Private
WASHINGTON, D.C.,
July 28, 1862.
CUTHBERT BULLITT, Esq.,
New Orleans, La.:
SIR:
The copy of a letter addressed to yourself by Mr. Thomas J.
Durant has been shown to me. The writer appears to be an able, a dispassionate,
and an entirely sincere man. The first part of the letter is devoted to an
effort to show that the
secession ordinance of Louisiana was adopted against the will of a majority
of the people. This is probably true, and in that fact may be found some
instruction. Why did they allow the ordinance to go into effect? Why did they
not assert themselves? Why stand passive and allow themselves to be trodden
down by a minority? Why did not they hold popular meetings, and have a
convention of their own to express and enforce the true sentiment of the State?
If preorganization was against them then, why not do this now that the United
States army is present to protect them? The paralysis – the dead palsy – of the
Government in this whole struggle is that this class of men will do nothing for
the Government, nothing for themselves, except demanding that the Government
shall not strike its open enemies lest they be struck by accident. Mr. Durant
complains that in various ways the relation of master and slave is disturbed by
the presence of our army; and he considers it particularly vexatious that this,
in part, is done under cover of an act of Congress, while constitutional
guarantees are suspended on the plea of military necessity. The truth is, that
what is done and omitted about slaves is done and omitted on the same military
necessity. It is a military necessity to have men and money, and we can get
neither in sufficient numbers or amounts if we keep from or drive from our
lines slaves coming to them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in
this direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds, till he, and such
as he, shall have time to help themselves. I am not posted to speak understandingly
on all the police regulations of which Mr. Durant complains. If experience
shows any one of them to be wrong, let them be set right. I think I can
perceive in the freedom of trade, which Mr. Durant urges, that he would relieve
both friends and enemies from the pressure of the blockade. By this he would
serve the enemy more effectively than the enemy is able to serve himself. I do
not say or believe that to serve the enemy is the purpose of Mr. Durant, or
that he is conscious of any purpose other than national and patriotic ones.
Still, if there were a class of men who, having no choice of sides in the
contest, were anxious only to have quiet and comfort for themselves while it
rages, and to fall in with the victorious side at the end of it, without loss
to themselves, their advice as to the mode of conducting the contest would be
precisely such as his is. He speaks of no duty – apparently thinks of none – resting
upon Union men. He even thinks it injurious to the Union cause that they should
be restrained in trade and passage without taking sides. They are to touch
neither a sail nor a pump, but to be merely passengers – deadheads at that – to
be carried snug and dry throughout the storm, and safely landed right side up.
Nay, more; even a mutineer is to go untouched lest these sacred passengers
receive an accidental wound. Of course the rebellion will never be suppressed
in Louisiana if the professed Union men there will neither help to do it nor
permit the Government to do it without their help. Now, I think the true remedy
is very different from what is suggested by Mr. Durant. It does not lie in
rounding the rough angles of the war, but in removing the necessity for the
war. The people of Louisiana who wish protection to person and property have
but to reach forth their hands and take it. Let them, in good faith,
reinaugurate the national authority, and set up a State Government conforming
thereto under the Constitution. They know how to do it, and can have the
protection of the army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn so soon as
such State government can dispense with its presence; and the people of the
State can then, upon the old constitutional terms, govern themselves to their
own liking. This is very simple and easy. If they will not do this, if they
prefer to hazard all for the sake of destroying the Government, it is for them
to consider whether it is probable I will surrender the Government to save them
from losing all. If they decline what I suggest, you scarcely need to ask what
I will do. What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is
or would you prosecute it in the future with elder-stalk squirts charged with
rose water? Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you
give up the contest leaving any available means unapplied? I am in no boastful
mood. I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can to save the
Government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall
do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.
Yours, truly,
A. LINCOLN.
SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
53 (Serial No. 111), p. 529-30; Roy P. Basler, Editor, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,
Vol. 5, p. 344-6; A
copy of this letter can be found in The Abraham Lincoln
Papers at the Library of Congress;
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