not hold
popular meetings and have a convention of their
own
to express and enforce
the true
sentiment
of
the
State?
If
preorganization was
against
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
145
them then, why not do this now that the United
States army
is
present
to
protect them?
The
paralysis—the dead palsy—of the Government in
this whole struggle
is, that this class of men will
do
nothing
for
the
Government,
nothing
for
themselves, except demanding that the Govern-
ment
shall not
strike
its open enemies
lest they
be struck by accident
!
Mr.
Durant
complains
that
in
various ways
the
relation of master and slave
is disturbed by
the
presence
of our
army, and he
considers
it
particularly vexatious
that
this,
in
part,
is done
under cover of an
act
of Congress,
while
con-
stitutional guaranties are suspended on the plea
of military necessity.
The truth
is, that what
is
done
and
omitted
about
slaves
is
done
and
omitted on the same military necessity.
It
is a
military necessity to have men and money
; and
we
can
get
neither
in
sufficient
numbers
or
amounts
if we keep from or drive from our lines
slaves coming
to them.
Mr. Durant cannot be
ignorant of the pressure in this direction, nor of
my
efforts
to hold
it within bounds
till he and
such as he shall have time to help themselves.
I am not posted to speak understandingly on
all the
police
regulations
of which Mr. Durant
complains.
If experience shows any one of them
to
be
wrong,
let
them
be
set
right.
I
think
I
can
perceive
in
the
freedom
of
trade which
Mr.
Durant
urges
that
he would
relieve
both
friends
and
enemies
from
the
pressure
of
the
blockade.
By
this
he
would
serve
the
enemy
more effectively than the enemy
is able to serve
himself.
I do not say or believe
that
to
serve
the enemy
is the purpose of Mr. Durant, or that
he
is
conscious
of any purpose
other than
na-
146
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
tional and
patriotic
ones.
Still,
if
there were
a class of men who, having no choice of sides in
the contest, were anxious only to have quiet and
comfort
for
themselves
while
it
rages,
and
to
fall
in with the victorious
side
at the end
of
it
without loss to themselves, their advice as to the
mode
of conducting the
contest would be
pre-
cisely such
as
his
is.
He speaks of no duty
apparently thinks of none—resting upon Union
men.
He even thinks
it injurious
to the Union
cause that they should be restrained in trade and
passage without taking sides.
They are to touch
neither a
sail nor a pump, but to be merely pas-
sengers—deadheads
at that—to be
carried snug
and dry throughout the storm, and safely landed
right
side
up.
Nay, more
: even
a mutineer
is
to go untouched,
lest these sacred passengers re-
ceive an accidental wound.
Of course the rebel-
lion will never be suppressed in Louisiana
if the
professed Union men there
will
neither help
to
do
it nor permit the Government to do
it without
their help.
Now, I think the true remedy
is very
different from what
is suggested by Mr. Durant.
It does not
lie
in rounding the rough angles of
the war, but
in removing the
necessity
for the
war.
The
people
of
Louisiana who wish
pro-
tection to person and property have but to reach
forth their hands and take
it.
Let them in good
faith reinaugurate the national authority, and set
up a
State government conforming thereto
un-
der the Constitution.
They know how to do
it,
and can have the protection
of the army while
doing
it.
The army
will be withdrawn so soon
as such
State government can dispense with
its
presence
; and the people of the
State can
then,
upon the old constitutional terms, govern them-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
147
selves to
their own
liking.
This
is very simple
and
easy.
If
they
will
not
do
this—if
they
prefer
to
hazard all for the sake of destroying the Govern-
ment,
it
is
for them
to
consider
whether
it
is
probable I will surrender the Government to save
them from
losing
all.
If
the}'
decline what
I
suggest, you
scarcely need
to
ask what
I
will
do.
What would you do in my position ?
Would
you
drop the war where
it
is?
Or would you
prosecute
it
in
future
with
elder-stalk
squirts
charged
with
rose-water?
W^ould
you
deal
lighter blows rather than heavier ones?
Would
you
give up
the
contest,
leaving any
available
means
unapplied?
I am
in no
boastful mood.
I
shall not do more than
I
can, and
I
shall do
all
I
can, to save the Government, which
is my
sworn duty
as
well
as my personal
inclination.
I
shall do nothing
in malice.
What
I deal with
is too vast for malicious dealing.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
August Belmont.
July
31,
1862.
Dear Sir
: You send to Mr. W
an extract
from
a
letter
written
at New
Orleans
the
9th
instant, which
is shown to me.
You do not give
the
writer's name
; but plainly he
is
a man
of
ability,
and
probably
of some
note.
He
says:
**The time has arrived when Mr. Lincoln must
take a decisive
course.
Trying to please every-
body, he will
satisfy nobody. A vacillating pol-
icy
in matters of importance
is the very
worst.
Now
is
the
time,
if
ever,
for honest men who
love their country to
rally
to
its support.
Why
will
not
the North
say
officially
that
it wishes
for the
restoration of the Union as
it was?"
And
so,
it seems,
this
is the point on which
the
writer thinks
I have no
policy.
Why
will
he not read and understand what
I have said?
The substance of the very
declaration he de-
sires is in the inaugural, in each of the two regu-
lar messages
to Congress, and
in many,
if not
all,
the minor documents
issued by
the Execu-
tive since the inauguration.
Broken eggs
cannot be mended; but
Louisi-
ana
has
nothing
to
do now
but
to
take
her
place
in
the Union
as
it
was,
barring
the
al-
ready broken eggs.
The sooner she does
so, the
smaller will be the amount of that which will be
past mending.
This Government
cannot much
longer play a game in which
it stakes
all, and
its
enemies
stake
nothing.
Those
enemies
must
understand that they cannot experiment for ten
years trying to destroy the Government, and
if
they
fail
still come back into the Union unhurt.
If they expect
in any contingency to ever have
the Union
as
it was,
I
join with the writer
in
saying, ''Now
is the time."
How much better
it would have been
for the
writer to have gone at this, under the protection
of the army
at New
Orleans, than to have
sat
down
in
a
closet
writing
complaining
letters
northward
!
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Count Gasparin.
Executive Mansion, August
4,
1862.
To Count A. de Gasparin.
Dear
Sir: Your very
acceptable
letter,
dated
Orbe,
Canton
de
Vaud,
Switzerland,
i8th
of
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
149
July,
1862,
is
received.
The moral
effect was
the
worst
of
the
affair
before Richmond,
and
that has run
its course downward.
We are now
at a stand, and shall soon be rising again, as we
hope.
I believe
it
is true that,
in men and ma-
terial, the enemy suffered more than we in that
series of
conflicts, while
it
is
certain he
is
less
able to bear
it.
With us every
soldier
is a man of
character,
and
must
be
treated
with
more
consideration
than
is customary
in Europe.
Hence our great
army,
for
slighter causes than could have pre-
vailed
there, has dwindled
rapidly, bringing the
necessity
for a new
call earlier than was
antici-
pated.
We
shall
easily
obtain
the new
levy,
however.
Be not alarmed
if you shall learn that
we
shall have
resorted
to
a
draft
for
part
of
this.
It seems strange even to me, but
it
is true,
that
the
Government
is now
pressed
to
this
course by
a popular demand.
Thousands who
wish not to personally enter the service, are nev-
ertheless
anxious
to
pay
and
send
substitutes,
provided they can have assurance that unwilling
persons,
similarly
situated,
will be compelled to
do
likewise.
Besides
this,
volunteers
mostly
choose
to
enter newly forming regiments, while
drafted men can be sent to
fill up the old ones,
wherein man
for man they are
quite doubly as
valuable.
You
ask, ''Why
is
it that the North with her
great armies
so
often
is found with
inferiority
of numbers
face to
face with the armies of the
South?"
Wliile
I
painfully know
the
fact,
a
military man—which
I am
not—would
better
answer the question.
The
fact,
I know, has not
been overlooked; and
I suppose the cause of
its
ISO
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
continuance
lies mainly
in
the
other
facts
that
the enemy holds the interior and we the exterior
lines
; and that we operate where the people con-
vey information to the enemy, while he operates
where they convey none to us.
I have
received
the volume and
letter which
you did me the honor of addressing to me, and
for which please accept my sincere thanks.
You
are much admired
in America for the
ability of
your
writings,
and much
loved
for
your
gen-
erosity to us and your devotion to
liberal prin-
ciples
generally.
You
are
quite
right
as
to
the
importance
to
us, for
its bearing upon Europe, that we should
achieve military successes, and the same
is true
for us at home as well as abroad.
Yet
it seems
unreasonable
that a
series
of
successes, extend-
ing through half a year, and clearing more than
100,000 square miles of country, should help us
so
little, while a
single half
defeat should hurt
us so much.
But
let us be patient.
I am very happy to know that my course has
not
conflicted with your judgment
of propriety
and
policy.
I
can
only
say
that
I have
acted
upon my best convictions, without selfishness or
malice, and that by the help of God
I
shall con-
tinue to do
so.
Please be assured
of my highest
respect and
esteem.
A. Lincoln.
John M. Clay.
Executive Mansion, August 9,
1862.
Mr. John M. Clay.
My
dear
Sir: The
snuff-box you
sent,
with
the accompanying note, was received yesterday.
Thanks for this memento of your great and pa-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
151
triotic
father.
Thanks
also
for
the
assurance
that,
in
these
days
of
derehction,
you
remain
true
to
his
principles.
In
the concurrent
senti-
ment of your venerable mother, so long the part-
ner of his bosom and his honors, and lingering
now where he was but for the call to rejoin him
where he
is,
I recognize
his
voice, speaking,
as
it
ever
spoke,
for
the Union,
the
Constitution,
and the freedom of mankind.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
Andrew
G. Curtin.
[Telegram.^
War Department, August
12,
1862.
Governor Curtin, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
It
is
very
important
for some
regiments
to
arrive here
at once.
What lack you from us?
What can we do to expedite matters?
Answer.
A. Lincoln.
War Department, September
11,
1862.
His Excellency Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of
Pennsylvania,
Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania.
Sir
: The application made to me by your adju-
tant-general
for authority
to
call out the
militia
of the State of Pennsylvania has received careful
consideration.
It
is my anxious desire to afford,
as
far as
possible, the means and power of the
Federal Government to protect the State of Penn-
sylvania from invasion by the rebel forces
; ^ and
since,
in your judgment, the militia of the State
are required, and have been called upon by you,
to organize
for home defense and
protection,
I
^ Lee had crossed the Potomac September 4-7.
152
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
sanction
the
call
that you have made, and
will
receive them
into
the
service
and
pay
of
the
United
States
to the extent they can be armed,
equipped, and usefully employed.
.
.
.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
War Department,
September
12,
1862.
10.35
a-
"^•
Hon. Andrew
G.
Curtin,
Harrisburg,
Pennsyl-
vania.
Your
despatch
asking
for
80,000
disciplined
troops
to
be
sent
to
Pennsylvania
is
received.
Please
consider we have
not
to
exceed
80,000
disciplined troops, properly so called, this side of
the
mountains
; and most
of
them,
with many
of
the new
regiments,
are now
close
in
the
rear of the enemy supposed to be invading Penn-
sylvania.
Start half of them to Harrisburg, and
the enemy will turn upon and beat the remaining
half, and then reach Harrisburg before the part
going there, and beat
it too when
it comes.
The
best possible security for Pennsylvania
is putting
the strongest force possible in rear of the enemy.
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, April
13,
1863.
Hon. Andrew G.
Curtin.
My dear Sir
: K, after the expiration of your
present
term
as
Governor
of
Penns3dvania,
I
shall continue in office here, and you shall desire
to go abroad, you can do so with one of the first-
class missions.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
153
[^Telegram.']
War Department, April
28,
1863.
Hon. A. G. Curtin, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
I
do
not
think
the
people
of
Pennsylvania
should be uneasy about an invasion.
Doubtless
a small
force of the enemy
is flourishing about
in the northern part of Virginia, on the "skew-
horn"
principle,^ on purpose
to divert us
in an-
other quarter.
I believe
it
is nothing more. We
think we have adequate
force
close
after them.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, May
i,
1863.
Governor Curtin, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The whole
disposable
force
at Baltimore and
elsewhere
in reach have already been sent after
the enemy which alarms you.
The worst thing
the enemy
could
do
for
himself
would
be
to
weaken
himself
before
Hooker,
and
therefore
it
is
safe
to believe he
is not doing
it
; and the
best thing he could do
for himself would be
to
get us
so
scared
as
to bring part
of Hooker's
force away,
and
that
is
just what he
is
trying
to
do.
I will telegraph you in the morning about call-
ing out the militia.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, May 2, 1863.
Governor Curtin, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
General
Halleck
tells me he
has
a
despatch
from General Schenck
this morning, informing
him
that our
forces
have
joined,
and
that
the
^ /. e.,
twisted
horn,
or crooked,
devious.
154
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
enemy menacing Pennsylvania will have to fight
or run to-day.
I hope
I am not less anxious to
do my duty
to Pennsylvania than
yourself, but
I really do not yet see the justification for incur-
ring the trouble and expense of
calling out the
militia.
I
shall keep watch, and
try
to
do my
duty.
A. Lincoln.
P.
S.
Our
forces
are
exactly between
the
enemy and Pennsylvania.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C, October
17,
1864.
Governor
A.
G.
Curtin,
Harrisburg,
Pennsyl-
vania.
Your
information
is
erroneous.
No
part
of
Sheridan's force has
left him, except by expira-
tion
of terms
of
service.
I
think
there
is
not
much danger of a
raid
into Pennsylvania.
A. Lincoln.
George
P.
Fisher.
On August
16,
1862,
the
President wrote
to George
P.
Fisher in regard to various propositions made to the
War Department.
The
letter ended as follows
:
I do hope you will not indulge a thought which
will
admit
of your
saying
the
Administration
turns you over
to
the
fury
of your
enemies.
You
certainly know
I
wish
you
success
as
much as you can wish
it yourself.
Your friend, as ever,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
i55
GiLLET
F. Watson.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion, August 21,
1862.
Gillet F. Watson, Williamsburg, Va.
Your telegram in regard to the lunatic asylum
has been received.
It
is certainly a case of dif-
ficulty, but
if you cannot remain,
I cannot con-
'^.eive who under my authority can.
Remain as
!'«;ong as you
safely can, and provide as
well
as
you can
for the poor inmates of the
institution.
A.
Lincoln.
Horace Greeley.
Executive Mansion, August 22,
1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
Dear Sir:
I have just read yours of the
19th,
addressed
to
myself
through
the
N'ezv
York
Tribune.
If
there
be
in
it
any
statements
or
assumptions
of
fact which
I may know
to
be
erroneous,
I
do
not, now and
here,
controvert
them.
If there be
in
it any inferences which
I
may believe
to be
falsely drawn,
I do
not, now
and here, argue against them.
If there be per-
ceptible
in
it an
impatient and
dictatorial
tone,
I waive
it
in
deference to an
old
friend whose
heart
I have always supposed to be right.
As
to the policy
I "seem
to be pursuing," as
you
say,
I have not meant to leave any one
in
doubt.
I would save the Union.
I would save
it the
shortest way under the Constitution.
The sooner
the national authority can be restored, the nearer
the Union
will
be
"the Union
as
it
was."
If
there
be
those who would
not
save
the Union
unless they could
at the same time save slavery.
156
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
I do not agree with them.
• If there be those who
would not save the Union
unless they could
at
the same
time
destroy
slavery,
I
do
not
agree
with them.
My paramount object in this strug-
gle
is to save the Union, and
is not either to save
or to destroy slavery, ^li I could save the Union
without
freeing any slave,
I would do
it; and
if
I could save
it by freeing all the slaves,
I would
do
it
; and
if I could save
it by freeing some and
leaving others alone,
I would also do thatV What
I do about slavery and the colored race,
I do be-
cause
I believe
it helps
to
save the Union; and
what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe
it would help to save the Union.
I shall do less
whenever
I
shall believe what
I am doing hurts
the cause, and
I
shall do more whenever
I
shall
believe doing more
will help the cause.
I
shall
try
to
correct errors when shown
to be
errors,
and
I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall
appear to be true views,
I have
here
stated my purpose according
to
my view of
official duty
; and
I intend no modi-
fication
of my oft-expressed personal wish
that
all men everywhere could be free.
Yours,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, D. C, July
9,
1864.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
Dear
Sir
: Your
letter of the
7th, with
inclo-
sures,
received.^
If you can find any person, anywhere, profess-
ing
to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis
in writing,
for peace, embracing the
restoration
^ This was
in
reference to a proposition
of Clement
C.
Clay, Jacob Thompson,
et
al.,
to negotiate peace with
the
Confederacy.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
157
of the Union and abandonment of slavery, what-
ever
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 con-
duct
with
the
paper
(and without
publicity,
if
he
chooses)
to
the
point where you
shall have
met
him.
The same
if
there
be two
or more
persons.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[Letter Carried by Major John Hay.^
Executive Mansion, July
15,
1864.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
My
dear
Sir: Yours
of
the
13th
is
just
re-
ceived, 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
in-
tend that you
shall be a personal witness that
it
is made.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
{Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, 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.
158
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
[Private.']
Executive Mansion, August
9,
1864.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
Dear
Sir
: Herewith
is a
full copy of the cor-
respondence,
and
which
I
have
had
privately
printed, but not made public.
The parts of your
letters which
I wish
suppressed
are only
those
which, as
I think, give too gloomy an aspect to
our cause, and those which present the carrying
of elections as a motive of action.
I have, as you
see, drawn
a red
pencil over
the
parts
I
wish
suppressed.
As
to
the Alexander H.
Stephens
matter,
so
much
pressed by
you,
I
can
only
say
that
he
sought
to come
to Washington
in the name
of
the "Confederate States," in a vessel of "the Con-
federate States navy," and with no pretense even
that he would bear any proposal
for peace
; but
with language showing that his mission would be
military, and not civil or diplomatic.
Nor has he
at any time
since pretended
that he had terms
of peace,
so
far as
I know or
believe.
On the
contrary, Jefferson Davis has, in the most formal
manner, declared that Stephens had no terms of
peace.
I thought vv^e could not afford to give this
quasi-acknowledgment of the independence of the
Confederacy, in a case where there was not even
an intimation of anything for our good.
Still, as
the
parts
of
your
letters
relating
to
Stephens
contain nothing worse than a questioning of my
action,
I do not ask a suppression of those parts.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
See also correspondence with Clement
C.
Clay.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
159
Washington Talcott.
Executive Mansion, August 2y,
1862.
Hon. Washington
Talcott,
My
dear
Sir
:
I
have
determined
to
appoint
you collector.
I now have a very special request
to make
of you, which
is,
that you
will make
no war upon Mr. Washburne, who
is
also my
friend, and of longer standing than yourself.
I
will
even
be
obliged
if you
can
do
something
for him
if occasion presents.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[Note of Introduction.']
The Secretary of the Treasury and the Com-
missioner
of
Internal
Revenue
will
please
see
Mr.
Talcott, one
of the best men there
is, and,
if any difference, one they would like better than
they do me.
A. Lincoln.
August
18,
1862.
Alexander Ramsey.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, August 2y,
1862.
Governor Ramsey,
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Yours
received.
Attend
to
the
Indians.
If
the
draft cannot
proceed,
of course
it
will not
proceed.
Necessity knows no law.
The Govern-
ment cannot extend the time.
A. Lincoln.
i6o
LhllhKS AND
IhLhLrKAMS
Thomas Webster.
[Telegram.']
Washington, September
9,
1862.
Thomas Webster, Philadelphia.
Your despatch received, and referred to Ger
eral
Halleck,
who
must
control
the
question
presented.
While
I am
not
surprised
at
you
anxiety,
I do not think you are
in any dange:
If
half
our
troops
were
in
Philadelphia,
tli
enemy could take
it, because he would not
fea
to leave the other half in his rear
; but with
tli
whole of them here, he dares not leave them
i
his rear.
A. Lincoln.
Alexander Henry.
[Telegram.]
War Department, September 12, 1862.
Hon. Alexander Henry, Philadelphia.
Yours
of
to-day
received.
General
Hallec
has made the best provision he can for genera!
in Pennsylvania.
Please do not be offended whe
I assure you that in my confident belief Philade
phia
is in no danger.
Governor Curtin has
ju:
telegraphed me
:
I have advices
that Jackson
is crossing the Potom?
at Williamsport, and probably the whole rebel army wi
be drawn from Maryland,
At
all
events,
Philadelphia
is more than
miles from Hagerstown, and could not be reache
by the
rebel army
in
ten days,
if no hindranc
was interposed.
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
i6i
Jesse K. Dubois.
On September
15,
1862, the President wrote his friend
Dubois
in Springfield,
111.,
a strangely optimistic antici-
pation
of
the
not
very
decisive
victory
of
Antietam,
which did not take place
until September
:
I now
consider
it
safe
to
say
that
General
}JcClellan has gained
a great victory over
the
great rebel army
in Maryland, between Freder-
icktown and Hagerstown.
He
is now pursuing
tl;e flying foe.
Had McClellan attacked Lee on the
15th, before the
Confederate forces were
united,
as Lincoln expected he
I would,
it
is
the
opinion
of
military
experts
that
he
would
have
driven
the
invader back
with
a
crushing
defeat which might have brought
the war
to an
early
termination.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C, July
11,
1863.
9 a.m.
Hon.
J. K. Dubois, Springfield,
111.
It
is certain that after three days'
fighting at
^Gettysburg, Lee withdrew and made for the Po-
'tomac;
that he
found
the
river
so
swollen
as
to prevent his crossing; that he
is
still this side,
near
Hagerstown
and
Williamsport,
preparing
to defend himself
; and that Meade
is close upon
,him, and preparing
to
attack
him, heavy
skir-
mishing having occurred nearly
all day
yester-
day.
I am more than
satisfied with what has hap-
pened north of the Potomac so far, and am anx-
ious and hopeful for what
is to come.
A. Lincoln.
i62
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
[Telegram
in
Cipher.']
Washington, September
13,
1863.
Hon.
J. K. Dubois, Hon. O. M. Hatch.
What nation do you
desire General
Allen
to
be made quartermaster-general of?
This nation
already has a quartermaster-general.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, September 22,
1863.
Hon. O. M. Hatch, Hon.
J. K. Dubois, Spring-
field,
111.
Your
letter
is
just
received.
The
particular
form of my despatch was jocular, which
I sup-
posed you gentlemen knew me well enough to un-
derstand.
General Allen
is considered here as a
very
faithful and
capable
officer, and one who
would be
at least thought of
for quartermaster-
general
if that
office were vacant.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, November
15,
1864.
Hon. Jesse K. Dubois, Springfield,
Illinois.
.
.
. You
say:
"State gone
25,000."
Which
way did
it go ? How stand the members of Con-
gress and the other officers?
A. Lincoln.
Edward Everett.
[Letter of Introduction.]
Executive Mansion, September 24, 1862.
Whom
it May Concern: Hon. Edward Ever-
ett goes to Europe shortly.
His reputation and
the
present
condition
of our
country
are
such
that his
visit there
is sure to attract notice, and
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
163
may be misconstrued.
I
therefore
think
fit
to
say that he bears no mission from this Govern-
ment
;
and
yet no
gentleman
is
better
able
to
correct misunderstandings
in the minds of
for-
eigners
in regard to American
afifairs.
While
I commend him to the consideration of
those whom he may meet,
I am quite conscious
that he could better introduce me than
I him
in
Europe.
Abraham Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, November 20,
1863.
Hon. Edward Everett.
Aly dear Sir
: Your kind note of to-day
is re-
ceived.
In our
respective
parts yesterday, you
could
not have been excused
to make
a
short
address, nor I a long one.
I am pleased to know
that,
in your judgment, the
little
I did say was
not
entirely
a
failure.
Of
course
I knew Mr.
Everett would not
fail, and yet, while the whole
discourse was eminently satisfactory, and will be
of great value, there were passages
in
it which
transcended my
expectations.
The
point made
against
the theory of
the
General Government
being only an
agency whose
principals
are
the
States, was new
to me,
and,
as
I
think,
is one
of the best arguments
for the national suprem-
acy.
The tribute
to our noble women
for their
angel
ministering
to
the
suffering
soldiers
sur-
passes in
its way, as do the subjects of
it, what-
ever has gone before.
Our
sick boy,^
for whom you
kindly
inquire,
we hope
is past the worst.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
^ Thomas ("Tad")
Lincoln.
i64
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Executive Mansion, February 4,
1864.
Hon. Edward Everett.
My dear
Sir
: Yours of January 30 was
re-
ceived four days ago, and since then the address
mentioned has
arrived.
Thank' you
for
it.
I send herewith the manuscript of my remarks
at
Gettysburg,
which,
with my note
to you of
November
20, you are
at Hberty to use
for the
benefit of our
soldiers,
as you have requested.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
John Ross.
Executive Mansion, September 25,
1862.
John
Ross,
Principal
Chief
of
the
Cherokee
Nation.
Sir: Your
letter of
the
i6th
instant was
re-
ceived two days ago.
In the multitude of cares
claiming my constant attention,
I have been un-
able to examine and determine the exact treaty
relations
between
the
United
States
and
the
Cherokee Nation.
Neither have
I been able
to
investigate and determine the exact state of facts
claimed by you as constituting a failure of treaty
obligations on our part, and excusing the Chero-
kee Nation
for making a treaty with a portion
of the people of the United States in open rebel-
lion against the Government thereof.
This
letter, therefore, must not be understood
to decide anything upon these questions.
I shall,
however, cause a
careful
investigation
of them
to
be
made.
Meanwhile
the
Cherokee
people
remaining practically loyal to the Federal Union
will receive all the protection which can be given
them consistently with the duty of the Govern-
ment to the whole country.
I sincerely hope the
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
165
Cherokee Nation may not again be overrun by
the enemy, and
I
shall do
all
I
consistently can
to prevent
it.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
See letter to
S. R. Curtis of October
10,
1862.
John
J. Key.
Executive Mansion, September 26,
1862.
Major John
J. Key.
Sir
: I am informed that in answer to the ques-
tion, "Why was not the rebel army bagged im-
mediately
after
the
battle
near
Sharpsburg?''
propounded
to you by Major
Levi
C.
Turner,
judge-advocate,
etc., you answered, "That
is not
the game.
The object
is that neither army
shall
get much advantage of the other, that both
shall
be kept in the field
till they are exhausted, when
we
will make a compromise and save
slavery.'*
I shall be very happy
if you will, within twenty-
four hours from the receipt of this, prove to me
by Major Turner that you did not,
either
liter-
ally or
in
substance, make the answer
stated.
Yours,
A. Lincoln.
[Indorsement.^
Copy
delivered
to Major Key
at
10.25
a. m.,
September 27,
1862.
John Hay.
At about
eleven
o'clock
a. m., September
27,
1862, Major Key and Major Turner appear be-
fore me.
Major Turner says
: "As
I remember
it,
the
conversation was
:
I
asked
the
question
why we
did
not bag them
after
the
battle
of
Sharpsburg.
Major Key's reply was, 'That was
not the game
; that we should tire the rebels out
i66
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
and ourselves.
That that was the only way the
Union could be preserved.
We must come
to-
gether
fraternally, and slavery be saved.' "
On
cross-examination
Major
Turner
says
he
has
frequently heard Major Key converse in regard
to
the
present
troubles,
and
never heard him
utter
a
sentiment
unfavorable
to
the -mainte-
nance of the Union.
He has never uttered any-
thing which he (Major T.) would call disloyalty.
The particular conversation
detailed was
a
pri-
vate one.
A. Lincoln.
[Indorsement.^
In my view
it
is wholly inadmissible
for any
gentleman
holding a
military commission from
the
United
States
to
utter
such
sentiments
as
Major
Key
is
within
proved
to
have
done.
Therefore
let Major John
J. Key be
forthwith
dismissed from the military service of the United
States.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, November 24, 1862.
Major John
J. Key.
Dear
Sir: A bundle of
letters,
including one
from yourself, was early last week handed me by
General
Halleck,
as
I
understood
at
your
re-
quest.
I
sincerely sympathize with you
in the death
of your brave and noble
son.
In regard to my dismissal of yourself from the
military
service,
it seems
to me you misunder-
stand me.
I did not charge, or intend to charge,
you with
disloyalty.
I had been brought
to
fear that there was a
class
of
officers
in
the
army,
not
very
incon-
siderable
in numbers, who were playing a game
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
167
to not beat the enemy when they could, on some
pecuHar notion as
to the proper way of saving
the Union
; and when you were proved
to me,
in your own presence,
to have avowed yourself
in favor of that "game," and did not attempt to
controvert the proof,
I dismissed you as an ex-
ample and a warning to that supposed class.
I bear you no
ill will, and I regret that I could
not have the example without wounding you per-
sonally.
But can
I now,
in view of the public
interest,
restore you
to
the
service, by which
the army would understand
that
I
indorse and
approve
that game myself?
If
there was any
doubt of your having made the avowal, the case
would be
different.
But when
it was proved to
me,
in your presence, you
did not deny or
at-
tempt to deny
it, but confirmed
it,
in my mind,
by attempting
to
sustain
the
position by
argu-
ment.
I am really sorry
for the pain the case gives
you
; but I do not see how, consistently with duty,
I can change
it.
Yours,
etc.,
A. Lincoln.
[htdorsemejit.]
The within, as appears, was written some time
ago.
On full reconsideration, I cannot find suffi-
cient
ground
to
change
the
conclusion
therein
arrived
at.
A. Lincoln.
December 2y,
1862.
i68
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Hannibal Hamlin.
^Strictly Private.']
Executive Mansion, September 28,
1862.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.
My dear
Sir: Your kind
letter of the 25th
is
just received.
It
is known to some that while I
hope something from the proclamation,^ my ex-
pectations
are not
as sanguine
as
are those of
some friends.
The time for
its effect southward
has not come
; but northward
the
effect should
be instantaneous.
It
is six days old, and while commendation in
newspapers and by
distinguished
individuals
is
all that a vain man could wish, the stocks have
declined, and troops come forward more slowly
than
ever.
This, looked soberly
in the
face,
is
not very satisfactory. We have fewer troops in
the field at the end of the six days than we had
at the beginning—the attrition among the old out-
numbering the addition by the "new.
The North
responds
to
the
proclamation
sufficiently
in
breath
; but breath alone kills no rebels.
I wish
I could write more cheerfully; nor do
I thank you the less for the kindness of your let-
ter.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, October 29, 1863.
His Excellency H. Hamlin, Vice-President.
My dear Sir
: The above act of Congress - was
^Emancipation Proclamation, issued September
22,
1862.
2 To Regulate
the
Duties
of the
Clerk
of the House
of
Representatives
in
Preparing
for the
Organization
of
the
House.
It provided that the clerk should place on the
roll
only those members whose
credentials indicated
that they
had been
elected
in accordance with the laws of
their
re-
spective
States,
or of the United
States.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
169
passed, as
I suppose, to exclude improper appli-
cants from seats in the House of Representatives,
and there
is danger now that
it
will be used to
exclude proper ones.
The attempt will be made,
if at all, upon the members of those States whose
delegations are entirely, or by a majority, Union
men, and of which your State is one.
I suppose your members already have the usual
certificates—which
let them bring on.
I suggest
that for greater caution, yourself, the two sena-
tors,
Messrs.
Fessenden
and
Morrill,
and
the
Governor consider this matter, and that the Gov-
ernor make out an
additional
certificate, or
set
of
certificates,
in the form on the other half of
this
sheet, and
still
another,
if on studying the
law you gentlemen
shall be
able
to frame one
which will give additional security
; and bring the
whole with you, to be used
if found necessary.
Let
it all be done quietly.
The members of Con-
gress themselves need not know of
it.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Mrs. Eliza
P. Gurney.
Executive Mansion, 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, ever
been forgotten.
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 prayers and consola-
tions ; and to no one of them more than to your-
I70
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
self.
The purposes of the Ahnighty 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
lights
he gives
us,
trusting that so working
still con-
duces 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 op-
pression, they can only practically oppose oppres-
sion by war.
In this hard dilemma some have
chosen one horn, and some the other.
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.
Edward Stanley.
On September
29,
1862,
the President wrote Edward
Stanley approbation
of
his course
as military governor
of
North
Carolina,
and
asking him
to
have
congres-
sional elections held
in
that
State before January.
"It
is my sincere wish that North Carolina may again gov-
ern
herself
conformably
to
the
Constitution
of
the
United
States."
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
171
Thomas H. Clay.
War Department, October
8,
1862.
Thomas H.
Clay,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
You cannot have reflected seriously when you
ask
that
I
shall
order
General Morgan's com-
mand to Kentucky as a favor because they have
marched from Cumberland Gap.
The precedent
established by
it would evidently break up
the
whole army.
Buell's old troops, now in pursuit
of
Bragg,
have done more hard marching
re-
cently; and, in fact, if you include marching and
fighting, there are
scarcely any old troops
east
or west of the mountains that have not done as
hard service.
I sincerely wish war was an easier
and pleasanter business than
it is
; but
it does not
admit
of
holidays.
On
Morgan's
command,
where
it
is now
sent,
as
I understand, depends
the question whether the enemy
will
get
to the
Ohio River in another place.
A. Lincoln.
Ulysses
S. Grant.
{Telegram.^
Washington, D. C, October
8,
1862.
Major-General Grant.
I congratulate you and
all concerned
in your
recent
battles and
victories.^
How
does
it
all
sum up?
I
especially regret the death of Gen-
eral Hackleman, and am very anxious to know
the condition of General Oglesby, who
is an in-
timate personal friend.
A. Lincoln.
^ On July
23,
1862, Grant was assigned
to the command
of
the
Department
of
the
Tennessee.
On
September
and
20, General Rosecrans, his subordinate, defeated Gen-
eral
Sterling
Price
at luka, and on October
3 and 4 Gen-
eral Van Dorn
at
Corinth.
172
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Headquarters of the Army,
Washington, January 21, 1863.
Major-General Grant, Memphis.
General
: The
President
has
directed
that
so
much of Arkansas as you may desire to control
be
temporarily
attached
to
your
department.
This will give you control of both banks of the
river.
In your operations down the Mississippi you
must
not
rely
too
confidently upon
any
direct
cooperation of General Banks and the lower flo-
tilla,
as
it
is
possible that they may not be able
to pass or reduce Port Hudson.
They, however,
will do everything in their power to form a junc-
tion with you at Vicksburg.
If they should not
be
able
to
effect
this, they
will
at
least occupy
a
portion
of
the
enemy's
forces,
and
prevent
them from reinforcing Vicksburg.
I hope, how-
ever, that they will do
still better and be able to
join you.
It may be proper to give you some explanation
of
the
revocation
of
your
order
expelling
all
Jews from your department.
The President has
no objection to your expelling traitors and Jew
peddlers,
which
I
suppose,
was
the
object
of
your
orders
; but
as
it
in terms
proscribed an
entire
religious
class, some
of whom
are
fight-
ing in our ranks, the President deemed
it neces-
sary to revoke
it.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. W. Halleck, General-in-chief.
See
letter
to Thomas Knox of March
20,
1863.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
173
[Telegram.l
War Department, June
2, 1863.
Major-General Grant,
Vicksburg, via Memphis.
Are
you
in
cbmmunication
with
General
Banks ?
Is he coming toward you or going far-
ther off?
Is there or has there been anything to
hinder his coming directly to you by water from
Alexandria?
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, July
13,
1863.
Major-General Grant.
My dear General
:
I do not remember that you
and
I ever met personally.
I write this now as
a
grateful
acknowledgment
for
the
almost
in-
estimable service you have done the country.
I
wish
to
say
a word
further.
When you
first
reached the vicinity of Vicksburg,
I thought you
should
do
what
you
finally
did—march
the
troops across the neck, run the batteries with the
transports, and thus go below
; and
I never had
any
faith, except a general hope that you knew
better
than
I,
that
the Yazoo
Pass
expedition
and the
like could succeed.
When you got be-
low
and
took
Port
Gibson,
Grand
Gulf,
and
vicinity,
I thought you should go down the river
and
join General Banks, and when you turned
northward, east of the Big Black,
I feared
it was
a
mistake.
I now
wish
to make
the
personal
acknowledgment that you were right and
I was
wrong.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
See letter to Ambrose E, Burnside of July
27,
1863.
174-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Executive Mansion, August 9, 1863.
My dear General Grant:
I
see by a despatch of yours that you incUne
quite strongly toward an expedition against Mo-
bile.
This would appear tempting
to me
also,
were
it not that in view of recent events in Mex-
ico
I am greatly impressed with the importance
of reestablishing the national authority in West-
ern Texas as soon as possible.
I am not making
an order, however; that
I leave, for the present
at
least, to the general-in-chief.
A
word
about
another
subject.
General
Thomas has gone again
to the
Mississippi Val-
ley, with the view of
raising colored troops.
I
have no reason to doubt that you are doing what
you
reasonably
can upon
the same
subject.
I
believe
it
is a resource which
if vigorously ap-
plied now
will soon close the contest.
It works
doubly, weakening the enemy and strengthening
us. We were not fully ripe for
it, until the river
was opened.
Now,
I think at least one hundred
thousand can and ought to be rapidly organized
along
its
shores,
relieving
all
white
troops
to
serve elsewhere.
Mr. Dana understands you as
believing that the Emancipation Proclamation has
helped some
in your military operations.
I am
very glad
if this
is
so.
Did you receive a short
letter from me dated
the
thirteenth
of July?
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
See letter to John A. McClernand of August
12,
1863.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
ijS
[Telegram.]
Washington, December
8, 1863.
Major-General Grant.
Understanding
that
your
lodgment
at
Chat-
tanooga 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 ef-
fected that important object.
God bless you
all
!
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
War Department, 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 want-
ing to fight for
it,
is the whole matter with him.
Could you, without embarrassment,
assign him
a place,
if directed to report to you?
See letters to Governor Thomas E. Bramlette of Jan-
uary 6 and January
17,
1864.
[Order.]
Executive Mansion, 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,
1^6
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
United States Army,
is assigned to the command
of the Armies of the United
States.
Abraham Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, March
lo,
1864.
Lieutenant-General Grant, Army of the Potomac.
Mrs.
Lincoln
invites
yourself
and
General
Meade to dine with us Saturday evening.
Please
notify him, and answer whether you can be with
us at that time.
A. Lincoln.
[Private Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, 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.
Executive Mansion, April 30, 1864.
Lieutenant-General Grant.
Not
expecting
to
see
you
again
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 knov/ nor
seek to know. You are vigilant and
self-reliant;
and, pleased with this,
I wish not to obtrude any
constraints or restraints upon you.
While
I am
very anxious that any great disaster or capture
of our men in great numbers
shall be avoided,
I
know these points are
less
likely to escape your
attention than they would be mine.
If there
is
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
177
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.
See letter
to
F. A. Conkling of June
3,
1864.
[Telegram.]
Washington, June
15, 1864.
7 a. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
Headquarters Army of the Potomac.
I have just received your despatch of
i
p. m.
yesterday.
I begin
to see
it: you
will succeed.
God bless you
all.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington City, July
10, 1864.
2 p. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
Your
despatch
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 Washing-
ton,
and,
scarcely,
Baltimore.
Besides
these
there
are about
8,000,
not
very
reliable, under
Howe, at Harper's Ferry, with Hunter approach-
ing that point very slowly, with what number
I
suppose you know better than L
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
178
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
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.']
Washington, July
ii, 1864.
8 a. m.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
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.]
Washington, D. C,
July
12, 1864.
11.30 a. m.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
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 ab-
sence from your front.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
[Washington], July
17, 1864.
12.25
a. m.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
In
3'our
despatch
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.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
179
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.']
Executive Mansion, July 20, 1864.
4.30 p. m.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
Yours of yesterday, about
a
call
for 300,000,
is received.
I suppose you had not seen the call
for 500,000, made the day before, and which,
I
suppose, covers the
case.
Always glad
to have
your suggestions.
A. Lincoln.
[TeJegrain.']
Washington, D. C, July 26, 1864.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
General Rawlins
arrived
this
morning.
The
President desires you to name,
if you can, a time
when
it would be
convenient
for you
to meet
him
in person
at
Fortress Monroe
after Thurs-
day morning.
Edwin ]\L Stanton, Secretary of War.
[Telegram.']
Executive Alansion,
July
28,
1864.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
Will meet you at Fort Monroe, at 8 p. m., on
Saturday,
the
30th,
unless you
shall
notify me
that
it
will be
inconvenient
to
you.
A.
Lincoln.
i8o
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
[Telegram.']
Washington, July
29,
1864.
Lieutenant-General
Grant, City
Point,
Virginia.
I have changed my purpose, so that now
I ex-
pect to reach Fort Monroe
at 10
a.
m., Sunday
the 31st.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram in Cipher.]
Washington, D. C, August 3, 1864.
Lieutenant-General
Grant, City
Point,
Virginia.
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 him-
self 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
dis-
cover,
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.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C,
August
14, 1864. 1.30 p. m.
Lieutenant-General
Grant, City
Point,
Virginia.
The Secretary of War and
I concur that you
had
better confer with General
Lee, and
stipu-
late for a mutual discontinuance of house burn-
ing
and
other
destruction
of
private
property.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
i8i
The time and manner of conference and particu-
lars of stipulation we leave, on our part, to your
convenience and judgment.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion,
August 17, 1864.
10.30 a. m.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
I have seen your despatch expressing your un-
willingness
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.
Executive Mansion, 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 thou-
sand 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.
Executive Mansion, 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
judg-
ment,
it could not be abandoned without greater
i82
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
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 author-
ized,
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.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C,
September 29, 1864.
10 a. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
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.
On
October
5,
1864,
the
President
wrote
Grant
re-
questing him to permit an exchange of a few naval pris-
oners
through
his
lines
under
supervision
of
General
Benjamin
F.
Butler.
He added:
Still, you
are
at
liberty
to
arrest
the whole
operation
if
in your judgment
the
public good
requires
it.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
[TcJegrarn.']
Washington, D. C, January
14, 1865.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
You have perhaps seen in the papers that ex-
Senator Foote, with his family, attempted to es-
cape from Richmond to Washington, and that he
was pursued and taken back.
His wife and child
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
183
are now
here.
Please
give me
the
earhest
In-
formation you may receive concerning him, what
is hkely
to be done with him,
etc,
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, 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,
fur-
nishing his necessary means?
If no, say so with-
out 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.']
Washington, February
i,
1865.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
Let nothing which
is transpiring change, hin-
der, or delay your military movements or plans.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion (about February i, 1865).
Lieutenant-General Grant.
Some time ago you telegraphed that you had
stopped a Mr. Laws from passing our lines with
a boat and cargo
; and
I directed you
to be
in-
i84
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
formed
that you must be allowed to do as you
please
in such matters. To-night Mr. Laws calls
on me, and
I have
told him, and now
tell you,
that
the
matter
as
to
his
passing
the
lines
is
under your control
absolutely; and
that he can
have any relaxation you choose to give him and
none other.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C, February
2,
1865.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
Say to the gentlemen ^
I
will meet them per-
sonally
at
Fort Monroe
as
soon
as
I
can
get
there.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, February
7,
1865.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
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.
^ The Confederate
Peace Commissioners,
Vice-President
Alexander H. Stephens, Senator R. M. T. Hunter, and John
A. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War.
The conference
was abortive.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
185
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, February
8,
1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
I "am
called on by
the House of Representa-
tives
to
give an account
of my
interview
with
Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, and
it
is very desirable
to me to put
in your despatch
of
February
i,
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.
[Telegram.']
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
inad-
missible
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.
i86
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
[Telegram.']
Washington,
February
25,
1865.
Lieiitenant-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
2,000 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.']
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.
[Telegram.]
Washington, March 3, 1865.
12 p. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant.
The President directs me to say that he wishes
you to have no conference with General Lee un-
less
it be for capitulation of General Lee's army,
or on some minor or purely military matter.
He
instructs me
to
say that you are not to
decide,
discuss,
or
confer upon any
political
questions.
Such
questions
the
President
holds
in
his own
hands, and will submit them to no military con-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
187
ferences or conventions.
Meanwhile you are to
press to the utmost your miUtary advantages.
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
Executive Mansion, March
7,
1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant.
In accordance with a joint resolution of Con-
gress, approved December
17,
1863,
I now have
the honor of transmitting and presenting to you,
in the name of the people of the United
States
of America, a copy of said resolution, engrossed
on
parchment,
together
with
the
gold
medal
therein ordered and
directed.
Please accept for yourself and
all under your
command
the renewed
expression
of my
grati-
tude
for your and
their arduous and
well-per-
formed public
service.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, D. C, March
9,
1865.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
I
see your despatch
to the Secretary of War,
objecting
to
rebel
prisoners
being
allowed
to
take the oath and go
free.
Supposing that
I am
responsible for what
is done in this way,
I think
fit to say that there
is no general rule of action,
allowing
prisoners
to
be
discharged merely on
taking
the
oath.
What has been done
is
that
members of Congress come to me, from time to
time, with
lists of names, alleging that from per-
sonal knowledge, and
evidence
of
reliable
per-
sons, they are satisfied that
it
is safe to discharge
the particular persons named on the
lists, and
I
have
ordered
their
discharge.
These members
are
chiefly
from
the
border
States,
and
those
they
get
discharged
are
their
neighbors
and
i8S
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
neighbors' sons.
They
tell me that they do not
bring
to me one-tenth
of
the names which
are
brought
to
them,
bringing
only
such
as
their
knowledge or the proof
satisfies them about.
I
have, on the same principle, discharged some on
the
representations
of
others
than members
of
Congress
; as, for instance, Governor Johnson, of
Tennessee.
The number
I have discharged has
been
rather
larger
than
I
liked,
reaching,
I
should think, an average of fifty a day since the
recent
general
exchange
commenced.
On
the
same
grounds,
last
year,
I
discharged
quite
a
number
at
different
times, aggregating perhaps
a
thousand
Missourians and
Kentuckians;
and
their members,
returning here
since the prison-
ers' return to their homes, report to me only two
cases
of
proving
false.
Doubtless
some
more
have proved
false;
but, on the whole,
I
believe
what
I have
done
in
this way
has
done good
rather than harm.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C, March
20,
1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
Your kind
invitation
received.
Had
already
thought
of
going
immediately
after
the
next
rain.
Will go sooner
if any reason for
it.
Mrs.
Lincoln and a few others
will probably accom-
pany me.
Will notify you of exact time, once
it
shall be fixed upon.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, March
23,
1865.
Lieutenant-General
Grant,
City
Point,
Virginia.
We
start to you
at
i
p. m.
to-day.
Alay
lie
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
189
over during the dark hours of the night.
Very
small party of
us.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
City Point, April
i, 1865.
5.45
p. m.
'
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.']
Headquarters Armies of the United States,
City Point, April 6, 1865.
12 m.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
in the Field.
Secretary Seward was thrown from
his
car-
riage
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 Feb-
ruary, called on me, and made such representa-
tions
as induced me
to put
in
his hands an
in-
formal
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
^ Victory
of
Five
Forks,
Va.
I90
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
latter
if permitted
; and accordingly
I addressed
a private letter to General Weitzel, with permis-
sion
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
will 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.
Noth-
ing that
I have done, or probably shall do,
is to
delay, hinder, or interfere with your work.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Headquarters Armies of the United States,
City Point, April 7, 1865.
a. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant.
General Sheridan says "If the thing
is pressed
I think that Lee
will surrender."
Let the thing
be pressed.
A. Lincoln.
William R. Morrison.
Executive Mansion, November
5,
1862.
Colonel William R. Morrison, Waterloo,
Illinois.
Your
letter
of September 23
is
this moment
received.
While
your
words
of
kindness
are
very
grateful, your suspicions that
I intend you
injustice are very painful
to me.
I
assure you
such
suspicions
are
groundless.
I
cannot even
conjecture what juniors of yours you suppose
I
contemplate promoting over you.
True,
senior-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
191
ity has not been my
rule
in
this connection
; but
in
considering
military
merit,
the
world
has
abundant evidence that
I disregard
politics.
A.
Lincoln.
John Pope.
During August,
1862, the Sioux of Minnesota rose up
and massacred hundreds of
settlers.
Troops
seized the
ringleaders, who were sentenced
to be hanged.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, November
10,
1862.
Major-General Pope,
St.
Paul, Minnesota.
Your
despatch
giving
the names
of 300
In-
dians condemned
to
death
is
received.
Please
forward
as
soon
as
possible
the
full and com-
plete record of their convictions
; and
if the rec-
ord does not
fully indicate the more guilty and
influential
of the
culprits, please have a careful
statement made on
these
points and forwarded
to me.
Send
all by mail.
A. Lincoln.
On December
i,
1862,
the
President inquired
of the
Judge-Advocate General
for
his
legal opinion "whether
if
I
should conclude to execute only
a part
of them,
I
must
myself
designate
which,
or
could
I
leave
the
designation to some
officer on the ground?"
The opin-
ion was that the President should designate the Indians
to
be
executed, and
this
Lincoln
did on December
6,
1862.
[Telegram.']
War Department,
Washington, April
11,
1863.
Major-General Pope, Milwaukee, Wis.
The
President
directs
that under no
circum-
stances
will our troops
cross the boundary
line
into
British
territory
without
his
authority.
H. W. Halleck, General-in-chief.
192
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
G.
F. Shepley/
See letter to Benjamin
F. Butler of October
14,
1862.
Executive Mansion, November 21, 1862.
Hon. G. F.
Shepley.
.
.
.
I wish elections for congressmen to take place
in Louisiana
; but
I wish
it to be a movement of
the people of the
districts, and not a movement
of
our
military
or
quasi-military
authorities
there.
I merely wish our authorities to give the
people a chance—to protect them against
seces-
sion interference.
Of course the election cannot
be according
to
strict law.
By
State law there
is,
I
suppose, no
election day before January
;
and
the
regular
election
officers
will
not
act
in
many cases,
if in any.
These knots must be cut,
the main
object being to
get an
expression
of
the
people.
If they would
fix a day
in
a way
for themselves
all the
better
; but
if they stand
idle,
not seeming to know what
to do, do you
fix these things for them by proclamation.
And
do not waste a day about
it, but fix the election
day
early enough,
that we can hear
the
result
here by the
first of January.
Fix a day for an
election
in
all
the
districts, and have
it held
in
as many
places
as you
can.
Yours very truly,
A Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, November 21,
1862.
Hon. G. F. Shepley.
Dear
Sir:
Dr.
Kennedy,
bearer
of
this,
has
some apprehension that Federal
officers not
citi-
zens of Louisiana may be
set up
as
candidates
^ Colonel
Shepley
was
appointed
military
governor
•£
Louisiana on June
10,
1S62.
I
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
193
for Congress
in
that
State.
In my view
there
could be no
possible object in such an
election.
We do
not
particularly need members
of Con-
gress from there to enable us to get along with
legislation here.
What we do want
is the con-
clusive evidence that respectable citizens of Lou-
isiana
are
willing
to
be members
of
Congress
and
to swear
support
to
the
Constitution, and
that
other
respectable
citizens
there
are
willing
to vote for them and send them.
To send a par-
cel
of
Northern
men
here
as
representatives,
elected,
as would
be understood
(and
perhaps
really so), at the point of the bayonet, would be
disgusting and outrageous; and were
I a mem-
ber of Congress here,
I would vote against ad-
mitting any such man to a seat.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
See letters
to Nathaniel
P. Banks of August
5,
1863;
November
5,
1863; and December
24,
1863.
George Robertson.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, November 26,
1862.
My dear
Sir: A few days
since
I had a de-
spatch from you which
I
did not answer.
If
I
were to be wounded personally,
I think
I would
not shun
it.
But
it
is the
life of the nation.
I
now understand the trouble
is with Colonel Ut-
ley
: that he has
five slaves in his camp, four of
whom belong to rebels, and one belonging to you.
If
this be
true, convey yours
to Colonel Utley,
so that he can make him free, and I will pay you
any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars.
Yours,
etc.,
A. Lincoln.
194
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Edward Bates.
Executive Mansion, November 29, 1862.
Hon. Attorney- General.
My
dear
Sir: Few
things
perplex me more
than this question between Governor Gamble and
the War Department, as to whether the peculiar
force organized by
the former
in
Missouri are
State troops or United States troops.
Now, this
is
either an immaterial
or a mischievous
ques-
tion.
First,
if no more
is
desired than
to have
it settled what name the force
is to be called by,
it
is
immaterial.
Secondly,
if
it
is
desired
for
more than the fixing a name,
it can only be to
get a position from which to draw practical
in-
ferences
; then
it
is mischievous.
Instead of set-
tling
one
dispute
by
deciding
the
question,
I
should
merely
furnish
a
nestful
of
eggs
for
hatching new
disputes.
I
believe
the
force
is
not
strictly
either
"State
troops"
or
"United
States
troops."
It
is
of
mixed
character.
I
therefore think
it
is safer, when a practical ques-
tion
arises, to decide
that question
directly, and
not
indirectly by deciding a general abstraction
supposed to include
it, and also including a great
deal more.
Without
dispute Governor Gamble
appoints
the
officers
of
this
force, and
fills
va-
cancies
when
they
occur.
The
question now
practically
in dispute
is
: Can Governor Gamble
make a vacancy by removing an
officer
or
ac-
cepting a resignation?
Now, while
it
is proper
that this question
shall be
settled,
I do not per-
ceive why either Governor Gamble or the Gov-
ernment here should care which way
it
is settled.
I am perplexed with
it only because there seems
to be pertinacity about
it.
It seems to me that
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
195
it might be either way without injury to the ser-
vice
; or
that the offer of the Secretary of War
to
let Governor Gamble make vacancies, and he
(the
Secretary)
to
ratify
the making of them,
ought
to be
satisfactory.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
John
L. Worden,
\^Message
to
Congress.^
To the Senate and House of Representatives.
In conformity
to the law of July
16,
1862,
I
most cordially recommend that Commander John
L. Worden, United
States Navy, receive a vote
of thanks of Congress
for the eminent
skill and
gallantry exhibited by him in the late remarkable
battle between the United States iron-clad steam-
er Monitor, under
his command, and
the
rebel
iron-clad steamer Merrirnac,
in March
last.
.
.
.
Abraham Lincoln.
Washington, D. C, December
8,
1862.
George U.
Morris.
[Message
to
Congress.^
To the Senate and House of Representatives.
In conformity
to the law of July
16,
1862,
I
most cordially recommend that Lieutenant-Com-
mander George U. Morris, United
States Navy,
receive
a
vote
of
thanks
of
Congress
for
the
determined
valor and heroism
displayed
in
his
defense of the L^nited States ship of war
Ciiui-
berland, temporarily under
his command
in the
naval engagement at Hampton Roads on the 8th
of March,
1862, with the
rebel iron-clad steam-
frigate Mcrrimac.
Abraham Lincoln.
Washington, D. C, December
10, 1862.
196
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Fernando Wood.
Executive Mansion, December
12,
1862.
Hon. Fernando Wood.
My dear Sir
: Your letter of the 8th, with the
accompanying note
of same
date, was
received
yesterday.
The most important paragraph in the
letter, as
I consider,
is in these words
:
'' On the
25th of November
last
I was advised by an au-
thority which I deemed likely to be well informed
as well as reliable and truthful, that the Southern
States
would
send
representatives
to
the
next
Congress, provided
that a
full and general am-
nesty should permit them
to do
so.
No guar-
anties
or terms were
asked
for
other than
the
amnesty referred to."
I strongly suspect your information will prove
to be groundless
; nevertheless,
I thank you for
communicating
it
to
me.
Understanding
the
phrase
in
the
paragraph
above
quoted—''the
Southern
States
would
send
representatives
to
the next Congress"—to be substantially the same
as that ''the people of the Southern States would
cease resistance, and would reinaugurate, submit
to, and maintain the national authority within the
limits
of such
States under
the
Constitution of
the United
States,"
I say that in such case the
war would cease on the part of the United States
;
and that
if within a reasonable time "a
full and
general amnesty" were necessary to such end,
it
would not be withheld.
I do not think
it would be proper now for me
to communicate
this
formally
or
informally
to
the
people
of
the
Southern
States.
My
belief
is
that
they
already know
it;
and when
they
choose,
if
ever, they can communicate with me
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
197
unequivocally.
Nor do
I think
it proper now to
suspend
military
operations
to
try any
experi-
ment of negotiation.
I should nevertheless receive with great pleas-
ure
the
exact
information you now
have,
and
also such other
as you may
in any way
obtain.
Such information might be more valuable before
the
ist of January than afterward.
While
there
is nothing
in
this
letter which
I
shall dread to see in history,
it
is, perhaps, better
for the present that
its existence should not be-
come
public.
I
therefore
have
to
request
that
you
will regard
it as
confidential.
Your obedient
servant,
A.
Lincoln.
Mrs. Abraham Lincoln (Mary Todd).
[Telegram.]
Washington, December 21,
1862.
Mrs. A. Lincoln, Continental Hotel.
Do not come on the night train.
It is too cold.
Come in the morning.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, June
9,
1863.
Mrs. Lincoln, Philadelphia.
Think you had better put "Tad's" pistol away.
I had an
ugly dream about
him.
A.
Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
War Department, June
16,
1863.
Mrs.
Lincoln,
Philadelphia,
Pa.
It
is a matter of choice with yourself whether
you come home.
There
is no reason why you
should
not,
that
did
not
exist when you went
198
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
away.
As bearing on the question of your com-
ing home,
I do not think the raid into Pennsyl-
vania amounts
to anything at
all.
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, August
8,
1863.
My dear Wife
: All
as
well
as
usual, and no
particular trouble anyway.
I put the money into
a Treasury
at
five per
cent.,
with
the
privilege
of
withdrawing
it
any
time upon
thirty
days'
notice.
I
suppose you
are
glad
to
learn
this.
Tell
dear Tad poor "Nanny Goat"
is
lost, and
Mrs. Cuthbert and I are in distress about
it.
The
day you
left, Nanny was found
resting herself
and chewing her Httle cud on the middle of Tad's
bed
;
but now
she's gone
!
The gardener
kept
complaining that she destroyed
the
flowers,
till
it was concluded to bring her down to the White
House.
This was done, and the second day she
had disappeared and has not been heard of since.
This
is the
last we know of poor ''Nanny."
The
weather
continues
dry
and
excessively
warm here.
Nothing very important occurring.
The election in Kentucky has gone very strongly
right.
Old Mr. Wickliffe got ugly, as you know
:
ran for Governor, and
is terribly beaten.
Upon
Mr.
Crittenden's
death,
Brutus
Clay,
Cassius's
brother, was put on the track for Congress, and
is
largely
elected.
Mr.
Menzies,
who,
as we
thought, behaved very badly last session of Con-
gress,
is
largely
beaten
in
the
district
opposite
Cincinnati, by Green Clay Smith, Cassius Clay's
nephew.
But enough.
Affectionately,
A.
Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
199
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C, September 21, 1863.
Mrs.
A.
Lincoln,
Fifth
Avenue
Hotel, New
York.
The
air
is
so
clear and
cool and apparently
healthy
that
I would be glad
for you
to come.
Nothing very particular but
I would be glad to
see you and Tad.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, September 22,
1863.
Mrs. A. Lincoln, New York.
Did you
receive my
despatch
of
yesterday?
Mrs. Cuthbert did not correctly understand me.
I directed her to
tell you to use your own pleas-
ure whether to stay or come, and
I did not say
it
is
sickly and that you
should on no account
come.
So
far
as
I
see or know,
it was never
healthier, and
I really wish to see you.
Answer
this on receipt.
A. Lincoln.
On September
24,
1863,
the
President communicated
to
his
wife, with other war news,
the information
that
her
brother-in-law
Helm,
a
brigadier-general
in
the
Confederate
army,
had
been
killed
in
the
battle
of
Chickamauga.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion, April
28,
1864.
Mrs.
A.
Lincoln,
Metropolitan
Hotel,
New
York.
The draft will go to you.
Tell Tad the goats
and father are very well, especially the goats.
A.
Lincoln.
200
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, June 24,
1864.
Mrs. A. Lincoln, Boston, Massachvisetts.
All
well
and
very warm.
Tad
and
I
have
been to General Grant's army.
Returned yester-
day safe and sound.
A. Lincoln.
\Telegram.'\
Washington, D.
C., June
29,
1864.
Mrs. A. Lincoln, New York.
All
well.
Tom
is moving things
out.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D.
C., August 31,
1864.
Mrs. A. Lincoln, Manchester, Vermont.
All reasonably well.
Bob not here yet.
How
is dear Tad?
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, September
8,
1864.
Mrs. A. Lincoln, Manchester, Vermont.
All well, including Tad's pony and the goats.
Mrs.
Colonel Dimmick
died
night
before
last.
Bob
left
Sunday
afternoon.
Said
he
did
not
know whether he
should
see you.
A.
Lincoln.
City
Point, Va., April
2,
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 12,000 prison-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
201
ers and
50 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.
Army of the Potomac.
The defeat
of the Army of
the Potomac
at
Freder-
icksburg, Va., on December
13,
1862, was a severe blow
to
the morale of the
soldiers, and
the
President
issued
the
following
congratulations
to them
to
lift up
their
spirits
:
Executive Mansion,
Washington, December 22, 1862.
To the Army of the Potomac
: I have just read
your commanding general's report of the
battle
of Fredericksburg.
Although you were not suc-
cessful,
the attempt was
not an
error, nor
the
failure
other than
accident.
The courage with
which you,
in an open
field, maintained the con-
test against an intrenched
foe, and the consum-
mate
skill and
success with which you
crossed
and recrossed the river in the face of the enemy,
show that you possess
all the qualities of a great
army, which
will
yet give victory
to
the cause
of the country and of popular government.
Condoling
with
the
mourners
for
the
dead,
and sympathizing with the severely wounded,
I
congratulate you that the number of both
is com-
paratively so small.
I
tender
to
you,
officers
and
soldiers,
the
thanks
of
the
nation.
A.
Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
W.
B. Franklin and W.
F. Smith.
Executive Mansion, December 22, 1862.
Major-General
Franklin
and
Major-General
Smith.
Yours of the 20th, suggesting a plan of opera-
tions
for the Army of the Potomac,
is received.
I have
hastily
read
the
plan, and
shall
yet
try
to give
it more deliberate consideration, with the
aid
of
military men.
Meanwhile
let me
say
it
seems to me to present the old questions of pref-
erence between the line of the Peninsula and the
line you are now upon.
The difficulties you point
out as pertaining to the Fredericksburg line are
obvious and palpable.
But now, as heretofore,
if
you go to James River, a large part of the army
must remain on or near the Fredericksburg line,
to protect Washington.
It
is the old
difficulty.
When
I saw
General
Franklin
at Harrison's
Landing on James River
last
July,
I cannot be
mistaken in saying that he distinctly advised the
bringing of the army away from there.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
For order
relating
to
Franklin
of January
25,
1863,
see
letter
to Ambrose
E.
Burnside.
Miss Fanny McCullough.
Executive Mansion, December
23,
1862.
Dear Fanny
: It is with deep regret that I learn
of the death of your kind and brave
father, and
especially
that
it
is
affecting your young heart
beyond what
is common
in such
cases.
In
this
sad world of ours sorrow comes
to
all, and
to
the young
it comes with bitterer agony because
it takes them unawares.
The older have learned
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
203
ever to expect
it.
I am anxious to afford some
alleviation
to your present
distress.
Perfect
re-
lief
is not possible, except with time.
You can-
not now realize that you will ever feel better.
Is
not this so?
And yet
it
is a mistake.
You are
sure to be happy again.
To know
this, which
is
certainly true, will make you some less miserable
now.
I
have had
experience enough
to know
what
I
say, and you need only
to
believe
it
to
feel
better
at once.
The memory of your dear
father,
instead of an agony,
will
yet
be
a
sad,
sweet feeling in your heart of a purer and holier
sort than you have known before.
Please
present my kind
regards
to your
af-
flicted mother.
Your
sincere
friend,
A.
Lincoln.
Compare with
letters of condolence
to the parents of
Colonel Ellsworth and to Mrs. Bixby.
W.
S. ROSECRANS.^
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion, January
5,
1863.
Major-General W.
S.
Rosecrans,
Murfreesbor-
ough, Tennessee.
Your
despatch
announcing
retreat
of enemy
has
just
reached
here.
God
bless you and
all
^ General Rosecrans was a West Point graduate, and,
at
the
outbreak
of the
war,
a prominent engineer.
He
first
served
under
General
McClellan,
winning
the
battle
of
Rich
Mountain,
Va.,
on
July
11,
1861.
On
July
he
succeeded
McClellan
in command
of
the
Department
of
the
Ohio.
Later he
succeeded
General Pope
in command
of
the Army
of
the
Mississippi,
and won
the
battles
of
luka,
September
ig,
1862, and
Corinth,
October
3 and
4,
1862.
On October
27 he became commander
of
the De-
partment of the Cumberland.
On December
31,
1862, and
January
i and
2,
1863. he defeated General Bragg at Mur-
freesborough, Tenn.
(the
battle being also known as Stone
River)
.
204
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
with you!
Please tender
to
all, and accept for
yourself,
the
nation's
gratitude
for
your
and
their
skill, endurance, and dauntless courage.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, February
17,
1863.
Major-General Rosecrans.
My dear Sir
: In no other way does the enemy
give us
so much trouble
at
so
little expense
to
himself as by the raids of rapidly moving small
bodies of troops, largely
if not wholly mounted,
harassing and discouraging loyal
residents, sup-
plying
themselves
with
provisions,
clothing,
horses,
and
the
like,
surprising and
capturing
small
detachments
of our
forces, and breaking
our communications.
And this will increase just
in proportion as
his
larger armies
shall weaken
and wane.
Nor can these raids be successfully
met by even larger forces of our own of the same
kind acting merely on the defensive.
I think we
should organize proper forces and make counter
raids.
We should not capture so much of sup-
plies from them as they have done from us, but
it would
trouble them more
to
repair
railroads
and
bridges than
it
does
us.
What
think you
of trying to get up such a corps
in your army?
Could you do
it
vv^ithout any or many additional
troops
(which we have not
to give you), pro-
vided we furnish horses, suitable arms, and other
appointments?
Please
consider
this
not
as an
order, but as a suggestion.
Yours
truly,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
205
Executive Mansion, March
17,
1863.
Major-General Rosecrans.
My dear
Sir:
I have
just
received your, tele-
gram
saying
that
the
"Secretary
of War
tele-
graphed
after the
battle of Stone River: 'Any-
thing
you
and
your command
want
you
can
have/
'' and then
specifying
several
things you
have requested and have not received.
The promise of the Secretary, as you
state
it,
is certainly pretty broad
; nevertheless
it accords
with the
feeling of the whole Government here
toward you.
I know not a single enemy of yours
here.
Still the promise must have a reasonable
construction.
We know you
will not purposely
make an unreasonable request, nor persist in one
after
it shall appear to be such.
Now, as
to the
matter
of
a
paymaster, you
desired
one
to be
permanently
attached
to
your
army,
and,
as
I
understand,
desired
that Major Larned
should
be the man.
This was denied you
; and you seem
to
think
it was
denied
partly
to
disoblige you
and
partly
to
disoblige Major Larned—the
lat-
ter, as you suspect, at the instance of Paymaster-
General Andrews.
On the contrary,
the
Secre-
tary of War assures me the request was refused
on no personal ground whatever, but because to
grant
it would derange, and
substantially break
up, the whole pay-system as now organized, and
so organized on very full consideration and sound
reason,
as
believed.
There
is powerful tempta-
tion
in money
; and
it was and
is believed that
nothing can prevent the paymasters
speculating
upon the
soldiers but a system by which each
is
to pay
certain
regiments
so
soon
after he
has
notice that he
is to pay those particular regiments
that he has no time or opportunity to
lay plans
for
speculating upon them.
This
precaution
is
all
lost
if paymasters
respectively
are
to
serve
permanently
with
the same
regiments, and pay
them over and over during the war.
No special
application of this has been intended to be made
to Major Larned or
to your army.
And
as to
General Andrews,
I have
in another connection
felt a
little aggrieved at what seemed
to me his
implicit following the advice and suggestions of
Major Larned—so ready
are we
all
to cry out
and
ascribe
motives
when
our
own
toes
are
pinched.
Now as to your request that your commission
should
date
from December,
1861.
Of
course
you expected to gain something by this
; but you
should remember that precisely so much as you
should gain by
it
others would
lose by
it.
If
the thing you sought had been exclusively ours,
we would
have
given
it
cheerfully
;
but,
being
the
right of other men, we having a merely ar-
bitrary power over
it,
the taking
it from them
and giving
it to you became a more delicate mat-
ter and more deserving of consideration.
Truth
to speak,
I do not appreciate this matter of rank
on paper as you officers do.
The world will not
forget that you fought the battle of Stone River,
and
it
will never
care
a
fig whether you rank
General Grant on paper, or he so ranks you.
As to the appointment of an aide contrary to
your
wishes,
I knew
nothing
of
it
until
I
re-
ceived your despatch
; and the Secretary of War
tells me
he
has known
nothing
of
it,
but
will
trace
it
out.
The
examination
of
course
will
extend
to the case of R.
S. Thomas, whom you
say you wish appointed.
And now be assured you wrong both yourself
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
207
and us when you even suspect there
is not the
best
disposition
on
the
part
of
us
all
here
to
oblige you.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.^
Washington, May 20,
1863.
Major-General Rosecrans.
Yours of yesterday in relation to Colonel Hag-
gard
is
received.
I am anxious
that you
shall
not misunderstand me.
In no
case have
I
in-
tended to censure you or to question your ability.
In Colonel Haggard's case I meant no more than
to
suggest
that
possibly you
might have been
mistaken in a point that could
[he]
corrected.
I frequently make mistakes myself in the many
things
I am compelled to do hastily.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, May 21, 1863.
4.40 p. m.
Major-General Rosecrans.
For certain reasons
it
is thought best for Rev.
Dr. Jaquess not to come here.
Present my
respects
to him, and ask him
to
write me
fully on
the
subject he
has
in
con-
templation.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, May
28,
1863.
Major-General
Rosecrans,
Murfreesborough,
Tennessee.
I would not push you
to any rashness, but
I
am very anxious that you do your utmost, short
of
rashness,
to keep Bragg from getting
off to
help Johnston against Grant.
A. Lincoln.
2o8
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Executive Mansion, May 28, 1863.
Major-General Rosecrans.
My
dear
Sir:
I
have
but
a
slight
personal
acquaintance
with
Colonel
Jaquess,
though
I
know him very well by character.
Such a mission as he proposes
I think prom-
ises good,
if
it were free from difficulties, which
I fear
it cannot be.
First.
He
cannot
go
with
any
government
authority
whatever.
This
is
absolute and
im-
perative.
Secondly.
If he
goes
without
authority,
he
takes
a great deal of personal
risk—he may be
condemned and executed as a spy.
If, for any reason, you think fit to give Colonel
Jaquess a furlough, and any authority from me
for that object
is necessary, you hereby have
it
for any length of time you see
fit.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, August
10,
1863.
My dear General Rosecrans.
Yours of the
ist was received two days ago.
I think you must have inferred more than Gen-
eral Halleck has intended, as to any dissatisfac-
tion
of mine
with
you.
I am
sure
you,
as
a
reasonable man, would not have been wounded
could you have heard
all my words and seen
all
my thoughts in regard to you.
I have not abated
in my
kind
feeling
for you and
confidence
in
you.
I have
seen most
of your
despatches
to
General Halleck—probably
all of them.
After
Grant
invested Vicksburg
I was
very
anxious
lest Johnston
should overwhelm him from
the
outside, and when
it appeared certain that part
of
Bragg's
force had
gone
and w^s
going
to
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
209
Johnston,
it did seem to me
it was
exactly the
proper time
for you to attack Bragg with what
force he had
left.
In
all kindness
let me say
it
so
seems
to me
yet.
Finding from your
de-
spatches to General Halleck that your judgment
was different, and being very anxious for Grant,
I, on one occasion, told General Halleck I thought
he should direct you to decide at once to imme-
diately attack Bragg or to stand on
the defen-
sive and send part of your force to Grant.
He
replied he had already so directed
in substance.
Soon
after,
despatches from
Grant abated my
anxiety
for him, and
in
proportion
abated my
anxiety about any movement
of
yours.
* When
aftervvard, however,
I saw a despatch of yours
arguing
that
the
right
time
for you
to
attack
Bragg was not before, but would be
after,
the
fall of Vicksburg, it impressed me very strangely,
and
I think I so stated to the Secretary of War
and General Halleck.
It seemed no other than
the proposition that you could better fight Bragg
when Johnston should be at liberty to return and
assist him
than you
could
before
he
could
so
return to his assistance.
Since Grant has been entirely relieved by the
fall
of
Vicksburg,
by
which
Johnston
is
also
relieved,
it has seemed to me that your chance
for
a
stroke has been
considerably
diminished,
and
I
have
not been
pressing you
directly
or
indirectly.
True,
I am very
anxious
for
East
Tennessee to be occupied by us
; but
I
see and
appreciate
the
difficulties
you
mention.
The
question
occurs,
Can
the
thing
be
done
at
all?
Does
preparation
advance
at
all?
Do
you
not consume
supplies
as
fast
as
you
get
them
forward?
Have
you
more
animals
to-
2IO
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
day than you had
at
the
battle
of Stone Riv-
er?
And
yet
have
not
more
been
furnished
you
since then than your
entire present
stock?
I
ask
the same
questions
as
to your mounted
force.
Do not misunderstand
:
I am not casting blame
upon you
;
I rather think by great exertion you
can get to East Tennessee
; but a very important
question
is, Can you
stay
there?
I make no
order in the case—that I leave to General Halleck
and yourself.
And now be assured once more that
I think
of you in
all kindness and
confidence, and that
I am not watching you with an evil eye.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, August 31,
1863.
My dear General Rosecrans.
Yours
of
the
22d
was
received
yesterday.
When
I wrote you before,
I
did
[not]
intend,
nor do
I now,
to engage
in an argument with
you on
military
questions.
You had informed
me you were impressed through
General
Hal-
leck
that
I was
dissatisfied
with
you
;
and
I
could not bluntly deny that
I was without un-
justly
implicating
him.
I
therefore
concluded
to
tell you
the
plain
truth,
being
satisfied
the
matter would thus appear much smaller than
it
would
if seen by mere glimpses.
I
repeat that
my appreciation of you has not
abated.
I can
never
forget
whilst
I remember
anything
that
about the end of last year and beginning of this,
you gave us
a hard-earned
victory, which, had
there
been
a
defeat
instead,
the
nation
could
scarcely have lived over.
Neither can
I
forget the check you so oppor-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
21 r
tunely gave to a dangerous sentiment which was
spreading in the North.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
On
September
9,
1863,
General
Rosecrans
occupied
Chattanooga.
He was
defeated
at Chickamauga
Sep-
tember
18-20.
Washington, September 21, 1863.
12.55 p.m.
Major-General Rosecrans, Chattanooga.
Be of good
cheer.
We have unabated
confi-
dence
in you, and
in your
soldiers and
officers.
In the main you must be the judge as to what is
to be done.
If
I were to
suggest,
I would say,
save your army by taking strong positions
until
Burnside joins you, when,
I hope, you can turn
the
tide.
I think you had better send a courier
to Burnside to hurry him up.
We cannot reach
him by
telegraph.
We
suppose some
force
is
going
to you
from
Corinth,
but
for
want
of
communication we do
not know how
they
are
getting along. We shall do our utmost to assist
you.
Send us your present positions.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, September 23, 1863.
9.15 a.m.
Major-General
Rosecrans,
Chattanooga,
Ten-
nessee.
Below
is
Bragg's
despatch
as
found
in
the
Richmond
papers.
You
see he does
not claim
so many prisoners or captured guns as you were
inclined to concede.
He also confesses to heavy
loss.
An
exchanged
general
of
ours
leaving
Richmond
yesterday
says
two
of
Longstreet's
divisions
and
his
entire
artillery
and
two
of
212
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Pickett's brigades and Wise's legion have gone
to Tennessee.
He mentions no other.
Chickamauga River,
September
(via Ringgold,
21st).
General
Cooper,
Adjutant-General
:
After
two
days'
hard
fighting we
have
driven
the
enemy,
after
a
desperate
resistance, from
several
posi-
tions, and now hold the
field
; but he
still confronts
us.
The
losses
are
heavy on
both
sides,
especially
in our
officers.
We have taken over twenty pieces of
artillery
and some 2,500 prisoners.
Braxton Bragg.
A.
Lincoln.
\Telegram.'\
War Department,
September 24, 1863.
10 a. m.
Major-General
Rosecrans,
Chattanooga,
Ten-
nessee.
Last
night we
received
the
rebel
accounts,
through Richmond
papers,
of your
late
battle.
They
give
Major-General
Hood
as
mortally
wounded.
.
.
. With
Burnside,
Sherman,
and
from elsewhere we shall get to you from forty to
sixty thousand additional men.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, September 28,
1863.
My dear General Rosecrans.
We are sending you two small corps, one un-
der General Howard and one under General Slo-
cum, and the whole under General Hooker.
Unfortunately the
relations between Generals
Hooker and Slocum are not such as to promise
good,
if
their present
relative
positions remain.
Therefore,
let me
beg^—almost enjoin upon you
—that on
their reaching you, you
will make a
transposition by which General Slocum with his
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
213
corps may
pass
from
under
the command
of
General Hooker, and General Hooker,
in
turn,
receive some other equal
force.
It
is important
for
this
to be done, though we could not
well
arrange
it here.
Please do
it.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
War Department,
October 4, 1863.
11.30 a. m.
Major-General
Rosecrans,
Chattanooga,
Ten-
nessee.
Yours of yesterday received.
If we can hold
Chattanooga
and
East
Tennessee,
I
think
the
rebellion must dwindle and die.
I think you and
Burnside can do this, and hence doing so
is your
main
object.
Of
course
to
greatly damage
or
destroy
the enemy
in
your
front
would
be
a
greater object, because
it would include the for-
mer and more, but
it
is not so
certainly within
your power.
I understand the main body of the
enemy
is very near you, so near that you could
*'board
at home,"
so
to
speak, and menace
or
attack him any
day.
Would not
the doing of
this be your best mode of counteracting his raid
on
your communications?
But
this
is
not
an
order.
I intend doing something
like what you
suggest
whenever
the
case
shall
appear
ripe
enough
to have
it accepted
in
the
true under-
standing rather than as a confession of weakness
and fear.
A. Lincoln.
214
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
\Telegram in Cipher.
'\
War Department,
October
12, 1863.
8.35
a. m.
Major-General
Rosecrans,
Chattanooga,
Ten-
nessee.
As
I
understand, Burnslde
is menaced from
the west, and so cannot go to you without sur-
rendering
East
Tennessee.
I
now
think
the
enemy
will not attack Chattanooga and
I think
you will have to look out for his making a con-
centrated drive at Burnside.
You and Burnside
now have him by the throat
; and he must break
your hold or perish.
I therefore think you better
try
to
hold
the
road
up
to
Kingston,
leaving
Burnside
to what
is above
there.
Sherman
is
coming to you, though gaps in the telegraph pre-
vent our knowing how
far he
is advanced.
He
and Hooker will so support you on the west and
northwest
as
to
enable
you
to
look
east
and
northeast.
This
is not an order.
General Hal-
leck will give his views.
A. Lincoln.
General
Rosecrans was
assigned
to
the
Department
of the Missouri
in January,
1864.
Executive Mansion, March
10, 1864.
Major-General Rosecrans.
Please
carefully
examine
and
consider
the
question
whether,
on
the
whole,
it
would
be
advantageous to our military operations
for the
United States to furnish iron for completing the
southwest branch of the Pacific Railroad,
all or
any part of the way from Rolla to
Springfield,
Missouri, so fast as the company shall do
all the
other work
for
the
completion, and
to
receive
pay
for
said
iron
in
transportation upon
said
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
215
newly made part of said road; and
if your opin-
ion
shall be
in the
affirmative, make a
contract
with the company
to
that
effect,
subject
to my
approval or
rejection.
In any event, report the
main facts, together with your reasoning, to me.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, April 4, 1864.
Major-General Rosecrans.
My dear Sir: This
is rather more
social than
official
;
containing
suggestions
rather
than
or-
ders.
I somewhat dread the effect of your Spe-
cial Order No. 61, dated March
7,
1864.
I have
found
that men who have
not even been
sus-
pected of disloyalty are very averse to taking an
oath
of any
sort
as
a
condition
to
exercising
an ordinary right of citizenship.
The point will
probably be made that while men may, without
an
oath,
assemble
in
a
noisy
political
meeting,
they must take the oath
to assemble
in a
relig-
ious
meeting.
It
is
said,
I know
not whether
truly, that
in some parts of Missouri assassina-
tions are systematically committed upon returned
rebels who
wish
to
ground
arms
and
behave
themselves.
This
should not
be.
Of course
I
have not heard that you give countenance to or
wink
at such
assassinations.
Again,
it
is com-
plained that the enlistment of negroes
is not con-
ducted in as orderly a manner and with as
little
collateral
provocation
as
it might
be.
So
far
you have
got
along
in
the Department
of
the
Missouri rather better than I dared to hope, and
I congratulate you and myself upon
it.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
2i6
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
[Telegram.']
Washington, June
8, 1864.
Major-General Rosecrans,
St. Louis, Missouri.
Yours of to-day received.
I am unable to con-
ceive 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.
Executive Mansion, September 26, 1864.
Major-General Rosecrans.
One cannot always
safely disregard a report,
even which one may not believe.
I have a report
that you
incline
to deny
the
soldiers
the
right
of attending the election in Missouri, on the as-
sumed ground that they will get drunk and make
a disturbance.
Last year
I
sent General Scho-
iield
a
letter
of
instruction,
dated
October
i,
1863, which
I suppose you will find on the
files
of
the
department,
and which
contains among
other
things
the
following:
*'At
elections
see
that
those, and only those,
are allowed to vote
who are
entitled
to do
so by the laws of Mis-
souri, including as of those laws the restrictions
laid by the Missouri convention upon those who
may have
participated
in
the
rebellion."
This
I thought right then, and think right now; and,
I may add,
I do not remember that either party
complained
after the
election of General
Scho-
field's action under
it.
Wherever the law allows
vSoldiers to vote, their officers must also allow
it.
Please write me on this subject.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
I
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
217
Executive Mansion, November
19,
1864.
Major-General Rosecrans.
A Major Wolf, as it seems, was under sentence
in
your department
to
be
executed
in
retalia-
tion
for the murder of a Major Wilson, and
I,
without any
particular knowledge of
the
facts,
w^as induced by appeals for mercy to order the
suspension
of
his
execution
till
further
order.
Understanding
that
you
so
desire,
this
letter
places
the case again within your
control, with
the remark only that
I wish you to do nothing
merely
for revenge, but that what you may do
shall be solely done with reference to the security
of the future.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Caleb Russell and Sallie A. Fenton.
Washington, January
5,
1863.
My Good Friends
:
The Honorable Senator Harlan has just placed
in my hands your
letter of the 27th of Decem-
ber, which
I have read with pleasure and grati-
tude.
It
is most
cheering and encouraging
for me
to know
that in the efforts which
I have made
and am making for the restoration of a righteous
peace to our country,
I am upheld and sustained
by the good wishes and prayers of God's people.
No one
is more deeply than myself aware that
without His favor our highest wisdom
is but as
foolishness and that our most strenuous
efforts
would
avail nothing in the shadow of His
dis-
pleasure.
I am conscious of no desire for my country's
welfare that
is not in consonance with His
will,
and of no plan upon which we may not ask His
2i8
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
blessing.
It seems to me that if there be one sub-
ject upon which all good men may unitedly agree,
it
is imploring the gracious favor of the God of
Nations upon the struggles our people are mak-
ing for the preservation of their precious birth-
right of civil and religious liberty.
Very truly your
friend,
A. Lincoln.
Green Adams.
Executive Mansion, January
7,
1863.
Hon. Green Adams.
My dear Sir
: In answer to your inquiries of
this morning,
I have to s^y that I am very anx-
ious to have the special force in Kentucky raised
and armed.
But the changed conduct toward me
of some of her members of
Congress, and
the
ominous outgivings as to what the governor and
legislature of Kentucky intend
doing, admonish
me
to
consider whether any
additional arms
I
may send there are not to be turned against the
Government.
I hope
this may
clear up on the
right side.
So far as
I can see, Kentucky's sons
in the field are acting loyally and bravely.
God
bless them
!
I cannot help thinking the mass of
her people feel the same way.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
B. Gratz Brown.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D.
C.,
January 7, 1863.
5.30 p. m.
Hon.
B. Gratz Brown, Jefferson
City, Missouri.
Yours of to-day
just
received.
The Admin-
istration
takes
no
part between
its
friends
in
f
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
219
Missouri, of whom
I, at least, consider you one;
and
I have never before had an intimation that
appointees
there were
interfering,
or
were
in-
cHned to interfere.
A. Lincoln.
FiTz-JoHN Porter.^
See
letter
of November
5,
1862,
to George
B. Mc-
Clellan.
[Instructiojt
to
the Jiidge-Advocate-GcncraL]
War Department, January
12,
1863.
The Judge-Advocate-General
is
instructed
to
i
revise the proceedings of the court-martial in the
case of Major-General Fitz-John Poster, and to
report
fully upon any
legal questions
that may
have
arisen
in
them, and upon
the bearing of
the
testimony
in
reference
to
the
charges and
specifications exhibited against the accused, and
upon which he was tried.
Abraham Lincoln.
[Indorsement on
the Proceedings and Sentence
of
the
Fitz-John Porter
Court-MartiaL]
Headquarters
of the Army,
Washington,
January
13,
1863.
In
compliance
with
the
Sixty-fifth
Article
of War,
these whole
proceedings
are
transmitted
to
the
Secre-
tary
of War,
to
be
laid
before
the
President
of
the
United
States.
H. W. Halleck,
General-in-chief.
^ General Fitz-John
Porter was charged by
his superior
general, John
Pope, with
disobeying orders
at
the Second
Battle
of
Bull Run, August
28 and
29,
1862.
For
this he
was deprived of command, but
restored, and he served
in
the
Antietam
campaign.
In
November, however,
he was
court-martialed.
In
1886 he was restored by Congress
to
the army with the rank of colonel.
220
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
January
21,
1863.
The foregoing proceedings,
findings, and sen-
tence
in
the
foregoing
case
of
Major-General
Fitz-John
Porter
are approved and
confirmed,
and
it
is ordered that the said Fitz-John Porter
be,
and he
hereby
is,
cashiered and
dismissed
from the service of the United States as a major-
general of vokmteers, and as colonel and brevet
brigadier-general
in
the
regular
service
of
the
United
States,
and
forever
disqualified
from
holding any
office of
trust or
profit under
the
Government of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln.
Working-men
of
Manchester,
England.
Executive Mansion, January
19,
1863.
To the Working-men of Manchester:
I have
the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the ad-
dress and resolutions which you sent me on the
eve of the new year.
When
I came, on the 4th
of March, 1861, through a free and constitutional
election
to
preside
in
the
Government
of
the
United
States,
the
country
was
found
at
the
verge of
civil war.
Whatever might have been
the
cause,
or
whosoever
the
fault,
one
duty,
paramount to all others, was before me, namely,
to maintain and preserve at once the Constitution
and
the
integrity
of
the Federal
Republic.
A
conscientious
purpose
to perform
this
duty
is
the key
to
all
the measures
of
administration
which have been and to
all which will hereafter
be pursued.
Under our frame
of government
and my
official
oath,
I
could not depart from
this purpose
if I would.
It
is not always
in the
power of governments to enlarge or restrict the
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
221
scope of moral results which follow the
policies
that they may deem
it necessary
for the public
safety from time to time to adopt.
I have understood well that the duty of
self-
preservation rests solely with the American peo-
ple
; but I have at the same time been aware that
favor or disfavor of foreign nations might have
a material
influence
in
enlarging or prolonging
the struggle with disloyal men in which the coun-
try
is engaged.
A
fair examination of
history
has served to authorize a belief that the past ac-
tions and
influences of the United
States were
generally
regarded
as
having
been
beneficial
toward
mankind.
I
have,
therefore,
reckoned
upon the forbearance of nations.
Circumstances
—to some
of which you
kindly
allude—induce
me especially to expect that
if
justice and good
faith
should be practised by the United
States,
the}^ would encounter no hostile influence on the
part of Great Britain.
It is now a pleasant duty
to acknowledge the demonstration you have given
of your desire that a
spirit of amity and peace
toward this country may prevail
in the councils
of your Queen, who
is respected and esteemed
in your own country only more than she
is by
the kindred
nation which has
its home on
this
side of the Atlantic.
I
know
and
deeply
deplore
the
sufferings
which the working-men at Manchester, and in all
Europe,
are
called
to endure
in
this
crisis.
It
has been often and
studiously represented that
the attempt to overthrow this Government, which
was built upon the foundation of human
rights,
and
to
substitute
for
it one which
should
rest
exclusively on the basis of human
slavery, was
likely to obtain the favor of Europe.
Through
222
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
the action of our disloyal
citizens, the working-
men
of Europe have been
subjected
to
severe
trials,
for the purpose of
forcing their sanction
to that attempt.
Under the circumstances, I can-
not but regard your decisive utterances upon the
question as an instance of sublime Christian hero-
ism which has not been surpassed in any age or
in any
country.
It
is indeed an
energetic and
reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of
truth, and of the ultimate and universal triumph
of
justice,
humanity,
and
freedom.
I
do
not
doubt
that
the
sentiments you
have
expressed
'will be sustained by your great nation
; and, on
the other hand,
I have no hesitation
in assuring
you that they will excite admiration, esteem, and
the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among
the
American
people.
I
hail
this
interchange
of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that what-
ever else may happen, whatever misfortune may
befall your country or my own,
the peace and
friendship which now exist between the two na-
tions
will
be,
as
it
shall be my
desire to make
them, perpetual.
Abraham Lincoln.
See
letter to Working-men of London.
Joseph Hooker.
See
letter of January
19,
1861, to
J. K.
F. Mansfield;
of November
5,
1862,
to George
B. McClellan; and
of
January
25,
1863, to Ambrose
E. Burnside.
Executive Mansion, January 26, 1863.
Major-General Hooker.
General
:
I have placed you at the head of the
Army of the Potomac.
Of course
I have done
this upon what
appear
to me
to
be
sufficient
reasons, and yet
I think
it best for you to know
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
223
that there are some things in regard to which
I
am not quite satisfied with you.
I beheve you to
be a brave and
skilful
soldier, which
of course
I like.
I also believe you do not mix politics with
your
profession,
in which you
are
right.
You
have confidence in yourself, which
is a valuable
if*not an indispensable
quality.
You are ambi-
tious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good
rather than harm
; but
I think that during Gen-
eral Burnside's command of the army you have
taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him
as much as you could, in which you did a great
wrong to the country and to a most meritorious
and honorable brother
officer.
I have heard, in
such
a way
as
to
believe
it,
of your
recently
saying that both
the army and the Government
needed a dictator.
Of course
it was not for this,
but in spite of
it, that I have given you the com-
mand.
Only those generals who gain
successes
can set up dictators.
What I now ask of you
is
military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.
The Government will support you to the utmost
of
its ability, which
is neither more nor less than
it has done and will do
for
all commanders.
I
much fear that the
spirit which you have aided
to infuse into the army, of criticising their com-
mander and
withholding
confidence from
him,
will now turn upon you.
I shall assist you as far
as
I can to put
it down.
Neither you nor Napo-
leon,
if he were alive again, could get any good
out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it;
and now beware of rashness.
Beware of
rash-
ness, but with energy and
sleepless vigilance go
forward and give us
victories.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
224
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
On
receiving
this
letter Hooker
said
of
the
Presi-
dent
:
" He talks to me like a father
;
I shall not answer
this
letter
until
I have won him
a great victory."
\_Indorsement on
General
J. Hooker's Plan
of
Campaign against Richmond.^
April
II,
1863.
My opinion
is that just now, with the enemy
directly ahead
of
us, there
is no
eligible
route
for us into Richmond
; and consequently a ques-
tion
of
preference between
the Rappahannock
route and
the James
River
route
is
a
contest
about nothing.
Hence our prime object
is
the
enemy's army in front of us, and
is not with or
about Richmond at
all, unless
it be incidental to
the main object.
What then ?
The two armies are face to face,
with a narrow
river between them.
Our com-
munications are shorter and safer than are those
of the enemy.
For this reason we can, with equal
powers, fret him more than he can us.
I do not
think
that by
raids toward Washington he can
derange the Army of the Potomac at all.
He has
no distant operations which can
call any of the
Army of the Potomac away
; we have such oper-
ations which may call him away, at least in part.
While he remains intact I do not think we should
take
the
disadvantage
of
attacking him
in
his
intrenchments
; but we should continually harass
and menace him, so that he shall have no leisure
nor safety in sending away detachments.
H he
weakens himself, then pitch into him.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
225
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C,
April
15, 1863.
10.15 p.m.
Major-General Hooker.
It
is now 10.15
p. m.
An hour ago I received
your letter of this morning, and a few moments
later your despatch of this evening.
The
latter
gives me considerable uneasiness.
The rain and
mud of course were to be calculated upon.
Gen-
eral S.
is not moving rapidly enough to make the
expedition come to anything.
He has now been
out three days, two of which were unusually fair
weather, and
all
three without hindrance from
the enemy, and yet he
is not twenty-five miles
from where he
started.
To reach
his point he
still has sixty to go, another river (the Rapidan)
to cross, and will be hindered by the enemy.
By
arithmetic, how many days
will
it take him
to
do
it?
I do
not know
that any better can be
done,
but
I
greatly
fear
it
is
another
failure
already.
Write me often.
I am very anxious.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
On May
2-4
Hooker
was
beaten
at
Chancellors-
ville,
Va.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C, May 6, 1863.
12.25 V-^-
Major-General Hooker.
We have through General Dix the contents of
Richmond
papers
of
the
5th.
General
Dix's
despatch in
full
is going to you by Captain Fox
of the navy.
The substance
is General Lee's de-
spatch of the 3d (Sunday), claiming that he had
beaten
you, and
that you were
then
retreating
across the Rappahannock,
distinctly
stating that
226
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
two
of
Longstreet's
divisions
fought
you
on
Saturday, and that General
[£. F.]
Paxton was
killed, Stonewall Jackson severely wounded, and
Generals Heth and A. P. Hill
slightly wounded.
The Richmond papers also stated, upon what au-
thority not mentioned, that our cavalry have been
at
Ashland, Hanover
Court
House,
and
other
points, destroying several locomotives and a good
deal
of
other
property,
and
all
the
railroad
bridges to within
five miles of Richmond.
A. Lincoln.
\Telegrani.'\
Washington, D. C., May 6, 1863.
12.30 p.m.
General Hooker.
Just as I had telegraphed you contents of Rich-
mond papers showing that our cavalry had not
failed,
I
received
General
Butterfield's
of
a. m.
yesterday.
This,
with
the
great
rain
of
yesterday
and
last
night
securing
your
right
flank,
I think puts a new face upon your case;
but you must be the judge.
A. Lincoln.
Headquarters Army of the Potomac,
May 7,
1863.
Major-General Hooker.
My dear
Sir: The
recent movement of your
army is ended without effecting its object, except,
perhaps, some important breakings
of
the ene-
my's communications.
What next? H possible,
I would be very glad of another movement early
enough to give us some benefit from the fact of
the
enemy's
communication
being broken
;
but
neither for this reason nor any other do
I wish
anything done
in
desperation
or
rashness.
An
early movement would also help to supersede the
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
227
bad moral effect of the recent one, which
is said
to be considerably injurious.
Have you already
in your mind a plan wholly or partially formed ?
If you
have,
prosecute
it
without
interference
from me.
If you have not, please inform me, so
that
I, incompetent as
I may be, can try and as-
sist in the formation of some plan for the army.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C, May 8, 1863.
4 p. m.
]\Iajor-General Hooker.
The news
is here of the capture by our forces
of
Grand
Gulf—a
large
and
very
important
thing.
General
Willich, an exchanged prisoner
just
from Richmond,
has
talked
with me
this
morning.
He was there when our
cavalry
cut
the roads
in
that
vicinity.
He
says
there was
not a sound pair of legs
in Richmond, and that
our men, had they known
it, could have
safely
gone
in and burned everything and brought
in
Jeff
Davis.
We captured and
paroled
300
or
400 men.
He
says
as he came
to
City
Point
there
was
an army
three
miles
long
(Long-
street's, he thought) moving toward Richmond.
Milroy
has
captured
a
despatch
of
General
Lee, in which he says his loss was fearful in his
last battle with you.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C., May
13,
1863.
i p.m.
Major-General Hooker.
If
it will not interfere with the service, nor per-
sonally incommode you, please come up and see
me this evening.
A. Lincoln.
228
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Executive Mansion, May
14,
1863.
Major-General Hooker, Commanding.
My dear Sir
: When
I wrote on the 7th,
I had
an
impression
that
possibly by an
early move-
ment you
could
get some advantage
from
the
supposed facts that the enemy's communications
were disturbed, and that he was somewhat de-
ranged
in
position.
That
idea has now passed
away, the enemy having reestablished
his com-
munications, regained his positions, and actually
received reinforcements.
It does not now appear
probable to me that you can gain anything by an
early renewal of the attempt to cross the Rappa-
hannock.
I therefore
shall not complain
if you
do no more for a time than to keep the enemy
at bay and out of other mischief by menaces and
occasional
cavalry
raids,
if
practicable, and
to
put
your own army
in good
condition
again.
Still,
if in your own clear judgment you can re-
new
the
attack
successfully,
I do not mean
to
restrain
you.
Bearing upon
this
last
point,
I
must
tell you that
I have some
painful
intima-
tions that some of your corps and division com-
manders
are
not
giving you
their
entire
con-
fidence.
This would be ruinous, if true, and you
should therefore,
first of
all,
ascertain the
real
facts beyond
all possibility of doubt.
Yours
truly,
A. Lincoln.
{Telegram.l
Washington, June
5, 1863.
4 p. m.
Major-General Hooker.
Yours
of
to-day was
received
an hour
ago.
So much of professional military skill is requisite
to answer
it, that I have turned the task over to
General
Halleck.
He
promises
to perform
it
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
229
with his utmost care.
I have but one idea which
I think worth suggesting to you, and that
is,
in
case you
find Lee coming
to
the north
of
the
Rappahannock, I would by no means cross to the
south of
it.
If he should leave a rear force at
Fredericksburg, tempting you to
fall upon
it,
it
would
fight
in
intrenchments and have you
at
disadvantage, and so, man for man, worst you at
that point, while his main
force would
in some
way be getting an advantage of you northward.
In one word,
I would not take any risk of being
entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half
over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs front
and rear without a
fair chance to gore one way
or kick the other.
If Lee would come to my side
of the river,
I would keep on the same side, and
fight him
or
act
on
the
defense,
according
as
might be my estimate of
his strength
relatively
to my
own.
But
these
are mere
suggestions
which I desire to be controlled by the judgment
of yourself and General Llalleck.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Washington, June 10, 1863.
6.40 p. m.
Major-General Hooker.
Your long despatch of to-day
is just received.
If left to me, I would not go south of the Rappa-
hannock upon Lee's moving north of
it.
If you
had Richmond
invested
to-day, you would
not
be
able
to
take
it
in
twenty
days
; meanwhile
your communications, and with them your army,
would be
ruined.
I think
Lee's army, and not
Richmond
is
your
true
objective
point.
If he
comes toward the upper Potomac, follow on his
flank and on
his
inside
track,
shortening your
230
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
lines
while
he
lengthens
his.
Fight
him,
too,
when opportunity
offers.
If he stays where he
is,
fret him and
fret him.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram in
Cipher.']
Executive Mansion, June
13,
1863.
Major-General Hooker.
I was coming down this afternoon, but
if you
would prefer
I should not,
I
shall blame you
if
you do not
tell me so.
A. Lincoln.
{Telegram.']
Washington, June
14, 1863.
5.50 p. m.
Major-General Hooker.
So
far
as we can make
out here, the enemy
have Milroy surrounded
at Winchester and Ty-
ler
at
Martinsburg.
If they
could hold
out
a
few days, could you help them?
If the head of
Lee's army
is
at Martinsburg and the
tail of
it
on the plank road between Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville,
the
animal must be
very
slim
somewhere.
Could you not break him?
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Washington, June 14, 1863.
11.55 P- J^-
Major-General Hooker.
Yours
of
11.30
[11.75]
ji^st
received.
You
have
nearly
all
the
elements
for
forming
an
opinion whether Winchester
is surrounded
that
I have.
I really fear—almost believe—it
is.
.
.
.
It
is
quite
certain
that
a
considerable
force
of
the enemy
is thereabout, and
I fear
it
is an over-
whelming
one compared
with
Milroy's.
I am
unable to give you any more certain opinions.
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
231
[Telegram.']
Washington, June
15, 1863.
8.30 p. m.
Major-General Hooker,
Fairfax
Station.
The facts are now known here that Winches-
ter and Martinsburg were both besieged yester-
day.
The
troops
from
Martinsburg
have
got
into Harper's Ferry without
loss.
Those from
Winchester
are
also
in,
having
lost
in
killed,
wounded, and missing about
one-third
of
their
number.
Of
course,
the
enemy
holds
both
places, and I think the report is authentic that he
is
crossing
the Potomac
at
Williamsport.
We
have not heard of his yet appearing at Harper's
Ferry or on the river anywhere below.
I would
like to hear from you.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Washington, June 16, 1863.
10 p. m.
Major-General Hooker.
To remove
all misunderstanding,
I now place
you
in
the
strict
military
relation
to
General
Halleck of a commander of one of the armies to
the general-in-chief of
all the armies.
I have not
intended differently, but as
it seems to be differ-
ently understood
I
shall
direct him to give you
orders, and you to obey them.
A. Lincoln.
[Private.']
Executive Mansion, June
16,
1863.
My dear General.
I send you
this by the hand of Captain Dahl-
gren.
Your
despatch
of
11.30
a. m.
to-day
is
just
received.
When you say
I have long been
aware
that you do not enjoy
the
confidence of
232
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
the
major-general
commanding,
you
state
the
case much too strongly.
You do not lack his confidence
in any degree
to do you any harm.
On seeing him, after
tele-
graphing you
this morning,
I
found him more
nearly
agreeing
with you
than
I
was
myself.
Surely you
do
not mean
to understand
that
I
am withholding my confidence from you when I
happen
to
express an
opinion
(certainly never
discourteously)
differing from one of your own.
I
believe
Halleck
is
dissatisfied
with you
to
this
extent
only,
that he knows
that you
write
and telegraph
("report,"
as he
calls
it)
to me.
I think he
is wrong to find
fault with this
; but
I do
not think he withholds any support from
you on account of
it.
If you and he would use
the same
frankness
to one another, and to me,
that I use to both of you, there would be no diffi-
culty.
I need and must have
the
professional
skill
of
both, and
yet
these
suspicions
tend
to
deprive me of
both.
I
believe you
are aware that
since you took
comma'nd
of the army
I have not believed you
had any chance to effect anything
till now.
As
it looks to me, Lee's now returning toward Har-
per's
Ferry
gives you back
the
chance
that
I
thought McClellan lost
last
fall.
Quite possibly
I was wrong both then and now;
but,
in
the
great responsibility resting upon me,
I cannot be
entirely
silent.
Now,
all
I ask
is that you
will
be in such mood that we can get into our action
the best cordial judgment of yourself and Gen-
eral Halleck, with my poor mite added,
if indeed
he and you shall think
it entitled to any consid-
eration at all.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
212,
Thurlow Weed.
Washington, January
29,
1863.
Hon. Thurlow Weed.
Dear
Sir: Your valedictory
to the patrons of
the Albany Evening Journal brings me a good
deal of uneasiness.
What does
it mean ?
Truly yours,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, October 14,
1863.
Hon. Thurlow Weed.
My dear Sir:
I have been brought to fear re-
cently
that somehow,
by
commission
or
omis-
sion,
I have caused you some degree of pain.
I
have never
entertained an unkind
feeling or a
disparaging thought toward you; and
if
I have
said or done anything which has been construed
into
such
unkindness
or
disparagement,
it
has
been misconstrued.
I am sure
if we could meet
we would not part with any unpleasant impres-
sion on
either
side.
Yours as
ever,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, March
25,
1864.
Hon. Thurlow Weed.
My
dear
Sir:
I have been both
pained and
surprised
recently
at
learning
that
you
are
wounded because a suggestion of yours as to the
mode
of conducting our
national
difficulty has
not been followed—pained because
I very much
wish you to have no unpleasant feeling proceed-
ing from me, and surprised, because my impres-
sion
is that
I have seen you since the
last mes-
sage issued, apparently feeling very cheerful and
happy.
How
is this?
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
234
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
Executive Mansion, March
15,
1865.
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 imme-
diately popular.
Men are not flattered by being
shown that there has been a difference
of pur-
pose 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.
Working-men of London, England.
Executive Mansion, February
2,
1863.
To the Working-men
of London
:
I have
re-
ceived the New Year's address which you have
sent me, with a
sincere
appreciation
of the
ex-
alted and humane
sentiments by which
it was
inspired.
As these sentiments are manifestly the endur-
ing support of the
free
institutions of England,
so
I am sure
also that they
constitute
the only
reliable basis for free institutions throughout the
world.
The
resources, advantages, and powers of the
American people are very
great, and they have
consequently succeeded to equally great respon-
sibilities.
It seems
to have devolved upon them
to test whether a government established on the
principles of human freedom can be maintained
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
235
against an effort to build one upon the exclusive
foundation
of human bondage.
They
will
re-
joice with me
in the new evidences which your
proceedings
furnish
that
the magnanimity they
are
exhibiting
is
justly
estimated
by
the
true
friends
of
freedom
and
humanity
in
foreign
countries.
Accept my
best
wishes
for
your
individual
welfare, and
for
the
welfare and
happiness
of
the whole British people.
Abraham
Lincoln.
See leUer to Working-men of Manchester,
England.
Alexander Reed.
Executive Mansion, February 22,
1863.
Rev. Alexander Reed.
My
dear
Sir: Your
note, by which
you,
as
general
superintendent
of
the
United
States
Christian
Commission,
invite me
to
preside
at
a meeting to be held this day
at the hall of the
House of Representatives in this city,
is received.
While,
for reasons which
I deem
sufficient,
I
must
decline
to
preside,
I cannot withhold my
approval of the meeting and
its worthy objects.
Whatever shall be sincerely, and in God's name,
devised for the good of the
soldier and seaman
in
their hard spheres
of duty, can
scarcely
fail
to be blest.
And whatever shall tend to turn our
thoughts from the unreasoning and uncharitable
passions,
prejudices,
and
jealousies
incident
to
a great national trouble such as ours, and to fix
them
upon
the
vast and
long-enduring
conse-
quences, for weal or for woe, which are to result
from
the
struggle, and
especially
to
strengthen
our reliance on the Supreme Being for the final
236
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
triumph
of
the
right,
cannot
but
be
well
for
us
all.
The birthday of Washington and the Christian
Sabbath coinciding this year, and suggesting to-
gether
the highest
interests
of
this
life and
of
that to come,
is most propitious for the meeting
proposed.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
Henry Winter Davis.
Executive Mansion, March
i8,
1863.
Hon. Henry Winter Davis.
My dear Sir
: There will be in the new House
of
Representatives,
as
there
were
in
the
old,
some members
openly
opposing the
war, some
supporting
it unconditionally, and some support-
ing
it with "buts," and "ifs," and "ands."
They
will
divide on the organization of the House
on the
election of a
Speaker.
As you ask my
opinion,
I
give
it,
that
the
supporters
of
the
war should send no man
to Congress who
will
not pledge
himself
to go
into caucus
with
the
unconditional
supporters
of
the
war,
and
to
abide the action of such caucus and vote for the
person therein nominated for Speaker.
Let the
friends
of
the Government
first save the Gov-
ernment,
and
then
administer
it
to
their own
liking.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
P.
S.
This
is not for publication, but to pre-
vent misunderstanding
of what
I
verbally
said
to you yesterday.
A. L.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
237
Horatio Seymour.^
\_Private and
Confidential.']
Executive Mansion, March 23,
1863.
His Excellency Governor Seymour.
Dear
Sir: You and
I
are
substantially
stran-
gers, and
I
write
this
chiefly
that we may be-
come
better acquainted.
I,
for the time being,
am at the head of a nation that
is in great peril,
and you are at the head of the greatest State of
that nation.
As to maintaining the nation's
life
and
integrity,
I assume and believe there cannot
be a difference of purpose between you and me.
If we should
differ as to the means,
it
is impor-
tant
that such
difference should be
as
small as
possible
; that
it should not be enhanced by un-
just suspicions on one side or the other.
In the
performance of my duty the cooperation of your
State,
as
that
of
others,
is needed—in
fact,
is
indispensable.
This alone
is
a
sufficient reason
why
I should wish to be at a good understand-
ing with you.
Please write me
at least as long
a
letter as
this, of course saying in
it just what
you
think
fit.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
During
the
absence
of
the
New
York
militia
at
Gettysburg, draft
riots broke out
in the city.
The Gov-
ernor hastened thither and addressed the mob, promis-
ing
that their grievances would be redressed.
He then
^ Seymour was
elected Governor of New York
in
1862.
In
his inaugural message
of January
7,
1863, he declared
that
"the
mischievous
opinion
that
.
,
.
the
North
must
subjugate and
destroy
the
South
to
save
our Union has
weakened the hopes of our citizens at home, and destroyed
confidence in our success abroad."
Lincoln set about seek-
ing the confidence of this powerful executive.
23S
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
wrote
the
President
asking
to have
the
draft
stopped
that New York might
till her quota with volunteers.
Executive Mansion, August
y,
1863.
His Excellency Horatio Seymour, Governor
of
New York.
Your communication
of the third
instant has
been received and attentively considered.
I cannot consent to suspend the draft in New
York, as you request, because, among other rea-
sons, time
is too important.
.
.
.
I
do
not
object
to
abide
a
decision
of
the
United
States Supreme Court, or of the judges
thereof, on the constitutionality of the draft law.
In
fact,
I should be walling to
facilitate the ob-
taining
of
it, but
I
cannot consent
to
lose the
time while
it is being obtained. We are contend-
ing with an enemy, who, as
I understand, drives
every
able-bodied man
he
can
reach
into
his
ranks, very much
as
a butcher
drives bullocks
into a slaughter-pen.
No time
is wasted, no ar-
gument
is used.
This produces an army which
Avill soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers,
already in the
field, if they shall not be sustained
by
recruits
as they should
be.
It produces an
army with a rapidity not to be matched by our
side,
if we first waste time to reexperiment with
the
volunteer
system
already
deemed by
Con-
gress, and palpably,
in
fact, so far exhausted as
to be inadequate, and then more time to obtain
a court decision as to whether a law
is constitu-
tional which
requires
a
part
of those
not now
in the service to go to the aid of those who are
already
in
it, and
still more time
to determine
v^ith
absolute
certainty
that we
get
those who
are
to go
in
the
precisely
legal
proportion
to
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
239
those who are not to go.
My purpose
is
to be
in my
action
just
and
constitutional,
and
yet
practical,
in performing the important duty with
which
I am
charged,
of maintaining the
unity
and the
free principles of our common country.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, August
16,
1863.
Governor Seymour, New York.
Your despatch of this morning is just received
and
I fear
I do not perfectly understand
it.
My view of the principle
is that every soldier
obtained
voluntarily
leaves
one
less
to
be
ob-
tained by draft.
The only difficulty
is
in apply-
ing the principle properly.
Looking to time, as
heretofore,
I am unwilling to give up a drafted
man now, even
for the
certainty, much
less
for
the mere chance of getting a volunteer hereafter
Again,
after
the
draft
in any
district, would
it
not make trouble to take any
drafted man out
and put a volunteer
in, for how shall
it be deter-
mined which drafted man is to have the privilege
of thus going
out,
to
the
exclusion
of
all
the
others.'^
And even before the draft
in any
dis-
trict
the
quota
must
be
fixed;
and
the
draft
might be postponed
indefinitely
if every time a
volunteer
is
offered
the
officers must
stop and
reconstruct
the
quota.
At
least
I
fear
there
might be
this
difficulty;
but,
at
all
events,
let
credits
for
volunteers
be
given up
to
the 'last
moment
which
will
not
produce
confusion
or
de ay.
That the
principle of giving
credits
for
volunteers shall be applied by districts seems fair
and proper, though
I do not know how
far by
present statistics
it
is practicable.
When for any
cause
a
fair
credit
is
not given
at one
time,
it
240
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
should be given as soon thereafter as practicable.
My purpose
is to be just and
fair, and yet to not
lose time.
A.
Lincoln.
See
letter of August
26,
1863,
to Edwin M. Stanton,
and of February 27,
1864.
On July
5,
1864, upon
the invasion
of Maryland by
General Jubal A,
Early,
the
President wrote Governor
Seymour calling on him for 12,000 militia for one hun-
dred days'
service.
J. E. BOULIGNY.
Executive Mansion, April
14,
1863.
Hon.
J. E. Bouligny.
My dear Sir:
I did not certainly know the ob-
ject of your
call yesterday, but
I had a strong
impression
in regard
to
it.
When our national
troubles began, you and
I were
not
personally
acquainted, but
all
I heard of you placed you in
my estimation foremost among Louisianians as a
friend
of the Union.
I intended
to
find you a
position, and
I did not conceal my inclination to
do
so.
When,
last autumn, you
bore
a
letter
from me to some
parties
at New
Orleans, you
seemed to expect, and consequently
I did expect,
you would
return here
as a member of one or
the other branch of Congress.
But you were not
so
returned,
and
this
negative
evidence,
with
other of
like character, brings me to think that
the Union people there
for some reason prefer
others for the places there.
Add to this that the
head of the department here
in which finding a
place
for you was contemplated,
is not
satisfied
for the appointment to be made, and
it presents,
as you
see, an embarrassing case
for me.
My
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
241
personal
feelings
for Mr. Boullgny are not less
kind than heretofore.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
On
being
appealed
to by
a member
of
one
of
the
warring Union
factions
in Missouri, who asked: "Shall
we
be
sustained by you?"
the
President, on
April
16,
1863,
replied:
"I have
stoutly
tried
to keep out
of the
quarrel, and
so mean
to do."
F.
L. Capen.
[Indorsement on Letter.]
It
seems
to me
Mr.
Capen
knows
nothing-
about the weather in advance.
He told me three
days ago
that
it would
not
rain
again
till
the
30th of April or
ist of May.
It
is raining now,
and has been for ten hours.
I cannot spare any
more time to Mr. Capen.
A. Lincoln.
April 28, 1863.
John M. Schofield.
Executive Mansion, May 2^,
1863.
General John M.
Schofield.
My dear
Sir: Having relieved General Curtis
and assigned you to the command of the Depart-
ment
of
the
Missouri,
I
think
it may
be
of
some advantage for me to state to you why
I did
it.
I
did not
relieve General Curtis because of
any
full conviction that he had done wrong by
commission or omission.
I
did
it because
of a
conviction
in mv mind
that the Union men
of
Missouri,
constituting, when united,
a vast ma-
jority
of the whole people, have entered
into a
pestilent
factional
quarrel among
themselves
General Curtis, perhaps not of choice, being the
242
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
head
of one
faction and Governor Gamble
that
of the
other.
After months
of labor
to
recon-
cile the
difficulty,
it seemed
to grow worse and
worse,
until
I
felt
it my
duty
to
break
it
up
somehow
; and as
I could not remove Governor
Gamble,
I had to remove General Curtis.
Now
that you are
in the position
I wish you to undo
nothing merely because General
Curtis or Gov-
ernor Gamble
did
it, but to
exercise your own
judgment, and do
right
for the public
interest.
Let your military measures be strong enough to
repel the invader and keep the peace, and not so
strong as
to unnecessarily harass and persecute
the
people.
It
is
a
difficult
role, and
so much
greater will be the honor
if you perform
it well.
If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you
v^^ill probably be about
right.
Beware of being
assailed by one and praised by the other.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, June 22,
1863.
General John M. Schofield.
My dear
Sir: Your
despatch, asking
in
sub-
stance
whether,
in
case
Missouri
shall
adopt
gradual
emancipation,
the
General Government
will protect slave-owners in that species of prop-
erty during the short time
it
shall be permitted
by the State to exist within
it, has been received.
Desirous
as
I am
that
emancipation
shall
be
adopted by Missouri, and believing as
I do that
gradual can be made better than immediate
for
both black and
white, except when military ne-
cessity
changes
the
case, my
impulse
is
to
say
that such protection would be given.
I cannot
know exactly what shape an act of emancipation
may take.
If the period from
the
initiation
to
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
243
the
final end should be comparatively
short, and
the act should prevent persons being sold during
that period
into more lasting slavery, the whole
would be
easier.
I do
not wish
to pledge the
General Government
to
the
affirmative
support
of even temporary slavery beyond what can be
fairly
claimed
under
the
Constitution.
I
sup-
pose, however,
this
is not desired, but that
it
is
desired
for
the
military
force
of
the
United
States, while in Missouri, to not be used in sub-
verting the temporarily reserved
legal rights
in
slaves during the progress of emancipation.
This
I would desire also.
I have very earnestly urged
the
slave
States
to
adopt emancipation; and
it
ought
to
be, and
is, an
object
with me
not
to
overthrow or thwart what any of them may
in
good
faith do
to
that
end.
You
are therefore
authorized
to
act
in
the
spirit
of
this
letter
in
conjunction with what may appear to be the mili-
tary
necessities
of your
department.
Although
this
letter
will become public at some time,
it
is
not intended to be made so now.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
See letter of July
23,
1863, to Hamilton R. Gamble.
{Telegram.l
Washington, D. C,
August 27, 1863.
8.30
a. m.
General
Schofield,
St. Louis.
I have
just
received
the
despatch which
fol-
lows from two very
influential
citizens
of Kan-
sas, whose names
I omit.
The severe blow they
have
received
naturally enough makes them
in-
temperate
even
without
there
being
any
just
cause for blame.
Please do your utmost to give
244
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
them
future
security
and
to
punish
their
In-
vaders.
A. Lincoln.
On September
30,
1863, the
President wrote General
Schofield,
at
Saint
Louis,
Mo.,
enclosing
a
despatch
which
stated that Union men were being driven out of
Missouri.
The
President asked
General
Schofield
to
look
into
the
matter, "and
if
true,
in whole
or
part, put a
stop
to
it."
Executive Mansion, October
i,
1863.
General John M. Schofield.
There
Is
no
organized
military
force
In
avowed
opposition
to
the
General
Government
now In Missouri, and
If any such shall reappear,
your duty In regard to
It will be too plain to re-
quire
any
special
Instruction.
Still,
the
condi-
tion of things both there and elsewhere
Is such
as
to
render
it
Indispensable
to
maintain
for
a
time the United
States military establishment In
that
State,
as well as to rely upon
It for a
fair
contribution
of
support
to
that
establishment
generally.
Your Immediate
duty
In
regard
to
Missouri now
Is to advance the efficiency of that
establishment, and
to
so
use
It
as
far as
prac-
ticable
to
compel
the
excited
people
there
to
leave one another alone.
Under your recent or-
der, which
I have approved, you will only arrest
Individuals and
suppress
assemblies or newspa-
pers when they may be working palpable injury
to the military
In your charge, and
in no other
case
will you
Interfere
with
the
expression
of
opinion
In any form or allow
It to be Interfered
with violently by others.
In this you have a dis-
cretion to exercise with great caution, calmness,
and forbearance.
With the matters of removing
the Inhabitants of certain counties en masse, and
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
245
of
removing
certain
individuals
from
time
to
time who are supposed to be mischievous,
I am
not now interfering, but am leaving to your own
discretion.
Nor am
I interfering with what may
still
seem
to
you
to
be
necessary
restrictions
upon
trade
and
intercourse.
I
think
proper,
however, to enjoin upon you the following:
Allow no part of the military under your con-
mand
to
be engaged
in
either
returning
fugi-
tive slaves or in forcing or enticing slaves from
their homes,
and,
so
far
as
practicable,
enforce
the same forbearance upon the people.
Report
to me
your
opinion upon
the
availa-
bility
for
good
of
the
enrolled
militia
of
the
State.
Allow no one to
enlist colored troops except
upon
orders
from you
or
from
here,
through
you.
Allow no one to assume the functions of con-
fiscating property under the law of Congress, or
otherwise,
except upon
orders from
here.
At elections see that those, and only those, are
allowed to vote who are entitled to do so by the
laws of Missouri, including", as of those laws, the
restriction
laid by the Missouri convention upon
those who may have participated in the rebellion.
So
far
as
practicable, you
will, by means
of
your military
force, expel
guerrillas, marauders,
and murderers, and all who are known to harbor,
aid, or abet them.
But
in
like manner you will
repress assumptions of unauthorized
individuals
to perform the same service because, under pre-
tense of doing
this, they become marauders and
murderers themselves.
To now
restore
peace,
let
the
military
obey
orders, and those not of the military leave each
246
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
other
alone, thus not breaking the peace them-
selves.
In
giving
the
above
directions,
it
is
not
in-
tended
to
restrain you
in
other
expedient and
necessary matters not falling within their range.
Your obedient servant,
A.
Lincoln.
See letter of October
5,
1863,
to Charles D. Drake.
[Private and
Confidential.']
Executive Mansion, October 28,
1863.
General John M.
Schofield.
There have recently reached the War Depart-
ment, and thence been laid before me, from Mis-
souri, three communications, all similar in import
and
identical
in
object.
.
.
. The
general
state-
ments
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.
.
.
. These papers contain
al-
together
thirty-one
manuscript
pages,
and
one
newspaper
in
extcnso, 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
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
247
nearly
all
this seems
to be
St. Joseph and Bu-
chanan County.
I wish you to give
special
at-
tention
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.
See
letter of September 26,
1864, to W.
S. Rosecrans.
[Telegram.']
Washington, D. C, November
10, 1863.
General Schofield, Saint Louis, Mo.
I see a despatch 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 leg-
islature.
All
such
are
radical
and
administra-
tion 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
legislature 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.']
War Department, November
11, 1863.
General Schofield, Saint Louis, Mo.
I believe the Secretary of War has telegraphed
3^ou
about members
of
the
legislature.
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.
248
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
William Cullen Bryant.
Washington, May
14, 1863.
Mr. W. C. Bryant.
My dear
Sir: Yours, requesting that General
Sigel may be again assigned to command,
is
re-
ceived.
Allow me
to
briefly
explain.
I
kept
General
Sigel
in command
for
several mOnths»
he
requesting
to
resign
or
to be
relieved.
At
length,
at
his
urgent and
repeated
solicitation,
he was
relieved.
Now
it
is inconvenient to as-
sign him
a command
without
relieving
or
de-
priving some other officer who
is not asking and
perhaps would object to being so disposed
of.
This
is one of a class of
cases, and you per-
ceive how embarrassing they
are.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
On
June
27,
1864,
the
President
answered
a
com-
plaint of Mr. Bryant that a certain Mr, Henderson had
been removed from
office and
arrested.
Said the Pres-
ident
:
I
shall be very glad indeed
if he shall, as you
anticipate, establish his innocence
; or, to state
it
more strongly and properly,
"if the Government
shall
fail to establish his guilt."
I believe, how-
ever, the man who made the affidavit was of as
spotless
reputation
as Mr.
Henderson,
until he
was arrested on what his friends insist was out-
rageously
insufficient evidence.
I know the en-
tire city government of Washington, with many
other respectable
citizens, appealed to me in his
behalf as a greatly injured gentleman.
While
the
subject
is
tip, may
I ask whether
the Evening Post has not
assailed me
for
sup-
posed too
lenient dealing with persons charged
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
249
with
fraud and crime?
And
that
in
cases
of
which the Post could know but httle of the facts ?
I shall certainly deal as leniently with Mr. Hen-
derson
as
I have
felt
it my duty
to
deal with
others, notwithstanding any newspaper
assaults.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
H. T. Blow and Others.
[Telegram.^
Executive Mansion, May
15,
1863.
Hon. H. T. Blow, C. D. Drake, and Others,
St.
Louis, Missouri.
Your despatch of to-day
is just received.
It
is very painful to me that you
in Missouri can-
not or will not settle your factional quarrel among
yourselves.
I have been tormented with
it be-
yond
endurance
for
months
by
both
sides.
Neither side pays the least respect to my appeals
to your
reason.
I am now
compelled
to
take
hold of the case.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
War Department, July
13,
1863.
Hon. H. T. Blow,
St. Louis, Mo.
I saw your despatch to the Secretary of War.
The
publication
of
a
letter
without
the
leave
of the writer or the
receiver
I think cannot be
justified,
but
in
this
case
I do not think
it of
sufficient consequence
to
justify an
arrest; and
again, the arrest being, through a parole, merely
nominal, does not deserve the importance sought
to be attached
to
it.
Cannot
this
small matter
be dropped on both
sides without
further
diffi-
culty?
A. Lincoln.
2SO
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
F.
J. Herron.
[Telegrani.l
War Department, May
17,
1863.
Major-General F. J. Herron, Rolla, Missouri.
Your
despatch
threatening
to
resign
rather
than
to
serve under General
Schofield has been
received and shown to the President.
He directs
me
to say that he
is unaware of any vahd ob-
jection
to General
Schofield, he having recently
commanded the Department of the Missouri, giv-
ing almost universal
satisfaction
so
far
as
the
President ever heard.
He directs me to add that
he has appreciated the services of General Her-
ron and rewarded them by rapid promotions
; but
that, even in him, insubordination will be met as
insubordination, and
that your
resignation
will
be
acted
upon
as
circumstances may
require
whenever
it
is tendered.
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
Charles Sumner.^
Executive Mansion, June
i, 1863.
Hon. Charles Sumner.
My dear Sir
: In relation to the matter spoken
of Saturday morning and
this morning—to
wit,
the raising of colored troops
in the North, with
the understanding that they shall be commanded
by General Fremont—I have to say:
That while
it
is very objectionable, as a gen-
eral
rule,
to have troops
raised on any
special
^ Senator Sumner
represented
the
extreme
abolitionist
sentiment
in
the Union, and
throughout
the war was the
consistent advocate of emancipation and other interests of
the negro.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
251
terms, such as to serve only under
a particular
commander
or
only
at
a
particular
place
or
places, yet
I would forego the objection
in
this
case upon a
fair prospect that a large
force of
this sort could thereby be the more rapidly raised.
That being
raised, say
to the number
of ten
thousand,
I would very cheerfully send them to
the
field under General Fremont, assigning him
a
department, made
or
to be made, with
such
white force also as
I might be able to put
in.
That with the best wishes toward General Fre-
mont,
I cannot now give him a department, be-
cause
I have not spare troops to furnish a new
department, and I have not, as I think, justifiable
ground to relieve the present commander of any
old one.
In
the
raising
of
the
colored
troops,
the same consent of governors would have to be
obtained as in case of white troops, and the Gov-
ernment would make the same provision for them
during organization as for white troops.
It would not be a point with me whether Gen-
eral Fremont should take charge of the organi-
zation,
or take
charge
of
the
force
only
after
the organization.
If you think
fit to communicate
this
to Gen-
eral Fremont, you are at liberty to do so.^
Yours
truly,
A. Lincoln.
Democratic Meeting at Albany.
Clement
L.
Vallandigham,
ex-member
of Congress
from
Ohio, had
been
sent South
for
speaking
against
the prosecution of the war.
Democratic meetings were
held throughout the North to protest against this action.
^ General Fremont
declined
the command.
Had
he
ac-
cepted
it before the close
of the war he would have com-
manded 200,000 troops, an army second only
to Grant's.
252
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
One was
held
at
Albany,
N.
Y.,
on May
i6,
whIcH
passed
denunciatory
resolutions, and
sent them
to
the
President.
To
these he
replied
as follows
:
Executive Mansion, June
12,
1863.
Hon. Erastus Corning and Others.
Gentlemen: Your
letter of May
19, inclosing
the
resolutions of a public meeting held
at Al-
bany, New York, on the i6th of the same month,
was received several days ago.
The
resolutions,
as
I
understand
them,
are
resolvable
into two
propositions—first,
the
ex-
pression
of
a purpose
to
sustain
the
cause of
the Union, to secure peace through victory, and
to
support
the
Administration
in every
consti-
tutional and lawful measure to suppress the re-
bellion; and,
secondly, a
declaration of censure
upon the Administration for supposed unconsti-
tutional
action, such
as the making of
military
arrests.
And from the two propositions a third
is
deduced,
which
is
that
the
gentlemen
com-
posing the meeting are resolved on doing their
part
to maintain our common government and
country, despite the
folly or wickedness, as they
may conceive, of any
administration.
This po-
sition
is eminently patriotic, and as such
I thank
the meeting, and congratulate the nation
for
it.
My own purpose
is the same
; so that the meet-
ing and myself have a common
object, and can
have no difference, except in the choice of means
or measures for effecting that object.
And
here
I
ought
to
close
this
paper,
and
would
close
it
if
there
were
no
apprehension
that
more
injurious
consequences
than
any
merely personal to myself might follow the cen-
sures
systematically
cast
upon me
for
doing
what,
in my view of duty,
I could not
forbear.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
253
The resolutions promise to support me
in every
constitutional
and
lawful measure
to
suppress
the
rebellion*
and
I
have
not
knowingly
em-
ployed, nor
shall knowingly employ, any
other.
But the meeting, by their resolutions, assert and
argue that certain military arrests, and proceed-
ings following them,
for which
I am ultimately
responsible,
are
unconstitutional.
I
think
they
are
not.
The
resolutions quote from
the Con-
stitution the
definition of
treason, and
also the
limiting safeguards and guarantees therein pro-
vided
for the
citizen on
trials
for treason, and
on his being held to answer for capital or other-
wise infamous crimes, and
in criminal prosecu-
tions his right to a speedy and public trial by an
impartial
jury.
They proceed
to
resolve
''that
these
safeguards
of
the
rights
of
the
citizen
against the pretensions of arbitrary power were
intended more
especially
for
his
protection
in
times of
civil commotion."
And, apparently to
demonstrate the proposition, the resolutions pro-
ceed:
''They were
secured
substantially
to
the
English
people
after
years
of
protracted
civil
war,
and
were
adopted
into
our
Constitution
at the close of the Revolution."
Would not the
demonstration have been better
if
it could have
been
truly
said
that
these safeguards had been
adopted and
applied during the
civil wars and
during our Revolution, instead of after the one
and
at the
close of
the other?
I,
too, am
de-
votedly
for them
after
civil
war,
and
before
civil
war,
and
at
all
times,
"except
when,
in
cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety
may require"
their suspension.
The resolutions
proceed
to
tell
us
that
these
safeguards "have
stood the test of seventy-six years of trial imder
2 54
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
our republican system, under circumstances which
show
that while they
constitute the
foundation
of
all
free
government,
they
are
the
elements
of the enduring
stability of the
republic."
No
one denies
that they have
so
stood the
test up
to the beginning of the present
rebellion,
if we
except
a
certain
occurrence
at New
Orleans
hereafter
to
be
mentioned; nor
does
any
one
question that they will stand the same test much
longer after the rebellion closes.
But these pro-
visions of
the
Constitution have no
application
to the case we have in hand, because the arrests
complained of were not made for treason—that
is, not for the treason defined in the Constitution,
and upon
the
conviction
of which
the
punish-
ment
is death—nor yet were they made to hold
persons
to answer for any
capital or otherwise
infamous crimes
; nor were the proceedings
fol-
lowing,
in
any
constitutional
or
legal
sense,
^'criminal prosecutions."
The arrests wxre made
on totally different grounds, and the proceedings
following
accorded
with
the
grounds
of
the
arrests.
Let us consider the real case with which
we are dealing, and apply to
it the parts of the
Constitution plainly made for such cases.
Prior
to my
installation here
it had been
in-
culcated
that any
State had
a
lawful
right
to
secede
from
the
national
Union,
and
that
it
would be expedient to
exercise the right when-
ever the devotees of the doctrine should
fail to
elect
a
president
to
their own
liking.
I
was
elected contrary to their liking
; and, accordingly,
so
far as
it was legally possible, they had taken
seven States out of the Union, had seized many
of the United
States
forts, and had
fired upon
the
United
States
flag,
all
before
I was
inau-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
2S5
giirated, and, of course, before
I had done any
official act whatever.
The rebelUon thus begun
soon ran into the present
civil war; and, in cer-
tain
respects,
it began
on
very
unequal
terms
between
the
parties.
The
insurgents had been
preparing
for
it more than
thirty
years,
while
the
Government
had
taken
no
steps
to
resist
them.
The former had carefully considered
all
the means which
could
be
turned
to
their
ac-
count.
It undoubtedly was a well-pondered
re-
liance with them that
in
their own unrestricted
effort
to
destroy Union,
Constitution, and
law
all
together,
the
Government
would,
in
great
degree, be
restrained by the same
Constitution
and law from
arresting
their
progress.
Their
sympathizers
pervaded
all
departments
of
the
Government and
nearly
all communities of
the
people.
From
this
material
under
cover
of
^'liberty of
speech,"
''liberty of
the
press," and
^'habeas
corpus/'
they hoped
to
keep
on
foot
amongst us a most
efficient corps
of
spies,
in-
formers,
suppliers, and
aiders and
abettors
of
their
cause
in
a
thousand
ways.
They knew
that
in
times
such
as they were
inaugurating,
by
the
Constitution
itself
the
"habeas
corpus"
might be suspended
;
but they
also knew
they
had
friends
wdio would make a
question
as
to
who was
to
suspend
it; meanwhile
their
spies
and
others
might
remain
at
large
to
help
on
their cause.
Or
if,
as has happened, the Exec-
utive
should
suspend
the
writ
without
ruinous
w^aste
of
time,
instances
of
arresting
innocent
persons might occur, as are always likely to occur
in such cases
; and then a clamor could be raised
in
regard
to
this, which
might be
at
least
of
some service to the insurgent cause.
It needed
256
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
no
very
keen
perception
to
discover
this
part"
of the enemy's programme,
so soon as by opent
hostihties
their
machinery
was
fairly
put
int
motion.
Yet, thoroughly imbued with
a
rever-'
ence
for
the
guaranteed
rights
of
individuals,;
I was slow to adopt the strong measures which
by degrees I have been forced to regard as being;
within the exceptions of the Constitution, and as<
indispensable
to
the
public
safety.
Nothing
is
better known to history than that the courts of
justice
are
utterly
incompetent
in
such
cases.
Civil
courts
are organized
chiefly
for
trials
of
individuals, or, at most, a few individuals acting
in
concert—and
this
in
quiet
times,
and
on
charges of crimes well defined in the law.
Even
in
times
of
peace
bands
of
horse-thieves
and
robbers frequently grow too numerous and pow-
erful
for
the
ordinary
courts
of
justice.
But
what comparison,
in numbers, have such bands
ever borne
to
the
insurgent
sympathizers
even
in many of the loyal States?
Again, a jury too
frequently has
at
least one member more ready
to hang the panel than to hang the traitor.
And
yet again, he who dissuades one man from vol-
unteering, or induces one soldier to desert, weak-
ens the Union cause as much as he who
kills a
Union
soldier
in
battle.
Yet
this dissuasion or
inducement may
be
so
conducted
as
to
be no
defined crime of which any civil court would take
cognizance.
Ours
is a case of
rebellion—so
called by the
resolutions before me—in
fact, a
clear,
flagrant,
and gigantic case of rebellion
; and the provision
of
the
Constitution
that
"the
privilege
of
the
writ
of
habeas
corpus
shall
not
be
suspended
unless when,
in
cases
of
rebellion
or
invasion.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
257
the
public
safety may
require
it,"
is
the
pro-
vision which specially applies to our present case.
This provision plainly
attests
the understanding
of those who made the Constitution that ordinary
courts
of
justice
are
inadequate
to
"cases
of
rebellion"—attests
their
purpose
that,
in
such
cases, men may be held
in
custody whom
the
courts, acting on ordinary rules, would discharge.
Habeas corpus does not discharge men who are
proved to be guilty of defined crime
; and its sus-
pension
is allowed by the
Constitution on pur-
pose
that men may be
arrested and
held who
cannot be proved to be
guilty of defined crime,
''when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the pub-
lic safety may require
it."
This
is
precisely our present case—a case of
rebellion wherein the public safety does require
the
suspension.
Indeed,
arrests by
process
of
courts and
arrests
in
cases of
rebellion do not
proceed
altogether upon
the
same
basis.
The
former
is
directed
at
the
small
percentage
of
ordinary and
continuous perpetration
of
crime,
while
the
latter
is
directed
at sudden and
ex-
tensive uprisings against the Government, which,
at most,
will succeed or
fail
in no great length
of
time.
In
the
latter
case
arrests
are made
not
so much
for
what
has been
done,
as
for
what
probably
would
be
done.
The
latter
is
more for the preventive and
less
for the vindic-
tive than the former.
In such cases the purposes
of men
are much more
easily rmderstood
than
in cases of ordinary crime.
The man who stands
by and says nothing when the peril of his gov-
ernment
is
discussed, cannot be
misunderstood.
If not hindered, he
is
sure
to
help the enemy
;
much more
if
he
talks
ambiguously—talks
for
258
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
his country with
"buts," and
"ifs" and
"ands.'*
Of how
Httle vakie the
constitutional
provision
I have quoted
will be rendered
if
arrests
shall
never
be made
until
defined
crimes
shall
have
been
committed, may
be
illustrated
by
a
few
notable
examples
:
General
John
C.
Breckin-
ridge,
General
Robert
E.
Lee,
General
Joseph
E.
Johnston,
General John
B. Magruder,
Gen-
eral
William
B.
Preston,
General
Simon
B.
Buckner,
and Commodore
Franklin
Buchanan,
now occupying
the
very
highest
places
in
the
rebel war
service, were
all within the power of
the Government
since
the
rebellion
began, and
were
nearly
as
well known
to be
traitors then
as now.
Unquestionably
if we had
seized and
held them,
the
insurgent cause would be much
weaker.
But
no
one
of them
had
then
com-
mitted any crime defined in the law.
Every one
of them,
if arrested, would have been discharged
on habeas corpus were the writ allowed
to op-
erate.
In
view
of
these
and
similar
cases,
I
think the time not unlikely to come when
I
shall
be
blamed
for
having
made
too
few
arrests
rather than too many.
By
the
third
resolution
the meeting
indicate
their
opinion
that
military
arrests may be
con-
stitutional
in
localities
where
rebellion
actually
exists, but that such arrests are tmconstitutional
in
localities where
rebellion or insurrection does
not actually exist.
They
insist that such arrests
shall not be made ''outside of the lines of neces-
sary
military
occupation and
the
scenes
of
in-
surrection."
Inasmuch, however,
as the Consti-
tution
itself
makes
no
such
distinction,
I am
unable
to believe that there
is any such
consti-
tutional
distinction.
I concede that the
class of
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
259
arrests complained of can be constitutional only
when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the pub-
lic
safety may
require them; and
I
insist
that
in
such
cases
they
are
constitutional
wherever
the public
safety
does
require them,
as
well
in
places
to which they may prevent the
rebellion
extending,
as
in those where
it may be already
prevailing;
as
well
where
they
may
restrain
mischievous
interference
with
the
raising
and
supplying of armies to suppress the rebellion, as
where
the
rebellion may
actually
be
;
as
well
where they may
restrain
the
enticing men
out
of the army,
as where they would prevent mu-
tiny
in
the army;
equally
constitutional
at
all
places
where
they
will
conduce
to
the
public
safety as against the dangers of rebellion or in-
vasion.
Take
the
particular case mentioned by
the meeting.
It
is asserted in substance, that Mr.
Vallandigham
was,
by
a
military
commander,
seized and tried "for no other reason than words
addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the
course of the Administration, and
in condemna-
tion of the military orders of the general."
Now,
if there be no mistake about
this,
if
this
asser-
tion
is the
truth, and the whole
truth,
if there
was no other reason for the
arrest, then
I con-
cede that the arrest was wrong.
But the arrest
as
I undersand, was made
for a very
different
reason.
Mr. Vallandigham avows
his
hostility
to the war on
the part of the Union
; and
his
arrest was made because he was
laboring, with
some
effect, to prevent the raising of troops, to
encourage
desertions
from
the
army,
and
to
leave the rebellion without an adequate military
force
to
suppress
it.
He was not arrested
be-
cause he was damaging
the
political
prospects
26o
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
of
the Administration
or
the
personal
interests
of the commanding general, but because he was
damaging
the
army,
upon
the
existence
and
vigor
of which
the
life
of
the nation
depends.
He was warring iipon the military, and this gave
the
military
constitutional
jurisdiction
to
lay
hands upon him.
If Mr. Vallandigham was not
damaging
the
military
power
of
the
country,
then
his
arrest was made
on
mistake
of
fact,
which
I would be glad to correct on reasonably
satisfactory
evidence.
I understand the meeting whose resolutions
I
am considering to be in favor of suppressing the
rebellion
by
military
force—^by
armies.
Long
experience
has
shown
that
armies
cannot
be
maintained unless desertion shall be punished by
the severe penalty of death.
The case requires,
and
the law and the
Constitution
sanction,
this
punishment.
Must
I shoot a simple-minded sol-
dier boy who
deserts,
while
I must
not
touch
a
hair
of
a
wily
agitator who
induces him
to
desert?
This
is
none
the
less
injurious when
effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend
into
a public meeting, and
there working upon
his feelings
till he
is persuaded to write the sol-
dier boy
that he
is fighting in a bad cause,
for
a wicked
administration of a contemptible gov-
ernment, too weak
to
arrest and punish him
if
he
shall
desert.
I think that,
in such a case, to
silence the agitator and save the boy
is not only
constitutional, but withal a great mercy.
If
I
be wrong on
this
question
of
constitu-
tional power, my error lies in believing that cer-
tain
proceedings
are
constitutional
when,
in
cases
of
rebellion
or
invasion, the public
safety
requires them, which would not be constitutional
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
261
when,
in
absence
of
rebellion
or
invasion,
the
public
safety
does
not
require them:
in
other
words, that the Constitution
is not
in
its
appli-
cation in
all respects the same in cases of rebel-
lion
or invasion involving the
public
safety,
as
it
is
in times of profound peace and public
se-
curity.
The
Constitution
itself makes
the
dis-
tinction, and I can no more be persuaded that the
Government can
constitutionally take no
strong
measures
in time of
rebellion, because
it can be
shown that the same could not be lawfully taken
in time of peace, than
I can be persuaded that
a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick
man because
it can be shown to not be good food
for a well one.
Nor am
I able to appreciate the
danger
apprehended
by
the
meeting,
that
the
American people
will by means
of
military
ar-
rests during the rebellion lose the right of pub-
lic discussion, the liberty of speech and the press,
the law
of
evidence,
trial by
jury, and habeas
corpus throughout the
indefinite peaceful future
which
I
trust
lies before them, any more than
I am able
to believe that a man could contract
so
strong an
appetite
for
emetics
during tem-
porary illness as to persist in feeding upon them
during the remainder of
his healthful
life.
In giving the resolutions that earnest consid-
eration which you request of me,
I cannot over-
look the fact that the meeting speak as ''Demo-
crats."
Nor can
I, with
full
respect
for
their
known
intelligence, and the
fairly presumed de-
liberation with which they prepared their resolu-
tions, be permitted to suppose that this occurred
by accident, or
in any way other than that they
preferred
to
designate
themselves
"Democrats"
rather than
''American
citizens."
In
this
time
262
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
of national peril
I would have preferred to meet
you upon a level one step higher than any party
platform, because I am sure that from such more
elevated
position we could do better
battle
for
the
country we
all
love
than we
possibly can
from those lower ones where, from the force of
habit,
the
prejudices
of
the
past,
and
selfish
hopes of the future, we are sure to expend much
of our
ingenuity and
strength
in
finding
fault
with and aiming blows at each other.
But since
you have denied me this,
I
will yet be thankful
for
the
country's
sake
that
not
all
Democrats
have done so.
He on whose discretionary judg-
ment Mr. Vallandigham was
arrested and tried
is a Democrat having no old party
affinity with
me,
and
the
judge who
rejected
the
constitu-
tional view expressed in these resolutions, by re-
fusing to discharge Mr. Vallandigham on habeas
corpus,
is a Democrat of better days than these,
having received
his judicial mantle at the hands
of
President
Jackson.
And
still
more,
of
all
those Democrats who
are nobly exposing their
lives and shedding their blood on the battle-field,
I
have
learned
that many
approve
the
course
taken with Mr. Vallandigham, while
I have not
heard of a single one condemning
it.
I cannot
assert that there are none such.
And the name
of President Jackson
recalls an instance of per-
tinent history.
After the battle of New Orleans,
and while the
fact that the treaty of peace had
been concluded was well known in the
city, but
before
official knowledge of
it had arrived. Gen-
eral Jackson
still maintained martial or military
law.
Now
that
it
could be
said
the war was
over, the clamor against martial law, which had
existed
from
the
first,
grew
more
furious.
\
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
263
Among other things, a Mr.
Louaillier pubHshed
a denunciatory newspaper article.
General Jack-
son
arrested
him.
A
lawyer by
the name
of
Morel procured the United States Judge Hall to
order
a
writ
of
habeas
corpus
to
release
Mr.
Louaillier.
General
Jackson
arrested
both
the
lawyer and
the
judge.
A Mr.
Hollander
ven-
tured to say of some part of the matter that
"it
was
a
dirty trick."
General
Jackson
arrested
him.
When
the
officer undertook
to
serve the
wTit of habeas corpus, General Jackson took
it
from
him,
and
sent
him
away
with
a
copy.
Holding the judge
in custody
a few
days,
the
general
sent him beyond
the
limits
of
his
en-
campment, and
set him
at liberty with an order
to remain
till the ratification of peace should be
regularly announced, or until the
British should
have left the southern coast. A day or two more
elapsed,
the
ratification
of
the
treaty
of
peace
was
regularly
announced,
and
the
judge
and
others were
fully
liberated.
A few days more
and the judge called General Jackson into court
and
fined him $1,000
for having
arrested him
and
the
others
named.
The
general
paid
the
fine, and then the matter rested for nearly thirty
years, when Congress refunded principal and
in-
terest.
The
late
Senator
Douglas,
then
in
the
House
of
Representatives,
took
a
leading
part
in the debates
in which the
constitutional
ques-
tion was much discussed.
I am not prepared to
say whom
the
journals
would
show
to
have
voted
for the measure.
It may be
remarked—first,
that we had
the
same
Constitution
then
as now
;
secondly,
that
we
then had
a
case
of
invasion,
and now we
have
a
case
of
rebellion;
and,
thirdly,
that the
264
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
permanent right of the people to ptibHc
discus-
sion, the Hberty of speech and of the
press, the
trial by jury, the law of evidence, and the habeas
corpus,
suffered no detriment whatever by that
conduct
of
General
Jackson,
or
its
subsequent
approval by the American Congress.
And yet, let me say that in my own discretion,
I do
not know whether
I would have ordered
the
arrest of Mr. Vallandigham.
While
I can-
not
shift
the
responsibility from myself,
I hold
that,
as
a
general
rule,
the commander
in
the
field
is the better judge of the necessity in any
particular
case.
Of
course
I must
practise
a
general
directory
and
revisory
power
in
the
matter.
One
of
the
resolutions
expresses
the
opinion
of
the meeting that
arbitrary
arrests
will have
the effect to divide and distract those who should
be united in suppressing the rebellion, and
I am
specifically
called on to discharge Mr. Vallandi-
gham.
I regard
this
as,
at
least, a
fair appeal
to me on
the
expediency
of
exercising a
con-
stitutional power which
I
think
exists.
In
re-
sponse
to such appeal
I have to
say,
it gave me
pain
when
I
learned
that
Mr.
Vallandigham
had been
arrested
(that
is,
I was
pained
that
there should have seemed
to be
a
necessity
for
arresting him), and that
it will afford me great
pleasure
to discharge him so soon
as
I
can by
any
means
believe
the
public
safety
will
not
suffer by
it.
I
further say
that,
as
the war
progresses,
it
appears
to me,
opinion and
action, which were
in
great confusion
at
first,
take shape and
fall
into more regular channels, so that the necessity
for
strong
dealing
with
them
gradually
de-
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
265
creases.
I have every
reason
to
desire
that
it
should
cease
altogether, and
far from the
least
is my
regard
for
the
opinions
and
wishes
of
those who,
like
the meeting
at Albany,
declare
their purpose to sustain the Government in every
constitutional
and
lawful
measure
to
suppress
the
rebellion.
Still,
I must
continue
to
do
so
much as may seem to be required by the public
safety.
A. Lincoln.
Israel D. Andrews.
{Memorandum. ]
Executive Mansion, June
17,
1863.
Mr.
Israel D. Andrews appeals to me, saying
he
is sufifering injury by something
I have
said
of him.
I
really know very
little
of Mr. An-
drews.
As well as I can remember,
I was called
on by one or two persons asking me to give him
or aid him
in getting some public employment
;
and
as
a
reason
for
declining
I
stated
that
I
had a very unfavorable opinion
of him,
chiefly
because
I had been informed that,
in connection
with some former service of his to the Govern-
ment,
he
had
presented
an enormous
and
un-
justifiable claim, which
I understood he was
still
pressing the Government to pay.
I certainly did
not pretend to know anything of the matter per-
sonally
; and
I say now,
I do not personally know
anything
which
should
detract
from
Mr,
An-
drews's character.
A.
Lincoln.
266
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
David Tod.^
[Cipher
TelegramJ]
Executive Mansion, June
i8,
1863.
Governor D. Tod, Columbus, Ohio.
Yours
received.
I
deeply
regret
that
you
were
not
renominated,
not
that
I
have
aught
against Mr. Brough.
On the contrary hke your-
self,
I say hurrah for him.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion, 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
de-
lay.
A.
Lincoln.
E. E. Malhiot and Others.
On June
19,
1863,
the President replied
to a
letter of
E.
E.
Malhiot, Bradish Johnson, and Thomas Cottman,
a committee appointed by Louisiana planters
to
secure
Federal
recognition
of
a
loyal
State
government,
as
follows
:
Since receiving the
letter,
reliable information
has reached me that a respectable portion of the
Louisiana
people
desire
to
amend
their
State
constitution,
and
contemplate
holding
a
State
^ David Tod was Governor of Ohio from
1862
to
1864.
In
the
fall
of
1863
the
Peace Democrats nominated
for
Governor
Clement
L.
Vallandigham
as
a
protest
against
the Government's procedure
in arresting him, and
the Re-
publicans thought
it wise to oppose him with a War Demo-
crat, so John Brough was chosen to make the run.
Gover-
nor Tod declined the
President's
offer of Secretaryship
of
the Treasury.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
267
convention
for that
object.
This
fact alone,
as
it seems
to
me,
is
a
sufficient
reason why
the
General Government
should
not
give
the com-
mittal you
seek
to
the
existing
State
constitu-
tion.
I may add
that while
I do not
perceive
how such committal could
facilitate our military
operations
in
Louisiana,
I
really
apprehend
it
might be so used as to embarrass them.
As
to an
election to be held next November,
there
is
abundant
time
without
any
order
or
proclamation from me just now.
The people of
Louisiana
shall
not
lack
an
opportunit}^
for
a
fair
election
for both Federal and
State
officers
by want
of anything within my power
to
give
them.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
Ohio Democratic State Convention.
Washington, D.
C., June
29,
i;
Messrs. M. Birchard
[and Others].
Gentlemen
: The resolutions of the Ohio Dem-
ocratic State convention, which you present me,
together with your introductory and
closing re-
marks,
being
in
position and argument mainly
the same
as
the
resolutions
of
the
Democratic
meeting
at Albany, New York,
I
refer you
to
my
response
to
the
latter
as
meeting most
of
the points
in the former.
This
response you
evidently used
in
prepar-
ing your
remarks, and
I
desire no more than
that
it be used with accuracy.
In a
single read-
ing of your remarks,
I only discovered one
in-
accuracy
in matter which
I
suppose you
took
from
that
paper.
It
is where you
say:
''The
undersigned are unable to agree with you in the
opinion you have expressed that the Constitution
268
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
is
different
in
time
of
insurrection
or
invasion
from what
it
is in time of peace and public
se-
curity."
A recurrence to the paper will show you that
I have
not expressed
the opinion you
suppose.
I expressed the opinion that the Constitution
is
different
in
its
application
in
cases
of
rebellion
or
invasion,
involving
the
public
safety,
from
what
it
is
in times of profound peace and public
security
; and this opinion I adhere to, simply be-
cause, by the Constitution
itself, things may be
done
in
the one
case
which may
not
be done
in the .other.
I
dislike
to
waste
a word on
a merely
per-
sonal
point, but
I must
respectfully
assure you
that you will find yourselves at fault should you
ever seek for evidence to prove your assumption
that I "opposed, in discussions before the people,
the policy of the Mexican War."
You say
: "Expunge from' the Constitution this
limitation upon the power of Congress to suspend
the
writ
of
habeas
corpus
and
yet
the
other
guarantees
of
personal
liberty
would
remain
unchanged."
Doubtless,
if
this
clause
of
the
Constitution,
improperly
called,
as
I
think,
a
limitation upon the power of Congress, were ex-
punged, the other guarantees would remain the
same
; but the
question
is not how
those guar-
antees would stand with
that
clause out of
the
Constitution, but how they stand with that clause
remaining
in
it,
in case of rebellion or invasion
involving the public safety.
If the liberty could
be indulged of expunging that clause,
letter and
spirit,
I
really think the constitutional argument
would be with you.
My general view on
this
cjuestion was
stated
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
269
in the Albany response, and hence I do not state
it now.
I
only add
that,
as seems
to me,
the
benefit of the writ of habeas corpus
is the great
means through which the guarantees of personal
liberty are conserved and made available in the
last resort
; and corroborative of this view
is the
fact
that
Mr.
Vallandigham,
in
the
very
case
in
question,
under
the
advice
of
able
lawyers,
saw not where else to go but to the habeas corpus.
But by the Constitution the benefit of the writ
of habeas corpus
itself may be suspended when,
in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety
may require
it.
You ask,
in substance, whether
I really claim
that
I may
override
all
the
guaranteed
rights
of
individuals,
on
the
plea
of
conserving
the
public
safety—when
I may
choose
to
say
the
public safety requires
it.
This question, divested
of the phraseology calculated to represent me as
struggling for an arbitrary personal prerogative,
is either simply a question who
shall
decide, or
an
affirmation
that
nobody
shall
decide,
what
the public safety does require in cases of rebel-
lion or invasion.
The Constitution contemplates the question as
likely to occur
for decision, but
it does not ex-
pressly
declare who
is
to
decide
it.
By
neces-
sary
implication,
when
rebellion
or
invasion
comes, the decision
is to be made from time to
time
; and
I think the man whom,
for the time,
the
people
have, under
the
Constitution, made
the commander-in-chief of their army and navy,
is the man who holds the power and bears
the
responsibility of making
it.
If he uses the power
justly, the same people will probably justify him
;
if he abuses
it, he
is
in their hands
to be dealt
270
LUllUK^i
Ai\V
IhLLLrKAMS
with
by
all
the modes
they
have
reserved
to
themselves in the Constitution.
The
earnestness
with
which
you
insist
that
persons can
only,
in times of
rebellion, be law-
fully dealt with in accordance with the rules for
criminal trials and punishments in times of peace,
induces me to add a word to what I said on that
point in the Albany response.
You claim that men may,
if they choose, em-
barrass those whose duty
it
is to combat a giant
rebellion, and then be dealt with in turn, only as
if there were no rebellion.
The Constitution
it-
self rejects this view.
The military arrests and
detentions which have been made, including those
of Mr.
Vallandigham, which
are
not
different
in principle from the others, have been for pre-
vention, and not for punishment—as injunctions
to stay injury, as proceedings to keep the peace;
and
hence,
like proceedings
in
such
cases and
for like reasons, they have not been accompanied
with
indictments,
or
trials by
juries, nor
in
a
single case by any punishment whatever, beyond
what is purely incidental to the prevention.
The
original
sentence
of imprisonment
in Mr.
Val-
landigham's
case was
to
prevent injury
to
the
military
service
only,
and
the
modification
of
it was made as a
less disagreeable mode to him
of securing the same prevention.
I am unable to perceive an
insult
to Ohio
in
the
case
of
Mr.
Vallandigham.
Quite
surely
nothing of the
sort was or
is
intended.
I was
wholly unaware that Mr. Vallandigham was, at
the time of his arrest, a candidate for the Demo-
cratic nomination for governor until so informed
by your
reading
to me
the
resolutions
of
the
convention.
I am grateful to the State of Ohio
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
271
for many
things,
especially
for
the
brave
sol-
diers and
officers
she has
given
in
the present
national trial to the armies of the Union.
You
claim,
as
I
understand,
that
according
to my own position
in the Albany response, Mr.
Vallandigham
should be
released
; and
this
be-
cause,
as you
claim,
he
has
not damaged
the
military service by discouraging enlistments, en-
couraging
desertions, or otherwise
; and
that
if
he had, he should have been turned over to the
civil
authorities under
the
recent
acts
of Con-
gress.
I
certainly do not know
that Mr.
Val-
landigham has specifically and by direct language
advised against enlistments and in favor of deser-
tion and resistance to drafting.
We all know that combinations, armed in some
instances, to resist the arrest of deserters began
several months ago
; that more recently the
like
has appeared
in resistance to the enrolment pre-
paratory to a draft; and that quite a number of
assassinations have occurred from the same ani-
mus.
These had to be met by military force, and
this again has led to bloodshed and death.
And
now, under a sense of responsibility more weighty
and enduring than any which
is merely
official,
I solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance
of the military, including maiming and murder,
is
due
to
the
course
in
which
Mr.
Vallandi-
gham has been engaged in a greater degree than
to any other
cause
; and
it
is
due
to him
per-
sonally in a greater degree than to any other one
man.
These
things have been
notorious, known
to
all, and of course known to Mr. Vallandigham.
Perhaps
I would not be wrong to say they
or-
iginated with
his
special
friends and adherents.
With
perfect knowledge
of
them,
he has
fre-
quently
if not constantly made speeches in Con-
gress and before popular assemblies
; and
if
it
can
be
shown
that,
with
these
things
staring
him
in the
face, he has ever uttered a word of
rebuke or counsel against them,
it will be a fact
greatly in his favor with me, and one of which
as yet
I am totally ignorant.
When
it
is known
that the whole burden of
his speeches has been
to
stir up men
against
the
prosecution
of
the
war, and that in the midst of resistance to
it he
has not been known
in any
instance
to counsel
against such
resistance,
it
is next to impossible
to
repel the inference that he has counseled
di-
rectly in favor of
it.
With
all
this
before
their
eyes,
the
conven-
tion you represent have nominated Mr. Vallan-
digham
for
governor
of
Ohio,
and
both
they
and you have
declared
the
purpose
to
sustain
the National Union by
all
constitutional means.
But of course they and you
in common reserve
to yourselves
to
decide what
are
constitutional
means
; and, unlike the Albany meeting, you omit
to state or intimate that in your opinion an army
is
a
constitutional means
of
saving
the Union
against a rebellion, or even to intimate that you
are
conscious of an
existing
rebellion being
in
progress
with
the avowed
object
of
destroying
that very Union.
At the same time your nomi-
nee for governor, in whose behalf you appeal,
is
known to you and to the world to declare against
the
use
of
an army
to
suppress
the
rebellion.
Your own attitude, therefore, encourages deser-
tion,
resistance
to
the
draft, and
the
like,
be-
cause
it teaches those who incline to desert and
to escape the draft to believe
it
is your purpose
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
273
to protect them, and to hope that you will become
strong enough to do
so.
After
a
short personal
intercourse
with
you,
gentlemen of the committee,
I cannot say
I think
you
desire
this
effect
to
follow your
attitude
;
but
I assure you that both
friends and enemies
of the Union look upon
it in this
light.
It
is a
substantial
hope,
and
by
consequence
a
real
strength to the enemy.
If
it
is a false hope and
one which you would willingly dispel, I will make
the way exceedingly easy.
I
send you
duplicates
of
this
letter
in
order
that
you,
or
a
majority
of
you, may,
if you
choose,
indorse your names upon one
of them
and return
it thus indorsed to me with the under-
standing
that
those
signing
are
thereby
com-
mitted to the following propositions and to noth-
ing else
:
1. That there
is now a rebellion in the United
States,
the object and tendency of which
is
to
destroy the
National Union
; and
that,
in your
opinion,
an army
and
navy
are
constitutional
means
for suppressing that
rebellion
;
2. That no one of you will do anything which,
in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the in-
crease, or favor the decrease, or lessen the
effi-
ciency
of
the army
or navy
while
engaged
in
the effort to suppress that rebellion
; and
3. That
each
of you
will,
in
his
sphere,
do
all he can to have the officers, soldiers, and sea-
men of the army and navy, while engaged in the
eft'ort
to suppress the
rebellion,
paid,
fed,
clad,
and otherwise well provided for and supported.
And with the further understanding that upon
receiving the
letter and names thus
indorsed,
I
will cause them to be published, which publica-
274
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
tion
shall
be,
within
itself,
a revocation
of the
order in relation to Mr. Vallandigham.^
It
will not escape observation
that
I consent
to the release of Mr. Vallandigham upon terms
not
embracing any
pledge
from him
or
from
others as to what he
will or
will not do.
I do
this because he
is not present to speak for him-
self,
or
to
authorize
others
to
speak
for him
;
and because
I should expect that on
his return-
ing he would not put himself
practically
in an-
tagonism with the position of his
friends.
But
I do
it chiefly because
I thereby prevail on other
influential gentlemen of Ohio to so
define their
position as to be of immense value to the army
—thus more than compensating
for
the
conse-
quences of any mistake in allowing
INIr. Vallan-
digham to return
; so that, on the whole, the pub-
lic safety will not have suffered by
it.
Still,
in
regard
to Mr.
Vallandigham and
all
others,
I
must hereafter, as heretofore, do so much as the
public safety may seem to
require.
I have the honor to be respectfully yours,
etc.,
A. Lincoln.
William Kellogg.
See letter of June
25,
1863, to Salmon P. Chase.
Executive Mansion, June 29,
1863.
Hon. William Kellogg.
My dear
Sir
:
I have received and read your
pencil note.
I think you do not know how em-
barrassing your request
is.-
Few things are so
^ The committee did
not accept
this
proposition,
as,
in-
deed, the President did
not expect
that they would.
Gov-
ernor Brough was
elected
over Vallandigham by an over-
whelming majority.
- In
reference
to
trading
with
the
South
through
the
army
lines.
LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS
275
troublesome to the Government as the fierceness
with which the profits in trading are sought.
The
temptation
is
so
great
that
nearly
everybody
wishes to be in
it; and, when
in, the question of
profit
controls
all,
regardless
of
whether
the
cotton-seller
is
loyal
or
rebel,
or whether he
is
paid in corn-meal or gunpowder.
The officers of
the
army,
in numerous
instances,
are
believed
to
connive and
share
the
profits, and thus
the
army
itself
is
diverted from
fighting the
rebels
to
speculating
in
cotton,
and
steamboats
and
wagons in the pay of the Government are set to
gathering and carrying cotton, and
the
soldiers
to loading cotton-trains and guarding them.
The matter
deeply
affects
the
Treasury and
War Departments, and has been discussed again
and again
in the Cabinet.
What can and what
cannot
be done
has
for
the time
been
settled,
and
it seems to me I cannot safely break over
it.
I know
it
is thought that one case
is not much,
but how can I favor one and deny another ?
One
case
cannot
be
kept
a
secret.
The
authority
given
would
be
utterly
ineffectual
until
it
is
shown, and when shown, everybody knows of
it.
The Administration would do for you as much
as for any other man
; and I personally would do
some more than
for most
others
; but
really
I
cannot
involve myself
and
the Government
as
this would do.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.