Are like, forever mute.

Now fare thee well ! More thou the cause

Than subject now of woe.
All mental pangs by time's kind laws

Hast lost the power to know.



JOHNSTON, WILLIAM I9 r

O death ! thou awe-inspiring prince

That keepst the world in fear,
Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence,

And leave him lingering here?



If I should ever send another, the subject will
be a "Bear-Hunt."

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.



Springfield, February 25, 1847.

Dear Johnston : Yours of the 2d of Decem-
ber was duly delivered to me by Mr. Williams.
To say the least, I am not at all displeased with
your proposal to publish the poetry, or dog-
gerel, or whatever else it may be called, which
I sent you. I consent that it may be done, to-
gether with the third canto, which I now send
you. Whether the prefatory remarks in my
letter shall be published with the verses, I leave
entirely to your discretion ; but let names be sup-
pressed by all means. I have not sufficient hope
of the verses attracting any favorable notice to
tempt me to risk being ridiculed for having writ-
ten them.

Why not drop into the paper, at the same
time, the "half dozen stanzas of your own"? Or
if, for any reason, it suits your feelings better,
send them to me, and I will take pleasure in
putting them in «the paper here. Family well,
and nothing new.

Yours sincerely,

A. Lincoln.



192 LETTERS

Jonas, A.
[Confidential]

Springfield, Illinois, July 21, i860.
Hon. A. Jonas.

My dear .Sir : Yours of the 20th is received. I
suppose as good or even better men than I may
have been in American or Know-nothing lodges ;
but, in point of fact, I never was in one at Quincy
or elsewhere. I was never in Quincy but one day
and two nights while Know-nothing lodges were
in existence, and you were with me that day and
both those nights. I had never been there be-
fore in my life, and never afterward, till the joint
debate with Douglas in 1858. It was in 1854
when I spoke in some hall there, and after the
speaking, you, with others, took me to an oyster-
saloon, passed an hour there, and you walked
with me to, and parted with me at, the Quincy
House, quite late at night. I left by stage for
Naples before daylight in the morning, having
come in by the same route after dark the evening
previous to the speaking, when I found you wait-
ing at the Quincy House to meet me. A few
days after I was there, Richardson, as I under-
stood, started this same story about my having
been in a Know-nothing lodge. When I heard
of the charge, as I did soon after, I taxed my rec-
ollection for some incident which could have sug-
gested it ; and I remembered that on parting with
you the last night, I went to the office of the
hotel to take my stage-passage for the morning,
was told that no stage-office for that line was
kept there, and that I must see the driver before
retiring, to insure his calling for me in the morn-
ing; and a servant was sent with me to find the



JORDAN, WARREN 193

driver, who, after taking me a square or two,
stopped me, and stepped perhaps a dozen steps
farther, and in my hearing called to some one,
who answered him, apparently from the upper
part of a building, and promised to call with
the stage for me at the Quincy House. I re-
turned, and went to bed, and before day the
stage called and took me. This is all.

That I never was in a Know-nothing lodge in
Quincy, I should expect could be easily proved
by respectable men who were always in the lodges
and never saw me there. An affidavit of one or
two such would put the matter at rest.

And now a word of caution. Our adversaries
think they can gain a point if they could force me
to openly deny the charge, by which some de-
gree of offense would be given to the Americans.
For this reason it must not publicly appear that
I am paying any attention to the charge.

Yours truly,

A. Lincoln.

"Journal of Commerce," New York.

[See Dix, John A., May 18, 1864.]

Jordan, Warren.

[ Telegram. ]

Nashville, February 20, 1864.
Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State,
Washington, D. C. :
In county and State elections, must citizens of Ten-
nessee take the oath prescribed by Governor Johnson,
or will the President's oath of amnesty entitle them to
vote? I have been appointed to hold the March elec-
tion in Cheatham County, and wish to act understand-
ing!^

Warren Jordan.



194 LETTERS

Washington, February 20, 1864.
Warren Jordan, Nashville:

In county elections you had better stand by
Governor Johnson's plan ; otherwise you will have
conflict and confusion. I have seen his plan.

A. Lincoln.

Judd, Frank R.
[See Butler, Benjamin F., Dec. 29, 1864.]

Judd, N. B.

Springfield, November 15, 1858.
Hon. N. B. Judd.

My dear Sir : I have the pleasure to inform you
that I am convalescent, and hoping these lines
may find you in the same improving state of
health. Doubtless you have suspected for some
time that I entertain a personal wish for a term
in the United States Senate ; and had the sus-
picion taken the shape of a direct charge, I think
I could not have truthfully denied it. But let
the past as nothing be. For the future, my view
is that the fight must go on. The returns here
are not yet completed; but it is believed that
Dougherty's vote will be slightly greater than
Miller's majority over Tracy. We have some
hundred and twenty thousand clear Republican
votes. That pile is worth keeping together. It
will elect a State treasurer two years hence.

In that day I shall fight in the ranks, but I shall
be in no one's way for any of the places. I am
especially for Trumbull's reelection ; and, by the
way, this brings me to the principal object of
this letter. Can you not take your draft of an
apportionment law, and carefully revise it till



JUDD, N. B. i 95

it shall be strictly and obviously just in all par-
ticulars, and then by an early and persistent effort
get enough of the enemy's men to enable you to
pass it? I believe if you and Peck make a job
of it, begin early, and work earnestly and quietly,
you can succeed in it. Unless something be
done, Trumbull is eventually beaten two years
hence. Take this into serious consideration.

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.

Springfield, November 16, 1858.
Hon. N. B. Judd.

Dear Sir: Yours of the 15th is just received.
I wrote you the same day. As to the pecuniary
matter, I am willing to pay according to my abil-
ity ; but I am the poorest hand living to get
others to pay. I have been on expenses so long
without earning anything that I am absolutely
without money now for even household pur-
poses. Still, if you can put in two hundred and
fifty dollars for me toward discharging the debt
of the committee, I will allow it when you and I
settle the private matter between us. This, with
what I have already paid, and with an outstand-
ing note of mine, will exceed my subscription of
five hundred dollars. This, too, is exclusive of
my ordinary expenses during the campaign, all
of which being added to my loss of time and busi-
ness, bears pretty heavily upon one no better
off in [this] world's goods than I; but as I had
the post of honor, it is not for me to be over
nice. You are feeling badly, — "And this too
shall pass away," never fear.

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.



196 LETTERS

Springfield, December 9, 1859.
Hon. N. B. Judd.

My dear Sir : I have just reached home from
Kansas and found your long letter of the 1st
inst. It has a tone of blame toward myself
which I think is not quite just; but I will not
stand upon that, but will consider a day or two,
and put something in the best shape I can, and
send it to you. A great difficulty is that they
make no distinct charge against you which I can
contradict. You did vote for Trumbull against
me ; and, although I think, and have said a thou-
sand times, that was no injustice to me, I cannot
change the fact, nor compel people to cease
speaking of it. Ever since that matter occurred,
I have constantly labored, as I believe you know,
to have all recollection of it dropped.

The vague charge that you played me false
last year I believe to be false and outrageous;
but it seems I can make no impression by ex-
pressing that belief. I made a special job of try-
ing to impress that upon Baker, Bridges, and
Wilson here last winter. They all well know
that I believe no such charge against you. But
they chose to insist that they know better about
it than I do.

As to the charge of your intriguing for Trum-
bull against me, I believe as little of that as anv
other charge. If Trumbull and I were candidates
for the same office, you would have a right to
prefer him, and I should not blame you for it ;
out all my acquaintance with you induces me to
believe you would not pretend to be for me while
really for him. But I do not understand Trum-
bull and myself to be rivals. You know I am
pledged to not enter a struggle with him for



JUDD, N. B. 197

the seat in the Senate now occupied by him ; and
yet I would rather have a full term in the Senate
than in the presidency.

Your friend as ever,

A. Lincoln.
P. S. — I omitted to say that I have, in no single
instance, permitted a charge such as alluded to
above to go uncontradicted when made in my
presence.

A. L.

Springfield, December 14, 1859.

Dear Judd: Herewith is the letter of our old
Whig friends, and my answer, sent as you re-
quested. I showed both to Dubois, and he
feared the clause about leave to publish, in the
answer, would not be quite satisfactory to you.
I hope it will be satisfactory, as I would rather
not seem to come before the public as a volun-
teer ; still if, after considering this, you still deem
it important, you may substitute the inclosed
slip by pasting it down over the original clause.

I find some of our friends here attach more
consequence to getting the national convention
into our State than I did, or do. Some of them
made me promise to say so to you. As to the
time, it must certainly be after the Charleston
fandango ; and I think, within bounds of reason,
the later the better.

As to that matter about the committee, in re-
lation to appointing delegates by general con-
vention, or by districts, I shall attend to it as
well as I know how, which, God knows, will not
be very well. Write me if you can find any-
thing to write. Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.



198 LETTERS

Springfield, February 5, i860.
Hon. N. B. Judd.

My dear Sir: Your two letters were duly re-
ceived. Whether Mr. Storrs shall come to
Illinois and assist in our approaching campaign,
is a question of dollars and cents. Can we pay
him? If we can, that is the sole question. I
consider his services very valuable.

A day or so before you wrote about Mr. Hern-
don, Dubois told me that he (Herndon) had been
talking to William Jayne in the way you indi-
cate. At first sight afterward. I mentioned it
to him ; he rather denied the charge, and I did
not press him about the past, but got his solemn
pledge to say nothing of the sort in the future.
I had done this before I received your letter. I
impressed upon him as well as I could, first, that
such [sic] was untrue and unjust to you;" and,
second, that I would be held responsible for
what he said. Let this be private.

Some folks are pretty bitter toward me about
the Dole, Hubbard, and Brown letter.*

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.

Springfield, February 9, i860.
Hon. N. B. Judd.

Dear Sir : I am not in a position w 7 here it would
hurt much for me to not be nominated on the
national ticket; but I am where it would hurt
some for me to not get the Illinois delegates.
What I expected when I wrote the letter to
Messrs. Dole and others is now happening. Your
discomfited assailants are most bitter against
me; and they will, for revenge upon me, lay to
* See letter to Dole, George W.



KELLEY, WILLIAM D. 199

the Bates egg in the South, and to the Seward
egg in the North, and go far toward squeezing
me out in the middle with nothing. Can you
not help me a little in this matter in your end
of the vineyard? I mean this to be private.

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.

Kapp, Frederick, and Others.

War Department,
Washington, D. C, June 16, 1863.
Frederick Kapp and Others, New York :

The Governor .of New York promises to send
us troops and if he wishes the assistance of Gen-
eral Fremont and General Sigel, one or both,
he can have it. If he does not wish them it
would but breed confusion for us to set them
to work independently of him.

A. Lincoln.

Kelley, William D.

[Memorandum of an Interview with the Post-
master of Philadelphia,]

What I said to Postmaster of Philadelphia on
this clay — June 20, 1864:

Complaint is made to me that you are using
your official power to defeat Judge Kelley's re-
nomination to Congress.

I am well satisfied with Judge Kelley as a mem-
ber of Congress, and I do not know that the
man who might supplant him would be as satis-
factory ; but the correct principle, I think, is that
all our friends should have absolute freedom of
choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is



200 LETTERS

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 ad-
hered to on my part when a certain other nom-
ination now recently made was being canvassed
for.

Kellogg, William.

[Reply to a Letter from Congressman Asking
Advice.]

Entertain no proposition for a compromise in
regard to the extension of slavery. The instant
you do they have us under again : all our labor
is lost, and sooner or later must be done over.
Douglas is sure to be again trying to bring in his
"popular sovereignty." Have none of it. The
tug has to come, and better now than later. You
know I think the fugitive-slave clause of the
Constitution ought to be enforced — to put it in
its mildest form, ought not to be resisted.

Dec. ii, i860.

[June 25, 1863. See Chase, Salmon P.]

[Aug. 5, 1864. See McMichael, Morton.]

Executive Mansion,

Washington, June 29, 1863.
Hon. William Kellogg.

My dear Sir: I have received and read your
pencil note. I think you do not know how em-
barrassing your request is. Few things are so
troublesome to the government as the fierceness
with which the profits in trading are sought. The
temptation is so great that nearly everybody
wishes to be in it; and, when in, the question of



KEY, JOHN /. 201

profit controls all, regardless of whether the
cotton-seller is loyal or rebel, or whether he is
paid in corn-meal or gunpowder. The officers of
the army, in numerous instances, are believed
to connive and share the profits, and thus the
army itself is diverted from fighting the rebels
to speculating in cotton, and steamboats and
wagons in the pay of the government are set to
gathering and carrying cotton, and the soldiers
to loading cotton-trains and guarding them.

The matter deeply affects the Treasury and
War Departments, and has been discussed again
and again in the cabinet. What can and what
cannot be done has for the time been settled,
and it seems to me I cannot safely break over it.
I know it is thought that one case is not much,
but how can I favor one and deny another ? One
case cannot be kept a secret. The authority
given would be utterly ineffectual until it is
shown, and when shown, everybody knows of it.

The administration would do for you as much
as for any other man ; and I personally would do
some more than for most others ; but really I can-
not involve myself and the government as this
would do.

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.

Kentucky Delegation.

[See Bayles, Jesse.]

Key, John J.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, September 26, 1862.
Major John J. Key.

Sir : I am informed that in answer to the ques-



202 LETTERS

tion, "Why was not the rebel army bagged imme-
diately after the battle near Sharpsburg?" pro-
pounded to you by Major Levi C. Turner, judge-
advocate, etc., you answered, "That is not the
game. The object is that neither army shall get
much advantage of the other, that both shall be
kept in the field till they are exhausted, when we
will make a compromise and save slavery." I shall
be very happy if you will, within twenty-four
hours from the receipt of this, prove to me by
Major Turner that you did not, either literally or
in substance, make the answer stated.

Yours,

A. Lincoln.

[Indorsement.']

Copy delivered to Major Key at 10.25 a. m.,
September 27, 1862.

John Hay.

At about eleven o'clock a. m., September 27,
1862, Major Key and Major Turner appear be-
fore me. Major Turner says : "As I remember
it, the conversation was : I asked the question
why we did not bag them after the battle of
Sharpsburg. Major Key's reply was, 'That was
not the game; that we should tire the rebels out
and ourselves. That that was the only way the
Union could be preserved. We must come to-
gether fraternally, and slavery be saved.' ' : On
cross-examination Major Turner says he has fre-
quently heard Major Key converse in regard
to the present troubles, and never heard him utter
a sentiment unfavorable to the maintenance of
the Union. He has never uttered anything
which he (Major T.) would call disloyalty. The



KEY, JOHN J. 203

particular conversation detailed was a private
one.

A. Lincoln.

[Indorsement.]

In my view it is wholly inadmissible for any
gentleman holding a military commission from
the United States to utter such sentiments as
Major Key is within proved to have done. There-
fore let Major John J. Key be forthwith dis-
missed from the military service of the United
States.

A. Lincoln.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, November 24, 1862.
Major John J. Key.

Dear Sir: A bundle of letters, including one
from yourself, was early last week handed me by
General Halleck, as I understood at your re-
quest.

I sincerely sympathize with you in the death
of your brave and noble son.

In regard to my dismissal of yourself from the
military service, it seems to me you misunder-
stand me. I did not charge, or intend to charge,
you with disloyalty.

I had been brought to fear that there was a
class of officers in the army, not very incon-
siderable in numbers, who were playing a game
to not beat the enemy when they could, on some
peculiar notion as to the proper way of saving
the Union; and when you were proved to me,
in your own presence, to have avowed yourself
in favor of that "game," and did not attempt to
controvert the proof, I dismissed you as an
example and a warning to that supposed class.



204 LETTERS

I bear you no ill will, and I regret that I could
not have the example without wounding you per-
sonally. But can I now, in view of the public
interest, restore you to the service, by which
the army would understand that I indorse and
approve that game myself? If there was any
doubt of your having made the avowal, the case
would be different. But when it was proved to
me, in your presence, you did not deny or at-
tempt to deny it, but confirmed it, in my mind,
fay attempting to sustain the position by argu-
ment.

I am really sorry for the pain the case gives
you ; but I do not see how, consistently with duty,
I can change it. Yours, etc.,

A. Lincoln.
[Indorsement.]

The within, as appears, was written some time
ago. On full reconsideration, I cannot find suffi-
cient ground to change the conclusion therein
arrived at. A. Lincoln.

December 27, 1862.

KlRKLAND, C. P.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, December 7, 1863.
Charles P. Kirkland, Esq., New York :

I have just received and hastily read your pub-
lished letter to the Hon. Benjamin R. Curtis.
Under the circumstances I may not be the most
competent judge, but it appear to me to be a paper
of great ability, and for the country's sake, more
than my own, I thank you for it.

Yours very truly,

A. Lincoln.



KOPPEL, HERMAN 205

Knox, Thomas W.
[Revocation of Sentence.']

Executive Mansion,

Washington, March 20, 1863.
Whom it May Concern : Whereas, it appears to
my satisfaction that Thomas W. Knox, a corre-
spondent 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 Mc-
Clernand, in command of a corps of that de-
partment, and many other respectable persons,
are of opinion that Mr. Knox's offense was tech-
nical 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 ex-
press assent, and to again leave the department
if General Grant shall refuse such assent.

A. Lincoln.

Koerner, G.
[See Halleck, Henry W., Jan. 15, 1862.]

Koppel, Herman.
[Memorandum.']

Executive Mansion,
Washington, January 22, 1863.
To-day Mr. Prentiss calls as attorney of Her-
man Koppel, saying the latter is a loyal citizen;



206 LETTERS

that he resided at Charleston, S. C, at the be-
ginning of the rebellion; that he converted what
he had into a few bales of cotton and other
articles apparently to break the blockade as a
mode of getting out, but really intending to sur-
render to the blockade, which he did of purpose
and with no effort to avoid it; that his property
has been condemned by a prize court, and he
appeals to me to remit to him the proceeds of
the property, or at least the government's moiety
of it.

Admitting this all to be true, is it both lawful
and proper for me to do this ?



Lamon, Ward H.

Springfield, June n, 1858.
My dear Sir: Yours of the 9th written at
Joliet is just received. Two or three days ago
I learned that McLean had appointed delegates
in favor of Lovejoy, and thenceforward I have
considered his renomination a fixed fact. My
opinion — if my opinion is of any consequence in
this case, in which it is no business of mine to
interfere — remains unchanged, that running an
independent candidate against Lovejoy will not
do; that it will result in nothing but disaster all
around. In the first place, whoever so runs will
be beaten and will be spotted for life; in the
second place, while the race is in progress, he
will be under the strongest temptation to trade
with the Democrats, and to favor the election
of certain of their friends to the Legislature ;
thirdly, I shall be held responsible for it, and
Republican members of the Legislature, who
are partial to Lovejoy, will for that purpose



LANE, J. H. 207

oppose us ; and, lastly, it will in the end lose
us the District altogether. There is no safe way
but a convention ; and if in that convention, upon
a common platform which all are willing to stand
upon, one has been known as an Abolitionist,
but who is now occupying none but common
ground, can get the majority of the votes to
which all look for an election, there is no safe
way but to submit.

As to the inclination of some Republicans to
favor Douglas, that is one of the chances I have
to run, and which I intend to run with patience.

I write in the court room. Court has opened,
and I must close.

Yours as ever,

A. Lincoln.

Lane, J. H.

[June 20, and Aug. 1, 1861 : See Cameron, Simon".
May 13, 1864: See Carney, Thomas.]

Executive Mansion,

Washington, July 17, 1863.
Hon. J. H. Lane.

My dear Sir: Governor Carney has not asked
to [have] General Blunt removed, or interfered
with, in his military operations. He has asked
that he, the governor, be allowed to commission
officers for troops raised in Kansas, as other gov-
ernors of loyal States do ; and I think he is right
in this.

He has asked that General Blunt shall not take
persons charged with civil crimes out of the
hands of the courts and turn them over to mobs
to be hung; and I think he is right in this also.
He has asked that General Ewing's department



2 o8 LETTERS

be extended to include all Kansas; and I have
not determined whether this is right or not.

Yours truly,

A. Lincoln.

Lardner, John L., and Others.
[Message to Congress.]

To the Senate and House of Representatives :
I recommend that the thanks of Congress be
given to the following officers of the United
States Navy:

Captain John L. Lardner, for meritorious con-
duct at the battle of Port Royal, and distin-
guished services on the coast of the United States
against the enemy.

Captain Charles Henry Davis, for distin-
guished services in conflict with the enemy at