united, prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil
war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this
terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and
crimes as a nation and as individuals to humble ourselves before Him and
to pray for His mercy-to pray that we may be spared further punishment,
though most justly deserved, that our arms may be blessed and made
effectual for the re-establishment of order, law, and peace throughout
the wide extent of our country, and that the inestimable boon of civil and
religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors
and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original
excellence.
Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do appoint
the last Thursday in September next as a day of humiliation, prayer, and
fasting for all the people of the nation. And I do earnestly recommend to
all the people, and especially to all ministers and teachers of religion
of all denominations and to all heads of families, to observe and keep
that day according to their several creeds and modes of worship in all
humility and with all religious solemnity, to the end that the united
prayer of the nation may ascend to the Throne of Grace and bring down
plentiful blessings upon our country.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the United States to
[SEAL.]
be affixed, this twelfth day of August, A. D.
1861, and of the independence of the United
States of America the eighty-sixth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
TO JAMES POLLOCK.
WASHINGTON, AUGUST 15, 1861
HON. JAMES POLLOCK.
MY DEAR SIR:--You must make a job for the bearer of this--make a job of it
with the collector and have it done. You can do it for me and you must.
Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR O. P. MORTON.
WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 15, 1861
GOVERNOR MORTON, Indiana: Start your four regiments to St. Louis at the
earliest moment possible. Get such harness as may be necessary for your
rifled gums. Do not delay a single regiment, but hasten everything forward
as soon as any one regiment is ready. Have your three additional regiments
organized at once. We shall endeavor to send you the arms this week.
A. LINCOLN
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FREMONT,
WASHINGTON, August 15, 1861
TO MAJOR-GENERAL FREMONT:
Been answering your messages since day before yesterday. Do you receive
the answers? The War Department has notified all the governors you
designate to forward all available force. So telegraphed you. Have you
received these messages? Answer immediately.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION FORBIDDING INTERCOURSE WITH REBEL STATES, AUGUST 16, 1861.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas on the fifteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one,
the President of the United States, in view of an insurrection against the
laws, Constitution, and government of the United States which had broken
out within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and in pursuance of the provisions
of the act entitled "An act to provide for calling forth the militia
to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel
invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose," approved
February twenty-eighth, seventeen hundred and ninety-five, did call forth
the militia to suppress said insurrection, and to cause the laws of the
Union to be duly executed, and the insurgents have failed to disperse
by the time directed by the President; and whereas such insurrection
has since broken out and yet exists within the States of Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas; and whereas the insurgents in all the
said States claim to act under the authority thereof, and such claim is
not disclaimed or repudiated by the persons exercising the functions of
government in such State or States, or in the part or parts thereof in
which such combinations exist, nor has such insurrection been suppressed
by said States:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in
pursuance of an act of Congress approved July thirteen, eighteen hundred
and sixty-one, do hereby declare that the inhabitants of the said States
of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (except
the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of the
Allegheny Mountains, and of such other parts of that State, and the other
States hereinbefore named, as may maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union
and the Constitution, or may be time to time occupied and controlled by
forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents),
are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all
commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with
the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other States and other parts
of the United States, is unlawful, and will remain unlawful until such
insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed; that all goods and
chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from any of said States, with the
exceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, without the
special license and permission of the President, through the Secretary
of the Treasury, or proceeding to any of said States, with the exceptions
aforesaid, by land or water, together with the vessel or vehicle
conveying the same, or conveying persons to or from said States, with
said exceptions, will be forfeited to the United States; and that from
and after fifteen days from the issuing of this proclamation all ships and
vessels belonging in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of any
of said States, with said exceptions, found at sea, or in any port of the
United States, will be forfeited to the United States; and I hereby enjoin
upon all district attorneys, marshals, and officers of the revenue and of
the military and naval forces of the United States to be vigilant in
the execution of said act, and in the enforcement of the penalties and
forfeitures imposed or declared by it; leaving any party who may think
himself aggrieved thereby to his application to the Secretary of the
Treasury for the remission of any penalty or forfeiture, which the said
Secretary is authorized by law to grant if, in his judgment, the special
circumstances of any case shall require such remission.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand,....
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of Sate.
TO SECRETARY CAMERON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 17, 1861
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR.
MY DEAR SIR:--Unless there be reason to the contrary, not known to
me, make out a commission for Simon B. Buckner, of Kentucky, as a
brigadier-general of volunteers. It is to be put into the hands of General
Anderson, and delivered to General Buckner or not, at the discretion of
General Anderson. Of course it is to remain a secret unless and until the
commission is delivered.
Yours truly, A. LINCOLN
Same day made.
[Indorsement.]
TO GOVERNOR MAGOFFIN,
WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 24, 1861
To HIS EXCELLENCY B. MAGOFFIN, Governor of the State of Kentucky.
SIR:--Your letter of the 19th instant, in which you urge the "removal from
the limits of Kentucky of the military force now organized and in camp
within that State," is received.
I may not possess full and precisely accurate knowledge upon this subject;
but I believe it is true that there is a military force in camp within
Kentucky, acting by authority of the United States, which force is not
very large, and is not now being augmented.
I also believe that some arms have been furnished to this force by the
United States.
I also believe this force consists exclusively of Kentuckians, having
their camp in the immediate vicinity of their own homes, and not assailing
or menacing any of the good people of Kentucky.
In all I have done in the premises I have acted upon the urgent
solicitation of many Kentuckians, and in accordance with what I believed,
and still believe, to be the wish of a majority of all the Union-loving
people of Kentucky.
While I have conversed on this subject with many eminent men of Kentucky,
including a large majority of her members of Congress, I do not remember
that any one of them, or any other person, except your Excellency and the
bearers of your Excellency's letter, has urged me to remove the military
force from Kentucky or to disband it. One other very worthy citizen of
Kentucky did solicit me to have the augmenting of the force suspended for
a time.
Taking all the means within my reach to form a judgment, I do not believe
it is the popular wish of Kentucky that this force shall be removed beyond
her limits; and, with this impression, I must respectfully decline to so
remove it.
I most cordially sympathize with your Excellency in the wish to preserve
the peace of my own native State, Kentucky. It is with regret I search,
and cannot find, in your not very short letter, any declaration or
intimation that you entertain any desire for the preservation of the
Federal Union.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL FREMONT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 2, 1861
MAJOR-GENERAL FREMONT.
MY DEAR SIR:--Two points in your proclamation of August 30 give me some
anxiety.
First. Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the
Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands in
retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order
that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation without first
having my approbation or consent.
Second. I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in
relation to the confiscation of property and the liberating slaves of
traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them
against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow
me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that
paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of
Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary
purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which act I herewith
send you.
This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send
it by special messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach
you.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNORS
WASHBURN OF MAINE, FAIRBANKS OF VERMONT, BERRY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, ANDREW OF
MASSACHUSETTS, BUCKINGHAM OF CONNECTICUT, AND SPRAGUE OF RHODE ISLAND.
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 11, 1861.
General Butler proposes raising in New England six regiments, to be
recruited and commanded by himself, and to go on special service.
I shall be glad if you, as governor of ------, will answer by telegraph if
you consent.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL FREMONT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 11, 1861
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT.
SIR:-Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of the 2d instant, is just
received. Assuming that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the
necessities of your position than I could at this distance, on seeing
your proclamation of August 30 I perceived no general objection to it. The
particular clause, however, in relation to the confiscation of property
and the liberation of slaves appeared to me to be objectionable in its
nonconformity to the act of Congress passed the 6th of last August upon
the same subjects; and hence I wrote you, expressing my wish that that
clause should be modified accordingly. Your answer, just received,
expresses the preference on your part that I should make an open order for
the modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is therefore ordered that
the said clause of said proclamation be so modified, held, and construed
as to conform to, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject
contained in the act of Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property
used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and that said
act be published at length with this order.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO MRS. FREMONT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 12, 1861
Mrs. GENERAL FREMONT.
MY DEAR MADAM:--Your two notes of to-day are before me. I answered the
letter you bore me from General Fremont on yesterday, and not hearing from
you during the day, I sent the answer to him by mail. It is not exactly
correct, as you say you were told by the elder Mr. Blair, to say that I
sent Postmaster-General Blair to St. Louis to examine into that department
and report. Postmaster-General Blair did go, with my approbation, to see
and converse with General Fremont as a friend. I do not feel authorized to
furnish you with copies of letters in my possession without the consent of
the writers. No impression has been made on my mind against the honor or
integrity of General Fremont, and I now enter my protest against being
understood as acting in any hostility toward him.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO JOSEPH HOLT,
EXECUTIVE MANSION, SEPTEMBER 12, 1861
HON. JOSEPH HOLT.
DEAR SIR:--Yours of this day in relation to the late proclamation of
General Fremont is received yesterday I addressed a letter to him, by
mail, on the same subject, and which is to be made public when he receives
it. I herewith send you a copy of that letter, which perhaps shows my
position as distinctly as any new one I could write. I will thank you not
to make it public until General Fremont shall have had time to receive the
original.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL SCOTT
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 16, 1861.
DEAR SIR:--Since conversing with you I have concluded to request you
to frame an order for recruiting North Carolinians at Fort Hatteras. I
suggest it to be so framed as for us to accept a smaller force--even a
company--if we cannot get a regiment or more. What is necessary to now
say about officers you will judge. Governor Seward says he has a nephew
(Clarence A. Seward, I believe) who would be willing to go and play
colonel and assist in raising the force. Still it is to be considered
whether the North Carolinians will not prefer officers of their own. I
should expect they would.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TO SECRETARY CAMERON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 18, 1861
HON. SECRETARY OF WAR. MY DEAR SIR:--To guard against misunderstanding,
I think fit to say that the joint expedition of the army and navy agreed
upon some time since, and in which General T. W. Sherman was and is to
bear a conspicuous part, is in no wise to be abandoned, but must be ready
to move by the 1st of, or very early in, October. Let all preparations go
forward accordingly.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL FREMONT,
WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 12, 1861
MAJOR-GENERAL FREMONT:
Governor Morton telegraphs as follows: "Colonel Lane, just arrived by
special train, represents Owensborough, forty miles above Evansville, in
possession of secessionists. Green River is navigable. Owensborough must
be seized. We want a gunboat sent up from Paducah for that purpose." Send
up the gunboat if, in your discretion, you think it right. Perhaps you had
better order those in charge of the Ohio River to guard it vigilantly at
all points.
A. LINCOLN.
To O. H. BROWNING.
(Private and Confidential)
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON SEPTEMBER 22, 1861
HON. O. H. BROWNING.
MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 17th is just received; and coming from you, I
confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my adhering to a law
which you had assisted in making and presenting to me less than a month
before is odd enough. But this is a very small part. General Fremont's
proclamation as to confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves
is purely political and not within the range of military law or necessity.
If a commanding general finds a necessity to seize the farm of a private
owner for a pasture, an encampment, or a fortification, he has the right
to do so, and to so hold it as long as the necessity lasts; and this is
within military law, because within military necessity. But to say the
farm shall no longer belong to the owner, or his heirs forever, and this
as well when the farm is not needed for military purposes as when it is,
is purely political, without the savor of military law about it. And the
same is true of slaves. If the general needs them, he can seize them
and use them; but when the need is past, it is not for him to fix their
permanent future condition. That must be settled according to laws made
by law-makers, and not by military proclamations. The proclamation in the
point in question is simply "dictatorship." It assumes that the general
may do anything he pleases confiscate the lands and free the slaves of
loyal people, as well as of disloyal ones. And going the whole figure,
I have no doubt, would be more popular with some thoughtless people than
that which has been done, But I cannot assume this reckless position, nor
allow others to assume it on my responsibility.
You speak of it as being the only means of saving the government. On
the contrary, it is itself the surrender of the government. Can it be
pretended that it is any longer the Government of the United States--any
government of constitution and laws wherein a general or a president may
make permanent rules of property by proclamation? I do not say Congress
might not with propriety pass a law on the point, just such as General
Fremont proclaimed.
I do not say I might not, as a member of Congress, vote for it. What I
object to is, that I, as President, shall expressly or impliedly seize and
exercise the permanent legislative functions of the government.
So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt the thing was popular
in some quarters, and would have been more so if it had been a general
declaration of emancipation. The Kentucky Legislature would not budge till
that proclamation was modified; and General Anderson telegraphed me
that on the news of General Fremont having actually issued deeds of
manumission, a whole company of our volunteers threw down their arms and
disbanded. I was so assured as to think it probable that the very arms
we had furnished Kentucky would be turned against us. I think to lose
Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we
cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us,
and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent
to separation at once, including the surrender of this Capital. On the
contrary, if you will give up your restlessness for new positions, and
back me manfully on the grounds upon which you and other kind friends
gave me the election and have approved in my public documents, we shall
go through triumphantly. You must not understand I took my course on the
proclamation because of Kentucky. I took the same ground in a private
letter to General Fremont before I heard from Kentucky.
You think I am inconsistent because I did not also forbid General Fremont
to shoot men under the proclamation. I understand that part to be within
military law, but I also think, and so privately wrote General Fremont,
that it is impolitic in this, that our adversaries have the power, and
will certainly exercise it, to shoot as many of our men as we shoot of
theirs. I did not say this in the public letter, because it is a subject I
prefer not to discuss in the hearing of our enemies.
There has been no thought of removing General Fremont on any ground
connected with his proclamation, and if there has been any wish for his
removal on any ground, our mutual friend Sam. Glover can probably tell you
what it was. I hope no real necessity for it exists on any ground.
Your friend, as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
MEMORANDUM FOR A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN
[OCTOBER 1?] 1861
On or about the 5th of October (the exact date to be determined hereafter)
I wish a movement made to seize and hold a point on the railroad
connecting Virginia and Tennessee near the mountain-pass called Cumberland
Gap. That point is now guarded against us by Zollicoffer, with 6000 or
8000 rebels at Barboursville Ky.,--say twenty-five miles from the Gap,
toward Lexington. We have a force of 5000 or 6000 under General Thomas,
at Camp Dick Robinson, about twenty-five miles from Lexington and
seventy-five from Zollicoffer's camp, On the road between the two. There
is not a railroad anywhere between Lexington and the point to be seized,
and along the whole length of which the Union sentiment among the people
largely predominates. We have military possession of the railroad from
Cincinnati to Lexington, and from Louisville to Lexington, and some
home guards, under General Crittenden, are on the latter line. We have
possession of the railroad from Louisville to Nashville, Tenn., so far
as Muldraugh's Hill, about forty miles, and the rebels have possession of
that road all south of there. At the Hill we have a force of 8000, under
General Sherman, and about an equal force of rebels is a very short
distance south, under General Buckner.
We have a large force at Paducah, and a smaller at Port Holt, both on the
Kentucky side, with some at Bird's Point, Cairo, Mound City, Evansville,
and New Albany, all on the other side, and all which, with the gunboats on
the river, are perhaps sufficient to guard the Ohio from Louisville to its
mouth.
About supplies of troops, my general idea is that all from Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, not now elsewhere, be
left to Fremont. All from Indiana and Michigan, not now elsewhere, be sent
to Anderson at Louisville. All from Ohio needed in western Virginia be
sent there, and any remainder be sent to Mitchell at Cincinnati, for
Anderson. All east of the mountains be appropriated to McClellan and to
the coast.
As to movements, my idea is that the one for the coast and that on
Cumberland Gap be simultaneous, and that in the meantime preparation,
vigilant watching, and the defensive only be acted upon; this, however,
not to apply to Fremont's operations in northern and middle Missouri. That
before these movements Thomas and Sherman shall respectively watch but
not attack Zollicoffer and Buckner. That when the coast and Gap movements
shall be ready Sherman is merely to stand fast, while all at Cincinnati
and all at Louisville, with all on the line, concentrate rapidly at
Lexington, and thence to Thomas's camp, joining him, and the whole thence
upon the Gap. It is for the military men to decide whether they can find a
pass through the mountains at or near the Gap which cannot be defended by
the enemy with a greatly inferior force, and what is to be done in regard
to this.
The coast and Gap movements made, Generals McClellan and Fremont, in
their respective departments, will avail themselves of any advantages the
diversions may present.
[He was entirely unable to get this started, Sherman would have taken
an active part if given him, the others were too busy getting lines of
communication guarded--and discovering many "critical" supply items that
had not been sent them. Also the commanding general did not like it. D.W.]
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, October 4, 1861
HONORABLE SECRETARY OF STATE.
DEAR SIR:--Please see Mr. Walker, well vouched as a Union man and
son-in-law of Governor Morehead, and pleading for his release. I
understand the Kentucky arrests were not made by special direction from
here, and I am willing if you are that any of the parties may be released
when James Guthrie and James Speed think they should be.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TO THE VICEROY OF EGYPT.
WASHINGTON, October 11, 1861.