promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of
rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with
others. I myself was near the front, and had the pleasure of transmitting
much of the good news to you. But no part of the honor for plan or
execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers, and brave men,
all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take
active part. By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national
authority--reconstruction which has had a large share of thought from the
first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with
great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there
is no authorized organ for us to treat with--no one man has authority to
give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with
and mould from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small
additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves
as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. As a general rule,
I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, Wishing not to
be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite
of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much
censured for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the
new State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much and no
more than the public knows. In the Annual Message of December, 1863, and
the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction,
as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, would be
acceptable to and sustained by the Executive Government of the nation. I
distinctly stated that this was not the only plan that might possibly be
acceptable, and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed
no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats in
Congress from such States. This plan was in advance submitted to the then
Cabinet, and approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I
should then and in that connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to
the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should
drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I
should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the admission
of members of Congress. But even he approved every part and parcel of the
plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana.
The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole
State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously
excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and is
silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members
to Congress. So that, as it applied to Louisiana, every member of the
Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I
received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not
a single objection to it from any professed emancipationist came to my
knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of
Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862,
I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested in
seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the
message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans,
General Banks wrote me that he was confident that the people, with his
military co-operation, would reconstruct substantially on that plan. I
wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and the result
is known. Such has been my only agency in getting up the Louisiana
government. As to sustaining it my promise is out, as before stated. But,
as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad
promise and break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is
adverse to the public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I
have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one,
in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be
definitely fixed upon the question whether the seceded States, so called,
are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment to
his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men
endeavoring to answer that question, I have purposely forborne any public
expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been nor yet
is a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it
thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the
mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may become,
that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing
at all--a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded
States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the
Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in
regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper practical
relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to
do this without deciding or even considering whether those States have
ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at
home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had been abroad. Let
us all join in doing the acts necessary to restore the proper practical
relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after
innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts he
brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper
assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency,
so to speak, on which the Louisiana government rests, would be more
satisfactory to all if it contained fifty thousand, or thirty thousand, or
even twenty thousand, instead of twelve thousand, as it does. It is also
unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the
colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very
intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the
question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite
all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be wiser to take it as
it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse? Can Louisiana be
brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining
or by discarding her new State government? Some twelve thousand voters
in the heretofore Slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the
Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State,
held elections, organized a State government, adopted a Free State
constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and
white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise
upon the colored man. This Legislature has already voted to ratify the
Constitutional Amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery
throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully
committed to the Union and to perpetuate freedom in the State--committed
to the very things, and nearly all things, the nation wants--and they ask
the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good this committal.
Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and
disperse them. We, in fact, say to the white man: You are worthless or
worse; we will neither help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we
say: This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, held to your
lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the
spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where,
and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black,
has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with
the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary,
we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse
of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of
twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte
for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a
complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is
inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring to the same end. Grant
that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by
saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward
over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what
it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by
hatching the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we
also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the National
Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more
than three fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are
necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against
this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable,
and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three
fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable.
I repeat the question, Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical
relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new
State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply to other
States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such
important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new
and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan
can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive
and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important
principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation as the
phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people
of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied
that action will be proper.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL.
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1865. MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.:
I have seen your despatch to Colonel Hardie about the matter of prayers.
I do not remember hearing prayers spoken of while I was in Richmond; but I
have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you to be the spirit
and temper manifested by me while there. Is there any sign of the rebel
legislature coming together on the understanding of my letter to you? If
there is any such sign, inform me what it is; if there is no such sign,
you may withdraw the offer.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. WEITZEL. WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 1865.
MAJOR-GENERAL WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.:
I have just seen Judge Campbell's letter to you of the 7th. He assumes,
as appears to me, that I have called the insurgent legislature of
Virginia together, as the rightful legislature of the State, to settle all
differences with the United States. I have done no such thing. I spoke of
them, not as a legislature, but as "the gentlemen who have acted as
the legislature of Virginia in support of the rebellion." I did this
on purpose to exclude the assumption that I was recognizing them as a
rightful body. I deal with them as men having power de facto to do a
specific thing, to wit: "To withdraw the Virginia troops and other support
from resistance to the General Government," for which, in the paper handed
Judge Campbell, I promised a specific equivalent, to wit: a remission to
the people of the State, except in certain cases, of the confiscation of
their property. I meant this, and no more. Inasmuch, however, as Judge
Campbell misconstrues this, and is still pressing for an armistice,
contrary to the explicit statement of the paper I gave him, and
particularly as General Grant has since captured the Virginia troops, so
that giving a consideration for their withdrawal is no longer applicable,
let my letter to you and the paper to Judge Campbell both be withdrawn,
or countermanded, and he be notified of it. Do not now allow them to
assemble, but if any have come, allow them safe return to their homes.
A. LINCOLN.
INTERVIEW WITH SCHUYLER COLFAX ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 14, 1865.
Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from me to the miners whom you
visit. I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I
believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the Western
country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development
has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of
millions of dollars every day to our national debt, I did not care about
encouraging the increase in the volume of our precious metals. We had the
country to save first. But now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we
know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and
silver we mine, we make the payment of that debt so much the easier.
"Now," said he, speaking with more emphasis, "I am going to encourage that
in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded
soldiers, and many have feared that their return home in such great
numbers might paralyze industry, by furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply
of labor than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them
to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough
for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon
our shores hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded Europe.
I intend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for them in the
West. Tell the miners for me, that I shall promote their interests to the
utmost of my ability; because their prosperity is the prosperity of the
nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, "we shall prove,
in a very few years, that we are indeed the treasury of the world."
TO GENERAL VAN ALLEN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 14, 1865
GENERAL VAN ALLEN:
I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precaution....
I thank you for the assurance you give me that I shall be supported by
conservative men like yourself, in the efforts I may make to restore the
Union, so as to make it, to use your language, a Union of hearts and hands
as well as of States.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
LINCOLN'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS
Allow Mr. Ashmer and friend to come in at 9 A.M. to-morrow.
A. LINCOLN. April 14, 1865