TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR PARKER. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, GOVERNOR PARKER, Trenton, N. J.: Your despatch of yesterday received. I really think the attitude of the enemy's army in Pennsylvania presents us the best opportunity we have had since the war began. I think you will not see the foe in New Jersey. I beg you to be assured that no one out of my position can know so well as if he were in it the difficulties and involvements of replacing General McClellan in command, and this aside from any imputations upon him. Please accept my sincere thanks for what you have done and are doing to get troops forward. A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO A. K. McCLURE. WAR DEPARTMent, Washington City, A. K. MCCLURE, Philadelphia: Do we gain anything by opening one leak to stop another? Do we gain anything by quieting one clamor merely to open another, and probably a larger one? A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO GENERAL COUCH. [Cipher] WASHINGTON CITY, June 30, 1863. 3.25 P.M. MAJOR-GENERAL COUCH, Harrisburg, Pa.: I judge by absence of news that the enemy is not crossing or presisng up to the Susquehanna. tell me what you know of his movements. Please A. LINCOLN TO GENERAL D. HUNTER. EXEUCTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER. June 30, 1863. MY DEAR GENERAL:-I have just received your letter of the 25th of June. I assure you, and you may feel authorized in stating, that the recent change of commanders in the Department of the South was made for no reasons which convey any imputation upon your known energy, efficiency, and patriotism; but for causes which seemed sufficient, while they were in no degree incompatible with the respect and esteem in which I have always held you as a man and an officer. I cannot, by giving my consent to a publication of whose details I know nothing, assume the responsibility of whatever you may write. In this matter your own sense of military propriety must be your guide, and the regulations of the service your rule of conduct. I am very truly your friend, A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., July 3, 1863. MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Cincinnati, Ohio: Private Downey, of the Twentieth or Twentysixth Kentucky Infantry, is said to have been sentenced to be shot for desertion to-day. If so, respite the execution until I can see the record. A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO ROBERT T. LINCOLN. Executive Mansion, WasHINGTON, July 3, 1863. ROBERT T. LINCOLN, Esq., Cambridge, Mass.: Don't be uneasy. Your mother very slightly hurt by her fall. Please send at once. A. L. ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEWS FROM GETTYSBURG. The President announces to the country that news from the Army of the Potomac, up to 10 P.M. of the 3d, is such as to cover that army with the highest honor, to promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and to claim the condolence of all for the many gallant fallen; and that for this he especially desires that on this day He whose will, not ours, should ever be done be everywhere remembered and reverenced with profoundest gratitude. A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FRENCH. [Cipher] WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., July 5, 1863. MAJOR-GENERAL FRENCH, Fredericktown, Md.: I see your despatch about destruction of pontoons. Cannot the enemy ford the river? A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK. SOLDIERS' HOME, WASHINGTON, MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK: I left the telegraph office a good deal dissatisfied. You know I did not like the phrase-in Orders, No. 68, I believe-"Drive the invaders from our soil." Since that, I see a despatch from General French, saying the enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying why he does not stop it, or even intimating a thought that it ought to be stopped. Still later, another despatch from General Pleasonton, by direction of General Meade, to General French, stating that the main army is halted because it is believed the rebels are concentrating "on the road towards Hagerstown, beyond Fairfield," and is not to move until it is ascertained that the rebels intend to evacuate Cumberland Valley. These things appear to me to be connected with a purpose to cover Baltimore and Washington and to get the enemy across the river again without a further collision, and they do not appear connected with a purpose to prevent his crossing and to destroy him. I do fear the former purpose is acted upon and the latter rejected. If you are satisfied the latter purpose is entertained, and is judiciously pursued, I am content. If you are not so satisfied, please look to it. Yours truly, A. LINCOLN. RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, JULY 7, 1863. FELLOW-CITIZENS:-I am very glad indeed to see you to-night, and yet I will not say I thank you for this call; but I do most sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called. How long ago is it? eighty-odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time in the history of the world, a nation, by its representatives, assembled and declared as a self-evident truth "that all men are created equal." That was the birthday of the United States of America. Since then the Fourth of July has had several very peculiar recognitions. The two men most distinguished in the framing and support of the Declaration were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the one having penned it, and the other sustained it the most forcibly in debate-the only two of the fifty-five who signed it and were elected Presidents of the United States. Precisely fifty years after they put their hands to the paper, it pleased Almighty God to take both from this stage of action. This was indeed an extraordinary and remarkable event in our history. Another President, five years after, was called from this stage of existence on the same day and month of the year; and now on this last Fourth of July just passed, when we have a gigantic rebellion, at the bottom of which is an effort to overthrow the principle that all men were created equal, we have the surrender of a most powerful position and army on that very day. And not only so, but in the succession of battles in Pennsylvania, near to us, through three days, so rapidly fought that they might be called one great |