York Tribune before the right time; he hoped never to have to do it; he
would not anticipate events. In respect to emancipation in Missouri, he
said that what had been observed by Mr. Noell was probably true, but the
operation of these natural causes had not prevented the irritating conduct
to which he had referred, or destroyed the hopes of the Confederates that
Missouri would at some time merge herself alongside of them, which, in his
judgment, the passage of this resolution by Congress and its acceptance by
Missouri would accomplish.
Mr. Crisfield, of Maryland, asked what would be the effect of the refusal
of the State to accept this proposal, and he desired to know if the
President looked to any policy beyond the acceptance or rejection of this
scheme.
The President replied that he had no designs beyond the actions of the
States on this particular subject. He should lament their refusal to
accept it, but he had no designs beyond their refusal of it.
Mr. Menzies, of Kentucky, inquired if the President thought there was
any power except in the States themselves to carry out his scheme of
emancipation.
The President replied that he thought there could not be. He then went
off into a course of remarks not qualifying the foregoing declaration nor
material to be repeated to a just understanding of his meaning.
Mr. Crisfield said he did not think the people of Maryland looked upon
slavery as a permanent institution; and he did not know that they would
be very reluctant to give it up if provision was made to meet the loss and
they could be rid of the race; but they did not like to be coerced
into emancipation, either by the direct action of the government or by
indirection, as through the emancipation of slaves in this District, or
the confiscation of Southern property as now threatened; and he thought
before they would consent to consider this proposition they would require
to be informed on these points. The President replied that, unless he was
expelled by the act of God or the Confederate armies he should occupy
that house for three years; and as long as he remained there Maryland had
nothing to fear either for her institutions or her interests on the points
referred to.
Mr. Crisfield immediately added: "Mr. President, if what you now say could
be heard by the people of Maryland, they would consider your proposition
with a much better feeling than I fear without it they will be inclined to
do."
The President: "That [meaning a publication of what he said] will not
do; it would force me into a quarrel before the proper time "; and,
again intimating, as he had before done, that a quarrel with the "Greeley
faction" was impending, he said he did not wish to encounter it before the
proper time, nor at all if it could be avoided.
[The Greely faction wanted an immediate Emancipation Proclamation. D.W.]
Governor Wickliffe, of Kentucky, then asked him respecting the
constitutionality of his scheme.
The President replied: "As you may suppose, I have considered that;
and the proposition now submitted does not encounter any constitutional
difficulty. It proposes simply to co-operate with any State by giving such
State pecuniary aid"; and he thought that the resolution, as proposed by
him, would be considered rather as the expression of a sentiment than as
involving any constitutional question.
Mr. Hall, of Missouri, thought that if this proposition was adopted at all
it should be by the votes of the free States, and come as a proposition
from them to the slave States, affording them an inducement to put aside
this subject of discord; that it ought not to be expected that members
representing slaveholding constituencies should declare at once, and in
advance of any proposition to them, for the emancipation of slavery.
The President said he saw and felt the force of the objection; it was a
fearful responsibility, and every gentleman must do as he thought best;
that he did not know how this scheme was received by the members from the
free States; some of them had spoken to him and received it kindly; but
for the most part they were as reserved and chary as we had been, and he
could not tell how they would vote. And in reply to some expression of Mr.
Hall as to his own opinion regarding slavery, he said he did not pretend
to disguise his anti-slavery feeling; that he thought it was wrong, and
should continue to think so; but that was not the question we had to deal
with now. Slavery existed, and that, too, as well by the act of the North
as of the South; and in any scheme to get rid of it the North as well as
the South was morally bound to do its full and equal share. He thought the
institution wrong and ought never to have existed; but yet he recognized
the rights of property which had grown out of it, and would respect those
rights as fully as similar rights in any other property; that property can
exist and does legally exist. He thought such a law wrong, but the rights
of property resulting must be respected; he would get rid of the odious
law, not by violating the rights, but by encouraging the proposition and
offering inducements to give it up.
Here the interview, so far as this subject is concerned, terminated by
Mr. Crittenden's assuring the President that, whatever might be our final
action, we all thought him solely moved by a high patriotism and sincere
devotion to the happiness and glory of his country; and with that
conviction we should consider respectfully the important suggestions he
had made.
After some conversation on the current war news, we retired, and
I immediately proceeded to my room and wrote out this paper. J. W.
CRISFIELD.
We were present at the interview described in the foregoing paper of
Mr. Crisfield, and we certify that the substance of what passed on the
occasion is in this paper faithfully and fully given.
J. W. MENZIES, J. J. CRITTENDEN, R. MALLORY.
March 10, 1862.
PRESIDENT'S SPECIAL WAR ORDER NO.3.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 11, 1862.
Major-General McClellan having personally taken the field at the head of
the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered he is relieved from the
command of the other military departments, he retaining command of the
Department of the Potomac.
Ordered further, That the departments now under the respective commands of
Generals Halleck and Hunter, together with so much of that under General
Buell as lies west of a north and south line indefinitely drawn through
Knoxville, Tenn., be consolidated and designated the Department of the
Mississippi, and that until otherwise ordered Major General Halleck have
command of said department.
Ordered also, That the country west of the Department of the Potomac and
east of the Department of the Mississippi be a military department, to
be called the Mountain Department, and that the same be commanded by
Major-General Fremont.
That all the commanders of departments, after the receipt of this order by
them, respectively report severally and directly to the Secretary of War,
and that prompt, full, and frequent reports will be expected of all and
each of them.
A. LINCOLN.
FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL MCCLELLAN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, March 13, 1862.
MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN:
The President, having considered the plan of operations agreed upon by
yourself and the commanders of army corps, makes no objection to the same
but gives the following directions as to its execution:
1. Leave such force at Manassas Junction as shall make it entirely certain
that the enemy shall no repossess himself of that position and line of
communication.
2. Leave Washington entirely secure.
3. Move the remainder of the force down the Potomac, choosing a new base
at Fortress Monroe or anywhere between here and there, or, at all events,
move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit of the enemy by some
route.
EDWARD M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
SPEECH TO A PARTY OF MASSACHUSETTS GENTLEMAN
WASHINGTON, MARCH 13, 1862
I thank you, Mr. Train, for your kindness in presenting me with this truly
elegant and highly creditable specimen of the handiwork of the mechanics
of your State of Massachusetts, and I beg of you to express my hearty
thanks to the donors. It displays a perfection of workmanship which I
really wish I had time to acknowledge in more fitting words, and I might
then follow your idea that it is suggestive, for it is evidently expected
that a good deal of whipping is to be done. But as we meet here socially
let us not think only of whipping rebels, or of those who seem to think
only of whipping negroes, but of those pleasant days, which it is to be
hoped are in store for us, when seated behind a good pair of horses we can
crack our whips and drive through a peaceful, happy, and prosperous land.
With this idea, gentlemen, I must leave you for my business duties. [It
was likely a Buggy-Whip D.W.]
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.
WASHINGTON CITY, March 20, 1862.
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
The third section of the "Act further to promote the efficiency of the
Navy," approved December 21, 1861, provides:
"That the President of the United States, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, shall have the authority to detail from the retired
list of the navy for the command of squadrons and single ships such
officers as he may believe the good of the service requires to be thus
placed in command; and such officers may, if upon the recommendation of
the President of the United States they shall receive a vote of thanks cf
Congress for their services and gallantry in action against an enemy, be
restored to the active list, and not otherwise."
In conformity with this law, Captain Samuel F. Du Pont, of the navy, was
nominated to the Senate for continuance as the flag-officer in command of
the squadron which recently rendered such important service to the Union
in the expedition to the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
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.
A. 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,
A. 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,
A. 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.
A. 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.
A. 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.
A. 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: