WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington City,
August 11, 1864.
His Excellency
SAMUEL CONY,
Governor of Maine, Augusta, Me.:
SIR: Your letter of
July 25 was duly received and has been carefully considered by this Department.
As an executive officer charged simply with the execution of the act of
Congress and the orders of the President in regard to the raising of troops, I
do not feel that it is my province to enter into any discussion upon the
various topics mentioned in your letter. Under the authority of the act of
Congress the President has made a call upon the loyal States for troops “to recruit
and keep up the strength of the armies in the field, for garrisons, and such
military operations as may be required for the purpose of suppressing the
rebellion and restoring the authority of the United States Government in the
insurgent States,” and it is made by law the duty of this Department to assign
the quotas to be furnished by the respective States for that purpose, and for
that purpose only. The quota of your State has been communicated to you by the
proper officer of this Department. A short time ago, at your request, authority
was given you to call out certain additional forces for certain specific
purposes, expressed in your letter of request and in the response of this
Department. The Secretary of War has, in my judgment, no authority to change
the purpose of the President's call. Whatever force the arguments presented in
your letter might have upon the question of giving up the contest and ending
the war, by acknowledging the independence of the rebel States and the
inability of the Government to suppress the rebellion, they do not, in my
judgment, afford any lawful reason for the Department to make any allowance on
the quota of the State of Maine for the purpose stated in your letter. I have
no reason to doubt that if the certain contingency mentioned by you should
occur, the Federal Government will be under obligations to provide means of
defense for the State of Maine. That contingency does not now exist, and no
fact is known to the Department which indicates any reasonable ground of
apprehension that it is likely to occur. Other States are exposed to the same
dangers, and the whole force called for by the President might, with equal
reason, be absorbed in guarding against dangers not now impending. Our armies
in the field are rapidly diminishing from casualties in battle and other
incidents of a fierce and extensive war. Strong places captured from the enemy
require to be immediately garrisoned to prevent their reconquest. Other points
held by the rebel army require operations for their reduction. These are
existing, imminent, and indispensable necessities, upon which the national
existence depends. They are the purpose for which the troops have been called
and to which the law and the President's proclamation require that they should
be applied and credited. What you ask is not a “favor” within the power of this
Department to bestow. Whether you will “say to the people of Maine that this
pitiful favor has been refused them,” or whether you will appeal to their
patriotism and paramount interest in the national existence to answer the
President's call and afford him the means to put an end to the war that has
cost them so much blood and so much treasure, is for your own judgment to
decide.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your
obedient servant,
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume
4 (Serial No. 125), p. 608-9
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