The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln
Chapter 277 : Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, in acco

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, in accordance with the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, do hereby declare and proclaim that the port of St. Albans, in the State of Vermont, is, and shall be, ent.i.tled to all the privileges in regard to the exportation of merchandise in bond to the British North American provinces adjoining the United States, which are extended to the ports enumerated in the seventh section of the act of Congress of the third of March, 1845, aforesaid, from and after the date of this proclamation.

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 Was.h.i.+ngton, this tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred-and sixty-five, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.

A. LINCOLN.

By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, January 10, 1865.

MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.:

No princ.i.p.al report of yours on the Wilmington expedition has ever reached the War Department, as I am informed there. A preliminary report did reach here, but was returned to General Grant at his request. Of course, leave to publish cannot be given without inspection of the paper, and not then if it should be deemed to be detrimental to the public service.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL B. F. BUTLER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, January 13, 1865.

MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.:

Yours asking leave to come to Was.h.i.+ngton is received. You have been summoned by the Committee on the Conduct of the War to attend here, which, of course, you will do.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C., January 15, 1865.

GOVERNOR JOHNSON, Nashville, Tennessee:

Yours announcing ordinance of emanc.i.p.ation received. Thanks to the convention and to you. When do you expect to be here? Would be glad to have your suggestion as to supplying your place of military governor.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. M. DODGE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, January 15, 1865.

MAJOR-GENERAL DODGE, St. Louis, Missouri:

It is represented to me that there is so much irregular violence in northern Missouri as to be driving away the people and almost depopulating it. Please gather information, and consider whether an appeal to the people there to go to their homes and let one another alone recognizing as a full right of protection for each that he lets others alone, and banning only him who refuses to let others alone may not enable you to withdraw the troops, their presence itself [being] a cause of irritation and constant apprehension, and thus restore peace and quiet, and returning prosperity. Please consider this and telegraph or write me.

A. LINCOLN.

FIRST OVERTURES FOR SURRENDER FROM DAVIS

TO P. P. BLAIR, SR.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, January 18, 1865.

F. P. BLAIR, ESQ.

SIR:-You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the twelfth instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.

Yours, etc.,

A. LINCOLN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, January 19, 1865.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:

Please read and answer this letter as though I was not President, but only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having graduated at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to which those who have already served long are better ent.i.tled and better qualified to hold. Could he, without embarra.s.sment to you, or detriment to the service, go into your military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, furnis.h.i.+ng his necessary means? If no, say so without the least hesitation, because I am as anxious and as deeply interested that you shall not be enc.u.mbered as you can be yourself.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.