American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-05-04
letter from Abraham Lincoln.

Clear and Able Exposition of Policy
The correspond ace between President
Lincoln, Governor Bramlette and others,
growing out of the late enrolment contro-
versy in Kentucky, has been published
The following letter, by the President, is
one of the ablest productions of his pen
"ExEcUTIvE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, April 1.
"a. g. Hodges, Esq, Erankfort, Ky:
"MY DEAR SIR-You ask me to put
in writing the substance of what | ver-
bally said, the other day, in your presence,
to Gov. Bramlette and Senator Dixon.
1t was about as follows.
81 am naturally anti-slavery. Ifslavery
is not wrong, nothing is wrong. / can not
remember when | did not so think and
feel And yet, ! have never understood
that the Presidency conferred upon me an
unrestricted 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 |
mighttake an oath to get power, and break
the oath in using the power, | UNDER TODD,
too, that, in ordinary civil administration,
this oath even forbade me, to practically
indulge my primary abstract judgment on
the mor,llquestion of slavery / had pub
licly declared this many times, and in
many ways. And | aver that, to this day,
| have done no official act in mere defer
ence to my abstract judgment and feeling
on slavery. 'a"
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 indispensa-
bic 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 am
putated to save life; but life is never
wisely given to save limb. ! feel that
measures, otherwise wise and constitution
al, 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 |
had even tried to preserve the Constitu-
tion, if to save slavery or any minor matter,
| should permit the wreck ofGovernment,
Country. and Constitution. all together
When early in the war General Fremont
attempted military emancipation, forbade
it because did not think it an indispen-
sable necessity. Whena little later Gen
eral Cameron, then Secretary of War, sug-
gested the arming of the blacks, | obiec-
ted, because did not yet think it an irr-
dispensable necessity. When, still later,
General Hunterattempted military eman-
cipation, | again forbade it, because did
not yet think the indispensable necessity
had come @
"Whcn, in March, and May, and July,
1862, | made earnest and successive APP
peals to the Border States, to favor com
pensated emancipation, l believe the in
despensable necessity for military emanci-
patton, and arming the blacks would come,
unless averted by that measure. They
declined the proposition, and / was in my
best judgment, driven to the alternative
of either surrendering the Union, and
with it, the Constitution, or of laying
strong hand upon the colored clement
| chose the latter In choosing it, hop.
ed for greater gain than loss but of this
| was not entirely confident. More than
year of trial now shows no loss by it in
our foreign relations, none in our home
popular sentiment; none in our white mil
itary force-no less by it, anyhow or any.
where. On the contrary, it shows gain
of quite hundred and thirty thousand
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
complains 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 sfor 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.
~ add word, which was not the YER
bal conversation. In telling this tale, ]
attempt no compliment to my own sagaci-
ty | claim not to have controlled events
but must confess plainly, that events
have controlled me. Now, at the end Of
three years struggle, the nations condi-
tion is not what any party or any man de-
yised or expected God alone can claim
it. Whither it is tending seems plain
IF God now wills the removal of great
wrong, and wills that we of the North, as
well as you of the South, shall pay fairly
for our completely in that wrong, impair
tial history will find therein new cause to
attest and revere the justice and goodness
of God, Yours, truly,
A. LINCOLN.