July 12, 1862_
After the adjournment of Congress, now near, I shall have no opportunity
of seeing you for several months. Believing that you of the border
States hold more power for good than any other equal number of members,
I feel it a duty which I cannot justifiably waive, to make this appeal
to you.
I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once to
emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization can be
obtained cheaply and in abundance, and when numbers shall be large
enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the freed people
will not be so reluctant to go.
I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned,--one which threatens
division among those who, united, are none too strong. General Hunter is
an honest man. He was, and I hope still is, my friend. I valued him none
the less for his agreeing with me in the general wish that all men
everywhere could be free. He proclaimed all men free within certain
States, and I repudiated the proclamation. He expected more good and
less harm from the measure than I could believe would follow. Yet in
repudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction if not offence to many whose
support the country cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of
it. The pressure in this direction is still upon me, and is increasing.
By conceding what I now ask, you can relieve me, and, much more, can
relieve the country, in this important point.
Upon these considerations I have again begged your attention to the
message of March last. Before leaving the Capitol, consider and discuss
it among yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such, I pray
you, consider this proposition, and at the least commend it to the
consideration of your States and people. As you would perpetuate popular
government for the best people in the world, I beseech you that you do
in no wise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding
the loftiest views and boldest action to bring it speedy relief. Once
relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its beloved
history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its happy future
fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand.
I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, in my opinion,
if you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual-emancipation
message of last March, the war would now be substantially ended. And the
plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and swift means of
ending it. Let the States which are in rebellion see, definitely and
certainly, that in no event will the States you represent ever join
their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the
contest. But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you
with them, so long as you show a determination to perpetuate the
institution within your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have
overwhelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their
own. You and I know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever
before their faces, and they can shake you no more for ever.
Most of you have treated me with kindness and consideration, and I trust
you will not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively your own,
when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask, Can you, for your
States, do better than to take the course I urge? Discarding punctilio
and maxims adapted to more manageable times, and looking only to the
unprecedentedly stern facts of our case, can you do better in any
possible event? You prefer that the constitutional relation of the
States to the nation shall be practically restored without disturbance
of the institution; and if this were done, my whole duty in this
respect, under the Constitution and my oath of office, would be
performed. But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by
war. The incidents of the war cannot be avoided. If the war continues
long, as it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution
in your States will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion,--by
the mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have
nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How
much better for you and for your people to take the step which at once
shortens the war and secures substantial compensation for that which is
sure to be wholly lost in any other event? How much better to thus save
the money which else we sink for ever in the war! How much better to do
it while we can, lest the war ere long render us pecuniarily unable to
do it! How much better for you as seller, and the nation as buyer, to
sell out and buy out that without which the war could never have been,
than to sink both the thing to be sold and the price of it in cutting
one another's throats!
_From a Letter to Cuthbert Bullitt. July 28, 1862_
Now, I think the true remedy is very different from that suggested by
Mr. Durant. It does not lie in rounding the rough angles of the war, but
in removing the necessity for the war. The people of Louisiana who wish
protection to person and property, have but to reach forth their hands
and take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate the national authority,
and set up a State government conforming thereto under the Constitution.
They know how to do it, and can have the protection of the army while
doing it. The army will be withdrawn as soon as such government can
dispense with its presence, and the people of the State can then, upon
the old constitutional terms, govern themselves to their own liking.
This is very simple and easy.
If they will not do this, if they prefer to hazard all for the sake of
destroying the government, it is for them to consider whether it is
probable that I will surrender the government to save them from losing
all. If they decline what I suggest, you will scarcely need to ask what
I will do.
What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is, or
would you prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with
rose-water? Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would
you give up the contest, leaving any available means untried?
I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can; but I shall do
all I can to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my
personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is
too vast for malicious dealing.
_Letter to August Belmont. July 31, 1862_
Dear Sir, You send to Mr. W---- an extract from a letter written at New
Orleans the 9th instant, which is shown to me. You do not give the
writer's name; but plainly he is a man of ability, and probably of some
note. He says: "The time has arrived when Mr. Lincoln must take a
decisive course. Trying to please everybody, he will satisfy nobody. A
vacillating policy in matters of importance is the very worst. Now is
the time, if ever, for honest men who love their country to rally to its
support. Why will not the North say officially that it wishes for the
restoration of the Union as it was?"
And so, it seems, this is the point on which the writer thinks I have no
policy. Why will he not read and understand what I have said?
The substance of the very declaration he desires is in the inaugural, in
each of the two regular messages to Congress, and in many, if not all,
the minor documents issued by the Executive since the Inauguration.
Broken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has nothing to do now but to
take her place in the Union as it was, barring the already broken eggs.
The sooner she does so, the smaller will be the amount of that which
will be past mending. This government cannot much longer play a game in
which it stakes all, and its enemies stake nothing. Those enemies must
understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy
the government, and if they fail still come back into the Union unhurt.
If they expect in any contingency to ever have the Union as it was, I
join with the writer in saying, "Now is the time."
How much better it would have been for the writer to have gone at this,
under the protection of the army at New Orleans, than to have sat down
in a closet writing complaining letters northward.
_His Letter to Horace Greeley. August 22, 1862_
I have just read yours of the 19th instant, addressed to myself through
the "New York Tribune."
If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know
to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.
If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely
drawn, I do not now and here argue against them.
If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive
it, in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to
be right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant
to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in
the shortest way under the Constitution.
The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union
will be,--the Union as it was.
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the
same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the
same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.
_My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and not
either to save or to destroy slavery._
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I
could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could
save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
What I do about slavery and the coloured race, I do because I believe it
helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union.
I shall do less whenever I shall believe that what I am doing hurts the
cause; and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help
the cause.
I shall try to correct errors where shown to be errors, and I shall
adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty,
and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all
men everywhere could be free.
_From his Reply to the Chicago Committee of United Religious
Denominations. September 13, 1862_
The subject presented in the memorial is one upon which I have thought
much for weeks past, and I may even say for months. I am approached with
the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious men, who
are equally certain that they represent the Divine will. I am sure that
either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and
perhaps, in some respects, both. I hope it will not be irreverent for me
to say, that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others,
on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed that He would
reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than
I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in
this matter. And if I can learn what it is, I will do it. These are not,
however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I
am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain, physical
facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears
to be wise and right.
The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. For instance, four
gentlemen of standing and intelligence, from New York, called as a
delegation on business connected with the war; but before leaving, two
of them earnestly besought me to proclaim general emancipation, upon
which the other two at once attacked them. You also know that the last
session of Congress had a decided majority of anti-slavery men, yet they
could not unite on this policy. And the same is true of the religious
people.
Why the rebel soldiers are praying with a great deal more earnestness, I
fear, than our own troops, and expecting God to favour their side: for
one of our soldiers who had been taken prisoner told Senator Wilson a
few days since that he met nothing so discouraging as the evident
sincerity of those he was among in their prayers. But we will talk over
the merits of the case.
What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do, especially as
we are now situated? I do not want to issue a document that the whole
world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull
against the comet! Would my word free the slaves, when I cannot even
enforce the Constitution in the rebel States? Is there a single court or
magistrate or individual that would be influenced by it there?
And what reason is there to think it would have any greater effect upon
the slaves than the late law of Congress, which I approved, and which
offers protection and freedom to the slaves of rebel masters who come
within our lines? Yet I cannot learn that that law has caused a single
slave to come over to us. And suppose they could be induced by a
proclamation of freedom from me to throw themselves upon us, what should
we do with them? How can we feed and care for such a multitude? General
Butler wrote me a few days since that he was issuing more rations to the
slaves who have rushed to him than to all the white troops under his
command. They eat, and that is all; though it is true General Butler is
feeding the whites also by the thousand, for it nearly amounts to a
famine there. If now, the pressure of the war should call off our forces
from New Orleans to defend some other point, what is to prevent the
masters from reducing the blacks to slavery again? For I am told that
whenever the rebels take any black prisoners, free or slave, they
immediately auction them off! They did so with those they took from a
boat that was aground in the Tennessee River a few days ago. And then I
am very ungenerously attacked for it. For instance, when, after the late
battles at and near Bull Run, an expedition went out from Washington
under a flag of truce to bury the dead and bring in the wounded, and the
rebels seized the blacks who went along to help, and sent them into
slavery, Horace Greeley said in his paper "that the government would
probably do nothing about it." What could I do?
Now, then, tell me, if you please, what possible result of good would
follow the issuing of such a proclamation as you desire? Understand, I
raise no objections against it on legal or constitutional grounds, for,
as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, in time of war I suppose I
have a right to take any measures which may best subdue the enemy; nor
do I urge objections of a moral nature, in view of possible consequences
of insurrection and massacre at the South. I view this matter as a
practical war-measure, to be decided on according to the advantages or
disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion.
[The committee had said that emancipation would secure us the sympathy
of the world, slavery being the cause of the war. To which the President
replied:]
I admit that slavery is at the root of the rebellion, or at least its
_sine qua non_. The ambition of politicians may have instigated them to
act, but they would have been impotent without slavery as their
instrument. I will also concede that emancipation would help us in
Europe, and convince them that we are incited by something more than
ambition. I grant further, that it would help somewhat at the North,
though not so much, I fear, as you and those you represent, imagine.
Still, some additional strength would be added in that way to the
war,--and then, unquestionably, it would weaken the rebels by drawing
off their labourers, which is of great importance; but I am not so sure
that we could do much with the blacks. If we were to arm them, I fear
that in a few weeks the arms would be in the hands of the rebels; and
indeed, thus far, we have not had arms enough to equip our white troops.
I will mention another thing, though it meet only your scorn and
contempt. There are fifty thousand bayonets in the Union armies from the
border slave States. It would be a serious matter if, in consequence of
a proclamation such as you desire, they should go over to the rebels. I
do not think they all would,--not so many indeed, as a year ago, nor as
six months ago; not so many to-day as yesterday. Every day increases
their Union feeling. They are also getting their pride enlisted, and
want to beat the rebels. Let me say one thing more: I think you should
admit that we already have an important principle to rally and unite the
people, in the fact that constitutional government is at stake. This is
a fundamental idea, going down about as deep as anything.
Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned these objections. They
indicate the difficulties that have thus far prevented my action in some
such way as you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation of
liberty to the slaves, but hold the matter under advisement. And I can
assure you that the subject is on my mind by day and night, more than
any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will, I will do. I trust
that in the freedom with which I have canvassed your views, I have not
in any respect injured your feelings.
_From the Annual Message to Congress. December 1, 1862_
Since your last annual assembling, another year of health and bountiful
harvests has passed; and while it has not pleased the Almighty to bless
us with a return of peace, we can but press on, guided by the best light
He gives us, trusting that in His own good time and wise way, all will
yet be well.
The correspondence, touching foreign affairs, which has taken place
during the last year, is herewith submitted, in virtual compliance with
a request to that effect made by the House of Representatives near the
close of the last session of Congress.
If the condition of our relations with other nations is less gratifying
than it has usually been at former periods, it is certainly more
satisfactory than a nation so unhappily distracted as we are, might
reasonably have apprehended. In the month of June last, there were some
grounds to expect that the maritime powers, which, at the beginning of
our domestic difficulties, so unwisely and unnecessarily, as we think,
recognized the insurgents as a belligerent, would soon recede from that
position, which has proved only less injurious to themselves than to our
own country. But the temporary reverses which afterward befell the
national arms, and which were exaggerated by our own disloyal citizens
abroad, have hitherto delayed that act of simple justice.
The Civil War, which has so radically changed for the moment the
occupations and habits of the American people, has necessarily disturbed
the social condition and affected very deeply the prosperity of the
nations with which we have carried on a commerce that has been steadily
increasing throughout a period of half a century. It has, at the same
time, excited political ambitions and apprehensions which have produced
a profound agitation throughout the civilized world. In this unusual
agitation we have forborne from taking part in any controversy between
foreign States, and between parties or factions in such States. We have
attempted no propagandism and acknowledged no revolution. But we have
left to every nation the exclusive conduct and management of its own
affairs. Our struggle has been, of course, contemplated by foreign
nations with reference less to its own merits than to its supposed and
often exaggerated effects and consequences resulting to those nations
themselves. Nevertheless, complaint on the part of this government, even
if it were just, would certainly be unwise....
There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary,
upon which to divide. Trace through from east to west upon the line
between the free and the slave country, and we shall find a little more
than one-third of its length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and
populated, or soon to be populated, thickly upon both sides; while
nearly all its remaining length are merely surveyors' lines, over which
people may walk back and forth without any consciousness of their
presence. No part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass,
by writing it down on paper or parchment as a national boundary. The
fact of separation, if it comes, gives up, on the part of the seceding
section, the fugitive-slave clause, along with all other constitutional
obligations upon the section seceded from, while I should expect no
treaty stipulation would be ever made to take its place.
But there is another difficulty. The great interior region bounded east
by the Alleghanies, north by the British dominions, west by the Rocky
Mountains, and south by the line along which the culture of corn and
cotton meets, ... already has above ten millions of people, and will
have fifty millions within fifty years, if not prevented by any
political folly or mistake. It contains more than one-third of the
country owned by the United States,--certainly more than one million of
square miles. Once half as populous as Massachusetts already is, and it
would have more than seventy-five millions of people. A glance at the
map shows that, territorially speaking, it is the great body of the
republic. The other parts are but marginal borders to it, the
magnificent region sloping west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
being the deepest, and also the richest, in undeveloped resources. In
the production of provisions, grains, grasses, and all which proceed
from them, this great interior region is naturally one of the most
important in the world. Ascertain from the statistics the small
proportion of the region which has, as yet, been brought into
cultivation, and also the large and rapidly increasing amount of its
products, and we shall be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the prospect
presented. And yet this region has no sea-coast, touches no ocean
anywhere. As part of one nation, its people now find, and may for ever
find, their way to Europe by New York, to South America and Africa by
New Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco. But separate our common
country into two nations, as designed by the present rebellion, and
every man of this great interior region is thereby cut off from one or
more of these outlets,--not perhaps by a physical barrier, but by
embarrassing and onerous trade regulations.
And this is true, wherever a dividing or boundary line may be fixed.
Place it between the now free and slave country, or place it south of
Kentucky, or north of Ohio, and still the truth remains that none south
of it can trade to any port or place north of it, except upon terms
dictated by a government foreign to them. These outlets, east, west, and
south, are indispensable to the well-being of the people inhabiting, and
to inhabit, this vast interior region. Which of the three may be the
best, is no proper question. All are better than either; and all of
right belong to that people and their successors for ever. True to
themselves, they will not ask where a line of separation shall be, but
will vow rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are the marginal
regions less interested in these communications to and through them to
the great outside world. They too, and each of them, must have access to
this Egypt of the west, without paying toll at the crossing of any
national boundary.
Our national strife springs not from our permanent part, not from the
land we inhabit, not from our national homestead. There is no possible
severing of this but would multiply and not mitigate evils among us. In
all its adaptations and aptitudes, it demands union and abhors
separation. In fact, it would ere long force reunion, however much of
blood and treasure the separation might have cost....
Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this
Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal
significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery
trial through which we pass will light us down, in honour or dishonour,
to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will
not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world
knows we do know how to save it.