TO T. W. CONWAY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 1, 1865.
MR. THOMAS W. CONWAY, General Superintendent Freedmen, Department of the
Gulf.
SIR:--Your statement to Major-General Hurlbut of the condition of the
freedmen of your department, and of your success in the work of their
moral and physical elevation, has reached me and given me much pleasure.
That we shall be entirely successful in our efforts I firmly believe.
The blessing of God and the efforts of good and faithful men will bring us
an earlier and happier consummation than the most sanguine friends of the
freedmen could reasonably expect.
Yours,
A. LINCOLN,
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1865.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:
You have not sent contents of Richmond papers for Tuesday or Wednesday.
Did you not receive them? If not, does it indicate anything?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL GRANT.
WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865. 12 PM.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:
The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no
conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of General
Lee's army, or on some minor and purely military matter. He instructs me
to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political
question. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and will
submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meantime you are to
press to the utmost your military advantages.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1865.
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:--At this second appearing to take the oath of the
presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than
there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course
to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four
years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth
on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the
attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new
could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly
depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust,
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the
future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were
anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought
to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this
place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent
agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to
dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties
deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation
survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the
war came.
One eighth of the whole population was colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These
slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this
interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and
extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend
the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more
than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected
for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.
Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or
even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier
triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the
same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces,
but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not
be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His
own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs
be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If
we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which,
in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to
both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom
the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine
attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war
may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right
as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we
are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all
nations.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL JOHN POPE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 7, 1865
MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri:
Please state briefly, by telegraph, what you concluded about the
assessments in St. Louis County. Early in the war one Samuel B. Churchill
was sent from St. Louis to Louisville, where I have quite satisfactory
evidence that he has not misbehaved. Still I am told his property at St.
Louis is subjected to the assessment, which I think it ought not to be.
Still I wish to know what you think.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 8, 1865.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va:
Your two despatches to the Secretary of War, one relating to supplies for
the enemy going by the Blackwater, and the other to General Singleton and
Judge Hughes, have been laid before me by him. As to Singleton and Hughes,
I think they are not in Richmond by any authority, unless it be from you.
I remember nothing from me which could aid them in getting there, except a
letter to you, as follows, to wit:
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, February 7, 1865. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL
GRANT, City Point, Va.: General Singleton, who bears you this, claims that
he already has arrangements made, if you consent, to bring a large amount
of Southern produce through your lines. For its bearing on our finances,
I would be glad for this to be done, if it can be, without injuriously
disturbing your military operations, or supplying the enemy. I wish you
to be judge and master on these points. Please see and hear him fully,
and decide whether anything, and, if anything, what, can be done in the
premises. Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
I believe I gave Hughes a card putting him with Singleton on the same
letter. However this may be, I now authorize you to get Singleton and
Hughes away from Richmond, if you choose, and can. I also authorize you,
by an order, or in what form you choose, to suspend all operations on the
Treasury trade permits, in all places southeastward of the Alleghenies.
If you make such order, notify me of it, giving a copy, so that I can give
corresponding direction to the Navy.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION OFFERING PARDON TO DESERTERS,
MARCH 11, 1865
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A Proclamation
Whereas, the twenty-first section of the act of Congress, approved on the
3d instant, entitled "An Act to amend the several acts heretofore passed
to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces and for
other purposes," requires that in addition to the other lawful penalties
of the crime of desertion from the military or naval service, all persons
who have deserted the military or naval service of the United States who
shall not return to said service or report themselves to a provost-marshal
within sixty days after the proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall
be deemed and taken to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their
citizenship and their right to become citizens, and such deserters shall
be forever incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the
United States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all
persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all
persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction of the
district in which they are enrolled, or go beyond the limits of the United
States with intent to avoid any draft into the military or naval service
duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of this section; and the
President is hereby authorized and required forthwith, on the passage of
this act, to issue his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this
section, in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all
deserters returning within sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be
pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and companies, or to
such other organizations as they may be assigned to, until they shall have
served for a period of time equal to their original term of enlistment:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, do issue this my proclamation as required by said act,
ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; and
I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall within sixty days
from the date of this proclamation, viz., on or before the 10th day of
May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a provost-marshal,
shall be pardoned on condition that they return to their regiments or
companies or to such other organization as they may be assigned to, and
serve the remainder of their original terms of enlistment, and in addition
thereto a period equal to the time lost by desertion.
In testimony 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 H. T. BLOW.
WASHINGTON, March 13, 1865.
HON. HENRY T. BLOW, Saint Louis, Mo.:
A Miss E. Snodgrass, who was banished from Saint Louis in May,1863, wishes
to take the oath and return home. What say you?
A. LINCOLN.
LETTER TO THURLOW WEED,
MARCH 15, 1865.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C.
DEAR Mr. WEED:
Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little
notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect the
latter to wear as well as perhaps better than--anything I have produced;
but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by
being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the
Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that
there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed
to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most
directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it.
Truly yours,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO COLONEL ROUGH AND OTHERS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 17, 1865.
COL. R. M. ROUGH AND OTHERS, Chicago, Ill.:
Yours received. The best I can do with it is, to refer it to the
War Department. The Rock Island case referred to, was my individual
enterprise; and it caused so much difficulty in so many ways that I
promised to never undertake another.
A. LINCOLN.
ADDRESS TO AN INDIANA REGIMENT,
MARCH 17, 1865.
FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It will be but a very few words that I shall undertake
to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois;
and now I am here, where it is my business to care equally for the good
people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment on this
day able to present the captured flag to the Governor of Indiana. I am not
disposed, in saying this, to make a distinction between the States, for
all have done equally well.
There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have
not said or written something whereby my own opinions might be known.
But there is one--the recent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are
sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. I have neither
written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was their
business, not mine, and if I had a wish on the subject, I had not the
power to introduce it, or make it effective. The great question with them
was whether the negro, being put into the army, will fight for them. I do
not know, and therefore cannot decide. They ought to know better than me.
I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be
slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it
will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for
that, ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at last, to take one out
of four of the slaves and put them in the army, and that one out of the
four who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a slave
himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often said that all
men ought to be free, yet would I allow those colored persons to be slaves
who want to be, and next to them those white people who argue in favor of
making other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an appointment to such
white men to try it on for these slaves. I will say one thing in regard
to the negroes being employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight
and stay at home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as
the other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of
having them try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that, and I
wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor
of allowing the negro to fight. But they cannot fight and work both. We
must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as
long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them they must allow him
to fight. They have drawn upon their last branch of resources, and we can
now see the bottom. I am glad to see the end so near at hand. I have said
now more than I intended, and will therefore bid you good-by.
PROCLAMATION CONCERNING INDIANS,
MARCH 17, 1865.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas reliable information has been received that hostile Indians,
within the limits of the United States, have been furnished with arms and
munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign territory,
and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare upon the exposed
and sparse settlements of the frontier;
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all persons
detected in that nefarious traffic shall be arrested and tried by
court-martial at the nearest military post, and if convicted, shall
receive the punishment due to their deserts.
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.
ORDER ANNULLING THE SENTENCE
AGAINST BENJAMIN G. SMITH AND FRANKLIN W. SMITH,
MARCH 18, 1865.
I am unwilling for the sentence to stand, and be executed, to any extent
in this case. In the absence of a more adequate motive than the evidence
discloses, I am wholly unable to believe in the existence of criminal
or fraudulent intent on the part of men of such well established good
character. If the evidence went as far to establish a guilty profit of one
or two hundred thousand dollars, as it does of one or two hundred dollars,
the case would, on the question of guilt, bear a far different aspect.
That on this contract, involving some twelve hundred thousand dollars, the
contractors would plan, and attempt to execute a fraud which, at the most,
could profit them only one or two hundred, or even one thousand dollars,
is to my mind beyond the power of rational belief. That they did not, in
such a case, make far greater gains, proves that they did not, with
guilty or fraudulent intent, make at all. The judgment and sentence are
disapproved, and declared null, and the defendants are fully discharged.
A. LINCOLN March 18, 1865.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. POPE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 19, 1865.
MAJOR-GENERAL POPE, St. Louis, Missouri:
Understanding that the plan of action for Missouri contained in your
letter to the Governor of that State, and your other letter to me, is
concurred in by the Governor, it is approved by me, and you will be
sustained in proceeding upon it.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ORD.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May [March] 20, 1865.
MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Army of the James
Is it true that George W. Lane is detained at Norfolk without any charge
against him? And if so why is it done?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO JUDGE SCATES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, March 21, 1865.
HON. WALTER B. SCATES, Centralia, Illinois:
If you choose to go to New Mexico and reside, I will appoint you chief
justice there. What say you? Please answer.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK.
WASHINGTON, D. C., March 22, 1865. MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK, Winchester, Va.:
Seeing your despatch about General Crook, and fearing that through
misapprehension something unpleasant may occur, I send you below two
despatches of General Grant, which I suppose will fully explain General
Crook's movements.
A. LINCOLN.
ANOTHER FEMALE SPY
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DODGE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 23, 1865.
GENERAL DODGE, Commanding, &c, Saint Louis, Mo.:
Allow Mrs. R. S. Ewell the benefit of my amnesty proclamation on her
taking the oath.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 25, 1865. 8.30 A.M.
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C.:
Arrived here all safe about 9 P.M. yesterday. No war news. General Grant
does not seem to know very much about Yeatman, but thinks very well of him
so far as he does know.
I like Mr. Whiting very much, and hence would wish him to remain or resign
as best suits himself. Hearing this much from me, do as you think best in
the matter. General Lee has sent the Russell letter back, concluding, as
I understand from Grant, that their dignity does not admit of their
receiving the document from us. Robert just now tells me there was a
little rumpus up the line this morning, ending about where it began.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
(Cipher.)
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, March 25, 1865. (Received 5 P.M.)
HON. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:
I am here within five miles of the scene of this morning's action. I have
nothing to add to what General Meade reports except that I have seen
the prisoners myself and they look like there might be the number he
states--1600.
A. LINCOLN
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VA., March 26, 1865. (Received 11.30 A.M.)
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR:
I approve your Fort Sumter programme. Grant don't seem to know Yeatman
very well, but thinks very well of him so far as he knows. Thinks it
probable that Y. is here now, for the place. I told you this yesterday
as well as that you should do as you think best about Mr. Whiting's
resignation, but I suppose you did not receive the dispatch. I am on the
boat and have no later war news than went to you last night.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 27, 1865.3.35 P.M.
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.:
Yours inclosing Fort Sumter order received. I think of but one suggestion.
I feel quite confident that Sumter fell on the 13th, and not on the 14th
of April, as you have it. It fell on Saturday, the 13th; the first call
for troops on our part was got up on Sunday, the 14th, and given date and
issued on Monday, the 15th. Look up the old almanac and other data, and
see if I am not right.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 28, 1865. 12 M.
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.: After your explanation, I think
it is little or no difference whether the Fort Sumter ceremony takes place
on the 13th or 14th.
General Sherman tells me he is well acquainted with James Yeatman, and
that he thinks him almost the best man in the country for anything he will
undertake.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VA., March 30, 1865. 7.30 P.M. (Received 8.30 P.M.)
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR:
I begin to feel that I ought to be at home and yet I dislike to leave
without seeing nearer to the end of General Grant's present movement.
He has now been out since yesterday morning and although he has not been
diverted from his programme no considerable effort has yet been produced
so far as we know here. Last night at 10.15 P. M. when it was dark as a
rainy night without a moon could be, a furious cannonade soon joined in by
a heavy musketry fire opened near Petersburg and lasted about two hours.
The sound was very distinct here as also were the flashes of the guns
up the clouds. It seemed to me a great battle, but the older hands here
scarcely noticed it and sure enough this morning it was found that very
little had been done.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, March 31, 1865. 3 P.M.
SECRETARY STANTON:
At 12.30 P.M. to-day General Grant telegraphed me as follows: "There has
been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our left from near
Dabney's house back well toward the Boydton plank road. We are now about
to take the offensive at that point, and I hope will more than recover the
lost ground."
Later he telegraphed again as follows:
"Our troops, after being driven back to the Boydton plank road, turned and
drove the enemy in turn, and took the White Oak road, which we now have.
This gives us the ground occupied by the enemy this morning. I will send
you a rebel flag captured by our troops in driving the enemy back. There
have been four flags captured to-day."
Judging by the two points from which General Grant telegraphs, I infer
that he moved his headquarters about one mile since he sent the first of
the two despatches.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT.
CITY POINT, April 1, 1865.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:
Yours to Colonel Bowers about the Secretary of War is shown to me. He is
not here, nor have I any notice that he is coming. I presume the mistake
comes of the fact that the Secretary of State was here. He started back to
Washington this morning. I have your two despatches of this morning, and
am anxious to hear from Sheridan.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY STANTON.
CITY POINT, April 1, 1865. 12.50 P.M.
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D.C.:
I have had two despatches from General Grant since my last to you, but
they contain little additional, except that Sheridan also had pretty hot
work yesterday, that infantry was sent to his support during the night,
and that he (Grant) has not since heard from Sheridan.
Mrs. Lincoln has started home, and I will thank you to see that our
coachman is at the Arsenal wharf at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, there
to wait until she arrives.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO SECRETARY SEWARD.
CITY POINT, VA., April, 1865. 5.30?.M.
HON. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Fort Monroe:
Despatch just received, showing that Sheridan, aided by Warren, had, at 2
P.M., pushed the enemy back, so as to retake the Five Forks and bring his
own headquarters up to J. Boisseau's. The Five Forks were barricaded by
the enemy and carried by Devin's division of cavalry. This part of the
enemy seem to now be trying to work along the White Oak road, to join the
main force in front of Grant, while Sheridan and Warren are pressing them
as closely as possible.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL U.S. GRANT. CITY POINT, April 1, 1865.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:
Yours showing Sheridan's success of to-day is just received and highly
appreciated. Having no great deal to do here, I am still sending the
substance of your despatches to the Secretary of War.