KENTUCKY. 



449 



MANSION. WASHINGTON, April 4. 

 A. G. Hodges, Esq., Frankfort, Ky. 



Mr DEAB SIR : You ask me to put in writing the 

 substance of what I verbally said, the other day, in 

 your presence to Gov. Bramlette and Senator DLxon. 

 It was about as follows : 



I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not 

 wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when 

 I did not so think and feel. And yet I have never 

 understood that the Presidency conferred upon me 

 an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judg- 

 ment and feeling. It was in the oath I took, that I 

 would to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and 

 defend the Constitution of the L uited States. I could 

 not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was 

 it my view that I might take an oath to get power, 

 and break the oath in using the power. I understood, 

 too, that in ordinary civil administration, this oath 

 even forbade me to 'practically indulge my primary 

 abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery, 

 I had publicly declared this many times and in many 

 way*. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no 

 official act in mere deference to my abstract judg- 

 ment and feeling on slavery. 



I did understand, however, that my oath to pre- 

 serve the Constitution to the best of my ability, im- 

 posed upon me the duty of preserving," by every in- 

 dispensable means, that Government that Nation, 

 of which that Constitution was the organic law. W;is 

 it possible to lose the Nation, and yet preserve the 

 Constitution ? 



By general law life and limb must be protected ; 

 yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life ; 

 tut a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I feel 

 that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might be- 

 come lawful, by becoming indispensable to the pres- 

 ervation of the Constitution, through the preserva- 

 tion of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this 

 ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that to 

 the best of my ability I had even tried to preserve 

 the Constitution, if to save slavery, or any minor 

 matter, I should permit the wreck of Government, 

 country, and Constitution, all together. When, early 

 in the war, Gen. Fremont attempted military emanci- 

 pation, I forbade it because I did not then think it an 

 indispensable necessity. When, a little later. Gen. 

 Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again for- 

 bade it, because I did not yet think the indispensa- 

 ble necessity had come. 



When, in' March, and May, and July, 1862, I made 

 earnest and successive appeals to the border States 

 to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the 

 indispensable necessity for military emancipation 

 and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by 

 that measure. They declined the proposition, and I 

 was in my best judgment driven to the alternative of 

 either surrendering the Union, and with it the Con- 

 stitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored 

 element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped 

 for greater gain than loss ; but of this I was not en- 

 tirety confident. More than a year of trial now shows 

 no loss by it in our foreign relations ; none in our 

 home popular sentiment ; none in our white military 

 force ; no loss by it anyhow, anywhere. On the con- 

 trary, it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty 

 thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are 

 palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no 

 cavilling. We have the men, and we could not have 

 had them without the measure. 



And now, let any Union man who complains of the 

 measure, test himself, by writing down in one line, 

 that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms, 

 and in the next that ne is for taking these hundred 

 and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and 

 placing them where they would be, but for the meas- 

 ure he condemns. If "he cannot face his cause so 

 stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth. 



I add a word, which was not in the verbal conver- 

 sation. In telling this tale, I attempt no compliment 

 So my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled 

 TOL. IV. 29 A 



events, but confess plainly that events have con- 

 trolled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, 

 the nation's condition, is not what either party or 

 any man devised or expected. God alone can claim 

 it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now 

 wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also 

 that we of the North, as well as you of the South, 

 shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrcnir, 

 impartial histo'ry will find therein new cause to at- 

 test and revere the justice and goodness of God. 



Yours truly, A. LINCOLN. 



The Governor stated in his message to the 

 Legislature, in January, 1865, relative to the 

 agreements made with the authorities at Wash- 

 ington, and which Gen. Burbridge was appointed 

 to carry out, as follows : 



It was not contemplated by me that this was to 

 save slavery in Kentucky, nor did any such idea 

 occur to the President. It was not sought thereby 

 either to perpetuate slavery or to exterminate it, 

 but solely with the view of protecting the interests 

 of a loval people, by securing them exemption from 

 unlawful and offensive courses; from insults and un- 

 necessary injuries ; the State from the loss of its 

 proper credits, and the country from the unnecessary 

 destruction of a large amount of productive labor. 



Having uniformly held and continuously an- 

 nounced the conviction, from the commencement of 

 rebellion, that secession was the worst form of aboli- 

 tion, that it would abolish slavery in blood, it never 

 entered my mind that any thing I'might do to relieve 

 my people from suffering on account of it, could 

 either prevent or stay the hand of rebellion from 

 working its destruction. The object of this arrange- 

 ment was to benefit and protect the loyal white man, 

 and prevent him being subjected to wanton and un- 

 called-for injury and unprovoked insult and outrage, 

 by lawless acts, on account of the negro. 



Had these agreements been carried out, a very dif- 

 ferent state of feeling would have existed iu Ken- 

 tucky. But, instead of carrying them out, the most 

 offensive and injurious modes were adopted to vio- 

 late them, by him who was selected and charged with 

 their fulfilment. 



The Governor then proceeds iu the same 

 message to lay before the Legislature his views 

 as to the manner in which military affairs were 

 conducted in the State : 



In Western Kentucky, Brigadier-General E. A. 

 Paine, confederated with other officers and some 

 citizens, ran a career of shameful criminality. 

 Though brief it was terrible. Hearing that wrongs 

 were being perpetrated in that section, but that the 

 citizens were afraid to speak out and make them 

 known, I sent Lieut. -Col. J. J. Craddock, of the 

 " Capital Guards," to Paducah, to inquire into and 

 report to me the facts. Upon getting his report, I 

 preferred charges against Gen. Paine and others to 

 the President of the United States. By order of 

 Lieut. -Gen. Grant, Gen. Paine was promptly relieved 

 by Gen. Meredith, whose soldierly bearing and just 

 administration have given peace and confidence in 

 that section. 



A commission, composed of Brigadier-Gen. S. S. 

 Frv and Col. John M. Brown, 45th Kentucky mounted 

 infantry, was appointed to investigate the conduct of 

 Gen. Paine, etc. I send with this communication a 

 copy of their report, with my letter to the President, 

 and" also letter of the 3d of September, touching 

 other subjects. 



The commandant of the District of Kentucky 

 established a system of trade permits in violation o'f 

 law and to the detriment of the public interests. 



The Secretary of the Treasury, under the law. had 

 fixed regulations ; the military, without law, and in 

 violation of law, assumed to organize Boards of 

 Trade, who, for certain fees, were to pass upon and 



