Glass Book U.S. Pves., ig^i-is-^r ({i^ u^^ LETTERS AND PROCLAMATIONS OF THE PRESIDEXt. Executive Mansion, Waskingim, August 22, 1862. Dear Sir : I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to myself through Ihe New York Trvbune. 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 tlicm. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not ^ow 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 yzn say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I VN'ould save it the shortest way under the Consti- tution. 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 tiaie destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union^ and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it ; ■and 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 colored race, I deusable to the maintenance of the government to exercise such a supposed power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field. These are totally different questions from those of police regulations in the armies and camps. On the Gth day of March last, by a special message, I recommended to Con- gress the adoption of a joint resolution, to be substantially as follows : ''Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconve- niences, public and private, produced by such a change of system." The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities ill both branches of Congress, and now stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the States and people most immediately interested i:i the subject-matter. To the people of those States I now earnestly appeal. I do not argue; I beseech you to make the arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged con^iilera- tion of them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisanj^oljtics This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproacliL-s upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven — not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it ? So much good has not been done by one effort in all pa^t time, as, in the providence of Cod, it is now your high privilege to do. M;)/ the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it ! In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be aflixed. Done at the city of Washington, this the nineteentli day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the ind.-- pendence of the United States the eighty-sixth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President : Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. By the President of the United States of America^ A PROCLAMATION. I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and com- mander-in-chief of the army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practi- cally restoring the constitutional relations between the United States and each of the States and the people thereof, in which States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed. That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again recom- mend the adoption of a practical measure, tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all the slave States, so-called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, the immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits ; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there, will be continued. That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, ail persons held as slaves within any State, or desig- nated part of a State, the people whereof s^hall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free ;; and the execu- tive government of the United States, including the military and naval authori- . ies thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such pejsous, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. That the Executive will, on the fir&t ^ay of January aforesaid, by proclama- tion, designate the States, or parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof,, respectively, shall then be in rebellion agaiast the United States j and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall, on that day, be in good faith repre-- sented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elec- tions, wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall ha-ye partici- pated, shall, in the absence of strong, countervailing testimony, be deemed con--' elusive evidence that such State, and the people theyeof, are not then in rebelliorsi against the United States. That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled "An act to make an additional article of war,''' approved March 13, 186S, aaid which act iff iu the words and figures following : "■ Be it snupted by the Senate and House of Representatives of t)te United States cf America i»- Congress assemhled. That hereafter the following shall be pro- mulgated as an additional article of war for the gotejuraent of the army of the United States,, aad shall be observed as such ;■ "Article^—. All officers or pei-sons in the military cr naval service of the I uiled States are prohibited frona employing any of tlie f-orcea of their respective" 5 commands for tLe purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due ; and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violation of this article shall be dismissed from the service. " Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its passage." Also, to the 9th and 10th sections of an act entitled " An act to suppress in- .'jun-ection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 186i, and which section^; are in the words and figures following : " Skc. 9. And he it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, and escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army, and all slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the government of the United States, and all slaves of such persons found on or being within any place occupied by rebel forces, and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves. " Sec. 10. And be it further enacted. That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivert'd up or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming the said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid or comfort thereto." No person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatsoever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service. Aud I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the acts and sections above recited. And the Executive will, in due time, recommend that all citizens of the United States, who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall, upon tlie restoration of the constitutional relations between the United States and the people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed, be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves. 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 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the independence (»f the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLX, By the President : William H, Seward, Secretary of State, THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION'. By the President of the United States of America. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year of oiir Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as plaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the free- dom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom ; " That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by procla- mation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day in good faith be represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that svich State, and the people thereof, are not then in re- bellion against the United States :" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy ff the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred (lays, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and j)arts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit : Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St, Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans,) ]\Iississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkely, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power and. for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and de- clare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are and henceforward shall be free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval anthoritioB thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abetain frr-m all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them thai, in all cases when allowed, they labor ftiithfully for reasonable wages. And I fui'ther declare and make known that such persons, of suitable con- dition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to Ite an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my nanie and caused the sea] of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of r T our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty -three, and of the inde- L. S. pendenee of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State. LETTER IN REPLY TO COMMITTEE OF THE OHIO DEMOCRATIC STATE COiT- VENTION. Washinoto.n, June 29, 1863. Gentlemen : The resolutions of the Ohio Democratic State Conventon, which you present me, together with your introductory and closing remarks, being in position and argument mainly the same as the resolutions of the Demo- ci-atic meeting at Albany, New York, I refer you to my response to the latter as meeting most of the points in the former- This response you evidently used in preparing your remarks, and I desire no more than that it be used with accuracy. In a single reading of your remarks, I only discovered one inaccuracy in matter which I suppose you took from that paper. It is where you say, " The undersigned are unable to agree with yoa in the opinion you have expressed that the Constitution is different in time of insurrection or invasion from what it is in time of peace and public security." A recurrence to the paper will show you that I have not expressed the opinion you suppose. I expressed the opinion that the Constitution is different in its 8 apflication in cases of rebellion or invasion, involving tlie public safety, from what it is in times of profound peace and public security ; and this opinion I adhere to, simply because by the Constitution itself things may be done in the one case which may not be done in the other. I dislike to waste a word on a merely personal point, but I must respectfully assure you that you will find yourselves at fault should you ever seek for evi- dence to prove your assumption that I " opposed in discussions before the people the policy of the Mexican war." You say : " Expunge from the Constitution this limitation upon the power of Congress to suspend the writ of habeas eorpus, and yet the other guarantees of personal liberty would remain unchanged." Doubtless if this clause of the Constitution, improperly called, as I think, a limitation upon the power of Con- gress, were expunged, the other guarantees would remain the same ; but the question is, not how those guarantees would stand with that clause out of the Constitution, but how they stand with that clause remaining in it, in case of rebellion or invasion, involving the public safety. If the liberty could be in- dulged in expunging that clause, letter and spirit, I really think the constitu- tional argument would be with you. My general view on this question was stated in the Albany response, and hence I do not state it now. I only add that, as seems to me, the benefit of the writ of Jiaheas corpus is the great means through which the guarantees of per- sonal liberty are conserved and made available in the last resort ; and corrobo- rative of this view is the fact that Mr. Vallandingham, in the very case in question, under the advice of able lawyers, saw not where else to go but to the habeas corpus. But by the Constitution the benelit of the writ of habeas corpus itself may be suspended, when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. You ask, in substance, whether I really claim that I may override all the guaranteed rights of individuals, on the plea of conserving the public safety — when I may choose to say the public safety requires it. This question, divested of the phraseology calculated to represent me as stmggling for an arbitrary personal prerogative, is either simply a question wh& shall decide, or an affirma- tion that nobody shall decide, what the public safety does require in cases of rebellion or invasion. The Constitution contemplates the question as likely to occur for decision, but it does not expressly declare who is to decide it. By necessary implication, when rebellion or invasion comes, the decision is to be made from time to time ; and I think the man whom, for the time, the people have, under the Constitution, made the commander-in-chief of their army and navy, is the man who holds the power and bears the responsibility of making it. If he uses the power justly, the same people will probably justify him; if he abuses it, he is in their hands to be dealt with by all the modes they have reserved to themselves in the Constitution. The earnestness with which you insist that persons can only, in times of rebellion, be laAvfully dealt with in accordance with the rules -for criminal trial;* and punishments in times of peace, induces me to add a word to what I !*aid on that point in the Albany response. You claim that men may, if they choose, embarrass those whose duty it is to combat a giant rebellion, and then be dealt with only in turn as if there were no rebellion. The Constitution itself rejects this view. The military arrests and detentions which have been made, inclu- ding those of Mr. Vallandigham, which are not diftereut in principle from the other, have been ^ov prevention, and not for 2>unis/i??ient — as injunctions to stay injury, as proceedings to keep the peace — and hence, like proceedings in such cases and for like reasons, they have not been accompanied with indictments, or trials by juries, nor in a single case by any punishment whatever beyond what is purely incidental to the prevention. The original sentence of imprison- ment in Mr. Vallandigham's case was to prevent injury to the military service only, and the modification of it was made as a less disagreeable mode to him of securing the same prevention. I am unable to perceive an insult to Ohio in the case of Mr. Vallandigham. Quite surely nothing of this sort was or is intended. I was wholly unaware that Mr. Vallandigham was, at the time of his an-est, a candidate for the Demo- cratic nomination for governor, until so informed by your reading to me the resolutions of the convention. I am grateful to the State of Ohio for many things, especially for the brave soldiers and officers she has given in the present national trial to the armies of the Union. You claim, as I understand, that according to my own position in the Albany response, Mr. Vallandigham should be released; and this because, as you claim, he has not damaged the military service by discouraging enlistments, encouraging desertions, or otherwise; and that if he had, he should have been turned over to the civil authorities under the recent acts of Congress. I certainly do not know that Mr. Vallandigham has specifically and by direct language advised against enlistments and in favor of desertions and resistance to drafting. We all know that combinations, armed in some instances, to resist the arrest of de- serters, began several months ago; that more recently the like has appeared iii resistance to the enrolment preparatory to a draft; and that quite a number of assassinations have occurred from the same animus. These had to be met by militaiy force, and this again has led to bloodshed and death. And now, under a sense of responsibility more weighty and enduring than any which is merely official, I solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance of the military, including maiming and murder, is due to the course in which Mr. Vallandigham has been engaged, in a greater degree than to any other cause; and it is due to him personally in a greater degree than to any other man. These things have been notorious, known to all, and of course known to Mr. Vallandigham. Perhaps I would not be wi'ong to say they originated with his especial friends and adherents. With perfect knowledge of them he has fre- quently, if not constantly, made speeches in Congress and before popular assem- 10 blies ; and if it can be sliowu that, with these things staring him in the face, he has ever uttered a word of rebuke or counsel against them, it will be a fact greatly in his favor with me, and one of which, as yet, I am totally ignorant • When it is known that the whole burden of his speeches has been to stir up men against the prosecution of the war, and that in the midst of resistance to it he has not been known in any instance to counsel against such resistance , it is next to impossible to repel the inference that he has counselled directly iu favor of it. With all this before their eyes, the convention you represent have nominated Mr, Vallandigham for governor of Ohio, and both they and you have declared the purpose to sustain the national Union by all constitutional means ; but, of course, they and you, in common, reserve to yourselves to decide what are con- stitutional means, and, unlike the Albany meeting, you omit to state or intimate that, in your opinion, an army is a constitutional means of saving the Union against a rebellion, or even to intimate that you are conscious of an existing rebellion being in progress with the avowed object of destroying that very Union. At the same time, your nominee for governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is known to you, and to the world, to declare against the use of an army to suppress the rebellion. Your own attitude, therefore, encourages desertion, resistance to the draft, and the like, because it teaches those who incline to desert and to escape the draft to believe it is your purpose to protect them, and to hope that you will become strong enough to do so. After a short personal intercourse with you, gentlemen of the committee,! can- not say I think you desire this effect to follow your attitude ; but I assure you that both friends and enemies of the Union look upon it in this light. It is a substantial hope, and by consequence a real strength to the enemy .X^It is a false hope, and one which you would willingly dispel. I Avill make the way exceed, ingly easy. . I send you duplicates of this letter, in order that you, or a majority, may, if you choose, indorse your names upon one of them, and return it thus indorsed to me, with the understanding that those signing are thereby committed to the following propositions, and to nothing else : 1. That there is now a rebellion in the United States, the object and tendency of Avhich is to destroy the national Union ; and that, in your opinion, an army and navy are constitutional means for suppressing that rebellion. 2. That no one of you will do anything Avhich, in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase or favor the decrease or lessen the efficiency of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion ; and — 3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the officers, soldiers, and seamen of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to sup- press the rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and otherAvise well provided for and sup- ported. And M'ith the further understanding that upon receiving the letter and names thus indorsed, I will cause them to be published, which publication shall be, within itself, a revocation of the order iu relation to Mr. Vallandigham. u It will not escape observation that 1 consent to the release of ^Ir. Vallandig- ham upon terms not embracing any pledge from him or from others as to what he will or will not do. I do this because he is not present to speak for himself, or to authorize others to speak for him ; and hence I shall expect that on returning he would not put himself practically in antagonism with the position of his friends. But I do it chiefly because I thereby j)re vail on other influential gentlemen of Ohio to so define their position as to be of immense value to the army — thus more than compensating for the consequences of any mistake in allowing Mr. Vallandigham to return, so that, on the whole, the public safety will not have suffered by it. Still, in regard to Mr. Vallandigham and all others, I must hereafter, as heretofore, do so much as the public service may seem to require. I have the honor to be respectfully, yours, Szc, A. LINCOLN. Messrs. M. BuRCHARU, David A. HorcK, Geore Bliss, T. AV. Bartley, W. J. Gordon, John O'Neil, C. A. AVhite, W. E. Fink, Alexander Long, J. W. White, Georgh H. Pendleton, George L. Converse, Hanzo P. Noble, James R. Morris, W. A. Hutchins, Abner L. Backus, J. F. McKiNXEY, P. C. LeBlond, Louis Schaefer. THE PRESIDENT'S APPEAL TO THE BORDER STATES. The representatives and senators of the border slaveholding States having, by special invitation of the President, been convened at the Executive Mansion on July 12, 1862, Mr. Lincoln addressed them as follows from a written paper held in his hands : " Gentlemen : After the adjoiirnment 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 mem- bers. I feel it a duty, which I cannot justifiably waive, to make this appeal to you. " I intend no reproach or complaint Avhen 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 invent 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 hojte to ultimately have you with them so long as you show a determination to per- petuate the institution within your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have overwhelminglv done, and, nothing daunted, thev still claim vou as their 12 own. You and I know wliat tlie lever of their power is. Break that lever bo- fore their faces, and they can shake you no more forever. 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 uuprecedentedly stern facts of > lur case, can you do better in any possible event ] You prefer that the consti- tutional 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 he performed. But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by war. The incidents of tlu^ 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 forever in the war ! How much better to do it while wo 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 ! I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once to emanci- pate gradually. Room in South America for colonization can be obtained cheaply and in abundance, and when numbers shall be large enough to be com- pany 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. An instance of it is known to you. 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 freed. 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 repu- diating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if not offence, to many whose support the coun- try 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 i\Iarch last. Before leaving the capital, consider and discuss it among your- selves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such I pray you consider this u proposition ; and at the least commend it to the consideration of your Statcf and people. As you would perpetuate popular government for the best people in the woi-ld, I beseecli you that you do in nowise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest vieM'S and boldest action to bring a speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved to thf^ world ; its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand. To you, more than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that happiness and swell that grandeur, aud to link your own names therewith forever. LEJe'13