Transcript:

State of Tennessee, Executive Department

Nashville, Tenn. Oct. 31st 1864.

Sir:

Allow me to introduce to Your Excellency’s kind notice Mrs. Mary A. Stevens a lady with whom I have had an acquaintance of a few years past.

She solicits an interview with Your Excellency, with the hope that she will be able to secure permission to go to Houston, Texas, where she has considerable land and other interests, simply for the purpose of disposing of the same, a course rendered necessary, as she states and as I have reason to believe, by the embarrassment under which she is now laboring. I am fully satisfied of her loyalty to the Gov’t, and personally know that when residing at Lexington , Ky. She manifested the same in the kindness and hospitality she was pleased to extend to distressed Union Refugees of East Tennessee driven over the mountains into the state of Kentucky.

I respectfully commend her to Your Excellency’s kind consideration, and I beg to express the hope that, if such favor as she asks can be consistently granted, her application may receive favorable action.

I have the honor to be,

With great respect,

You Excy’s Ob.t Serv.t

Andrew Johnson

Unt. Gov.r

His Excellency

The President of the United States

Citation: Andrew Johnson, letter signed to Abraham Lincoln. Nashville, 31 Oct. 1864. AMs 354/11.1

Transcript:

Orange N.J. Oct 25 ‘64

C.M. Parkman Esq

Dr. Sir

Yours of the 30^th did not reach me before this evening. My son, Capt. James M. Tripper, is now confined in Libby Prison, or was as late as last Wednesday morning the19th inst. He is Capt. In the 39^th N. York Vol. first Division 2^nd Corps—

I sincerely hope you will be enabled to effect his release.

Very respectfully,

James Tripper

P.S. The delay of yr. letter was owing to its being sent to New York and not to Orange, N.J., where I reside

I shall be really gratified if Capt. William F. Govstow, now in Fort Delaware can be exchanged for Capt. Tripper within Reason.

A Lincoln

Oct. 31, 1864

Citation: James Tripper, autograph letter signed to C.M. Parkman. Orange, N.J., 25 Oct. 1864. AMs 354/9

Transcription:

Washington June 9^th, 1864

Excellent Sir,

Permit me a humble admirer of your Administration and a devoted partizan [sic] to the objects you design accomplishing for this Continent of Nations and the World to say a few words on the subject of our hasty interview yesterday.

I formed one of the visitors to whom you gave audience at the White House yesterday afternoon. And as it was the first time I enjoyed that honor, you knew me not. I entered your presence unheralded and unsupported by any known dignitary, believing that my mission was so transparently correct that I could not fail in accomplishing it. (It was to procure a pardon for James A . McCrea from the balance of the sentence in his case.) I did fail however, partly through the means I used, and partly through the hurry and confusion of so many diversified applications being made to Your Excellency at the same moment, and the Mass of more important matters pressing on your mid. I knew James A. McCrea before + long before he left New York for Beaufort and know that for Capacity as a Mechanic, for skill as a Machinist, he ahs few superiors, and I know that he is also possessed of great natural intellectual power, and high moral qualities.

These powers are all wanted in the conquered or reclaimed provinces of the south, and are the elements on which the Nation must depend to regenerate and affiliate the south to the Republic, when force of arms has done its work. And National Policy dictates courting such talent into those provinces instead of repelling and banishing it. But Mr. McCrea as I am informed and believe possesses another quality not common to Northern Men—That is a skill in raising and ginning cotton. This he acquired by a residence in the West Indies.

Once of the great problems to be solved, if not solved already, and demonstrated to this great people, over whose destinies you are now placed, and which you will undoubtedly control for a long period after peace will be restored, is whether free labor can produce the Southern staples as effectively as slave labor. In fact this great truth established in the minds of the people will become the basis of moral and mutual regeneration of the Republic.

To test this great question surely and speedily should be one of the first objects of a government aiming at the overthrow of slavery. And this thought existing in the mind of the Government has led to the adoption of the means now in operation for that purpose.

Mr. McCrea purchased one of the abandoned estates in Beaufort and was carrying it on and is anxious to carry it on, with hired paid labor, and was thus an unpaid agent in helping to prove to the republic + the world that the substration of your government policy is beneficent and sublime. For those reasons no man with capacities so requisite at this peculiar juncture of our Nation’s history should be unnecessarily banished from the field of his and our labors.

You will admit all I allege if you believe what I say in regard to McCrea’s capacities and designs. Now why should I not be believed in this respect? Because you do not know me. But I can make myself known to you through those that know me and who are known to you.

The petition I presented for McCrea’s pardon was signed by eleven of as good men as live and without any importunity from me, other than a simple request, and as my known veracity and attachment to every thing national and benevolent.

No public man ever needed to sign any paper to get rid of me, for I never request or seek any thing inconsistent with their dignity, or with what is right.

I humbly pray that you will regard their indorsement [sic] of the petition in no other light than as an introduction to your confidence in my integrity and earnestness of purpose.

I had a letter from Abram Wakeman Esq. Postmaster of New York a good + true man, and really deemed myself fully entitled to belief as to my representations.

But you say that Mr. McCrea was banished from the department upon the conviction of a Crime. The crime was selling a bottle of Whisky to a [illegible] engaged in the army which he did as a favor. And also delivering a barrel of Whisky to the Butcher of the Army, which had been left at his place for him.

It is not easy to convince a Scotch Man that these are criminal acts, they may become so at times and places, when ladies or men are called upon to act with cool heads and steady hands and feet and therefore the prohibition of Liquors in the army, as a Military regulation was eminently proper, and any disregard or violation of that rule, should be punished.

But the punishment should be regulated by the same rules, which controls all other class of offences, so that it would not defeat its own object, and injure the individual punished and the community of which he formed a part, and more severely than justice demands and mercy justifies.

The parties to whom the liquor was given in this case, were both engaged in occupations where Liquor has always been used as a conceived necessary stimulant, and I am informed that when they were prohibited form attaining it otherwise the government saw the necessity and admitted the propriety of supplying it to them.

Mr. McCrea as a matter of friendship to them, knowing their feeling on the subject, and not for profit to himself, gave a bottle out of his own family stack, + allowed the keg to be left and delivered as before stated.

He suffered a severe punishment in standing so many hours a day for a number of consecutive days in a disgracified position. He was ordered to pay + did pay a fine of $500, and he has suffered Banishment from his adopted home and household, with all its endearing interests thus long and my prayer simply is that the balance of his sentence be rescinded.

He will never violate any rule of the department again. He will give bonds if necessary so to do.

But you say you will not interfere on an exparte statement with the action of the Commission and with the duties of Governor Saxton.

This is right + proper and dignified. And I now simply and earnestly request that you would do this one thing through some one of your secretaries.

Request Governor Saxton if it be consistent with the safety of his department and the proper exercise of his powers to remit the balance of the sentence in this case.

He will then look into the case with a greater degree of care, and decide upon it with a more statesmanlike judgment than he otherwise might.

In the mean time we will follow your advice and endeavor to procure from him a consent to the nullification of the sentence. Fearing I might not enjoy another interview with your Excellency I have written this long argument and beg leave to subscribe myself.

Your humble servant,

James G. McAdam

For His Excellency

Abraham Lincoln

President

McCrea was banished from Beaufort by the Military authorities, & I am now called on to send him back, without the consent of those authorities, which I can not consent to do. They & not I must judge whether his presence is injurious. If the Gen. in command there—Gen. Saxton I believe—consents, then I am quite willing for Mr. McCrea to return—not without. A. LINCOLN

June 10, 1864.

Citation: James G. McAdam, autograph letter signed to Abraham Lincoln. 9 June 1864. AMs 527/13

The manuscript of Lincoln’s Baltimore Address (given April 18, 1864) was sent to John W. Forney for publication in the Washington Daily Chronicle. It was then returned to John Hay, Lincoln’s secretary. A few days Forney asks on behalf of his wife for a donation from Lincoln for the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair and Lincoln directed Hay to provide the manuscript.

Transcript:

My Dear Sir

I have the honor to send to you by direction of the President the notes of the remarks made by him at Baltimore, for the benefit of the Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia

I am very truly yours

John Hay

Citation: John Hay (1838-1905), autograph letter signed to John Wien Forney. Washington, D.C.; 25 April 1864. AMs 575/7

Transcript:

Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States of America, To William Kellogg of Illinois, Greeting: reposing Special trust and confidence in your Integrity, Prudence, and Ability, I have nominated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint you to be Minister Resident of the United States of America, to Guatemala; authorizing you, hereby, to do and perform all such matters and things as to the said place or Office doth appertain, or as may be duly given you in charge hereafter, and the said office to hold and exercise during the pleasure of the President of the United States for the time being.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four and of the independence of the United States of America the Eighty-eighth.

By the President Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward Secretary of State

Citation: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Appointment of William Kellogg. Washington, D.C., 21 April 1864. AMs 526/29.1

Abraham Lincoln was well known for his generosity in granting clemency and pardons to both Union and Confederate soldiers. He seems to have been truly sympathetic to their plight, but his mercy also had strategic aims. He was generous with pardons for Confederates in an attempt to regain their loyalty and trust; a strategy that would later be evident in his plans for Reconstruction.

Transcription:

Let this man take the oath of Dec 8 and be discharged.

A. Lincoln

April 20, 1864

Citation: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), autograph document signed. Washington, D.C.:  20 April 1864. AMs 353/14.

The Baltimore Address, given at the Baltimore Sanitary Fair, was one of the few speeches Lincoln gave as President. The fair was a fund-raiser for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which coordinated millions of women’s efforts to provide aid to the troops. This manuscript would itself be sold to raise money at the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair a few months later.

Transcript:

Ladies and Gentlemen—Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we can not fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many people, assembled here, to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the Union, it occurs at once that three years ago, the same soldiers could not so much as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now, is both great, and gratifying. Blessings on the brave men who have wrought the change, and the fair women who strive to reward them for it.

But Baltimore suggests more than could happen within Baltimore. The change within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the war began, three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery would be much affected by the war. But here we are; the war has not ended, and slavery has been much affected—how much needs not now to be recounted. So true is it that man proposes, and God disposes.

But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it; and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for the future.

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatable things, called by the same name—liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatable names—liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty; and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf’s dictionary, has been repudiated.

It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at great length; but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought to say a word. A painful rumor, true I fear, has reached us of the massacre, by the rebel forces, at Fort Pillow, in the West end of Tennessee, on the Mississippi river, of some three hundred colored soldiers and white officers, who had just been overpowered by their assailants. There seems to be some anxiety in the public mind whether the government is doing it’s duty to the colored soldier, and to the service, at this point. At the beginning of the war, and for some time, the use of colored troops was not contemplated; and how the change of purpose was wrought, I will not now take time to explain. Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to turn that element of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American people, to the christian world, to history, and on my final account to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. The difficulty is not in stating the principle, but in practically applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the government is indiffe[re]nt to this matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, or white officer commanding colored soldiers, has been massacred by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it, believe it, I may say, but we do not know it. To take the life of one of their prisoners, on the assumption that they murder ours, when it is short of certainty that they do murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel a mistake. We are having the Fort-Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; and such investigation will probably show conclusively how the truth is. If, after all that has been said, it shall turn out that there has been no massacre at Fort-Pillow, it will be almost safe to say there has been none, and will be none elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will be conclusively proved; and being so proved, the retribution shall as surely come. It will be matter of grave consideration in what exact course to apply the retribution; but in the supposed case, it must come.

Citation:

Abraham Lincoln, Baltimore address: holograph manuscript. [not after 18 Apr. 1864]. AMs 805/9

Transcript;

Collector’s Office

Petersburg, Ill., March 18^th 1864

Hon. J.T. Stuart

Dear Sir

Enclosed you will find Letter from F.M. White Prisoner of War at Rock island who wishes to take the oath & remain with me until the War is over. White is my wifes Brother and is a No1 good man I am extremely anxious to procure an order for his permission to take the Oath I have maid several attempts to procure an order but so far have filed I suppose my communications have failed to reach the President if you can succeed you will greatly oblige me if you succeed have the order delivered to you so you can Mail it to me & I will deliver it in Person to the Commandant at Rockisland writes me that he is daily releasing on Order from Washington Verry Truly

W.G. Greene

P.S. let me hear from you soon Luck or no Luck

Over

Hon J.T. Stuart

Dear Sir

My old Friend & Neighbour Mr Greene has bin making exertions to get his Brotherinlaw released from prisin & so fair has failed & at my request now solicit your aid. I cherfully joyne him in what he has stated & hope you will give him your assistance & by so doing you will lay me under lasting obligations

Respectfully your old friend George Spears

Let this man take the oath of Dec. 8 and be bailed to W. G. Greene named within

A. Lincoln

March 31, 1864

Citation:  W. G. Green, autograph letter signed to John Todd Stuart. Petersburg, Ill., 18 March 1864. AMs 776/30

Citation: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Invitation. Washington, D.C., 1 March 1864. AMs 776/29