, 1865-04-19
mr.. LIKcolN's LAST SPEECH.
His Views on Peace, Reconstruction
and Emancipation. -:
On tho Occasion Of the Rejoicing in
Washington over our areat
Victories.

WASHINGTON, April Il.
| The Executive departments, including ths
Presidents mansion, were illuminated to-
| night, and adorned with transparencies and
| national hags. Thousands Of reraous f,oeked
t to 1he Executive mansion. The President,
In response to an unanimous call, appeared
1T an upper window and spoke as follows:
| -Ftuotceiti-cns:-We meet this evening not
| in sorrEE but In gladness or heart. The
evacuation Of Petersburg and Richmond, and
the surrender OF the principal insurgent
amy, gives hopes of a righteous and speedy
peace. whose joyous expression csnnot be re-
strained. In the midst Of this, however, He
from whom all blessings flow must not be
forgotten:
prepared and will bo duly promulgated.
Nor must those whose harder part gives us
the cause Of rejoicing be overlooked. Their
donors must not be parcelled cut with
others. myself was near the front,
and had The pleasure of transmitting
part Of the honor for plan Or execution is
mine. To General Grant, his skil1fal officers
and brave men, an belongs. The gallant nary
stood ready, but was ndt in reach to take
active part. By these recent successes, the
1einauguration Of the national authority
reconstruction-Whlch las had large share
Of thought from the first, is pressed much
more closely upon our attention. It is fraught
with great difficulty. Unlike case of war
between independent nations, Tiers Is no a,s-
Aorized organ for tts to frxat sofh-no one man
has authority to give up the rebellion for any
other man. We simply must begin with, and
ment6. Nor Is it small additional embar-
rassment that We, the loyal people, differ
among ourselves as to tue mode, manner and
measure Of reconstruction. Is 8 general
rule, abstain from reading the reports Of
attacks upon myself wishing not to be pro-
offer IN answer. In spite of this precaution,
that / am much ccnsured for some some
supposed agency in setting up aud seeking to
sustain tue new State government Of Louis-
lana. In this have done SO much and no
message Of December, 1868, and the accom-
panying proclamation, I presented plan of
Reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I
promised, it adopted by my State, would be
acceptable 10 and sustained by the executive
that this was not the only plan which might
possibly be acceptable, aud also distinctly
protested that the executive claImed no right
to say When Or whether members should be
admitted to stats in Congress from such
States. This plan was In advance submitted
to the then Cabinet, md approved By every
L
should: Then and in that connection apply the
emancipation proclamation to the heretofore
excepted parts Of Virginia and Louisiana:
that should drop the suggestion about ap-
pEenticeahip for freed people, and that I
should omit the protest against my own
Of Congless. But even be approved
every part and parcel Of the plan
which has since been employ ed OF touched by
the action OF Louisiana. The new Constltn-
tion Of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for
the Whole State, practically applies the pro-
Ii does no: adopt apprenticeship for freed
people. and Il silent, as 1t could not we'll be
otltIWlse, about the admission of members
to Congress. 50 that as it applied to Louisi~
ana every member Of the Cabinet fully ap-
proved the plan. The message went 10 C,n-
the plan, written and verbal and not sinrle
objection TO 1t from any professed emanclpa-
tlOnist came to my knowledge until after the
news rclched Washing on that the people Of
Louisiana had begun to moyc in accordance
with It. From about July, 1862. I had cor
he INTERESTED in seeking reconstruction OF a
State government for Louisiana, When the
message Of 1865, with the plan before men
tiontd d, reached New Orleans General Banks
wrote me that he was confident that the
people, with his military co-operation,
Us
wrote TO him and some OF them to t1y it.
They tried It, and the result is known. Such
has been my only agency In getting up the
Louisiana government. Aa to sustaining It,
My promise Is out, rs before stated. But as
bad promises are better broken tLan Kept,
shall tztat this as lad promise, and brcak it
whenever I shall 1e convinced that keeping
1t is adverse TO the public Interest, Int hare
not get been so convinced. have been
shown letter On this subject, supposed to
be an able one, in which the writer expresses
regret that my mind has not seemed to be
the seeded States, 50 called, axe In the Union
OF out Of it. It would perhaps add astontstl-
ment to his regret were he to learn that since
have found prolessed Union men endeayor-
ing to answer that question Lave puEpoae1Y
torborne any public expression upon 1t. as
yet is practically material one. ard tAat anY
discussion Of 1t while it linus remains p1acti-
cal]y immatcrial, could have no elect other
than thctI .misctl-v~us one OF dividing
our friends AZ yet, whatcyer it may
become, that question is bad as the basis
At ala merely Isernicious abstraction. NC
all agree that the seceded States, so called,
gre out Of their proper practical relation With
the EnIcn, ana that the sole object Of the
Government, civil and military, IN regard to
those 6tatef, is to again ret item into t at
not OILY p! sstble, but In fact easier, to do
this without deciding or even considering
whether those States nave ever been out Of
the Union than with It.. Finding themselves
salty at home, It would be utterly immate~
rial whether they had been abroad. Let Us
all jim in doing the acts necessary 10 restore
the proper practical relations between these
States and the Union, nnd each forever after
lnnocently indulge his own opinion whether,
in doing the acts, he brought thu States from
Without into the Cnit n, or only gave them
proper assistance, they lever having been ont
speak, On Which the Louisiana government
rests, would be more satisfactory 10 all ii It
contained 5Q,000 or 5000, or cren 10000,
Instead Of 1900, as 1t docs. It Is also
unsatisfactory to some that the elections
franchise ia not given to the colorcd man. 1
red en- the very Intelligent, md ca those Hho
serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the ques-
1ion Is not whether the Louisiana govern
Ment, as It stands, Ii quite all that is desi1a~
bic. The question is, will 1t be Wiser to take
it as It is and help to improve 1t, or TO reject
to proper practical relation with the Union
sooner By suHta:n.Dg or BY disca-ding her
new State governments Some twelve thous-
and Iotes IN the heretofore slave State OF
Louisiana have s~ orn allegiance 10 the Union,
assumed to be The rightfil political power Of
government, adopted Tree Stat. constitu-
tion, giving tie benefit Of public schools
equally 10 black and white, and empowering
The Legislature to confer the eectrial fran.
clasc UPON the colored man. This Legislature
has already voted to ratify the Constitutional
epse boSgp tfSsgp spe1s passsa By Com
the nation. These twelve thousand per-
surs are thus fully committed to the Union
ard to perpetuatc freedom In the State
committed to the very things, and nearly all
things the nation wants-and they ask the
make good this counaittal Now, if we reject
aut 6}lrn them, we do our utmoat to dis
organize and d:sperse them We, in fact,
say to the while man: You are worthless Or
verse; NC will neither help you nor be help
ed t;y you 70 the blacks we say: This cup
to your tips, we will dash from you and leave
you 10 the chances Of gathering the spilled
and scattered contents in some vague and
undef'ntd when, where and hon. II this I
course, discou1aging and Paratyzing both
Th,te and black, has any tendency 70 bring
the uniou, have SO fur been unable to per
ceIve it. II, on the contrary, We rccog-
nize and sustain the new government |
Ct Louisiana, the converse Of MI this |
Is made true. We encourage the hearts md |
nerve the aims Of twelve thousand to adhere
W LAcA1 ho]h Hill u!Eue lQT IL, And
ptoselyte for it, ald fight Tor It, and feed it,
and gIow 1t, and riptn 1t to complete euc-
cess. The co1orcd man, too, in seeing all |
united for him, is inspired with vigilance and |
energy and da'1ng 10 the same end. Grant |
thai be desires The elective franchise, viii he
not attain it sooner by seeing the already |
advanced steps towards 1t than By running
backward over them? Concede that the new
government Of Louisiana is only to what it
should beas the egg is to tie fowl, we shall
hor %hA Erru t.-A
than By smashlps It. Laughter.] Again. if
We rriEct Lo?1s:ann VIC nlsQ rei.ct one Fnte