will insure the proper observance and execution of,, this order, and
the Secretary of the Navy will give instructions to officers commanding
fleets, flotillas, and gunboats in conformity therewith.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. WASHINGTON, D. C., September 27, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia:
You say Jefferson Davis is on a visit to Hood. I judge that Brown and
Stephens are the objects of his visit.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D.C., September 29,1864.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:
I hope it will have no constraint on you, nor do harm any way, for me to
say I am a little afraid lest Lee sends reinforcements to Early, and thus
enables him to turn upon Sheridan.
A. LINCOLN.
INDORSEMENT.
September 29, 1864.
I think the bearer of this, Second Lieutenant Albee, deserves a hearing.
Will the Secretary of War please accord it to him?
A. LINCOLN.
ORDER RETURNING THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS FOR ONE HUNDRED DAYS
FROM THE STATES OF INDIANA, ILLINOIS, IOWA, AND WISCONSIN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, October 1, 1864.
The term of one hundred days for which volunteers from the States of
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin volunteered, under the call of
their respective governors, in the months of May and June, to aid in the
campaign of General Sherman, having expired; the President directs an
official acknowledgment to be made of their patriotic service. It was
their good fortune to render efficient service in the brilliant operations
in the Southwest and to contribute to the victories of the national arms
over the rebel forces in Georgia under command of Johnston and Hood. On
all occasions and in every service to which they were assigned their duty
as patriotic volunteers was performed with alacrity and courage, for which
they are entitled to and are hereby tendered the national thanks through
the governors of their respective States.
The Secretary of War is directed to transmit a copy of this order to
the governors of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin and to cause a
certificate of their honorable service to be delivered to the officers
and soldiers of the States above named who recently served in the military
force of the United States as volunteers for one hundred days.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 5, 1864
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:
I inclose you a copy of a correspondence in regard to a contemplated
exchange of naval prisoners through your lines, and not very distant from
your headquarters. It only came to the knowledge of the War Department and
of myself yesterday, and it gives us some uneasiness. I therefore send it
to you with the statement that, as the numbers to be exchanged under it
are small, and so much has already been done to effect the exchange, I
hope you may find it consistent to let it go forward under the general
supervision of General Butler, and particularly in reference to the points
he holds vital in exchanges. Still, you are at liberty to arrest the whole
operation if in your judgment the public good requires it.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
INDORSEMENT ON A MEMORANDUM BY GENERAL McDOWELL, OCTOBER 7, 1864
I well remember the meetings herein narrated. See nothing for me to object
to in the narrative as being made by General McDowell, except the phrase
attributed to me "of the Jacobinism of Congress",
[This memorandum describes the private discussions that
preceded the transfer of McClellan's army from the Potomac,
where it had confronted the Confederates at Manassas. See H.
J. Raymond: Life of Lincoln, p. 772]
which phrase I do not remember using literally or in substance, and which
I wish not to be published in any event.
A. LINCOLN.
TO H. W. HOFFMAN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, October 10, 1864.
HON. HENRY W. HOFFMAN.
MY DEAR SIR:--A convention of Maryland has framed a new constitution for
the State; a public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore to aid
in securing its ratification by the people, and you ask a word from me
for the occasion. I presume the only feature of the instrument about which
there is serious controversy is that which provides for the extinction of
slavery. It needs not to be a secret and I presume it is no secret, that I
wish success to this provision. I desire it on every consideration. I wish
all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free,
which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring. I wish to see in
process of disappearing that only thing which ever could bring this nation
to civil war. I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is already
exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more immediately interested
sons of Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly
if the good people of the State shall, by their votes, ratify the new
constitution.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 10, 1864, 5 P.M.
GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.:
Yours of to-day just this moment received, and the Secretary having left
it is impossible for me to answer to-day. I have not received your letter
from Erie.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Cambridge, Mass.:
Your letter makes us a little uneasy about your health. Telegraph us how
you are. If you think it would help you, make us a visit.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 12, 1864.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:
Secretary of War not being in, I answer yours about election. Pennsylvania
very close, and still in doubt on home vote. Ohio largely for us, with
all the members of Congress but two or three. Indiana largely for
us,--Governor, it is said, by fifteen thousand, and eight of the eleven
members of Congress. Send us what you may know of your army vote.
A. LINCOLN.
RESPONSE TO A SERENADE,
OCTOBER 19, 1864.
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am notified that this is a compliment paid
me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer that the
adoption of the new constitution for the State furnishes the occasion, and
that in your view the extirpation of slavery constitutes the chief
merit of the new constitution. Most heartily do I congratulate you, and
Maryland, and the nation, and the world, upon this event. I regret that
it did not occur two years sooner, which, I am sure, would have saved the
nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to
the measure; but it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends
may fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its
opponents may by its effects be agreeably and profitably disappointed.
A word upon another subject. Something said by the Secretary of State in
his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat,
that if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between then and
the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin the
Government.
Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine
die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as
the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall be elected he
will at once seize control of the Government. I hope the good people will
permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling
to maintain the Government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling
especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say, that
if I live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that
whoever shall be constitutionally elected, in November, shall be duly
installed as President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do
my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall
start with the best possible chance of saving the ship. This is due to
the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their will,
constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If they should
deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the loss of their
country and their liberties, I know not the power or the right to resist
them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their
own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country
and their liberties; and in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to
stand by them. I may add, that in this purpose to save the country and its
liberties, no classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers
in the field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it?
Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen,
with all their brave commanders.
PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 20, 1864.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year,
defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from
abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over
the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly
Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in
their camps, and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual health.
He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by
immigration, while he has opened to us new: sources of wealth, and has
crowned the labor of our working-men in every department of industry with
abundant rewards. Moreover, he has been pleased to animate and inspire our
minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient
for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our
adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford
to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our
dangers and afflictions.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day
which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they
may be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the
beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend
to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently
humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and
fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for
a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony
throughout the, land which it has pleased him to assign as a
dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all
generations.
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 twentieth day of October, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
TELEGRAM To J. G. NICOLAY. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 21, 1864. 9.45 P.M.
J. G. NICOLAY, Saint Louis, Missouri:
While Curtis is fighting Price, have you any idea where the force under
Rosecrans is, or what it is doing?
A. LINCOLN.
TO WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL AND OTHERS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 22, 1864.
MESSRS WILLIAM B. CAMPBELL, THOMAS A. R. NELSON, JAMES T. P. CARTER, JOHN
WILLIAMS, A. BLIZZARD, HENRY COOPER, BAILLIE PEYTON, JOHN LELLYET, EMERSON
ETHERIDGE, and JOHN D. PERRYMAN.
GENTLEMEN:--On the 15th day of this month, as I remember, a printed paper
manuscript, with a few manuscript interlineations, called a protest, with
your names appended thereto, and accompanied by another printed paper,
purporting to be a proclamation by Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of
Tennessee, and also a manuscript paper, purporting to be extracts from the
Code of Tennessee, were laid before me.
The protest, proclamation, and extracts are respectively as follows:
[The protest is here recited, and also the proclamation of Governor
Johnson, dated September 30, to which it refers, together with a list of
the counties in East, Middle, and West Tennessee; also extracts from the
Code of Tennessee in relation to electors of President and Vice-President,
qualifications of voters for members of the General Assembly, places of
holding elections, and officers of popular elections.]
At the time these papers were presented, as before stated, I had never
seen either of them, nor heard of the subject to which they related,
except in a general way one day previously.
Up to the present moment, nothing whatever upon the subject has
passed between Governor Johnson, or any one else, connected with the
proclamation, and myself.
Since receiving the papers, as stated, I have given the subject such brief
consideration as I have been able to do, in the midst of so many pressing
public duties.
My conclusion is, that I can have nothing to do with the matter, either to
sustain the plan as the convention and Governor Johnson have initiated it,
or to revoke or modify it as you demand.
By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty in
the presidential election in any State, nor do I in this case perceive any
military reason for his interference in the matter.
The movement set on foot by the convention and Governor Johnson does not,
as seems to be assumed by you, emanate from the National Executive.
In no proper sense can it be considered other than an independent movement
of, at least, a portion of the loyal people of Tennessee.
I do not perceive in the plan any menace, or violence, or coercion towards
any one.
Governor Johnson, like any other loyal citizen of Tennessee, has the right
to favor any political plan he chooses, and, as military governor, it is
his duty to keep peace among and for the loyal people of the State.
I cannot discern that by this plan he purposes any more. But you object to
the plan.
Leaving it alone will be your perfect security against it. It is not
proposed to force you into it. Do as you please, on your own account,
peaceably and loyally, and Governor Johnson will not molest you, but will
protect you against violence as far as in his power.
I presume that the conducting of a presidential election in Tennessee
in strict accordance with the old Code of the State, is not now a
possibility.
It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any election shall be held
and any votes shall be cast in the State of Tennessee for President and
Vice-President of the United States, it will belong, not to the military
agents, nor yet to the Executive Department, but exclusively to another
department of the Government, to determine whether they are entitled to be
counted in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Except it be to give protection against violence, I decline to interfere
in any way with any presidential election.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October
22, 1864
MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN:
With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of
the nation, and my own personal admiration and gratitude, for the month's
operations in the Shenandoah Valley; and especially for the splendid work
of October 19, 1864.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. H. THOMAS. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 23, 1864 5
P.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS, Nashville, Tennessee:
I have received information to-day, having great appearance of
authenticity, that there is to be a rebel raid into Western Kentucky; that
it is to consist of four thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, and
is to start from Corinth, Mississippi, On the fourth day of November.
A. LINCOLN, President.
Send copy to General Washburn at Memphis. A. L.
TELEGRAM TO T. T. DAVIS. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31,
1864.
HON. THOMAS T. DAVIS, Syracuse, N.Y.:
I have ordered that Milton D. Norton be discharged on taking the oath.
Please notify his mother.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION ADMITTING NEVADA INTO THE UNION
OCTOBER 31, 1864.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation
Whereas the Congress of the United States passed an act, which was
approved on the 21st day of March last, entitled "An act to enable the
people of Nevada to form a constitution and State government, and for
the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the
original States;" and,
Whereas the said constitution and State government have been formed,
pursuant to the conditions prescribed by the fifth section of the act of
Congress aforesaid, and the certificate required by the said act and
also a copy of the constitution and ordinances have been submitted to the
President of the United States:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act of
Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said State of
Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original
States.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed..........
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURBRIDGE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 4, 1864
MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.
Suspend execution of all the deserters ordered to be executed on Sunday
at Louisville, until further order, and send me the records in the cases.
Acknowledge receipt.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO NAVAL OFFICER AT MOBILE BAY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864. 9 P.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL CANBY, New Orleans, La.:
Please forward with all possible despatch to the naval officer commanding
at Mobile Bay the following order.
A. LINCOLN.
(Inclosure.)
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 6, 1864.
NAVAL OFFICER IN COMMAND AT MOBILE BAY
Do not on any account, or on any showing of authority whatever, from
whomsoever purporting to come, allow the blockade to be violated.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SAILORS' FAIR, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
WASHINGTON, D. C., November 8, 1864.
TO THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SAILORS' FAIR, Boston, Massachusetts
Allow me to wish you a great success. With the old fame of the Navy made
brighter in the present war you cannot fail. I name none lest I wrong
others by omission. To all, from rear-admiral to honest Jack, I tender the
nation's admiration and gratitude.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO A. H. RICE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864.
HON. A. H. RICE, Boston, Massachusetts:
Yours received. I have no other notice that the ox is mine. If it be
really so, I present it to the Sailors' Fair as a contribution.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD. WASHINGTON, November 8, 1864.
HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Auburn, New York:
News from Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Rosecrans satisfactory, but not
important. Pirate Florida captured by the Wachusett October 7, on the
coast of Brazil. The information is certain.
A. LINCOLN.
RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, NOVEMBER 9, 1864.
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Even before I had been informed by you that
this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, friendly
to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my countrymen who
think that the best interests of the nation are to be subserved by the
support of the present administration. I do not pretend to say that you,
who think so, embrace all the patriotism and loyalty of the country, but I
do believe, and I trust without personal interest, that the welfare of the
country does require that such support and indorsement should be given.
I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work, if it be as
you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advantage,
if not to the very salvation, of the country. I cannot at this hour say
what has been the result of the election. But, whatever it may be, I have
no desire to modify this opinion: that all who have labored to-day in
behalf of the Union have wrought for the best interests of the country and
the world; not only for the present, but for all future ages.
I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply
grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my
gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the
motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph
over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of
the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of
humanity.
TELEGRAM TO H. W. HOFFMAN. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. November 10,
1864.
H. HOFFMAN, Baltimore, Md.:
The Maryland soldiers in the Army of the Potomac cast a total vote of
fourteen hundred and twenty-eight, out of which we get eleven hundred and
sixty majority. This is directly from General Meade and General Grant.
A. LINCOLN.
ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT
RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, NOVEMBER 10, 1864.
It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong
for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its
existence in great emergencies. On this point the present rebellion
brought our government to a severe test, and a presidential election
occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to
the strain.
If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their strength by the
rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially paralyzed by
a political war among themselves? But the election was a necessity. We
cannot have free government without elections; and if the election could
force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim
to have already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the election is
but human nature practically applied to the facts of the case. What has
occurred in this case must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will
not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of
this, we will have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and
as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy to
learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged.
But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has
done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain
a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has
not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also,
how sound and strong we still are. It shows that even among the candidates
of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union and most opposed
to treason can receive most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to
the extent yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war
began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are
better than gold.
But the rebellion continues, and, now that the election is over, may
not all have a common interest to reunite in a common effort to save our
common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid
placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not
willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am duly sensible to
the high compliment of a re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to
Almighty God, for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as
I think, for their good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other
man may be disappointed by the result.
May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this
same spirit towards those who have? And now, let me close by asking three
hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their gallant and
skillful commanders.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. O. BURBRIDGE. WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 1864.
MAJOR-GENERAL BURBRIDGE, Lexington, Ky.: