312 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



menced some remarks upon the objects of the 

 war and the just and proper mode of carrying 

 it on. He said : " "What was the policy of the 

 war ? I refer you, I refer the committee to 

 that proclamation of the President of the United 

 States, issued on the 15th day of April last, 

 calling out seventy-five thousand men, in re- 

 sponse to which six hundred thousand men are 

 to-day marshalled in the field. And I want 

 gentlemen on the other side to bear with me 

 while I refer to a paragraph from that procla- 

 mation, which went out from the White House 

 on that day. I want the attention of gentlemen 

 calling themselves Republicans upon this floor, 

 because it was enunciated as a part of their 

 policy, because it has been carried out by the 

 man whom they placed in power. I want them 

 to adhere to that policy ; for it is to them I 

 am talking to-day. I now ask the Clerk to 

 read from that proclamation the paragraph I 

 have indicated." 



The Clerk read as follows : 



Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 

 the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested 

 by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to 

 call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the 

 several States of the Union, to the aggregate number 

 of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said 

 combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly exe- 

 cuted. 



The details for this object will be immediately com- 

 municated to the State authorities through the War 

 Department. 



I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and 

 aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and 

 the existence of our national Union, and the perpetuity 

 of popular government, and to redress wrongs 

 already long enough endured. 



I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned 

 to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to re- 

 possess the forts, places, and property which have 

 been seized from the Union ; and in every event the 

 utmost care will be observed, consistently with the 

 objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any de- 

 struction of or interference with property, or any dis- 

 turbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the coun- 

 try. 



" There, Mr. Chairman, is the first summons 

 that went out from the American Government 

 in regard to the objects and design of this war 

 when the first demand for troops was made. 

 I wish Republican gentlemen of this House to 

 tell me what the President means by this lan- 

 guage : 



In every event, the utmost care will be observed, 

 consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any 

 devastation, any destruction of or interference with 

 property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any 

 part of the country. 



" What did the President mean by alleging, 

 when he called a military force into the fieldj 

 that there should be no interference whatever 

 with property of any kind? Sir, if he meant 

 anything, he meant that this question of slavery 

 agitation should be let alone ; or, in his own 

 language, that there should be no interference 

 with property. If you adopt the doctrines 

 advanced by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 

 Bingham), in his place a few days since, and 

 declare that four millions of slaves shall be 



manumitted and set free, you do interfere with 

 the rights of property, and you do oppose 

 the Executive proclamation. 



" Mr. Chairman, the next thing that was 

 done in the process of time, defining the object 

 of the war, was the adoption of the resolutions 

 offered in this House by the gentleman from 

 Kentucky (Mr. Crittenden), upon the 4th of 

 July last. 



"Up that point, then, there had been no 

 ' change of policy in reference to the prosecution 

 of the war. Those resolutions embodied the 

 principle upon which the war was inaugura- 

 ted, to wit : to put down rebellion, and not to 

 manumit slaves, and to set them loose upon the 

 community four millions of illiterate, and I 

 may almost say half barbarous people, without 

 any means of support, leaving the Government 

 to take care of them, or the people to guard 

 themselves against their inroads. Yes, sir, the 

 adoption of the principle contended for by the 

 gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Bingham) would lay 

 waste the fair State of Kentucky. Its adoption 

 would strike from the charter of our liberties 

 Maryland and Western Virginia, and the State 

 of Missouri. Why, then, will gentlemen con- 

 tend for carrying out an idea which strikes at 

 the homes and hearthstones of as loyal men as 

 exist in the Union this very day ? Let it be 

 the policy of the Government to carry out the 

 Crittenden resolutions, and I firmly believe, 

 Mr. Chairman,, that the Union is safe ; but if 

 you make this a war of slave emancipation, 

 as God is my judge, I believe that the Govern- 

 ment is irretrievably gone. This is no war for 

 slave emancipation ; it is to put down rebellion 

 and treason ; to save a great and mighty re- 

 public from overthrow and ruin." 



Mr. Diven, of New York, followed, saying : 

 "Mr. Chairman, I suppose I need not state to 

 this House that since the assemblage of this 

 Congress at the extra session a principle has 

 been gathering strength that has divided the 

 councils of this House, and that has divided the 

 sentiments of this country. One side of the 

 question has been strongly represented upon 

 this floor. If the other side has remained 

 quiet, I apprehend it has not been because they 

 have not been as firmly rooted in their prin- 

 ciples as the" side that has been more active. 

 If we were to judge from the debates which 

 have occurred in this House, it might be sup- 

 posed that the Executive of this country had 

 no support from the party that elevated him to 

 power. All the attacks which have been 

 made upon the Administration have come from 

 the Republican side of this House, and all the 

 replies which have been made to those attacks 

 have come either from the Democratic side 

 of the House, which opposed his elevation to 

 power, or from those who represent the border 

 States, and who really were neither for nor 

 against him in the election. 



"There is another set of men here, among 

 whom I rank myself, who are in favor of pro- 

 secuting this war in the spirit in which it was 



