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INSTRUCTIONS

GIVEN BY MR. LINCOLN TO WM. H. SEWARD, AT THE MEETING OF MESSRS. STEVENS, HUNTER AND CAMP

BELL, AT FORTRESS MONROE, VA.

FIRST, the restoration of the national authority throughout all the States; second, no receding by the Executive of the United States, on the slavery question, from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress and in the preceding documents; no cessation of hostilities short of the end of the war, and the disbanding of all the forces hostile to the Govern

ment.

JANUARY 31, 1865.

GLENNI W. SCOFIELD.

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PRIVATE soldier from my congressional district having been convicted of knocking down his captain, was sentenced to two years' labor on the Dry Tortugas. With some of his neighbors I called upon President Lincoln to solicit a pardon. He appeared completely worn out, and complained of weariness; said he was unable to look after details, and we must go to Stanton. I told him we had been there, but he declined to interfere. "Then, said the President, "attend to it yourselves at the Capitol." I inquired what Congress could do in the matter, and quick as thought he said: "Pass a law that a private shall have a right to knock down his captain." But after the wit came the pardon.

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SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS,

DELIVERED MARCH 3, 1865.

"FELLOW COUNTRY MEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

"On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to dissolve the Union and divide. its effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war caine.

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

371

"Both could not be answered-those of neither have been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.

"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said: 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Abraham Lincoln

REMARKS UPON THE FALL OF

RICHMOND.

WE meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. Nor must those whose harder part give us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked; their honors must not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers and brave men, all belongs.

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