As the United States have, in common with Great Britain and France, a deep
interest in the preservation and development of the fisheries adjacent to
the northeastern coast and islands of this continent, it seems proper that
we should concert with the governments of those countries such measures as
may be conducive to those important objects. With this view I transmit to
Congress a copy of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and
the British minister here, in which the latter proposes, on behalf of
his government, the appointment of a joint commission to inquire into
the matter, in order that such ulterior measures may be adopted as may be
advisable for the objects proposed. Such legislation recommended as may be
necessary to enable the executive to provide for a commissioner on behalf
of the United States:
WASHINGTON, JULY 19, 1861.
A. LINCOLN.
TO THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL
WASHINGTON, JULY 19, 1861
ADJUTANT-GENERAL:
I have agreed, and do agree, that the two Indian regiments named within
shall be accepted if the act of Congress shall admit it. Let there be no
further question about it.
A. LINCOLN.
MEMORANDA OF MILITARY POLICY SUGGESTED BY THE BULL RUN DEFEAT. JULY 23,
1861
1. Let the plan for making the blockade effective be pushed forward with
all possible despatch.
2. Let the volunteer forces at Fort Monroe and vicinity under General
Butler be constantly drilled, disciplined, and instructed without more for
the present.
3. Let Baltimore be held as now, with a gentle but firm and certain hand.
4. Let the force now under Patterson or Banks be strengthened and made
secure in its position.
5. Let the forces in Western Virginia act till further orders according to
instructions or orders from General McClellan.
6. [Let] General Fremont push forward his organization and operations
in the West as rapidly as possible, giving rather special attention to
Missouri.
7. Let the forces late before Manassas, except the three-months men,
be reorganized as rapidly as possible in their camps here and about
Arlington.
8. Let the three-months forces who decline to enter the longer service be
discharged as rapidly as circumstances will permit.
9. Let the new volunteer forces be brought forward as fast as possible,
and especially into the camps on the two sides of the river here.
When the foregoing shall be substantially attended to:
1. Let Manassas Junction (or some point on one or other of the railroads
near it) and Strasburg be seized, and permanently held, with an open
line from Washington to Manassas, and an open line from Harper's Ferry to
Strasburg the military men to find the way of doing these.
2. This done, a joint movement from Cairo on Memphis; and from Cincinnati
on East Tennessee.
TO THE GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY.
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 1861
THE GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY.
SIR:--Together with the regiments of three years' volunteers which the
government already has in service in your State, enough to make eight in
all, if tendered in a reasonable time, will be accepted, the new regiments
to be taken, as far as convenient, from the three months' men and officers
just discharged, and to be organized, equipped, and sent forward as fast
as single regiments are ready, On the same terms as were those already in
the service from that State.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
[Indorsement.]
This order is entered in the War Department, and the Governor of New
Jersey is authorized to furnish the regiments with wagons and horses.
S. CAMERON, Secretary of War.
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d
instant; requesting a copy of the correspondence between this, government
and foreign powers with reference to maritime right, I transmit a report
from the Secretary of State.
A. LINCOLN.
WASHINGTON, July 25, 1861
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th
instant, requesting a copy of the correspondence between this government
and foreign powers on the subject of the existing insurrection in the
United States, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State.
WASHINGTON, July 25, 1861.
A. LINCOLN.
TO SECRETARY CHASE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, JULY 16, 1861
MR CHASE:--The bearer, Mr. ------, wants ------ in the custom house at
Baltimore. If his recommendations are satisfactory, and I recollect them
to have been so, the fact that he is urged by the Methodists should be in
his favor, as they complain of us some.
LINCOLN.
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th
instant, asking the grounds, reasons, and evidence upon which the police
Commissioners of Baltimore were arrested and are now detained as prisoners
at Port McHenry, I have to state that it is judged to be incompatible with
the public interest at this time to furnish the information called for by
the resolution.
A. LINCOLN.
WASHINGTON, JULY 27, 1861
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE.
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant requesting
information concerning the quasi armistice alluded to in my message of the
4th instant, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy.
A. LINCOLN.
JULY 30, 1861
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE.
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 23d instant requesting
information concerning the imprisonment of Lieutenant John J. Worden
(John L. Worden) of the United States navy, I transmit a report from the
Secretary of the Navy.
A. LINCOLN.
July 30, 1861
ORDER TO UNITED STATES MARSHALS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 31, 1861
The Marshals of the United States in the vicinity of forts where political
prisoners are held will supply decent lodging and sustenance for such
prisoners unless they shall prefer to provide in those respects for
themselves, in which case they will be allowed to do so by the commanding
officer in charge.
Approved, and the Secretary of the State will transmit the order to the
Marshals, to the Lieutenant-General, and the Secretary of the Interior.
A. LINCOLN.
MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday,
requesting information regarding the imprisonment of loyal citizens of the
United States by the forces now in rebellion against this government,
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, and the copy of a
telegraphic despatch by which it was accompanied.
A. LINCOLN.
WASHINGTON, August 2, 1861.
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE.
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
In answer to the resolution of your honorable body of date July 31, 1861,
requesting the President to inform the Senate whether the Hon. James
H. Lane, a member of that body from Kansas, has been appointed a
brigadier-general in the army of the United States, and if so, whether
he has accepted such appointment, I have the honor to transmit herewith
certain papers, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, which, taken together,
explain themselves, and which contain all the information I possess upon
the questions propounded.
It was my intention, as shown by my letter of June 20, 1861, to appoint
Hon. James H. Lane, of Kansas, a brigadier-general of United States
volunteers in anticipation of the act of Congress, since passed, for
raising such volunteers; and I have no further knowledge upon the subject,
except as derived from the papers herewith enclosed.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 5, 1861
TO SECRETARY CAMERON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, AUGUST 7, 1861
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR
MY DEAR SIR:--The within paper, as you see, is by HON. John S. Phelps
and HON. Frank P. Blair, Jr., both members of the present Congress from
Missouri. The object is to get up an efficient force of Missourians in the
southwestern part of the State. It ought to be done, and Mr. Phelps ought
to have general superintendence of it. I see by a private report to me
from the department that eighteen regiments are already accepted from
Missouri. Can it not be arranged that part of them (not yet organized, as
I understand) may be taken from the locality mentioned and put under the
control of Mr. Phelps, and let him have discretion to accept them for a
shorter term than three years--or the war--understanding, however, that
he will get them for the full term if he can? I hope this can be done,
because Mr. Phelps is too zealous and efficient and understands his ground
too well for us to lose his service. Of course provision for arming,
equipping, etc., must be made. Mr. Phelps is here, and wishes to carry
home with him authority for this matter.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN
PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL FAST-DAY, AUGUST 12, 1861.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A Proclamation.
Whereas a joint committee of both houses of Congress has waited on the
President of the United States and requested him to "recommend a day of
public humiliation, prayer, and fasting to be observed by the people of
the United States with religious solemnities and the offering of fervent
supplications to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States,
His blessings on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace"; and
Whereas it is fit and becoming in all people at all times to acknowledge
and revere the supreme government of God, to bow in humble submission to
His chastisements, to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in
the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and to pray with all fervency and contrition for the pardon of their past
offences and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action; and
Whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessing of God,
united, prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil
war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this
terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and
crimes as a nation and as individuals to humble ourselves before Him and
to pray for His mercy-to pray that we may be spared further punishment,
though most justly deserved, that our arms may be blessed and made
effectual for the re-establishment of order, law, and peace throughout
the wide extent of our country, and that the inestimable boon of civil and
religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors
and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original
excellence.
Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do appoint
the last Thursday in September next as a day of humiliation, prayer, and
fasting for all the people of the nation. And I do earnestly recommend to
all the people, and especially to all ministers and teachers of religion
of all denominations and to all heads of families, to observe and keep
that day according to their several creeds and modes of worship in all
humility and with all religious solemnity, to the end that the united
prayer of the nation may ascend to the Throne of Grace and bring down
plentiful blessings upon our country.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the United States to
[SEAL.]
be affixed, this twelfth day of August, A. D.
1861, and of the independence of the United
States of America the eighty-sixth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
TO JAMES POLLOCK.
WASHINGTON, AUGUST 15, 1861
HON. JAMES POLLOCK.
MY DEAR SIR:--You must make a job for the bearer of this--make a job of it
with the collector and have it done. You can do it for me and you must.
Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON.
WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 15, 1861
GOVERNOR MORTON, Indiana: Start your four regiments to St. Louis at the
earliest moment possible. Get such harness as may be necessary for your
rifled gums. Do not delay a single regiment, but hasten everything forward
as soon as any one regiment is ready. Have your three additional regiments
organized at once. We shall endeavor to send you the arms this week.
A. LINCOLN
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FREMONT,
WASHINGTON, August 15, 1861
TO MAJOR-GENERAL FREMONT:
Been answering your messages since day before yesterday. Do you receive
the answers? The War Department has notified all the governors you
designate to forward all available force. So telegraphed you. Have you
received these messages? Answer immediately.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION FORBIDDING INTERCOURSE WITH REBEL STATES, AUGUST 16, 1861.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas on the fifteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one,
the President of the United States, in view of an insurrection against the
laws, Constitution, and government of the United States which had broken
out within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and in pursuance of the provisions
of the act entitled "An act to provide for calling forth the militia
to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel
invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose," approved
February twenty-eighth, seventeen hundred and ninety-five, did call forth
the militia to suppress said insurrection, and to cause the laws of the
Union to be duly executed, and the insurgents have failed to disperse
by the time directed by the President; and whereas such insurrection
has since broken out and yet exists within the States of Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas; and whereas the insurgents in all the
said States claim to act under the authority thereof, and such claim is
not disclaimed or repudiated by the persons exercising the functions of
government in such State or States, or in the part or parts thereof in
which such combinations exist, nor has such insurrection been suppressed
by said States:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in
pursuance of an act of Congress approved July thirteen, eighteen hundred
and sixty-one, do hereby declare that the inhabitants of the said States
of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (except
the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of the
Allegheny Mountains, and of such other parts of that State, and the other
States hereinbefore named, as may maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union
and the Constitution, or may be time to time occupied and controlled by
forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents),
are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all
commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with
the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other States and other parts
of the United States, is unlawful, and will remain unlawful until such
insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed; that all goods and
chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from any of said States, with the
exceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, without the
special license and permission of the President, through the Secretary
of the Treasury, or proceeding to any of said States, with the exceptions
aforesaid, by land or water, together with the vessel or vehicle
conveying the same, or conveying persons to or from said States, with
said exceptions, will be forfeited to the United States; and that from
and after fifteen days from the issuing of this proclamation all ships and
vessels belonging in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of any
of said States, with said exceptions, found at sea, or in any port of the
United States, will be forfeited to the United States; and I hereby enjoin
upon all district attorneys, marshals, and officers of the revenue and of
the military and naval forces of the United States to be vigilant in
the execution of said act, and in the enforcement of the penalties and
forfeitures imposed or declared by it; leaving any party who may think
himself aggrieved thereby to his application to the Secretary of the
Treasury for the remission of any penalty or forfeiture, which the said
Secretary is authorized by law to grant if, in his judgment, the special
circumstances of any case shall require such remission.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand,....
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of Sate.
TO SECRETARY CAMERON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 17, 1861
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR.
MY DEAR SIR:--Unless there be reason to the contrary, not known to
me, make out a commission for Simon B. Buckner, of Kentucky, as a
brigadier-general of volunteers. It is to be put into the hands of General
Anderson, and delivered to General Buckner or not, at the discretion of
General Anderson. Of course it is to remain a secret unless and until the
commission is delivered.
Yours truly, A. LINCOLN
Same day made.
[Indorsement.]
TO GOVERNOR MAGOFFIN,
WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 24, 1861
To HIS EXCELLENCY B. MAGOFFIN, Governor of the State of Kentucky.
SIR:--Your letter of the 19th instant, in which you urge the "removal from
the limits of Kentucky of the military force now organized and in camp
within that State," is received.
I may not possess full and precisely accurate knowledge upon this subject;
but I believe it is true that there is a military force in camp within
Kentucky, acting by authority of the United States, which force is not
very large, and is not now being augmented.
I also believe that some arms have been furnished to this force by the
United States.
I also believe this force consists exclusively of Kentuckians, having
their camp in the immediate vicinity of their own homes, and not assailing
or menacing any of the good people of Kentucky.
In all I have done in the premises I have acted upon the urgent
solicitation of many Kentuckians, and in accordance with what I believed,
and still believe, to be the wish of a majority of all the Union-loving
people of Kentucky.
While I have conversed on this subject with many eminent men of Kentucky,
including a large majority of her members of Congress, I do not remember
that any one of them, or any other person, except your Excellency and the
bearers of your Excellency's letter, has urged me to remove the military
force from Kentucky or to disband it. One other very worthy citizen of
Kentucky did solicit me to have the augmenting of the force suspended for
a time.
Taking all the means within my reach to form a judgment, I do not believe
it is the popular wish of Kentucky that this force shall be removed beyond
her limits; and, with this impression, I must respectfully decline to so
remove it.
I most cordially sympathize with your Excellency in the wish to preserve
the peace of my own native State, Kentucky. It is with regret I search,
and cannot find, in your not very short letter, any declaration or
intimation that you entertain any desire for the preservation of the
Federal Union.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL FREMONT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 2, 1861
MAJOR-GENERAL FREMONT.
MY DEAR SIR:--Two points in your proclamation of August 30 give me some
anxiety.
First. Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the
Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands in
retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order
that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation without first
having my approbation or consent.
Second. I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in
relation to the confiscation of property and the liberating slaves of
traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them
against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow
me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that
paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of
Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary
purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which act I herewith
send you.
This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send
it by special messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach
you.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNORS
WASHBURN OF MAINE, FAIRBANKS OF VERMONT, BERRY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ANDREW OF
MASSACHUSETTS, BUCKINGHAM OF CONNECTICUT, AND SPRAGUE OF RHODE ISLAND.
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 11, 1861.
General Butler proposes raising in New England six regiments, to be
recruited and commanded by himself, and to go on special service.
I shall be glad if you, as governor of ------, will answer by telegraph if
you consent.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL FREMONT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 11, 1861
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT.
SIR:-Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of the 2d instant, is just
received. Assuming that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the
necessities of your position than I could at this distance, on seeing
your proclamation of August 30 I perceived no general objection to it. The
particular clause, however, in relation to the confiscation of property
and the liberation of slaves appeared to me to be objectionable in its
nonconformity to the act of Congress passed the 6th of last August upon
the same subjects; and hence I wrote you, expressing my wish that that
clause should be modified accordingly. Your answer, just received,
expresses the preference on your part that I should make an open order for
the modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is therefore ordered that
the said clause of said proclamation be so modified, held, and construed
as to conform to, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject
contained in the act of Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property
used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and that said
act be published at length with this order.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO MRS. FREMONT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 12, 1861
Mrs. GENERAL FREMONT.
MY DEAR MADAM:--Your two notes of to-day are before me. I answered the
letter you bore me from General Fremont on yesterday, and not hearing from
you during the day, I sent the answer to him by mail. It is not exactly
correct, as you say you were told by the elder Mr. Blair, to say that I
sent Postmaster-General Blair to St. Louis to examine into that department
and report. Postmaster-General Blair did go, with my approbation, to see
and converse with General Fremont as a friend. I do not feel authorized to
furnish you with copies of letters in my possession without the consent of
the writers. No impression has been made on my mind against the honor or
integrity of General Fremont, and I now enter my protest against being
understood as acting in any hostility toward him.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO JOSEPH HOLT,
EXECUTIVE MANSION, SEPTEMBER 12, 1861
HON. JOSEPH HOLT.
DEAR SIR:--Yours of this day in relation to the late proclamation of
General Fremont is received yesterday I addressed a letter to him, by
mail, on the same subject, and which is to be made public when he receives
it. I herewith send you a copy of that letter, which perhaps shows my
position as distinctly as any new one I could write. I will thank you not
to make it public until General Fremont shall have had time to receive the
original.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL SCOTT
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 16, 1861.