The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 7
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Whereas, it has been made known to the President of the United
States, by the officers commanding the National armies, that
combinations have been formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a
purpose of inciting the rebel forces to renew the said operations of
civil war within the said State, and thereby to embarrass the United
States armies now operating in the said States of Virginia and
Georgia, and even to endanger their safety.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws,
do hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially
requires that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus so proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of
September, 1863, be made effectual and be duly enforced in and
throughout the said State of Kentucky, and that martial law be for
the present declared therein. I do therefore hereby require of the
military officers of the said State that the privilege of the habeas
corpus be effectually suspended within the said State, according to
the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law be established
therein to take effect from the date of this proclamation, the said
suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until this
proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period
when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end.
And I do hereby require and command, as well as military officers,
all civil officers and authorities existing or found within the said
State of Kentucky, to take notice of this proclamation and to give
full effect to the same. The martial laws herein proclaimed and the
things in that respect herein ordered will not be deemed or taken to
interfere with the holding of lawful elections, or with the
proceedings of the constitutional Legislature of Kentucky, or with
the administration of justice in the courts of law existing therein
between citizens of the United States in suits or proceedings which
do not affect the military operations or the constituted authorities
of the government of the United States.
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 5th day of July, in the year of
our Lord 1864, and of the independence of the United States the
eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER, JULY 7, 1864.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives at their last
session adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the
second day of July instant, and which `was in the words following,
namely:
That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day
of humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States, that he
request his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive
Departments to unite with him, as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at
the City of Washington, and the members of Congress, and all
magistrates, all civil, military, and naval officers, all soldiers,
sailors, and marines, with all loyal and law-abiding people, to
convene at their usual places of worship, or wherever they may be, to
confess and to repent of their manifold sins, to implore the
compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that, if consistent with
His will, the existing rebellion may be speedily suppressed, and the
supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States may be
established throughout all the States; to implore Him, as the Supreme
Ruler of the world, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer us to
be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations, or by
obstinate adhesion to our own counsels which may be in conflict with
His eternal, purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of
the nation to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in
accordance with His will that our place should be maintained as a
united people among the family of nations; to implore Him to grant to
our armed defenders, and the masses of the people, that courage,
power of resistance, and endurance necessary to secure that result;
to implore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the hearts,
enlighten the minds, and quicken the conscience of those in
rebellion, that they may lay down their arms, and speedily return to
their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly
destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity
and fraternity may be restored, and peace established throughout all
our borders.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the `United States,
cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States, in the
penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid
resolutions, and heartily approving of the devotional design and
purpose thereof, do hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next
to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of
national humiliation and prayer.
I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive
Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all
judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in
the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers,
seamen, and marines in the national service, and all other loyal and
law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their
preferred places of public worship on that day, and there to render
to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the Universe, such homage and
such confessions, and to offer to Him such supplications as the
Congress of the United States have, in their aforesaid resolution, so
solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently recommended.
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 seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States
the eighty-ninth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
PROCLAMATION CONCERNING A BILL "TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES, WHOSE
GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF
GOVERNMENT," AND CONCERNING RECONSTRUCTION,
JULY 8, 1864.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
A Proclamation.
Whereas at the late session Congress passed a bill "to guarantee to
certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a
republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed;
and
Whereas, the said bill was presented to the President of the United
States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die
adjournment of said session, and was not signed by him; and
Whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for
restoring the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation
in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that
subject, and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the
people for their consideration:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
do proclaim, declare, and make known that while I am (as I was in
December last, when, by proclamation, I propounded a plan for
restoration) unprepared by a formal approval of this bill to be
inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration, and while I
am also unprepared to declare that the free State constitutions and
governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana
shall be set aside and held for naught, thereby repelling and
discouraging the loyal citizens who have set up the same as to
further effort, or to declare a constitutional competency in Congress
to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same time sincerely
hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment abolishing
slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully
satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as
one very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to
adopt it, and that I am and at all times shall be prepared to give
the Executive aid and assistance to any such people so soon as the
military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed
in any such States and the people thereof shall have sufficiently
returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, in which cases militia-governors will be appointed
with directions to proceed according to the bill.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed..............
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
TO HORACE GREELEY.
WASHINGTON, D. C.,
July 9, 1864
HON. HORACE GREELEY.
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.