bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to
forget the source from which they come, others have been added,



102 ABRAHAM LINCOLN

which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to
penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to
the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and sever-
5 ity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and
provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all
nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected
and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the
theater of military conflict ; while that theater has been greatly

10 contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields
of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested
the plow, the shuttle, or the ship ; the ax has enlarged the bor-
ders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal

15 as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly
than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwith-
standing the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege,
and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the conscious-
ness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect

20 continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand
worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of
the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our
sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

25 It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be sol-
emnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart
and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore,
invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and
also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign

30 lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November
next as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that,
while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular
deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence



THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 103

for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourn-
ers, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are
unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of
the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to re- 5 '
store it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to
the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony, etc.

A. Lincoln

By the President:

WiLLiA-M H. Seward, Secretary of State

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

(Delivered at the dedication of the National Cemetery,
November 19, 1863)

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created equal. 10

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can
long endure. \\q are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting
place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might 15
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot con-
secrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little 20
note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never for-
get what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that 25



I04 ABRAHAM LINCOLN

from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ;
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died
in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
5 freedom ; and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

AMNESTY FOR THOSE IN REBELLION

(Extract from annual message, December 8, 1863)

. . . When Congress assembled a year ago the war had already
lasted nearly twenty months, and there had been many conflicts
on both land and sea with varying results. The rebellion had

10 been pressed back into reduced limits; yet the tone of public
feeling and opinion, at home and abroad, was not satisfactory.
With other signs, the popular elections, then just past, indicated
uneasiness among ourselves, while, amid much that was cold
and menacing, the kindest words coming from Europe were

15 uttered in accents of pity that we were too blind to surrender
a hopeless cause. Our commerce was suffering greatly by a few
armed vessels built upon, and furnished from, foreign shores,
and we were threatened with such additions from the same quar-
ter as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade.

20 We had failed to elicit from European governments anything
hopeful upon this subject. The preliminary emancipation procla-
mation, issued in September, was running its assigned period to
the beginning of the new year. A month later the final procla-
mation came, including the announcement that colored men of

25 suitable condition, w^ould be received into the war service.

The policy of emancipation, and of employing black soldiers,
gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope, and fear,
and doubt contended in uncertain conflict. According to our
political system, as a matter of civil administration, the general

30 government had no lawful power to effect emancipation in any



AMNESTY FOR THOSE IN REBELLION 105

state, and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion
could be suppressed without resorting to it as a militar}^ measure.
It was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it
might come, and that if it should, the crisis of the contest would
then be presented. It came, and, as was anticipated, it was fol- 5
lowed by dark and doubtful days. Eleven months having now
passed, we are permitted to take another review. The rebel
borders are pressed still further back, and, by the complete
opening of the Mississippi, the country dominated by the re-
bellion is divided into distinct parts, with no practical commu- ic
nication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have been
substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential citizens
in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the begin-
ning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in
their respective states. Of those states not included in the 15
Emancipation Proclamation, Mar}dand and Missouri, neither of
which three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the
extension of slavery into new territories, only dispute now
as to the best mode of removing it within their own limits.

Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion, 20
full one hundred thousand are now in the United States militar}-
service, about one half of which number actually bear arms in
the ranks ; thus giving the double advantage of taking so much
labor from the insurgent cause, and supplying the places which
otherwise must be filled with so many white men. So far as 25
tested, it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any.
No servile insurrection, or tendency to violence or cruelty, has
marked the measures of emancipation and arming the blacks.
These measures have been much discussed in foreign countries,
and contemporary with such discussion the tone of public senti- 30
ment there is much improved. At home the same measures
have been fully discussed, supported, criticized, and denounced,
and the annual elections following are highly encouraging to those
whose official duty it is to bear the country through this great



I06 ABRAHAM LINCOLN

trial. Thus we have the new reckoning. The crisis which
threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past.

Looking now to the present and future, and with reference
to a resumption of the national authority within the states
5 wherein that authority has been suspended, I have thought fit
to issue a proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted.
On examination of this proclamation it will appear, as is believed,
that nothing is attempted beyond what is amply justified by the
Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given, but no man

10 is coerced to take it. The man is only promised a pardon in
case he voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes
the executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own abso-
lute discretion ; and this includes the power to grant on terms,
as is fully established by judicial and other authorities.

15 It is also proffered that if, in any of the states named, a state
government shall be, in the mode prescribed, set up, such
government shall be recognized and guaranteed by the United
States, and that under it the state shall, on the constitutional
conditions, be protected against invasion and domestic violence.

20 The constitutional obligation of the United States to guarantee
to every state in the Union a republican form of government,
and to protect the state in the cases stated, is explicit and full.
But why tender the benefits of this provision only to a state
government set up in this particular way ? This section of the

25 Constitution contemplates a case wherein the element within a
state favorable to republican government in the Union may be
too feeble for an opposite and hostile element external to, or
even within, the state ; and such are precisely the cases with
which we are now dealing.

30 An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived state govern-
ment, constructed in whole, or in preponderating part, from the
very element against whose hostility and violence it is to be
protected, is simply absurd. There must be a test by which to
separate the opposing elements, so as to build only from the



AMNESTY FOR THOSE IN. REBELLION 107

sound ; and that test is a sufficiently liberal one which accepts
as sound whoever will make a sworn recantation of his former
unsoundness.

But if it be proper to require, as a test of admission to the
political body, an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the 5
United States, and to the Union under it, why also to the laws
and proclamations in regard to slavery ? Those laws and proc-
lamations were enacted and put forth for the purpose of aiding
in the suppression of the rebellion. To give them their fullest
effect, there had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my 10
judgment they have aided, and will further aid, the cause for
which they were intended. To now abandon them would be not
only to relinquish a lever of power, but would also be a cruel
and an astounding breach of faith. I may add, at this point, that
while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to 15
retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation ; nor shall I
return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that
proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress. For these and
other reasons it is thought best that support of these measures
shall be included in the oath ; and it is believed the executive 20
may lawfully claim it in return for pardon and restoration of
forfeited rights, which he has clear constitutional power to with-
hold altogether, or grant upon the terms which he shall deem
wisest for the public interest. It should be observed, also, that
this part of the oath is subject to the modifying and abrogating 25
power of legislation and supreme judicial decision.

The proposed acquiescence of the national executive in any
reasonable temporary state arrangement for the freed people is
made with the view of possibly modifying the confusion and
destitution which must at best attend all classes by a total revo- 3c
lution of labor throughout whole states. It is hoped that the
already deeply afflicted people in those states may be somewhat
more ready to give up the cause of their affliction, if, to this ex-
tent, this vital matter be left to themselves ; while no power of



I08 ABRAHAM LINCOLN

the national executive to prevent an abuse is abridged by the
proposition.

The suggestion in the proclamation as to maintaining the
political framework of the states on what is called reconstruc-
5 tion is made in the hope that it may do good without danger of
harm. It will save labor, and avoid great confusion.

But why any proclamation now upon this subject ? This
question is beset with the conflicting views that the step might
be delayed too long or be taken too soon. In some states the

10 elements for resumption seem ready for action, but remain in-
active apparently for want of a rallying point — a plan of action.
Why shall A adopt the plan of B, rather than B that of A ?
And if A and B should agree, how can they know but that the
general government here will reject their plan ? By the procla-

15 mation a plan is presented which may be accepted by them as
a rallying point, and which they are assured in advance will not
be rejected here. This may bring them to act sooner than they
otherwise would.

The objection to a premature presentation of a plan by the

20 national executive consists in the danger of committals on points
which could be more safely left to further developments. Care
has been taken to so shape the document as to avoid embar-
rassments from this source. Saying that, on certain terms, cer-
tain classes will be pardoned, with rights restored, it is not said

25 that other classes, or other terms, will never be included. Saying
that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified
way, it is not said it will never be accepted in any other way.

The movements, by state action, for emancipation in several
of the states not included in the Emancipation Proclamation,

30 are matters of profound gratulation. And while I do not repeat
in detail what I have heretofore so earnestly urged upon this
subject, my general views and feelings remain unchanged ; and
I trust that Congress will omit no fair opportunity of aiding these
important steps to a great consummation.



NEGROES AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 109

In the midst of other cares, however important, we must not
lose sight of the fact that the war power is still our main reli-
ance. To that power alone can we look, yet for a time, to give
confidence to the people in the contested regions that the in-
surgent power will not again overrun them. Until that confi- 5
dence shall be established, little can be done anywhere for what
is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest care must still be
directed to the army and navy, who have thus far borne their
harder part so nobly and well. And it may be esteemed fortu-
nate that in giving the greatest efficiency to these indispensable ic
arms, we do also honorably recognize the gallant men, from
commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom, more
than to others, the world must stand indebted for the home of
freedom disenthralled, regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated.

Abraham Lincoln

SUGGESTING THAT INTELLIGENT NEGROES BE
ADMITTED TO THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE

(Private)

Executive Mansion
Hon. Michael Hahn Washington, March 13, 1864

My dear Sir :

I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as 1 5

the first free-state governor of Louisiana. Now you are about

to have a convention, which, among other things, will probably

define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private

consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be

let in — as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those 20

who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably

help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty

within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not

to the public, but to you alone.

Yours truly

A. Lincoln



no ABRAHAM LINCOLN

REVIEW OF SLAVERY POLICY

Executive Mansion
A. G. Hodges, Esq. Washington, April 4, 1864

Frankfort, Kentucky
My dear Sir :

You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I ver-
bally said the other day in your presence, to Governor Bramlette
and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows :

"I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing

5 is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel,
and yet I have never understood that the presidency conferred
upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judg-
ment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the
best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution

10 of the United States. I could not take the office without taking
the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get
power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood,
too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade
me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the

15 moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many
times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have
done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment
and feeling on slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath
to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability imposed

20 upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means,
that government — that nation, of which that Constitution was
the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet pre-
serve the Constitution ? By general law, life and limb must be
protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life ;

25 but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that meas-
ures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becom-
ing indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through
the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this



REVIEW OF SLAVERY POLICY 1 1 i

ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of
my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if. to
save slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of
government, countr}', and Constitution all together. When, early
in the war, General Fre'mont attempted military emancipation, 5
I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable
necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, then Secre-
tary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected
because I did not yet think it an indispensable necessity. When,
still later. General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I i d
again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable
necessity had come. When in March and May and July, 1862,
I made earnest and successive appeals to the border states to
favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable
necessity for military' emancipation and arming the blacks would 1 5
come unless averted by that measure. They declined the propo-
sition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative
of either surrendering the L^nion, and with it the Constitution,
or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the
latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss ; but 20
of this, I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial
now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our
home popular sentiment, none in our white military force — no
loss by it anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary it shows a gain
of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and 25
laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there
can be no caviling. We have the men ; and we could not have
had them without the measure.

''And now let any Union man who complains of the measure
test himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing 3c
the rebellion by force of arms ; and in the next, that he is for
taking these hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union
side, and placing them where they would be but for the meas-
ure he condemns. If he cannot face his case so stated, it is only
because he cannot face the truth."



112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In

telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity.

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that

events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years'

5 struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party, or any

man, devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it

is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great

wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the

South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impar-

10 tial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the

justice and goodness of God.

Yours truly

A. Lincoln

LETTER TO GENERAL U. S. GRANT

Executive Mansion
Washington, April 30, 1864
Lieutenant General Grant :

Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign
opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with
what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it.

1 5 The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know.
You are vigilant and self-reliant ; and, pleased with this, I wish
not to obtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. While I
am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men
in great numbers shall be avoided, I know these points are less

20 likely to escape your attention than they would be mine. If

there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, do

not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army and a

just cause, may God sustain you.

Yours very truly

A. Lincoln



EXTRACT FROM ANNUAL MESSAGE



113



Dear Madam



LETTER TO MRS. BIXBY

(November 21, 1864)



I have been shown in the files of the War Department a
statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you
are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the
field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any
v.^ords of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the 5
grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from
tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the
thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our
Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereave-
ment, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved 10
and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid
so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully

Abraham Lincoln

EXTRACT FROM ANNUAL MESSAGE

(December 6, 1864)

. . . The most reliable indication of public purpose in this
country is derived through our popular elections. Judging by
the recent canvass and its result, the purpose of the people 15
within the loyal states to maintain the integrity of the Union,
was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than now.
The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the
millions of voters met and mingled at the polls give strong
assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union 20
ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party
also, may be fairly claimed to entertain, and to be actuated by,
the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this
effect, that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low,
has ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving 25



114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN

up the Union. There has been much impugning of motives,
and much heated controversy as to the proper means and best
mode of advancing the Union cause ; but on the distinct issue
of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their in-
5 stinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people.
In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to
another and to the world this firmness and unanimity of pur-
pose, the election has been of vast value to the national cause.
The election has exhibited another fact, not less valuable to

lo be known — the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in
the most important branch of national resources — that of
living men. While it is melancholy to reflect that the war has
filled so many graves, and carried mourning to so many hearts,
it is some relief to know that compared with the surviving, the