opinion you suppose. I expressed the opinion that the Constitution is
different in its application in cases of rebellion or invasion, involving
the public safety, from what it is in times of profound peace and
public security; and this opinion I adhere to, simply because, by the
Constitution itself, things may be done in the one case which may not be
done in the other.
I dislike to waste a word on a merely personal point, but I must
respectfully assure you that you will find yourselves at fault should
you ever seek for evidence to prove your assumption that I "opposed in
discussions before the people the policy of the Mexican war."
You say: "Expunge from the Constitution this limitation upon the power
of Congress to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and yet the other
guarantees of personal liberty would remain unchanged." Doubtless, if this
clause of the Constitution, improperly called, as I think, a limitation
upon the power of Congress, were expunged, the other guarantees would
remain the same; but the question is not how those guarantees would stand
with that clause out of the Constitution, but how they stand with that
clause remaining in it, in case of rebellion or invasion involving the
public safety. If the liberty could be indulged of expunging that clause,
letter and spirit, I really think the constitutional argument would be
with you.
My general view on this question was stated in the Albany response, and
hence I do not state it now. I only add that, as seems to me, the
benefit of the writ of habeas corpus is the great means through which the
guarantees of personal liberty are conserved and made available in
the last resort; and corroborative of this view is the fact that Mr.
Vallandigham, in the very case in question, under the advice of able
lawyers, saw not where else to go but to the habeas corpus. But by the
Constitution the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus itself may be
suspended when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may
require it.
You ask, in substance, whether I really claim that I may override all the
guaranteed rights of individuals, on the plea of conserving the public
safety when I may choose to say the public safety requires it. This
question, divested of the phraseology calculated to represent me as
struggling for an arbitrary personal prerogative, is either simply a
question who shall decide, or an affirmation that nobody shall decide,
what the public safety does require in cases of rebellion or invasion.
The Constitution contemplates the question as likely to occur for
decision, but it does not expressly declare who is to decide it. By
necessary implication, when rebellion or invasion comes, the decision is
to be made from time to time; and I think the man whom, for the time, the
people have, under the Constitution, made the commander-in-chief of their
army and navy, is the man who holds the power and bears the responsibility
of making it. If he uses the power justly, the same people will probably
justify him; if he abuses it, he is in their hands to be dealt with by all
the modes they have reserved to themselves in the Constitution.
The earnestness with which you insist that persons can only, in times
of rebellion, be lawfully dealt with in accordance with the rules for
criminal trials and punishments in times of peace, induces me to add a
word to what I said on that point in the Albany response.
You claim that men may, if they choose, embarrass those whose duty it is
to combat a giant rebellion, and then be dealt with in turn only as if
there were no rebellion. The Constitution itself rejects this view. The
military arrests and detentions which have been made, including those of
Mr. Vallandigham, which are not different in principle from the others,
have been for prevention, and not for punishment--as injunctions to stay
injury, as proceedings to keep the peace; and hence, like proceedings
in such cases and for like reasons, they have not been accompanied with
indictments, or trials by juries, nor in a single case by any punishment
whatever, beyond what is purely incidental to the prevention. The original
sentence of imprisonment in Mr. Vallandigham's case was to prevent injury
to the military service only, and the modification of it was made as a
less disagreeable mode to him of securing the same prevention.
I am unable to perceive an insult to Ohio in the case of Mr. Vallandigham.
Quite surely nothing of the sort was or is intended. I was wholly unaware
that Mr. Vallandigham was, at the time of his arrest, a candidate for the
Democratic nomination for governor until so informed by your reading to me
the resolutions of the convention. I am grateful to the State of Ohio for
many things, especially for the brave soldiers and officers she has given
in the present national trial to the armies of the Union.
You claim, as I understand, that according to my own position in the
Albany response, Mr. Vallandigham should be released; and this because,
as you claim, he has not damaged the military service by discouraging
enlistments, encouraging desertions, or otherwise; and that if he had,
he should have been turned over to the civil authorities under the recent
acts of Congress. I certainly do not know that Mr. Vallandigham has
specifically and by direct language advised against enlistments and in
favor of desertion and resistance to drafting.
We all know that combinations, armed in some instances, to resist the
arrest of deserters began several months ago; that more recently the like
has appeared in resistance to the enrolment preparatory to a draft; and
that quite a number of assassinations have occurred from the same animus.
These had to be met by military force, and this again has led to bloodshed
and death. And now, under a sense of responsibility more weighty and
enduring than any which is merely official, I solemnly declare my belief
that this hindrance of the military, including maiming and murder, is
due to the course in which Mr. Vallandigham has been engaged in a greater
degree than to any other cause; and it is due to him personally in a
greater degree than to any other one man.
These things have been notorious, known to all, and of course known to Mr.
Vallandigham. Perhaps I would not be wrong to say they originated with
his special friends and adherents. With perfect knowledge of them, he has
frequently if not constantly made speeches in Congress and before popular
assemblies; and if it can be shown that, with these things staring him in
the face he has ever uttered a word of rebuke or counsel against them, it
will be a fact greatly in his favor with me, and one of which as yet I am
totally ignorant. When it is known that the whole burden of his speeches
has been to stir up men against the prosecution of the war, and that in
the midst of resistance to it he has not been known in any instance to
counsel against such resistance, it is next to impossible to repel the
inference that he has counseled directly in favor of it.
With all this before their eyes, the convention you represent have
nominated Mr. Vallandigham for governor of Ohio, and both they and
you have declared the purpose to sustain the national Union by all
constitutional means. But of course they and you in common reserve to
yourselves to decide what are constitutional means; and, unlike the Albany
meeting, you omit to state or intimate that in your opinion an army is a
constitutional means of saving the Union against a rebellion, or even to
intimate that you are conscious of an existing rebellion being in progress
with the avowed object of destroying that very Union. At the same time
your nominee for governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is known to you
and to the world to declare against the use of an army to suppress the
rebellion. Your own attitude, therefore, encourages desertion, resistance
to the draft, and the like, because it teaches those who incline to desert
and to escape the draft to believe it is your purpose to protect them, and
to hope that you will become strong enough to do so.
After a short personal intercourse with you, gentlemen of the committee,
I cannot say I think you desire this effect to follow your attitude; but
I assure your that both friends and enemies of the Union look upon it in
this light. It is a substantial hope, and by consequence a real strength
to the enemy. If it is a false hope, and one which you would willingly
dispel, I will make the way exceedingly easy.
I send you duplicates of this letter in order that you, or a majority of
you, may, if you choose, indorse your names upon one of them and return it
thus indorsed to me with the understanding that those signing are thereby
committed to the following propositions and to nothing else:
1. That there is now a rebellion in the United States, the object and
tendency of which is to destroy the National Union; and that, in your
opinion, an army and navy are constitutional means for suppressing that
rebellion;
2. That no one of you will do anything which, in his own judgment,
will tend to hinder the increase, or favor the decrease, or lessen the
efficiency of the army or navy while engaged in the effort to suppress
that rebellion; and
3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the
officers, soldiers, and seamen of the army and navy, while engaged in
the effort to suppress the rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well
provided for and supported.
And with the further understanding that upon receiving the letter and
names thus indorsed, I will cause them to be published, which publication
shall be, within itself, a revocation of the order in relation to Mr.
Vallandigham. It will not escape observation that I consent to the release
of Mr. Vallandigham upon terms not embracing any pledge from him or from
others as to what he will or will not do. I do this because he is not
present to speak for himself, or to authorize others to speak for him;
and because I should expect that on his returning he would not put himself
practically in antagonism with the position of his friends. But I do it
chiefly because I thereby prevail on other influential gentlemen of Ohio
to so define their position as to be of immense value to the army--thus
more than compensating for the consequences of any mistake in allowing Mr.
Vallandigham to return; so that, on the whole, the public safety will not
have suffered by it. Still, in regard to Mr. Vallandigham and all others,
I must hereafter, as heretofore, do so much as the public safety may seem
to require.
I have the honor to be respectfully yours, etc.,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PARKER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 30, 1863. 10.55
GOVERNOR PARKER, Trenton, N.J.:
Your despatch of yesterday received. I really think the attitude of the
enemy's army in Pennsylvania presents us the best opportunity we have had
since the war began. I think you will not see the foe in New Jersey. I beg
you to be assured that no one out of my position can know so well as if
he were in it the difficulties and involvements of replacing General
McClellan in command, and this aside from any imputations upon him.
Please accept my sincere thanks for what you have done and are doing to
get troops forward.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO A. K. McCLURE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, June 30, 1863.
A. K. McCLURE, Philadelphia:
Do we gain anything by opening one leak to stop another? Do we gain
anything by quieting one merely to open another, and probably a larger
one?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL COUCH. [Cipher] WASHINGTON CITY, June 30, 1863. 3.23
P.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL COUCH, Harrisburg, Pa.:
I judge by absence of news that the enemy is not crossing or pressing up
to the Susquehanna. Please tell me what you know of his movements.
A. LINCOLN
TO GENERAL D. HUNTER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 30, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER.
MY DEAR GENERAL:--I have just received your letter of the 25th of June.
I assure you, and you may feel authorized in stating, that the recent
change of commanders in the Department of the South was made for no
reasons which convey any imputation upon your known energy, efficiency,
and patriotism; but for causes which seemed sufficient, while they were in
no degree incompatible with the respect and esteem in which I have always
held you as a man and an officer.
I cannot, by giving my consent to a publication of whose details I know
nothing, assume the responsibility of whatever you may write. In this
matter your own sense of military propriety must be your guide, and the
regulations of the service your rule of conduct.
I am very truly your friend,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., July 3, 1863
MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Cincinnati, Ohio:
Private Downey, of the Twentieth or Twenty-sixth Kentucky Infantry,
is said to have been sentenced to be shot for desertion to-day. If so,
respite the execution until I can see the record.
A. LINCOLN.
REASSURING SON IN COLLEGE
TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T, LINCOLN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 3,1863.
ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Esq., Cambridge, Mass.:
Don't be uneasy. Your mother very slightly hurt by her fall.
A.L.
Please send at once.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEWS FROM GETTYSBURG.
WASHINGTON,
July 4, 10.30 A.M.
The President announces to the country that news from the Army of the
Potomac, up to 10 P.M. of the 3d, is such as to cover that army with the
highest honor, to promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and
to claim the condolence of all for the many gallant fallen; and that
for this he especially desires that on this day He whose will, not
ours, should ever be done be everywhere remembered and reverenced with
profoundest gratitude.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FRENCH. [Cipher] WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
July 5, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL FRENCH, Fredericktown, Md.:
I see your despatch about destruction of pontoons. Cannot the enemy ford
the river?
A. LINCOLN.
CONTINUED FAILURE TO PURSUE ENEMY
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.
SOLDIERS' HOME, WASHINGTON, JULY 6 1863.7 P.M.,
MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK:
I left the telegraph office a good deal dissatisfied. You know I did not
like the phrase--in Orders, No. 68, I believe--"Drive the invaders from
our soil." Since that, I see a despatch from General French, saying the
enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying
why he does not stop it, or even intimating a thought that it ought to
be stopped. Still later, another despatch from General Pleasonton, by
direction of General Meade, to General French, stating that the main army
is halted because it is believed the rebels are concentrating "on the
road towards Hagerstown, beyond Fairfield," and is not to move until it is
ascertained that the rebels intend to evacuate Cumberland Valley.
These things appear to me to be connected with a purpose to cover
Baltimore and Washington and to get the enemy across the river again
without a further collision, and they do not appear connected with a
purpose to prevent his crossing and to destroy him. I do fear the former
purpose is acted upon and the latter rejected.
If you are satisfied the latter purpose is entertained, and is judiciously
pursued, I am content. If you are not so satisfied, please look to it.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
RESPONSE TO A SERENADE,
JULY 7, 1863.
FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am very glad indeed to see you to-night, and yet I
will not say I thank you for this call; but I do most sincerely thank
Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called. How long ago is it
Eighty-odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time in the
history of the world, a nation, by its representatives, assembled and
declared as a self-evident truth "that all men are created equal." That
was the birthday of the United States of America. Since then the Fourth
of July has had several very peculiar recognitions. The two men most
distinguished in the framing and support of the Declaration were Thomas
Jefferson and John Adams, the one having penned it, and the other
sustained it the most forcibly in debate--the only two of the fifty-five
who signed it and were elected Presidents of the United States. Precisely
fifty years after they put their hands to the paper, it pleased
Almighty God to take both from this stage of action. This was indeed an
extraordinary and remarkable event in our history. Another President, five
years after, was called from this stage of existence on the same day and
month of the year; and now on this last Fourth of July just passed, when
we have a gigantic rebellion, at the bottom of which is an effort to
overthrow the principle that all men were created equal, we have the
surrender of a most powerful position and army on that very day. And not
only so, but in the succession of battles in Pennsylvania, near to us,
through three days, so rapidly fought that they might be called one great
battle, on the first, second, and third of the month of July; and on the
fourth the cohorts of those who opposed the Declaration that all men are
created equal, "turned tail" and run.
Gentlemen, this is a glorious theme, and the occasion for a speech, but I
am not prepared to make one worthy of the occasion. I would like to speak
in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have
fought in the cause of the Union and liberties of their country from the
beginning of the war. These are trying occasions, not only in success,
but for the want of success. I dislike to mention the name of one single
officer, lest I might do wrong to those I might forget. Recent events
bring up glorious names, and particularly prominent ones; but these I will
not mention. Having said this much, I will now take the music.
SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG TO GENERAL GRANT
TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK TO GENERAL G. C. MEADE.
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 7, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac:
I have received from the President the following note, which I
respectfully communicate:
"We have certain information that Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant
on the Fourth of July. Now if General Meade can complete his work, so
gloriously prosecuted this far, by the literal or substantial destruction
of Lee's army, the rebellion will be over.
"Yours truly,
"A. LINCOLN."
H. W. HALLECK. General-in-Chief.
TELEGRAM FROM GENERAL HALLECK TO GENERAL G. C. MEADE.
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 8, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Frederick, Md.:
There is reliable information that the enemy is crossing at Williamsport.
The opportunity to attack his divided forces should not be lost. The
President is urgent and anxious that your army should move against him by
forced marches.
H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, July 8, 1863.12.30 P.M.
GENERAL LORENZO THOMAS, Harrisburg, Pa.:
Your despatch of this morning to the Secretary of War is before me. The
forces you speak of will be of no imaginable service if they cannot go
forward with a little more expedition. Lee is now passing the Potomac
faster than the forces you mention are passing Carlisle. Forces now beyond
Carlisle to be joined by regiments still at Harrisburg, and the united
force again to join Pierce somewhere, and the whole to move down the
Cumberland Valley, will in my unprofessional opinion be quite as likely to
capture the "man in the moon" as any part of Lee's army.
A. LINCOLN.
NEWS OF GRANT'S CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG
TELEGRAM TO E. D. SMITH.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 1863.
E. DELAFIELD SMITH, New York:
Your kind despatch in behalf of self and friends is gratefully received.
Capture of Vicksburg confirmed by despatch from General Grant himself.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO F. F. LOWE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 1863.
HON. F. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.:
There is no doubt that General Meade, now commanding the Army of the
Potomac, beat Lee at Gettysburg, Pa., at the end of a three days' battle,
and that the latter is now crossing the Potomac at Williamsport over the
swollen stream and with poor means of crossing, and closely pressed
by Meade. We also have despatches rendering it entirely certain that
Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant on the glorious old 4th.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO L. SWETT AND P. F. LOWE.
[Cipher.]
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, D.C., July 9, 1863.
HON. LEONARD SWETT, HON. F. F. LOWE, San Francisco, Cal.:
Consult together and do not have a riot, or great difficulty about
delivering possession.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO J. K. DUBOIS.
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 11,1863. 9 A.M.
HON. J. K. DUBOIS, Springfield, Ill.:
It is certain that, after three days' fighting at Gettysburg, Lee withdrew
and made for the Potomac, that he found the river so swollen as to
prevent his crossing; that he is still this side, near Hagerstown and
Williamsport, preparing to defend himself; and that Meade is close upon
him, and preparing to attack him, heavy skirmishing having occurred nearly
all day yesterday.
I am more than satisfied with what has happened north of the Potomac so
far, and am anxious and hopeful for what is to come.
A. LINCOLN.
[Nothing came! Lee was allowed to escape again and the war
went on for another two years. D.W.]
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHENCK.
[Cipher.]
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, July 11, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL SCHENCK, Baltimore, Md.:
How many rebel prisoners captured within Maryland and Pennsylvania have
reached Baltimore within this month of July?
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 13, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT:
MY DEAR GENERAL:--I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.
I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment of the almost inestimable
service you have done the Country. I write to say a word further. When you
first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you
finally did--march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the
transports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith except a general
hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the
like could succeed. When you dropped below, and took Port Gibson, Grand
Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join
General Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I
feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment
that you were right and I was wrong.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, July 13, 1863.
GENERAL SCHOFIELD. St. Louis, Mo.:
I regret to learn of the arrest of the Democrat editor. I fear this loses
you the middle position I desired you to occupy. I have not learned which
of the two letters I wrote you it was that the Democrat published, but I
care very little for the publication of any letter I have written. Please
spare me the trouble this is likely to bring.
A. LINCOLN.
SON IN COLLEGE DOES NOT WRITE HIS PARENTS
TELEGRAM TO R. T. LINCOLN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON D.C., July 14, 1863.
ROBERT T. LINCOLN: New York, Fifth Avenue Hotel:
Why do I hear no more of you?
A. LINCOLN.
INTIMATION OF ARMISTICE PROPOSALS
FROM JAMES R. GILMORE TO GOVERNOR VANCE OF NORTH CAROLINA,
WITH THE PRESIDENT'S INDORSEMENT.
PRESIDENT'S ROOM, WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON,
July [15?] 1864.
HIS EXCELLENCY ZEBULON B. VANCE.
MY DEAR SIR:--My former business partner, Mr. Frederic Kidder, of Boston,
has forwarded to me a letter he has recently received from his brother,
Edward Kidder, of Wilmington, in which (Edward Kidder) says that he has
had an interview with you in which you expressed an anxiety for any peace
compatible with honor; that you regard slavery as already dead, and the
establishment of the Confederacy as hopeless; and that you should exert
all your influence to bring about any reunion that would admit the South
on terms of perfect equality with the North.