thirteen. Without any special act of Congress, I think our military
commanders, when--in military phrase, "they are within the enemy's
country," should, in an orderly manner, seize and use whatever of real or
personal property may be necessary or convenient for their commands; at
the same time preserving, in some way, the evidence of what they do.
What I have said in regard to slaves, while commenting on the first and
second sections, is applicable to the ninth, with the difference that no
provision is made in the whole act for determining whether a particular
individual slave does or does not fall within the classes defined in
that section. He is to be free upon certain conditions but whether
those conditions do or do not pertain to him no mode of ascertaining is
provided. This could be easily supplied.
To the tenth section I make no objection. The oath therein required seems
to be proper, and the remainder of the section is substantially identical
with a law already existing.
The eleventh section simply assumes to confer discretionary power upon
the executive. Without the law, I have no hesitation to go as far in the
direction indicated as I may at any time deem expedient. And I am ready
to say now--I think it is proper for our military commanders to employ, as
laborers, as many persons of African descent as can be used to advantage.
The twelfth and thirteenth sections are something better than
unobjectionable; and the fourteenth is entirely proper, if all other parts
of the act shall stand.
That to which I chiefly object pervades most parts of the act, but more
distinctly appears in the first, second, seventh, and eighth sections.
It is the sum of those provisions which results in the divesting of title
forever.
For the causes of treason and ingredients of treason, not amounting to
the full crime, it declares forfeiture extending beyond the lives of the
guilty parties; whereas the Constitution of the United States declares
that "no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture
except during the life of the person attainted." True, there is to be
no formal attainder in this case; still, I think the greater punishment
cannot be constitutionally inflicted, in a different form, for the same
offence.
With great respect I am constrained to say I think this feature of the act
is unconstitutional. It would not be difficult to modify it.
I may remark that the provision of the Constitution, put in language
borrowed from Great Britain, applies only in this country, as I
understand, to real or landed estate.
Again, this act in rem forfeits property for the ingredients of treason
without a conviction of the supposed criminal, or a personal hearing given
him in any proceeding. That we may not touch property lying within our
reach, because we cannot give personal notice to an owner who is absent
endeavoring to destroy the government, is certainly not satisfactory.
Still, the owner may not be thus engaged; and I think a reasonable time
should be provided for such parties to appear and have personal hearings.
Similar provisions are not uncommon in connection with proceedings in rem.
For the reasons stated, I return the bill to the House in which it
originated.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, D.C., July 21, 1862.
MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN:
This is Monday. I hope to be able to tell you on Thursday what is to be
done with Burnside.
A. LINCOLN.
ORDER IN REGARD TO BEHAVIOR OF ALIENS
WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, July 21, 1862.
The following order has been received from the President of the United
States:
Representations have been made to the President by the ministers of
various foreign powers in amity with the United States that subjects of
such powers have during the present insurrection been obliged or required
by military authorities to take an oath of general or qualified allegiance
to this government. It is the duty of all aliens residing in the United
States to submit to and obey the laws and respect the authority of
the government. For any proceeding or conduct inconsistent with this
obligation and subversive of that authority they may rightfully be
subjected to military restraints when this may be necessary. But they
cannot be required to take an oath of allegiance to this government,
because it conflicts with the duty they owe to their own sovereigns. All
such obligations heretofore taken are therefore remitted and annulled.
Military commanders will abstain from imposing similar obligations in
future, and will in lieu thereof adopt such other restraints of the
character indicated as they shall find necessary, convenient, and
effectual for the public safety. It is further directed that whenever any
order shall be made affecting the personal liberty of an alien reports of
the same and of the causes thereof shall be made to the War Department for
the consideration of the Department of State.
By order of the Secretary of War:
L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General.
ORDER AUTHORIZING EMPLOYMENT OF "CONTRABANDS."
WAR DEPARTMENT, July 22, 1862.
Ordered:
1. That military commanders within the States of Virginia, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas in
an orderly manner seize and use any property, real or personal, which may
be necessary or convenient for their several commands as supplies or for
other military purposes; and that while property may be destroyed for
proper military objects, none shall be destroyed in wantonness or malice.
2. That military and naval commanders shall employ as laborers within
and from said States so many persons of African descent as can be
advantageously used for military or naval purposes, giving them reasonable
wages for their labor.
3. That as to both property and persons of African descent accounts shall
be kept sufficiently accurate and in detail to show quantities and amounts
and from whom both property and such persons shall have come, as a basis
upon which compensation can be made in proper cases; and the several
departments of this government shall attend to and perform their
appropriate parts toward the execution of these orders.
By order of the President: EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
WARNING TO REBEL SYMPATHIZERS
PROCLAMATION, JULY 25, 1862.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
In pursuance of the sixth section of the act of Congress entitled "An act
to suppress insurrection and to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and
confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July
17, 1862, and which act and the joint resolution explanatory thereof are
herewith published, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
hereby proclaim to and warn all persons within the contemplation of
said sixth section to cease participating in, aiding, countenancing, or
abetting the existing rebellion or any rebellion against the Government of
the United States and to return to their proper allegiance to the United
States, on pain of the forfeitures and seizures as within and by said
sixth section provided.
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 twenty-fifth day of July, A.D. 1862,
and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
HOLD MY HAND WHILST THE ENEMY STABS ME
TO REVERDY JOHNSON.
(Private.)
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 26, 1862.
HON. REVERDY JOHNSON.
MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 16th is received...........
You are ready to say I apply to friends what is due only to enemies. I
distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my
hands while my enemies stab me. This appeal of professed friends has
paralyzed me more in this struggle than any other one thing. You remember
telling me, the day after the Baltimore mob in April, 1861, that it would
crush all Union feeling in Maryland for me to attempt bringing troops over
Maryland soil to Washington. I brought the troops notwithstanding, and
yet there was Union feeling enough left to elect a Legislature the
next autumn, which in turn elected a very excellent Union United States
senator! I am a patient man--always willing to forgive on the Christian
terms of repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still,
I must save this government, if possible. What I cannot do, of course, I
will not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall
not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TO CUTHBERT BULLITT.
(Private.)
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 28, 1862.
CUTHBERT BULLITT, Esq., New Orleans, Louisiana.
SIR:--The copy of a letter addressed to yourself by Mr. Thomas J. Durant
has been shown to me. The writer appears to be an able, a dispassionate,
and an entirely sincere man. The first part of the letter is devoted to
an effort to show that the secession ordinance of Louisiana was adopted
against the will of a majority of the people. This is probably true,
and in that fact may be found some instruction. Why did they allow the
ordinance to go into effect? Why did they not assert themselves? Why stand
passive and allow themselves to be trodden down by minority? Why did they
not hold popular meetings and have a convention of their own to express
and enforce the true sentiment of the State? If preorganization was
against them then, why not do this now that the United States army is
present to protect them? The paralysis--the dead palsy--of the government
in this whole struggle is that this class of men will do nothing for the
government, nothing for themselves, except demanding that the government
shall not strike its open enemies, lest they be struck by accident!
Mr. Durant complains that in various ways the relation of master and slave
is disturbed by the presence of our army, and he considers it particularly
vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover of an act of Congress,
while constitutional guaranties are suspended on the plea of military
necessity. The truth is, that what is done and omitted about slaves
is done and omitted on the same military necessity. It is a military
necessity to have men and money; and we can get neither in sufficient
numbers or amounts if we keep from or drive from our lines slaves coming
to them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in this direction,
nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds till he and such as he shall
have time to help themselves.
I am not posted to speak understandingly on all the police regulations
of which Mr. Durant complains. If experience shows any one of them to be
wrong, let them be set right. I think I can perceive in the freedom
of trade which Mr. Durant urges that he would relieve both friends and
enemies from the pressure of the blockade. By this he would serve the
enemy more effectively than the enemy is able to serve himself. I do not
say or believe that to serve the enemy is the purpose, of Mr. Durant,
or that he is conscious of any purpose other than national and patriotic
ones. Still, if there were a class of men who, having no choice of sides
in the contest, were anxious only to have quiet and comfort for themselves
while it rages, and to fall in with the victorious side at the end of it
without loss to themselves, their advice as to the mode of conducting
the contest would be precisely such as his is. He speaks of no
duty--apparently thinks of none--resting upon Union men. He even thinks it
injurious to the Union cause that they should be restrained in trade and
passage without taking sides. They are to touch neither a sail nor a pump,
but to be merely passengers--deadheads at that--to be carried snug and dry
throughout the storm, and safely landed right side up. Nay, more: even
a mutineer is to go untouched, lest these sacred passengers receive an
accidental wound. Of course the rebellion will never be suppressed in
Louisiana if the professed Union men there will neither help to do it nor
permit the government to do it without their help. Now, I think the true
remedy is very different from what is suggested by Mr. Durant. It does not
lie in rounding the rough angles of the war, but in removing the necessity
for the war. The people of Louisiana who wish protection to person and
property have but to reach forth their hands and take it. Let them in good
faith reinaugurate the national authority, and set up a State government
conforming thereto under the Constitution. They know how to do it and can
have the protection of the army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn
so soon as such State government can dispense with its presence; and the
people of the State can then, upon the old constitutional terms, govern
themselves to their own liking. This is very simple and easy.
If they will not do this--if they prefer to hazard all for the sake
of destroying the government--it is for them to consider whether it is
probable I will surrender the government to save them from losing all. If
they decline what I suggest, you scarcely need to ask what I will do. What
would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or would
you prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with rose
water? Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you
give up the contest, leaving any available means unapplied? I am in no
boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can,
to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal
inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast
for malicious dealing.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TO LOYAL GOVERNORS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.,
July 28, 1862.
GOVERNORS OF ALL LOYAL STATES:
It would be of great service here for us to know, as fully as you can
tell, what progress is made and making in recruiting for old regiments
in your State. Also about what day the first regiments can move with you,
what the second, what the third, and so on. This information is important
to us in making calculations. Please give it as promptly and accurately as
you call.
A. LINCOLN.
BROKEN EGGS CANNOT BE MENDED
EXTRACT FROM LETTER TO AUGUST BELMONT.
July 31, 1862.
Broken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has nothing to do now but to
take her place in the Union as it was, barring the already broken eggs.
The sooner she does so, the smaller will be the amount of that which will
be past mending. This government cannot much longer play a game in
which it stakes all, and its enemies stake nothing. Those enemies must
understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy the
government, and if they fail, still come back into the Union unhurt. If
they expect in any contingency to ever have the Union as it was, I join
with the writer in saying, "Now is the time."
How much better it would have been for the writer to have gone at this,
under the protection of the army at New Orleans, than to have sat down in
a closet writing complaining letters northward!
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TO COUNT GASPARIN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
August 4, 1863.
TO COUNT A. DE GASPARIN.
DEAR SIR--Your very acceptable letter, dated Orbe, Canton de Vaud,
Switzerland, 18th of July, 1862, is received. The moral effect was the
worst of the affair before Richmond, and that has run its course downward.
We are now at a stand, and shall soon be rising again, as we hope. I
believe it is true that, in men and material, the enemy suffered more than
we in that series of conflicts, while it is certain that he is less able
to bear it.
With us every soldier is a man of character, and must be treated with
more consideration than is customary in Europe. Hence our great army, for
slighter causes than could have prevailed there, has dwindled rapidly,
bringing the necessity for a new call earlier than was anticipated. We
shall easily obtain the new levy, however. Be not alarmed if you shall
learn that we shall have resorted to a draft for part of this. It seems
strange even to me, but it is true, that the government is now pressed
to this course by a popular demand. Thousands who wish not to personally
enter the service are nevertheless anxious to pay and send substitutes,
provided they can have assurance that unwilling persons, similarly
situated, will be compelled to do likewise. Besides this, volunteers
mostly choose to enter newly forming regiments, while drafted men can be
sent to fill up the old ones, wherein man for man they are quite doubly as
valuable.
You ask, "Why is it that the North with her great armies so often is found
with inferiority of numbers face to face with the armies of the South?"
While I painfully know the fact, a military man, which I am not, would
better answer the question. The fact I know has not been overlooked, and
I suppose the cause of its continuance lies mainly in the other facts
that the enemy holds the interior and we the exterior lines, and that
we operate where the people convey information to the enemy, while he
operates where they convey none to us.
I have received the volume and letter which you did me the honor of
addressing to me, and for which please accept my sincere thanks. You are
much admired in America for the ability of your writings, and much
loved for your generosity to us and your devotion to liberal principles
generally.
You are quite right as to the importance to us, for its bearing upon
Europe, that we should achieve military successes, and the same is true
for us at home as well as abroad. Yet it seems unreasonable that a series
of successes, extending through half a year, and clearing more than
100,000 square miles of country, should help us so little, while a single
half-defeat should hurt us so much. But let us be patient.
I am very happy to know that my course has not conflicted with your
judgment of propriety and policy I can only say that I have acted upon my
best convictions, without selfishness or malice, and that by the help of
God I shall continue to do so.
Please be assured of my highest respect and esteem.
A. LINCOLN.
SPEECH AT A WAR MEETING, WASHINGTON, AUGUST 6, 1862
FELLOW CITIZENS: I believe there is no precedent for my appearing before
you on this occasion, but it is also true that there is no precedent for
your being here yourselves, and I offer in justification of myself and
of you that, upon examination, I have found nothing in the Constitution
against it. I, however, have an impression that; there are younger
gentlemen who will entertain you better and better address your
understanding than I will or could, and therefore I propose but to detain
you a moment longer. I am very little inclined on any occasion to say
anything unless I hope to produce some good by it. The only thing I think
of just now not likely to be better said by some one else is a matter in
which we have heard some other persons blamed for what I did myself There
has been a very widespread attempt to have a quarrel between General
McClellan and the Secretary of War Now, I occupy a position that enables
me to believe that these two gentlemen are not nearly so deep in the
quarrel as some presuming to be their friends. General McClellan's
attitude is such that in the very selfishness of his nature he cannot but
wish to be successful--and I hope he will--and the Secretary of War is
precisely in the same situation. If the military commanders in the field
cannot be successful, not only the Secretary of War, but myself, for the
time being the master of both, cannot but be failures. I know General
McClellan wishes to be successful, and I know he does not wish it any more
than the Secretary of War for him, and both of them together no more
than I wish it. Sometimes we have a dispute about how many men General
McClellan has had, and those who would disparage him say he has had a very
large number, and those who would disparage the Secretary of War insist
that General McClellan has had a very small number. The basis for this is,
there is always a wide difference, and on this occasion perhaps a wider
one, between the grand total on McClellan's rolls and the men actually
fit for duty; and those who would disparage him talk of the grand total on
paper, and those who would disparage the Secretary of War talk of those
at present fit for duty. General McClellan has sometimes asked for things
that the Secretary of War did not give him. General McClellan is not to
blame for asking for what he wanted and needed, and the Secretary of War
is not to blame for not giving when he had none to give. And I say here,
so far as I know, the Secretary of War has withheld no one thing at any
time in my power to give him. I have no accusation against him. I believe
he is a brave and able man, and I stand here, as justice requires me to
do, to take upon myself what has been charged on the Secretary of War as
withholding from him. I have talked longer than I expected to do, and now
I avail myself of my privilege of saying no more.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR ANDREW. August 12, 1862.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, D.C.
GOVERNOR ANDREW, Boston, Mass.:
Your despatch saying "I can't get those regiments off because I can't
get quick work out of the V. S. disbursing officer and the paymaster" is
received. Please say to these gentlemen that if they do not work quickly I
will make quick work with them. In the name of all that is reasonable, how
long does it take to pay a couple of regiments? We were never more in need
of the arrival of regiments than now--even to-day.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN. August 12, 1862.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.
GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Penn.:
It is very important for some regiments to arrive here at once. What lack
you from us? What can we do to expedite matters? Answer.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. R. CURTIS. August 12, 1862.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
MAJOR-GENERAL CURTIS, St. Louis, Missouri:
Would the completion of the railroad some distance farther in the
direction of Springfield, Mo., be of any military advantage to you? Please
answer.
A. LINCOLN.
ADDRESS ON COLONIZATION TO A DEPUTATION OF COLORED MEN.
WASHINGTON, Thursday, August 14, 1862.
This afternoon the President of the United States gave an audience to a
committee of colored men at the White House. They were introduced by
Rev. J. Mitchell, Commissioner of Emigration, E. M. Thomas, the chairman,
remarked that they were there by invitation to hear what the Executive had
to say to them.
Having all been seated, the President, after a few preliminary
observations, informed them that a sum of money had been appropriated by
Congress, and placed at his disposition, for the purpose of aiding the
colonization, in some country, of the people, or a portion of them, of
African descent, thereby making it his duty, as it had for a long time
been his inclination, to favor that cause. And why, he asked, should the
people of your race be colonized, and where? Why should they leave this
country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper consideration.
You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference
than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right
or wrong I need not discuss; but this physical difference is a great
disadvantage to us both, as I think. Your race suffer very greatly, many
of them, by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a
word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason, at
least, why we should be separated. You here are free men, I suppose.
[A voice--"Yes, sir!"]