CHAP. XVI. placed in the hands of Dr. Kennedy. I ask attention to both. Lincoln to I wish elections for Congressmen to take place in Louisiana; but I wish it to be a movement of the people of the district, and not a movement of our military and quasimilitary authorities there. I merely wish our authorities to give the people a chance-to protect them against secession interference. Of course the election cannot be according to strict law-by State law, there is, I suppose, no election day before January; and the regular election officers will not act in many cases, if in any. These knots must be cut, the main object being to get an expression of the people. If they would fix a day and a way, for themselves, all the better; but if they stand idle, not seeming to know what to do, do you fix these things for them by proclamation. And do not waste a day about it, but fix the election day early enough that we can hear the result here by the first of January. Fix a day for an election in all the districts, and have it held in as many places as you can. Under this direction of the President, Governor Shepley caused an election for Members of Congress to be held in the first and second Congressional districts of Louisiana, each of which embraced about one-half of the city of New Orleans with some outlying territory; all other districts of the State being outside the Union military lines. The usual legal forms prescribed by the statutes of the State were observed; the Governor appointed sheriffs and commissioners of election; and old citizens of the State, of loyalty and respectability, accepted the appointments and discharged their duties to the entire satisfaction of both candidates and voters. The election was held on the 3d of December, 1862, in perfect order and quiet; it was in no wise interfered with by the army, and no Federal office-holder was a candidate. Indeed, it was ad mitted that, for the first time in a considerable CHAP. XVI. number of years, every qualified voter might freely cast his ballot without fear of intimidation or violence. In the first district, B. F. Flanders was chosen by 2370 out of the total of 2643 votes. In the second district, Michael Hahn was chosen by 2799 out of the total of 5117, about one-half the usual vote having been polled in each district. Flanders and Hahn were admitted to seats in the House of Representatives after full scrutiny, the chairman of the Committee on Elections declaring, "That this had every essential of a regular election in a time of most profound peace, with the exception of the fact that the proclamation was issued by the military instead of the civil governor of Feb. 9, 1963, Louisiana." "Globe," p. 832. VOL. VI.-23 CHAPTER XVII COLONIZATION CH. XVII. HE political creed of Abraham Lincoln embraced, among other tenets, a belief in the value and promise of colonization as one means of solving the great race problem involved in the existence of slavery in the United States. This belief he had learned from the teachings of some of the most eminent American statesmen, notably from the leader and idol of the Whig party-Henry Clay. It was a theory which commended itself especially to progressive thinkers in the Southern States, as a doctrine permitting them the expression of liberal and humane views on slavery, without subjecting them to the odium connecting itself with the avowal of what was stigmatized as simple abolitionism. We need not here discuss the doctrine of colonization. It had been advocated for half a century, favored by some of the greatest minds of the nation, and the Government was fully committed to it by the part it had practically and officially taken in the establishment of first the colony, and afterwards the independent state of Liberia. When we consider all the conditions under which that experiment was tried, it is perhaps equally rash to pronounce it either a success or a failure. |