The weekly union record., 1864-05-28
OROyELLE. SATURDAY MORNING, 2S, 1864.
The Presidents Virdication.

The President 5 FlCdleatou.
The Frankfort Ky Commonwealth pub
fishes the following letter. embodying the >ub-
stance OF what be President said to Governor
Bramette and a Kentucky Committee during
an interview at Washington:
ExECUTIvE MANSION, WASulNGToN. Ap4
A q. Hodges, Franktoyt. Ken;ncty-My
Dear Sir: You ask ne to put in writing the
substance Of what verbally said the other day,
in your presence. to Governor Bram'ette ana
Senator Dixon. Ii was about as follows:
| am naturally anti slavery. Ii slavery is
not wrong, noihng IS wrong. l cannot remem-
Der when did moi 50 thisk aud feel Aud vet
have never understood that the Presidency
E conferred upon me an unrestricted right 10 act
officially upon this Judgment aud feeling. Il
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 i, my view that ] might lake an oath 10
get power, and break the cath in using the
power ! understood. too, that, in ordinary
civil administration. this oath even forbade me
/ to practically indulge NY primary abstract
Judgment on the moral question Of slavery. /
had publicly declared this many times and in
many ways. And aver that, TO this day. l
have done no official act in mere Difference 10
my abstract Judgment and feeling.
/ 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 Coz sti;uiion! By general
/ law, life and limb must be protected, yet often
limb is ampu ated 10 save life, bnt life is
never wisely given TO save a limb. l feel That
measures otherwise unconstitutional might be
come lawful by becoming Indispensable TO the
preservation of the Constitution through the
/ preservation of the patton. 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 shouli per-
/ nit the wreck of Government, country and
Constitution, all together. When, early in the
war, General Fremont attempted military
emancipation, | forbade it, because did not
/ then think it an indispensa BILE necessity. w hen,
little later, General Cameron, then Secretary
( of War, suggested the arming Of blacks, | ob
jected, because did not yet think it an indis-
peDsable necessity. When, still later, General
/ Hunter attempted military emancipation. |
( again forbade it, because did not yet think
( the indispensable necessity had come.
! When. in March and May and July. 1862, l
made earnest and successive appeals TO the
/ border States to favor compensated emancipa-
! ton, believed the indispensable necessity for
military emancipation and armng the blacks
would come. unless ayerted by that measure.
/ They declined the measure, 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 element. l chose the latter. ln choosing
it, hoped for greater gain than loss; but of
/ this | was not entirely confident. More than q
! year of trial now shows 10 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. On the
| contrary, it shows gain of quite hundred
and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen and labor!
ers. These are palpable facts, about which, as
/ facts, there can be no caviliDr. We have the
men, and we could not have had them without
the measure.
And now, let every Union who complains Of
the measure test himself, by writing down in
one line that be is for subduing 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 bat for the measure he condemns.
II he cannot face his cause so stated, it is only
/ because he cannot face the truth.
| add a word which was not in the verbal
conversation. In telling this tale. attempt
no compliment 10 my own sagacity. | claim
not to have controlled events, but confess
/ plainly that events have controlled me. Now,
/ at the end of three wears struggle the nation 5
condition is not what either party devised or
expected. God alone can claim it. Whittier
it is teuding seems plan. If 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 uew cause to
attest and revere the justice and goodness of
! God. Yours truly, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.