the hand which had pampered them, not one common soldier, or common sailor, is known to have deserted his flag.

Great honor is due to those officers who remained true, despite the example of their treacherous associates; but the greatest honor, and most important fact of all, is the unanimous firmness of the common soldiers, and common sailors. To the last man, so far as known, they have successfully resisted the traitorous efforts of those whose commands, but an hour before, they obeyed as absolute law. This is the patriotic instinct of plain people. They understand, without an argument, that the destroying the government which was made by Washington means no good to them.

Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled-the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains-its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world, that those who can fairly carry an election, can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war.

Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men, as to what is to be the course of the government, towards the southern States, after the rebellion shall have been suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to say, it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided by the Constitution and the laws; and that he probably will have no different understanding of the powers and duties of the federal government relatively to the rights of the States and the people, under the Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugural address:

He desires to preserve the government, that it may be administered for all, as it was administered by the men who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere, have the right to claim this of their government; and the government has no right to withhold, or neglect it. It is not perceived that, in giving it, there is any coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation, in any just sense of those terms.

The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted the provision, that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government." But, if a State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done so, it may also discard the republican form of government; so that to prevent its going out is an indispensable means, to the end, of maintaining the guaranty mentioned; and when an end is lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to it, are also lawful and obligatory.

It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty of employing the war-power, in defence of the government, forced upon him. He could but perform this duty, or surrender the existence of the government. No compromise, by public servants, could, in this case, be a cure; not that compromises are not often proper, but that no popular government can long survive a marked precedent, that those who carry an election, can only save the government from immediate destruction, by giving up the main point, upon which, the people gave the election. The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

As a private citizen, the Executive could not have consented that these institutions shall perish; much less could he, in betrayal of so vast, and so sacred a trust, as these free people had confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own life, in what might follow. In full view of his great responsibility, he has, so far, done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, according to your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your views, and your action, may so accord with his, as to assure all faithful citizens, who have been disturbed in their rights, of a certain, and speedy restoration to them, under the Constitution and the laws.

And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts.

JULY 4, 1861.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Ex. Doc. 1-2

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, July 1, 1861.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this department:

The accompanying statements of the adjutant general will show the number, description, and distribution of the troops which are now in service.

It forms no part of the duty of this department to enter upon a discussion of the preliminary circumstances which have contributed to the present condition of public affairs. The secession ordinance of South Carolina was passed on the 20th of December last, and from that period until the majesty of the government was made manifest, immediately after you had assumed the Chief Magistracy, the conspirators against its Constitution and laws have left nothing undone to perpetuate the memory of their infamy. Revenue steamers have been deliberately betrayed by their commanders, or, where treason could not be brought to consummate the defection, have been overpowered by rebel troops at the command of disloyal governors. The government arsenals at Little Rock, Baton Rouge, Mount Vernon, Apalachicola, Augusta, Charleston, and Fayetteville, the ordnance depot at San Antonio, and all the other government works in Texas, which served as the depots of immense stores of arms and ammunition, have been surrendered by the commanders or seized by disloyal hands. Forts Macon, Caswell, Johnson, Clinch, Pulaski, Jackson, Marion, Barrancas, McKee, Morgan, Gaines, Pike, Macomb, St. Phillip, Livingston, Smith, and three at Charleston; Oglethorpe barracks, Barrancas barracks, New Orleans barracks, Fort Jackson, on the Mississippi, the battery at Bienvenue, Dupré, and the works at Ship island, have been successively stolen from the government or betrayed by their commanding officers. The custom-houses at New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, and other important points, containing vast amounts of government funds, have been treacherously appropriated to sustain the cause of rebellion. In like manner the branch mints at New Orleans, at Charlotte, and at Dahlonega, have been illegally seized, in defiance of every principle of common honesty and of honor. The violent seizure of the United States marine hospital at New Orleans was only wanting to complete the catalogue of crime. The inmates, who had been disabled by devotion to their country's service, and who there had been secured a grateful asylum, were cruelly ordered to be removed, without the slightest provision being made for their support or comfort. In Texas, the large forces

detailed upon the frontier for the protection of the inhabitants against the attacks of marauding Indians, were ignominiously deserted by their commander, Brigadier General Twiggs. To the infamy of treason to his flag was added the crowning crime of deliberately handing over to the armed enemies of his government all the public property intrusted to his charge, thus even depriving the loyal men under his command of all means of transportation out of the State.

A striking and honorable contrast with the recreant conduct of Brigadier General Twiggs and other traitorous officers has been presented in the heroic and truly self-sacrificing course pursued by Major Robert Anderson and the small and gallant band of officers and men under his command at Fort Sumter, and also by Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, his officers and men, at Fort Pickens. In referring, with strongest commendation, to the conduct of these brave soldiers, under the trying circumstances which surrounded them, I only echo the unanimous voice of the American people. In this connexion, it is a pleasurable duty to refer to the very gallant action of Lieutenant Roger Jones, at Harper's Ferry, and the handsome and successful manner in which he executed the orders of the government at that important post.

The determination of the government to use its utmost power to subdue the rebellion has been sustained by the unqualified approval of the whole people. Heretofore the leaders of this conspiracy have professed to regard the people of this country as incapable of making a forcible resistance to rebellion. The error of this conclusion is now being made manifest. History will record that men who, in ordinary times, were devoted solely to the arts of peace, were yet ready, on the instant, to rush to arms in defence of their rights when assailed. At the present moment the government presents the striking anomaly of being embarrassed by the generous outpouring of volunteers to sustain its action. Instead of laboring under the difficulty of monarchical governments, the want of men to fill its armies, (which, in other countries, has compelled a resort to forced conscriptions,) one of its main difficulties is to keep down the proportions of the army, and to prevent it from swelling beyond the actual force required.

The commanding officers of the regiments in the volunteer service, both for the three months' service and for the war, have, in many instances, not yet furnished the department with the muster-rolls of their regiments. For the want of these returns, it is impossible to present as accurate an enumeration of the volunteer force accepted and in the field as could be desired. Under the proclamation issued by you on the 15th of April last the governors of different States were called upon to detach from the militia under their command a certain quota, to serve as infantry or riflemen, for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged. The call so made amounted in the aggregate to ninety-four regiments, making 73,391 officers and men. Of the States called upon, the governors of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri, peremptorily refused to comply with the requirements made by the department. All the other States promptly furnished the number required of them, except Mary