Please accept for yourself, officers, and men, the nation's thanks for your good work of yesterday. You made a magnificent beginning; a grand consummation is within your easy reach. Do not let it slip.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December [16?], 1864.
DEAR COLONEL DICK:—I have long determined to make public the origin of the greenback and tell the world that it is Dick Taylor's creation. You had always been friendly to me, and when troublous times fell on us, and my shoulders, though broad and willing, were weak, and myself surrounded by such circumstances and such people that I knew not whom to trust, then I said in my extremity: "I will send for Colonel Taylor; he will know what to do." I think it was in January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that I did so. You came, and I said to you:
"What can we do?" Said you, "Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no interest, printed on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off the Army expenses and declare it legal tender."
Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accomplished it, and gave the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever had—their own paper to pay their own debts.
It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known. How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer.
Yours truly,
WASHINGTON, December 16, 1864
It is said that Harry Walters, a private in the Anderson cavalry, is now and for a long time has been in prison at Chattanooga. Please report to me what is his condition, and for what he is imprisoned.
A Proclamation
Whereas, by the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled "An act further to regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," it is provided that the President of the United States may, "at his discretion, at any time hereafter, call for any number of men, as volunteers for the respective terms of one, two, and three years for military service," and "that in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any country not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the space of fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately order a draft for one year to fill such quota or any part thereof which may be unfilled;" and
Whereas, by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of Congress on the call for 500,000 men, made July 18, 1864, the number of men to be obtained under that call was reduced to 280,000; and
Whereas, the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered it impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops under said call; and
Whereas, from the foregoing causes but 240,000 men have been put into the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, 1864, leaving a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty thousand (260,000):
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency and to provide for casualties in the military and naval service of the United States, do issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) volunteers to serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the States, districts, and subdistricts under this call will be assigned by the War Department through the bureau of the Provost-Marshal General of the United States, and "in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of any county not so subdivided, shall not be filled" before the fifteenth of February, 1865, then a draft shall be made to fill such quota or any part thereof under this call which may be unfilled on said fifteenth day of February, 1865.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed..........
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864
MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN:—Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, the capture of Savannah.
When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering that "nothing risked, nothing gained," I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce.
And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious and immediate military advantages; but in showing to the world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of the whole,—Hood's army,—it brings those who sat in darkness to see a great light. But what next?
I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to decide.
Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army of officers and men.
Yours very truly,
OFFICER IN COMMAND at Lexington, Ky.:
If within your power send me the particulars of the causes for which Lieutenant-Governor Jacob was arrested and sent away.
Dr. JOHN MACLEAN:
MY DEAR SIR:—I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your note of the twentieth of December, conveying the announcement that the Trustees of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the degree of Doctor of Laws.
The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of the Government which I represent, has received the approval of a body of gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of public trial, is most grateful to me.
Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this continent is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most gratifying proofs of this conviction is the hearty devotion everywhere exhibited by our schools and colleges to the national cause.
I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduct to the preservation of those institutions, under which alone we can expect good government and in its train sound learning, and the progress of the liberal arts.
I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant,
OFFICER IN COMMAND at Nashville, Tenn.:
Suspend execution of James R. Mallory, for six weeks from Friday the thirtieth of this month, which time I have given his friends to make proof, if they can, upon certain points.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:
If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of the Wilmington expedition, present and prospective.
There is a man in Company I, Eleventh Connecticut Volunteers, First Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, at Chapin's Farm, Va.; under the assumed name of William Stanley, but whose real name is Frank R. Judd, and who is under arrest, and probably about to be tried for desertion. He is the son of our present minister to Prussia, who is a close personal friend of Senator Trumbull and myself. We are not willing for the boy to be shot, but we think it as well that his trial go regularly on, suspending execution until further order from me and reporting to me.
COLONEL WARNER, Indianapolis, Ind.:
It is said that you were on the court-martial that tried John Lennon, and that you are disposed to advise his being pardoned and sent to his regiment. If this be true, telegraph me to that effect at once.
JOHN WILLIAMS, Springfield, Ill.:
Let Trumbo's substitute be regularly mustered in, send me the evidence that it is done and I will then discharge Trumbo.
I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, a "joint resolution to correct certain clerical errors in the internal revenue act," without my approval.
My reason for so doing is that I am informed that this joint resolution was prepared during the last moments of the last session of Congress for the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference in the internal revenue act, which were discovered on an examination of an official copy procured from the State Department a few hours only before the adjournment. It passed the House and went to the Senate, where a vote was taken upon it, but by some accident it was not presented to the President of the Senate for his signature.
Since the adjournment of the last session of Congress, other errors of a kind similar to those which this resolution was designed to correct, have been discovered in the law, and it is now thought most expedient to include all the necessary corrections in one act or resolution.
The attention of the proper committee of the House has, I am informed, been already directed to the preparation of a bill for this purpose.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:
Richard T. Jacob, Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky, is at the Spotswood House, in Richmond, under an order of General Burbridge not to return to Kentucky. Please communicate leave to him to pass our lines, and come to me here at Washington.
WASHINGTON, January 6, 1865, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point:
If there is a man at City Point by the name of Waterman Thornton who is in trouble about desertion, please have his case briefly stated to me and do not let him be executed meantime.
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I transmit to Congress a copy of two treaties between the United States and Belgium, for the extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, etc., concluded on the twentieth of May, 1863, and twentieth of July, 1863, respectively, the ratifications of which were exchanged at Brussels on the twenty-fourth of June last; and I recommend an appropriation to carry into effect the provisions thereof relative to the payment of the proportion of the United States toward the capitalization of the said dues.
HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
SIR:—I transmit herewith the letter of the Secretary of War, with accompanying report of the Adjutant-General, in reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives, dated December 7, 1864, requesting me "to communicate to the House the report made by Col. Thomas M. Key of an interview between himself and General Howell Cobb on the fourteenth [15th] day of June, 1862, on the banks of the Chickahominy, on the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war."
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A Proclamation.
Whereas the act of Congress of the twenty-eighth of September, 1850, entitled "An act to create additional collection districts in the State of California, and to change the existing districts therein, and to modify the existing collection districts in the United States," extends to merchandise warehoused under bond the privilege of being exported to the British North American provinces adjoining the United States, in the manner prescribed in the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, which designates certain frontier ports through which merchandise may be exported, and further provides "that such other ports situated on the frontiers of the United States, adjoining the British North American provinces, as may hereafter be found expedient, may have extended to them the like privileges on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, and proclamation duly made by the President of the United States, specially designating the ports to which the aforesaid privileges are to be extended;"
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of St. Albans, in the State of Vermont, is, and shall be, entitled to all the privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the British North American provinces adjoining the United States, which are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after the date of this proclamation.
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 tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred-and sixty-five, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.:
No principal report of yours on the Wilmington expedition has ever reached the War Department, as I am informed there. A preliminary report did reach here, but was returned to General Grant at his request. Of course, leave to publish cannot be given without inspection of the paper, and not then if it should be deemed to be detrimental to the public service.
MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.:
Yours asking leave to come to Washington is received. You have been summoned by the Committee on the Conduct of the War to attend here, which, of course, you will do.
GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee:
Yours announcing ordinance of emancipation received. Thanks to the convention and to you. When do you expect to be here? Would be glad to have your suggestion as to supplying your place of military governor.
MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Missouri:
It is represented to me that there is so much irregular violence in northern Missouri as to be driving away the people and almost depopulating it. Please gather information, and consider whether an appeal to the people there to go to their homes and let one another alone recognizing as a full right of protection for each that he lets others alone, and banning only him who refuses to let others alone may not enable you to withdraw the troops, their presence itself [being] a cause of irritation and constant apprehension, and thus restore peace and quiet, and returning prosperity. Please consider this and telegraph or write me.
WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865.
SIR:-You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.
Yours, etc.,
Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having graduated at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to which those who have already served long are better entitled and better qualified to hold. Could he, without embarrassment to you, or detriment to the service, go into your military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the least hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that you shall not be encumbered as you can be yourself.
Yours truly,
MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, Saint Louis, Mo.:
If Mrs. Beattie, alias Mrs. Wolff, shall be sentenced to death, notify me, and postpone the execution till further order.
You have a man in arrest for desertion passing by the name of Stanley. William Stanley, I think, but whose real name is different. He is the son of so close a friend of mine that I must not let him be executed. Please let me know what is his present and prospective condition.
MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Mo.:
It is said an old lady in Clay County, Missouri, by name Mrs. Winifred B. Price, is about being sent South. If she is not misbehaving let her remain.
HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee:
Several members of the Cabinet, with myself, considered the question, to-day, as to the time of your coming on here. While we fully appreciate your wish to remain in Tennessee until her State government shall be completely reinaugurated, it is our unanimous conclusion that it is unsafe for you to not be here on the 4th of March. Be sure to reach here by that time.
I accept with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift you have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect that I acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so well, that for me to attempt to say more may perhaps only serve to weaken the force of that which has already been said. A most graceful and eloquent tribute was paid to the patriotism and self-denying labors of the American ladies, on the occasion of the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, by our illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed from earth. His life was a truly great one, and I think the greatest part of it was that which crowned its closing years, I wish you to read, if you have not already done so, the eloquent and truthful words which he then spoke of the women of America. Truly, the services they have rendered to the defenders of our country in this perilous time, and are yet rendering, can never be estimated as they ought to be. For your kind wishes to me personally, I beg leave to render you likewise my sincerest thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated. And now, gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point
If Newell W. Root, of First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, is under sentence of death, please telegraph me briefly the circumstances.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:
Having received the report in the case of Newell W. Root, I do not interfere further in the case.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865.
SIR:-You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on reaching General Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by the Secretary of War. Then, by General Ord's assistance procure an interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, or any of them, deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is written. Note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and to whom delivered. Receive their answer in writing, waiting a reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to come through without further condition, will be your warrant to ask General Ord to pass them through as directed in the letter of the Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or propose other terms, do not have them pass through. And this being your whole duty, return and report to me.
Yours truly,
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1865.
MAJOR-GENERAL ORD, Headquarters Army of the James:
By direction of the President you are instructed to inform the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, that a messenger will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are, without unnecessary delay.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
DEAR SIR:—The report is in circulation in the House that Peace Commissioners are on their way or in the city, and is being used against us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. Please authorize me to contradict it, if it is not true.
Respectfully, J. M. ASHLEY.
To the President.
(Indorsement.)
So far as I know there are no Peace Commissioners in the city or likely to be in it.
A. LINCOLN. January 31, 1865
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.:
A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your despatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he arrives, and then act upon the message he brings, as far as applicable, it having been made up to pass through General Ord's hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines.
HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State
You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you have. You will make known to them that three things are indispensable to wit:
1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States.
2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding documents.
3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government.
You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and report it to me. You will not assume to definitely consummate anything.
Yours, etc.,
PASSAGE THROUGH CONGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR THE ABOLISHING OF SLAVERY
He supposed the passage through Congress of the Constitutional amendment for the abolishing of slavery throughout the United States was the occasion to which he was indebted for the honor of this call.
The occasion was one of congratulation to the country, and to the whole world. But there is a task yet before us—to go forward and consummate by the votes of the States that which Congress so nobly began yesterday. He had the honor to inform those present that Illinois had already done the work. Maryland was about half through, but he felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead.
He thought this measure was a very fitting if not an indispensable adjunct to the winding up of the great difficulty. He wished the reunion of all the States perfected, and so effected as to remove all causes of disturbance in the future; and, to attain this end, it was necessary that the original disturbing cause should, if possible, be rooted out. He thought all would bear him witness that he had never shirked from doing all that he could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an Emancipation Proclamation. But that proclamation falls short of what the amendment will be when fully consummated. A question might be raised whether the proclamation was legally valid. It might be added, that it only aided those who came into our lines, and that it was inoperative as to those who did not give themselves up; or that it would have no effect upon the children of the slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it did not meet the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure for all evils. It winds the whole thing up. He would repeat, that it was the fitting if not the indispensable adjunct to the consummation of the great game we are playing. He could not but congratulate all present—himself, the country, and the whole world upon this great moral victory.
Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military movements or plans.
Call at Fortress Monroe, and put yourself under direction of Mr. Seward, whom you will find there.
Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can get there.
Induced by a despatch of General Grant, I join you at Fort Monroe, as soon as I can come.
Whereas complaints are made in some localities respecting the assignments of quotas and credits allowed for the pending call of troops to fill up the armies: Now, in order to determine all controversies in respect thereto, and to avoid any delay in filling up the armies, it is ordered,
1. That the Attorney-General, Brigadier-General Richard Delafield, and Colonel C. W. Foster, be, and they are hereby constituted, a board to examine into the proper quotas and credits of the respective States and districts under the call of December 19, 1864, with directions, if any errors be found therein, to make such corrections as the law and facts may require, and report their determination to the Provost-Marshal-General. The determination of said board to be final and conclusive, and the draft to be made in conformity therewith.
2. The Provost-Marshal-General is ordered to make the draft in the respective districts as speedily as the same can be done after the fifteenth of this month.
These gentlemen distinctly say to me this morning that what they want is the means from your office of showing their people that the quota assigned to them is right. They think it will take but little time—two hours, they say. Please give there double the time and every facility you can.
Yours truly,
February 6, 1865.
The Provost-Marshal brings this letter back to me and says he cannot give the facility required without detriment to the service, and thereupon he is excused from doing it.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GLENN, Commanding Post at Henderson, Ky.:
Complaint is made to me that you are forcing negroes into the military service, and even torturing them—riding them on rails and the like to extort their consent. I hope this may be a mistake. The like must not be done by you, or any one under you. You must not force negroes any more than white men. Answer me on this.