Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1864-05-12
A. Lincoln Defines His Position.
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, April 4.

A. 6. Hoyes, Esq, Frankfort, Ky.
My DEAR SIR You ask Inc to put in
writing the substance Of what l verbally
said, the other day, in your presence, to
Governor Bramlette and Senator Dixon.
1t was about as follows;
g l am naturally anti.slavery. If slavery
is not wrong, nothing, is wrong l cannot
remember when | did not so think and feel.
And yet, l have never understood that the
Presidency conferred upon me an unrestrict-
ed right to act officially upon this judg-
ment and feeling. 1t was in the oath I
took, that [ would, to the best of my abili-
ty, preserve, protect, and defend the Con-
stitution Of the United States. l could
not take the Office without taking the oath.
Nor was it my view, that | might take an
oath TO get power, and to break the oath in
using the power. | understood, too, that,
in ordinary civil administration, this oath
forbade me. to practically indulge my pri-
mary, abstract Judgment, on the moral
question Of slavery. l had publicly de-
clared this many times, and in many ways.
And l aver that, to this day, have done
no official act in mere Difference to my ab-
stract judgment and feeling on slavery.
>. Il did understand, however, that my
oath to preserve the Constitution to the best
of my ability. imposed upon me the duty
of preserving, by every indispensable means,
that Government-that Nation of which
that Constitution was the organic law.
Was it possible to lose the Nation, and yet
preserve the Constitution
by general law life and limb must be-
protected; yet often limb must be amputa-
ted to save life; but life is never wisely
otherwise unconstitutional, might become
lawful, by becoming indispensable to the
preservation Of the Constitution, through
the preservation Of the Nation. Right or
wrong, | assumed this ground, and now
avow it. l could not feel that to the best
Of my ability l had even tried to preserve
the Constitution, if to save slavery or any
minor matter / should permit the wreck Of
the Government, Country and Constitution,
all together. When early in the war Gen
eral Fremont attempted military eman-
cipaton, l forbade it because did not think
it an indispensable necessity. When a
little later, General Cameron, then Sec
retary of War, suggested the arming of the
! blacks, | objected, because I did not yet
think it an indispensable necessity. When
still later, General Hunter attempted mil
itary emancipation, l again forbade it, be-
cause l did not yet think the indispensa-
| bic necessity had come.
When, in March, May, and July, 1862,
| made an earnest and successive appeals to
the Border States, to favor compensated
emancipation, believed the indispensable
necessity for military emancipation, and
arming the blacks would come, unless
averted by that measure. They declined
| the proposition, and | was in my best judg
ment driven to the alternative of either sur
rendering the Union, and with it the Con-
stitution, or of laying strong hand upon
,ba oo1ors6 claimant I cbosa he lottar Tn
choosing it, l hoped for greater gain than
loss; but Of this Twas not entirely confident
More than year Of trial now shows no
loss by it, in our foreign; none in our home
popular sentiment; none in our white mil
itary torce-no loss by it anyhow, anywhere.
On the contrary, it shows gain of quite a
hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, sea-
man and laborers. These are palpable facts,
about which, as facts, there can be no cav
ling, We have the men, and we could
not have had them without the measure.
And now, let any Union man who COM
plains of the measure, test himself, by wri-
ing the rebellion by force of arms, and in
the next that he is for taking these hundred
and thirty thousand men from the Union
side, and placing them where they would
be, but for the measure he condemns. If
he cannot face his cause so stated, it is only
because he cannot face the truth.
Il add word, which was not in the YER
bal conversation. In telling this tale, 1 at
tempt no compliment to my own sagacity.
| claim not to have controlled events, but
confess plainly that events have controlled
me. Now, at the end of three years strug-
gle, the nation condition, is not what eth
er party or any mp devised or expected
God alone can claim it. Whittier it is tend
ing seems plain. If God now wills the re-
moval of great wrong, and wills also that
we of the North, as well as you of the South,
shall pay fairly for our completely in that
wrong, impartial history will find therein
new cause to attest and reverse the justice
and goodness of God.
Yours truly.
A. LINCOLN.