The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-09-04

letter:
EXECUTIVE MANSION
Washington, Aug. 26.
Hon. James G. Conklin:
Ny DEAR SIK:-Your letter inviting
me to attend the Mass Meeting of uncon-
ditional Union men, to be held at the Cap
ital of Illinois on the third day of Sep
tember, has been received. 1t would be
very agreeable to me thus to meet nv
old friends at my own home, but can
not Just now be absent from this city so
long as visit there would require. The
meeting is to be composed of all those
who maintain unconditional devotion to
the Union, and am sure that my old po-
litical friends will thank me for tender
ing, as l do, the National gratitude to
those other noble men whom no partizan
malice or partizan hope can make false
to the Nations life There are those
who are dissatisfied with me. To such
/ would say: You desire peace, and
blame me that we do not have it. But
how can we atisinit? There are but
three conceivable ways. First, to sup
press the rebellion by force of arms
This | am trying to do Are you for it ?
If you are, so far we are agreed. If you
are not for it, a second way is to give up
the Union. am against this Are yoAA
| plainly. If you are not for peace, nor
yet dissolution, there only remains some
imaginable compromise. do not he
lieve that any compromise embracing
the maintenance of the Union is now
possible. All learn leads to directly
opposite belief The strength of the re-
bellion is its military, It's army. That
army dominates all the country. and all
the people within its range Any offer
OF terms by any man or men within that
range in opposition to that army, is sim
| ply nothing for the present; because such
man or men have no power to enforce
their side of the compromise if one were
made with them. To illustrate: Sup
pose refugees from the South and peace
men of the North get together in conven-
ton, and frame and proclaim a compro-
mise, embracing a restoration of the
the Union; in what way can that com
promise be used to keep Lees army out
of Pennsylvania? Meade's army can
keep Lees army ont of Pennsylvania,
and, / think, can ultimately drive it out
| OF existence. But no, compromise. 10
which the controllers of Lees army are
not agreed, can at all affect that army.
In an effort at snch compromise we
should lose time, which the enemy would
improve to our disadvantage, and that
would be ALL trous.
A compromise, to be effective, must
be made either with those who control
the rebel army, or with the people first
liberated from the domination of that
army, by the success of our own army.
Now, allow me to assure you that no
word or intlmation from that rebel army.
or from any of the men controlling ii,
in relation to any peace compromise, has
ever come to my knowledge or belief
All charges or insinuations to the con
trary are deceptive and groundless. And
| promise you that if any such PROPOSE
ton shall hereafter come, it shall not be
rejected or kept secret from ynn
freely acknowledge myself the servant
OF the people, according to the bonds of
service-the United States Constitution
and that, as such am responsible to
them.
But, to be plain, you are dissatisfied
with me about the negro. Quite likely
there is difference of opinion between
H HHh 9p as mya a aHH m enf could s be fsss
while suppose you do not Yet have
neither adopted, nor proposed any meas
ure which is not inconsistent with even
your view, provided you are for the
Union. l suggested pensated eman-
cipation; to which you replied YOU wish
ed not to be taSed to buy negroes. But
/ had not asked you to be taxed to buv
negroes, except in such way as 10 save
you from greater taxation to save the
Union exclusively by other means.
You dislike the emancipation procla-
nation, and perhaps would have it re-
tracted. You say 1t is unconstitutional. |
l think the Constitution invests its Com |
mander-inChief with the law of war. in
time of war. The most that can be |
said, if SO much, is that slaves are prom |
erty. Is there-has there ever been
any question that by the law of war.
property, both of enemies and friends
may be taken when needed? And is II
not needed whenever taking it helps MS
or hurts the enemy? Armies. the world
over, destroy enemy's properly when
they cannot use it; and even DESTROY
their own to keep it from the enemy
Civilized belligerents do all in their
power to help themselves, or hurt the
enemy; except a few things regarded as
barbarous or cruel Among the excep-
tons is the massacre of vanquished foes
and non-eombatants, male and female.
But the proclamation, as law, either
is valid, or is not valid IF it is not
valid, it needs no retraction. If it is
valid, it cannot be retracted, any more
than the dead can be brought to life
Some of you prefer to think its retrac.
ton would operate favorably for the
Union. Why better after the retraction
than before the issue? There was more
than year and half of trial to sup
press the rebellion before the proclama.
ton issued, the last one hundred DAYS of
which passed under an explicit notice
hat it was coming, unless averted by
hose in revolt returning to their allegi-
lnce. The war has certainly progressed
Is favorably for us since the issue of the
as before.
/ know, as fully as any one can know. {
he opinion of others, that some of the 6
OF our armies in the field. In
Who have given US our most important /
believe that the emancipation a