considered the additional regulations of trade prescribed by the Secretary
of the Treasury, and numbered LI, LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, do hereby
approve the same; and I further declare and order that all property
brought in for sale, in good faith, and actually sold in pursuance of said
Regulations LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, after the same shall have taken
effect and come in force as provided in Regulation LVI, shall be exempt
from confiscation or forfeiture to the United States.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 27, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER, Knoxville, Tenn.:
Is a supposed correspondence between General Longstreet and yourself about
the amnesty proclamation, which is now in the newspapers, genuine?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864
HON. EDWARD STANLEY, San Francisco, Cal.:
Yours of yesterday received. We have rumors similar to the dispatch
received by you, but nothing very definite from North Carolina. Knowing
Mr. Stanley to be an able man, and not doubting that he is a patriot, I
should be glad for him to be with his old acquaintances south of Virginia,
but I am unable to suggest anything definite upon the subject.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.
EXECUTIVE MANSION
WASHINGTON, January 28, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK:
Some citizens of Missouri, vicinity of Kansas City, are apprehensive that
there is special danger of renewed troubles in that neighborhood, and
thence on the route toward New Mexico. I am not impressed that the danger
is very great or imminent, but I will thank you to give Generals Rosecrans
and Curtis, respectively, such orders as may turn their attention thereto
and prevent as far as possible the apprehended disturbance.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SICKLES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 29, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL SICKLES, New York:
Could you, without it being inconvenient or disagreeable to yourself,
immediately take a trip to Arkansas for me?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 31, 1864.
GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.:
General Boyle's resignation is accepted, so that your Excellency can give
him the appointment proposed.
A. LINCOLN.
COLONIZATION EXPERIMENT
ORDER TO SECRETARY STANTON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 1, 1864
HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
SIR:-You are directed to have a transport (either a steam or sailing
vessel, as may be deemed proper by the Quartermaster-General) sent to the
colored colony established by the United States at the island of Vache,
on the coast of San Domingo, to bring back to this country such of the
colonists there as desire to return. You will have the transport furnished
with suitable supplies for that purpose, and detail an officer of the
Quartermaster's Department, who, under special instructions to be given,
shall have charge of the business. The colonists will be brought to
Washington, unless otherwise hereafter directed, and be employed and
provided for at the camps for colored persons around that city. Those only
will be brought from the island who desire to return, and their effects
will be brought with them.
A. LINCOLN.
ORDER FOR A DRAFT OF FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 1, 1864.
Ordered, That a draft of five hundred thousand (500,000) men, to serve for
three years or during the war, be made on the tenth (10th) day of March
next, for the military service of the United States, crediting and
deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted or drafted into the
service prior to the first (1st) day of March, and not before credited.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1864.
GOVERNOR YATES, Springfield, Ill.:
The United States Government lot in Springfield can be used for a
soldiers' home, with the understanding that the Government does not incur
any expense in the case.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR MURPHY.
WASHINGTON, February 6, 1864.
GOVERNOR J. MURPHY:
My order to General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of
the action your convention had taken or would take. A subsequent letter
directs General Steele to aid you on your own plan, and not to thwart or
hinder you. Show this to him.
A. LINCOLN.
THE STORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
TOLD BY THE PRESIDENT, TO THE ARTIST F. B. CARPENTER,
FEBRUARY 6, 1864.
"It had got to be," said Mr. Lincoln, "midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on
from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on
the plan of operations we had been pursuing; that we had about played our
last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game. I now determined
upon the adoption of the emancipation policy; and without consultation
with, or the knowledge of, the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft
of the proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet
meeting upon the subject. This was the last of July or the first part of
the month of August, 1862. [The exact date was July 22, 1862.]... All were
present excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was absent at the
opening of the discussion, but came in subsequently. I said to the Cabinet
that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to
ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before
them, suggestions as to which would be in order after they had heard it
read. Mr. Lovejoy was in error when he informed you that it excited no
comment excepting on the part of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions
were offered. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to
the arming of the blacks.
"Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy on the ground that it
would cost the administration the fall elections. Nothing, however, was
offered that I had not already fully anticipated and settled in my mind,
until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in substance, 'Mr. President, I
approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue
at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our
repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a
step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government,
a cry for help; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia,
instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.' His
idea," said the President, "was that it would be considered our last
shriek on the retreat." [This was his precise expression.] 'Now,'
continued Mr. Seward, 'while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that
you postpone its issue until you can give it to the country supported by
military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon
the greatest disasters of the war.' Mr. Lincoln continued "The wisdom of
the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It
was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I
had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the draft of the
proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a
victory.
"From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and
there, anxiously watching the process of events. Well, the next news we
had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever.
Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined to wait no
longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage was on
our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home [three miles out of
Washington]. Here I finished writing the second draft of the preliminary
proclamation; came up on Saturday; called the Cabinet together to hear it,
and it was published on the following Monday."
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SEDGWICK.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 11, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL SEDGWICK, Army of Potomac:
Unless there be some strong reason to the contrary, please send General
Kilpatrick to us here, for two or three days.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO HORACE MAYNARD.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 13, 1864.
HON. HORACE MAYNARD, Nashville, Tenn.:
Your letter of [the] second received. Of course Governor Johnson will
proceed with reorganization as the exigencies of the case appear to him to
require. I do not apprehend he will think it necessary to deviate from my
views to any ruinous extent. On one hasty reading I see no such deviation
in his program, which you send.
A. LINCOLN.
TO W. M. FISHBACK.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864.
WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, Little Rock, Arkansas:
When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance that
your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the latter fact
I have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. I have sent two
letters to General Steele, and three or four despatches to you and others,
saying that he, General Steele, must be master, but that it will probably
be best for him to merely help the convention on its own plan. Some single
mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything, and
General Steele, commanding the military and being on the ground, is the
best man to be that master. Even now citizens are telegraphing me to
postpone the election to a later day than either that fixed by the
convention or by me. This discord must be silenced.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 17, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas:
The day fixed by the convention for the election is probably the best,
but you on the ground, and in consultation with gentlemen there, are to
decide. I should have fixed no day for an election, presented no plan for
reconstruction, had I known the convention was doing the same things. It
is probably best that you merely assist the convention on their own
plan, as to election day and all other matters I have already written and
telegraphed this half a dozen times.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO A. ROBINSON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 18, 1864.
A. ROBINSON, Leroy, N. Y.:
The law only obliges us to keep accounts with States, or at most
Congressional Districts, and it would overwhelm us to attempt in counties,
cities and towns. Nevertheless we do what we can to oblige in particular
cases. In this view I send your dispatch to the Provost-Marshal General,
asking him to do the best he can for you.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, FEBRUARY 18, 1864.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
A Proclamation.
Whereas, by my proclamation of the nineteenth of April, one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one, the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were, for reasons
therein set forth, placed under blockade; and whereas, the port of
Brownsville, in the district of Brazos Santiago, in the State of Texas,
has since been blockaded, but as the blockade of said port may now be
safely relaxed with advantage to the interests of commerce:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section
of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An
act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for
other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said port of
Brownsville shall so far cease and determine from and after this date,
that commercial intercourse with said port, except as to persons, things,
and information hereinafter specified, may, from this date, be carried on,
subject to the laws of the United States, to the regulations prescribed
by the Secretary of the Treasury, and, until the rebellion shall have been
suppressed, to such orders as may be promulgated by the general commanding
the department, or by an officer duly authorized by him and commanding at
said port. This proclamation does not authorize or allow the shipment
or conveyance of persons in, or intending to enter, the service of the
insurgents, or of things or information intended for their use, or for
their aid or comfort, nor, except upon the permission of the Secretary
of War, or of some officer duly authorized by him, of the following
prohibited articles, namely: cannon, mortars, firearms, pistols, bombs,
grenades, powder, saltpeter, sulphur, balls, bullets, pikes, swords,
boarding-caps (always excepting the quantity of the said articles which
may be necessary for the defense of the ship and those who compose the
crew), saddles, bridles, cartridge-bag material, percussion and other
caps, clothing adapted for uniforms; sail-cloth of all kinds, hemp and
cordage, intoxicating drinks other than beer and light native wines.
To vessels clearing from foreign ports and destined to the port of
Brownsville, opened by this proclamation, licenses will be granted by
consuls of the United States upon satisfactory evidence that the vessel
so licensed will convey no persons, property, or information excepted or
prohibited above, either to or from the said port; which licenses shall
be exhibited to the collector of said port immediately on arrival, and,
if required, to any officer in charge of the blockade, and on leaving said
port every vessel will be required to have a clearance from the collector
of the customs, according to law, showing no violation of the conditions
of the license. Any violations of said conditions will involve the
forfeiture and condemnation of the vessel and cargo, and the exclusion of
all parties concerned from any further privilege of entering the United
States during the war for any purpose whatever.
In all respects, except as herein specified, the existing blockade remains
in full force and effect as hitherto established and maintained, nor is
it relaxed by this proclamation except in regard to the port to which
relaxation is or has been expressly applied.
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
eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the
eighty-eighth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
TELEGRAM TO COMMANDER BLAKE.
EXECUTIVE, MANSION, February 19, 1864.
COMMANDER GEORGE S. BLAKE, Commandant Naval Academy, Newport, R. I.:
I desire the case of Midshipman C. Lyon re-examined and if not clearly
inconsistent I shall be much obliged to have the recommendation changed.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM FROM WARREN JORDAN.
NASHVILLE, February 20, 1864.
HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.:
In county and State elections, must citizens of Tennessee take the oath
prescribed by Governor Johnson, or will the President's oath of amnesty
entitle them to vote? I have been appointed to hold the March election in
Cheatham County, and wish to act understandingly.
WARREN JORDAN.
WASHINGTON, February 20, 1864.
WARREN JORDAN, NASHVILLE:
In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson's plan;
otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his plan.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Saint LOUIS, MO.:
Colonel Sanderson will be ordered to you to-day, a mere omission that it
was not done before. The other questions in your despatch I am not yet
prepared to answer.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL STEELE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 22, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Ark.:
Yours of yesterday received. Your conference with citizens approved. Let
the election be on the 14th of March as they agreed.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL F. STEELE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 25, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE, Little Rock, Arkansas:
General Sickles is not going to Arkansas. He probably will make a tour
down the Mississippi and home by the gulf and ocean, but he will not
meddle in your affairs.
At one time I did intend to have him call on you and explain more fully
than I could do by letter or telegraph, so as to avoid a difficulty coming
of my having made a plan here, while the convention made one there, for
reorganizing Arkansas; but even his doing that has been given up for
more than two weeks. Please show this to Governor Murphy to save me
telegraphing him.
A. LINCOLN.
DESERTERS DEATH SENTENCES REMITTED
GENERAL ORDERS, NO.76.
WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERALS OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864.
Sentence of Deserters.
The President directs that the sentences of all deserters who have been
condemned by court-martial to death, and that have not been otherwise
acted upon by him, be mitigated to imprisonment during the war at the Dry
Tortugas, Florida, where they will be sent under suitable guards by orders
from army commanders.
The commanding generals, who have power to act on proceedings of
courts-martial in such cases, are authorized in special cases to restore
to duty deserters under sentence, when in their judgment the service will
be thereby benefited.
Copies of all orders issued under the foregoing instructions will be
immediately forwarded to the Adjutant-General and to the Judge-Advocate
General.
By order of the Secretary of War: B. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant
Adjutant-General
FEMALE SPY
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864
MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort. Monroe, Va.:
I cannot remember at whose request it was that I gave the pass to Mrs.
Bulky. Of course detain her, if the evidence of her being a spy is strong
against her.
A. LINCOLN.
TO W. JAYNE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 26, 1864.
HON. W. JAYNE.
DEAR SIR--I dislike to make changes in office so long as they can
be avoided. It multiplies my embarrassments immensely. I dislike two
appointments when one will do. Send me the name of some man not the
present marshal, and I will nominate him to be Provost-Marshal for Dakota.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TO E. H. EAST.
WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864.
HON. E. H: EAST, Secretary of State, Nashville, Tennessee
Your telegram of the twenty-sixth instant asking for a copy of my despatch
to Warren Jordan, Esq., at Nashville Press office, has just been referred
to me by Governor Johnson. In my reply to Mr. Jordan, which was brief
and hurried, I intended to say that in the county and State elections of
Tennessee, the oath prescribed in the proclamation of Governor Johnson on
the twenty-sixth of January, 1864, ordering an election in Tennessee on
the first Saturday in March next, is entirely satisfactory to me as a test
of loyalty of all persons proposing or offering to vote in said elections;
and coming from him would better be observed and followed. There is
no conflict between the oath of amnesty in my proclamation of eighth
December, 1863, and that prescribed by Governor Johnson in his
proclamation of the twenty-sixth ultimo.
No person who has taken the oath of amnesty of eighth December, 1863, and
obtained a pardon thereby, and who intends to observe the same in good
faith, should have any objection to taking that prescribed by Governor
Johnson as a test of loyalty.
I have seen and examined Governor Johnson's proclamation, and am entirely
satisfied with his plan, which is to restore the State government and
place it under the control of citizens truly loyal to the Government of
the United States.
A. LINCOLN.
Please send above to Governor Johnson. A. L.
TO SECRETARY STANTON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 27, 1864
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR.
SIR:--You ask some instructions from me in relation to the Report of
Special Commission constituted by an order of the War Department, dated
December 5, 1863, "to revise the enrolment and quotas of the City and
State of New York, and report whether there be any, and what, errors or
irregularities therein, and what corrections, if any, should be made."
In the correspondence between the Governor of New York and myself last
summer, I understood him to complain that the enrolments in several of the
districts of that State had been neither accurately nor honestly made;
and in view of this, I, for the draft then immediately ensuing, ordered an
arbitrary reduction of the quotas in several of the districts wherein they
seemed too large, and said: "After this drawing, these four districts,
and also the seventeenth and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re-enrolled,
and, if you please, agents of yours may witness every step of the
process." In a subsequent letter I believe some additional districts were
put into the list of those to be re-enrolled. My idea was to do the work
over according to the law, in presence of the complaining party, and
thereby to correct anything which might be found amiss. The commission,
whose work I am considering, seem to have proceeded upon a totally
different idea. Not going forth to find men at all, they have proceeded
altogether upon paper examinations and mental processes. One of their
conclusions, as I understand, is that, as the law stands, and attempting
to follow it, the enrolling officers could not have made the enrolments
much more accurately than they did. The report on this point might be
useful to Congress. The commission conclude that the quotas for the draft
should be based upon entire population, and they proceed upon this basis
to give a table for the State of New York, in which some districts are
reduced and some increased. For the now ensuing draft, let the quotas
stand as made by the enrolling officers, in the districts wherein this
table requires them to be increased; and let them be reduced according to
the table in the others: this to be no precedent for subsequent action.
But, as I think this report may, on full consideration, be shown to have
much that is valuable in it, I suggest that such consideration be given
it, and that it be especially considered whether its suggestions can be
conformed to without an alteration of the law.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL THOMAS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, February 28, 1864.
GENERAL L. THOMAS, Louisville, Kentucky:
I see your despatch of yesterday to the Secretary of War.
I wish you would go to the Mississippi River at once, and take hold of and
be master in the contraband and leasing business. You understand it better
than any other man does. Mr. Miller's system doubtless is well intended,
but from what I hear I fear that, if persisted in, it would fall dead
within its own entangling details. Go there and be the judge. A Mr. Lewis
will probably follow you with something from me on this subject, but do
not wait for him. Nor is this to induce you to violate or neglect any
military order from the General-in-Chief or Secretary of War.
A. LINCOLN.
TO SECRETARY CHASE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 29, 1864.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
MY DEAR SIR:--I would have taken time to answer yours of the 22d inst.
sooner, only that I did not suppose any evil could result from the delay,
especially as, by a note, I promptly acknowledged the receipt of yours,
and promised a fuller answer. Now, on consideration I find there is really
very little to say. My knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's letter having been made
public came to me only the day you wrote; but I had, in spite of myself,
known of its existence several days before. I have not yet read it, and I
think I shall not. I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of
the letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of
secret issues which, I supposed, came from it, and of secret agents who,
I supposed, were sent out by it for several weeks. I have known just as
little a these things as my friends have allowed me to know. They bring
the documents to me, but I do not read them; they tell me what they think
fit to tell me, but I do not inquire for more.
I fully concur with you that neither of us can justly be held responsible
for what our respective friends may do without our instigation or
countenance and I assure you, as you have assured me, that no assault has
been made upon you by my instigation, or with my countenance.
Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a
question which I will not allow myself to consider from any standpoint
other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that view, I do not
perceive occasion for a change.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.