Chapter XVI: Letters and Speeches

Speech at Washington--Letter to General Grant--Thanksgiving
Proclamation--Letter concerning the Emancipation Proclamation--
Proclamation for Annual Thanksgiving--Dedicatory Speech at
Gettysburg.

On the evening of the 4th of July, 1863, having been serenaded by many of the citizens of Washington, jubilant over the defeat of the rebels at Gettysburg, the President acknowledged the compliment thus:

“FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am very glad indeed to see you to-night,
and yet I will not say I thank you for this call; but I do most
sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have
called. How long ago is it--eighty odd years--since, on the 4th of
July, for the first time in the history of the world, a nation,
by its representatives, assembled and declared as a self-evident
truth, ‘that all men are created equal?’ That was the birthday
of the United States of America. Since then, the 4th of July
has had several very peculiar recognitions. The two men most
distinguished in the framing and support of the Declaration, were
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams--the one having penned it, and the
other sustained it the most forcibly in debate--the only two, of
the fifty-five who signed it, who were elected Presidents of the
United States. Precisely fifty years after they put their hands to
the paper, it pleased Almighty God to take both from this stage of
action. This was indeed an extraordinary and remarkable event in
our history. Another President, five years after, was called from
this stage of existence on the same day and month of the year; and
now, on this last 4th of July just passed, when we have a gigantic
rebellion, at the bottom of which is an effort to overthrow the
principle that all men were created equal, we have the surrender of
a most powerful position and army on that very day. And not only
so, but in a succession of battles in Pennsylvania, near to us,
through three days, so rapidly fought that they might be called
one great battle, on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of the month of July, and
on the 4th the cohorts of those who opposed the declaration that
all men are created equal, ‘turned tail’ and run. Gentlemen, this
is a glorious theme, and the occasion for a speech; but I am not
prepared to make one worthy of the occasion. I would like to speak
in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers
who have fought in the cause of the Union and liberties of their
country from the beginning of the war. These are trying occasions,
not only in success, but for the want of success. I dislike to
mention the name of one single officer, lest I might do wrong to
those I might forget. Recent events bring up glorious names, and
particularly prominent ones; but these I will not mention. Having
said this much, I will now take the music.”

The following letter, addressed to General Grant after the capture of Vicksburg, gives an insight into the transparent candor and frankness of the President.

“_Executive Mansion_, Washington, July 13th, 1863.

“MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. GRANT--_My Dear General_: I do not remember
that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful
acknowledgment of the almost inestimable service you have done the
country. I write to say a word further. When you first reached the
vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally
did--march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the
transports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith, except
a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass
expedition, and the like, could succeed. When you got below, and
took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should
go down the river and join General Banks, and when you turned
northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now
wish to make the personal acknowledgment, that you were right and I
was wrong.

“Yours, truly,
“A. LINCOLN.”

The following was issued in commemoration of the victories at Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and Gettysburg:

“BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.--A
PROCLAMATION.--It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the
supplications and prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe
to the Army and Navy of the United States, on the land and on the
sea, victories so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable
grounds for augmented confidence that the Union of these States
will be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace
and prosperity permanently secured; but these victories have
been accorded, not without sacrifice of life, limb, and liberty,
incurred by brave, patriotic, and loyal citizens. Domestic
affliction, in every part of the country, follows in the train of
these fearful bereavements. It is meet and right to recognize and
confess the presence of the Almighty Father, and the power of his
hand equally in these triumphs and these sorrows.

“Now, therefore, be it known, that I do set apart Thursday, the
6th day of August next, to be observed as a day for National
Thanksgiving, praise, and prayer; and I invite the people of the
United States to assemble on that occasion in their customary
places of worship, and in the form approved by their own
consciences, render the homage due to the Divine Majesty, for the
wonderful things he has done in the Nation’s behalf, and invoke
the influence of his Holy Spirit, to subdue the anger which has
produced, and so long sustained, a needless and cruel rebellion; to
change the hearts of the insurgents; to guide the counsels of the
Government with wisdom adequate to so great a National emergency,
and to visit with tender care, and consolation, throughout the
length and breadth of our land, all those who, through the
vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, have been
brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate; and finally, to lead
the whole nation through paths of repentance and submission to the
Divine will, back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal
peace.

“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 fifteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth.

“By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

The following letter, written in August, 1863, in answer to an invitation to attend a meeting of unconditional Union men held in Illinois, gives at length the President’s views at that time on his Emancipation proclamation:

“EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, August 26th, 1863.

“MY DEAR SIR:--Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of
unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois
on the third day of September, has been received. It would be
very agreeable to me thus to meet my old friends at my own home;
but I cannot just now be absent from this city so long as a
visit there would require. The meeting is to be of all those who
maintain unconditional devotion to the Union; and I am sure that
my old political friends will thank me for tendering, as I do,
the nation’s gratitude to those other noble men whom no partisan
malice or partisan hope can make false to the nation’s life. There
are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say:--You
desire peace, and you blame me that we do not have it. But how
can we attain it? There are but three conceivable ways:--First,
to suppress the rebellion by force of arms. This I am trying to
do. Are you for it? If you are, so far we are agreed. If you are
not for it, a second way is to give up the Union. I am against
this. If you are, you should say so, plainly. If you are not for
force, nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginable
compromise. I do not believe that any compromise embracing the
maintenance of the Union is now possible. All that I learn leads
to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion is
its military--its army. That army dominates all the country and
all the people within its range. Any offer of any terms made by
any man or men within that range in opposition to that army is
simply nothing for the present, because such man or men have no
power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, if one were
made with them. To illustrate: Suppose refugees from the South and
peace men of the North get together in convention, and frame and
proclaim a compromise embracing the restoration of the Union. In
what way can that compromise be used to keep General Lee’s army out
of Pennsylvania? General Meade’s army can keep Lee’s army out of
Pennsylvania, and I think can ultimately drive it out of existence.
But no paper compromise to which the controllers of General Lee’s
army are not agreed, can at all affect that army. In an effort at
such compromise we would waste time which the enemy would improve
to our disadvantage, and that would be all. A compromise, to be
effective, must be made either with those who control the rebel
army, or with the people, first liberated from the domination of
that army by the success of our army. Now, allow me to assure you
that no word or intimation from the rebel army, or from any of
the men controlling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has
ever come to my knowledge or belief. All charges and intimations
to the contrary are deceptive and groundless. And I promise you
that if any such propositions shall hereafter come, it shall not
be rejected and kept secret from you. I freely acknowledge myself
to be the servant of the people, according to the bond of service,
the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible
to them. But, to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me about the
negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you
and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could
be free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet I have neither adopted
nor proposed any measure which is not consistent with even your
view, provided you are for the Union. I suggested compensated
emancipation, to which you replied that you wished not to be
taxed to buy negroes. But I have not asked you to be taxed to buy
negroes, except in such way as to save you from greater taxation,
to save the Union exclusively by other means.

“You dislike the emancipation proclamation, and perhaps would have
it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently.
I think that the Constitution invests its Commander-in-chief with
the law of war in time of war. The most that can be said, if so
much, is, that the slaves are property. Is there, has there ever
been, any question that by the law of war, property, both of
enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed
whenever taking it helps us or hurts the enemy? Armies, the world
over, destroy enemies’ property when they cannot use it; and even
destroy their own to keep it from the enemy. Civilized belligerents
do all in their power to help themselves or hurt the enemy, except
a few things regarded as barbarous or cruel. Among the exceptions
are the massacre of vanquished foes and non-combatants, male and
female. But the proclamation, as law, is valid or is not valid. If
it is not valid it needs no restriction. If it is valid it cannot
be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. Some
of you profess to think that its retraction would operate favorably
for the Union. Why better after the retraction than before the
issue? There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress
the rebellion before the proclamation was issued, the last one
hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice, that it
was coming unless averted by those in revolt returning to their
allegiance. The war has certainly progressed as favorably for us
since the issue of the proclamation as before. I know as fully as
one can know the opinions of others, that some of the commanders
of our armies in the field, who have given us our most important
victories, believe the emancipation policy and the aid of colored
troops constitute the heaviest blows yet dealt to the rebellion,
and that at least one of those important successes could not have
been achieved when it was but for the aid of black soldiers. Among
the commanders holding these views are some who have never had
any affinity with what is called abolitionism or with ‘republican
party politics,’ but who hold them purely as military opinions.
I submit their opinions as being entitled to some weight against
the objections often urged that emancipation and arming the blacks
are unwise as military measures, and were not adopted as such in
good faith. You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some
of them seem to be willing to fight for you--but no matter. Fight
you, then, exclusively to save the Union. I issued the proclamation
on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall
have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to
continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare
that you will not fight to free negroes. I thought that in your
struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should
cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy
in his resistance to you. Do you think differently? I thought
that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just
so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does
it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act
upon motives. Why should they do any thing for us if we will do
nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us they must be
prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And
the promise being made, must be kept. The signs look better. The
Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great
North-west for it. Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up
they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their
way right and left. The Sunny South, too, in more colors than one,
also lent a hand. On the spot, their part of the history was jotted
down in black and white. The joy was a great national one, and let
none be banned who bore an honorable part in it; and, while those
who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even that is
not all. It is hard to say that any thing has been more bravely
and better done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro’, Gettysburg, and
on many fields of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam’s web feet be
forgotten. At all the waters’ margins they have been present--not
only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also
up the narrow, muddy bayou; and wherever the ground was a little
damp they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the
great Republic--for the principles by which it lives and keeps
alive--for man’s vast future--thanks to all. Peace does not appear
so far distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to
stay: and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time.
It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no
successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who
take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost.
And then there will be some black men who can remember that, with
silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well poised
bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation;
while I fear that there will be some white men unable to forget
that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven
to hinder it. Still let us not be over sanguine of a speedy final
triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means,
never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us
the rightful result.

“Yours very truly, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.”

Desirous of inaugurating the custom of setting apart each year a common day throughout the land for thanksgiving and prayer, Mr. Lincoln issued the following:

“BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.--A
PROCLAMATION:--The year that is drawing towards its close has been
filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.
To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are
prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been
added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not
fail to even 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 unequalled magnitude and severity, which
has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions of
foreign States, 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 theatre of military
conflict. While that theatre has been greatly contracted by the
advancing armies and navies of the Union, the needful diversion of
wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the
national defence, has not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the
ship. The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and
the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals,
have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has
steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made
in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field; and the country,
rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is
permitted to expect a continuance of years, with a 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.

“It hath seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
devoutly, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and
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 lands, to
set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day
of thanksgiving and prayer 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 signal deliverances and
blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our National
perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all
those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, 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 restore it, as soon as may
be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of
peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

“In testimony 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, the third day of October,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

“By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

On the 19th of November, 1863, President Lincoln delivered the following dedicatory address upon the occasion of consecrating a National Cemetery at Gettysburg, for the secure rest of those brave men who yielded up their lives in behalf of their country during the three days’ battle at that place:

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this
continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in
a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it
as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that
that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this.

“But in a larger sense we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate,
we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us,
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work
that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that
from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for
which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we
here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that
the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that
the government of the people, by the people, and for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.”