Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-10-25
President LincoIn's Cabinet.

Letter from Judge Bates-The Vieacs of the Cab
met on the Adnaission Of Vest Virginia.
| From the st. Louis Republican, Oct. 9.
The following letter was written by eX
Attorney General Bates some two months
ago, but for some reason has never before
been published.-ED. REP.
ST. LOUIS, Aug. s, 1866.
70 Col. JAS. O. BRoADHEAD, st. Louis
| Dear Sir You were rightly informed
that President Lincoln did require of the
heads Of the different Departments their
opinions In writing as to both the constitu-
tionality and expediency of the bill 'for
the admission of the State of West Virgin
la into the Union" And such opinions
were given by all of them, except only Mr..
Caleb B. Smith, (who had then vacated, or
was about to vacate, his Office of Secretary
of the Interior
The transaction took place in the few last
days of the year 1862. My own official
opinions bear date on the 9th of Decem-
ber 1862, and the President approved and
signed the bill on the last day of that year.
L have occasion to remember those trans
actions very distinctly, for I took a very
lively interest in the question and, in
deed, it was upon my own suggestion that
President Lincoln demanded our written
opinion. l urged upon him the advantage
Of written over oral communications on q
subject so important, and chiefly upon
these two: l. They constitute valuable
muniments of the passing history of the
Government and 2. They operate as a
reasonable and wholesome check upon us,
the advisers of the President.
The questions put by the President were
in the most brief and compendious form,
thus: 81. Is the said act constitutional :?
2. Is the said act expedient ?" To these
two questions we all gave to the President
our written answers and [ can only ex-
press my surprise that they should have
been SO long withheld from publication,
seeing that they touch upon principle of
the greatest magnitude, and bear directly
upon question which has produced great
excitement in Congress and in the nation.
I have the only copy of those documents
that know of in private hands; but no
positories at Washington. And in regard
to your suggestion as to what those opin-
ions may contain concerning the legal and
political status of States in rebellion, las /
have no time now either to analyze the
opinions or to copy them), I can only say
that not one of them contains a single par
agraph tending to the conclusion that
State Ordinance of Secession, or the fact of
open rebellion within State, did or could
take State out of the Union. The very
contrary was assumed as undisputed doc
trine, and argued upon as a postulate. In
fact [ did not know q republican of that
day, in Congress or in the Executive de-
partment, who pretended to believe that a
State could withdraw itself from the Union
by secession or rebellion, or both together
We all considered an ordinance of secession
a mere nullity in law and politics, and re-
bellion personal crime, punishable by law |
1t never was the doctrine of the Republi- |
can party in Mr.. Lincoln's lifetime, and, |
believe, is not now, that State can get out |
of the Union by secession and rebellion
That is late invention of few enterpri-
sing, extreme Radicals, who have labored
in vain to fasten it upon the Republicans as
one of their tenets. President Lincoln and |
both Houses of Congress, by their repeat
ed solemn acts are pledged to the contrary |
They passed the West Virginia Bill, which,
to the plain provisions of the
could not have been passed,
unless Virginia were a State in the Union,
with Legislature capable of consenting to
the dismemberment. The President, with
the advice and consent of the Senate. did
all he could to extend the judiciary system
of the United States into States which had
passed ordinances of secession, and whose
peopl stood in open rebellion, by appoint
Alabama, Florida and Louisiana. And both
Houses of Congress admitted mbers from
Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana
remain, dear sir, with cordial regards,
your friend, EDWARD BATES.