Saturday, October 21, 2017

Edwin M. Stanton to Simon Cameron, June 15, 1863 – 7:30 p.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT, June 15, 1863 7.30 p.m.
Hon. SIMON CAMERON, Harrisburg:

The President has referred your telegram to me for answer. No one can tell how long the present emergency for troops in Pennsylvania may continue. The present movement is but the execution of Jeff. Davis' original plan to make Pennsylvania and the loyal States the theater of war. The rebels are encouraged by the hope of assistance and encouragement held out to them by opposition to the war and resistance to the enrollment in Pennsylvania. The law has fixed the period for which troops shall be called. If the emergency is over before that time, they can be discharged; but as human foresight cannot say how long it may take to drive out the rebels, especially if they should find aid and comfort in Pennsylvania, the President thinks he must obey the law.

EDWIN M. STANTON.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 27, Part 3 (Serial No. 45), p. 141-2

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