The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln
Chapter 212 : TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON.EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, September 8, 1863. 9.3

TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, September 8, 1863. 9.30

HON. ANDREW JOHNSON, Nashville, Tenn.:

Despatch of yesterday just received. I shall try to find the paper you mention and carefully consider it. In the meantime let me urge that you do your utmost to get every man you can, black and white, under arms at the very earliest moment, to guard roads, bridges, and trains, allowing all the better trained soldiers to go forward to Rosecrans. Of course I mean for you to act in co-operation with and not independently of, the military authorities.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, September 9, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Warrenton, Va.:

It would be a generous thing to give General Wheaton a leave of absence for ten or fifteen days, and if you can do so without injury to the service, please do it.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL WHEATON.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C., September 10, 1863.

GENERAL WHEATON, Army of Potomac:

Yesterday at the instance of Mr. Blair, senator, I telegraphed General Meade asking him to grant you a leave of absence, to which he replied that you had not applied for such leave, and that you can have it when you do apply. I suppose it is proper for you to know this.

A. LINCOLN.

TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, SEPTEMBER, 11, 1863

HON. ANDREW JOHNSON.

MY DEAR SIR:--All Tennessee is now clear of armed insurrectionists. You need not to be reminded that it is the nick of time for reinaugurating a loyal State government. Not a moment should be lost. You and the co-operating friends there can better judge of the ways and means than can be judged by any here. I only offer a few suggestions. The reinauguration must not be such as to give control of the State and its representation in Congress to the enemies of the Union, driving its friends there into political exile. The whole struggle for Tennessee will have been profitless to both State and nation if it so ends that Governor Johnson is put down and Governor Harris put up. It must not be so. You must have it otherwise. Let the reconstruction be the work of such men only as can be trusted for the Union. Exclude all others, and trust that your government so organized will be recognized here as being the one of republican form to be guaranteed to the State, and to be protected against invasion and domestic violence. It is something on the question of time to remember that it cannot be known who is next to occupy the position I now hold, nor what he will do. I see that you have declared in favor of emanc.i.p.ation in Tennessee, for which may G.o.d bless you. Get emanc.i.p.ation into your new State government const.i.tution and there will be no such word as fail for your cause. The raising of colored troops, I think, will greatly help every way.

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, September 11, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, c.u.mberland Gap:

Yours received. A thousand thanks for the late successes you have given us. We cannot allow you to resign until things shall be a little more settled in East Tennessee. If then, purely on your own account, you wish to resign, we will not further refuse you.

A. LINCOLN

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, September 11, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Warrenton, Va.:

It is represented to me that Thomas Edds, in your army, is under sentence of death for desertion, to be executed next Monday. It is also said his supposed desertion is comprised in an absence commencing with his falling behind last winter, being captured and paroled by the enemy, and then going home. If this be near the truth, please suspend the execution till further order and send in the record of the trial.

A. LINCOLN

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C., September 12, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL MEAD, Warrenton, Va.:

The name is "Thomas Edds" not "Eddies" as in your despatch. The papers left with me do not designate the regiment to which he belongs. The man who gave me the papers, I do not know how to find again. He only told me that Edds is in the Army of the Potomac, and that he fell out of the ranks during Burnside's mud march last winter. If I get further information I will telegraph again.

A. LINCOLN