President[ Abraham Lincoln
Date[ December 8, 1863
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Another year of health and of sufficiently abundant harvests has
passed. For these, and especially for the improved condition of our
national affairs, our renewed and profoundest gratitude to God is due.
We remain in peace and friendship with foreign powers.
The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us in
foreign wars to aid an inexcusable insurrection have been unavailing.
Her Britannic Majesty's Government, as was justly expected, have
exercised their authority to prevent the departure of new hostile
expeditions from British ports. The Emperor of France has by a like
proceeding promptly vindicated the neutrality which he proclaimed at
the beginning of the contest. Questions of great intricacy and
importance have arisen out of the blockade and other belligerent
operations between the Government and several of the maritime powers,
but they have been discussed and, as far as was possible, accommodated
in a spirit of frankness, justice, and mutual good will. It is
especially gratifying that our prize courts, by the impartiality of
their adjudications, have commanded the respect and confidence of
maritime powers.
The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain for
the suppression of the African slave trade, made on the 17th day of
February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. It is
believed that so far as American ports and American citizens are
concerned that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an end.
I shall submit for the consideration of the Senate a convention for the
adjustment of possessory claims in Washington Territory arising out of
the treaty of the 15th June, 1846, between the United States and Great
Britain, and which have been the source of some disquiet among the
citizens of that now rapidly improving part of the country.
A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime
jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the island of Cuba,
has been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is proposed in
an amicable spirit to refer it to the arbitrament of a friendly power.
A convention for that purpose will be submitted to the Senate.
I have thought it proper, subject to the approval of the Senate, to
concur with the interested commercial powers in an arrangement for the
liquidation of the Scheldt dues, upon the principles which have been
heretofore adopted in regard to the imposts upon navigation in the
waters of Denmark. The long-pending controversy between this
Government and that of Chile touching the seizure at Sitana, in Peru,
by Chilean officers, of a large amount in treasure belonging to
citizens of the United States has been brought to a close by the award
of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, to whose arbitration the
question was referred by the parties. The subject was thoroughly and
patiently examined by that justly respected magistrate, and although
the sum awarded to the claimants may not have been as large as they
expected there is no reason to distrust the wisdom of His Majesty's
decision. That decision was promptly complied with by Chile when
intelligence in regard to it reached that country.
The joint commission under the act of the last session for carrying
into effect the convention with Peru on the subject of claims has been
organized at Lima, and is engaged in the business intrusted to it.
Difficulties concerning interoceanic transit through Nicaragua are in
course of amicable adjustment.
In conformity with principles set forth in my last annual message, I
have received a representative from the United States of Colombia, and
have accredited a minister to that Republic.
Incidents occurring in the progress of our civil war have forced upon
my attention the uncertain state of international questions touching
the rights of foreigners in this country and of United States citizens
abroad. In regard to some governments these rights are at least
partially, defined by treaties. In no instance, however, is it
expressly stipulated that in the event of civil war a foreigner
residing in this country within the lines of the insurgents is to be
exempted from the rule which classes him as a belligerent, in whose
behalf the Government or his country can not expect any privileges or
immunities distinct from that character. I regret to say, however, that
such claims have been put forward, and in some instances in behalf of
foreigners who have lived in the United States the greater part of
their lives.
There is reason to believe that many persons born in foreign countries
who have declared their intention to become citizens, or who have been
fully naturalized, have evaded the military duty required of them by
denying the fact and thereby throwing upon the Government the burden of
proof. It has been found difficult or impracticable to obtain this
proof, from the want of guides to the proper sources of information.
These might be supplied by requiring clerks of courts where
declarations of intention may be made or naturalizations effected to
send periodically lists of the names of the persons naturalized or
declaring their intention to become citizens to the Secretary of the
Interior, in whose Department those names might be arranged and printed
for general information.
There is also reason to believe that foreigners frequently become
citizens of the United States for the sole purpose of evading duties
imposed by the laws of their native countries, to which on becoming
naturalized here they at once repair, and though never returning to the
United States they still claim the interposition of this Government as
citizens. Many altercations and great prejudices have heretofore arisen
out of this abuse. It is therefore submitted to your serious
consideration. It might be advisable to fix a limit beyond which no
citizen of the United States residing abroad may claim the
interposition of his Government.
The right of suffrage has often been assumed and exercised by aliens
under pretenses of naturalization, which they have disavowed when
drafted into the military service. I submit the expediency of such an
amendment of the law as will make the fact of voting an estoppel
against any plea of exemption from military service or other civil
obligation on the ground of alienage.
In common with other Western powers, our relations with Japan have been
brought into serious jeopardy through the perverse opposition of the
hereditary aristocracy of the Empire to the enlightened and liberal
policy of the Tycoon, designed to bring the country into the society of
nations. It is hoped, although not with entire confidence, that these
difficulties may be peacefully overcome. I ask your attention to the
claim of the minister residing there for the damages he sustained in
the destruction by fire of the residence of the legation at Yedo.
Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the Emperor of Russia,
which, it is believed, will result in effecting a continuous line of
telegraph through that Empire from our Pacific coast.
I recommend to your favorable consideration the subject of an
international telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, and also of a
telegraph between this capital and the national forts along the
Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Such communications,
established with any reasonable outlay, would be economical as well as
effective aids to the diplomatic, military, and naval service.
The consular system of the United States, under the enactments of the
last Congress, begins to be self-sustaining, and there is reason to
hope that it may become entirely so with the increase of trade which
will ensue whenever peace is restored. Our ministers abroad have been
faithful in defending American rights. In protecting commercial
interests our consuls have necessarily had to encounter increased
labors and responsibilities growing out of the war. These they have for
the most part met and discharged with zeal and efficiency. This
acknowledgment justly includes those consuls who, residing in Morocco,
Egypt, Turkey, Japan, China, and other Oriental countries, are charged
with complex functions and extraordinary powers.
The condition of the several organized Territories is generally
satisfactory, although Indian disturbances in New Mexico have not been
entirely suppressed. The mineral resources of Colorado, Nevada, Idaho,
New Mexico, and Arizona are proving far richer than has been heretofore
understood. I lay before you a communication on this subject from the
governor of New Mexico. I again submit to your consideration the
expediency of establishing a system for the encouragement of
immigration. Although this source of national wealth and strength is
again flowing with greater freedom than for several years before the
insurrection occurred, there is still a great deficiency of laborers in
every field of industry, especially in agriculture and in our mines, as
well of iron and coal as of the precious metals. While the demand for
labor is much increased here, tens of thousands of persons, destitute
of remunerative occupation, are thronging our foreign consulates and
offering to emigrate to the United States if essential, but very cheap,
assistance can be afforded them. It is easy to see that under the sharp
discipline of civil war the nation is beginning a new life. This noble
effort demands the aid and ought to receive the attention and support
of the Government.
Injuries unforeseen by the Government and unintended may in some cases
have been inflicted on the subjects or citizens of foreign countries,
both at sea and on land, by persons in the service of the United
States. As this Government expects redress from other powers when
similar injuries are inflicted by persons in their service upon
citizens of the United States, we must be prepared to do justice to
foreigners. If the existing judicial tribunals are inadequate to this
purpose, a special court may be authorized, with power to hear and
decide such claims of the character referred to as may have arisen
under treaties and the public law. Conventions for adjusting the claims
by joint commission have been proposed to some governments, but no
definitive answer to the proposition has yet been received from any.
In the course of the session I shall probably have occasion to request
you to provide indemnification to claimants where decrees of
restitution have been rendered and damages awarded by admiralty courts,
and in other cases where this Government may be acknowledged to be
liable in principle and where the amount of that liability has been
ascertained by an informal arbitration.
The proper officers of the Treasury have deemed themselves required by
the law of the United States upon the subject to demand a tax upon the
incomes of foreign consuls in this country. While such a demand may not
in strictness be in derogation of public law, or perhaps of any
existing treaty between the United States and a foreign country, the
expediency of so far modifying the act as to exempt from tax the income
of such consuls as are not citizens of the United States, derived from
the emoluments of their office or from property not situated in the
United States, is submitted to your serious consideration. I make this
suggestion upon the ground that a comity which ought to be reciprocated
exempts our consuls in all other countries from taxation to the extent
thus indicated. The United States, I think, ought not to be
exceptionally illiberal to international trade and commerce.
The operations of the Treasury during the last year have been
successfully conducted. The enactment by Congress of a national banking
law has proved a valuable support of the public credit and the general
legislation in relation to loans has fully answered the expectations of
its favorers. Some amendments may be required to perfect existing laws,
but no change in their principles or general scope is believed to be
needed.
Since these measures have been in operation all demands on the
Treasury, including the pay of the Army and Navy, have been promptly
met and fully satisfied. No considerable body of troops, it is
believed, were ever more amply provided and more liberally and
punctually paid, and it may be added that by no people were the burdens
incident to a great war ever more cheerfully borne.
The receipts during the year from all sources, including loans and
balance in the Treasury at its commencement, were $901,125,674.86, and
the aggregate disbursements $895,796,630.65, leaving a balance on the
1st of July, 1863, of $5,329,044.21. Of the receipts there were derived
from customs $69,059,642.40, from internal revenue $37,640,787.95, from
direct tax $1,485,103.61, from lands $167,617.17, from miscellaneous
sources $3,046,615.35, and from loans $776,682,361.57, making the
aggregate $901,125,674.86. Of the disbursements there were for the
civil service $23,253,922.08, for pensions and Indians $4,216,520.79,
for interest on public debt $24,729,846.51, for the War Department
$599,298,600.83, for the Navy Department $63,211,105.27, for payment of
funded and temporary debt $181,086,635.07, making the aggregate
$895,796,630.65 and leaving the balance of $5,329,044.21. But the
payment of funded and temporary debt, having been made from moneys
borrowed during the year, must be regarded as merely nominal payments
and the moneys borrowed to make them as merely nominal receipts, and
their amount, $181,086,635.07, should therefore be deducted both from
receipts and disbursements. This being done there remains as actual
receipts $720,039,039.79 and the actual disbursements $714,709,995.58,
leaving the balance as already stated.
The actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the
estimated receipts and disbursements for the remaining three quarters
of the current fiscal year (1864) will be shown in detail by the report
of the Secretary of the Treasury, to which I invite your attention. It
is sufficient to say here that it is not believed that actual results
will exhibit a state of the finances less favorable to the country than
the estimates of that officer heretofore submitted, while it is
confidently expected that at the close of the year both disbursements
and debt will be found very considerably less than has been
anticipated.
The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. It
consists of--
1. The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of the
General in Chief. 2. The organization of colored persons into the war
service. 3. The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of
General Hitchcock. 4. The operations under the act for enrolling and
calling out the national forces, detailed in the report of the
Provost-Marshal-General. 5. The organization of the invalid
corps, and 6. The operation of the several departments of the
Quartermaster-General, Commissary-General, Paymaster-General, Chief of
Engineers, Chief of Ordnance, and Surgeon-General.
It has appeared impossible to make a valuable summary of this report,
except such as would be too extended for this place, and hence I
content myself by asking your careful attention to the report itself.
The duties devolving on the naval branch of the service during the year
and throughout the whole of this unhappy contest have been discharged
with fidelity and eminent success. The extensive blockade has been
constantly increasing in efficiency as the Navy has expanded, yet on so
long a line it has so far been impossible to entirely suppress illicit
trade. From returns received at the Navy Department it appears that
more than 1,000 vessels have been captured since the blockade was
instituted, and that the value of prizes already sent in for
adjudication amounts to over $13,000,000.
The naval force of the United States consists at this time of 588
vessels completed and in the course of completion, and of these 75 are
ironclad or armored steamers. The events of the war give an increased
interest and importance to the Navy which will probably extend beyond
the war itself.
The armored vessels in our Navy completed and in service, or which are
under contract and approaching completion, are believed to exceed in
number those of any other power; but while these may be relied upon for
harbor defense and coast service, others of greater strength and
capacity will be necessary for cruising purposes and to maintain our
rightful position on the ocean.
The change that has taken place in naval vessels and naval warfare
since the introduction of steam as a motive power for ships of war
demands either a corresponding change in some of our existing
navy-yards or the establishment of new ones for the construction and
necessary repair of modern naval vessels. No inconsiderable
embarrassment, delay, and public injury have been experienced from the
want of such governmental establishments. The necessity of such a
navy-yard, so furnished, at some suitable place upon the Atlantic
seaboard has on repeated occasions been brought to the attention of
Congress by the Navy Department, and is again presented in the report
of the Secretary which accompanies this communication. I think it my
duty to invite your special attention to this subject, and also to that
of establishing a yard and depot for naval purposes upon one of the
Western rivers. A naval force has been created on those interior
waters, and under many disadvantages, within little more than two
years, exceeding in numbers the whole naval force of the country at the
commencement of the present Administration. Satisfactory and important
as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy at this
interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the success
of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war vessels, which
has created a new form of naval power.
Our country has advantages superior to any other nation in our
resources of iron and timber, with inexhaustible quantities of fuel in
the immediate vicinity of both, and all available and in close
proximity to navigable waters. Without the advantage of public works,
the resources of the nation have been developed and its power displayed
in the construction of a Navy of such magnitude, which has at the very
period of its creation rendered signal service to the Union.
The increase of the number of seamen in the public service from 7,500
men in the spring of 1861 to about 34,000 at the present time has been
accomplished without special legislation or extraordinary bounties to
promote that increase. It has been found, however, that the operation
of the draft, with the high bounties paid for army recruits, is
beginning to affect injuriously the naval service, and will, if not
corrected, be likely to impair its efficiency by detaching seamen from
their proper vocation and inducing them to enter the Army. I therefore
respectfully suggest that Congress might aid both the army and naval
services by a definite provision on this subject which would at the
same time be equitable to the communities more especially interested.
I commend to your consideration the suggestions of the Secretary of the
Navy in regard to the policy of fostering and training seamen and also
the education of officers and engineers for the naval service. The
Naval Academy is rendering signal service in preparing midshipmen for
the highly responsible duties which in after life they will be required
to perform. In order that the country should not be deprived of the
proper quota of educated officers, for which legal provision has been
made at the naval school, the vacancies caused by the neglect or
omission to make nominations from the States in insurrection have been
filled by the Secretary of the Navy. The school is now more full and
complete than at any former period, and in every respect entitled to
the favorable consideration of Congress.
During the past fiscal year the financial condition of the Post-Office
Department has been one of increasing prosperity, and I am gratified in
being able to state that the actual postal revenue has nearly equaled
the entire expenditures, the latter amounting to $11,314,206.84 and the
former to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency of but $150,417.25. In
1860, the year immediately preceding the rebellion, the deficiency
amounted to $5,656,705.49, the postal receipts of that year being
$2,645,722.19 less than those of 1863. The decrease since 1860 in the
annual amount of transportation has been only about 25 per cent, but
the annual expenditure on account of the same has been reduced 35 per
cent. It is manifest, therefore, that the Post-Office Department may
become self-sustaining in a few years, even with the restoration of the
whole service.
The international conference of postal delegates from the principal
countries of Europe and America, which was called at the suggestion of
the Postmaster-General, met at Paris on the 11th of May last and
concluded its deliberations on the 8th of June. The principles
established by the conference as best adapted to facilitate postal
intercourse between nations and as the basis of future postal
conventions inaugurate a general system of uniform international
charges at reduced rates of postage, and can not fail to produce
beneficial results.
I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is
herewith laid before you, for useful and varied information in relation
to the public lands, Indian affairs, patents, pensions, and other
matters of public concern pertaining to his Department.
The quantity of land disposed of during the last and the first quarter
of the present fiscal years was 3,841,549 acres, of which 161,911 acres
were sold for cash, 1,456,514 acres were taken up under the homestead
law, and the residue disposed of under laws granting lands for military
bounties, for railroad and other purposes. It also appears that the
sale of the public lands is largely on the increase.
It has long been a cherished opinion of some of our wisest statesmen
that the people of the United States had a higher and more enduring
interest in the early settlement and substantial cultivation of the
public lands than in the amount of direct revenue to be derived from
the sale of them. This opinion has had a controlling influence in
shaping legislation upon the subject of our national domain. I may cite
as evidence of this the liberal measures adopted in reference to actual
settlers; the grant to the States of the overflowed lands within their
limits, in order to their being reclaimed and rendered fit for
cultivation; the grants to railway companies of alternate sections of
land upon the contemplated issues of their roads, which when completed
will so largely multiply the facilities for reaching our distant
possessions. This policy has received its most signal and beneficent
illustration in the recent enactment granting homesteads to actual
settlers. Since the 1st day of January last the before-mentioned
quantity of 1,456,514 acres of land have been taken up under its
provisions. This fact and the amount of sales furnish gratifying
evidence of increasing settlement upon the public lands,
notwithstanding the great struggle in which the energies of the nation
have been engaged, and which has required so large a withdrawal of our
citizens from their accustomed pursuits. I cordially concur in the
recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior suggesting a
modification of the act in favor of those engaged in the military and
naval service of the United States. I doubt not that Congress will
cheerfully adopt such measures as will, without essentially changing
the general features of the system, secure to the greatest practicable
extent its benefits to those who have left their homes in the defense
of the country in this arduous crisis.
I invite your attention to the views of the Secretary as to the
propriety of raising by appropriate legislation a revenue from the
mineral lands of the United States.
The measures provided at your last session for the removal of certain
Indian tribes have been carried into effect. Sundry treaties have been
negotiated, which will in due time be submitted for the constitutional
action of the Senate. They contain stipulations for extinguishing the
possessory rights of the Indians to large and valuable tracts of lands.
It is hoped that the effect of these treaties will result in the
establishment of permanent friendly relations with such of these tribes
as have been brought into frequent and bloody collision with our
outlying settlements and emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative
duty to these wards of the Government demand our anxious and constant
attention to their material well-being, to their progress in the arts
of civilization, and, above all, to that moral training which under the
blessing of Divine Providence will confer upon them the elevated and
sanctifying influences, the hopes and consolations, of the Christian
faith. I suggested in my last annual message the propriety of
remodeling our Indian system. Subsequent events have satisfied me of
its necessity. The details set forth in the report of the Secretary
evince the urgent need for immediate legislative action.
I commend the benevolent institutions established or patronized by the
Government in this District to your generous and fostering care. The
attention of Congress during the last session was engaged to some
extent with a proposition for enlarging the water communication between
the Mississippi River and the northeastern seaboard, which proposition,
however, failed for the time. Since then, upon a call of the greatest
respectability, a convention has been held at Chicago upon the same
subject, a summary of whose views is contained in a memorial addressed
to the President and Congress, and which I now have the honor to lay
before you. That this interest is one which ere long will force its own
way I do not entertain a doubt, while it is submitted entirely to your
wisdom as to what can be done now. Augmented interest is given to this
subject by the actual commencement of work upon the Pacific Railroad,
under auspices so favorable to rapid progress and completion. The
enlarged navigation becomes a palpable need to the great road.
I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioner of the
Department of Agriculture, asking your attention to the developments in
that vital interest of the nation. 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 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 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 quarter as would sweep our trade from the sea
and raise our blockade. We had failed to elicit from European
Governments anything hopeful upon this subject. The preliminary
emancipation proclamation, issued in September, was running its
assigned period to the beginning of the new year. A month later the
final proclamation came, including the announcement that colored men of
suitable condition would 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 Government had no lawful power to effect
emancipation in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that
the rebellion could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military
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 followed by dark
and doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to
take another review. The rebel borders are pressed still farther back,
and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country dominated by
the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no practical
communication 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 beginning of the
rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in their respective
States. Of those States not included in the emancipation proclamation,
Maryland 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 full 100,000
are now in the United States military 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 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 sentiment there
is much improved. At home the same measures have been fully discussed,
supported, criticised, and denounced, and the annual elections
following are highly encouraging to those whose official duty it is to
bear the country through this great 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 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 will
be attempted beyond what is amply justified by the Constitution. True,
the form of an oath is given, but no man 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 absolute discretion, and this includes the power to grant on
terms, as is fully established by judicial and other authorities.
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. 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 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.
An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government,
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 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 United States and
to the Union under it, why also to the laws and proclamations in regard
to slavery? Those laws and proclamations 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 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 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 may lawfully claim it in return for pardon and restoration of
forfeited rights, which he has clear constitutional power to withhold
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 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 revolution 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 extent this vital matter be left to themselves,
while no power of 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 reconstruction 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 elements for resumption seem
ready for action, but remain inactive 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 proclamation 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 objections
to a premature presentation of a plan by the National Executive consist
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 embarrassments from this source. Saying that on certain
terms certain classes will be pardoned with rights restored, it is not
said that other classes or other terms will never be in included.
Saying specified way, it is said that reconstruction will be accepted
if presented in a 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 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. In
the midst of other cares, however important, we must not lose sight of
the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that power
alone can we look yet for a time to give confidence to the people in
the contested regions that the insurgent power will not again overrun
them. Until that confidence 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 fortunate
that in giving the greatest efficiency to these indispensable 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.
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