Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-05-05
Letter. from Presi-
dent Lincoln.

dent LtnCOln.
The following admirable letter appeared
in recent number Of the Frankfort Ky
Commonwealth: III 10 900
~ . Executive MANSION,
....... ""WAsHIs6Tos, April 4.
"a. G Hodges. Esq, Frankfort, Ky.::
"MY DEAR SIR-You ak me to put in
writing the substance Of what | verbally
said, the other day in your presence, Cover
nor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. 1t was
about as follows:
II am naturally snti-slavery. IF slavery
is not wrong. nothing is wrong. can not
remember when | did not ~ think and feel.
And yet, / have never understood that the
Presidency conferred upon me an unrestrict-
ed right TO act officially upon this judgment
and feeling. 1t was in the oath took, that
would to the best Of my ability, preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution 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 pow
er, aud break the oath. using the power. |
understood, too. that, in ordinary civil ad.
ministration, this oath even forbade me, to
practically indulge my primary, abstract
Judgment oD the moral question of slavery.
| had publicly declared this many times,
and in many ways. And | aver that, to
this day, have done no official oct in mere
Difference to my abstract judgment and feel
ing on slavery.
II did not understand, however, that rny
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 pre-
serve the Constitution. -L - gan
by general law. life and limb must be
protected; yet often limb must be ampu-
tated to save a life; but a life is never wisely
given to save limb feel that measures,
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. / could not feel that to the best
of my ability bad even tried to preserve
the Constitution. if to save slavery or any
minor matter, should permit the wreck of
| Government, Country, and Constitution, NJ
together. When early in the war General
Fremont attempted military emancipation,
forbade it because did not then think it
an indispensable necessity. When little
later, General Cameron, then Secretary of
War, suggested the arming Of the blacks,
I objected, because did not yet think it an
indispensable necessity. When, still later,
General Hunter attempted military emanci-
patton. again forbade it, because | did not
vet think the indispensable necessity had
come. rH.
when, in March, and May, and July,
1862, made earnest and successive ap-
peals to the Border States, to favor compen-
stated emancipation, believed the indspen-
sable necessity tor military. emancipation,
and arming the blacks would come, unless
averted by that measure. They declined
the proposition, and was, in my best judg-
men,, driven to the alternative. of either
surrendering the Union, and with it, the
Constitution. or of laying strong hand upon
the colored element. chose the latter
In choosing it, hoped for greater gain
than loss; but of this was not entirely con.
fid0nt. More than year Of tri now shows
no loss by it, in our foreign relations none
in our home popular sentiment: none in our
white military force-no loss by it., anyhow
or anywhere. Ga the contrary, it shows a
gain of quite hundred and thirty thousand
soldiers, seamen and labnrers. These are
pspablc facts, about which, as facts, there
can be no cavlng. We nave the men, ana
we could not have had them without the
measure. f
And now, let any Union man. who COM
plains Of the measure, test himself, by wri-
ting down in one line that he is for tubdu-
ing the rebellion by force ofarms, 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. 1fhe 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, at
tempt no compliment to my own sagaclty.
| claim not to have controlled events, but
confess plainly that events have controlled
me. Now, at the end of three years strug'
gle, the nations condition, is not what eth
er party or any man devised or expected =
God alone can claimit. Whittier it is tend
ing seems plain. If God now wills the re-
moval of a great wrong, and wills also that
we ofthe North, as we'll as you Of the South
shall pay fairly for our completely in that
wrong, impartial history will find therein
new cause to attest, and revere the justice
and goodness of God. ....--,,l
yours truly. A LINCOLN.