Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln
'i
Centenary Edition
Edited by Marion Mills
Miller,
Litt. D.
(Princeton)
In Nine Volumes: Volume
VIII
AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS
BRONZE STATUE OF ABRAHAM EIXCOLN
In Lincoln Park, Chicago
Letters
and Telegrams
Gasparin to Meade
Including Messages to
Congress,
Military Orders, Memoran-
da,
etc.,
Relating
to
Individual Persons
By
Abraham
Lincoln
New York
The Current Literature
Publishing Co.
1907
F  Twe Gopies Feveived Copyright Entry Nov JY (407 class 4 XXo. No, 1 23705 ‘ Cory Ay ce a NE ee ren Copyright, 1907, Current Literature Publishing Company THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS RAHWAY, N. J.
CONTENTS
Letters and Telegrams
:
Gasparin, Count,
i.
Geary,
J. W.,
3.
Gentry, M.
P., 3.
Gere,
I. A., and Others,
4.
Giddings, J. R.,
4.
Gillespie, Joseph,
5.
Gillmore, Quincy A.,
11.
Gil-
mer, John
A.,
12.
Glenn,
Lieutenant-Colonel,
14.
Glover,
S.
T.,
14.
Goldsborough,
Louis
M.,
15.
Goodrich,
J.
Z.,
17.
Gordon,
Nathaniel,
17.
Goss,
G. G., and Others,
18.
Grant, Ulysses
S.,
19.
Gray,
John
P.,
41.
Greeley,
Horace,
43.
Green,
Duff,
48.
Grimes, James
W.,
50.
Grimes,
William,
50.
Grimsley,
Mrs.
Elizabeth
J.,
52.
Gurney,
Mrs.
Eliza
P.,
52.
Guthrie, James,
53.
Hackett, James H., 54.
Hahn, Michael, 55.
Hale,
J. T.,
56.
Halleck, Henry W.,
57.
Hamlin, Hanni-
bal,
83.
Hancock,
Winfield
S.,
88.
Hardin, John
J., 88.
Harney, W.
S., 92.
Harvey, J.
E., 93.
Hay,
John, 94.
Haycraft, Samuel, 95.
Helm, Mrs. Emily
T.,
98.
Henderson,
T.
J.,
09.
Henry, A.
G.,
101.
Henry,
Alexander,
104.
Herndon,
Rowan,
104.
Herndon,
William
H.,
105.
Herron,
F.
J.,
118.
Hewett,
Josephus,
118.
Hicks,
G.
Montague,
120.
Hicks,
Thomas,
120.
Hicks,
Thomas
H.,
121.
Hodges, A.
G.,
124.
Hoffman, H. W.,
127.
Hoff-
man,
Ogden,
127.
Holt,
Joseph,
128.
Hooker,
Joseph, 128.
Hough, R. M., and Others,
142.
How-
ard, O.
O.,
143.
Hoyt, Charles,
143.
Hunt, Ward,
144.
Hunt, Mrs.,
145.
Hunter, David,
146.
Hurl-
but,
S. A.,
153.
Hurlbut, Mrs.
S. A.,
158.
Hughes,
John,
158.
Huidekoper, H. C,
159.
Ide, Dr., and Others, 160.
Ingalls, R.,
161.
Irwin,
James
S.,
161.
Jacob,
R.
T.,
162.
James,
B.
F.,
162.
Jameson,
E. H. and
E.,
168.
Jayne, William,
168.
Johnson,
Andrew,
169.
Johnson,
Reverdy,
178.
Johnston,
vi
CONTENTS
John
D.,
180.
Johnston,
William,
186.
Jonas,
A.,
192.
Jordan, Warren,
193.
Judd, N.
B.,
194.
Kapp,
Frederick, and
Others,
199.
Kelley, Wil-
liam
D.,
199.
Kellogg,
William,
200.
Key, John
J.,
201.
Kirkland,
C.
P.,
204.
Knox, Thomas W.,
205.
Koppel, Herman, 205.
Lamon, Ward
H.,
206.
Lane,
J.
H.,
207.
Lard-
ner,
John
L.,
and
Others,
208.
Lee,
J.
C,
209.
Lee,
S.
P.,
209.
Lewis,
Alpheus,
210.
Lincoln,
Abraham
[Autobiographies and Memorandum], 211.
Lincoln, Mrs. Abraham,
224.
Lincoln,
David,
227.
Lincoln, Jesse,
229.
Lincoln, Robert
T.,
231.
Lin-
coln,
Thomas,
232.
Lincoln,
Mrs.
Thomas,
232.
Linder,
Daniel,
233.
Linder,
U.
F.,
233.
Logan,
John
A.,
234.
Loomis,
F.
B.,
235.
Lowe,
F.
F.,
235.
Lucas,
J.
M.,
237.
Lusk, Edward,
239.
Mackay,
Alfred,
240.
Maclean, John,
240.
Ma-
goffin,
Beriah,
241.
Malhiot,
E.
E.,
and
Others,
242.
Maltby,
Harrison,
243.
Mann,
Mrs.
Horace,
245.
Mansfield,
J.
K.
F.,
245.
Marcy,
R.
B.,
245.
Mathers, John, 246.
Matteson, Joel
A.,
247.
May-
nard, Horace, 247.
McCall, G. A., 248.
McClellan,
George
B.,
248.
McClernand, John
A.,
288.
Mc-
Clernand, John, 293.
McClure, A. K, 294.
McCul-
lough,
Miss
Fanny,
294.
McDougall,
J.
A.,
295.
McDowell,
Irvin,
297.
McLean,
John,
303.
Mc-
Michael,
Morton,
304.
McNeil,
C.
F.,
305.
Mc-
Pheeters, Samuel
S.,
306.
Meade, George
G.,
307.
Meagher,
T.
Francis,
313.
Meconkey,
Mrs.
Sarah
B.,
313.
Mercer,
Samuel,
314.
LETTERS
Gasparin, Count.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 4, 1862.
To Count A. de Gasparin.
Dear
Sir:
Your very acceptable
letter, dated
Orbe, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, 18th of 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, how-
ever.
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
LETTERS
to personally enter the
service, are
nevertheless
anxious
to pay and
send
substitutes,
provided
they
can
have
assurance
that
unwilling
per-
sons,
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?"
While
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 continuance lies mainly in the other facts that
the enemy
holds
the
interior
and we
the
ex-
terior lines; and that we operate where the peo-
ple convey 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, extending
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.
GENTRY, M. P.
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.
Geary,
J. W.
[Telegram.]
War Department,
Washington, D. C., May 25, 1862.
4.15 p. m.
General Geary, White Plains:
Please give us
your best present impression as to the number of
the enemy's forces north of Strasburg and Front
Royal.
Are the forces still moving north through
the gap
at Front Royal and between you and
there ?
A. Lincoln.
Gentry, M. P.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, March
13, 1864.
Hon. M. P. Gentry.
My dear Sir:
Yours by the hand of General
Grant
is
received.
Of course
I have
not
for-
gotten you.
General Grant
is hereby authorized,
in
his
discretion,
to send you
South; and
it
is
rather my wish
that he may
find
it not
incon-
sistent
with
his view
of
the
public
interest
to
oblige
you.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS
Gere,
I.
A., and Others.
[About May
15,
1862.]
Revs.
I.
A.
Gere,
A.
A.
Reese,
D.
D.,
G.
D.
Chenoweth.
Gentlemen:
Allow me to tender to you, and
through you
to
the East
Baltimore Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, my grateful
thanks
for the preamble and resolutions of that
body, copies of which you did me the honor to
present
yesterday.
These
kind
words
of
ap-
proval,
coming
from
so
numerous
a
body
of
intelligent
Christian
people,
and
so
free
from
all suspicion of
sinister motives, are indeed en-
couraging
to
me.
By
the
help
of
an
all-wise
Providence,
I
shall endeavor to do my duty, and
I
shall expect the continuance
of your prayers
for
a
right
solution
of our
national
difficulties
and the restoration of our country to peace and
prosperity.
Your obliged and humble
servant,
A. Lincoln.
Giddings, J. R.
Springfield,
Illinois, May 21, i860.
Hon.
J. R. Giddings.
My good Friend
:
Your very kind and accept-
able
letter of the
19th was duly handed me by
Mr.
Tuck.
It
is
indeed most
grateful
to my
feelings
that
the
responsible
position
assigned
me
comes
without
conditions,
save
only
such
honorable ones as are
fairly implied.
I am not
wanting in the purpose, though
I may
fail in the
strength, to maintain my freedom from bad
in-
fluences.
Your
letter comes
to my
aid
in
this
GILLESPIE, JOSEPH
point most opportunely.
May the Almighty grant
that
the
cause
of
truth,
justice, and humanity
shall in no wise suffer at my hands.
Mrs.
Lincoln
joins me
in
sincere wishes
for
your health, happiness, and long life.
A. Lincoln.
Gillespie, Joseph.
Springfield,
111., May
19, 1849.
Dear Gillespie
Butterfield will be Commissioner of the Gen'l
Land
Office,
unless
prevented
by
strong
and
speedy effort.
Ewing
is for him, and he
is only
not appointed yet because Old Zach. hangs
fire.
I
have
reliable
information
of
this.
Now,
if
you agree with me that
his appointment would
dissatisfy rather than gratify the Whigs of
this
State,
that
it
would
slacken
their
energies
in
future
contests,
that
his
appointment
in
'41
is
an
old
sore with them which they will
not pa-
tiently have
reopened,—in
a word
that
his
ap-
pointment now would be a
fatal blunder to the
administration
and
our
political
men,
here
in
Illinois, write Mr. Crittenden to that effect.
He
can
control
the
matter.
Were
you
to
write
Ewing
I fear the President would never hear of
your
letter.
This may be mere suspicion.
You
might write
directly to Old Zach.
You
will be
the best judge of the propriety of
that.
Not a
moment's time
is to be
lost.
Let
this be
confidential
except with Mr. Ed-
wards and a few others whom you know I would
trust just as I do you.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS
Springfield, July
13,
1849.
Dear Gillespie:
Mr. Edwards
is unquestionably offended with
me in connection with the matter of the General
Land Office.
He wrote a letter against me which
was filed at the Department.
The
better
part
of
one's
life
consists of
his
friendships;
and,
of them, mine with Mr.
Ed-
wards was one of the most cherished.
I have
not been
false
to
it.
At a word
I could have
had
the
office any time before the Department
was committed to Mr.
Butterfield,—at least Mr.
Ewing and
the
President
say
as much.
That
word
I
forbore to
speak,
partly
for
other
rea-
sons, but chiefly for Mr. Edwards' sake,—losing
the office that he might gain
it, I was always for
;
but to lose his friendship, by the effort for him,
would oppress me very much, were
I
not
sus-
tained by the utmost consciousness of rectitude.
I first determined to be an applicant, uncondition-
ally, on the 2nd of June
; and
I did so then upon
being informed by
a Telegraphic despatch
that
the question was narrowed down to Mr. B
and myself, and that the Cabinet had postponed
the
appointment
three
weeks,
for my
benefit.
Not doubting that Mr. Edwards was wholly out
of the question
I,
nevertheless, would not then
have
become
an
applicant
had
I
supposed
he
would
thereby
be
brought
to
suspect me
of
treachery to him.
Two or three days afterwards
a
conversation
with
Levi
Davis
convinced me
Mr. Edwards was
dissatisfied
; but
I was then
too
far
in
to get
out.
His own
letter,
written
on the 25th of April, after
I had
fully informed
him of
all that had passed, up to within a few
days of that time, gave assurance I had that entire
GILLESPIE, JOSEPH
confidence from him, which
I
felt my uniform
and
strong
friendship
for him
entitled me
to.
Among
other
things
it
says
' 'whatever
course
your judgment may dictate as proper to be pur-
sued, shall never be excepted to by me."
I also
had had a letter from Washington, saying Cham-
bers,
of
the
Republic,
had
brought
a
rumor
then, that Mr. E
had declined
in my favor,
which rumor
I
judged came from Mr. E
himself, as
I had not then breathed of his letter
to any
living creature.
In saying
I had
never,
before
the 22nd
of
June, determined
to
be an
applicant, unconditionally,
I mean to admit that,
before
then,
I
had
said
substantially
I would
take the
office
rather than
it should be
lost
to
the
State,
or
given
to one
in
the
State whom
the Whigs did not want
; but I aver that in every
instance
in
which
I
spoke
of
myself,
I
in-
tended to keep, and now believe
I did keep, Mr.
E
above
myself.
Mr.
Edwards'
first
sus-
picion was that I had allowed Baker to overreach
me,
as
his
friend
in
behalf
of Don
Morrison.
I knew
this was a mistake; and the
result has
proved
it.
I understand
his view now
is,
that
if
I had gone to open war with Baker
I could
have
ridden him down,
and had
the
thing
all
my own way.
I
believe no such
thing.
With
Baker and some strong man from the
Military
tract &
elsewhere
for
Morrison
;
and we and
some strong man from the Wabash & elsewhere
for
Mr. E
,
it was
not
possible
for
either
to succeed.
I believed this in March, and I knozu
it now.
The only thing which gave
either any
chance was the very thing Baker & I proposed,
an adjustment with themselves.
You may wish to know how Butterfield finally
LETTERS
beat me.
I
can
not
tell you
particulars, now,
but
will, when
I
see you.
In the meantime
let
it
be
understood
I
am
not
greatly
dissatis-
fied,—I wish the offer had been so bestowed as
to encourage our friends
in future contests, and
I
regret
exceedingly
Mr.
Edwards'
feelings
towards me.
These two things away,
I should
have no regrets,—at least
I think I would not.
Write me soon.
Your friend, as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield, December
I,
1854.
J. Gillespie, Esq.
:
My Dear
Sir:
I have
really
got
it
into my
head
to
try
to
be United
States
Senator,
and,
if
I could have your support, my chances would
be reasonably good.
But
I know, and acknowl-
edge,
that you have as
just claims to the place
as
I
have; and therefore
I
cannot
ask you
to
yield
to me,
if you
are thinking of becoming a
candidate
yourself.
If,
however, you
are
not,
then I should like to be remembered affectionately
by you
; and also to have you make a mark for
me with the Anti-Nebraska members, down your
way.
If you know, and have no
objection
to
tell,
let me know whether Trumbull intends to make
a push.
If he does,
I suppose the two men
in
St.
Clair, and
one, or both,
in Madicon, will be
for him. We have the legislature, clearly enough,
on joint ballot, but the Senate
is very close, and
Cullom
told me to-day
that
the Nebraska men
will stave
off the election,
if they can.
Even
if
we get into joint vote, we shall have difficulty to
GILLESPIE, JOSEPH
unite our
forces.
Please write me, and
let
this
be confidential.
Your friend, as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield, July
16,
1858.
Hon. Joseph Gillespie
My dear
Sir:
I write
this to say that from
the specimens
of Douglas Democracy we occa-
sionally
see here from Madison, we
learn
that
they
are making
very
confident
calculation
of
beating
you,
and
your
friends
for
the
lower
house,
in that county.
They
offer to bet upon
it.
Billings
and
Job,
respectively,
have
been
up here, and were each, as I learn, talking largely
about
it.
If they do
so,
it can only be done by
carrying the Fillmore men of 1856 very
differ-
ently from what they seem to be doing in the other
party.
Below is the vote of 1856, in your district.
Counties.
Buchanan.
Fremont.
Fillmore.
Bond
607
153
659
Madison
1451
mi
1658
Montgomery
992
162
686
3050
1426
3003
By
this you
will
see,
if you go through the
calculation,
that
if
they
get one-quarter
of the
Fillmore votes, and you three-quarters, they will
beat you
125
votes.
If they get
one-fifth, and
you four-fifths, you beat them 179.
In Madison,
alone,
if our
friends
get
1000 of
the
Fillmore
votes
and
their
opponents
the
remainder,
658,
we win by just two votes.
This shows
the whole
field, on
the
basis
of
the election of
1856.
LETTERS
Whether,
since
then, any Buchanan,
or Fre-
monters, have shifted ground, and how the ma-
jority of new votes will go, you can judge better
than
I.
Of course you, on the ground, can better deter-
mine your
line of
tactics than any one
off the
ground
; but
it behooves you to be wide awake,
and actively working.
Don't
neglect
it
; and
write me
at your
first
leisure..
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield, July 25,
1858.
Hon.
J. Gillespie.
My dear Sir:
Your doleful letter of the 18th
was
received on my
return
from
Chicago
last
night.
I
do hope you
are worse
scared
than
hurt, though you ought to know best. We must
not
lose the
district.
We must make a job of
it, and save
it.
Lay hold of the proper agencies,
and
secure
all the Americans you can,
at once.
I
do
hope,
on
closer
inspection, you
will
find
they are not half gone.
Make a
little test.
Run
down one of the poll-books of the Edwardsville
precinct,
and
take
the
first
hundred
known
American
names.
Then
quietly
ascertain how
many
of them
are
actually going
for
Douglas.
I think you
will
find
less than
fifty.
But even
if you
find
fifty, make sure of the other
fifty,
that
is, make sure of
all you can,
at
all events.
We
will
set other agencies to work which
shall
compensate for the loss of a good many Ameri-
cans.
Don't
fail to check the stampede at once.
Trumbull,
I
think,
will
be
with
you
before
long:.
GILLMORE, QUINCY A.
n
There
is much he cannot do, and some he can.
I have reason to hope there
will be other help
of an appropriate kind.
Write me again.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
GlLLMORE, QUINCY A.
[See Welles,
Gideon,
Dec.
20,
1863.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January 13, 1864.
'
Major-General Gillmore:
I understand an effort
is being made by some
worthy
gentlemen
to
reconstruct
a
loyal
State
government
in
Florida.
Florida
is
in your
de-
partment, and
it
is not unlikely that you may be
there in person.
I have given Mr. Hay a com-
mission
of
major,
and
sent him
to
you,
with
some blank-books and other blanks, to aid in the
reconstruction.
He will explain as to the manner
of using the blanks, and also my general views
on the
subject.
It
is
desirable
for
all to coop-
erate, but
if irreconcilable differences of opinion
shall
arise, you
are
master.
I wish
the
thing
done
in
the most speedy way
possible,
so
that
when
done,
it
lie
within
the
range
of
the
late
proclamation on
the
subject.
The
detail
labor,
of course,
will have to be done by others
; but
I
shall
be
greatly
obliged
if you
will
give
it
such
general
supervision
as you
can
find
con-
sistent with your more strictly military duties.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS
Gilmer, John A.
[Strictly
confidential.]
Springfield, Illinois, December 15, i860.
Hon. John A.. Gilmer.
My dear
Sir:
Yours of the 10th
is received.
I am greatly disinclined to write a letter on the
subject
embraced
in
yours;
and
I
would
not
do
so, even privately
as
I
do, were
it not that
I
fear you
might
misconstrue my
silence.
Is
it
desired
that
I
shall
shift
the
ground
upon
which
I have been elected ?
I cannot do
it.
You
need only to acquaint yourself with that ground,
and press
it on the
attention of the
South.
It
is
all
in
print and
easy
of
access.
May
I
be
pardoned
if
I ask whether even you have ever
attempted to procure the reading of the Repub-
lican platform, or my speeches, by the Southern
people?
If
not, what
reason have
I
to expect
that
any
additional
production
of mine would
meet a
better
fate?
It would make me appear
as
if
I
repented
for
the crime of having been
elected, and was anxious
to
apologize and beg
forgiveness.
To so represent me would be the
principal
use made
of any
letter
I
might now
thrust upon
the
public.
My
old record cannot
be so used; and that
is precisely the reason that
some new declaration
is so much sought.
Now, my dear
sir, be assured that
I am not
questioning
your
candor;
I am
only
pointing
out that while a new
letter would hurt the cause
which
I think a just one, you can quite as well
effect every patriotic object with the old record.
Carefully read pages
18,
19, 74,
75, 88, 89, and
267
of
the
volume
of
joint
debates
between
Senator Douglas and myself, with the Republican
GILMER, JOHN A.
platform adopted
at Chicago, and
all your ques-
tions will be
substantially answered.
I have no
thought of recommending the abolition of slavery
in the District of Columbia, nor the slave-trade
among the
slave
States, even on the conditions
indicated
; and if I were to make such recommen-
dation,
it
is quite clear Congress would not
fol-
low
it.
As to employing slaves
in arsenals and dock-
yards,
it
is
a
thing
I
never thought
of
in my
life,
to my
recollection,
till
I saw your
letter;
and
I may say of
it precisely as
I have said of
the two points above.
As to the use of patronage in the slave States,
where
there
are
few
or no
Republicans,
I
do
not expect to inquire
for the
politics of the ap-
pointee,
or whether he does or not own
slaves.
I intend in that matter to accommodate the peo-
ple
in
the
several
localities,
if they themselves
will
allow me
to accommodate
them.
In
one
word,
I never have been, am not now, and prob-
ably never
shall be
in a mood of harassing the
people either North or South.
On the
territorial question
I am
inflexible, as
you see my position in the book.
On that there
is
a
difference between you and
us; and
it
is
the
only
substantial
difference.
You
think
slavery
is
right and ought
to be extended; we
think
it is wrong and ought to be restricted.
For
this
neither
has any
just
occasion
to be angry
with the other.
As to the State laws, mentioned
in your sixth
question,
I
really know
very
little of them.
I
never have read
one.
If any
of them
are
in
conflict
with
the
fugitive-slave
clause,
or
any
other part of the
Constitution,
I
certainly
shall
i 4
LETTERS
be
glad of
their
repeal
; but
I could hardly be
justified, as a citizen of
Illinois, or as President
of the United
States,
to recommend the repeal
of a statute of Vermont or South Carolina.
With the assurance of my highest
regards,
I
subscribe myself,
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
P.
S.
The documents
referred
to
I suppose
you
will readily find
in Washington.
A. L.
Glenn, Lieutenant-Colonel.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, February 7, 1865.
Lieutenant-Colonel Glenn, Commanding Post
at
Henderson, Kentucky:
Complaint
is made to me that you are forcing
negroes
into the military
service, and even tor-
turing them—riding them on rails and the like
to
extort
their
consent.
I hope
this may be a
mistake.
The
like must not be done by you, or
any one under you.
You must not force negroes
any more than white men.
Answer me on this.
A. Lincoln.
Glover,
S. T.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, D. C, January 20, 1863.
Hon.
S. T. Glover.
My dear
Sir:
Yours of January
12,
stating
the distressed condition of the people
in south-
west Missouri, and urging the completion of the
railroad
to
Springfield,
is
just
received.
Of
course
I
deplore
the
distress
of
the
people
in
GOLDSBOROUGH, LOUIS M.
that
section and elsewhere.
Nor
is the thought
of extending the
railroad new
to me.
But the
military necessity for
it
is not so patent but that
Congress would try to restrain me in some way,
were
I to attempt
it.
I am very glad to believe
that the
late military operations in Missouri and
Arkansas
are
at
least
promising
of
repose
to
southwest Missouri.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
GOLDSBOROUGH,
LOUIS M.
[Telegram.]
Fort Monroe, Virginia, May 7, 1862.
Flag-officer Goldsborough.
Sir:
Major-General McClellan telegraphs that
he has ascertained by a reconnaissance that the
battery
at Jamestown has been abandoned, and
he again requests that gunboats may be sent up
the James River.
If you have tolerable confidence that you can
successfully contend with the Merrimac without
the
help
of
the
Galena and two accompanying
gunboats,
send
the
Galena
and
two
gunboats
up the James River at once.
Please report your
action on this
to me
at once.
I
shall be found
either
at
General
Wool's
headquarters
or
on
board the Miami.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
Fort Monroe, Virginia, May 10, 1862.
Flag-officer Goldsborough.
My dear
Sir:
I send you
this copy of your
report
of
yesterday
for
the purpose
of
saying
LETTERS
to you
in
writing
that you
are
quite
right
in
supposing that the movement made hy you and
therein
reported was made
in
accordance
with
my wishes verhally expressed to you in advance.
I
avail myself of the occasion to thank you
for
your
courtesy and
all your
conduct,
so
far
as
known to me, during my brief visit here.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Message to Congress.']
To the
Senate and House of
Representatives
of the United States
:
.
.
.
Believing
that no
occasion
could
arise which
would more
fully correspond with the intention
of the law
[authorizing the President
to recom-
mend
to Congress naval
officers
to
receive vote
of thanks for gallant service), or be more preg-
nant with happy influence as an example,
I cor-
dially recommend
that
Louis M.
Goldsborough
receive
a
vote
of
thanks
of
Congress
for
his
services
and
gallantry
displayed
in
the
com-
bined
attack of
the
forces commanded by him
and
Brigadier-General
Burnside
in
the
capture
of Roanoke
Island and the destruction of
rebel
gunboats on the 7th, 8th, and
10th of February,
1862.
Abraham Lincoln.
Washington, February
15, 1862.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C, June 28, 1862.
Flag-Officer Goldsborough, Fort Monroe
:
Enemy
has
cut
McClellan's
communication
with
White
House,
and
is
driving
Stoneman
GORDON, NA THANIEL
back on that
point.
Do what you can
for him
with gunboats at or near your place.
McClellan's
main force
is between the Chickahominy and the
James.
Also
clo what you can to communicate
with him and support him there.
A. Lincoln.
Goodman, Edward.
[See Chase, Salmon
P., March
2, 1863.]
Goodrich,
J.
Z.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, March
13,
1865.
Hon. John
Z. Goodrich.
My dear Sir
: Your official term expires about
this time.
I know not whether you desire a re-
appointment, and I am not aware of any objection
to you—personal,
political, or
official.
Yet
if
it
be true, as
I have been informed, that the
office
is of no pecuniary consequence to you,
it would
be
quite
a
relief
to me
to have
it
at my
dis-
posal.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Gordon, Nathaniel.
On
February
4,
1862,
the
President
having
refused the
petition
of "a
large number of
re-
spectable
citizens"
to commute
the
death
sen-
tence of Nathaniel Gordon, convicted of being a
slave trader, gave him a
respite from February
7,
1862,
to February
21,
1862,
because
of
the
seeming
probability
that
the
expectation
of
a
commutation
of
sentence may
have
prevented
LETTERS
Gordon
"from
making
the
necessary
prepara-
tion
for the awful change which awaits him."
"In granting this
respite
it becomes my pain-
ful
duty
to admonish
the
prisoner
that,
relin-
quishing all expectation of pardon by human au-
thority, he
refer himself alone
to the mercy of
the common God and Father of all men."
In
testimony,
etc.
Abraham
Lincoln.
By the President:
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Goss, G.
G., and Others.
[Schedule A.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington,
D.
C.,
1861.
Rev.
G.
G.
Goss.
Sir
: Having been
solicited by
Christian min-
isters and other pious people to appoint suitable
persons
to act
as chaplains
at the
hospitals
for
our
sick and wounded
soldiers, and
feeling the
intrinsic propriety of having such persons to so
act, and yet believing there
is no law conferring
the power upon me to appoint them,
I think
fit
to
say
that
if you
will
voluntarily
enter upon
and perform the appropriate duties of such posi-
tion,
I will recommend that Congress make com-
pensation therefor at the same rate as chaplains
in the army are compensated.
The
following
are
the names and
dates,
re-
spectively,
of
the
persons
and
times
to whom
and when such letters were delivered
:
Rev. G. G. Goss
September
25,
1861.
Rev. John G. Butler
September
25,
1861.
Rev. Henry Hopkins
September
25,
1861.
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
Rev.
F. M. Magrath
October
30,
1861.
Rev.
F.
E.
Boyle
October
30,
1861.
Rev. John C. Smith
November
7,
1861.
Rev. Wm. Y. Brown
November
7,
1861.
Governors of
States.
[See Stone, William M., and Washburne, Israel.]
Grant, Ulysses
S.
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
intimate personal friend.
A.
Lincoln.
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 Gen-
eral Banks and
the lower
flotilla,
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 junction with you
at Vicksburg.
If they should
not be able to effect this, they will at least occupy a por-
tion of the enemy's
forces, and prevent them from
re-
inforcing Vicksburg.
I hope, however, 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,
LETTERS
was the object
of your orders; but as
it
in terms pro-
scribed
an
entire
religious
class,
some
of whom
are
fighting in our ranks, the President deemed
it necessary
to revoke
it.
Very
respectfully, your obedient
servant,
H. W. Halleck, General-in-Chief.
[Mar.
20,
1863,
See Knox, Thomas.]
[Telegram.]
War Department, June
2,
1863.
Major-General Grant,
Vicksburg,
via Memphis
:
Are
you
in
communication
with
General
Banks?
Is
he
coming
toward
you
or
going
farther off?
Is there or has there been anything
to hinder
his coming
directly
to you by water
from Alexandria ?
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, 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
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
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.
[July
27,
1863.
See Burnside, Ambrose K]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August
9,
1863.
My dear General Grant
:
I see by a despatch of yours that you
incline
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
Mexico
I am greatly impressed with the impor-
tance of reestablishing the national authority
in
Western 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.
LETTERS
Did you receive a short
letter from me dated
the thirteenth of July?
Yours very
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[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
effected
that
important
object.
God
bless you
all!
A.
Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
War Department,
Washington, December
19,
1863.
General Grant, Chattanooga, Tennessee:
The
Indiana
delegation
in
Congress,
or
at
least a large part of them, are very anxious that
General Milroy
shall enter
active
service again,
and
I share in this feeling.
He
is not a difficult
man to
satisfy—sincerity and courage being his
strong traits.
Believing in our cause, and 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?
A.
Lincoln.
[Jan. 6, 1864; Jan.
17, 1864.
See Bramlette, Thomas
E.]
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
[Order.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, D. C, March
10, 1864.
Under the authority of an act of Congress to
revive
the
grade
of
lieutenant-general
in
the
United
States
Army,
approved
February
29,
1864,
Lieutenant-General
Ulysses
S.
Grant,
United States Army,
is assigned to the command
of the Armies of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, March
10,
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,
Washington, D.
C., 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, he assigned to command the corps he
commanded a while last autumn?
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, April 30, 1864.
Lieutenant-General Grant
:
Not
expecting
to
see you
again
before
the
LETTERS
spring campaign opens,
I wish to express in this
way my entire
satisfaction with what you have
done up to this time,
so far as
I understand
it.
The particulars of your plans
I neither know nor
seek to know.
You are vigilant and self-reliant;
and, pleased with this,
I wish not to obtrude any
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
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.
[June
3,
1864.
See Conkling,
F.
A.]
[Telegram,.]
Washington, June
15, 1864.
7 a. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
Headquarters Army of the Potomac
:
I have just received your despatch of
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,
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
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 8000, not very reliable, under Howe, at
Harper's
Ferry, with Hunter approaching
that
point very slowly, with what number
I suppose
you know
better
than
I.
Wallace,
with some
odds and ends, and part of what came up with
Ricketts,
was
so
badly
beaten
yesterday
at
Monocacy, that what
is left can attempt no more
than to defend Baltimore.
What we shall get in
from Pennsylvania and New York will scarcely
be worth counting,
I
fear.
Now, what
I think
is, that you should provide to
retain your hold
where you are, certainly, and bring the rest with
you
personally, and make
a
vigorous
effort
to
destroy
the
enemy's
forces
in
this
vicinity.
I
think there
is
really a
fair chance to do
this,
if
the movement
is prompt.
This
is what
I think
upon your suggestion, and
is not an order.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.']
Washington, July
11,
1864.
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.
LETTERS
[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
absence from your front.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
[Washington], July 17, 1864.
12.25 a. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia
:
In
your
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."
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,
Washington, 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
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
suppose, covers the
case.
Always glad to have
your suggestions.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C, July 26, 1864.
Lieutenant-General U.
S. 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 M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, 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.
[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
a.
m., Sunday
the
31st.
A. Lincoln.
/ /«/ VERS
I
/
1 Ugram
(
iphei
\
W.r Inn:-!. .11,
I
I
I
,
Anvil
I
',,
[864.
.1. -111.
n. mi
I
ri
i"
1 al
.1 ant,
<
it y
Point
,
\
11 vim
ii.i
«
<
-/"in
di spat)
ii
in
which
you
say,
"l
w.ini
'
ih<
1 idan
pul
in
< ommand
oi
.ill
the
1 roopi
in
\\\<
field,
with
insl
i m
I ioni
i
(
»
i*"
I
.11
south
"i
the
ii«
in
and
follow
him
i<>
the
>i« ath
When
•
<
i
th
m\
got
li
I
oui
I roops
go
also
in
thinl
ii
<
acth
i ighl
as
to
how
oui
forci
hould
move
,
i x it
please
look
ovei
th<
dei pati
hi
ou may
ha^
i
reci ived
from
heri
evei
ini
i
you
made
thai
order,
and
dii
cover,
ii
you
1 an,
thai
thei
<
i
am
id<
a
in
the
hi ad "i any one
hi
r<
oi
"putl ing oui
ai my south
-.1
Mi.
em my,"
"i
"i
following
him
to
the
".1.
.iiii
in
.in
.in.
< linn
repeal
i«>
you,
it
w
ill
11.
ii>
be
-i"
-I
attempted,
unless
you
w.ii. h
ii
evei
v day and
houi
, and
fon e
ii
\.
Lincoln.
I
/ 't-lryitilll.
I
Washington,
I
»
<
. \
:
'
1 r
.
I
I
|,
i.".«.
1 30 p
I"
I
i.iih
11. ml
<
,<
11.
1 al
< ' .ml
,
City
1 '"mi
\
11 vim.
id.
Secretary
oi w
r
ai
and
I
i oni ui
thai
you
had
bettei
c< mfei
w ith
< renei al
Lei
and
i Ipulate
ioi
.1
mutual
disi ontinuani e
oi
houi
i
bui mng
.im.i
..ii..
desti mi tion
oi
pi h ati
property
I he
time
and
mannei
<>i
confen m e and
pai ticulai
s
<
>i
tipulal ion
w e
iea> e,
on
i »ui
part,
to
j oui
convenienc(
and
(udgmenl
A.
I
Mil dill.
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, 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.
[Telegram.]
Washington City, August 28,
1864.
Lieutenant-General Grant
:
There appears to be doubt whether the report
of Fort Morgan being in our possession
is in the
Richmond
papers.
Did you
see
the Richmond
paper containing the statement ?
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, September
12,
1864.
Lieutenant-General Grant
:
Sheridan and Early are facing each other at a
dead-lock.
Could we
not
pick up
a regiment
here and there,
to the number of say ten 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,
Washington, September 22, 1864.
Lieutenant-General Grant
:
I send this as an explanation to you, and to do
,"
LETTERS
justice i"
iii«- Secretary of War.
I was induced,
ii|kjii
pressing
application,
to
authorize
the
agents
oi one of
the
disl ricts of
I 'ennsylvania
to
i
<
<
in
one
of
the
prison
depots
in
[llinois;
and the
thing
wenl
bo
fai
before
il
< ame
to the
knowledge
oi
the
Secretary
that,
in my
judg
ment,
ii
could
nol
l><- abandoned without
greater
evil than would
follow
its going through.
I
did
not
I. now
al
the
time
thai
you
had
protested
againsl
thai
« lass oi thing being done
; and
I now
say
thai
while
this
pai ti< ular
job
musl
I"-
< om
pleted,
no
other
of
the
soi
I
will
be
authoi ized,
without
.in
understanding
with
you,
ii
al
all,
The
! >e< retai y
oJ W.u
i
i
w holly
free of any
part
in
this blundei
.
Your,
truly,
A.
I incoln.
| Telegram.
\
Washington,
I
>.
(
'.,
Septembej
29,
[864.
eo
a. m.
I ieutenanl
( reneral
1 Irant,
<
it v
Point,
Virginia
:
I
hope
it
will
have
no com
1 rainl
on
you,
nor
do harm
any
way,
foi
me
to
say
I am
a
little
afraid
lesl
I
•< e
.« rids
1 einf< u
1 ements
to
Eai ly,
and
Mm', enables him
to
I ui n upon
Sheridan.
A.
Lincoln.
E
ecutive
Mansion,
Washington,
(
h tober
5,
[864.
1 ieutenanl
( reneral
( Irani
1 ii<
li >se
you
.1
copy
of
a
correspondence
in
regard
to
a
contemplated
exchange
of
naval
pi tsonei s
i In
« >ugh
youi
hue
,
and
nol
vei y
dis
tanl
from yow
headquarters,
it
onl)
came
to
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
the knowledge of the War Department and
of
myself yesterday, and
it gives
us some
uneasi-
ness.
I therefore send
it to you with the
state-
ment that, as the numbers to be exchanged under
it are small, and so much has already been done
to
effect the exchange,
I hope you may find
it
consistent to
let
it go forward under the general
supervision
of General
Butler, and
particularly
in
reference to the
points he holds
vital
in ex-
changes.
Still, you
are
at
liberty
to arrest the
whole operation
if
in your judgment the public
good requires
it.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C, October
12, 1864.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia:
Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours
about
election.
Pennsylvania
very
close,
and
still
in doubt on home
vote.
Ohio
largely
for
us, with
all the members of Congress but two or
three.
Indiana
largely
for
us,—governor,
it
is
said, by 15,000, and eight of the eleven members
of Congress.
Send us what you may know of
your army vote.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C,
December 28, 1864.
5.30 p. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia
:
If there be no
objection, please
tell me what
you now understand of the Wilmington expedi-
tion, present and prospective.
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS
[Telegram.]
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 are now here.
Please give me the earliest
information
you may
receive
concerning
him,
what
is likely to be done with him, etc.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January
19,
1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant
:
Please read and answer
this
letter as though
I was not President, but only a friend.
My son,
now in his twenty-second year, having graduated
at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war
before
it ends.
I do not wish to put him
in the
ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to which
those who have
already served
long are
better
entitled and better qualified
to hold.
Could
he,
without embarrassment
to you
or
detriment
to
the
service, go
into your
military
family
with
some nominal
rank,
I, and
not
the
public,
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.
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January
31,
1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia
:
A messenger
is coining to you on the business
contained
in your despatch.
Detain the gentle-
men in comfortable quarters until he arrives, and
then
act upon the message he brings, as
far as
applicable,
it
having
been
made
up
to
pass
through
General
Ord's
hands,
and
when
the
gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, February
1,
1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point:
Let nothing which
is transpiring change, hin-
der, or delay your military movements or plans.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, about February
1, 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-
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.
LETTERS
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C, February 2, 1865.
Lieutenant General
Grant,
City Point,
Virginia
:
'
iy to the gentlemen
I will meet them person-
ally
at
Fortress Monroe
as
soon
as
I
can
get
there.
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, February 7,
1865.
Lieutenant-General
( rranl
,
( "\\y
Point,
Virginia
:
General
Singleton, who hens 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 mai ter on these points.
Please
see
and
hear
him
fully,
and
d<
< ide
whether anything, and
if anything
what, can
be
done in the premil
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
j 7 elegram,
\
Washington, D. C, March
2, 1805.
1 .iruii
ii.iui
( General
( irant,
(
iiy
Point,
Virginia:
You
have
not
sent
content!
"I
Richmond
papers
h>i
'! uesday or Wednesday.
Did you
not
receive them?
li
not,
«l<«
)i
indicate anything?
A.
Liurolu.
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, February 8, 1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia:
I am called on by the House of Representatives
to give an account of my interview with Messrs.
Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, and
it
is very
desirable to me to put in your despatch of Feb-
ruary
1,
to
the
Secretary
of War,
in
which,
among other things, you say
: "I fear now their
going back without any expression from any one
in authority will have a bad influence."
I think
the dispatch 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 Rogfer 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.
LETTERS
[Telegram.]
Washington, February 25, 1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia
:
General Sheridan's despatch to you, of to-day,
in which
he
says he
"will
be
off on Monday,"
and that he "will leave behind about 2000 men/'
causes
the
Secretary
of War
and
myself
con-
siderable
anxiety.
Have
you
well
considered
whether you do not again leave open the Shen-
andoah Valley entrance to Maryland and Penn-
sylvania, 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
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
hands, and will submit them to no military con-
ferences or conventions.
Meanwhile you are to
press to the utmost your military advantages.
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, 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 gratitude
for your and
their arduous and well-performed
public service.
Your obedient servant,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, D. C., March 8, 1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia:
Your two despatches to the Secretary of W
rar,
one relating to supplies for the enemy going by
the Blackwater, and the other to General Single-
ton and Judge Hughes, have been laid before me
by him.
* As
to
Singleton and Hughes,
I think
they are not in Richmond by any authority, un-
less
it be from you.
I remember nothing from
me which could aid them in getting there, except
a letter to you, as follows, to wit
:
[Here
follows
letter
to Lieutenant-General Grant
of
February
7,
1865.]
3°>
LETTERS
I
believe
I gave Hughes
a card
putting him
with Singleton on the same letter.
However this
may be,
I now authorize you to get Singleton and
Hughes away from Richmond, if you choose, and
can.
I
also
authorize
you, by
an
order,
or
in
what form you choose, to suspend
all operations
on
the
Treasury-trade
permits,
in
all
places
southeastward of the Alleghanies.
If you make
such
order,
notify me
of
it,
giving a
copy,
so
that
I
can
give
corresponding
direction
to
the
Navy.
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 re-
sponsible 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
personal 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
gQt discharged are their neighbors and 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 represen-
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
tations 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 differ-
ent times, aggregating perhaps a thousand Mis-
sourians and
Kentuckians
;
and
their members,
returning here since the prisoners' 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. Lin-
coln and a few others
will probably accompany
me.
Will notify you of exact time, once
it shall
be fixed upon.
A.
Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, March 23, 1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant,
City Point, Virginia:
We
start
to you
at
p. m.
to-day.
May
lie
over during the dark hours of the night.
Very
small party of
us.
A.
Lincoln.
A/; 7 7;..
[Telegram.]
nt, April
i, 1865.
5.45 p. m.
Lieutenant-General Grant
:
Yours showing Sheridan's success of today
is
just received, and highly appreciated.
I
great deal to do here,
1 am
still sending the sub-
stance
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
I Grant, in the Field:
Secretary Seward was thrown
from
hi-.
. and seriously injured.
This, with
will take me to Washington
I was at
I
ay and
I
when and where Judge Campbell, who was with
.
J funter and
St< p
• bruary,
•
on me, an-
rations as induced
me
to put
in
his hands
an
informal
paper,
re-
peating the
pr<
US
in my
letter of
instruc-
,lr. Seward, which you remember, and
adding that
if the war
be now
furthei
Is, confiscated property
shall at the
least
b
additional
cost, and
thai
any
State
ivhii
1)
will
ood
faith with-
draw
its troop
orl from resistance
1<,
nt.
Judge
( 'ampb<-lJ though!
ll
tXOl
that
ire
of
Virginia
would
d-
Igl
,
I
addressed
itzel,
with permis-
GRAY, JOHN P.
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, 11
a. m., 1865.
Lieutenant-General Grant
:
Gen. Sheridan says "If the thing
is pressed
I
think
that Lee
will
surrender."
Let
the
thing
be pressed.
A.
Lincoln.
Gray, John P.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, September
10, 1863.
Dr. John P. Gray.
Sir: Dr. David M. Wright
is
in military cus-
tody at Norfolk, Virginia, having been by a mil-
itary commission tried for murder and sentenced
to death, his execution awaiting the order of the
LETTERS
major-general
in command
of
that
military
de-
partment,
or
of
the
President
of
the
United
States. The record
is before me, and a question
is
made as to the sanity of the accused.
You
will
please proceed to the military department whose
headquarters
are
at
Fort
Monroe,
and
take
in
writing
all
evidence
which may
be
offered
on
behalf of Dr. Wright and against him, and any, in
addition, which you may
find within your reach,
and deem
pertinent
;
all
said evidence
to be
di-
rected to the question of Dr. Wright's sanity or
insanity,
and
not
to
any
other
questions;
you
to preside with power to exclude evidence which
shall appear
to you
clearly not pertinent
to the
question.
When the taking of the evidence shall
be
closed, you
will
report
the same
to me,
to-
gether
with
your own
conclusions
as
to
Dr.
Wright's sanity both at the time of the homicide
and at the time of your examination.
On reach-
ing
Fort Monroe, you
will present
this
letter to
the officer then commanding that department, and
deliver to him a copy of the same, upon which
he is hereby directed to notify Hon. L. J. Bowdcn
and
lion. L. H. Chandler of the same; to desig-
nate
some
suitable
person
in
his command
to
appear for the government as judge-advocate or
prosecuting attorney
;
to provide
for the
attend-
ance of
all such witnesses before you as may be
desired by either party, or by yourself, and who
may be within convenient reach of you
;
to
fur-
nish you a suitable place, or places,
for conduct-
ing
the
examination
;
and
to
render
you
such
other reasonable assistance in the premises as you
may
require.
If you deem
it
proper, you
will
examine Dr. Wright personally, and you may
in
your discretion require him to be present during
GREELEY, HORACE
4S
the whole or any part of the taking of the evi-
dence.
The
military are hereby charged
to
see
that an escape does not occur.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Greeley, Horace.
Washington, June 27, 1848.
Friend Greeley
:
In the "Tribune" of yesterday
I discovered a
little editorial paragraph
in
rela-
tion to Colonel Wentworth of
Illinois,
in which,
in
relation
to the boundary of Texas, you
say
:
"All Whigs and many
Democrats
having
ever
contended
it stopped
at the Nueces."
Now this
is
a
mistake which
I
dislike
to
see go
uncor-
rected
in a leading Whig paper.
Since
I have
been here, I know a large majority of such Whigs
of the House of Representatives as have spoken
on
the
question
have
not
taken
that
position.
Their position, and in my opinion the true posi-
tion,
is
that
the
boundary
of Texas
extended
just so far as American settlements taking part in
her revolution extended
; and that as a matter of
fact those settlements did extend,
at one or two
points, beyond the Nueces, but not anywhere near
the Rio Grande
at any point.
The "stupendous
desert" between the
valleys of those two
rivers,
and not either
river, has been insisted on by the
Whigs as the true boundary.
Will you look
at this?
By putting us
in the
position of
insisting on
the
line of the Nueces,
you put us
in a position which,
in my opinion,
we cannot
maintain, and which
therefore
gives
the Democrats an advantage of us.
If the degree
of arrogance
is not too great, may
I ask you to
LETTERS
examine what
I
said on
this very
point
in
the
printed speech
I send you.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
Dear Sir:
I have just read yours of the
19th,
addressed
to
myself
through
the New
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,
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.
If
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
GREELEY, HORACE
do
it; and
if I could save
it by freeing some and
leaving others alone,
I would also do that.
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.4l 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 inci-
sures, received.
If you
can
find any
person,
anywhere,
pro-
fessing to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis
in writing,
for peace, embracing the restoration
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.
LETTERS
[Telegram.']
Executive Mansion,
Washington, July
15,
1864.
Hon. Horace Greeley, New York:
I suppose you received my letter of the 9th.
I
have just received yours of the
13th, and am dis-
appointed by
it.
I was not expecting you to send
me a letter, but to bring me a man, or men.
Mr.
Hay goes
to you
with my answer
to
yours
of
the
13th.
A.
Lincoln.
[Letter Carried by Major John Hay.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, July
15,
1864.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
My dear Sir
: Yours of the 13th is just received,
and
1 am disappointed that you have not already
reached
here
with
those
commissioners,
if they
would consent to com<
on being shown my letter
to you
of
the
9th
instant.
Show
that and
this
to them, and
if they will come on the terms stated
in the
former, bring them.
I not only
intend
a
sincere
effort
for
peace,
but
I
intend
that you
shall be a personal witness that
it
is made.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Executive Mansion,
hington, August 6, 1864.
Hon. Horace Greeley, New York
:
Yours to Major
I lav aboul
publication of our
correspondence
received.
With
the
suppression
GREELEY, HORACE
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.
[Private, ]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 9, 1864.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
Dear Sir
: Herewith
is a full copy of the corre-
spondence,
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 we 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 con-
LETTERS
tain
nothing
worse
than
a
questioning
of my
action, I do not ask a suppression of those parts.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[See also Clay, Clement C]
Green, Duff.
Springfield,
Illinois, May
18,
1849.
Dear General
:
I learn from Washington that a
man by the name of Butterfield will probably be
appointed
Commissioner
of
the
General
Land
Office.
This ought not to be.
That
is about the
only crumb of patronage which
Illinois expects
;
and
I am
sure
the
mass
of
General
Taylor's
friends here would quite as
lief see
it go east of
the Alleghanies, or west of the Rocky Mountains,
as into that man's hands.
They are already sore
on the subject of his getting office.
In the great
contest of 1840 he was not seen or heard of; but
when the victory came, three or four old drones,
including
him,
got
all
the
valuable
offices,
through what influence no one has yet been able
to
tell.
I believe the only time he has been very
active was
last spring a year ago,
in opposition
to General Taylor's nomination.
Now, cannot you get the ear of General Tay-
lor?
Ewing
is
for
Butterfield, and therefore he
must
be
avoided.
Preston,
I
think,
will
favor
you.
Mr. Edwards
has
written me
offering
to
decline, but
I advised him not
to do
so.
Some
kind friends think
I ought to be an applicant, but
I am
for Mr. Edwards.
Try
to defeat
Butter-
field, and in doing so use Mr. Edwards,
J. L. D.
Morrison, or myself, whichever you can
to best
advantage.
Write
me,
and
let
this
be
con-
fidential.
A.
Lincoln.
GREEN, DUFF
Springfield,
Illinois, December 28, i860.
General Duff Green.
My dear Sir
:
I do not desire any amendment
of the Constitution.
Recognizing, however, that
questions
of
such amendment
rightfully belong
to the American people,
I should not
feel
justi-
fied
nor
inclined
to
withhold
from
them,
if
I
could, a fair opportunity of expressing their will
thereon through
either of the modes prescribed
in the instrument.
In addition
I declare that the maintenance
in-
violate of the rights of the States, and especially
the right of each
State to order and control
its
own domestic
institutions according
to
its own
judgment exclusively,
is essential to that balance
of powers on which the perfection and endurance
of our
political
fabric depend
; and
I denounce
the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of
any
State
or
Territory, no
matter under what
pretext,
as the gravest of crimes.
I am
greatly
averse
to
writing anything
for
the public at this time
; and
I consent to the pub-
lication of this only upon the condition that six
of
the
twelve
United
States
senators
for
the
States
of
Georgia,
Alabama,
Mississippi,
Lou-
isiana, Florida, and Texas shall sign their names
to what
is written on this sheet below my name,
and allow the whole to be published together.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
We recommend to the people of the States we
represent
respectively,
to suspend
all action
for
dismemberment of the Union, at least until some
act deemed
to
be
violative
of our
rights
shall
be done by the incoming administration.
LETTERS
Grimes, James W.
Washington, D. C, October 29, 1863.
Hon. James W. Grimes.
My dear Sir: The above act of Congress was
passed, as
I suppose, for the purpose of shutting
out improper applicants for seats in the House of
Representatives
; and
I fear there
is some danger
that
it
will
be
used
to
shut
out
proper
ones.
Iowa, having an entire Union delegation, will be
one of the States [upon which]
the attempt will
be made,
if upon any.
The Governor doubtless
has made
out
the
certificates, and
they
are
al-
ready
in
the hands
of the members.
I suggest
that they come on with them
; but that, for greater
caution, you and perhaps Mr. Harlan with you,
consult with the Governor, and have an additional
set made out according to the form on the other
half of this sheet
; and still another set,
if you can,
by studying the law, think of a form that in your
judgment,
promises
additional
security,
and
quietly bring the whole on with you,
to be used
in case of
necessity.
Let what you do be
kept
still.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Grimes, William.
Springfield,
Illinois, July
12, 1856.
William Grimes
:
Yours of the 29th of June was duly received.
I did not answer
it because
it plagued me.
This
morning
I received another from Judd and Peck,
written by
consultation with
you.
Now
let me
tell you why
I am plagued
:
GRIMES, WILLIAM
1.
I can hardly spare the time.
2.
I am superstitious.
I have scarcely known a
party preceding an election to
call
in help from
the neighboring
States, but they
lost the
State.
Last
fall, our
friends had Wade,
of Ohio, and
others,
in Maine
; and they lost the State.
Last
spring our adversaries had New Hampshire
full
of
South
Carolinians,
and
they
lost
the
State.
And
so, generally,
it seems to
stir up more ene-
mies than
friends.
Llave
the enemy
called
in any
foreign
help?
If they have a foreign champion there,
I should
have no
objection
to
drive
a
nail
in
his
track.
I
shall reach Chicago on the night of the
15th,
to attend to a
little business
in court.
Consider
the
things
I
have
suggested,
and
write me
at
Chicago.
Especially write me whether Browning
consents to visit you.
Your obedient servant,
A.
Lincoln.
To William Grimes.
Springfield,
Illinois, August,
1857.
Dear Sir: Yours of the 14th
is received, and
I
am much obliged
for the
legal information you
give.
You can scarcely be more anxious than
I that
the next election
in Iowa should
result
in favor
of the Republicans.
I lost nearly all the working-
part of last year, giving my time to the canvass
;
and
I am altogether too poor to
lose two years
together.
I am engaged
in a suit in the United
States Court at Chicago, in which the Rock Island
Bridge Company
is a party.
The trial
is to com-
mence on the 8th of September, and probably will
last two or three weeks.
During the trial
it is not
LETTERS
improbable
that
all hands may come
over and
take a look at the bridge, and,
if
it were possible
to make
it hit right,
I could then speak at Daven-
port.
My courts go right on without
cessation
till late
in November.
Write me again, pointing
out the more striking points of difference between
your old and new constitutions, and also whether
Democratic
and
Republican
party
lines
were
drawn in the adoption of
it, and which were for
and which were against
it.
If, by
possibility,
I
could get over among you
it might be of some
advantage to know these things in advance.
Yours very truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Grimsley, Mrs. Elizabeth
J.
Washington, D. C, June 6, 1863.
Mrs.
Elizabeth
J.
Grimsley,
Springfield,
111.
:
Is your John ready to enter the Naval school?
If he
is telegraph me his full name.
A. Lincoln.
Gunn, Lewis
C.
[See Chase, Salmon
P., May
13, 1863.]
Gurney, Mrs. Eliza
P.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, September 4, 1864.
Eliza P. Gurney.
My esteemed Friend:
I have not forgotten
probably never shall forget—the very impressive
occasion when
yourself and
friends
visited me
on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago.
Nor has
your kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever
J
GUTHRIE, JAMES
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-
self.
The purposes of the Almighty are perfect,
and must prevail, though we erring mortals may
fail to accurately perceive them in advance.
We
hoped
for
a happy termination
of
this
terrible
war long before
this; but God knows
best, and
has ruled otherwise.
We shall yet acknowledge
his wisdom, and our own error therein.
Mean-
while we must work earnestly
in the best 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.
Guthrie, James.
War Department, May
16, 1863.
Hon. James Guthrie, Louisville, Ky.
:
Your despatch
of to-day
is
received.
I
per-
LETTERS
sonally know nothing of Colonel
Churchill, but
months ago and more than once he has been rep-
resented to me as exerting a mischievous
influ-
ence at Saint Louis, for which reason
I am un-
willing to force his continuance there against the
judgment of our friends on the ground, but
if
it
will oblige you, he may come
to, and remain at
Louisville upon taking the oath of allegiance, and
your pledge for
his good behavior.
A. Lincoln.
Hackett, James H.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August
17, 1863.
James H. Hackett, Esq.
My dear
Sir: Months ago
I should have
ac-
knowledged the receipt of your book and accom-
panying kind note; and
I now have to beg your
pardon for not having done so.
For one of my age
I have seen very
little of
the drama.
The
first presentation of Falstaif
I
ever saw was yours here,
last winter or spring.
Perhaps the best compliment I can pay
is to say,
as I truly can,
I am very anxious to see
it again.
Some of Shakespeare's plays
I have never read
;
while
others
I have gone over perhaps
as
fre-
quently
as any
unprofessional
reader.
Among
the
latter
are
"Lear,"
"Richard
III.," "Henrv
VIII.," "Hamlet," and
especially "Macbeth."
I
think nothing equals "Macbeth."
It
is wonder-
ful.
Unlike you gentlemen of the profession I think
the soliloquy in "Hamlet" commencing "Oh, my
offense
is rank," surpasses that commencing "To
be or not to be."
But pardon this small attempt
HAHN, MICHAEL
at criticism.
I should like to hear you pronounce
the opening speech of Richard III.
Will you not
soon
visit Washington again?
If you do, please
call and let me make your personal acquaintance.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[Private.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, November 2, 1863.
James H. Hackett.
.
.
.
My note to you I certainly did not expect to see
in print
;
yet
I have not been much shocked by
the newspaper comments upon
it.
Those com-
ments
constitute
a
fair
specimen
of what
has
occurred to me through
life.
I have endured a
great deal of ridicule without much malice
; and
have received a great deal of kindness, not quite
free from ridicule.
I am used to
it.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Hahn, Michael.
[August
5,
1863;
Nov.
5,
1863.
See
Banks,
Na-
thaniel
P.]
[Private.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, March 13, 1864.
Hon. Michael Hahn.
My
dear
Sir
:
I
congratulate you on having
fixed your name in history as the
first free-State
governor
of
Louisiana. Now you
are
about
to
have
a
convention,
which, among other
things,
will
probably
define
the
elective
franchise.
I
barely
suggest
for
your
private
consideration,
whether some of the colored people may not be
LETTERS
let
in—as,
for instance, the very
intelligent, and
especially those who have fought gallantly in our
ranks.
They would probably help, in some trying
time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within
the family of freedom.
But this is only a sugges-
tion, not to the public, but to you alone.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[Order.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, March
15,
1864.
His Excellency Michael Hahn,
Governor of Louisiana
:
Until
further
order, you
are hereby
invested
with the powers exercised
hitherto by the
mili-
tary governor of Louisiana.
Yours truly,
Abraham Lincoln.
[See
also Banks, Nathaniel
P., Aug.
5,
1863.]
Hale,
J. T.
[Confidential.]
Springfield, Illinois, January
11, 1861.
Hon. J. T. Hale.
My dear Sir
: Yours of the 6th
is received.
I
answer
it only because
I fear you would miscon-
strue my silence.
What is our present condition ?
We have
just
carried an
election on
principles
fairly stated to the people.
Now we are told
in
advance the government
shall be broken up un-
less we surrender to those we have beaten, before
we
take
the
offices.
In
this
they
are
either
attempting
to play upon us or they are in dead
earnest.
Either way,
if we surrender,
it
is the
end
of us and
of
the
government.
They
will
HALLECK, HENRY W.
repeat
the
experiment upon
us ad
libitum.
A
year will not pass
till we shall have to take Cuba
as a condition upon which they
will stay
in the
Union.
They now have the Constitution under
which we have lived over seventy years, and acts
of Congress of their own framing, with no pros-
pect of their being changed
; and they can never
have a more shallow pretext for breaking up the
government,
or
extorting
a
compromise,
than
now.
There
is
in my judgment but one com-
promise
which
would
really
settle
the
slavery
question, and that would be a prohibition against
acquiring any more territory.
Yours very truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Halleck, Henry W.
[Order.]
Major-General H. W. Halleck,
Commanding in the Department of Missouri.
General
:
As
an
insurrection
exists
in
the
United
States, and
is
in arms
in
the
State
of
Missouri,
you
are
hereby
authorized
and
em-
powered
to suspend
the
writ
of habeas
corpus
within the
limits
of the
military
division under
your command, and
to
exercise martial law
as
you find
it necessary in your discretion to secure
the public safety and the authority of the United
States.
In
witness whereof
I have
hereunto
set my
hand and caused the seal of the United States to
be
affixed,
at
Washington,
this
second
day
of
December, a.
d.
1861.
Abraham Lincoln.
By the President
:
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
LETTERS
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C, December 31, 1861.
General H. W. Halleck,
St. Louis, Missouri
:
General McClellan
is
sick.
Are General Buell
and
yourself
in
concert?
When
he moves
on
Bowling Green, what hinders
it being reinforced
from Columbus?
A simultaneous movement by
you on Columbus might prevent
it.
A.
Lincoln.
[Similar despatch to Buell same
date.]
[Telegram.]
Washington City, January
I, 1862.
Major-General
Halleck,
St. Louis, Missouri
:
General McClellan should not yet be disturbed
with business.
I think General Buell and your-
self should be
in communication and concert
at
once.
I write you to-night and also telegraph and
write him.
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January
1,
1862.
My dear General Halleck: General McClellan
is not dangerously
ill, as I hope, but would better
not be disturbed with business.
I am very anx-
ious
that,
in case of General
Buell's moving to-
ward
Nashville,
the enemy
shall not be greatly
reinforced, and
I
think there
is danger he
will
be from Columbus.
It seems to me that a
real
or feigned attack on Columbus from up-river
at
the same time would either prevent this or com-
HALLECK, HENRY W.
pensate
for
it by throwing Columbus
into
our
hands.
I wrote General Buell a letter similar to
this, meaning that he and you shall communicate
and
act
in
concert,
unless
it be your judgment
and
his
that
there
is no
necessity
for
it.
You
and he
will understand much better than
I how
to do
it.
Please do not lose time in this matter.
Yours very truly,
A.
Lincoln.
[See Buell, Don Carlos, Jan.
1, 1862; Jan.
7,
1862;
Jan.
13,
1862;
Mar.
8,
1862.]
[Indorsement on
Letter.]
Headquarters Department
of the
Missouri,
St.
Louis, January
6,
1862.
To His
Excellency
the
President
:
In reply to your Excellency's letter of the
1st instant,
I have to state that on receiving your telegram
I imme-
diately communicated with General Buell, and have since
sent
him
all
the
information
I
could
obtain
of
the
enemy's movements
about Columbus and Camp Beau-
regard.
No considerable force has been sent from those
places to Bowling Green.
They have about 22,000 men
at Columbus, and the place
is strongly
fortified.
I have
at
Cairo,
Fort
Holt,
and
Paducah
only
about
15,000,
which, after leaving guards
at these
places, would give
me but
little over 10,000 men with which to assist Gen-
eral
Buell.
It would
be madness
to
attempt
anything
serious with such a
force, and
I cannot
at
the present
time withdraw any from
Missouri
without
risking the
loss of
this
State.
The troops
recently
raised
in other
States of this department have, without my knowledge,
been
sent
to Kentucky and Kansas.
I am
satisfied that the authorities
at Washington do
not
appreciate
the
difficulties
with
which we
have
to
contend
here.
The
operations
of
Lane,
Jennison,
and
others have so enraged the people of Missouri that
it
is
estimated that there
is a majority of 80,000 against the
government.
We
are
virtually
in an
enemy's
country.
Price and others have a considerable army in the south-
west,
against which
I am operating with
all my
avail-
able
force.
LETTERS
This city and most of the middle and northern coun-
ties
are
insurrectionary,—burning
bridges,
destroying
telegraph
lines,
etc.,—and can be kept down only by the
presence
of
troops.
A
large
portion
of
the
foreign
troops
organized
by
General
Fremont
are
unreliable
;
indeed, many of them are already mutinous.
They have
been tampered with by politicians, and made
to
believe
that
if they get up a mutiny and demand Fremont's
re-
turn
the government
will
be
forced
to
restore him
to
duty
here.
It
is
believed
that
some
high
officers
are
in the plot.
I have already been obliged to disarm sev-
eral
of these
organizations,
and
I am
daily
expecting
more serious outbreaks.
Another grave
difficulty
is the
want of proper general
officers to command the troops
and enforce order and
discipline, and especially
to pro-
tect public property from robbery and plunder.
Some of
the
brigadier-generals
assigned
to
this
department
are
entirely ignorant of their duties and unfit for any com-
mand.
I assure you, Mr. President,
it is very difficult to
accomplish much with such means.
I am
in the condi-
tion of a carpenter who
is required to build a bridge with
a
dull
ax, a broken saw, and rotten timber.
It
is
true
that
I
have some very good
green
timber, which
will
answer the purpose as soon as
I can get
it into shape and
season
it
a
little.
I know
nothing
of
General
Buell's
intended
opera-
tions, never having received any information
in
regard
to the general plan of campaign.
If
it be intended that
his
column
shall move
on
Bowling
Green
while
an-
other moves from Cairo
or Paducah on Columbus
or
Camp
Beauregard,
it
will
be
a
repetition
of
the same
strategic error which produced the disaster of Bull Run.
To operate on exterior
lines against an enemy occupy-
ing a
central position
will
fail,
as
it always
has
failed,
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred.
It
is condemned
by every military authority
I have ever read.
General
Buell's army and
the
forces
at Paducah
oc-
cupy precisely the same position in relation to each other
and
to the enemy
as
did the armies of McDowell and
Patterson before the
battle
of
Bull Run.
Very
respectfullv. your
obedient
servant,
H. W. Halleck, Major-General.
UALLECK, HENRY W.
[Indorsement.]
The within
is
a copy of a
letter just received
from
General
Halleck.
It
is
exceedingly
dis-
couraging.
As everywhere
else, nothing can be
done.
A. Lincoln.
January
10,
1862.
Washington, D. C, January 15, 1862.
Major-General Halleck.
My dear Sir: This will introduce Governor G.
Koerner, of
Illinois, who
is my personal
friend,
and who
calls on you
at my
particular
request.
Please open the sealed letter he will hand you be-
fore
he
leaves you and
confer
with him
as
to
its
contents.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Inelosure.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January
15, 1862.
Major-General Halleck.
My dear Sir
: The Germans are true and patri-
otic, and so far as they have got cross in Missouri
it
is upon mistake and misunderstanding.
With-
out
a
knowledge
of
its
contents,
Governor
Koerner, of Illinois, will hand you this letter.
He
is an educated and
talented German gentleman,
as true a man as
lives.
With his assistance you
can
set
everything
right with
the Germans.
I
write this without
his knowledge, asking him
at
the same time, by
letter, to deliver
it.
My clear
judgment
is
that, with reference
to the German
element in your command, you should have Gov-
ernor Koerner with you
; and
if agreeable to you
LETTERS
and him,
I will make him a brigadier-ge-neral, so
that he can afford to so give his time.
He does
not wish to command in the field, though he has
more military knowledge than many who do.
If
he goes
into the place he will simply be an
effi-
cient,
zealous, and
unselfish
assistant
to you.
I
say
all this upon
intimate personal acquaintance
with Governor Koerner.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, February 16, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
St. Louis, Missouri:
You
have
Fort
Donelson
safe,
unless
Grant
shall
be overwhelmed from
outside
;
to prevent
which latter will, I think, require all the vigilance,
energy, and skill of yourself and Buell, acting in
full cooperation.
Columbus will not get at Grant,
but the
force from Bowling Green
will.
They
hold the railroad from Bowling Green to within
a few
miles of
Fort Donelson, with
the
bridge
at
Clarksville undisturbed.
It
is unsafe
to
rely
that they
will
not
dare
to expose
Nashville
to
Buell.
A
small
part
of
their
force
can
retire
slowly toward
Nashville,
breaking up
the
rail-
road as they go, and keep Buell out of that city
twenty
days.
Meanwhile
Nashville
will
be
abundantly
defended by
forces
from
all
South
and perhaps from here at Manassas.
Could not a
cavalry force from General Thomas on the Upper
Cumberland dash across, almost
unresisted, and
cut the railroad at or near Knoxville, Tennessee ?
In the midst of a bombardment at Fort Donelson,
why could not a gunboat run up and destroy the
HALLECK, HENRY W.
bridge at Garksville?
Our success or failure at
Fort Donelson
is vastly important, and
I beg you
to put your soul
in the effort.
I send a copy of
this to Buell.
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, March 21, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
St. Louis, Missouri:
Please suspend the order sending General Den-
ver to Kansas until you hear from the Secretary
of War or myself.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, April
3,
1862.
Major-General Halleck,
St. Louis, Missouri
:
Colonel James A. Barrett, with a cavalry regi-
ment now
at
St. Louis, wishes to be ordered to
New
Mexico.
Let him go
if,
in your
discre-
tion, you think
it not inconsistent with the public
interest.
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, April
4,
1862.
Major-General Halleck,
St. Louis, Missouri
:
I am
sorry
to
learn
that,
after
all,
General
Denver
has
gone
to
Kansas.
Cannot
General
Davis go there?
There
is
a hard
pressure on
me in this matter.
A.
Lincoln.
LETTERS
Washington, April
9,
1862.
Major-General Halleck,
St. Louis, Mo.
If the rigor of the confinement of Magoffin at
Alton
is endangering
his
life, or materially im-
pairing his health, I wish
it mitigated as far as
it
can be consistently with his safe detention.
A.
Lincoln.
Please send above by order of the President.
John Hay.
[ Telegram. ]
War Department, April 23, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Pittsburg Landing:
The President desires to know why you have
made no official report to this department respect-
ing
the
late
battle
at
Pittsburg
Landing,
and
whether any
neglect
or misconduct
of
General
Grant
or
any
other
officer
contributed
to
the
sad casualties that befell our forces on Sunday.
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
[Telegram.]
War Department, May
1, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee
:
I am
pressed
by
the
Missouri
members
of
Congress
to give General
Schofield independent
command in Missouri.
They insist that for want
of this their local troubles gradually grow worse.
I have
forborne,
so
far,
for
fear of
interfering
with and embarrassing your operations.
Please
answer,
telling me whether anything, and what,
I can do for them without injuriously interfering
with you.
A. Lincoln.
HALLECK, HENRY W.
[ Telegram. ]
War Department, May 24,
1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Near Corinth, Mississippi
:
Several
despatches
from
Assistant
Secretary
Scott
and
one
from
Governor
Morton
asking
reinforcements
for you
have
been
received.
I
beg you to be assured we do the best we can.
I
mean to cast no blame when
I
tell you each of
our commanders along our
line from Richmond
to Corinth supposes himself to be confronted by
numbers
superior to his own.
Under
this pres-
sure we thinned the
line on the upper Potomac,
until yesterday
it was broken at heavy loss to us,
and
General
Banks
put
in
great
peril,
out
of
which he
is not yet extricated, and may be actu-
ally
captured.
We
need
men
to
repair
this
breach, and have them
not
at hand.
My dear
general, I feel justified to rely very much on you.
I
believe you and
the
brave
officers
and men
with you can and will get the victory at Corinth.
A.
Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, June 4, 1862.
Major-General Halleck, Corinth
:
Your despatch of to-day to Secretary of War
received.
Thanks for the good news
it brings.
Have you
anything from Memphis
or
other
parts of the Mississippi River?
Please answer.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, June 8, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth,
Mississippi
:
We are changing one of the departmental lines,
LETTERS
so as to give you all of Kentucky and Tennessee.
In your movement upon Chattanooga
I think
it
probable
that you
include some combination
of
the
force near Cumberland Gap under General
Morgan.
Do you?
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, June
18,
1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth,
Mississippi
:
It would be
of both
interest and value
to us
here
to know how
the
expedition toward
East
Tennessee
is
progressing,
if
in your judgment
you can give us the information with safety.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
War Department, June 28, 1862.
Major-General Halleck
:
The enemy
have
concentrated
in
such
force
at Richmond as to render
it absolutely necessary,
in the opinion
of the
President,
for you imme-
diately
to detach 25,000 of your force and
for-
ward
it by the nearest and quickest route by way
of Baltimore and Washington
to Richmond.
It
is believed that the quickest
route would be by
way of Columbus, Ky., and up the Ohio River.
But in detaching your force the President directs
that
it be done
in such a way as
to enable you
to hold your ground and not interfere with
the
movement
against
Chattanooga and
East Ten-
nessee.
This condition being observed, the forces
to be detached and the routes they are to be sent
are left to your own judgment.
HALLECK, HENRY W.
The direction to send these forces immediately
is rendered imperative by a serious reverse suf-
fered
by
General
McClellan
before Richmond
yesterday,
the
full
extent
of which
is
not
yet
known.
You
will acknowledge the
receipt of
this
de-
spatch,
stating the day and hour
it
is
received,
and inform me what your action will be, so that
we may take measures to aid
in
river and
rail-
road transportation.
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
Washington, D. C, June 30, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth, Mississippi:
Would be very glad of 25,000 infantry
; no artil-
lery or cavalry
; but please do not send a man if
it
endangers any place you deem important to hold,
or
if
it forces you to give up or weaken or delay
the expedition against Chattanooga.
To take and
hold the railroad at or east of Cleveland, in East
Tennessee,
I think fully as important as the tak-
ing and holding of Richmond.
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
War Department, June 30, 1862.
3 p. m.
Major-General Halleck, Corinth
:
Your telegram of this date just received.
The
Chattanooga expedition must not on any account
be
given
up.
The
President
regards
that and
the movement against East Tennessee as one of
the most important movements of the war, and
its occupation nearly as important as the capture
of Richmond.
He
is not pleased with the tardi-
LETTERS
ness of the movement toward Chattanooga, and
directs that no force be sent here
if you cannot
do
it without breaking up the operations against
that
point and
East
Tennessee.
Infantry
only
are needed
; our cavalry and
artillery are strong
enough.
The
first reports from Richmond were
more discouraging than the truth warranted.
If
the advantage
is not on our
side,
it
is balanced.
General McClellan has moved his whole force on
the
line
of
the James
River, and
is
supported
there by our gunboats; but he must be
largely
strengthened before advancing, and hence the call
on
you,
which
I
am
glad
you
answered
so
promptly.
Let me know
to what
point on
the
river you will send your forces, so as to provide
immediately
for
transportation.
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, D. C, July 2, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth, Mississippi:
Your
several despatches
of yesterday
to
Sec-
retary of War and myself
received.
I did
say,
and now repeat,
I would be exceedingly glad for
some reinforcements from you.
Still do not send
a man
if
in your judgment
it will endanger any
point you deem important to hold, or
will
force
you to give up
or weaken or delay the Chatta-
nooga expedition.
Please tell me could you not make me a flying
visit
for
consultation
without
endangering
the
service in your department.
A. Lincoln.
HALLECK, HENRY W.
[ Telegram. ]
War Department, July 4,
1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth, Mississippi
:
You do not know how much you would oblige
us
if, without abandoning any of your positions
or plans, you could promptly send us even 10,000
infantry.
Can you not?
Some part of the Cor-
inth army
is certainly righting McClellan in front
of Richmond.
Prisoners are in our hands from
the late Corinth army.
A. Lincoln.
War Department,
Washington City, D. C, July 6, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth,
Mississippi.
My dear
Sir: This introduces Governor Wil-
liam Sprague, of Rhode Island.
He
is now gov-
ernor for the third time, and senator-elect of the
United
States.
I know the object of his visit to you.
He has
my cheerful consent to go, but not my direction.
He
wishes
to
get you and
part of your
force,
one or both, to come here.
You already know
I
should
be
exceedingly
glad
of
this
if,
in your
judgment,
it could be without endangering posi-
tions and operations in the southwest
; and I now
repeat what
I have more than once said by tele-
graph, "Do not come or send a man
if,
in your
judgment,
it
will endanger any point you deem
important
to
hold,
or
endangers
or
delays
the
Chattanooga expedition."
Still, please give my friend, Governor Sprague,
a
full and
fair hearing.
Yours very truly,
A.
Lincoln.
7 o
LETTERS
[Order.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, July n,
1862.
Ordered, That Major-General Henry W. Hal-
leck
be
assigned
to command
the
whole
land
forces of the United
States,
as
general-in-chief,
and that he repair to this
capital so soon
as he
can with
safety
to the
positions and operations
within the department now under his charge.
A.
Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
War Department, July 11, 1862.
Major-General Halleck, Corinth
:
Governor
Johnson,
at
Nashville,
is
in
great
trouble and anxiety about a raid into Kentucky.
The governor
is a true and a valuable man—in-
dispensable to us
in Tennessee.
Will you please
get
in communication with him, and have a
full
conference with him before you leave for here?
I have telegraphed him on the
subject.
A.
Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
War Department, July
13, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth, Mississippi
:
They
are
having
a
stampede
in
Kentucky.
Please look to
it.
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
War Department, July
14, 1862.
Major-General Halleck,
Corinth, Mississippi
:
I am very anxious—almost impatient—to have
HALLECK, HENRY W.
you
here.
Have due regard
to what you
leave
behind.
When can you reach here?
A.
Lincoln.
[Order.]
Washington, D. C, September 3, 1862.
Ordered, that the general-in-chief, Major-Gen-
eral Halleck, immediately commence, and proceed
with
all possible despatch,
to organize an army,
for active operations, from all the material within
and coming
within
his
control,
independent
of
the forces he may deem necessary for the defense
of Washington when such active army shall take
the
field.
By order of the President
:
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
McClellan's Headquarters,
October 3, 1862.
Major-General Halleck:
General Stuart, of the rebel army, has sent in
a few
of
our
prisoners under
a
flag
of
truce,
paroled with terms to prevent their fighting the
Indians, and evidently seeking
to commit us
to
their right
to parole our prisoners
in that way.
My inclination
is to send the prisoners back with
a distinct notice that we will recognize no paroles
given
to
our
prisoners by
rebels
as
extending
beyond the prohibition against fighting them, yet
I wish your opinion upon
it based both upon the
general law and our cartel.
I wish to avoid vio-
lations of law and bad faith.
Answer as quickly
as possible, as the thing
if done at
all should be
done
at once.
A.
Lincoln,
President.
LETTERS
Steamer Baltimore,
off Aquia Creek,
Virginia,
November 2J, 1S62.
Major-General Halleck.
Sir:
I have
just had a long conference
with
General
Burnside.
He
believes
that
General
Lee's whole army, or nearly the whole of
it,
is in
front of him, at and near Fredericksburg.
Gen-
eral Burnside says he could take into battle now
any day about 110,000 men; that his army
is
in
good
spirit,
good
condition,
good
morale,
and
that in all respects he is satisfied with officers and
men
; that he does not want more men with him,
because he could not handle them to advantage
;
that he thinks he can cross the
river
in
face of
the enemy and drive him away
; but that, to use
his own expression,
it
is somewhat risky.
I wish
the
case
to
stand more
favorably
than
this
in
two
respects
:
First,
I wish
his
crossing
of
the
river to be nearly free from risk; and, secondly,
I wish the enemy
to be prevented from
falling
back, accumulating strength as he goes,
into his
intrenchments
at
Richmond.
I
therefore
pro-
pose that General Burnside shall not move imme-
diately
; that we accumulate a force on the south
bank of the Rappahannock—at, say, Port Royal
under
protection
of
one
or
two
gunboats,
as
nearly up to 25,000 strong as we can
; at the same
time another force of about the same strength as
high up the Pamunkey
as can be
protected by
gunboats.
These being ready, let all three forces
move
simultaneously:
General
Burnside's
force
in
its attempt to cross the
river, the Rappahan-
nock force moving directly up the south side of
the
river
to
his
assistance, and
ready,
if found
admissible,
to
deflect
off
to the turnpike bridge
HALLECK, HENRY W.
'
over
the
Mattapony
in
the
direction
of
Rich-
mond
; the Pamunkey force to move as rapidly as
possible up the north side of the Pamunkey, hold-
ing
all
the
bridges, and
especially
the
turnpike
bridge
immediately
north
of
Hanover
Court
House
;
hurry
north
and
seize
and
hold
the
Mattapony
bridge
before
mentioned,
and
also,
if possible, press higher up the streams and de-
stroy
the
railroad
bridges.
Then
if
General
Burnside
succeeds
in
driving
the enemy
from
Fredericksburg, he
(the enemy)
no longer has
the road to Richmond, but we have
it, and can
march into the city.
Or, possibly, having forced
the enemy from
his
line, we could move upon
and destroy his army.
General Burnside's main
army would have the same line of supply and re-
treat as he has now provided.
The Rappahan-
nock
force would
have
that
river
for
supply,
and gunboats to
fall back upon
; and the Pamun-
key force would have that river for supply, and
a
line between
the two
rivers—Pamunkey and
Mattapony—along which
to
fall back upon
its
gunboats.
I
think
the
plan
promises
the
best
results, with the
least hazard, of any now con-
ceivable.
Note.—The above
plan proposed by me was
rejected by General Halleck and General Burn-
side on the ground that we could not
raise and
put
in position the Pamunkey force without too
much waste of time.
A. L.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January
1, 1863.
Major-General Halleck.
My dear Sir
: General Burnside wishes to cross
the Rappahannock with his army, but his grand di-
7 4
LETTERS
vision commanders all oppose the movement.
If in
such a difficulty as this you do not help, you
fail
me precisely in the point for which I sought your
assistance.
You know what General Burnside 's
plan
is, and
it
is my wish that you go with him
to the ground, examine
it as
far
as
practicable,
confer with the
officers, getting
their judgment
and ascertaining their temper—in a word, gather
all the elements for forming a judgment of your
own, and then
tell General Burnside that you do
approve
or
that you do
not approve
his
plan.
Your military
skill
is
useless to me
if you
will
not do this.
Yours very truly,
A.
Lincoln.
{Indorsement.]
January
i,
1863.
Withdrawn, because considered harsh by Gen-
eral
Halleck.
A.
Lincoln.
Headquarters of the Army,
Washington, January
1,
1863.
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War,
Washington, D.
C.
Sir
: From my
recent
interview
with
the
President
and
yourself,
and
from
the
President's
letter
of
this
morning, which you
delivered
to me
at your reception,
I am
led to believe that there
is
a very important
dif-
ference
of
opinion
in
regard
to my
relations toward
generals commanding
armies
in
the
field,
and
that
I
cannot
perform
the
duties
of my
present
office
satis-
factorily
at the same time to the President and to my-
self.
I
therefore
respectfully
request
that
I
may
be
relieved from
further duties
as
general-in-chief.*
Very
respectfully your
obedient
servant,
H. W. Halleck.
[Jan.
5,
1863.
See
Burnside, Ambrose
E.]
* This application was withdrawn upon the withdrawal of the
President's letter.
HALLECK, HENRY W.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January
7,
1863.
Major-General Halleck.
My dear Sir
: What think you of forming a re-
serve cavalry corps of, say, 6000, for the Army of
the Potomac?
Might not such a corps be con-
stituted from the cavalry of Sigel's and Slocum's
corps,
with
scraps we
could
pick up
here and
there ?
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Soldiers' Home,
Washington, July 6, 1863.
7 p. m.
Major-General Halleck
:
I
left the telegraph
office
a good deal
dissat-
isfied.
You know
I did not
like the phrase—in
Orders, No.
68,
I
believe—"Drive the
invaders
from
our
soil."
Since
that,
I
see
a
despatch
from General French, saying the enemy is cross-
ing his wounded over the river
in
flats, without
saying why he does not stop
it, or even intimat-
ing a thought that
it ought to be stopped.
Still
later, another despatch from General Pleasonton,
by
direction
of
General
Meade,
to
General
French, stating that the main army
is halted be-
cause
it
is believed the
rebels are concentrating
"on the road toward Hagerstown, beyond
Fair-
field," and
is not to move until
it
is ascertained
that
the
rebels
intend
to
evacuate
Cumberland
Valley.
These things
all appear to me to be connected
with a purpose to cover Baltimore and Washing-
ton, and to get the enemy across the river again
without a further
collision, and they do not ap-
pear
connected
with
a
purpose
to
prevent
his
LETTERS
crossing
and
to
destroy
him.
I
do
fear
the
former purpose
is
acted upon and
the
latter
is
rejected.
If you are satisfied the latter purpose
is enter-
tained, and
is judiciously pursued,
I am content.
If you are not so satisfied, please look to
it.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion, July 29, 1863.
Major-General Halleck:
Seeing General Meade's despatch of yesterday
to
yourself
causes me
to
fear that he supposes
the government
here
is
demanding
of
him
to
bring on a general engagement with Lee as soon
as possible.
I am claiming no such thing of him.
In
fact, my judgment
is against
it; which judg-
ment,
of
course,
I
will
yield
if yours and
his
are the contrary.
If he could not safely engage
Lee at Williamsport,
it seems absurd to suppose
he
can
safely
engage
him now when
he
has
scarcely more than two
thirds
of
the
force
he
had
at Williamsport,
while
it must be
that Lee
has
been
reinforced.
True,
I
desired
General
Meade to pursue Lee across the Potomac, hoping,-
as has proved
true, that he would thereby
clear
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and get some
advantages
by
harassing
him
on
his
retreat.
These being past,
I am unwilling he should now
get into a general engagement on the impression
that we here are pressing him, and I shall be glad
for you to so inform him, unless your own judg-
ment
is against
it.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
H. W.
Halleck,
General-in-Chief.
HALLECK, HENRY W.
[Note.]
August 31, 1863.
It
is
not
improbable
that
retaliation
for
the
recent great outrage at Lawrence, in Kansas, may
extend
to
indiscriminate
slaughter on
the
Mis-
souri
border,
unless
averted by
very
judicious
action.
I
shall be obliged
if the general-in-chief
can make any suggestions
to General
Schofield
upon the subject.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, September
15, 1863.
Major-General Halleck
:
If
I
did
not misunderstand
General
Meade's
last despatch, he
posts you on
facts
as
well
as
he can, and desires your views and those of the
government as to what he shall do.
My opinion
is
that
he
should move
upon
Lee
at
once
in
manner
of
general
attack,
leaving
to
develop-
ments whether he
will make
it a real
attack.
I
think this would develop Lee's real condition and
purposes
better than
the
cavalry
alone can
do.
Of course my opinion
is not to control you and
General Meade.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, September
19, 1863.
Major-General Halleck:
By General Meade's despatch
to you
of
yes-
terday
it appears that he desires your views and
those
of the government
as to whether he
shall
advance upon the enemy.
I am not prepared to
order,
or even
advise, an advance
in
this
case,
LETTERS
wherein
I
know
so
little
of
particulars,
and
wherein
he,
in
the
field,
thinks
the
risk
is
so
great, and the promise of advantage so small.
And yet the case presents matter for very seri-
ous consideration
in another aspect.
These two
armies confront each other across a small
river,
substantially midway
between
the two
capitals,
each defending its own capital, and menacing the
other.
General Meade estimates the enemy's
in-
fantry
in
front
of him
at not
less than 40,000.
Suppose we add fifty per cent, to this for cavalry,
artillery, and
extra-duty men
stretching
as
far
as
Richmond,
making
the
whole
force
of
the
enemy
60,000.
General Meade,
as shown by the
returns, has
with him, and between him and Washington, of
the
same
classes
of
well
men,
over
90,000.
Neither can bring the whole of
his men
into a
battle; but each can bring as large a percentage
in
as
the
other.
For
a
battle,
then,
General
Meade has three men to General Lee's two.
Yet,
it having been determined that choosing ground
and
standing
on
the
defensive
gives
so
great
advantage
that
the
three
cannot
safely
attack
the
two,
the
three
are
left
simply
standing on
the defensive
also.
If
the
enemy's
60,000
are
sufficient
to
keep
our 90,000 away from Richmond, why, by
the
same
rule, may
not
40,000
of
ours
keep
their
60,000 away from Washington, leaving us 50,000
to put
to some
other use?
Having
practically
come
to
the mere
defensive,
it seems
to be no
economy at all to employ twice as many men for
that object as are needed.
With no object, cer-
tainly, to mislead myself,
I can perceive no fault
in
this
statement,
unless we admit we
are
not
HALLECK, HENRY W.
the
equal
of the enemy, man
for man.
I hope
you
will consider
it.
To avoid misunderstanding,
let me say that to
attempt to
fight the enemy slowly back into
his
intrenchments at Richmond, and then to capture
him,
is an idea
I have been trying to repudiate
for
quite
a year.
My judgment is so clear against it that I would
scarcely allow the attempt to be made
if the gen-
eral
in command should desire to make
it.
My
last
attempt
upon Richmond
was
to
get
Mc-
Clellan, when he was nearer there than the enemy
was, to run in ahead of him.
Since then
I have
constantly desired the Army
of the Potomac to
make Lee's army, and not Richmond, its objective
point.
If our army cannot
fall upon the enemy
and hurt him where he
is,
it
is plain to me
it can
gain nothing by attempting to follow him over a
succession of intrenched lines into a fortified city.
Yours
truly,
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, D. C, September 21, 1863.
Major-General Halleck
:
I think it very important for General Rosecrans
to hold his position at or about Chattanooga, be-
cause
if held from that place to Cleveland, both
inclusive,
it
keeps
all
Tennessee
clear
of
the
enemy, and also breaks one of his most important
railroad lines.
To prevent these consequences
is
so vital to
his cause that he cannot give up the
effort
to
dislodge
us
from
the
position,
thus
bringing him to us and saving us the labor, ex-
pense, and hazard of going farther to
find him,
and
also
giving
us
the
advantage
of
choosing
LETTERS
our own ground and preparing
it
to
fight him
upon.
The
details
must,
of
course,
be
left
to
General Rosecrans,
while we must
furnish him
the means
to the utmost of our
ability.
If you
concur,
I think he would better be informed that
we
are
not
pushing him beyond
this
position
;
and that,
in
fact, our judgment
is rather against
his going beyond
it.
If
he
can
only
maintain
this
position,
without
more,
this
rebellion
can
only eke out a short and
feeble existence, as an
animal sometimes may with a thorn in
its vitals.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, October
16,
1863.
Major-General Halleck
:
I
do
not
believe
Lee
can
have
over
60,000
effective men.
Longstreet's
corps
would
not
be
sent away
to bring an equal force back upon the same road
;
and there
is no other direction for them to have
come from.
Doubtless,
in making
the
present movement,
Lee gathered
in
all
available
scraps, and added
them
to
Hill's
and
Ewell's
corps;
but
that
is
all, and he made the movement in the belief that
four
corps had
left
General Meade;
and Gen-
eral Meade's apparently avoiding a collision with
him has confirmed him in that belief.
If General
Meade can now attack him on a
field no worse
than
equal
for
us, and
will do
so with
all
the
skill and courage which he, his officers, and men
possess, the honor will be his
if he succeeds, and
the blame may be mine
if he
fails.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
HALLECK, HENRY W.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, October 24, 1863.
Major-General Halleck:
Taking
all our information together, I think
it
probable that Ewell's corps has started for East
Tennessee by way
of Abingdon, marching
last
Monday, say, from Meade's front directly to the
railroad
at Charlottesville.
First,
the
object
of
Lee's
recent movement
against Meade
; his destruction of the Alexandria
and
Orange
Railroad,
and
subsequent
with-
drawal, without more motive, not otherwise ap-
parent, would be explained by this hypothesis.
Secondly, the direct statement of Sharpe's men
that Ewell has gone to Tennessee.
Thirdly, the Irishman's statement that he has
not gone through Richmond and his further state-
ment of an appeal made to the people
at Rich-
mond to go and protect
their
salt, which could
only refer to the works near Abingdon.
Fourthly, Graham's
statement from Martins-
burg
that Imboden
is
in
retreat
for
Harrison-
burg.
This
last matches with the idea that Lee
has
retained
his
cavalry,
sending Imboden and
perhaps other scraps
to
join
Ewell.
Upon this
probability what
is to be done?
If you have a plan matured,
I have nothing to
say.
If you have not, then
I suggest that, with
all possible expedition, the Army of the Potomac
get ready
to
attack
Lee, and
that
in the mean
time a raid
shall,
at
all hazards, break the
rail-
road at or near Lynchburg.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
LETTERS
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January 28, 1864.
Major-General Halleck:
Some citizens of Missouri, vicinity of Kansas
City, are apprehensive that there
is special danger
of renewed troubles
in
that neighborhood, and
thence on the route toward New Mexico.
I am
not impressed that the danger
is very great or
imminent, but
I will thank you to give Generals
Rosecrans and
Curtis,
respectively,
such orders
as may turn their attention thereto and prevent
as far as possible the apprehended disturbance.
Yours
truly,
A.
Lincoln.
Washington City, July 27,
1864.
Major-General
Halleck,
Chief of Staff of the Army.
General
:
Lieutenant-General
Grant
having
signified that, owing to the difficulties and delay
of communication between his headquarters and
Washington,
it
is necessary
that
in the present
emergency military orders must be issued directly
from Washington,
the
President
directs me
to
instruct you that
all the military operations
for
the defense of the Middle Department, the De-
partment of the Susquehanna, the Department of
Washington, and the Department of West Vir-
ginia, and
all
the
forces
in those
departments,
are
placed
under
your
general
command,
and
that you
will
be
expected
to
take
all
military
measures necessary
for defense against any
at-
tack of the enemy and
for
his capture and de-
struction.
You will issue from time to time such
orders to the commanders of the
respective de-
HAMLIN, HANNIBAL
partments and to the military authorities therein
as may be proper.
Your obedient servant,
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
Hamlin, Hannibal.
Springfield, Illinois, July 18, i860.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.
My dear Sir
:
It appears to me that you and I
ought to be acquainted, and accordingly
I write
this as a sort of introduction of myself to you.
You
first entered
the
Senate during
the
single
term
I was a member of the House of Repre-
sentatives,
but
I
have
no
recollection
that we
were introduced.
I shall be pleased to receive a
line from you.
The prospect of Republican
success now
ap-
pears very
flattering,
so
far
as
I can
perceive.
Do you see anything to the contrary ?
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield, Illinois, September 4, i860.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.
My dear
Sir:
I am annoyed some by a
letter
from a friend in Chicago, in which the following
passage
occurs
:
"Hamlin
has
written
Colfax
that two members of Congress
will, he
fears, be
lost in Maine—the
first and sixth
districts
; and
that Washburne's majority for governor will not
exceed six thousand."
I had heard something like this six weeks ago,
but had been assured
since
that
it was not
so.
Your secretary of
state,—Mr. Smith,
I think,
whom you introduced to me by
letter, gave this
LETTERS
assurance;
more
recently,
Mr.
Fessenden,
our
candidate for Congress in one of those
districts,
wrote a relative here that his election was sure by
at least five thousand, and that Washburne's ma-
jority would be from 14,000 to 17,000; and
still
later, Mr. Fogg, of New Hampshire, now at New
York serving on a national committee, wrote me
that we were having a desperate fight in Maine,
which would end in a splendid victory for us.
Such a result as you seem to have predicted in
Maine,
in your
letter to Colfax, would,
I
fear,
put us on the down-hill track, lose us the
State
elections in Pennsylvania and Indiana, and prob-
ably ruin us on the main turn in November.
You must not allow
it.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Confidential.]
Springfield, Illinois, November 8, i860.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.
My dear Sir:
I am anxious for a personal in-
terview with you
at
as
early a day
as
possible.
Can you, without much inconvenience, meet me
at Chicago?
If you can, please name as early a
day as you conveniently can, and telegraph me,
unless
there
be
sufficient
time
before
the
day
named to communicate by mail.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield,
Illinois, November 27,
i860.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.
My dear Sir
: On reaching home
I find
I have
in charge
for you the inclosed
letter.
HAMLIN, HANNIBAL
I deem
it proper to advise you that I also find
letters
here
from
very
strong and
unexpected
quarters in Pennsylvania, urging the appointment
of General Cameron to a place in the cabinet.
Let this be a profound secret, even though I do
think best to let you know
it.
Yours very
sincerely,
A. Lincoln.
[Private.,]
Springfield,
Illinois, December 8, i860.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.
My dear
Sir: Yours of the 4th was duly re-
ceived.
The inclosed to Governor Seward covers
two notes to him, copies of which you find open
for your inspection.
Consult with Judge Trum-
bull
; and
if you and he see no reason to the con-
trary,
deliver the
letter to Governor Seward
at
once.
If you see reason to the contrary, write me
at once.
I have had an intimation that Governor Banks
would yet accept a place
in the cabinet.
Please
ascertain and write me how this
is.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield,
Illinois, December
24,
i860.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin.
My dear Sir
: I need a man of Democratic ante-
cedents from New England.
I cannot get a fair
share of that element in without.
This stands in
the way
of
Mr. Adams.
I
think
of
Governor
Banks, Mr.
Welles, and Mr.
Tuck.
Which of
them do the New England delegation prefer ?
Or
shall
I decide for myself?
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
LETTERS
Washington, D. C., May 6, 1861.
Hon. H. Hamlin, New York.
My dear Sir
: Please advise me at the close of
each day what troops left during the day, where
going, and by what route
; what remaining at New
York, and what expected in the next day.
Give
the numbers,
as
near
as
convenient, and what
corps
they
are.
This
information, reaching us
daily, will be very useful as well as satisfactory.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Strictly
private.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, 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
HAMLIN, HANNIBAL
I thank you the less for the kindness of your let-
ter.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
An Act
to Regulate the Duties
of the Clerk
of
the House
of
Representatives
in
Preparing
for
the Organization of the House.
Be
it
enacted
by
the
Senate
and
House
of
Rep-
resentatives
of
the
United
States
of
America
in
Congress
assembled,
that,
before
the
first
meeting
of
the next
Congress, and
of every
subsequent
Congress,
the
clerk
of the next preceding House
of Representa-
tives
shall make a
roll of the Representatives-elect, and
place
thereon
the names
of
all
persons,
and
of
such
persons
only,
whose
credentials
show
that
they
were
regularly
elected
in accordance
with
the laws
of
their
States respectively, or the laws
of the United
States.
Approved March
3,
1863.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, D. C,
Oct.
29,
1863.
His Excellency H. Hamlin, Vice-President.
My dear Sir: The above act of Congress was
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 entirety, 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
LETTERS
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.
Hancock, Winfield S.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, D. C, March 22, 1865.
Major-General Hancock,
Winchester, Virginia:
Seeing
your
despatch
about
General
Crook,
and fearing that through misapprehension some-
thing unpleasant may
occur,
I
send you below
two despatches of General Grant, which
I sup-
pose
will
fully
explain
General
Crook's move-
ments.
A. Lincoln.
Hardin, John J.
Springfield, May nth,
1843.
Friend Hardin:
Butler
informs me
that he
received
a
letter
from you,
in which you
expressed some
doubt
whether the whigs of Sangamon will support you
cordially—
You may, at once, dismiss
all fears
on that subject—
We have already resolved to
make
a
particular
effort
to
give you
the very
largest majority possible in our county—
From
this, no whig of the county dissents—
We have
many objects for doing
it. We make
it a matter
of honor and pride to do
it
; we do
it, because we
HARDIN, JOHN /.
love the whig cause; we do
it, because we
like
you
personally; and
last, we
wish
to
convince
you, that we do not bear that hatred to Morgan
county, that you people have so long seemed to
imagine.
You
will
see by
the
journal
of
this
week,
that we
propose, upon pain
of
losing
a
Barbecue, to give you twice as great a majority
in
this county as you shall receive
in your own.
I got up the proposal.
Who of the five appointed,
is to write the Dis-
trict
address?
I
did
the
labor
of
writing one
address
this year; and got thunder
for my
re-
ward.
Nothing new here.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
P.
S.—I wish you would measure one of the
largest of those swords, we took to Alton, and
write me the length of
it, from tip of the point
to
tip of the
hilt,
in
feet and inches.
I have a
dispute about the length.
A. L.
Springfield, May 21, 1844.
Dear Hardin
:
Knowing
that
you
have
correspondents
en-
ough,
I have forborne to trouble you heretofore
;
and I now only do so, to get you to set a matter
right which has got wrong with one of our best
friends.
It
is
old
uncle Thomas
Campbell
of
Spring Creek— (Berlin P. O.).
He has received
several documents from
you, and he says they
are
old newspapers and documents,
having no
sort of
interest
in them.
He
is, therefore, get-
ting a strong impression that you treat him with
disrespect.
This,
I
know,
is
a
mistaken
im-
pression; and you must correct
it.
The way,
I
9o
LETTERS
leave to yourself.
Robert W.
Canfield, says
h<
would like to have a document or two from you
The
Locos
here
are
in
considerable
troubl<
about Van Buren's letter on Texas, and the Vir
ginia
electors.
They
are growing
sick
of
th<
Tariff question
; and consequently are much con
founded at V. B.'s cutting them off from the nev
Texas
question.
Nearly half the leaders
swea:
they
won't
stand
it.
Of
those
are
Ford, T
Campbell,
Ewing,
Calhoun
and
others.
The]
don't exactly say they won't vote for V.
B., bu
they say he
will not be the candidate, and tha
they are for Texas anyhow.
As ever yours,
A. Lincoln.
To General John
J. Hardin.
Springfield, January
19,
1845.
Dear General
I do not wish
to
join
in your proposal of
new plan
for the
selection of a whig candidat
for Congress, because
1st.
I am
entirely
satisfied with the
old
sys|
tern under which you and Baker were successivel
nominated and elected to Congress
; and becaus
the Whigs
of
the
District
are
well
acquainte
with the system, and so far as
I know or believ
are well
satisfied with
it.
If the old system
t
thought
to be vague,
as
to
all the delegates
(
the county
voting
the same way;
or
as
to
ii
structions
to them as to whom they are to vo:
for; or as to
filling vacancies,—I am willing
join in a provision to make these matters certai:
j
2nd. As to your proposals that a poll shall
t
opened
in
every
precinct,
and
that
the who
shall take place on the same day,
I do not pe
sonally object.
They seem to me to be not w
HARDIN, JOHN J.
air; and
I
forbear
to
join
in proposing them,
nly because
I choose
to
leave
the
decision
in
:ach county to the Whigs of the county,
to be
nade
as
their own judgment and
convenience
nay dictate.
3rd. As
to your proposed
stipulation that
all
he candidates
shall remain
in
their own coun-
ies, and
restrain
their
friends
in
the same— it
eems to me that on reflection you
will see, the
act of your having been in Congress has, in vari-
ous ways,
so spread your name
in the
District,
s
to give you
a
decided advantage
in such a
tipulation.
I
appreciate
your
desire
to
keep
own excitement
; and I promise you "keep cool"
nder all circumstances.
4th.
I
have already
said
I am
satisfied
with
he old system under which such good men have
riumphed, and that
I desire no departure from
:s principles.
But
if there must be a departure
rom
it,
I shall
insist upon a more accurate and
ust apportionment
of
delegates, or representa-
ive votes, to the constituent body, than exists by
le old
; and which you propose to retain in your
ew
plan.
[Here Mr. Lincoln gives
statistics showing discrepan-
es of old apportionment.]
And
so on
in
a
less degree
the matter runs
irough
all the
counties, being not only wrong
principle,
but
the
advantage
of
it being
all
lanifestly
in your favor with one slight excep-
on, in the comparison of two counties not here
lentioned.
Again,
if we take the whig votes of the coun-
es as shown by the late Presidential election as
basis, the thing is
still worse.
LETTERS
[Illustrated
by
statistics.]
It seems to me most obvious that the old sys-
tem needs adjustment
in nothing so much as
in
this;
and
still, by
your
proposal,
no
notice
is
taken of
it.
I have always been
in the habit of
acceding
to
almost any
proposal
that
a
friend
would make, and
I am truly sorry that
I cannot
in
this.
I perhaps ought to mention
that some
friends
at
different
places
are
endeavoring
to
secure
the honor
of
the
sitting of
the conven-
tion
at their towns
respectively, and
I
fear that
they would
not
feel much complimented
if we
shall make a bargain that
it should
sit nowhere.
Yours as ever,
A.
Lincoln.
[See also Berdan, James; Boal, Robert; and James,
B. R]
(Copied from the Sangamon Journal for Feb.
26,
1846.)
Harney, W.
S.
Washington, D. C, May 27,
1861.
Brigadier-General W.
S. Harney,
Commanding Department of the West,
St. Louis, Mo.
Sir
: The
President observes
with concern
that,
not-
withstanding
the
pledge
of
the
State
authorities
to
cooperate
in preserving peace in Missouri, loyal citizens
in great numbers continue to be driven from their homes.
It
is immaterial
whether
these outrages continue from
inability
or
indisposition on
the
part
of
the
State
au-
thorities to prevent them.
It
is enough
that they con-
tinue
to devolve on you
the duty of putting
a
stop
to
them summarily by
the
force under your command,
to
be aided by such troops as you may require from Kansas,
Iowa, and
Illinois.
The
professions
of
loyalty
to
the
Union by the State authorities of Missouri are not to be
relied upon.
They have already falsified their professions
too often, and are too
far committed
to secession to be
entitled to your confidence, and you can only be sure of
their
desisting from
their wicked purposes when
it
is
HARVEY,
J. E.
out of their power
to prosecute them.
You
will there-
fore
be
unceasingly watchful
of
their movements, and
not permit the clamors of their partisans and opponents
of the wise measures already taken to prevent you from
checking every movement against the government, how-
ever disguised under the pretended State authority.
The
authority of the United States
is paramount, and when-
ever
it
is apparent that a movement, whether by color of
State
authority or
not,
is
hostile, you
will not
hesitate
to put
it down.
I am,
sir, very respectfully your obedient servant,
L. Thomas, Adjutant-General.
Harvey,
J. E.
[Private.]
Springfield,
111., September 2J, i860.
My dear Sir
:
Yesterday I was gratified by the
receipt of yours of the 22d.
There
is no reality
in that
suspicion about Judge
Kelly.*
Neither
he nor any
other man has
obtained
or sought
such a relation with me.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Private and confidential.]
October 2, i860.
My dear Sir
:
To comply with your request to
furnish
extracts
from
my
tariff
speeches
is
simply
impossible,
because
none
of
those
speeches were published.
It was not fashionable
here
in
those
days
to
report
one's
public
speeches.
In
1844
I was on tne Clay
electoral
ticket in this State
(i.
e. Illinois) and, to the best
of my
ability,
sustained,
together,
the
tariff
of
* Judge W.
D.
Kelley of Pennsylvania,
is
referred
to.
Says
Francis D. Tandy, " It is supposed that this
letter refers to a re-
port of hi9 seeking a second place on the ticket of i860."
LETTERS
1842 and the
tariff plank of the Clay platform.
This
could
be
proven
by
hundreds—perhaps
thousands—of living witnesses
;
still
it
is not in
print,
except
by
inference.
The Whig
papers
of
those
years
all
show
that
I
was upon
the
electoral
ticket
;
even though
I made
speeches,
among other things about the tariff, but they do
not show what I said about
it.
The papers show
that
I was one of a committee which
reported,
among others, a resolution in these words
:
"That we are in favor of an adequate revenue
on
duties
from
imports
so
levied
as
to
afford
ample protection to American industry."
But, after
all, was
it really any more than the
tariff plank of our present platform?
And does
not my acceptance pledge me to that?
And am
I at liberty to do more,
if
I were inclined ?
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Hatch, O. M.
[See
Dubois,
Jesse
K..
Sept.
13,
1863.]
Hawkes, Charles K.
[See Chase, Salmon
P., Jan.
28,
1864; and Wright,
C
J.]
Hay, John.
On June
5, 1864, J. G. Nicolay, the President's private
secretary, wrote from Baltimore, where he was attend-
ing
the
National
Union
[Republican]
Convention,
to
Major
John
Hay,
assistant
private
secretary
to
the
President,
a
letter
relating
to
a
conversation
he
had
had with B. C. Cook, the head of the
Illinois delegates.
Cook was
"suspicious
that
Swett may
be
untrue
to
Lincoln.
One of the straws which
led him
to
this be-
HAYCRAFT, SAMUEL
lief
is
that
Swett
has
telegraphed
here
urging
the
Illinois
delegation
to
go
for
Holt
for
Vice-President.
I
told
Cook,"
says
Nicolay,
"that
I
thought
Lincoln
would not wish even to indicate a preference for Vice-
President,
as
the
rival
candidates were
all
friendly
to
him.
.
.
. Cook
wants
to know
confidentially
whether
Swett
is
all
right
;
whether
in
urging Holt
for
Vice-
President he reflects the President's wishes
; whether the
President
has any
preference
;
either
personally
or on
the score
of
policy,
or whether he wishes not even
to
interfere by a confidential indication."
Upon
this
letter
the
President
wrote
the
following
indorsement
:
"Swett
is unquestionably
all
right.
Mr. Holt
is a good man, but I had not heard or thought of
him
for
Vice-President.
Wish not to
interfere
about
Vice-President.
Cannot
interfere
about
platform.
Convention must judge for
itself."
Haycraft, Samuel.
Springfield,
Illinois, May 28,
i860.
Dear Sir
:
Your recent letter, without date,
is
received.
Also the copy of your speech on the
contemplated Daniel Boone Monument, which
I
have not yet had time to read.
In the main you
are
right
about my
history.
My
father
was
Thomas
Lincoln, and Mrs.
Sally Johnston was
his
second
wife.
You
are
mistaken
about my
mother.
Her maiden name was Nancy Hanks.
I
was
not
born
at
Elizabethtown,
but
my
mother's
first
child, a daughter, two years older
than myself, and now long since deceased, was.
I was born February
12,
1809, near where Hog-
ginsville
(Hodgensville) now
is, then
in Hardin
County.
I do not think
I ever saw you, though
I very well know who you are—so well that
I
recognized
your
handwriting, on
opening your
9 6
LETTERS
letter,
before
I saw
the
signature.
My
recol-
lection
is that Ben Helm was
first clerk, that you
succeeded him, that Jack Thomas and William
Farleigh graduated
in the same
office, and
that
your handwritings were
all very similar.
Am
I
right?
My father has been dead near ten years
; but
my step-mother (Mrs. Johnston)
is
still living.
I am really very glad of your
letter, and shall
be pleased to receive another at any time.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Private.]
Springfield,
Illinois, June
4,
i860.
Dear Sir
:
Your second letter, dated May 31st,
is
received.
You
suggest
that
a
visit
to
the
place of my
nativity might be
pleasant
to me.
Indeed
it would.
But would
it be safe ?
Would
not the people lynch me?
The place on Knob Creek, mentioned by Mr.
Read,
I remember very well
; but
I was not born
there.
As my parents have told me,
I was born
on Nolin, very much nearer Hodgens Mill than
the Knob Creek place is. My earliest recollection,
however,
is of the Knob Creek place.
Like you,
I belonged to the Whig party from
its origin to
its
close.
I
never
belonged
to
the
American
party organization
; nor ever to a party called a
Union
party, though
I hope
I
neither am nor
ever have been,
less devoted to the Union than
yourself or any other patriotic man.
It may
not
be
altogether
without
interest
to
let you know that my wife
is a daughter of the
late Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Ky., and that
a
half-sister of hers
is the wife
of Ben Hardin
HAYCRAFT, SAMUEL
Helm, born and raised
at your town, but resid-
ing at Louisville now, as
I believe.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield,
Illinois, August
16,
i860.
My
dear
Sir
:
A correspondent
of the New
York Herald, who was here a week ago, writing
to
that
paper,
represents me
as
saying
I
had
been
invited
to
visit Kentucky, but
that
I
sus-
pected
it was a trap to inveigle me into Kentucky
in order to do violence to me.
This
is
wholly
a
mistake.
I
said
no
such
thing.
I
do
not remember, but
possibly
I
did
mention my correspondence with you.
But very
certainly
I was not guilty of stating, or insinuat-
ing, a suspicion of any intended violence, decep-
tion or other wrong, against me, by you or any
other
Kentuckian.
Thinking
the
Herald
cor-
respondence might fall under your eye, I think
it
due
to
myself
to
enter my
protest
against the
correctness
of
this
part of
it.
I
scarcely think
the correspondent was malicious, but rather that
he misunderstood what was
said.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield,
Illinois, August 23, i860.
My dear Sir: Yours of the 19th just received.
I now
fear
I may have given you some uneasi-
ness in my last letter.
I did not mean to intimate
that
I had, to any extent, been involved or em-
barrassed
by
you
;
nor
yet
to draw
from you
anything
to
relieve myself from
difficulty.
My
only
object was
to
assure you
that
I had
not,
as
represented
by
the
Herald
correspondent,
LETTERS
charged you with an attempt to inveigle me into
Kentucky to do me violence.
I believe no such
thing of you or of Kentuckians generally
; and
I
dislike
to be represented
to them as
slandering
them
in that way.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
.
[Private and confidential.]
Springfield,
Illinois, November,
13,
i860.
Hon. Samuel Haycraft.
My dear Sir
: Yours of the 9th is just received.
I
can
only answer
briefly.
Rest
fully
assured
that the good people of the South who will put
themselves in the same temper and mood toward
me which you do, will find no cause to complain
of me.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Hayes,
J.
S.
[See Sherman, F. C]
[Amnesty.]
Helm, Mrs. Emily T.
[Aug.
8,
1864.
See
Burbridge,
S.
G.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, December
14,
1863.
Mrs. Emily T. Helm, not being excepted from
the benefits of the proclamation by the President
of the United States issued on the eighth day of
December,
1863, and having on
this day taken
and subscribed the oath according to said proc-
HENDERSON,
T.
I.
lamation,
she
is
fully
relieved
of
all
penalties
and forfeitures, and remitted to
all her rights
all according to said proclamation, and not other-
wise; and,
in regard
to
said
restored
rights
of
person and property, she
is to be protected and
afforded
facilities as a
loyal person.
Abraham Lincoln.
P.
S.
Mrs. Helm claims to own some cotton
at
Jackson,
Mississippi,
and
also
some
in
Georgia; and
I
shall be glad, upon either place
being brought
within
our
lines,
for
her
to be
afforded the proper facilities to show her owner-
ship, and take her property.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, December
14,
1863.
Whom
it may
concern
:
It
is my wish
that
Mrs. Emily T. Helm (widow of the late General
B. H. Helm, who
fell
in the Confederate
serv-
ice),
now
returning
to
Kentucky,
may
have
protection
of person and property, except as
to
slaves, of which I say nothing.
A. Lincoln.
Henderson, T. J.
Springfield, November 2J, 1854.
T.
J. Henderson, Esq.
My dear Sir
:
It has come round that a Whig
may,
by
possibility,
be
elected
to
the
United
States
Senate; and
I want the chance of being
the man.
You are a member of the legislature,
and have a vote to give.
Think
it over, and see
whether
you
can
do
better
than
go
for
me.
IOO
LETTERS
Write me
at
all
events,
and
let
this
be
confi-
dential.
Your truly,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield, December
15,
1854.
Hon. T.
J. Henderson.
Dear Sir: Yours of the nth was received last
night, and for which
I thank you.
Of course,
I
prefer myself
to
all
others
; yet
it
is neither
in
my heart nor my conscience to say
I am any bet-
ter man than Mr.
Williams.
We
shall have
a
terrible
struggle
with
our
adversaries.
They
are
desperate, and bent on
desperate
deeds.
I
accidentally
learned
of one
of
the
leaders here
writing to a member south of here, in about the
following language
:
We
are
beaten.
They
have
a
clear
majority
of
at
least
nine
on
joint
ballot.
They
outnumber
us^ but
we must outmanage them.
Douglas must be
sustained.
We must
elect the
Speaker
; and we must
elect
a Ne-
braska United
States senator, or
elect none
at
all.
Similar letters, no doubt, are written to every
Nebraska member.
Be considering how we can
best meet, and
foil, and beat them.
I send you by this mail a copy of my Peoria
speech.
You may have
seen
it
before,
or you
may
not
think
it
worth
seeing
now.
Do
not
speak of the Nebraska letter mentioned above
;
I
do not wish
it
to become public that
I
receive
such
information.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
HENRY, A.
G.
101
Henry, A. G.
[Aug.
5,
1873.
See Bennett, John.]
[Fragments of letter.}
Springfield,
Illinois, November
19,
1858.
Dr. A. G. Henry.
My dear sir
:
You doubtless have seen ere this the result of
the election here.
Of course
I wished, but I did
not much
expect, a better
result.
The popular
vote of the State
is with us
; so that the seat in the
whole
canvass.
On
the
contrary,
John
and
George Weber, and several such old Democrats,
were
furiously for me.
As a general
rule, out
of Sangamon as well as in
it, much of the plain
old Democracy
is with
us,
while
nearly
all the
old exclusive
silk-stocking Whiggery
is
against
us.
I don't mean nearly all the Old Whig party,
but nearly
all
of the
nice
exclusive
sort.
And
why
not?
There
has
been
nothing
in
politics
since the Revolution so congenial to their nature
as the present position of the great Democratic
party.
I am glad
I made the
late
race.
It gave me
a hearing on the great and durable question of
the age, which
I could have had in no other way
;
and though
I now sink out of view, and shall be
forgotten,
I
believe
I
have made
some marks
which will
tell for the cause of civil liberty long
after I am gone.
Mary joins me in sending our
best wishes
to Mrs. Henry and others of your
family.
102
LETTERS
Springfield, Illinois, July 4, i860.
My dear Doctor
: Your very
agreeable
letter
of May 15th was received three days ago.
We
are
just now
receiving
the
first
sprinkling
of
your
Oregon
election
returns—not
enough,
I
think,
to
indicate
the
result.
We
should
be
too
happy
if
both
Logan
and
Baker
should
triumph.
Long before
this you have learned who was
nominated
at
Chicago.
We know
not what
a
day may bring forth, but to-day
it looks as
if the
Chicago
ticket
will
be
elected.
I
think
the
chances
were
more
than
equal
that we
could
have beaten the Democracy united.
Divided
as
it
is,
its chance appears indeed very slim.
But
great is Democracy in resources
; and
it may yet
give
its
fortunes
a
turn.
It
is
under
great
temptation to do something; but what can
it do
which was not thought
of, and found impracti-
cable,
at
Charleston and Baltimore?
The signs
now are that Douglas and Breckinridge will each
have a
ticket
in every
State.
They
are driven
to
this
to
keep
up
their
bombastic
claims
of
nationality, and to avoid
the charge
of
section-
alism which
they have
so much
lavished upon
us.
It
is an amusing
fact,
after
all Douglas has
said
about
nationality
and
sectionalism,
that
I
had more
votes
from
the
southern
section
at
Chicago
than
he
had
at
Baltimore
!
In
fact,
there was more
of
the
southern
section
repre-
sented at Chicago than in the Douglas rump con-
cern at Baltimore
!
Our boy, in his tenth year (the baby when you
left), has
just had
a hard and tedious
spell
of
scarlet fever, and he
is not yet beyond all danger.
HENRY, A.
G.
103
I have a headache and sore throat upon me now,
inducing me
to
suspect that
I have an
inferior
type of the same thing.
Our eldest boy, Bob, has been away from us
nearly a year at school, and
will enter Harvard
University
this month.
He promises very
well,
considering
we
never
controlled
him
much.
Write again when you receive this.
Mary joins
in sending our kindest regards to Mrs. H., your-
self, and all the family.
Your friend, as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield, Illinois, September 22, i860.
Dear Doctor: Yours of July 18th was received
some time
ago.
When you wrote you had not
learned the result of the Democratic conventions
at
Charleston
and
Baltimore.
With
the
two
tickets
in the
field
I should think
it possible for
our friends to carry Oregon.
But the general re-
sult,
I think, does not depend upon Oregon.
No
one this side of the mountains pretends that any
ticket can be elected by the people, unless
it be
ours.
Hence
great
efforts
to combine
against
us are being made, which, however, as yet have
not had much success.
Besides what we
see
in
the newspapers,
I have a good
deal of
private
correspondence
; and without giving details, I will
only say
it
all looks very
favorable to our suc-
cess.
Make my best respects to Mrs. Henry and the
rest of your family.
Your friend, as ever,
A. Lincoln.
io4
LETTERS
Executive Mansion,
Washington, May
13,
1863.
Dr. A. G. Henry,
Metropolitan Hotel, New York:
Governor Chase's feelings were hurt by my ac-
tion in his absence.
Smith
is removed, but Gov-
ernor Chase wishes
to name
his
successor, and
asks a day or two to make the designation.
A. Lincoln.
Henry, Alexander.
[Telegram.]
War Department, Washington, D. C,
September
12,
1862.
Hon. Alexander Henry, Philadelphia
:
Yours
of
to-day
received.
General
Halleck
has made the best provision he can for generals
in Pennsylvania.
Please do not be offended when
I assure you that in my confident belief Philadel-
phia
is in no danger.
Governor Curtin has just
telegraphed me:
I have advices that Jackson
is crossing the Potomac
at Williamsport, and probably the whole rebel army will
be drawn from Maryland.
At
all
events,
Philadelphia
is more than
150
miles from Hagerstown, and could not be reached
by the
rebel army
in ten
days,
if no hindrance
was interposed.
A. Lincoln.
Herndon, Rowan.
Springfield, June
11,
1839.
Dear Row
: Mr. Redman informs me that you
wjsh me to write you the particulars of a con-
HERNDON, WILLIAM H.
105
versation between Dr. Felix and myself relative
to you.
The doctor overtook me between Rush-
ville and Beardstown.
He, after learning that
I
had
lived
in
Springfield,
asked
if
I
was
ac-
quainted with you.
I told him I was.
He said
you had
lately been elected constable in Adams,
but that you never would be again.
I asked him
why?
He said the people there, had found out
that you had been
Sheriff or Deputy
Sheriff in
Sangamon
County, and
that you came
off and
left your securities to suffer.
He then asked me
if I did not know such to be the fact.
I told him
I
did
not think you had
ever been
Sheriff
or
Deputy Sheriff in Sangamon
; but that I thought
you had been constable.
I further told him that
if you had
left your
securities to suffer in that
or any other case,
I had never heard of
it, and
that
if
it had been
so,
I thought
I would have
heard of
it.
If the Doctor is telling that I told him anything
against you whatever,
I authorize you to contra-
dict
it flatly. We have no news here.
Your
friend, as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Herndon, William H.
Washington, December 5, 1847.
Dear William
:
.
.
. There is nothing of conse-
quence new
here.
Congress
is
to organize
to-
morrow.
Last night we held a Whig caucus for
the House, and nominated Winthrop of Massa-
chusetts
for
speaker,
Sargent
of
Pennsylvania
for
sergeant-at-arms,
Homer
of
New
Jersey
door-keeper, and McCormick of District of Co-
lumbia postmaster.
The Whig majority
in the
vo6
LETTERS
House
is
so
small
that, together with some
lit-
tle
dissatisfaction,
[it]
.
.
.
leaves
it
doubtful
whether we will elect them
all.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, December
13,
1847.
Dear William
: Your letter, advising me of the
receipt of our
fee
in the bank case,
is
just
re-
ceived, and I don't expect to hear another as good
a
piece
of news
from
Springfield
while
I am
away.
I am under no obligations to the bank;
and I therefore wish you to buy bank certificates,
and pay my debt there, so as to pay
it with the
least
money
possible.
I
would
as
soon
you
should buy them of Mr.
Ridgely, or any other
person at the bank, as of any one
else, provided
you can get them as cheaply.
I
suppose, after
the bank debt
shall be paid, there will be some
money
left, out of which
I would
like to have
you pay Lavely and
Stout twenty
dollars, and
Priest and somebody
(oil-makers)
ten
dollars,
for
materials
got
for
house-painting.
If
there
shall
still be any left, keep
it
till you see or hear
from me.
I
shall begin sending documents so soon
as
I
can
get them.
I wrote you yesterday about a
"Congressional Globe."
As you are
all so anx-
ious
for me
to
distinguish myself,
I have con-
cluded to do so before long.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, January 8, 1848.
Dear
William
: Your
letter
of December
was
received a
day
or two
ago.
I am much
HERNDON, WILLIAM H.
107
obliged
to yon
for the trouble you have
taken,
and promise to take
in my
little business
there.
As to speech-making, by way of getting the hang
of the House
I made a
little speech two or three
days ago on a post-office question of no general
interest.
I
find
speaking
here
and
elsewhere
about
the
same
thing.
I
was
about
as
badly
scared, and no worse,
as
I am when
I speak
in
court.
I expect to make one within a week or
two„ in which
I hope to succeed well enough to
wish you
to
see
it.
It is very pleasant to learn from you that there
are some who desire that
I should be
reelected.
I most
heartily thank them
for
their kind par-
tiality
; and
I can
say,
as Mr. Clay
said
of the
annexation
of Texas,
that
"personally
I would
not object"
to
a
reelection, although
I thought
at the time, and
still think,
it would be quite as
well
for me
to return
to the law
at the end of
a
single
term.
I made
the
declaration
that
I
would not be a candidate again, more from a wish
to deal
fairly with
others, to keep peace among
our
friends, and to keep the
district from going
to
the
enemy,
than
for
any
cause
personal
to
myself; so that,
if
it should so happen that no-
body else wishes to be elected,
I could not refuse
the people the
right of sending me again.
But
to enter myself as a competitor of others, or to
authorize any one
so
to
enter me,
is what my
word and honor
forbid.
I got some
letters intimating a probability of
so much difficulty amongst our friends as to lose
us the district
; but
I remember such letters were
written to Baker when my own case was under
consideration,
and
I
trust
there
is
no
more
ground
for
such
apprehension now
than
there
108
LETTERS
was
then.
Remember
I am always glad
to
re-
ceive a
letter from
you.
Most truly your friend,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, January
19,
1848.
Dear William:
Inclosed you
find
a
letter
of
Louis W. Chandler. ...
At
all events write me
all
about
it,
till
I
can somehow
get
it
off my
hands.
I
have
already
been bored more
than
enough about
it
; not the
least of which annoy-
ance is his cursed, unreadable, and ungodly hand-
writing.
I have made a speech, a copy of which
I will
send you by next mail.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, February
1, 1848.
Dear William: Your
letter of the
19th ultimo
was received last night, and for which I am much
obliged.
The only thing in
it that I wish to talk
to you at once about
is that because of my vote
for Ashmun's amendment you fear that you and
I disagree about the war.
I regret this, not be-
cause
of
any
fear we
shall
remain
disagreed
after you have read this letter, but because if you
misunderstand
I
fear
other
good
friends may
also.
That
vote
affirms
that
the war was
un-
necessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by
the
President; and
I
will
stake my
life
that
if
you had been in my place you would have voted
just as
I
did.
Would you have voted what you
felt and knew
to be a
lie?
I know you would
not.
Would you have gone out of the House
skulked
the
vote?
I
expect
not.
If you
had
HERNDON, WILLIAM H.
109
skulked one
vote, you would have had to skulk
many more before the end of the session.
Rich-
ardson's
resolutions,
introduced
before
I made
any move
or gave any
vote upon
the
subject,
make
the
direct
question
of
the
justice
of
the
war;
so that no man can be
silent
if he would.
You are compelled to speak
; and your only alter-
native
is to tell the truth or a lie.
I cannot doubt
which you would do.
This vote has nothing to do in determining my
votes on the questions of supplies.
I have always
intended, and
still intend,
to vote supplies; per-
haps not in the precise form recommended by the
President, but
in a better form for
all purposes,
except
Locofoco
party
purposes.
It
is
in
this
particular you seem
mistaken.
The Locos
are
untiring
in
their
efforts to make the impression
that all who vote supplies or take part in the war
do of necessity approve the
President's conduct
in the beginning of
it
; but the Whigs have from
the beginning made and kept the distinction be-
tween the two.
In the very
first
act nearly
all
the Whigs voted against the preamble declaring
that war existed by the act of Mexico; and yet
nearly
all
of them voted
for
the
supplies.
As
to the Whig men who have participated
in the
war,
so
far as they have spoken
in my hearing
they do not
hesitate
to denounce
as unjust the
President's conduct
in the beginning of the war.
They do not
suppose
that such
denunciation
is
directed by undying hatred to him, as "The Reg-
ister" would have
it believed. There are two such
Whigs on this floor (Colonel Haskell and Major
James).
The former fought as a colonel by the
side of Colonel Baker at Cerro Gordo, and stands
side by
side with me
in the vote that you seem
no
LETTERS
dissatisfied with.
The latter, the history of whose
capture with Cassius Clay you well know, had not
arrived here when that vote was given
;
but,
as
I understand, he stands ready to give just such
a
vote
whenever
an
occasion
shall
present.
Baker,
too, who
is now
here,
says
the
truth
is
undoubtedly
that way
;
and
whenever
he
shall
speak out, he will say so.
Colonel Doniphan, too,
the favorite Whig of Missouri, and who overran
all
Northern Mexico, on
his
return home
in
a
public
speech
at
St.
Louis condemned
the
ad-
ministration in relation to the war,
if I remember.
G.
T. M.
Davis, who has been through almost
the whole war,
declares
in
favor
of Mr.
Clay
;
from which
I infer that he adopts the sentiments
of Mr.
Clay, generally
at
least.
On the other
hand, I have heard of but one Whig who has been
to the war attempting to justify the
President's
conduct.
That one was Captain
Bishop,
editor
of
the
Charleston
Courier,
and
a
very
clever
fellow.
I do not mean this letter for the public,
but for you.
Before
it reaches you, you will have
seen and read my pamphlet speech, and perhaps
been scared anew by
it.
After you get over your
scare, read
it over
again,
sentence by
sentence,
and tell me honestly what you think of
it.
I con-
densed
all
I could
for
fear of being cut
off by
the hour
rule, and when
I
got through
I had
spoken but forty-five minutes.
Yours
forever,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, February
2,
1848.
Dear William:
I just take my pen to say that
Mr.
Stephens,
of
Georgia,
a
little,
slim,
pale-
faced, consumptive man, with
a
voice
like Lo-
HERNDON, WILLIAM H.
1 1
gan's,
has
just concluded
the very
best speech
of an hour's length
I ever heard.
My old with-
ered dry eyes are
full of tears
yet.
If he writes
it out anything like he delivered
it,
our people shall see a good many copies of it.
Yours
truly,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, February
15, 1848.
Dear William
: Your letter of the 29th January
was received last night.
Being exclusively a con-
stitutional
argument,
I
wish
to
submit
some
reflections upon
it in the same
spirit of kindness
that
1 know
actuates
you.
Let me
first
state
what I understand to be your position.
It
is that
if
it shall become necessary to repel invasion, the
President may, without violation of the Constitu-
tion,
cross
the
line and
invade
the
territory
of
another country, and that whether such necessity
exists in any given case the President
is the sole
judge.
Before
going
further
consider
well
whether
this
js or
is not your
position.
If
it
is,
it
is a
position
that
neither
the
President
himself, nor
any
friend
of
his,
so
far
as
I know,
has
ever
taken.
Their only
positions
are—first, that the
soil was
ours when
the
hostilities commenced
;
and second, that whether
it was
rightfully ours
or not, Congress had annexed
it, and the Presi-
dent for that reason was bound to defend
it
; both
of which are as clearly proved to be false in fact
as you can prove that your house
is mine.
The
soil was not
ours, and Congress did not annex
or attempt
to annex
it.
' But
to return
to your
position.
Allow the President to invade a neigh-
boring nation whenever he
shall deem
it neces-
H2
LETTERS
sary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to
do so whenever he may choose to say he deems
it
necessary
for
such
purpose,
and
you
allow
him
to make war
at
pleasure.
Study
to
see
if
you can fix any limit to his power in this respect,
after having given him so much as you propose.
If to-day he should choose
to
say he
thinks
it
necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British
from invading us, how could you stop him ?
You
may
say
to
him,
"I
see
no
probability
of
the
British invading us"
; but he will say to you, "Be
silent:
I see
it,
if you don't."
The
provision
of
the
Constitution
giving the
war-making power to Congress was
dictated,
as
I understand
it, by the following reasons
: Kings
had
always
been
involving
and
impoverishing
their people in wars, pretending generally,
if not
always,
that
the
good
of
the
people
was
the
object.
This our
convention
understood
to
be
the
most
oppressive
of
all
kingly
oppressions,
and they
resolved
to
so frame
the
Constitution
that no one man should hold the power of bring-
ing
this
oppression
upon
us.
But
your
view
destroys the whole matter, and places our Presi-
dent where kings have always stood.
Write soon
again.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Washington, June 22,
1848.
Dear William
:
Last
night
I was attending
a
sort of caucus of the Whig members, held in
re-
lation
to the coming
presidential
election.
The
whole field of the nation was scanned, and
all
is
high hope and confidence.
Illinois
is expected to
better her
condition
in
this
race.
Under
these
circumstances, judge how heartrending
it was to
HERNDON, WILLIAM H.
113
come
to my room and
find and read your
dis-
couraging letter of the
15th.
We have made no
gains,
but have
lost "H.
R.
Robinson, Turner,
Campbell, and four or
five more."
Tell Arney
to reconsider,
if he would be saved.
Baker and
I used
to do something, but
I think you attach
more
importance
to
our
absence
than
is
just.
There
is another
cause.
In
1840,
for
instance,
we had two senators and
five representatives
in
Sangamon
; now we have part of one senator and
two representatives.
With quite one third more
people than we had then, we have only half the
sort of
offices which are sought by men of the
speaking sort of talent.
This, I think, is the chief
cause.
Now,
as to the young men.
You must
not wait to be brought forward by the older men.
For instance, do you suppose that
I should ever
have got into notice
if
I had waited to be hunted
up
and
pushed
forward
by
older men?
You
young men get together and form a "Rough and
Ready
Club,"
and
have
regular
meetings
and
speeches.
Take in everybody you can get.
Har-
rison Grimsley, L. A. Enos, Lee Kimball, and C.
W.
Matheny
will
do
to
begin
the
thing;
but
as you go along gather up
all the shrewd, wild
boys about town, whether just of age or a
little
under
age,—Chris.
Logan,
Reddick
Ridgely,
Lewis
Zwizler,
and hundreds
such.
Let
every
one play the part he can play best,—some speak,
some sing, and
all "holler."
Your meetings will
be of evenings
; the older men, and the women,
will go to hear you
; so that
it will not only con-
tribute to the election of "Old Zach," but will be
an interesting pastime, and improving to the in-
tellectual
faculties of
all engaged.
Don't
fail to
do
this.
H4
LETTERS
You ask me to send you
all the speeches made
about "Old Zach," the war, etc.
Now this makes
me a
little impatient.
I have regularly sent you
the "Congressional Globe" and "Appendix," and
you cannot have examined them, or you would
have discovered that they contain every
speech,
made by every man
in both houses of Congress,
on
every
subject,
during
the
session.
Can
I
send any more?
Can
I send speeches
that no-
body
has made?
Thinking
it would
be
most
natural that the newspapers would feel interested
to give at least some of the speeches to their read-
ers,
I
at
the beginning of the
session made
ar-
rangements to have one copy of the "Globe" and
"Appendix"
regularly
sent to each Whig paper
of the
district.
And
yet, with the exception
of
my own
little speech, which was published in two
only of the then
five, now four, Whig papers,
I
do not remember having seen a single speech, or
even extract from one, in any single one of those
papers.
With equal and full means on both sides,
I
will
venture
that
the
"State
Register"
has
thrown
before
its
readers
more
of
Locofoco
speeches in a month than
all the Whig papers of
the
district have done of Whig speeches during
the session.
If you wish a
full understanding of the war,
I
repeat what I believe I said to you in a letter once
before, that the whole, or nearly so, is to be found
in the speech of Dixon of Connecticut.
This
I
sent you
in pamphlet as well as in the "Globe."
Examine and study every sentence of that speech
thoroughly, and you
will understand
the whole
subject.
You ask how Congress came to declare
that war had existed by the act of Mexico.
Is
it possible you don't understand that yet?
You
HERNDON, WILLIAM H.
115
have at least twenty speeches in your possession
that fully explain
it.
I will, however, try
it once
more.
The news
reached
Washington
of
the
commencement of hostilities on the Rio Grande,
and of the great peril of General Taylor's army.
Everybody, Whigs and Democrats, was for send-
ing them aid, in men and money.
It was neces-
sary
to pass a
bill
for
this.
The Locos had a
majority
in both houses, and they brought in a
bill with a preamble saying: Whereas, War ex-
ists by the act of Mexico, therefore we send Gen-
eral Taylor money.
The Whigs moved to strike
out the preamble, so that they could vote to send
the
men
and
money,
without
saying
anything
about how the war commenced
; but being in the
minority,
they were
voted down, and
the
pre-
amble was retained.
Then, on the passage of the
bill, the question came upon them, Shall we vote
for preamble and
bill
together, or against both
together?
They
did
not want
to
vote
against
sending
help
to General
Taylor,
and
therefore
they voted for both together.
Is there any
dif-
ficulty
in
understanding
this?
Even my
little
speech shows how this was
; and
if you
will go
to
the
library,
you may
get
the
"Journal"
of
1845-46,
in which you
will
find
the whole
for
yourself.
We
have
nothing
published
yet
with
special
reference
to the Taylor
race
; but we soon
will
have, and then
I will send them to everybody.
I
made an internal-improvement speech day before
yesterday, which
I
§hall send home as soon as
I
can get
it
written out and
printed,—and which
I suppose nobody will
read.
Your friend as ever,
A. Lincoln.
n6
LETTERS
Washington, July
10, 1848.
Dear William
: Your letter covering the news-
paper
slips was
received
last
night.
The
sub-
ject of that
letter
is exceedingly painful to me
;
and
I cannot but think there
is some mistake in
your impression
of the motives of the old men.
I suppose
I am now one of the old men; and
I
declare, on my
veracity, which
I think
is good
with you, that nothing could afford me more sat-
isfaction than to learn that you and others of my
young
friends
at home
are doing
battle
in
the
contest, and endearing themselves to the people,
and taking
a
stand
far above any
I have ever
been able to reach in their admiration.
I cannot
conceive that other old men
feel differently.
Of
course
I cannot demonstrate what
I
say
; but
I
was young
once,
and
I am
sure
I was
never
ungenerously thrust back.
I hardly know what
to say.
The way for a young man to
rise
is to
improve
himself
every way he
can,
never
sus-
pecting
that
anybody
wishes
to
hinder
him.
Allow me to assure you that suspicion and
jeal-
ousy never
did help any man
in any
situation.
There may
sometimes
be
ungenerous
attempts
to keep a young man down; and they will suc-
ceed,
too,
if he allows
his mind
to be
diverted
from its true channel to brood over the attempted
injury.
Cast about, and see
if this feeling has
not injured every person you have ever known to
fall into
it.
Now, in what I have said,
I am sure you will
suspect nothing but sincere friendship.
I would
save you from a
fatal
error.
You have been a
laborious, studious young man.
You are far bet-
ter informed on almost
all subjects than
I have
ever been.
You cannot
fail in any laudable ob-
HERNDON, WILLIAM H.
117
ject,
unless you allow your mind to be improp-
erly
directed.
I have somewhat
the advantage
of you in the world's experience, merely by being
older; and
it
is
this
that induces me
to advise.
You
still seem to be a
little mistaken about the
"Congressional
Globe" and "Appendix."
They
contain
all of the speeches that are published
in
any way.
My speech and Dayton's speech, which
you say you got in pamphlet form, are both, word
for word, in the "Appendix."
I repeat again,
all
are
there.
Your friend, as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Springfield, June
5, 1849.
Dear William
: Your two letters were received
last night.
I have a great many letters to write,
and so cannot write very long ones.
There must
be some
mistake
about Walter
Davis
saying
I
promised him the post-office.
I did not so prom-
ise him.
I
did
tell him
that
if the
distribution
of the offices should fall into my hands, he should
have something; and
if
I
shall be convinced he
has
said any more than
this,
I
shall be
disap-
pointed.
I
said
this much
to him because, as
I
understand,
he
is
of good
character,
is one
of
the young men,
is of the mechanics, and always
faithful and never troublesome
; a Whig, and
is
poor, with the support of a widow mother thrown
almost
exclusively on him by
the
death
of
his
brother.
If these are wrong reasons, then I have
been wrong
; but
I have certainly not been selfish
in
it, because
in my greatest need of friends he
was
against me, and
for Baker.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
P. S.
Let the above be confidential.
il8
LETTERS
Executive Mansion,
Washington, February 3, 1862.
Dear
William:
Yours
of
January
30th
just
received.
Do just as you say about the money
matter.
As you well know,
I have not time to
write a
letter of respectable
length.
God
bless
you,
says
Your friend,
A. Lincoln.
Hereon,
F.
J.
War Department,
Washington, 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
valid 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 Herron
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.
Hewett, Josephus.
Washington, February
13,
1848.
Dear Hewett
: Your Whig representative from
Mississippi, D. W. Tompkins, has just shown me
a
letter of yours to him.
I am jealous because
HEIVETT, JOSEPHUS
119
you did not write to me—perhaps you have for-
gotten me.
Don't you remember
a
long black
fellow who
rode
on
horseback
with you
from
Tremont
to
Springfield
nearly
ten
years
ago,
swimming our horses over the Mackinaw on the
trip?
Well,
I am that one fellow
yet.
I was
once of your
opinion,
expressed
in your
letter,
that
presidential
electors
should
be
dispensed
with,
but
a more
thorough
knowledge
of
the
causes
that
first introduced them has made me
doubt.
The causes
are
briefly
these: The
con-
vention
that
framed
the
Constitution
had
this
difficulty:
the
small
States
wished
to
so
form
the new government as that they might be equal
to the large ones, regardless of the inequality of
population
;
the
large
ones
insisted on
equality
in proportion to population.
They compromised
it by basing the House of Representatives on pop-
ulation, and the Senate on
States
regardless of
population, and the execution of both principles
by electors in each State, equal in number to her
Senators and
Representatives.
Now throw away
the
machinery
of
electors
and this compromise
is broken up and the whole
yielded
to
the
principle
of
the
larger
States.
There
is one thing more.
In the slave States you
have
representatives, and consequently
electors,
partly upon the
basis
of your slave
population,
which would be swept away by the change you
seem to think desirable.
Have you ever reflected
on these things?
But to come to the main point.
I wish you to
know that I have made a speech in Congress, and
that
I want you to be enlightened by reading
it;
to further which object
I send you a copy of the
speech by
this
mail.
120
LETTERS
For old acquaintance's sake, if for nothing else,
be sure to write to me on receiving this.
I was
very near
forgetting to
tell you that on my be-
ing introduced
to General Quitman and
telling
him
I was from
Springfield,
Illinois, he
at once
remarked,
"Then
you know my
valued
friend
Hewett of Natchez"
; and on being assured
I did,
he
said
just such things about you
as
I
like
to
hear said about my own valued friends.
Yours as ever,
A. Lincoln.
Hicks,
G. Montague.
[Indorsement on
Letter.]
This note, as Colonel Hicks did verbally yes-
terday,
attempts
to
excite me
against
the
Sec-
retary
of War, and therein
is
offensive
to me.
My "order," as he
is pleased to call
it,
is plainly
no order
at
all.
A. Lincoln.
May 22, 1862.
Hicks, Thomas.
[Autobiographical Memorandum
given
to
the
Artist Hicks.]
I was born February
12, 1809, in then Hardin
County,
Kentucky,
at
a
point
within
the now
county of La Rue, a mile, or a mile and a half,
from where Hodgen's mill now
is.
My parents
being dead, and my own memory not serving,
I
know no means of identifying the precise
local-
ity.
It was on Nolin Creek.
A. Lincoln.
June
14,
i860.
HICKS, THOMAS H.
121
Hicks, Thomas
H., and Mayor Brown.
Washington, April 20, 1861.
Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown.
Gentlemen
: Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dob-
bin, and Brune
is
received.
I tender you both
my
sincere thanks
for your
efforts
to keep the
peace
in
the
trying
situation
in which you
are
placed.
For the
future
troops must be brought
here,
but
I make no point of bringing them through
Baltimore.
Without any military knowledge my-
self,
of course
I must
leave
details
to General
Scott.
He hastily said this morning in the pres-
ence
of
these
gentlemen, "March them around
Baltimore, and not through
it."
I sincerely hope
the
general,
on
fuller
reflection,
will
consider
this practical and proper, and that you
will not
object
to
it.
By
this
a
collision of
the
people
of Baltimore with the troops will be avoided, un-
less they go out of their way to seek
it.
I hope
you will exert your influence to prevent this.
Now and ever
I
shall do
all in my power for
peace
consistently with
the maintenance
of
the
government.
Your obedient servant,
Abraham Lincoln.
Hicks, Thomas H.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, April 20, 1861.
Governor Hicks
:
I desire to consult with you and the mayor of
Baltimore
relative
to
preserving
the
peace
of
Maryland.
Please come immediately by
special
122
LETTERS
train, which you can
take
at
Baltimore
;
or,
if
necessary, one can be
sent from here.
Answer
forthwith.
Lincoln.
Department of State, April 22,
1861.
His Excellency Thomas H. Hicks,
Governor of Maryland.
Sir
:
I have
the honor
to
receive your com-
munication of this morning, in which you inform
me that you had
felt
it to be your duty to advise
the President of the United States to order else-
where
the
troops then
off Annapolis, and
also
that no more may be sent through Maryland
; and
that you have further suggested that Lord Lyons
be requested to act as mediator between the con-
tending
parties
in
our
country,
to prevent
the
effusion of blood.
The President
directs me
to acknowledge the
receipt of that communication, and to assure you
that he has weighed the counsels
it contains with
the respect which he habitually cherishes for the
chief magistrates of the several States, and espe-
cially for yourself.
He regrets, as deeply as any
magistrate
or
citizen
of
this
country
can,
that
demonstrations against the safety of the United
States, with
very
extensive preparation
for
the
effusion of blood, have made
it
his duty to
call
out the forces to which you allude.
The force now sought to be brought through
Maryland
is intended for nothing but the defense
of
the
capital.
The
President
has
necessarily
confided the choice of the national highway which
that
force
shall take
in coming
to
this
city
to
the lieutenant-general commanding the army
of
the United States, who, like his only predecessor.
HICKS, THOMAS H.
123
is
not
less
distinguished
for
his humanity than
for his loyalty, patriotism, and distinguished pub-
lic services.
The
President
instructs me
to
add
that
the
national highway thus selected by the lieutenant-
general has been chosen by him, upon consulta-
tion with prominent magistrates and
citizens of
Maryland,
as
the
one
which,
while
a
route
is
absolutely
necessary,
is
farthest removed from
the
populous
cities
of
the
State,
and
with
the
expectation
that
it would therefore be the
least
objectionable
one.
He cannot but remember that there has been a
time in the history of our country when a gen-
eral of the American Union, with forces designed
for the defense of
its capital, was not unwelcome
anywhere in the State of Maryland, and certainly
not at Annapolis, then, as now, the capital of that
patriotic
State, and then also one of the capitals
of the Union.
If eighty years could have
obliterated
all the
other noble sentiments of that age
in Maryland,
the
President
would
be
hopeful,
nevertheless,
that there
is one that would forever remain there
and everywhere.
That sentiment
is, that no do-
mestic contention whatever that may arise among
the parties of this republic ought in any case to
be referred
to any foreign arbitrament,
least of
all to the arbitrament of a European monarchy.
I have the honor to be, with distinguished con-
sideration,
your
Excellency's
most
obedient
servant,
William H. Seward.
124
LETTERS
Hodges, A. G.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, April 4, 1864.
A. G. Hodges, Esq.,
Frankfort, Kentucky.
My dear Sir
: You ask me to put in writing the
substance of what
I verbally said the other day
in
your
presence,
to
Governor
Bramlette
and
Senator Dixon.
It was about as follows
:
"I am naturally antislavery.
If slavery
is not
wrong, nothing
is wrong.
I cannot remember
when I did not so think and
feel, and yet I have
never understood
that the presidency conferred
upon me
an
unrestricted
right
to
act
officially
upon
this judgment and
feeling.
It was
in the
oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability,
preserve,
protect,
and
defend
the
Constitution
of the United States.
I could not take the office
without taking the
oath.
Nor was
it my view
that I might take an oath to get power, and break
the oath
in using the power.
I understand, too,
that
in
ordinary
civil
administration
this
oath
even
forbade
me
to
practically
indulge
my
primary
abstract judgment on
the moral
ques-
tion
of
slavery.
I
had
publicly
declared
this
many times, and in many ways.
And I aver that,
to
this day,
I have done no
official
act
in mere
deference
to my
abstract judgment and
feeling
on
slavery.
I
did
understand,
however,
that
my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best
of my ability imposed upon me the duty of pre-
serving, by every indispensable means, that gov-
ernment—that nation, of which that Constitution
was the organic law.
Was
it possible to lose the
nation and
yet
preserve
the
Constitution?
By
HODGES, A.
G.
125
general law,
life and limb must be protected, yet
often a limb must be amputated to save a life
; but
a life is never wisely given to save a limb.
I felt
that
measures
otherwise
unconstitutional might
become lawful by becoming indispensable to the
preservation of the Constitution through the pres-
ervation
of the
nation.
Right
or wrong,
I
as-
sumed this ground, and now avow
it.
I could not
feel
that,
to the best of my
ability,
I had even
tried
to
preserve
the
Constitution,
if,
to
save
slavery or any minor matter,
I should permit the
wreck of government, country, and Constitution
all together.
When,
early
in the war,
General
Fremont attempted military emancipation,
I for-
bad§.
it, because
I did not then think
it an indis-
pensable necessity.
When, a
little later, General
Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the
arming of the blacks, I objected because I did not
yet
think
it an
indispensable
necessity.
When,
still
later,
General
Hunter
attempted
military
emancipation,
I again
forbade
it, because
I
did
not
yet
think
the
indispensable
necessity
had
come.
When in March and May and July, 1862,
I made
earnest
and
successive
appeals
to
the
border
States
to
favor
compensated
emancipa-
tion,
I
believed
the
indispensable
necessity
for
military
emancipation
and
arming
the
blacks
would
come
unless
averted
by
that
measure.
They declined the proposition, and
I was, in my
best judgment, driven to the alternative of either
surrendering the Union, and with
it the Constitu-
tion, or of laying strong hand upon the colored
element.
I
chose the
latter.
In choosing
it,
I
hoped
for greater gain than loss; but of
this,
I
was
not
entirely
confident.
More
than
a
year
of
trial now shows no
loss by
it
in our foreign
126
LETTERS
relations, none
in our home popular
sentiment,
none
in our white military
force—no
loss by
it
anyhow or anywhere.
On the contrary
it shows
a gain
of
quite
a hundred and
thirty thousand
soldiers, seamen, and laborers.
These are palpa-
ble
facts, about which, as
facts, there can be no
caviling.
We have the men
; and we could not
have had them without the measure.
"And now
let any Union man who complains
of the measure test himself by writing down in one
line that he
is for subduing the rebellion by force
of arms; and
in the next, that he
is
for taking
these hundred and thirty thousand men from the
Union
side, and placing them where they would
be but for the measure he condemns.
If he can-
not face his case so stated,
it
is only because he
cannot
face
the
truth."
I add a word which was not in the verbal con-
versation.
In telling this tale
I attempt no com-
pliment to my own sagacity.
I claim not to have
controlled events, but confess plainly that events
have controlled me.
Now,
at the end
of three
years' struggle, the nation's condition
is not what
either
party,
or any man,
devised
or
expected.
God alone can
claim
it.
Whither
it
is tending
seems plain.
If God now wills the removal of a
great wrong, and wills also that we of the North,
as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for
our complicity
in
that wrong,
impartial
history
will
find therein new cause to
attest and revere
the justice and goodness of God.
Yours truly,
A.
Lincoln.
HOFFMAN, H. W.
127
Hoffman, H. W.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, October
10, 1864.
Hon. Henry W. Hoffman.
My dear
Sir: A convention of Maryland has
framed a new constitution for the State
; a public
meeting
is
called
for
this evening
at Baltimore
to aid
in securing
its
ratification by the people,
and you ask a word from me for the occasion.
I
presume the only feature of the instrument about
which there
is serious controversy
is that which
provides for the extinction of slavery.
It needs
not to be a secret, and
I presume
it
is no secret,
that
I wish success to this provision.
I desire
it
on
every
consideration.
I
wish
all men
to be
free.
I wish the material
prosperity of the
al-
ready
free, which
I
feel
sure the
extinction
of
slavery would bring.
I wish to see in process of
disappearing
that
only
thing which
ever
could
bring this nation to civil war.
I attempt no argu-
ment.
Argument upon
the
question
is
already
exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more
immediately interested sons of Maryland herself.
I only add that
I
shall be
gratified exceedingly
if
the good
people
of the
State
shall, by
their
votes, ratify the new
constitution.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.
Hoffman, Ogden.
Executive Mansion, December
15, 1863.
Hon. Ogden Hoffman,
U. S. District Judge,
San Francisco, Cal.
:
The oath
in the proclamation of December 8
is intended
for those who may
voluntarily take
128
LETTERS
it, and not for those who may be constrained to
take
it
in
order
to
escape
actual imprisonment
or punishment.
It is intended that the latter class
shall
abide
the
granting
or
withholding
of
the
pardoning power in the ordinary way.
A.
Lincoln.
Holcombe, James
B.
[See Clay, Clement C]
Holt, Joseph.
Executive Mansion,
September
12,
1861.
Hon. Joseph
Holt.
Dear Sir
: Yours of this day, in relation to the
late
proclamation
of
General
Fremont,
is
re-
ceived.
Yesterday
I
addressed
a
letter
to him
by
mail on
the same
subject, and
v/hich
is
in-
tended
to
be made
public when he
receives
it.
I
herewith send you a copy of that letter, which,
perhaps, shows my position
as
distinctly
as any
new one
I could write.
I will thank you to not
make
it public until General Fremont shall have
had time to receive the
original.
Your obedient servant,
A.
Lincoln.
Hooker, Joseph.
[Jan.
19,
1861
:
See
Mansfield,
J.
K.
F.
Nov.
5,
1862
:
See McClellan, George
B.
Jan.
25,
1863
:
See
Burnside, Ambrose E.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, D.
C., January 26,
1863.
Major-General Hooker.
General:
I have placed you
at the head of the
HOOKER, JOSEPH
129
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
that there are some things
in regard to which
I
am not quite satisfied with you.
I believe 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-
i 3o
LETTERS
ness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go
forward and give us victories.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
[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.
If he
weakens
himself, then
pitch
into him.
HOOKER, JOSEPH
131
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, D. C, April
12, 1863.
Major-General Hooker:
Your
letter by
the hand
of
General
Butter-
field
is received, and will be conformed to.
The
thing you dispense with would have been ready
by midday to-morrow.
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, D. C.,
April 14, 1863.
5.30 p. m.
Major-General Hooker
:
Would like to have a
letter from you as soon
as convenient.
A. Lincoln.
[ 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
13a
LETTERS
done,
but
I
greatly
fear
it
is
another
failure
already.
Write me often.
1 am very anxious.
Yours
truly,
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C,
April 27,
1863.
3.30 p. m.
Major-General Hooker
:
How does
it look now ?
A.
Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D. C,
May 4, 1863.
3.10 p. m.
Major-General Hooker:
We have news here that the enemy has reoc-
cupied heights above Fredericksburg.
Is that so ?
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, D.
C.,
May 6, 1863.
12.25
p. m,
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
two
of
Longstreet's
divisions
fought
you
on
Saturday, and that General
[E.
F.] Paxton was
killed, Stonewall Jackson severely wounded, and
Generals Heth and A.
P.
Hill
slightly wounded.
HOOKER, JOSEPH
133
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.
[Telegram.]
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 n
a.
m. yesterday.
This, with the great rain of yes-
terday and
last night securing your right
flank,
I think puts a new face upon your case
; but you
must be the judge.
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, D. C,
May 8, 1863.
4 p. m.
Major-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
134
LETTERS
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.
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?
If 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
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 13, 1863.
1 p. m.
Major-General Hooker:
If it will not interfere with the service, nor per-
HOOKER, JOSEPH
135
sonally incommode you, please come up and see
me this evening.
A. Lincoln.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, D. C, 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.
136
LETTERS
[Telegram.]
Washington, May 2J, 1863.
11 p. m.
Major-General Hooker:
Have you Richmond papers of this morning?
If so, what news?
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
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
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 Halleck.
A.
Lincoln.
HOOKER, JOSEPH
337
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, D. C, June 9, 1863.
Major-General Hooker:
I am told there are 50 incendiary
shells here
at the arsenal made to
fit the 100-pounder Par-
rott gun now with you.
If
this
is true would
you like to have the shells sent to you?
A. Lincoln.
[Telegram.]
Washington, June
10, 1863.
640 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 Rich-
mond,
is your true objective point.
If he comes
toward the upper Potomac,
follow on
his flank
and
on
his
inside
track,
shortening your
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
[to try the
incendiary
shells],
but
if you
would
prefer
I
should
not,
I
shall
blame
you
if
you
do
not
tell me
so.
A. Lincoln.
138
LETTERS
[ Telegram. ]
Washington,
June
14,
1863.
11.55
p.
m.
Major-General Hooker:
Yours
of
11.30
[11.15]
J ust
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.
No
communication has been had with
it during the
day,
either
at Martinsburg
or
Harper's
Ferry.
At 7 p. m. we also lost communication with Mar-
tinsburg.
The enemy had
also appeared
there
some hours
before.
At 9
p. m.
Harper's Fer-
ry
said
the enemy was
reported
at
Berryville
and
Smithfield.
If
I
could know
that
Long-
street and Ewell moved in that direction so long
ago as you stated in your last, then I should
feel'
sure that Winchester
is strongly invested.
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.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, June
14,
1863.
1.14
p. m.
Major-General
Hooker:
Do
you
consider
it
possible
that
15,000
of
Ewell's men can now be
at Winchester?
A.
Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, June
14,
1863.
5-5°
P- m
Major-General Hooker:
So
far
as we can make out here, the enem
have Milroy surrounded
at Winchester and Ty
HOOKER, JOSEPH
i 39
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
15,
1863.
8.30 p. m.
Major-General
Hooker,
Fairfax
Station:
The
facts
are now
known
here
that Win-
chester and Martinsburg were both besieged yes-
terday.
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 Fer-
ry
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
differently understood
I
shall direct him to give
you
orders, and you
to obey them.
A.
Lincoln.
i 4o
LETTERS
[Private.]
Executive
Mansion.
Washington, 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
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
tel-
egraphing 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
difficulty.
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
command 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 Harper's
Ferry gives you back the chance that
I thought
McClellan
lost
last
fall.
Quite
possibly
I was
HOOKER, JOSEPH
141
wrong both then and now
; but, in the great re-
sponsibility 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 cor-
dial judgment of yourself and General Halleck,
with my poor mite added,
if indeed he and you
shall think
it entitled to any consideration at
all.
Yours as
ever,
A.
Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, June 21, 1863.
9 a. m.
Major-General Hooker:
Operator
at Leesburg
just now
tells
us
that
firing commenced
about
seven
this morning
in
direction from here of Aldie's Gap and Middle-
burg;
has
continued
all
day,
and
has
receded
from him, and
is
apparently now
about White
Plains; was very heavy this morning, but lighter
now
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Washington, June 22, 1863.
Major-General Hooker:
Operator at Leesburg just now says
:
I
heard
very
little
firing
this
a.
m.
about
daylight,
but
it seems to have stopped now.
It was in about same
direction as yesterday, but farther
off.
A. Lincoln.
War Department,
Washington, D. C., June 27, 1863.
8 a. m.
Major-General Hooker
:
It did not come from the newspapers, nor did
142
LETTERS
I believe
it but I wished to be entirely sure
it was
a falsehood.
A. Lincoln.
[ Telegram. ]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, January n, 1865.
Major-General
Hooker,
Cincinnati, Ohio:
It
is said that you have ordered Andrew Hum-
phreys to imprisonment at hard labor, in accord-
ance with
his
original
sentence, on
the ground
that
it was
not
legally
competent
for
General
Hovey, having approved the
sentence,
to
after-
ward modify
it.
While
I
incline
to
the
belief
that you
are
technically
right,
please
let
Gen-
eral Hovey 's
modification
be
acted
upon
until
further order from me.
A. Lincoln.
Send copy to General Hovey at Indianapolis.
A. L.
Hough, R. M., and Others.
War Department, March
17, 1865.
Col. R. M. Hough and Others,
Chicago,
111.
:
The Rock Island case referred
to, was my in-
dividual
enterprise,
and
it caused me
so much
difficulty
in
so many ways
that
I
promised
to
never undertake another.
A.
Lincoln.
Houston, John B.
[See Burbridge,
S.
G., Nov.
10,
1864.
]
HOYT, CHARLES
143
Howard, O. O.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, July 21, 1863.
My dear General Howard
:
Your
letter
of
the
18th
is
received.
I
was
deeply
mortified
by
the
escape
of
Lee
across
the Potomac, because the substantial destruction
of his army would have ended the war, and be-
cause
I
believed such
destruction was
perfectly
easy—believed that General Meade and his noble
army had expended
all
the
skill, and
toil,
and
blood, up
to
the
ripe
harvest, and then
let the
crop go
to waste.
Perhaps my
mortification was heightened be-
cause
I had always believed—making my
belief
a hobby, possibly—that the main rebel army go-
ing north of the Potomac could never return,
if
well attended to
; and because
I was
so greatly
flattered in this belief by the operations at Gettys-
burg. A few days having passed, I am now pro-
foundly
grateful
for
what
was
done,
without
criticism for what was not done.
General Meade has my confidence, as a brave
and skilful officer and a true man.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
Hoyt, Charles.
Springfield, Jan.
11, 185 1.
C. Hoyt,
Esq.
My dear
Sir: Our case
is decided against us.
The decision was announced this morning.
Very
sorry, but there
is no
help.
.
.
.
We occupied
the whole day,
I using the large
part.
I made
every
point
and
used
every
authority
sent me