INDORSEMENT. MARCH 15, 1864. While I leave this case to the discretion of General Banks, my view is that the United States should not appoint trustees for, or in any way take charge of, any church as such. If the building is needed for military purposes, take it; if it is not so needed, let its church people have it, dealing with any disloyal people among them as you deal with other disloyal people. A. Lincoln. INDORSEMENT. MAY 13, 1864. I am now told that the military were not in possession of the building, and yet that in pretended execution of the above they, the military, put one set of men out of and another set into the building. This, if true, is most extraordinary. I say again, if there be no military need for the building, leave it alone, neither putting any one in nor out of it, except on finding some one preaching or practising treason, in which case lay hands upon him just as if he were doing the same thing in any other building or in the streets or highways. A. Lincoln. Proclamation about Amnesty. MARCH 26, 1864. Whereas it has become necessary to define the cases in which insurgent enemies are entitled to the benefits of the proclamation of the President of the United States, which was made on the eighth day of December, 1863, and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail themselves of those benefits: And whereas the objects of that proclamation were to suppress the insurrection and to restore the authority of the United States; and whereas the amnesty therein proposed by the President was offered with reference to these objects alone: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim and declare that the said proclamation does not apply to the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed, are in military, naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under bonds, or on parole of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States, as prisoners of war, or persons detained for offenses of any kind, either before or after conviction; and that, on the contrary, it does apply only to those persons who, being yet at large and free from any arrest, confinement, or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the said oath, with the purpose of restoring peace and establishing the national authority. oners excluded from the amnesty offered in the said proclamation may apply to the President for clemency, like all other offenders, and their applications will receive due consideration. Pris I do further declare and proclaim that the oath presented in the aforesaid proclamation of the eighth of December, 1863, may be taken and subscribed before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or naval, in the service of the United States, or any civil or military officer of a State or Territory not in insurrection, who, by the laws thereof, may be qualified for administering oaths. All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give certificates thereon to the persons respectively by whom they are made, and such officers are hereby required to transmit the original records of such oaths at as early a day as may be convenient, to the Department of State, where they will be deposited and remain in the archives of the government. The Secretary of State will keep a register thereof, and will, on application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such records in the customary form of official certificates. In testimony, etc., By the President: Abraham Lincoln. William H. Seward, Secretary of State. Offer of Troops by State Governors. To the President of the United States: I. The governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin offer to the President infantry troops for the approaching campaign as follows: II. The term of service to be one hundred days, reckoned from the date of muster into the service of the United States, unless sooner discharged. III. The troops to be mustered into the service of the United States by regiments, when the regiments are filled up, according to regulations, to the minimum strength-the regiments to be organized according to the regulations of the War Department. The whole number to be furnished within twenty days from date of notice of the acceptance of this proposition. IV. The troops to be clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted, transported, and paid as other United States infantry volunteers, and to serve in fortifications, or wherever their services may be required, within or without their respective States. V. No bounty to be paid the troops, nor the service charged or credited on any draft. VI. The draft for three years' service to go on in any State or district where the quota is not filled up; but if any officer or soldier in this special service should be drafted, he shall be credited for the service rendered. John Brough, Governor of Ohio. O. P. Morton, Governor of Indiana. INDORSEMENT. The foregoing proposition of the governors is accepted, and the Secretary of War is directed to carry it into execution. A. Lincoln. Message to Congress on Relief of East Tennessee Loyalists. APRIL 28, 1864. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives: I have the honor to transmit herewith an address to the President of the United States, and, through him, to both Houses of Congress, on the condition and wants of the people of East Tennessee, and asking their attention to the necessity of some action on the part of the government for their relief, and which address is presented by a committee of an organization called "The East Tennessee Relief Association." Deeply commiserating the condition of these most loyal and suffering people, I am unprepared to make any specific recommendation for their relief. The military is doing, and will continue to do, the best for them within its power. Their address represents that the construction of direct railroad communication between Knoxville and Cincinnati, by way of central Kentucky, would be of great consequence in the present emergency. It may be remembered that in the annual message of December, 1861, such railroad construction was recommended. I now add that, with the hearty concurrence of Congress, I would yet be pleased to construct the road, both for the relief of these people and for its continuing military importance. Abraham Lincoln. Suspension of Writ of Habeas Corpus in Kentucky. On July 5, 1864, the President proclaimed the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and the establishment of martial law in Kentucky. The chief reasons assigned for such action were: "Whereas many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the forces of the insurgents, and such insurgents have, on several occasions, entered the State of Kentucky in large force, and, not without aid and comfort furnished by disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United States residing therein, have not only disturbed the public peace, but have overborne the civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, destroy |