Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-05-04
EXECUTIVE MANSION, ,
" AsHINGToN, April 4, Io64.I
7tteS. Esq. Frankfurt 6U

Il. t. HoudeS, Esq, fTU3ufTOf1, hU.
Ny DEAR SIR:-You ask me to put III writ
ing the substance of what l verbally said the
other day in your presence, to Governor
Bramlette and Senator Dixon. 1t was about
as follows:
l am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is
not wrong, nothing is wreng. | cannot re-
member when l did not so think and feel
And vet, have never understood that the
Presidency conferred upon me an unrestrct-
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 | could not take the Office
without taking the oath. Nor was it my view
that | might take an oath to get power, and
break the oath in using the power. | under
stand, too, that in ordinary civil administra-
ton this oath even forbade me to practically
indulge in primary, abstract judgment on the
moral question of slavery. | had publicly
declared this many times, and in many ways.
And l aver that, to this day, have done no
official act in mere Difference to my abstract
judgment and feeling on slavery.
did understand, however, that my oath to
preserve the Constitution to the best of my
ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserv-
ing, by every Indispensable means, that Gov
ernment-that nation, of which that Consti
tuition was the organic law. Was it possible
to lose the nation, and yet preserve the Con
stitution
BY general law, life and limb must be pro-
tected yet often limb must be amputated
to save life but life i never wisely given
to save a limb. | felt mat measure, other
wise unconstitutional might become lawful,
| by becoming Indispensable TO the prescrva-
| ton of the Constitution, through the preser-
walton of the nation. Right or wrong, | as
| sumed this ground, and now | avow it. |
not fool thar hast ,F,, f1+x-
| had even tried to preserve the Constitution,
| if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, |
should permit the wreck of Government
! country and Constitution, altogether.
When, early in the war; Gen. Fremont at
| tempted military emancipation, forbade it,
because | did not then think it an ndispen-
sable necessity. When, little later, Gen
Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested
the arming of the blacks, objected because
| did not yet think 1t an Indispensable neces-
| sity. When, still later, Gen Hunter attempt
ed military emancipation, | again forbade it :;
| because | did not yet think the Indispensable
necessity had come.
| When, in March, and May, and July, 1862
| made earnest and successive appeals to the
| border States to favor compensated enamel
patton, believed the Indispensable necessity
for military emancipation, and arming the
! blacks would come, unless avarted by that
.
aud l was, in my best judgement driven to
the alternative, of either surrendering the
| Union, ard with it, the Constitution, or of
| laying strong hands upon the colored element.
[ chose the latter In choosing it, | hoped
/ for greater gain than loss but of this | was
not entirely confident. More than a year
Of trial now shows no loss by it, in our for
| eign relations none in our home popular SEN
| timent, none in our white military force-no
| loss by it, any how, or any where. On the
contrary, 1t shows gain of quite $50, 900
| soldiers, seamen and laborers These are
| palpable 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 COM
plains 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 1870 900 men from
the Union side, and placing them where they
| would be but for the measure he condemns
II he can not face his cause so stated, it is
only because he can not face the truth
add word, which was not in the verbal
| conversation. In telling this tale | attempt
| no compliment to nay own sagacity / claim
not to have controlled events, but confess
| plainly that events have controlled me. Now,
! at the end of three years struggle, the ma
| toms condition is not what either party or
any man devised or expected. God alone can
| claim it. Whittier it is tending seems plain.
| Ii God now wills the removal 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 causes to attest
and revere the justice and goodness of God.
Yours truly \. LINCOLN.