The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5

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Believing that no occasion could arise which would more fully correspond
with the intention of the law or be more pregnant with happy influence as
an example, I cordially recommend that Captain Samuel F. Du Pont receive
a vote of thanks of Congress for his service and gallantry displayed in
the capture since the 21st December, 1861, of various ports on the coasts
of Georgia and Florida, particularly Brunswick, Cumberland Island and
Sound, Amelia Island, the towns of St. Mary's, St. Augustine, and
Jacksonville and Fernandina.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.




TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, MARCH 31, 1862

MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN.

MY DEAR SIR:-This morning I felt constrained to order Blenker's division
to Fremont, and I write this to assure you I did so with great pain,
understanding that you would wish it otherwise. If you could know the
full pressure of the case, I am confident that you would justify it, even
beyond a mere acknowledgment that the commander-in-chief may order what
he pleases.

Yours very truly,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.




GIFT OF SOME RABBITS

TO MICHAEL CROCK. 360 N. Fourth St., Philadelphia.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 2, 1862.

MY DEAR SIR:-Allow me to thank you in behalf of my little son for your
present of white rabbits. He is very much pleased with them.

Yours truly,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.




INSTRUCTION TO SECRETARY STANTON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 3, 1862.

The Secretary of War will order that one or the other of the corps of
General McDowell and General Sumner remain in front of Washington until
further orders from the department, to operate at or in the direction of
Manassas Junction, or otherwise, as occasion may require; that the other
Corps not so ordered to remain go forward to General McClellan as
speedily as possible; that General McClellan commence his forward
movements from his new base at once, and that such incidental
modifications as the foregoing may render proper be also made. A.
LINCOLN.




TELEGRAM TO GENERAL McCLELLAN.

WASHINGTON, April 6, 1862.

GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN:

Yours of 11 A. M. today received. Secretary of War informs me that the
forwarding of transportation, ammunition, and Woodbury's brigade, under
your orders, is not, and will not be, interfered with. You now have over
one hundred thousand troops with you, independent of General Wool's
command. I think you better break the enemy's line from Yorktown to
Warwick River at once. This will probably use time as advantageously as
you can.

A. LINCOLN, President




TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN.

WASHINGTON, April 9, 1862

MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN.

MY DEAR SIR+--Your despatches, complaining that you are not properly
sustained, while they do not offend me, do pain me very much.

Blenker's division was withdrawn from you before you left here, and you
knew the pressure under which I did it, and, as I thought, acquiesced in
it certainly not without reluctance.

After you left I ascertained that less than 20,000 unorganized men,
without a single field battery, were all you designed to be left for the
defense of Washington and Manassas Junction, and part of this even to go
to General Hooker's old position; General Banks's corps, once designed
for Manassas Junction, was divided and tied up on the line of Winchester
and Strasburg, and could not leave it without again exposing the upper
Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented (or would
present when McDowell and Sumner should be gone) a great temptation to
the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and sack Washington. My
explicit order that Washington should, by the judgment of all the
Commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had been neglected. It was
precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell.

I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave Banks
at Manassas Junction; but when that arrangement was broken up and nothing
substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was constrained to
substitute something for it myself.

And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should permit the line
from Richmond via Manaasas Junction to this city to be entirely open,
except what resistance could be presented by less than 20,000 unorganized
troops? This is a question which the country will not allow me to evade.

There is a curious mystery about the number of the troops now with you.
When I telegraphed you on the 6th, saying you had over 100,000 with you,
I had just obtained from the Secretary of War a statement, taken as he
said from your own returns, making 108,000 then with you and en route to
you. You now say you will have but 85,000 when all enroute to you shall
have reached you. How can this discrepancy of 23,000 be accounted for?

As to General Wool's command, I understand it is doing for you precisely
what a like number of your own would have to do if that command was away.
I suppose the whole force which has gone forward to you is with you by
this time; and if so, I think it is the precise time for you to strike a
blow. By delay the enemy will relatively gain upon you--that is, he will
gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements than you can by
reinforcements alone.

And once more let me tell you it is indispensable to you that you strike
a blow. I am powerless to help this. You will do me the justice to
remember I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field,
instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not
surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and the same
or equal entrenchments at either place. The country will not fail to
note--is noting now--that the present hesitation to move upon an
entrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated.

I beg to assure you that I have never written you or spoken to you in
greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to
sustain you, so far as in my most anxious judgment I consistently can;
but you must act.

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.




TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 9, 1862.

MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, Saint Louis, Mo.: If the rigor of the confinement
of Magoffin (Governor of Kentucky) at Alton is endangering his life, or
materially impairing his health, I wish it mitigated as far as it can be
consistently with his safe detention.

A. LINCOLN.

Please send above, by order of the President. JOHN HAY.




PROCLAMATION RECOMMENDING THANKSGIVING FOR VICTORIES,

APRIL 10, 1862.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A Proclamation

It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land and
naval forces engaged in suppressing, an internal rebellion, and at the
same time to avert from our country the dangers of foreign intervention
and invasion.

It is therefore recommended to the people of the United States that at
their next weekly assemblages in their accustomed places of public
worship which shall occur after notice of this proclamation shall have
been received, they especially acknowledge and render thanks to our
Heavenly Father for these inestimable blessings, that they then and there
implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all who have been brought into
affliction by the casualties and calamities of sedition and civil war,
and that they reverently invoke the divine guidance for our national
counsels, to the end that they may speedily result in the restoration of
peace, harmony, and unity throughout our borders and hasten the
establishment of fraternal relations among all the countries of the
earth.

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 tenth day of April, A.D. 1862, and
of the independence of the United States the eighty-sixth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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




ABOLISHING SLAVERY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. April 16, 1862.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: The act
entitled "An act for the relief of certain persons held to service or
labor in the District of Columbia" has this day been approved and signed.

I have never doubted the constitutional authority of Congress to abolish
slavery in this District, and I have ever desired to see the national
capital freed from the institution in some satisfactory way. Hence there
has never been in my mind any question on the subject except the one of
expediency, arising in view of all the circumstances. If there be matters
within and about this act which might have taken a course or shape more
satisfactory to my judgment, I do not attempt to specify them. I am
gratified that the two principles of compensation and colonization are
both recognized and practically applied in the act.

In the matter of compensation, it is provided that claims may be
presented within ninety days from the passage of the act, "but not
thereafter"; and there is no saving for minors, femmes covert, insane or
absent persons. I presume this is an omission by mere oversight, and I
recommend that it be supplied by an amendatory or supplemental act.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.




TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN.

WASHINGTON, April 21, 1862.

MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN:

Your despatch of the 19th was received that day. Fredericksburg is
evacuated and the bridges destroyed by the enemy, and a small part of
McDowell's command occupies this side of the Rappahannock, opposite the
town. He purposes moving his whole force to that point.

A. LINCOLN.




TO POSTMASTER-GENERAL

A. LINCOLN. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 24, 1862.

Hon. POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

MY DEAR SIR:--The member of Congress from the district including Tiffin,
O., calls on me about the postmaster at that place. I believe I turned
over a despatch to you from some persons there, asking a suspension, so
as for them to be heard, or something of the sort. If nothing, or nothing
amounting to anything, has been done, I think the suspension might now be
suspended, and the commission go forward.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.




TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN.

WASHINGTON, April 29, 1862.

MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN:

Would it derange or embarrass your operations if I were to appoint
Captain Charles Griffin a brigadier-general of volunteers? Please answer.

A. LINCOLN.




MESSAGE TO THE SENATE, MAY 1, 1862.

TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate [of April 22] in relation to
Brigadier-General Stone, I have the honor to state that he was arrested
and imprisoned under my general authority, and upon evidence which
whether he be guilty or innocent, required, as appears to me, such
proceedings to be had against him for the public safety. I deem it
incompatible with the public interest, as also, perhaps, unjust to
General Stone, to make a more particular statement of the evidence.

He has not been tried because, in the state of military operations at the
time of his arrest and since, the officers to constitute a court martial
and for witnesses could not be withdrawn from duty without serious injury
to the service. He will be allowed a trial without any unnecessary delay;
the charges and specifications will be furnished him in due season, and
every facility for his defense will be afforded him by the War
Department.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

WASHINGTON, MAY 1, 1862




TELEGRAM TO GENERAL McCLELLAN

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, MAY 1, 1862

MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN:

Your call for Parrott guns from Washington alarms me, chiefly because it
argues indefinite procrastination. Is anything to be done?

A. LINCOLN.




TELEGRAM TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.

WAR DEPARTMENT, MAY 1, 1862

MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee:

I am pressed by the Missouri members of Congress to give General
Schofield independent command in Missouri. They insist that for want of
this their local troubles gradually grow worse. I have forborne, so far,
for fear of interfering with and embarrassing your operations. Please
answer telling me whether anything, and what, I can do for them without
injuriously interfering with you.

A. LINCOLN.




RESPONSE TO EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS, MAY 6, 1862

GENTLEMEN:--I welcome here the representatives of the Evangelical
Lutherans of the United States. I accept with gratitude their assurances
of the sympathy and support of that enlightened, influential, and loyal
class of my fellow citizens in an important crisis which involves, in my
judgment, not only the civil and religious liberties of our own dear
land, but in a large degree the civil and religious liberties of mankind
in many countries and through many ages. You well know, gentlemen, and
the world knows, how reluctantly I accepted this issue of battle forced
upon me on my advent to this place by the internal enemies of our
country. You all know, the world knows, the forces and the resources the
public agents have brought into employment to sustain a government
against which there has been brought not one complaint of real injury
committed against society at home or abroad. You all may recollect that
in taking up the sword thus forced into our hands this government
appealed to the prayers of the pious and the good, and declared that it
placed its whole dependence on the favor of God. I now humbly and
reverently, in your presence, reiterate the acknowledgment of that
dependence, not doubting that, if it shall please the Divine Being who
determines the destinies of nations, this shall remain a united people,
and that they will, humbly seeking the divine guidance, make their
prolonged national existence a source of new benefits to themselves and
their successors, and to all classes and conditions of mankind.




TELEGRAM TO FLAG-OFFICER L. M. GOLDSBOROUGH.

FORT MONROE, VIRGINIA, MAY 7, 1862

FLAG-OFFICER GOLDSBOROUGH.

SIR:--Major-General McClellan telegraphs that he has ascertained by a
reconnaissance that the battery at Jamestown has been abandoned, and he
again requests that gunboats may be sent up the James River.

If you have tolerable confidence that you can successfully contend with
the Merrimac without the help of the Galena and two accompanying
gunboats, send the Galena and two gunboats up the James River at once.
Please report your action on this to me at once. I shall be found either
at General Wool's headquarters or on board the Miami.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.




FURTHER REPRIMAND OF McCLELLAN

TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN.

FORT MONROE, VIRGINIA, May 9, 1862

MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN:

MY DEAR SIR:--I have just assisted the Secretary of War in framing part
of a despatch to you relating to army corps, which despatch, of course,
will have reached you long before this will. I wish to say a few words to
you privately on this subject. I ordered the army corps organization not
only on the unanimous opinion of the twelve generals whom you had
selected and assigned as generals of divisions, but also on the unanimous
opinion of every military man I could get an opinion from, and every
modern military book, yourself only excepted. Of course, I did not on my
own judgment pretend to understand the subject. I now think it
indispensable for you to know how your struggle against it is received in
quarters which we cannot entirely disregard. It is looked upon as merely
an effort to pamper one or two pets, and to persecute and degrade their
supposed rivals. I have had no word from Sumner, Heintzleman, or Keyes
the commanders of these corps are, of course, the three highest officers
with you; but I am constantly told that you have no consultation or
communication with them; that you consult and communicate with nobody but
General Fitz John Porter, and perhaps General Franklin. I do not say
these complaints are true or just; but at all events, it is proper you
should know of their existence. Do the commanders of corps disobey your
orders in anything?

When you relieved General Hamilton of his command the other day, you
thereby lost the confidence of at least one of your best friends in the
Senate. And here let me say, not as applicable to you personally, that
Senators and Representatives speak of me in their places without
question, and that officers of the army must cease addressing insulting
letters to them for taking no greater liberty with them.

But to return. Are you strong enough--are you strong enough even with my
help--to set your foot upon the necks of Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes
all at once? This is a practical and very serious question to you?

The success of your army and the cause of the country are the same, and,
of course, I only desire the good of the cause.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.




TO FLAG-OFFICER L. M. GOLDSBOROUGH,

FORT MONROE, VIRGINIA, May 10, 1862

FLAG-OFFICER GOLDSBOROUGH.

MY DEAR SIR:--I send you this copy of your report of yesterday for the
purpose of saying to you in writing that you are quite right in supposing
the movement made by you and therein reported was made in accordance with
my wishes verbally expressed to you in advance. I avail myself of the
occasion to thank you for your courtesy and all your conduct, so far as
known to me, during my brief visit here.

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.




PROCLAMATION RAISING THE BLOCKADE OF CERTAIN PORTS.

May 12, 1862.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, by my proclamation of the 19th of April, one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one, it was declared that the ports of certain States,
including those of Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina, Port Royal,
in the State of South Carolina, and New Orleans, in the State of
Louisiana, were, for reasons therein set forth, intended to be placed
under blockade; and whereas the said ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and
New Orleans have since been blockaded; but as the blockade of the same
ports may now be safely relaxed with advantage to the interests of
commerce:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth
section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July last,
entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on
imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of
the said ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New Orleans shall so far
cease and determine, from and after the first day of June next, that
commercial intercourse with those ports, except as to persons, things,
and information contraband of war, may from that time be carried on,
subject to the laws of the United States, and to the limitations and in
pursuance of the regulations which are prescribed by the Secretary of the
Treasury in his order of this date, which is appended to 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 twelfth day of May, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-sixth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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