will be intrenched from the Appomattox below Petersburg to the river
above. The whole captures since the army started out will not amount to
less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of artillery. I
do not know the number of men and guns accurately, however. A portion of
Foster's Division, Twenty Fourth Corps, made a most gallant charge this
afternoon, and captured a very important fort from the enemy, with its
entire garrison. All seems well with us, and everything is quiet just
now."
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN. CITY POINT, VA., April 1, 1865.
MRS. LINCOLN:
At 4.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphs that he has Petersburg
completely enveloped from river below to river above, and has captured,
since he started last Wednesday, about twelve thousand prisoners and fifty
guns. He suggests that I shall go out and see him in the morning, which I
think I will do. Tad and I are both well, and will be glad to see you and
your party here at the time you name.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
CITY POINT, April 2, 1865
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:
Allow me to tender to you and all with you the nation's grateful thanks
for this additional and magnificent success. At your kind suggestion I
think I will meet you to-morrow.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, April 3, 1865.8.30 A.M.
HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:
This morning Lieutenant-General Grant reports Petersburg evacuated, and he
is confident that Richmond also is. He is pushing forward to cut off, if
possible, the retreating rebel army.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VA., April 3, 1865. 5 P.M.
HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:
Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to
Petersburg. Staid with General Grant an hour and a half and returned here.
It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I will go
there to-morrow. I will take care of myself.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VA., April 4, 1865 (Received 8.45 A.M.)
HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:
General Weitzel telegraphs from Richmond that of railroad stock he found
there twenty-eight locomotives, forty-four passenger and baggage cars, and
one hundred and six freight cars. At 3.30 this evening General Grant,
from Sutherland's Station, ten miles from Petersburg toward Burkevllle,
telegraphs as follows:
"General Sheridan picked up twelve hundred prisoners to-day, and from
three hundred to five hundred more have been gathered by other troops. The
majority of the arms that were left in the hands of the remnant of Lee's
army are now scattered between Richmond and where his troops are. The
country is also full of stragglers; the line of retreat marked with
artillery, ammunition, burned or charred wagons, caissons, ambulances,
etc."
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD.
CITY POINT, APRIL 5, 1865. (Received 11.55 PM.)
HON. SECRETARY OF STATE:
Yours of to-day received. I think there is no probability of my remaining
here more than two days longer. If that is too long come down. I passed
last night at Richmond and have just returned.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, CITY POINT, April 6, 1865.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, in the Field:
Secretary Seward was thrown from his carriage yesterday and seriously
injured. This, with other matters, will take me to Washington soon. I was
at Richmond yesterday and the day before, when and where Judge Campbell,
who was with Messrs. Hunter and Stephens in February, called on me, and
made such representations as induced me to put in his hands an informal
paper, repeating the propositions in my letter of instructions to Mr.
Seward, which you remember, and adding that if the war be now further
persisted in by the rebels, confiscated property shall at the least bear
the additional cost, and that confiscation shall be remitted to the people
of any State which will now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops
and other support from resistance to the Government.
Judge Campbell thought it not impossible that the rebel legislature of
Virginia would do the latter if permitted; and accordingly I addressed a
private letter to General Weitzel, with permission to Judge Campbell to
see it, telling him (General Weitzel) that if they attempt this, to permit
and protect them, unless they attempt something hostile to the United
States, in which case to give them notice and time to leave, and to arrest
any remaining after such time.
I do not think it very probable that anything win come of this, but I
have thought best to notify you so that if you should see signs you may
understand them.
From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually
withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the Government. Nothing
that I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, or interfere
with your work.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL.
HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES CITY POINT, April 6, 1865.
MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.:
It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the
legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion may now desire to
assemble at Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia troops and
other support from resistance to the General Government. If they attempt
it, give them permission and protection, until, if at all, they attempt
some action hostile to the United States, in which case you will notify
them, give them reasonable time to leave, and at the end of which time
arrest any who remain. Allow Judge Campbell to see this, but do not make
it public.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VA., April 7, 1865 (Received 10.30 AM.)
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR:
At 11.15 P.M. yesterday at Burkesville Station, General Grant sends me the
following from General Sheridan:
"April 6, 11.15 P.M.
"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:
I have the honor to report that the enemy made a stand at the intersection
of the Burks Station road with the road upon which they were retreating.
I attacked them with two divisions of the Sixth Army Corps and routed them
handsomely, making a connection with the cavalry. I am still pressing on
with both cavalry and infantry. Up to the present time we have captured
Generals Ewell, Kershaw, Button, Corse, DeBare, and Custis Lee, several
thousand prisoners, fourteen pieces of artillery with caissons and a large
number of wagons. If the thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender.
"P. H. SHERIDAN,
"Major-General, Commanding."
A. LINCOLN.
LET THE THING BE PRESSED.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
CITY POINT, April 7, 11 A.M., 1865.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:
Gen. Sheridan says:
"If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender."
Let the thing be pressed.
A. LINCOLN.
NOTE ON A CARD TO SECRETARY STANTON.
April 10, 1865.
Tad wants some flags--can he be accommodated?
A. LINCOLN.
RESPONSE TO A CALL,
APRIL 10, 1865
If the company had assembled by appointment, some mistake had crept in
their understanding. He had appeared before a larger audience than this
one to-day, and he would repeat what he then said, namely, he supposed
owing to the great, good news, there would be some demonstration. He would
prefer to-morrow evening, when he should be quite willing, and he hoped
ready, to say something. He desired to be particular, because every thing
he said got into print. Occupying the position he did, a mistake would
produce harm, and therefore he wanted to be careful not to make a mistake.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. GORDON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 11, 1865.
BRIG. GEN. G. H. GORDON, Norfolk, Va.:
Send to me at once a full statement as to the cause or causes for which,
and by authority of what tribunal George W. Lane, Charles Whitlock, Ezra
Baler, J. M. Renshaw, and others are restrained of their liberty. Do this
promptly and fully.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION CLOSING CERTAIN PORTS, APRIL 11, 1865.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas by my proclamations of the 19th and 27th days of April, A.D. 1861,
the ports of the United States in the States of Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Texas were declared to be subject to blockade; but
Whereas the said blockade has, in consequence of actual military
occupation by this Government, since been conditionally set aside or
relaxed in respect to the ports of Norfolk and Alexandria, in the State
of Virginia; Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina; Port Royal, in
the State of South Carolina; Pensacola and Fernandina, in the State of
Florida; and New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana; and
Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th
of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of
duties on imports, and for other purposes," the President, for the reasons
therein set forth, is authorized to close certain ports of entry:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of
the United States, do hereby proclaim that the ports of Richmond,
Tappahannock, Cherrystone, Yorktown, and Petersburg, in Virginia; of
Camden (Elizabeth City), Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Newbern, Ocracoke,
and Wilmington in North Carolina; of Charleston, Georgetown, and Beaufort,
in South Carolina; of Savannah, St. Marys, and Brunswick (Darien), in
Georgia; of Mobile, in Alabama; of Pearl River (Shieldsboro), Natchez and
Vicksburg, in Mississippi; of St. Augustine, Key West, St. Marks (Port
Leon), St. Johns (Jacksonville), and Apalachicola, in Florida; of Teche
(Franklin), in Louisiana; of Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago
(Point Isabel), and Brownsville, in Texas, are hereby closed, and all
right of importation, warehousing, and other privileges shall, in respect
to the ports aforesaid, cease until they shall have again been opened by
order of the President; and if while said parts are so closed any ship
or vessel from beyond the United States or having on board any articles
subject to duties shall attempt to enter any such port, the same, together
with its tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, shall be forfeited to the
United States.
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 eleventh day of April, A.D., 1865,
and of the independence of the United States of America, the eighty-ninth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF KEY WEST,
APRIL 11, 1865.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas by my proclamation of this date the port of Key West, in the State
of Florida, was inadvertently included among those which are not open to
commerce:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, do hereby declare and make known that the said port of Key
West is and shall remain open to foreign and domestic commerce upon the
same conditions by which that commerce has there hitherto been governed.
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 eleventh day of April, A.D. 1865, and
of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
PROCLAMATION CLAIMING EQUALITY OF RIGHTS WITH ALL MARITIME NATIONS,
APRIL 11, 1865.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas for some time past vessels of war of the United States have been
refused in certain foreign ports, privileges and immunities to which they
were entitled by treaty, public law, or the community of nations, at the
same time that vessels of war of the country wherein the said
privileges and immunities have been withheld have enjoyed them fully and
uninterruptedly in ports of the United States, which condition of things
has not always been forcibly resisted by the United States, although, on
the other hand, they have not at any time failed to protest against and
declare their dissatisfaction with the same. In the view of the United
States, no condition any longer exists which can be claimed to justify the
denial to them by any one of such nations of customary naval rights as has
heretofore been so unnecessarily persisted in.......
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
hereby make known that if, after a reasonable time shall have elapsed for
intelligence of this proclamation to have reached any foreign country in
whose ports the said privileges and immunities shall have been refused as
aforesaid, they shall continue to be so refused, then and thenceforth the
same privileges and immunities shall be refused to the vessels of war of
that country in the ports of the United States, and this refusal shall
continue until war vessels of the United States shall have been placed
upon an entire equality in the foreign ports aforesaid with similar
vessels of other countries. The United States, whatever claim or pretense
may have existed heretofore, are now, at least, entitled to claim and
concede an entire and friendly equality of rights and hospitalities with
all maritime nations.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed..................
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS,
APRIL 11, 1865
FELLOW-CITIZENS--We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of
heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the
principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose
joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He
from whom blessings flow must not be forgotten.
A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly
promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of
rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with
others. I myself was near the front, and had the pleasure of transmitting
much of the good news to you. But no part of the honor for plan or
execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers, and brave men,
all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take
active part. By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national
authority--reconstruction which has had a large share of thought from the
first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with
great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there
is no authorized organ for us to treat with--no one man has authority to
give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with
and mould from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small
additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves
as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. As a general rule,
I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, Wishing not to
be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite
of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much
censured for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the
new State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much and no
more than the public knows. In the Annual Message of December, 1863, and
the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction,
as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, would be
acceptable to and sustained by the Executive Government of the nation. I
distinctly stated that this was not the only plan that might possibly be
acceptable, and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed
no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats in
Congress from such States. This plan was in advance submitted to the then
Cabinet, and approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I
should then and in that connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to
the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should
drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I
should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the admission
of members of Congress. But even he approved every part and parcel of the
plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana.
The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole
State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously
excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and is
silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members
to Congress. So that, as it applied to Louisiana, every member of the
Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I
received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not
a single objection to it from any professed emancipationist came to my
knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of
Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862,
I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested in
seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the
message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans,
General Banks wrote me that he was confident that the people, with his
military co-operation, would reconstruct substantially on that plan. I
wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and the result
is known. Such has been my only agency in getting up the Louisiana
government. As to sustaining it my promise is out, as before stated. But,
as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad
promise and break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is
adverse to the public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I
have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one,
in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be
definitely fixed upon the question whether the seceded States, so called,
are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment to
his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men
endeavoring to answer that question, I have purposely forborne any public
expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been nor yet
is a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it
thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the
mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may become,
that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing
at all--a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded
States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the
Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in
regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper practical
relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to
do this without deciding or even considering whether those States have
ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at
home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had been abroad. Let
us all join in doing the acts necessary to restore the proper practical
relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after
innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts he
brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper
assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency,
so to speak, on which the Louisiana government rests, would be more
satisfactory to all if it contained fifty thousand, or thirty thousand, or
even twenty thousand, instead of twelve thousand, as it does. It is also
unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the
colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very
intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the
question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite
all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be wiser to take it as
it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse? Can Louisiana be
brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining
or by discarding her new State government? Some twelve thousand voters
in the heretofore Slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the
Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State,
held elections, organized a State government, adopted a Free State
constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and
white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise
upon the colored man. This Legislature has already voted to ratify the
Constitutional Amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery
throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully
committed to the Union and to perpetuate freedom in the State--committed
to the very things, and nearly all things, the nation wants--and they ask
the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good this committal.
Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and
disperse them. We, in fact, say to the white man: You are worthless or
worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we
say: This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, held to your
lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the
spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where,
and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black,
has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with
the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary,
we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse
of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of
twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte
for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a
complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is
inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring to the same end. Grant
that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by
saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward
over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what
it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by
hatching the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we
also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the National
Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more
than three fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are
necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against
this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable,
and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three
fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable.
I repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical
relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new
State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply to other
States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such
important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new
and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan
can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive
and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important
principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation as the
phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people
of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied
that action will be proper.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL.
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1865. MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: