书城公版The Writings
37836700000506

第506章 VOLUME VII(35)

SIR:--By authority of the Constitution, and moved thereto by the fourth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act ****** appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and for other purposes, approved June is, 1864," I require your opinion in writing as to what pay, bounty, and clothing are allowed by law to persons of color who were free on the nineteenth day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the United States between the month of December, 1862, and the sixteenth of June, 1864.

Please answer as you would do, on my requirement, if the act of June 15, 1864, had not been passed, and I will so use your opinion as to satisfy that act.

Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864.

MES. A. LINCOLN, Boston, Massachusetts:

All well and very warm. Tad and I have been to General Grant's army.

Returned yesterday safe and sound.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.

WASHINGTON, June 24, 1864.

MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, St. Louis, Missouri:

Complaint is made to me that General Brown does not do his best to suppress bushwhackers. Please ascertain and report to me.

A. LINCOLN.

LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 27, 1864.

HON. WILLIAM DENNISON AND OTHERS, a Committee of the Union National Convention.

GENTLEMEN:--Your letter of the 14th inst.., formally notifying me that I have been nominated by the convention you represent for the Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily approved.

While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican government upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the Government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State Department and indorsed by the convention among the measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent and applicable.

I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not forgotten by the convention, as they forever must and will be remembered by the grateful country for whose salvation they devote their lives.

Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the convention, I subscribe myself, Your obedient servant, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

TO GENERAL P. STEELE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864

MAJOR-GENERAL STEELE:

I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons sent as Senators and Representatives from Arkansas. These persons apprehend that, in consequence, you may not support the new State government there as you otherwise would. My wish is that you give that government and the people there the same support and protection that you would if the members had been admitted, because in no event, nor in any view of the case, can this do any harm, while it will be the best you can do toward suppressing the rebellion.

Yours truly, A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 29, 1864.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, City Point:

Dr. Worster wishes to visit you with a view of getting your permission to introduce into the army "Harmon's Sandal Sock." Shall I give him a pass for that object?

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO DAVID TOD.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 30, 1864.

HON. DAVID TOD, Youngstown, Ohio:

I have nominated you to be Secretary of the Treasury, in place of Governor Chase, who has resigned. Please come without a moment's delay.

A. LINCOLN.

TO J. L. SCRIPPS.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 4, 1864.

To JOHN L. SCRIPPS, E5Q.

DEAR SIR:--Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power to defeat Mr. Arnold's nomination to Congress. I am well satisfied with Mr. Arnold as a member of Congress, and I do not know that the man who might supplant him would be as satisfactory; but the correct principle, I think, is that all our friends should have absolute ******* of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you will do just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the case, and not constrain any of your subordinates to [do] other than [as] he thinks fit with his. This is precisely the rule I inculcated and adhered to on my part, when a certain other nomination, now recently made, was being canvassed for.

Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO J. W. GARRETT.

WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864.

J. W. GARRETT, President [B. & 0. R. R.], Camden Station:

You say telegraphic communication is re-established with Sandy Hook.

Well, what does Sandy Hook say about operations of enemy and of Sigel during to-day?

A. LINCOLN.

FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR.

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, July 5, 1864.

HIS EXCELLENCY HORATIO SEYMOUR, Governor of New York, Albany:

The President directs me to inform you that a rebel force, variously estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men, have invaded the State of Maryland, and have taken Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, and are threatening other points; that the public safety requires him to call upon the State executives for a militia force to repel this invasion. He therefore directs me to call on you for a militia force of twelve thousand men from your State to serve not more than one hundred days, and to request that you will with the utmost despatch forward the troops to Washington by rail or steamboat as may be most expeditious.

Please favor me with an answer at your earliest convenience.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

PROCLAMATION

SUSPENDING THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, JULY 5, 1864.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

A Proclamation.