Nebraska advertiser., 1863-09-12
The Presidents Letter TO the
Springfield Convention.
Executive MANSION,
WAsHINGroN, August 26, 1885,

non. james Z. LOlhtth
DEARr Sin. Your letter, inviting
me to attend a mass meeting Of uncondi-
tional Union men, 10 be held at the capi-
tai of Illinois on the Sd of September,
has been received.
Itwoud keTrery agreeable TO me to
thus meet my old friends at my own
home, but / cannot just now be absent
from here so long as a visit there would
require. ~
The meeting is to be of all those who
maintain unconditional devotion to the
Union, and | am sure my old political
friends will thank me for rendering, >as |
do, the nations gratitude to those other
noble men whom no partizdn malice or
partizan strife can make false to the ma
TONS life.
There are those who are dissatisfied
with me. To such l would say: You
desire peace; and you blame me that we
do not have it. But how can we attain
it? First, to suppress the rebellion by
force of arms. This ! am trying to do.
Are you for il? If you are, SO far we
are agreed. If you are not for it, a Sec
ond way is to give up the Union. / am
against this. Are you for it If you
are you should say SO plainly. If you
are not for peace, nor yet for dissolution,
there only remains some Imaginable
compromise. / do not believe any COM
promise embracing the maintenance of
the Union is now possible. All | learn
leads to a directly opposite belief. The
strength Of the rebellion is its military
its army. That army dominates all the
country, and all the people within its
range. Any offer of terms made by any
man. or men within that range in 0pposi-
ton to that army, is simply nothing for
the present; because such man, or men,
have no power whatever to enforce their
side of a compromise if one were made
with them. To illustrate: Suppose ref
ugees from the South and peace men of
the North get together in convention, and
frame and proclaim a compromise, en-
bracing a restoration of the Union, in
what way can that compromise be used
to keep Lees army out of Pennsylvania ?
Meade's army can keep Lees army out
of ~Pennsylvania, and | think can ulti.
mately drive it out Of existence. But no
compromise, to which the controllers of
Lees army are not agreed, can at all
effect tina. army. In an effort al such
compromise we should waste time, which
the enemy would improve to our disad-
vantage, and that would be all.
A compromise, to be effective, must be.
made either with those who control the
rebel army, or with the people first lib
Grated from the domination Of that army,
by the success of our own army. Now,
allow me to assure you hat no word or
intimation from that rebel army, or from
any of the men controlling it, in relation
to any peace compromise, has ever come
to my knowledge or belief. All charges
and ~insinuations to the contrary are de-
ceptive and groundless. And l promise
you that if any such proposition shall
hereafter come, it shall not be rejected
and kept secret from you. l freely
acknowledge myself the servant of the
people, according to bond 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 a difference of opinion between
you and myself upon that subject. 1 cer-
tainly wish that all men could be free,
while l suppose you do not. Yet / have
neither adopted, nor proposed any meas
ure which is not consistent with ever your
view, provided you are for thr Union. l
suggested compensated emancipation to
which you replied you wished not to be
taxed to buy negres. But l had not
asked you to be taxed to buy negroes,
except in such way, as to save you from
greater taxation to save the Union exclu-
sively by other means.
You dislike the emancipation procla-
nation, and perhaps would have it re-
tracted. You say it is unconstitutional.
l think differently. / think the Consti-
tuition invests It's Commander-in Chief
with the law of war, in time of war
The most that can be said, if so much, is
that slaves are property. Is there-has
there ever been-any question that by
the law of war, properly, both of enc
mics and friends may be taken when
needed? And is it not needed whenever
taken it helps US or hurts the enemy 3
Armies, the world over, destroy enemy's
property when they cannot use it; and
even destroy their own to keep it from
the enemy. Civilized beligerants do all
in their power to help themselves, or hurt
the enemy (; except a few things regarded
as barbarious or cruel. Among the ex-
ceptions is the massacre of vaneuished
foes and non -combalants, 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 retraced, any
more than the dead can be brought
to life. Some of you prefer to think
its retraction weuId operate favor
ably for the Union. Why better after
the relraction than before The issue g.
There was more than a year and a half
of trial TO suppress the rebellion before
the proclamation was issued, the last one
hundred days of which passed under an
explicit notice that it was coming, unless
averted by those in revolt returning to
their allegiance. The war has certainly
progressed as favorably for US since the
issue of the proclamation as before.
l know, as fully as any one can know
tho nn;ni,n Of afharS that Soma IF The