The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, v7

DEAR SIR:–Your letter of the 7th, with inclosures, received.

If you can find any per­son, any­where, pro­fess­ing to have any propo­si­tion of Jef­fer­son Davis in writ­ing, for peace, em­brac­ing the restora­tion of the Union and aban­don­ment of slav­ery, what­ev­er else it em­braces, say to him he may come to me with you; and that if he re­al­ly brings such propo­si­tion, he shall at the least have safe con­duct with the pa­per (and with­out pub­lic­ity, if he choos­es) to the point where you shall have to meet him. The same if there be two or more per­sons.

Yours tru­ly,

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO J. W. GAR­RETT. WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Ju­ly 9, 1864

J. W. GAR­RETT, Cam­den Sta­tion:

What have you heard about a bat­tle at Mono­ca­cy to-​day? We have noth­ing about it here ex­cept what you say.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM FROM GEN­ER­AL HAL­LECK TO GEN­ER­AL WAL­LACE. WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 9, 1864. 11.57 P.M.

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL L. WAL­LACE, Com­mand­ing Mid­dle De­part­ment:

I am di­rect­ed by the Pres­ident to say that you will ral­ly your forces and make ev­ery pos­si­ble ef­fort to re­tard the en­emy’s march on Bal­ti­more.

H. W. HAL­LECK, Ma­jor-​Gen­er­al and Chief of Staff.

TELE­GRAM TO T. SWAN AND OTH­ERS. WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Ju­ly 10, 1864. 9.20 A.M.

THOMAS SWAN AND OTH­ERS, Bal­ti­more, Mary­land:

Yours of last night re­ceived. I have not a sin­gle sol­dier but whom is be­ing dis­posed by the mil­itary for the best pro­tec­tion of all. By lat­est ac­counts the en­emy is mov­ing on Wash­ing­ton. They can­not fly to ei­ther place. Let us be vig­ilant, but keep cool. I hope nei­ther Bal­ti­more nor Wash­ing­ton will be sacked.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U.S. GRANT. WASH­ING­TON CITY, Ju­ly TO, 1864.2 P.M.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

Your dis­patch to Gen­er­al Hal­leck, re­fer­ring to what I may think in the present emer­gen­cy, is shown me. Gen­er­al Hal­leck says we have ab­so­lute­ly no force here fit to go to the field. He thinks that with the hun­dred-​day men and in­valids we have here we can de­fend Wash­ing­ton, and, scarce­ly, Bal­ti­more. Be­sides these there are about eight thou­sand, not very re­li­able, un­der Howe, at Harp­er’s Fer­ry with Hunter ap­proach­ing that point very slow­ly, with what num­ber I sup­pose you know bet­ter than I. Wal­lace, with some odds and ends, and part of what came up with Rick­etts, was so bad­ly beat­en yes­ter­day at Mono­ca­cy, that what is left can at­tempt no more than to de­fend Bal­ti­more. What we shall get in from Penn­syl­va­nia and New York will scarce­ly be worth count­ing, I fear. Now, what I think is, that you should pro­vide to re­tain your hold where you are, cer­tain­ly, and bring the rest with you per­son­al­ly, and make a vig­or­ous ef­fort to de­stroy the en­emy’s forces in this vicin­ity. I think there is re­al­ly a fair chance to do this, if the move­ment is prompt. This is what I think up­on your sug­ges­tion, and is not an or­der.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U.S. GRANT. WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 11, 1864. 8 A.M.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

Yours of 10.30 P.M. yes­ter­day re­ceived, and very sat­is­fac­to­ry. The en­emy will learn of Wright’s ar­rival, and then the dif­fi­cul­ty will be to unite Wright and Hunter south of the en­emy be­fore he will re­cross the Po­tomac. Some fir­ing be­tween Rockville and here now.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U.S. GRANT. WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Ju­ly 12, 1864. 11.30 AM.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

Vague ru­mors have been reach­ing us for two or three days that Longstreet’s corps is al­so on its way [to] this vicin­ity. Look out for its ab­sence from your front.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM AND LET­TER TO HO­RACE GREE­LEY. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 12, 1864.

HON. HO­RACE GREE­LEY, New York:

I sup­pose you re­ceived my let­ter of the 9th. I have just re­ceived yours of the 13th, and am dis­ap­point­ed by it. I was not ex­pect­ing you to send me a let­ter, but to bring me a man, or men. Mr. Hay goes to you with my an­swer to yours of the 13th.

A. LIN­COLN.

[Car­ried by Ma­jor John Hay.]

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, JU­LY 15, 1864.

HON. HO­RACE GREE­LEY.

MY DEAR SIR:-Yours of the 13th is just re­ceived, and I am dis­ap­point­ed that you have not al­ready reached here with those com­mis­sion­ers, if they would con­sent to come on be­ing shown my let­ter to you of the 9th in­stant. Show that and this to them, and if they will come on the terms stat­ed in the for­mer, bring them. I not on­ly in­tend a sin­cere ef­fort for peace, but I in­tend that you shall be a per­son­al wit­ness that it is made.

Yours tru­ly,

A. LIN­COLN.

SAFE CON­DUCT FOR CLEMENT C. CLAY AND OTH­ERS,

JU­LY 16, 1864.

The Pres­ident of the Unit­ed States di­rects that the four per­sons whose names fol­low, to wit, HON. Clement C. Clay, HON. Ja­cob Thomp­son, Pro­fes­sor James P. Hol­combe, George N. Sanders, shall have safe con­duct to the city of Wash­ing­ton in com­pa­ny with the HON. HO­RACE GREE­LEY, and shall be ex­empt from ar­rest or an­noy­ance of any kind from any of­fi­cer of the Unit­ed States dur­ing their jour­ney to the said city of Wash­ing­ton.

By or­der of the Pres­ident: JOHN HAY, Ma­jor and As­sis­tant Ad­ju­tant-​Gen­er­al

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U. S. GRANT. [WASH­ING­TON] Ju­ly 17. 1864. 11.25 A.M.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

In your dis­patch of yes­ter­day to Gen­er­al Sher­man, I find the fol­low­ing, to wit:

“I shall make a des­per­ate ef­fort to get a po­si­tion here, which will hold the en­emy with­out the ne­ces­si­ty of so many men.”

Pressed as we are by lapse of time I am glad to hear you say this; and yet I do hope you may find a way that the ef­fort shall not be des­per­ate in the sense of great loss of life.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN, Pres­ident.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL D. HUNTER WASH­ING­TON JU­LY 17, 1864.

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL HUNTER, Harp­er’s Fer­ry, West Va.

Yours of this morn­ing re­ceived. You mis­con­ceive. The or­der you com­plain of was on­ly nom­inal­ly mine, and was framed by those who re­al­ly made it with no thought of mak­ing you a scape­goat. It seemed to be Gen­er­al Grant’s wish that the forces un­der Gen­er­al Wright and those un­der you should join and drive at the en­emy un­der Gen­er­al Wright. Wright had the larg­er part of the force, but you had the rank. It was thought that you would pre­fer Crook’s com­mand­ing your part to your serv­ing in per­son un­der Wright. That is all of it. Gen­er­al Grant wish­es you to re­main in com­mand of the de­part­ment, and I do not wish to or­der oth­er­wise.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL W. T. SHER­MAN. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 18, 1864. 11.25 A.M.

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL SHER­MAN, Chat­ta­hoochee Riv­er, Geor­gia:

I have seen your despatch­es ob­ject­ing to agents of North­ern States open­ing re­cruit­ing sta­tions near your camps. An act of Congress au­tho­rizes this, giv­ing the ap­point­ment of agents to the States, and not to the Ex­ec­utive Gov­ern­ment. It is not for the War De­part­ment, or my­self, to re­strain or mod­ify the law, in its ex­ecu­tion, fur­ther than ac­tu­al ne­ces­si­ty may re­quire. To be can­did, I was for the pas­sage of the law, not ap­pre­hend­ing at the time that it would pro­duce such in­con­ve­nience to the armies in the field as you now cause me to fear. Many of the States were very anx­ious for it, and I hoped that, with their State boun­ties, and ac­tive ex­er­tions, they would get out sub­stan­tial ad­di­tions to our col­ored forces, which, un­like white re­cruits, help us where they come from, as well as where they go to. I still hope ad­van­tage from the law; and be­ing a law, it must be treat­ed as such by all of us. We here will do what we con­sis­tent­ly can to save you from dif­fi­cul­ties aris­ing out of it. May I ask, there­fore, that you will give your hearty co-​op­er­ation.

A. LIN­COLN.

AN­NOUNCE­MENT CON­CERN­ING TERMS OF PEACE.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION,

WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 18, 1864.

TO WHOM IT MAY CON­CERN:

Any propo­si­tion which em­braces the restora­tion of peace, the in­tegri­ty of the whole Union, and the aban­don­ment of slav­ery, and which comes by and with an au­thor­ity that can con­trol the armies now at war against the Unit­ed States, will be re­ceived and con­sid­ered by the Ex­ec­utive Gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed States, and will be met by lib­er­al terms on oth­er sub­stan­tial and col­lat­er­al points; and the bear­er or bear­ers there­of shall have safe con­duct both ways.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

PROCLA­MA­TION CALL­ING FOR FIVE HUN­DRED THOU­SAND VOL­UN­TEERS,

JU­LY 18, 1864,

BY THE PRES­IDENT OF THE UNIT­ED STATES OF AMER­ICA:

A Procla­ma­tion.

Where­as by the act ap­proved Ju­ly 4, 1864, en­ti­tled “An act fur­ther to reg­ulate and pro­vide for the en­rolling and call­ing out the na­tion­al forces and for oth­er pur­pos­es,” it is pro­vid­ed that the Pres­ident of the Unit­ed States may, “at his dis­cre­tion, at any time here­after, call for any num­ber of men, as vol­un­teers for the re­spec­tive terms of one, two, and three years for mil­itary ser­vice,” and “that in case the quo­ta or any part there­of of any town, town­ship, ward of a city, precinct, or elec­tion dis­trict, or of a coun­ty not so sub­di­vid­ed, shall not be filled with­in the space of fifty days af­ter such call, then the Pres­ident shall im­me­di­ate­ly or­der a draft for one year to fill such quo­ta or any part there­of which may be un­filled;” and

Where­as the new en­rol­ment hereto­fore or­dered is so far com­plet­ed as that the afore­men­tioned act of Congress may now be put in op­er­ation for re­cruit­ing and keep­ing up the strength of the armies in the field, for gar­risons, and such mil­itary op­er­ations as may be re­quired for the pur­pose of sup­press­ing the re­bel­lion and restor­ing the au­thor­ity of the Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment in the in­sur­gent States:

Now, there­fore, I, Abra­ham Lin­coln, Pres­ident of the Unit­ed States, do is­sue this my last call for five hun­dred thou­sand vol­un­teers for the mil­itary ser­vice: Pro­vid­ed, nev­er­the­less, That this call shall be re­duced by all cred­its which may be es­tab­lished un­der sec­tion eight of the afore­said act on ac­count of per­sons who have en­tered the naval ser­vice dur­ing the present re­bel­lion and by cred­its for men fur­nished to the mil­itary ser­vice in ex­cess of calls hereto­fore made. Vol­un­teers will be ac­cept­ed un­der this call for one, two, or three years, as they may elect, and will be en­ti­tled to the boun­ty pro­vid­ed by the law for the pe­ri­od of ser­vices for which they en­list.

And I here­by pro­claim, or­der, and di­rect that im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the 5th day of Septem­ber, 1864, be­ing fifty days from the date of this call, a draft for troops to serve for one year shall be had in ev­ery town, town­ship, ward of a city, precinct, or elec­tion dis­trict, or coun­ty not so sub­di­vid­ed, to fill the quo­ta which shall be as­signed to it un­der this call or any part there­of which may be un­filled by vol­un­teers on the said 5th day of Septem­ber, 1864.

In tes­ti­mo­ny where­of I have here­un­to set my hand and caused the seal of the Unit­ed States to be af­fixed.

Done at the City of Wash­ing­ton, this 18th day of Ju­ly, A.D. 1864, and of the in­de­pen­dence of the Unit­ed States the eighty-​ninth.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

By the Pres­ident: WILLIAM H. SE­WARD, Sec­re­tary of State.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U.S. GRANT. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 20, 1864. 4.30 p.m.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

Yours of yes­ter­day, about a call for three hun­dred thou­sand, is re­ceived. I sup­pose you had not seen the call for five hun­dred thou­sand, made the day be­fore, and which, I sup­pose, cov­ers the case. Al­ways glad to have your sug­ges­tions.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO J. L. WRIGHT.

WAR DE­PART­MENT, JU­LY. 20, 1864.

J. L. WRIGHT, In­di­anapo­lis, Ind.:

All a mis­take. Mr. Stan­ton has not re­signed.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL D. HUNTER. (Ci­pher.)

WAR DE­PART­MENT, JU­LY 23, 1864.

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL HUNTER, Harp­er’s Fer­ry, West Va.

Are you able to take care of the en­emy, when he turns back up­on you, as he prob­ably will on find­ing that Wright has left?

A. LIN­COLN.

TO GOV­ER­NOR CURTIN, EN­CLOS­ING A LET­TER TO WILLIAM O. SNIDER.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 25, 1864.

GOV­ER­NOR CURTIN:

Here­with is the manuscript let­ter for the gen­tle­man who sent me a cane through your hands. For my life I can­not make out his name; and there­fore I cut it from his let­ter and past­ed it on, as you see. I sup­pose [sic] will re­mem­ber who he is, and I will thank you to for­ward him the let­ter. He dates his let­ter at Philadel­phia.

Yours tru­ly,

A. LIN­COLN.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 25, 1864.

WILLIAM O. SNIDER:

The cane you did me the hon­or to present through Gov­er­nor Curtin was du­ly placed in my hand by him. Please ac­cept my thanks; and, at the same time, par­don me for not hav­ing soon­er found time to ten­der them. Your obe­di­ent ser­vant,

A. LIN­COLN.

FROM JOHN HAY TO J. C. WELLING.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON. Ju­ly 25, 1864.

J. C. WELLING, ESQ.

SIR:–Ac­cord­ing to the re­quest con­tained in your note, I have placed Mr. Gib­son’s let­ter of res­ig­na­tion in the hands of the Pres­ident. He has read the let­ter, and says he ac­cepts the res­ig­na­tion, as he will be glad to do with any oth­er, which may be ten­dered, as this is, for the pur­pose of tak­ing an at­ti­tude of hos­til­ity against him.

He says he was not aware that he was so much in­debt­ed to Mr. Gib­son for hav­ing ac­cept­ed the of­fice at first, not re­mem­ber­ing that he ev­er pressed him to do so, or that he gave it oth­er­wise than as was usu­al, up­on re­quest made on be­half of Mr. Gib­son.

He thanks Mr. Gib­son for his ac­knowl­edg­ment that he has been treat­ed with per­son­al kind­ness and con­sid­er­ation, and says he knows of but two small draw­backs up­on Mr. Gib­son’s right to still re­ceive such treat­ment, one of which is that he nev­er could learn of his giv­ing much at­ten­tion to the du­ties of his of­fice, and the oth­er is this stud­ied at­tempt of Mr. Gib­son’s to stab him.

I am very tru­ly,

Your obe­di­ent ser­vant,

JOHN HAY.

TO COLONEL, FIRST N. Y. VET­ER­AN CAV­AL­RY.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, JU­LY 25, 1864.

Thomas Con­nor, a pri­vate in the First Vet­er­an New York Cav­al­ry, is now im­pris­oned at hard la­bor for de­ser­tion. If the Colonel of said Reg­iment will say in writ­ing on this sheets that he is will­ing to re­ceive him back to the Reg­iment, I will par­don, and send him.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL W. T. SHER­MAN. WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 26, 1864. 2.30 P.M.

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL SHER­MAN, near At­lanta:

I have just seen yours com­plain­ing of the ap­point­ment of Hov­ey and Os­ter­haus. The point you make is un­ques­tion­ably a good one, and yet please hear a word from us. My rec­ol­lec­tion is that both Gen­er­al Grant and your­self rec­om­mend­ed both H [ovey] and O [ster­haus] for pro­mo­tion, and these, with oth­er strong rec­om­men­da­tions, drew com­mit­tals from us which we could nei­ther hon­or­ably or safe­ly dis­re­gard. We blamed H [ovey] for com­ing away in the man­ner in which he did, but he knew he had ap­par­ent rea­son to feel dis­ap­point­ed and mor­ti­fied, and we felt it was not best to crush one who cer­tain­ly had been a good sol­dier. As to [Os­ter­haus], we did not know of his leav­ing at the time we made the ap­point­ment, and do not now know the terms on which he left. Not to have ap­point­ed him, as the case ap­peared to us at the time, would have been al­most, if not quite, a vi­ola­tion of our word. The word was giv­en on what we thought was high mer­it and some­what on his na­tion­al­ity. I beg you to be­lieve we do not act in a spir­it of dis­re­gard­ing mer­it. We ex­pect to await your pro­gramme for fur­ther changes and pro­mo­tions in your army. My pro­found­est thanks to you and your whole army for the present cam­paign so far.

A. LIN­COLN.

FROM SEC­RE­TARY STAN­TON TO GEN­ER­AL HAL­LECK.

WASH­ING­TON CITY, Ju­ly 27, 1864

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL HAL­LECK, Chief of Staff of the Army:

GEN­ER­AL:–Lieu­tenant-​Gen­er­al Grant hav­ing sig­ni­fied that, ow­ing to the dif­fi­cul­ties and de­lay of com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween his head­quar­ters and Wash­ing­ton, it is nec­es­sary that in the present emer­gen­cy mil­itary or­ders must be is­sued di­rect­ly from Wash­ing­ton, the Pres­ident di­rects me to in­struct you that all the mil­itary op­er­ations for the de­fense of the Mid­dle De­part­ment, the De­part­ment of the Susque­han­na, the De­part­ment of Wash­ing­ton, and the De­part­ment of West Vir­ginia, and all the forces in those de­part­ments, are placed un­der your gen­er­al com­mand, and that you will be ex­pect­ed to take all mil­itary mea­sures nec­es­sary for de­fense against any at­tack of the en­emy and for his cap­ture and de­struc­tion. You will is­sue from time to time such or­ders to the com­man­ders of the re­spec­tive de­part­ments and to the mil­itary au­thor­ities there­in as may be prop­er.

Your obe­di­ent ser­vant,

ED­WIN M. STAN­TON, Sec­re­tary of War.

TELE­GRAM TO GOV­ER­NOR JOHN­SON. WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 27, 1864.

GOV­ER­NOR JOHN­SON, Nashville, Ten­nessee:

Yours in re­la­tion to Gen­er­al A. C. Gillam just re­ceived. Will look af­ter the mat­ter to-​day.

I al­so re­ceived yours about Gen­er­al Carl Schurz. I ap­pre­ci­ate him cer­tain­ly, as high­ly as you do; but you can nev­er know un­til you have the tri­al, how dif­fi­cult it is to find a place for an of­fi­cer of so high rank when there is no place seek­ing him.

A. LIN­COLN.

TO Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON,

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Ju­ly 29, 1864.

Mrs. ANNE WILLIAMSON.

MADAM:–The plaid you send me is just now placed in my hands. I thank you for that pret­ty and use­ful present, but still more for those good wish­es for my­self and our coun­try, which prompt­ed you to present it.

Your obe­di­ent ser­vant,

A. LIN­COLN.

IN­DORSE­MENT, AU­GUST 3, 1864.

WAR DE­PART­MENT, WASH­ING­TON CITY, Au­gust 2, 1864.

MR. PRES­IDENT:–This note will in­tro­duce to you Mr. Sch­ley of Bal­ti­more, who de­sires to ap­peal to you for the re­vo­ca­tion of an or­der of Gen­er­al Hunter, re­mov­ing some per­sons, cit­izens of Fred­er­ick, be­yond his lines, and im­pris­on­ing oth­ers. This De­part­ment has no in­for­ma­tion of the rea­sons or proofs on which Gen­er­al Hunter acts, and I do not there­fore feel at lib­er­ty to sus­pend or in­ter­fere with his ac­tion ex­cept un­der your di­rec­tion.

Yours tru­ly,

ED­WIN M. STAN­TON, Sec­re­tary of War.

[In­dorse­ment.]

Au­gust 3, 1864.

The Sec­re­tary of War will sus­pend the or­der of Gen­er­al Hunter men­tioned with­in, un­til fur­ther or­der and di­rect him to send to the De­part­ment a brief re­port of what is known against each one pro­posed to be dealt with.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U, S. GRANT. (Ci­pher.)

WASH­ING­TON, D. C.. Au­gust 3, 1864

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

I have seen your despatch in which you say, “I want Sheri­dan put in com­mand of all the troops in the field, with in­struc­tions to put him­self south of the en­emy, and fol­low him to the death. Wher­ev­er the en­emy goes, let our troops go al­so.”

This, I think, is ex­act­ly right as to how our forces should move; but please look over the despatch­es you may have re­ceived from here, ev­er since you made that or­der, and dis­cov­er, if you can, that there is any idea in the head of any one here of “putting our army south of the en­emy,” or of fol­low­ing him to the “death,” in any di­rec­tion. I re­peat to you, it will nei­ther be done nor at­tempt­ed, un­less you watch it ev­ery day and hour, and force it.

A. LIN­COLN.

[Here the Pres­ident was mis­tak­en in think­ing that Sher­man and Grant had the same in­abil­ity of most of his pre­vi­ous gen­er­al of­fi­cers. No one need­ed to watch Grant or Sher­man, they on­ly need­ed to get out of their way. D.W.]

TELE­GRAM TO HO­RACE GREE­LEY. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Au­gust 6, 1864

HON. HO­RACE GREE­LEY, New York:

Yours to Ma­jor Hay about pub­li­ca­tion of our cor­re­spon­dence re­ceived. With the sup­pres­sion of a few pas­sages in your let­ters in re­gard to which I think you and I would not dis­agree, I should be glad of the pub­li­ca­tion. Please come over and see me.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO HO­RACE GREE­LEY. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Au­gust 8, 1864

HON. HO­RACE GREE­LEY, New York:

I tele­graphed you Sat­ur­day. Did you re­ceive the despatch? Please an­swer.

A. LIN­COLN.

ON DIS­LOY­AL FAM­ILY MEM­BER

TO GEN­ER­AL S. O. BUR­BRIDGE.

WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Au­gust 8, 1864

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL BUR­BRIDGE, Lex­ing­ton, Ky.:

Last De­cem­ber Mrs. Emi­ly T. Helm, half-​sis­ter of Mrs. Lin­coln, and wid­ow of the rebel gen­er­al, Ben Hardin Helm, stopped here on her way from Geor­gia to Ken­tucky, and I gave her a pa­per, as I re­mem­ber, to pro­tect her against the mere fact of her be­ing Gen­er­al Helm’s wid­ow. I hear a ru­mor to-​day that you re­cent­ly sought to ar­rest her, but were pre­vent­ed by her pre­sent­ing the pa­per from me. I do not in­tend to pro­tect her against the con­se­quences of dis­loy­al words or acts, spo­ken or done by her since her re­turn to Ken­tucky, and if the pa­per giv­en her by me can be con­strued to give her pro­tec­tion for such words and acts, it is here­by re­voked pro tan­to. Deal with her for cur­rent con­duct just as you would with any oth­er.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U. S. GRANT. WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Au­gust 14, 1864. 1.30 P.M.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

The Sec­re­tary of War and I con­cur that you had bet­ter con­fer with Gen­er­al Lee, and stip­ulate for a mu­tu­al dis­con­tin­uance of house- burn­ing and oth­er de­struc­tion of pri­vate prop­er­ty. The time and man­ner of con­fer­ence and par­tic­ulars of stip­ula­tion we leave, on our part, to your con­ve­nience and judg­ment.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL W. T. SHER­MAN. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Au­gust 15,1864.

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL SHER­MAN, near At­lanta, Ga.:

If the Gov­ern­ment should pur­chase, on its own ac­count, cot­ton north­ward of you, and on the line of your com­mu­ni­ca­tions, would it be an in­con­ve­nience to you, or detri­ment to the mil­itary ser­vice, for it to come to the north on the rail­road?

A. LIN­COLN.

IN­TER­VIEW WITH JOHN T. MILLS,

AU­GUST [15?], 1864.

Mr. Pres­ident,” said Gov­er­nor Ran­dall, “why can’t you seek seclu­sion, and play her­mit for a fort­night? It would rein­vig­orate you.”

“Ah,” said the Pres­ident, “two or three weeks would do me no good. I can­not fly from my thoughts–my so­lic­itude for this great coun­try fol­lows me wher­ev­er I go. I do not think it is per­son­al van­ity or am­bi­tion, though I am not free from these in­fir­mi­ties, but I can­not but feel that the weal or woe of this great na­tion will be de­cid­ed in Novem­ber. There is no pro­gram of­fered by any wing of the Demo­crat­ic par­ty but that must re­sult in the per­ma­nent de­struc­tion of the Union.

“But, Mr. Pres­ident, Gen­er­al Mc­Clel­lan is in fa­vor of crush­ing out this re­bel­lion by force. He will be the Chica­go can­di­date.”

“Sir, the slight­est knowl­edge of arith­metic will prove to any man that the rebel armies can­not be de­stroyed by Demo­crat­ic strat­egy. It would sac­ri­fice all the white men of the North to do it. There are now in the ser­vice of the Unit­ed States near­ly one hun­dred and fifty thou­sand able-​bod­ied col­ored men, most of them un­der arms, de­fend­ing and ac­quir­ing Union ter­ri­to­ry. The Demo­crat­ic strat­egy de­mands that these forces be dis­band­ed, and that the mas­ters be con­cil­iat­ed by restor­ing them to slav­ery. The black men who now as­sist Union pris­on­ers to es­cape are to be con­vert­ed in­to our en­emies, in the vain hope of gain­ing the good-​will of their mas­ters. We shall have to fight two na­tions in­stead of one.

“You can­not con­cil­iate the South if you guar­an­tee to them ul­ti­mate suc­cess; and the ex­pe­ri­ence of the present war proves their suc­cess is in­evitable if you fling the com­pul­so­ry la­bor of mil­lions of black men in­to their side of the scale. Will you give our en­emies such mil­itary ad­van­tages as in­sure suc­cess, and then de­pend on coax­ing, flat­tery, and con­ces­sion to get them back in­to the Union? Aban­don all the posts now gar­risoned by black men, take one hun­dred and fifty thou­sand men from our side and put them in the bat­tle-​field or corn- field against us, and we would be com­pelled to aban­don the war in three weeks.

“We have to hold ter­ri­to­ry in in­clement and sick­ly places; where are the Democrats to do this? It was a free fight, and the field was open to the war Democrats to put down this re­bel­lion by fight­ing against both mas­ter and slave, long be­fore the present pol­icy was in­au­gu­rat­ed.

“There have been men base enough to pro­pose to me to re­turn to slav­ery the black war­riors of Port Hud­son and Olus­tee, and thus win the re­spect of the mas­ters they fought. Should I do so, I should de­serve to be damned in time and eter­ni­ty. Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. My en­emies pre­tend I am now car­ry­ing on this war for the sole pur­pose of abo­li­tion. So long as I am Pres­ident, it shall be car­ried on for the sole pur­pose of restor­ing the Union. But no hu­man pow­er can sub­due this re­bel­lion with­out the use of the eman­ci­pa­tion pol­icy, and ev­ery oth­er pol­icy cal­cu­lat­ed to weak­en the moral and phys­ical forces of the re­bel­lion.

“Free­dom has giv­en us one hun­dred and fifty thou­sand men, raised on South­ern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has sub­tract­ed from the en­emy, and, in­stead of alien­at­ing the South, there are now ev­idences of a fra­ter­nal feel­ing grow­ing up be­tween our men and the rank and file of the rebel sol­diers. Let my en­emies prove to the coun­try that the de­struc­tion of slav­ery is not nec­es­sary to a restora­tion of the Union. I will abide the is­sue.”

EN­DORSE­MENT OF AP­PLI­CA­TION FOR EM­PLOY­MENT, AU­GUST 15, 1864.

I am al­ways for the man who wish­es to work; and I shall be glad for this man to get suit­able em­ploy­ment at Cav­al­ry De­pot, or else­where

A. LIN­COLN.

TO H. J. RAY­MOND.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION WASH­ING­TON, Au­gust 15, 1864

HON. HEN­RY J. RAY­MOND.

MY DEAR SIR:–I have pro­posed to Mr. Gree­ley that the Ni­agara cor­re­spon­dence be pub­lished, sup­press­ing on­ly the parts of his let­ters over which the red pen­cil is drawn in the copy which I here­with send. He de­clines giv­ing his con­sent to the pub­li­ca­tion of his let­ters un­less these parts be pub­lished with the rest. I have con­clud­ed that it is bet­ter for me to sub­mit, for the time, to the con­se­quences of the false po­si­tion in which I con­sid­er he has placed me, than to sub­ject the coun­try to the con­se­quences of pub­lish­ing these dis­cour­ag­ing and in­ju­ri­ous parts. I send you this, and the ac­com­pa­ny­ing copy, not for pub­li­ca­tion, but mere­ly to ex­plain to you, and that you may pre­serve them un­til their prop­er time shall come.

Yours tru­ly,

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL U. S. GRANT. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Au­gust 17, 1864.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT, City Point, Va.:

I have seen your despatch ex­press­ing your un­will­ing­ness to break your hold where you are. Nei­ther am I will­ing. Hold on with a bull­dog grip, and chew and choke as much as pos­si­ble.

A. LIN­COLN.

PROCLA­MA­TION CON­CERN­ING COM­MER­CIAL REG­ULA­TIONS, AU­GUST 18, 1864.

BY THE PRES­IDENT OF THE UNIT­ED STATES OF AMER­ICA:

A Procla­ma­tion.

Where­as the act of Congress of the 28th of Septem­ber, 1850, en­ti­tled “An act to cre­ate ad­di­tion­al col­lec­tion dis­tricts in the State of Cal­ifor­nia, and to change the ex­ist­ing dis­tricts there­in, and to mod­ify the ex­ist­ing col­lec­tion dis­tricts in the Unit­ed States,” ex­tends to mer­chan­dise ware­housed un­der bond the priv­ilege of be­ing ex­port­ed to the British North Amer­ican provinces ad­join­ing the Unit­ed States, in the man­ner pre­scribed in the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1845, which des­ig­nates cer­tain fron­tier ports through which mer­chan­dise may be ex­port­ed, and fur­ther pro­vides “that such oth­er ports, sit­uat­ed on the fron­tiers of the Unit­ed States ad­join­ing the British North Amer­ican provinces, as may here­after be found ex­pe­di­ent, may have ex­tend­ed to them the like priv­ileges, on the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury, and procla­ma­tion du­ly made by the Pres­ident of the Unit­ed States, spe­cial­ly des­ig­nat­ing the ports to which the afore­said priv­ileges are to be ex­tend­ed.”

Now, there­fore, I, Abra­ham Lin­coln, Pres­ident of the Unit­ed States of Amer­ica, in ac­cor­dance with the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury, do here­by de­clare and pro­claim that the port of New­port, in the State of Ver­mont, is and shall be en­ti­tled to all the priv­ileges in re­gard to the ex­por­ta­tion of mer­chan­dise in bond to the British North Amer­ican provinces ad­join­ing the Unit­ed States, which are ex­tend­ed to the ports enu­mer­at­ed in the sev­enth sec­tion of the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1845, afore­said, from and af­ter the date of this procla­ma­tion.

In wit­ness where­of, I have here­un­to set my hand and caused the seal of the Unit­ed States to be af­fixed. Done at the city of Wash­ing­ton, this eigh­teenth day of Au­gust, in the year of our Lord one thou­sand eight hun­dred and six­ty-​four, and of the in­de­pen­dence of the Unit­ed States of Amer­ica, the eighty-​ninth.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

By the Pres­ident: WILLIAM H. SE­WARD, Sec­re­tary of State.

IN­DORSE­MENT CON­CERN­ING AN EX­CHANGE OF PRIS­ON­ERS, AU­GUST 18, 1864.

If Gen­er­al Hitch­cock can ef­fect a spe­cial ex­change of Thomas D. Armesy, now un­der con­vic­tion as a spy, or some­thing of the sort, and in prison at for Ma­jor Nathan Goff, made a pris­on­er of war, and now in prison at Rich­mond, let it be done.

A. LIN­COLN.

AD­DRESS TO THE 164TH OHIO REG­IMENT,

AU­GUST 18, 1864.

SOL­DIERS:–You are about to re­turn to your homes and your friends, af­ter hav­ing, as I learn, per­formed in camp a com­par­ative­ly short term of du­ty in this great con­test. I am great­ly obliged to you, and to all who have come for­ward at the call of their coun­try. I wish it might be more gen­er­al­ly and uni­ver­sal­ly un­der­stood what the coun­try is now en­gaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free gov­ern­ment, where ev­ery man has a right to be equal with ev­ery oth­er man. In this great strug­gle, this form of gov­ern­ment and ev­ery form of hu­man right is en­dan­gered if our en­emies suc­ceed. There is more in­volved in this con­test than is re­al­ized by ev­ery one. There is in­volved in this strug­gle, the ques­tion whether your chil­dren and my chil­dren shall en­joy the priv­ileges we have en­joyed. I say this, in or­der to im­press up­on you, if you are not al­ready so im­pressed, that no small mat­ter should di­vert us from our great pur­pose.

There may be some in­equal­ities in the prac­ti­cal ap­pli­ca­tion of our sys­tem. It is fair that each man shall pay tax­es in ex­act pro­por­tion to the val­ue of his prop­er­ty; but if we should wait, be­fore col­lect­ing a tax, to ad­just the tax­es up­on each man in ex­act pro­por­tion with ev­ery oth­er man, we should nev­er col­lect any tax at all. There may be mis­takes made some­times; and things may be done wrong, while the of­fi­cers of the Gov­ern­ment do all they can to pre­vent mis­takes. But I beg of you, as cit­izens of this great Re­pub­lic, not to let your minds be car­ried off from the great work we have be­fore us. This strug­gle is too large for you to be di­vert­ed from it by any small mat­ter. When you re­turn to your homes, rise up to the height of a gen­er­ation of men wor­thy of a free gov­ern­ment, and we will car­ry out the great work we have com­menced. I re­turn to you my sin­cere thanks, sol­diers, for the hon­or you have done me this af­ter­noon.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL BUT­LER. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Au­gust 20, 1864.

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL BUT­LER, Bermu­da Hun­dred, Va.:

Please al­low Judge Snead to go to his fam­ily on East­ern Shore, or give me some good rea­son why not.

A. LIN­COLN.

AD­DRESS TO THE 166TH OHIO REG­IMENT,

AU­GUST 22, 1864.

SOL­DIERS–I sup­pose you are go­ing home to see your fam­ilies and friends. For the ser­vices you have done in this great strug­gle in which we are en­gaged, I present you sin­cere thanks for my­self and the coun­try.

I al­most al­ways feel in­clined, when I say any­thing to sol­diers, to im­press up­on them, in a few brief re­marks, the im­por­tance of suc­cess in this con­test. It is not mere­ly for the day, but for all time to come, that we should per­pet­uate for our chil­dren’s chil­dren that great and free gov­ern­ment which we have en­joyed all our lives. I beg you to re­mem­ber this, not mere­ly for my sake, but for yours. I hap­pen, tem­porar­ily, to oc­cu­py this big White House. I am a liv­ing wit­ness that any one of your chil­dren may look to come here as my fa­ther’s child has. It is in or­der that each one of you may have, through this free gov­ern­ment which we have en­joyed, an open field, and a fair chance for your in­dus­try, en­ter­prise, and in­tel­li­gence; that you may all have equal priv­ileges in the race of life with all its de­sir­able hu­man as­pi­ra­tions–it is for this that the strug­gle should be main­tained, that we may not lose our birthrights–not on­ly for one, but for two or three years, if nec­es­sary. The na­tion is worth fight­ing for, to se­cure such an in­es­timable jew­el.

MEM­ORAN­DUM.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Au­gust 23, 1864.

This morn­ing, as for some days past, it seems ex­ceed­ing­ly prob­able that this ad­min­is­tra­tion will not be re-​elect­ed. Then it will be my du­ty to so co-​op­er­ate with the Pres­ident-​elect as to save the Union be­tween the elec­tion and the in­au­gu­ra­tion; as he will have se­cured his elec­tion on such ground that he can­not pos­si­bly save it af­ter­ward.

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO GOV­ER­NOR JOHN­SON. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Au­gust 26, 1864.

GOV­ER­NOR JOHN­SON, Nashville, Tenn.:

Thanks to Gen­er­al Gillam for mak­ing the news and al­so to you for send­ing it. Does Joe Heiskell’s “walk­ing to meet us” mean any more than that “Joe” was scared and want­ed to save his skin?

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO B. H. BREW­STER. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Au­gust 30,1864.

HON. B. H. BREW­STER, As­tor House, New York:

Your let­ter of yes­ter­day re­ceived. Thank you for it. Please have no fears.

A. LIN­COLN.

OR­DER CON­CERN­ING COT­TON.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Au­gust 31, 1864.

Any per­son or per­sons en­gaged in bring­ing out cot­ton, in strict con­for­mi­ty with au­thor­ity giv­en by W. P. Fes­senden, Sec­re­tary of the Unit­ed States Trea­sury, must not be hin­dered by the War, Navy, or any oth­er De­part­ment of the Gov­ern­ment, or any per­son en­gaged un­der any of said De­part­ments.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

TO COLONEL HUIDEKOP­ER.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, SEPTEM­BER 1, 1864

COLONEL H. C. HUIDEKOP­ER, Meadville, Penn.

SIR: It is rep­re­sent­ed to me that there are at Rock Is­land, Illi­nois, as rebel pris­on­ers of war, many per­sons of North­ern and for­eign birth who are un­will­ing to be ex­changed and sent South, but who wish to take the oath of al­le­giance and en­ter the mil­itary ser­vice of the Union. Colonel Huidekop­er, on be­half of the peo­ple of some parts of Penn­syl­va­nia, wish­es to pay the boun­ties the Gov­ern­ment would have to pay to prop­er per­sons of this class, have them en­ter the ser­vice of the Unit­ed States, and be cred­it­ed to the lo­cal­ities fur­nish­ing the boun­ty mon­ey. He will there­fore pro­ceed to Rock Is­land, as­cer­tain the names of such per­sons (not in­clud­ing any who have at­trac­tions South­ward), and tele­graph them to the Provost- Mar­shal-​Gen­er­al here, where­upon di­rec­tion will be giv­en to dis­charge the per­sons named up­on their tak­ing the oath of al­le­giance; and then up­on the of­fi­cial ev­idence be­ing fur­nished that they shall have been du­ly re­ceived and mus­tered in­to the ser­vice of the Unit­ed States, their num­ber will be cred­it­ed as may be di­rect­ed by Colonel Huidekop­er.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

PROCLA­MA­TION OF THANKS­GIV­ING,

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON CITY, Septem­ber 3, 1864.

The sig­nal suc­cess that Di­vine Prov­idence has re­cent­ly vouch­safed to the op­er­ations of the Unit­ed States fleet and army in the har­bor of Mo­bile, and the re­duc­tion of Fort Pow­ell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Mor­gan, and the glo­ri­ous achieve­ments of the army un­der Ma­jor-​Gen­er­al Sher­man, in the State of Geor­gia, re­sult­ing in the cap­ture of the city of At­lanta, call for de­vout ac­knowl­edg­ment to the Supreme Be­ing in whose hands are the des­tinies of na­tions. It is there­fore re­quest­ed that on next Sun­day, in all places of wor­ship in the Unit­ed States, thanks­giv­ings be of­fered to Him for His mer­cy in pre­serve our na­tion­al ex­is­tence against the in­sur­gent rebels who have been wag­ing a cru­el war against the Gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed States for its over­throw, and al­so that prayer be made for Di­vine pro­tec­tion to our brave sol­diers and their lead­ers in the field who have so of­ten and so gal­lant­ly per­iled their lives in bat­tling with the en­emy, and for bless­ings and com­fort from the Fa­ther of mer­cies to the sick, wound­ed, and pris­on­ers, and to the or­phans and wid­ows of those who have fall­en in the ser­vice of their coun­try, and that He will con­tin­ue to up­hold the Gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed States against all the ef­forts of pub­lic en­emies and se­cret foes.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

OR­DERS OF GRAT­ITUDE AND RE­JOIC­ING.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, Septem­ber 3, 1864.

The na­tion­al thanks are ten­dered by the Pres­ident to Ad­mi­ral Far­ragut and Ma­jor-​Gen­er­al Can­by, for the skill and har­mo­ny with which the re­cent op­er­ations in Mo­bile Har­bor and against Fort Pow­ell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Mor­gan were planned and car­ried in­to ex­ecu­tion. Al­so to Ad­mi­ral Far­ragut and Ma­jor-​Gen­er­al Granger, un­der whose im­me­di­ate com­mand they were con­duct­ed, and to the gal­lant com­man­ders on sea and land, and to the sailors and sol­diers en­gaged in the op­er­ations, for their en­er­gy and courage, which, un­der the bless­ing of Prov­idence, have been crowned with bril­liant suc­cess, and have won for them the ap­plause and thanks of the na­tion.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, Septem­ber 3, 1864.

The na­tion­al thanks are ten­dered by the Pres­ident to Ma­jor-​Gen­er­al William T. Sher­man and the gal­lant of­fi­cers and sol­diers of his com­mand be­fore At­lanta, for the dis­tin­guished abil­ity, courage, and per­se­ver­ance dis­played in the cam­paign in Geor­gia, which un­der Di­vine pow­er re­sult­ed in the cap­ture of the city of At­lanta. The march­es, bat­tles, sieges, and oth­er mil­itary op­er­ations that have sig­nal­ized this cam­paign must ren­der it fa­mous in the an­nals of war, and have en­ti­tled those who have par­tic­ipat­ed there­in to the ap­plause and thanks of the na­tion.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, Septem­ber 3, 1864.

Or­dered: First, That on Mon­day, the fifth day of Septem­ber, com­menc­ing at the hour of twelve o’clock noon, there shall be giv­en a salute of one hun­dred guns at the ar­se­nal and navy-​yard, at Wash­ing­ton, and on Tues­day, the 6th of Septem­ber, or on the day af­ter the re­ceipt of this or­der, at each ar­se­nal and navy-​yard in the Unit­ed States, for the re­cent bril­liant achieve­ments of the fleet and land forces of the Unit­ed States in the har­bor of Mo­bile, and in the re­duc­tion of Fort Pow­ell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Mor­gan. The Sec­re­tary of War and the Sec­re­tary of the Navy will is­sue the nec­es­sary di­rec­tions in their re­spec­tive de­part­ments for the ex­ecu­tion of this or­der.

Sec­ond, That on Wednes­day, the 7th of Septem­ber, com­menc­ing at the hour of twelve o’clock noon, there shall be fired a salute of one hun­dred guns at the ar­se­nal at Wash­ing­ton, and at New York, Boston, Philadel­phia, Bal­ti­more, Pitts­burg, New­port (Ky.), and St. Louis, and New Or­leans, Mo­bile, and Pen­saco­la, Hilton Head, and New­bern, the day af­ter the re­ceipt of this or­der, for the bril­liant achieve­ments of the army un­der com­mand of Ma­jor-​Gen­er­al Sher­man, in the State of Geor­gia, and for the cap­ture of At­lanta. The Sec­re­tary of War will is­sue di­rec­tions for the ex­ecu­tion of this or­der.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN, Pres­ident Of the Unit­ed States.

TO MRS. GUR­NEY.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, SEPTEM­BER 4, 1864.

ELIZA P. GUR­NEY.

MY ES­TEEMED FRIEND:–I have not for­got­ten prob­ably nev­er shall for­get the very im­pres­sive oc­ca­sion when your­self and friends vis­it­ed me on a Sab­bath forenoon two years ago–nor has your kind let­ter, writ­ten near­ly a year lat­er, even been for got­ten. In all, it has been your pur­pose to strength­en my re­liance on God. I am much in­debt­ed to the good Chris­tian peo­ple of the coun­try for their con­stant prayer and con­so­la­tions; and to no one of them, more than to your­self. The pur­pos­es of the Almighty are per­fect, and must pre­vail, though we erring mor­tals may fail to ac­cu­rate­ly per­ceive them in ad­vance. We hoped for a hap­py ter­mi­na­tion of this ter­ri­ble war long be­fore this; but God knows best, and has ruled oth­er­wise. We shall yet ac­knowl­edge His wis­dom, and our own er­ror there­in. Mean while we must work earnest­ly in the best light He gives us, trust­ing that so work­ing still con­duces to the great ends He or­dains. Sure­ly He in­tends some great good to fol­low this mighty con­vul­sion, which no mor­tal could make, and no mor­tal could stay.

Your peo­ple–the Friends–have had, and are hav­ing, a very great tri­al. On prin­ci­ple, and faith, op­posed to both war and op­pres­sion, they can on­ly prac­ti­cal­ly op­pose op­pres­sion by war. For those ap­peal­ing to me on con­sci­en­tious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own con­science, un­der my oath to the law. That you be­lieve this I doubt not, and be­liev­ing it, I shall still re­ceive, for our coun­try and my­self your earnest prayers to our Fa­ther in Heav­en.

Your sin­cere friend,

A. LIN­COLN.

RE­PLY TO A COM­MIT­TEE OF COL­ORED PEO­PLE FROM BAL­TI­MORE WHO PRE­SENT­ED HIM WITH A BIBLE,

SEPTEM­BER 7, 1864.

I can on­ly say now, as I have of­ten said be­fore, it has al­ways been a sen­ti­ment with me, that all mankind should be free. So far as I have been able, so far as came with­in my sphere, I have al­ways act­ed as I be­lieved was just and right, and done all I could for the good of mankind. I have, in let­ters sent forth from this of­fice, ex­pressed my­self bet­ter than I can now.

In re­gard to the great Book, I have on­ly to say it is the best gift which God has ev­er giv­en to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is com­mu­ni­cat­ed to us through this book. But for that Book, we could not know right from wrong. All those things de­sir­able to man are con­tained in it. I re­turn you sin­cere thanks for this very el­egant copy of this great Book of God which you present.

TELE­GRAM TO GOV­ER­NOR PICK­ER­ING.

WAR DE­PART­MENT, WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Septem­ber 8, 1864:

GOV­ER­NOR PICK­ER­ING, Olympia, W. T.:

Your pa­tri­ot­ic despatch of yes­ter­day re­ceived and will be pub­lished.

A. LIN­COLN.

OR­DER OF THANKS TO HUN­DRED-​DAY TROOPS FROM OHIO.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON CITY, Septem­ber 10, 1864.

The term of one hun­dred days for which the Na­tion­al Guard of Ohio vol­un­teered hav­ing ex­pired, the Pres­ident di­rects an of­fi­cial ac­knowl­edg­ment to be made of their pa­tri­ot­ic and valu­able ser­vices dur­ing the re­cent cam­paigns. The term of ser­vice of their en­list­ment was short, but dis­tin­guished by mem­orable events. In the Val­ley of the Shenan­doah, on the Penin­su­la, in the op­er­ations on the James Riv­er, around Pe­ters­burg and Rich­mond, in the bat­tle of Mono­ca­cy, and in the in­trench­ments of Wash­ing­ton, and in oth­er im­por­tant ser­vice, the Na­tion­al Guard of Ohio per­formed with alacrity the du­ty of pa­tri­ot­ic vol­un­teers, for which they are en­ti­tled to and are here­by ten­dered, through the Gov­er­nor of their State, the na­tion­al thanks.

ABRA­HAM LIN­COLN.

TO GEN­ER­AL U.S. GRANT.

EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Septem­ber 12, 1864.

LIEU­TENANT-​GEN­ER­AL GRANT:

Sheri­dan and Ear­ly are fac­ing each oth­er at a dead-​lock. Could we not pick up a reg­iment here and there, to the num­ber of say ten thou­sand men, and qui­et­ly but sud­den­ly con­cen­trate them at Sheri­dan’s camp and en­able him to make a strike?

This is but a sug­ges­tion.

Yours tru­ly,

A. LIN­COLN.

TELE­GRAM TO JAMES G. BLAINE. WAR DE­PART­MENT, WASH­ING­TON, D. C., Septem­ber 13, 1864.

HON. J. G. BLAINE, Au­gus­ta, Me.: On be­half of the Union, thanks to Maine. Thanks to you per­son­al­ly for send­ing the news.

A. LIN­COLN.

P. S.–Send same to L. B. Smith and M. A. Blan­chard, Port­land, Me. A. L.

TELE­GRAM TO GEN­ER­AL ROSE­CRANS. EX­EC­UTIVE MAN­SION, WASH­ING­TON, Septem­ber 13, 1864

MA­JOR-​GEN­ER­AL ROSE­CRANS, Saint Louis:

Post­pone the ex­ecu­tion of S. H. An­der­son for two weeks. Hear what his friends can say in mit­iga­tion and re­port to me.

A. LIN­COLN.