Josiah Gilbert Holland

“ Lincoln replied that he should be willing to facilitate the bringing of the law before the Supreme Court, but he could not consent to lose the time. "We are contending," said he, "with an enemy who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. ”

“ The South had been expecting the growth of a peace party, and its northern friends had endeavored to bring one into the field; but the fall elections of 1863 crushed the rebel expectations; and the whole North was regarded by the traitors as bound to the fortunes of that horrible tyrant--that blood-thirsty boor--Abraham Lincoln. In the meantime, Mr. Lincoln had made great progress in the esteem of foreign governments and foreign peoples, of which he received abundant testimonials. ”

“ During this fearful period, the most fiendish outrages were visited upon the harmless black population of the city, houses belonging to prominent supporters of the government were sacked and burned, and plunder became the one ruling passion of all the worst inhabitants of the city. Those who had led on the mob, as a demonstration against the draft, soon found that they could not direct the whirlwind, and that the passions they had aroused were altogether beyond their control. Women and children of the lowest classes gave free rein to their thievish impulses ”

“ All the closing portion of this message was devoted to an earnest discussion of the scheme of compensated emancipation. Notwithstanding he had issued his preliminary proclamation of freedom to the slaves of rebels, and expected soon to complete that work; and notwithstanding his conviction that slavery could not long survive this proclamation, even in the loyal slave states, he never forgot that neither over slavery in these states, the Constitution nor the necessities of war gave him any control. ”

“ The Fourth of July was further rendered memorable by the surrender of the city of Vicksburg--the stronghold of the Mississippi River--by General Pemberton to General Grant, with all his defenses and his army of thirty thousand men. After various unsuccessful operations, beginning with the year, contemplating the capture of this city, General Grant ran by the batteries with his transports, and landed far down the river, to attempt the approach of the city from the rear. Fighting all the way, and winning every battle, he reached Jackson, and then advanced westward, directly upon the doomed town. ”

“ Judge Leavitt dealt with the case nobly. "Those who live under the protection and enjoy the blessings of our benignant government," said he, "must learn that they cannot stab its vitals with impunity. If they remain with us, while they are not of us, they must be subject to such a course of dealing as the great law of self-preservation prescribes and will enforce." ”

“ No time is wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army which will soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers, already in the field, if they shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be. It produces an army with a rapidity not to be matched on our side, if we first waste time to re-experiment with the volunteer system, already deemed by Congress, and palpably, in fact, so far exhausted as to be inadequate ”

“ Either through the failure of McClellan's campaign, or the effect of the emancipation proclamation, or the influence of both together, the administration had received a rebuke through the autumn elections of 1862. This had greatly encouraged the opposition, who, as opponents of the war, or as most unreliable friends of the President's war policy, so conducted their counsels that the government became fearful concerning its ability to raise men for the campaign of 1863. Just in proportion to the treasonable sympathies of the members of the Senate and the House, did they oppose the measure. ”

“ Certainly here was a case in point; and it is hard to see why reasoning that applies so well to those men would not apply as well to those still in the power of the government, who had notoriously so opposed the war as to hinder that government from conquering the traitors named. Mr. Vallandigham "was not arrested," he said, "because he was damaging the political prospects of the administration, or the personal interests of the commanding general; but because he was damaging the army, upon the existence and vigor of which the life of the nation depends." ”

“ Lincoln and his administration had entirely recovered from whatever depressing influence the emancipation policy had occasioned, and from the effects of the Peninsular campaign. His determined pursuit of duty, whatever the consequences might be to himself, won him friends among his enemies. The spring elections of 1863 showed a reaction from those of the previous autumn, and the fall elections confirmed his growing popularity. The elections in New York were a direct and decided indorsement of the draft in that state, and, in the same degree, a condemnation of those who had opposed it. ”

“ He not only wanted him free, but he wanted him located where he might receive all the rights of citizenship, and where he could live--self-respectful and independent--in the society of his equals and his race. It was a matter of pitying wonder with him that the negro should love to live with a race that abused him, and held him at so low a value in the scale of humanity. ”

“ Slaves who should be freed by the chances of war should remain free, though loyal masters should receive compensation for them. The closing article provided that Congress might "appropriate money, and otherwise provide for colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place or places without the United States."
Sudden emancipation was never in accordance with Mr. Lincoln's judgment. Nothing but the necessities of war would have induced him to decree it with relation to the slaves of any state. ”

“ Lincoln was hopeful and confident of results. In this letter he treated again of the subject of emancipation; and handled the clamorer for peace, the enemies of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the advocates of compromise, with most admirable skill. The closing paragraphs are peculiarly keen, clear and sparkling:
"You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem 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. ”

“ The stress of feeling under which he urged this measure, is sufficiently exhibited by the closing paragraph of the message: "Fellow citizens,"--thus reads the passage--"We cannot escape history. We of this Congress, and this Administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say that we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. ”

“ 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 which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. ”

“ Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy, who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy. ”

“ In arguing the necessity of the arrest of those who were known to be traitors, but who had committed no overt act of treason, he said: "General John C. Breckinridge, General Robert E. Lee, General Joseph E. Johnston, General John B. Magruder, General William B. Preston, General Simon B. Buckner, and Commodore Franklin Buchanan, now occupying the very highest places in the rebel war service, were all within the power of the government since the war began, and were nearly as well known to be traitors then as now. ”

“ Vallandigham's words and influence, in opposition to those means which the government deemed indispensable to its own preservation, and then said: "Your own attitude, therefore, encourages desertion, resistance to the draft, and the like, because it teaches those who incline to desert and to escape the draft, to believe it is your purpose to protect them." ”

“ Among the most pestilent of these sympathizers with traitors, was Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio--a person who, as a member of Congress, stump politician and private citizen, had opposed the war from the start. In Congress, he had steadily voted against every measure instituted by the government for maintaining the integrity of the nation and putting down the rebellion. ”

“ It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this government, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively upon the basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through the action of our disloyal citizens, the working men of Europe have been subjected to severe trial, for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. ”

“ Lincoln, by proclamation on the fifteenth day of September, suspended the writ throughout the United States.
Under the enrollment act, passed March third, a draft of militia was ordered for July, and was effected without serious disturbance, except in a single instance, in the city of New York. Great efforts had been made by interested politicians, during the spring and summer, to make certain provisions of the act odious to the people, especially to the lower and more unreasoning classes. ”

“ And there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it. ”

“ Lincoln issued his proclamation suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the opponents of the government became so quiet that an order was issued from the War Department, discharging from further military restraint all those persons who had been arrested for discouraging volunteer enlistments, opposing the draft, or otherwise giving aid and comfort to the enemy, in all states where the draft had been effected, or the quota of volunteers and militia had been furnished. ”

“ In the President's letter to General Schofield, at the time of his appointment, he said to him: "If both factions or neither abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by the other." ”

“ And while those who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely and well done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of less note. ”

“ A bill for the object desired was passed by small majorities, and approved. It was a doubtful measure, and touched a great many selfish and corporate interests, carrying more or less of disturbance into the various financial systems of the states; but the country has had no reason to find fault with its results.
Two events during the session marked the beginning of those reconstructive measures which were destined eventually to embrace all the members of the old Union. Western Virginia, loyal from the first, was admitted into the Union as a state ”

“ The President issued a proclamation calling for one hundred thousand militia to assist in driving back the foe. The army under Hooker crossed the Potomac at about the same time with the army of Lee, and both entered Maryland together. Here General Hooker was relieved, and General Meade placed in command, who, finding the enemy advancing toward and into Pennsylvania, pushed forward with his army to dispute the movement. On the first of July, the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania began ”

“ Governor Seymour of New York was powerfully exercised in the matter, and wrote a very spirited letter to one of these meetings held in Albany, on the sixteenth of May. If the Ohio demagogue used treasonable language, it is hard to see why the New York governor did not. ”

“ After the battle of New Orleans, and while the fact that the treaty of peace had been concluded was well known in the city, but before official knowledge of it had arrived, General Jackson still maintained martial or military law. Now that it could be said the war was over, the clamor against martial law, which had existed from the first, grew more furious. Among other things, a Mr. Louiallier published a denunciatory newspaper article. General Jackson arrested him. A lawyer by the name of Morel procured the United States Judge Hall to issue a writ of habeas corpus to relieve Mr. ”