Year: 1863

cipation Proclamation.


The following is President Lincon's


letter read at the late Union Mass Meet


ing in Springfield, Illinois -


EXECUTIVE MANSION,


Washington, August 26.


Hon. James G. Conkling-My Deal


Sir: Your letter inviting me to attend &
mass meeting of Union men to be helC
at the capital of Illinois on the Sd day o


September, has been received. 1t woulC


be very agreeable thus to meet my friends
at my own home, but caDrot just now
be absent from this city so long as a visi


there would require. The meeting is &c
be of all those who maintain uncondition-
al devotion to the Union, and l am sure
that my old political friends will thank
me for rendering, as do, the nations
gratitude to those other noble men whom
no partisan malice or partisan hope can
make false to the nations life.


There are those who are dissatisfied
with me, and to such | would say You
desire peace, and you blame me that you
do not have il. Bot how can we attain
lit? There are but three conceivable
ways: First, to suppress the rebellion by
force of arms. This | am trying to do.
Are you for ii? If you are, SO far we
are agreed. If you are not for il, a sec.
ond way is TO give up the Union. ] am
against this. If you are you should say
so plainly. If you are not for force, nor
yet for dissolution, there only remains
some imaginable compromise. | do not
believe that any compromise embracing
the maintenance Of the Union is now
possible. All that can learn leads to
a directly opposite belief. The strength
Of the rebellion is It's military, its army.
That army dominates all the country and
all the people within its range. Any Of
fer Of terms, made by any man or men
within this range in opposition to that ar.
my. is simply nothing for the present.
Because such man or men have no pow
er whatever to enforce their side Of
compromise if one were made with them
To illustrate: Suppose that refugees from
the south and the peace men Of the north
get together in convention, and frame and
proclaim a compromise embracing a res
toration Of the Union. In what way can
that compromise be used to keep Gen.
Lees army ont of Pennsylvania? Gen.
Meade's army can keep Lees army out
of Pennsylvania, and | think, can ulti-
ma,ely drive it out of existence. But
no paper compromise, to which The con-
trollers Of General Lees army are not
agreed, can at all affect that army. In
an effort at such compromise we would
waste time which the enemy would i'm
prove to our disadvantage, and that would
be all.


A compromise to be effective must be
made either with those who control the
rebel army, or with people first liberated
from the domination of that army by the
success of our army. Now, allow me to
assure you that no word or intimation
from the rebel army, or from any of the
men controlling it, in relation to any
peace compromise, has ever come to my
knowledge or belief All charges and in
timations to the contrary are deceptive
and groundless, and promise you that
if any such proposition shall hereafter
come, it shall not be rejected and kept
secret from you. / freely acknowledge
myself to be the servant of the people,
according to the bond of service in the
United States constitution, and that as
such am responsible to them.


But to be plain, you are dissatisfied
with me about the negro. Quite likely
there is a difference of opinion between
you and myself upon that subject. l
certainly wish that all men could be free,
while you suppose do not, Yet l have
neither adopted nor proposed any mea-
sure which is not consistent with even
your views, provided that you are for the
Union. l suggested compensated eman-
cipation, to which you replied that you
wished not to be taxed to buy negroes
But | had not asked you to be taxed to
buy them, except in such way as TO save
you from greater taxation to save the
Union exclusively by ether means. You
dislike the emancipation proclamation and
perhaps would have it retraeted. You
say it is unconstitutional. | think diff !
ferently. l think that the constitution
invests its commander-in-chief with the
law of war in time of war. The most
hat can be said, if so much, is that slaves
ire property. Is there, has there ever
been a question that by the law of war,