"An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other
purposes," approved on the 3d day of March, 1863, I, Abraham Lincoln,
President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United
States, do hereby order and command that all soldiers enlisted or drafted
in the service of the United States now absent from their regiments
without leave shall forthwith return to their respective regiments.
And I do hereby declare and proclaim that all soldiers now absent from
their respective regiments without leave who shall, on or before the first
day of April, 1863, report themselves at any rendezvous designated by
the general orders of the War Department No. 58, hereto annexed, may be
restored to their respective regiments without punishment, except the
forfeiture of pay and allowances during their absence; and all who do not
return within the time above specified shall be arrested as deserters and
punished as the law provides; and
Whereas evil-disposed and disloyal persons at sundry places have
enticed and procured soldiers to desert and absent themselves from their
regiments, thereby weakening the strength of the armies and prolonging the
war, giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and cruelly exposing the gallant
and faithful soldiers remaining in the ranks to increased hardships and
danger:
I do therefore call upon all patriotic and faithful citizens to oppose and
resist the aforementioned dangerous and treasonable crimes, and to aid
in restoring to their regiments all soldiers absent without leave, and to
assist in the execution of the act of Congress "for enrolling and calling
out the national forces, and for other purposes," and to support the
proper authorities in the prosecution and punishment of offenders against
said act and in suppressing the insurrection and rebellion.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand. Done at the city of
Washington, this tenth day of March, A.D. 1863, and of the independence of
the United States the eighty-seventh.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HOOKER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 13, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER:
General Stahel wishes to be assigned to General Heintzelman and General
Heintzelman also desires it. I would like to oblige both if it would not
injure the service in your army, or incommode you. What say you?
A. LINCOLN.
TO SECRETARY SEWARD.
WASHINGTON, Match 15, 1863.
I am very glad of your note saying "recent despatches from him are able,
judicious, and loyal," and that if I agree; we will leave him there. I am
glad to agree, so long as the public interest does not seem to require his
removal.
TELEGRAM TO J. O. MORTON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 16, 1863.
HON. J. O. MORTON, Joliet, Ill.: William Chumasero is proposed for
provost-marshal of your district. What think you of it? I understand he is
a good man.
A. LINCOLN.
GRANT'S EXCLUSION OF A NEWSPAPER REPORTER
REVOCATION OF SENTENCE OF T. W. KNOX.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 20, 1863.
WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:--Whereas, it appears to my satisfaction that Thomas
W. Knox, a correspondent of the New York Herald, has been by the sentence
of a court-martial excluded from the military department under command
of Major-General Grant, and also that General Thayer, president of the
court-martial which rendered the sentence, and Major-General McClernand,
in command of a corps of that department, and many other respectable
persons, are of opinion that Mr. Knox's offense was technical rather than
wilfully wrong, and that the sentence should be revoked: now, therefore,
said sentence is hereby so far revoked as to allow Mr. Knox to return to
General Grant's headquarters, and to remain if General Grant shall give
his express assent, and to again leave the department if General Grant
shall refuse such assent.
A. LINCOLN.
TO BENJAMIN GRATZ.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 25,1863.
Mr. BENJAMIN GRATZ, Lexington, Ky.:
Show this to whom it may concern as your authority for allowing Mrs. Selby
to remain at your house, so long as you choose to be responsible for what
she may do.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 25, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Murfreesborough, Tenn.:
Your dispatches about General Davis and General Mitchell are received.
General Davis' case is not particular, being simply one of a great many
recommended and not nominated because they would transcend the number
allowed by law. General Mitchell (was) nominated and rejected by the
Senate and I do not think it proper for me to renominate him without a
change of circumstances such as the performance of additional service, or
an expressed change of purpose on the part of at least some senators who
opposed him.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT.
WASHINGTON, March 25, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT, Memphis:
What news have you? What from Vicksburg? What from Yazoo Pass? What from
Lake Providence? What generally?
A. LINCOLN.
QUESTION OF RAISING NEGRO TROOPS
TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON.
(Private.)
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON March 26, 1863.
HON. ANDREW JOHNSON.
MY DEAR SIR:--I am told you have at least thought of raising a negro
military force. In my opinion the country now needs no specific thing so
much as some man of your ability and position to go to this work. When I
speak of your position, I mean that of an eminent citizen of a slave State
and himself a slaveholder. The colored population is the great available
and yet unavailed of force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of
fifty thousand armed and drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the
Mississippi would end the rebellion at once; and who doubts that we
can present that sight if we but take hold in earnest? If you have been
thinking of it, please do not dismiss the thought.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION APPOINTING A NATIONAL FAST-DAY.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
March 30, 1863.
Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme
authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men
and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate
and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation:
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as men to own their
dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and
transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine
repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime
truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that
those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals,
are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not
justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the
land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins,
to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We
have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been
preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in
numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have
forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in
peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly
imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings
were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated
with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the
necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God
that made us:
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to
confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness:
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in
the views, of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation designate and
set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national
humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people
to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite
at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in
keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of
the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done
in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope, authorized by
the divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on
high, and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national
sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its
former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness 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 thirtieth day of March, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
LICENSE OF COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 31, 1863.
Whereas by the act of Congress approved July 13, 1861, entitled "An act to
provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes,"
all commercial intercourse between the inhabitants of such States as
should by proclamation be declared in insurrection against the United
States and the citizens of the rest of the United States was prohibited
so long as such condition of hostility should continue, except as the
same shall be licensed and permitted by the President to be conducted and
carried on only in pursuance of rules and regulations prescribed by the
Secretary of the Treasury; and:
Whereas it appears that a partial restoration of such intercourse between
the inhabitants of sundry places and sections heretofore declared in
insurrection in pursuance of said act and the citizens of the rest of the
United States will favorably affect the public interests:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
exercising the authority and discretion confided to me by the said act of
Congress, do hereby license and permit such commercial intercourse between
the citizens of loyal States and the inhabitants of such insurrectionary
States in the cases and under the restrictions described and expressed in
the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury bearing
even date with these presents, or in such other regulations as he may
hereafter, with my approval, prescribe.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL D. HUNTER.
(Private.) EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C April 1, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER.
MY DEAR SIR:--I am glad to see the accounts of your colored force at
Jacksonville, Florida. I see the enemy are driving at them fiercely, as is
to be expected. It is important to the enemy that such a force shall not
take shape and grow and thrive in the South, and in precisely the same
proportion it is important to us that it shall. Hence the utmost caution
and vigilance is necessary on our part. The enemy will make extra efforts
to destroy them, and we should do the same to preserve and increase them.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION ABOUT COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE, APRIL 2, 1863
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, in pursuance of the act of Congress approved July 13, 1861, I
did, by proclamation dated August 16, 1861, declare that the inhabitants
of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida
(except the inhabitants of that part of Virginia lying west of the
Alleghany Mountains, and of such other parts of that State and the other
States hereinbefore named as might maintain a legal adhesion to the Union
and the Constitution or might be from time to time occupied and controlled
by forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of said
insurgents) were 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 was unlawful and would remain
unlawful until such insurrection should cease or be suppressed, and 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 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 to or from said States, with the exceptions
aforesaid, would be forfeited to the United States, and:
Whereas experience has shown that the exceptions made in and by said
proclamation embarrass the due enforcement of said act of July 13, 1861,
and the proper regulation of the commercial intercourse authorized by said
act with the loyal citizens of said States:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
hereby revoke the said exceptions, and declare that the inhabitants of
the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama,
Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Virginia (except the
forty-eight counties of Virginia designated as West Virginia, and except
also the ports of New Orleans, Key West; Port Royal, and Beaufort in North
Carolina) are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and
that all commercial intercourse not licensed and conducted as provided
in said act between the said States 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 and notice thereof has
been duly given by proclamation; and all cotton, tobacco, and other
products, and all other goods and chattels, wares and merchandise, coming
from any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, into other parts
of the United States, or proceeding to any of said States, with the
exceptions aforesaid, without the license and permission of the President,
through the Secretary of the Treasury, will together with the vessel or
vehicle conveying the same, be forfeited to the United States.
In witness 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 second day of April, A.D. 1863, and
of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HOOKER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 3, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER:
Our plan is to pass Saturday night on the boat, go over from Aquia Creek
to your camp Sunday morning, remain with you till Tuesday morning, and
then return. Our party will probably not exceed six persons of all sorts.
A. LINCOLN.
OPINION ON HARBOR DEFENSE.
April 4, 1863.
On this general subject I respectfully refer Mr.------__ to the
Secretaries of War and Navy for conference and consultation. I have a
single idea of my own about harbor defense. It is a steam ram, built so
as to sacrifice nearly all capacity for carrying to those of speed and
strength, so as to be able to split any vessel having hollow enough in her
to carry supplies for a voyage of any distance. Such ram, of course, could
not herself carry supplies for a voyage of considerable distance, and her
business would be to guard a particular harbor as a bulldog guards his
master's door.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY POTOMAC, April 9, 1863.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY:
Richmond Whig of the 8th has no telegraphic despatches from Charleston,
but has the following as editorial:
"All thoughts are now centred upon Charleston. Official intelligence was
made public early yesterday morning that the enemy's iron-clad fleet
had attempted to cross the bar and failed, but later in the day it was
announced that the gunboats and transports had succeeded in crossing and
were at anchor. Our iron-clads lay between the forts quietly awaiting the
attack. Further intelligence is looked for with eager anxiety. The Yankees
have made no secret of this vast preparation for an attack on Charleston,
and we may well anticipate a desperate conflict. At last the hour of trial
has come for Charleston, the hour of deliverance or destruction, for no
one believes the other alternative, surrender, possible. The heart of the
whole country yearns toward the beleaguered city with intense solicitude,
yet with hopes amounting to confidence. Charleston knows what is expected
of her, and which is due to her fame, and to the relation she sustains to
the cause. The devoted, the heroic, the great-hearted Beauregard is there,
and he, too, knows what is expected of him and will not disappoint that
expectation. We predict a Saragossa defense, and that if Charleston is
taken it will be only a heap of ruins."
The rebel pickets are reported as calling over to our pickets today that
we had taken some rebel fort. This is not very intelligible, and I think
is entirely unreliable.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO OFFICER IN COMMAND AT NASHVILLE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 11,1863.
OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn: Is there a soldier by the name
of John R. Minnick of Wynkoop's cavalry under sentence of death, by a
court-martial or military commission, in Nashville? And if so what was his
offense, and when is he to be executed?
A. LINCOLN.
If necessary let the execution be staid till I can be heard from again.
A. LINCOLN.
[President Lincoln sent many telegrams similar in form to
this one in order to avoid tiresome repetition the editor
has omitted all those without especial interest. Hardly a
day went by that there were not people in the White House
begging mercy for a sentenced soldier. A mother one day,
pleaded with Lincoln to remit the sentence of execution on
her son. "Well, I don't think it will do him a bit of good"
said Mr. Lincoln--"Pardoned." D.W.]
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HOOKER.
WASHINGTON D.C., April 12, 1863
MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER:
Your letter by the hand of General Butterfield is received, and will be
conformed to. The thing you dispense with would have been ready by mid-day
to-morrow.
A. LINCOLN
TELEGRAM TO ADMIRAL S. P. DUPONT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 13, 1863
ADMIRAL DUPONT:
Hold your position inside the bar near Charleston; or, if you shall have
left it, return to it, and hold it until further orders. Do not allow the
enemy to erect new batteries or defenses on Morris Island. If he has begun
it, drive him out. I do not herein order you to renew the general attack.
That is to depend on your own discretion or a further order.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL D. HUNTER AND ADMIRAL S. F. DUPONT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 54, 1863.
GENERAL HUNTER AND ADMIRAL DUPONT:
This is intended to clear up an apparent inconsistency between the recent
order to continue operations before Charleston and the former one to
remove to another point in a certain contingency. No censure upon you, or
either of you, is intended. We still hope that by cordial and judicious
co-operation you can take the batteries on Morris Island and Sullivan's
Island and Fort Sumter. But whether you can or not, we wish the
demonstration kept up for a time, for a collateral and very important
object. We wish the attempt to be a real one, though not a desperate one,
if it affords any considerable chance of success. But if prosecuted as a
demonstration only, this must not become public, or the whole effect will
be lost. Once again before Charleston, do not leave until further orders
from here. Of course this is not intended to force you to leave unduly
exposed Hilton Head or other near points in your charge.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
P. S.--Whoever receives this first, please send a copy to the other
immediately. A.L.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. HOOKER.
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 15, 1863. 10.15 P.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER:
It is now 10.15 P.M. An hour ago I received your letter of this morning,
and a few moments later your despatch of this evening. The latter gives me
considerable uneasiness. The rain and mud of course were to be calculated
upon. General S. is not moving rapidly enough to make the expedition come
to anything. He has now been out three days, two of which were unusually
fair weather, and all three without hindrance from the enemy, and yet
he is not twenty-five miles from where he started. To reach his point he
still has sixty to go, another river (the Rapidan) to cross, and will be
hindered by the enemy. By arithmetic, how many days will it take him to
do it? I do not know that any better can be done, but I greatly fear it is
another failure already. Write me often. I am very anxious.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
ON COLONIZATION ARRANGEMENTS
REPUDIATION OF AN AGREEMENT WITH BERNARD KOCK
APRIL 16, 1863.
A. LINCOLN,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
GREETING:
Know ye that, whereas a paper bearing date the 3rd day of December last,
purporting to be an agreement between the United States and one Bernard
Kock for immigration of persons of African extraction to a dependency
of the Republic of Haiti, was signed by me on behalf of the party of the
first part; but whereas the said instrument was and has since remained
incomplete in consequence of the seal of the United States not having been
thereunto affixed; and whereas I have been moved by considerations by me
deemed sufficient to withhold my authority for affixing the said seal:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, do hereby authorize the Secretary of State to cancel my
signature to the instrument aforesaid.
Done at Washington, this sixteenth day of April, A.D. 1863.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
STATEHOOD FOR WEST VIRGINIA, APRIL 20, 1863.
PROCLAMATION ADMITTING WEST VIRGINIA INTO THE UNION,
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas by the act of Congress approved the 31st day of December last
the State of West Virginia was declared to be one of the United States
of America, and was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the
original States in all respects whatever, upon the condition that certain
changes should be duly made in the proposed constitution for that State;
and
Whereas proof of a compliance with that condition, as required by the
second section of the act aforesaid, has been submitted to me:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, do hereby, in pursuance of the act of Congress aforesaid,
declare and proclaim that the said act shall take effect and be in force
from and after sixty days from the date hereof.
In witness 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 April, A.D. 1863,
and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, APRIL 23, 1863 10.10am
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Murfreesborough, Tenn.:
Your despatch of the 21st received. I really cannot say that I have
heard any complaint of you. I have heard complaint of a police corps at
Nashville, but your name was not mentioned in connection with it, so far
as I remember. It may be that by inference you are connected with it, but
my attention has never been drawn to it in that light.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. HOOKER.
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 27, 1863. 3.30 P.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER:
How does it look now?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN.