Governor John A. Andrew to Edwin M. Stanton, May 19, 1862

Boston, May 19,1862.

Hon. Edwin M. Stanton,

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

Sir, — I have this moment received a telegram in these words, viz: —

The Secretary of War desires to know how soon you can raise and organize three or four more infantry regiments and have them ready to be forwarded here to be armed and equipped. Please answer immediately and state the number you can raise.

L. Thomas, Adjutant-General.

A call so sudden and unforewarned finds me without materials for an intelligent reply. Our young men are all preoccupied by other views. Still, if a real call for three regiments is made I believe we can raise them in forty days. The arms and equipments would need to be furnished here. Our people have never marched without them. They go into camp while forming into regiments and are drilled and practised with arms and march as soldiers. To attempt the other course would dampen enthusiasm and make the men feel that they were not soldiers, but a mob. Again, if our people feel that they are going into the South to help fight rebels, who will kill and destroy them by all the means known to savages, as well as civilized man; will deceive them by fraudulent flags of truce and lying pretences (as they did the Massachusetts boys at Williamsburg), will use their negro slaves against them, both as laborers and as fighting men, while they themselves must never “fire at an enemy's magazine” I think that they will feel that the draft is heavy on their patriotism.

But, if the President will sustain General Hunter,¹ recognize all men, even black men, as legally capable of that loyalty the blacks are waiting to manifest, and let them fight, with God and human nature on their side, the roads will swarm if need be with multitudes whom New England would pour out to obey your call.

Always ready to do my utmost, I remain most faithfully,

Your obedient servant,

John A. Andrew.

____________________

¹ Lincoln's proclamation, cancelling Hunter's, bears the same date with this letter of Andrew's, May 19.

SOURCE: Henry Greenleaf Pearson, The Life of John A. Andrew: Governor of Massachusetts, 1861-1865, Volume 2, p. 11-13

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Edwin M. Stanton, May 25, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,

New Orleans, May 25, 1862.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: In matters pertaining to the conduct of affairs in my own department which affect that alone I will trouble you for instructions as little as possible, but in those which affect the administrative policy of the country I beg leave to refer to the help of the War Department for advice and direction. The question now pressing me is the state of negro property here and the condition of the negroes as men. It has a gravity as regards both white and black appalling as the mind follows out the logical necessities of different lines of action. Ethnological in its proportions and demands for investigation, it requires active administrative operations immediately upon the individual in his daily life, his social, political, and religious status as a human being, while some of the larger deductions of political economy are to be at once worked out by any given course of conduct. It cannot be solved therefore without thought or discussion by a phrase or a paragraph. The question now comes to me in a different form from that in which it has presented itself to any other military commander.

At Fortress Monroe during the last summer I found the negro deserted by his master or having been forced by him into the fortification as the builder and thus made to aid in the rebellion. The rights of property under that condition of things could be easily settled. The man was to be treated as a human being wrecked upon a civilized coast, all his social ties and means of living gone, to be cared for because he was a man. My action thereupon is well known and was approved by the Government.

At Port Royal the same condition of things substantially obtained and I suppose will be dealt with in like manner. Here, however, an entirely different state of the question is disclosed.

The general commanding finds himself in possession of a tract of country larger than some States of the Union. This has submitted to the Government of the United States; a community with whom by proclamation the President is about opening commercial relations with all the world except for that which is contraband of war; rich in fertile lands; in it a city of the first class, wherein its inhabitants by a large majority are attending to their usual avocations and endeavoring in good faith to live quietly under the laws of the Union, and whoever does not do so is speedily punished and his compeers thereby admonished.

To this city and vicinage has been pledged the governmental protection and inviolability of the rights of property under the laws of the United States so long as these conditions of peace and quiet shall be preserved, and that pledge has been accepted by the good, loyal, and peaceful, and the power of the Union is respected by the wicked, so that they have become peaceful, if not loyal. It is found that a large portion of property held here is in slaves. They till the soil, raise the sugar, corn, and cotton, lead and unload the ships; they perform every domestic office, and are permeated through every branch of industry and peaceful calling.

In a large degree the owners of the soil, planters, farmers, mechanics, and small traders have been passive rather than active in the rebellion. All that had real property at stake have been the led rather than the leaders in this outbreak against law and order. In the destruction of cotton and sugar even, which has been so largely effected, the owners and producers have not been the destroyers, but in many cases the resistants of destruction.

There is still another class. Those actively in arms and those who for motives of gain or worse have aided the rebellion in their several spheres.

The property of these I am hunting out and holding for confiscation under the laws. There is in most cases no military necessity for its immediate confiscation. Such act, if done, would in many instances work injustice to the bona fide loyal creditor, whose interest the Government will doubtless consider. I am only confiscating in fact in cases where there is a breach of a positive order, for the purpose of punishment and example. In all these cases I have no hesitation as to the kinds of property or rights of property which shall be confiscated, and make no distinctions, save that where that property consists in the services of slaves I shall not sell it until so ordered.

Now, many negroes (slaves) have come within my lines. Many have sought to be kept, fed, and to live in the quarters with my troops. Loyal and disloyal masters have lost them alike. I have caused as many to be employed as I have use for. I have directed all not employed to be sent out of my lines, leaving them subject to the ordinary laws of the community in that behalf.

I annex all orders and communications to my officers upon this matter up to the date of the transmission of this dispatch.

Now, what am I to do? Unless all personal property of all rebels is to be confiscated (of the policy of which a military commander has no right to an opinion) it is manifestly unjust to make a virtual confiscation of this particular species of property. Indeed it makes an actual confiscation of all property, both real and personal, of the planter if we take away or allow to run away his negroes as his crop is just growing, it being impossible to supply the labor necessary to preserve it. Again, if a portion of these slaves only are to be taken within my lines, and if to be so taken is a benefit to them, it is unjust to those that are not taken. Those that come early to us are by no means the best men and women. With them, as with the whites, it is the worse class that rebel against and evade the laws that govern them. The vicious and unthrifty have felt punishment of their masters as a rule, the exception being where the cruel master abuses the industrious and well-behaved slave, and the first to come are those that feel particular grievances.

It is a physical impossibility to take all. I cannot feed the white men within my lines. Women and children are actually starving in spite of all that I can do. Ay, and they too without fault on their part. What would be the state of things if I allowed all the slaves from the plantations to quit their employment and come within the lines is not to be conceived by the imagination.

Am I then to take of these blacks only the adventurers, the shiftless, and wicked, to the exclusion of the good and quiet? If coming within our lines is equivalent to freedom, and liberty is a boon, is it to be obtained only by the first that apply?

I had written thus far when by the Ocean Queen I received a copy of an order of Major-General Hunter upon this subject in the Department of the South. Whether I assent or dissent from the course of action therein taken it is not my province to criticise it.

I desire, however, to call attention to the grounds upon which it seems to be based and to examine how far they may be applicable here.

The military necessity does not exist here for the employment of negroes in arms, in order that we may have an acclimated force. If the War Department desires, and will permit, I can have 5,000 able bodied white citizens enlisted within 60 days, all of whom have lived here many years, and many of them drilled soldiers, to be commanded by intelligent loyal officers. Besides, I hope and believe that this war will be ended before any body of negroes could be organized, armed, and drilled so as to be efficient.

The negro here, by long habit and training, has acquired a great horror of fire-arms, sometimes ludicrous in the extreme when the weapon is in his own hand. I am inclined to the opinion that John Brown was right in his idea of arming the negro with a pike or spear instead of a musket, if they are to be armed at all. Of this I say nothing, because a measure of governmental policy is not to be discussed in the dispatch of a subordinate military officer.

In this connection it might not be inopportune to call to mind the fact that a main cause of the failure of the British in their attack on New Orleans was the employment of a regiment of blacks brought with them from the West Indies. This regiment was charged with the duty of carrying the facines with which the ditch in front of Jackson's line was to be filled up and the ladders for scaling the embankment. When the attacking column reached the point of assault the facines and ladders were not there. Upon looking around for them it was found that their black guardians had very prudently laid themselves down upon the plain in the rear and protected their heads from the whistling shot with the facines which should have been to the front in a different sense.

I am further inclined to believe that the idea that our men here cannot stand the climate, and therefore the negroes must be freed and armed as an acclimated force, admits of serious debate.

My command has been either here or on the way here from Ship Island since the 1st of May, some of them on shipboard in the river since the 17th of April. All the deaths in the general hospital in this city since we have been here are only 13 from all causes, 2 of these being accidental, as will appear from Surgeon Smith's report, herewith submitted. From diseases at all peculiar to the climate I do not believe we have lost in the last thirty days one-fifth of one per cent. in the whole command; taking into the account also the infirm and debilitated, who ought never to have passed the surgeon's examination and come here.

Certain it is, if we admit the proposition that white men cannot be soldiers in this climate, we go very far toward asserting the dogma that white men cannot labor here, and therefore establish the necessity for exclusively black labor, which has ever been the corner-stone of African slavery.

We have heard much in the newspapers of the free-negro corps of this city organized for the defense of the South. From this a very erroneous idea may have been derived. The officers of that company called upon me the other day upon the question of the continuance of their organization and to learn what disposition they would be required to make of their arms; and in color, nay, also in conduct, they had much more the appearance of white gentlemen than some of those who have favored me with their presence claiming to be the “chivalry of the South.”

I have satisfied myself, if I have failed to satisfy the Department, that no military necessity exists to change the policy of the Government in this respect within my command.

I have given hurriedly amidst the press of other cares some of the considerations that seem to me to bear upon the question. I only add as a fact that those well-disposed to the Union here represent that the supposed policy of the Government, as indicated by General Hunter's order, is used by our enemies to paralyze all the efforts to co-operate with us.

Reared in the full belief that slavery is a curse to a nation, which my further acquaintance with it only deepens and widens, from its baleful effects upon the master, because as under it he cannot lift the negro up in the scale of humanity therefore the negro drags him down, I have no fear that my views will be anywhere misunderstood. I only accept the fact of its present existence, the “tares among the wheat,” and have asked the direction of the Department, “lest while I gather up the tares I root up also the wheat with them,” or shall I “let both grow together till the harvest?”

Respectfully, &c.,

 BENJ. F. BUTLER,

 Major-General, Commanding.

[lnclossures.]

• Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Brigadier General John W. Phelps, May 9, 1862
• Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Brigadier General John W. Phelps, May 10, 1862
• Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Brigadier General John W. Phelps, May 21, 1862
• Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Brigadier General John W. Phelps, May 23, 1862

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 439-42

Abraham Lincoln to James G. Bennett, May 21, 1862

Private

Executive Mansion

May 21, 1862.

James G. Bennett, Esq

Dear Sir:

Thanking you again for the able support given by you, through the Herald, to what I think the true cause of the country, and also for your kind expressions towards me personally, I wish to correct an erroneous impression of yours in regard to the Secretary of War. He mixes no politics whatever with his duties; knew nothing of Gen. Hunter's proclamation; and he and I alone got up the counter-proclamation. I wish this to go no further than to you, while I do wish to assure you it is true.

Yours truly

A. LINCOLN

SOURCE: Roy P. Basler, Editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, p. 225

Diary of John Hay: Sunday, October 18, 1863

I arrived in Washington to-day after an absence of a little more than two weeks.

On presenting myself to the President this morning . . . . I gave him my impression of the conduct of Mr. C. in trying to cut under in way he k doing, instancing what Denison of New York had related. He said “it was very bad taste, but that he had determined to shut his eyes to all these performances; that Chase made a good Secretary, and that he would keep him where he is: — if he becomes President, all right! I hope we may never have a worse man. I have all along clearly seen his plan of strengthening himself. Whenever he sees that an important matter is troubling me, if I am compelled to decide it in a way to give offence to a man of some influence, he always ranges himself in opposition to me, and persuades the victim that he (C.) would have arranged it very differently. It was so with Gen'l Frémont, — with Gen'l Hunter, when I annulled his hasty proclamation — with Gen'l Butler, when he was recalled from New Orleans, — with the Missouri people when they called the other day. I am entirely indifferent as to his success or failure in these schemes, so long as he does his duty as the head of the Treasury Department.”

He talked of the Missouri matter, and read to me the letter he had written Drake for the Committee. As it will probably be published, I forbear synopsis. It is a superb affair, perfectly just and frank, courteous but immoveable. He will not be bullied even by his friends. He tries to reason with these infuriated people. The world will hear him, if they do not. He read to me a letter which he has to-day written to Gov. Gamble, who, it seems, is anxious to have the President espouse his side of the quarrel, and to recognise him as the State Government, and use the federal authority to crush out the radicals, who, he says, meditate revolution and civil war in Missouri. The President answering says he will be at all times ready to extend to Missouri the protection guaranteed by the Constitution against domestic violence, whenever he (the President) shall see cause to suspect such violence as imminent. He does not so regard it at present. He thinks the instructions given to Gen'l Schofield cover the case.

We got into this vein of talk through my telling him what Joe Gillespie says, and what I myself observed, of the tendency of public opinion in the West, almost universally, in favor of the radicals as against the conservatives in Missouri.

Talking of the military situation, he says Lee probably came up the other day thinking our army weaker than it is, and finding his mistake from the fight at Bristow, is holding off at present. Rosecrans is all right, though somewhat bothered about his supplies.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 108-10; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 100-2.

Diary of Salmon P. Chase: Wednesday, September 17, 1862

Bannister breakfasted with me. — At Department finished Proclamation declaring States in insurrection, without the exception formerly made, with view to taking exclusive control of all purchases of cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice in insurgent States.

Judge Hoadly came. Went to War Department with him. Stanton promised the Generals he wanted, but could promise nothing else. Went also to Genl. Halleck's. Found the President and Reverdy Johnson there, talked with a Union Captain who was at Harpers Ferry at the time of its surrender. Says Maryland Heights were surrendered to the surprise of every one; that Miles was struck by a shell after the surrender of the post, just as he had put the white flag in the hands of an orderly; that there was no necessity whatever for the surrender, and that the officers were very indignant.

Warrants to-day enormous — over $4,000,000 — and unpaid Requisitions still accumulating — now over $40,000,000. Where will this end?

Gen. Hunter came to dine with me. Expressed his decided opinion that if his Order had not been revoked, he would now have had the whole coast lined with disciplined loyal Southern men — black to be sure, but good soldiers and true.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 85-6

Diary of Josephine Shaw Lowell: May 20, 1862

Yesterday we had a beautiful and touching proclamation from Lincoln, rendering General Hunter's order freeing the slaves of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia null and void. One of the most extraordinary things that has happened for a long time was the calmness with which that order was received. We have certainly advanced twenty years. The confidence in the President was shown by the entire acquiescence in everything he does. We feel that he is earnest and means to do right. A unique man. Rob's attempt to get a commission is fruitless. Mr. Sumner told him it is impossible.

SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 26-7

Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, May 10, 1862

This letter (of Commodore Du Pont) will convince you of what I always told you, that Du Pont is a remarkably discreet, judicious, practical man, with generous, noble impulses, and withal a Christian gentleman.

This morning I drew up and passed through the Senate a bill for the benefit of Robert Small, giving him and his associates one-half of the value of the steamer Planter, and also one-half of the value of all the arms, munitions, etc., on board at the time she was captured. The amount to be distributed among him and his associates will be about fifteen thousand dollars.

The President has to-day rescinded Hunter's proclamation. The result will be a general row in the country. All the radical Republicans are indignant but me, and I am not, because I have expected it, and was ready for it. They did not anticipate it, though I have told them all along that it was sure to come. But the end must come, protracted by the obstinacy and stupidity of rulers it may be, but come it will nevertheless.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 196-7

Hunter’s Proclamation

The President of the United States has issued his proclamation revoking that of Maj. Gen. Hunter’s, although he has not yet received any information with regard to the authenticity of the document attributed to Gen. Hunter.  Outside pressure, and not internal conviction has no doubt been the cause of this move on the part of the Executive.  In due time the world will be ready for General Hunter, but at this stage he too is far in advance of political demagoguery.  A stride too great just now might imperil the whole.  Prudence, caution, discretion, are absolutely necessary at this juncture.

Slavery is a tremendous evil, and has fast hold upon the people; its grasp must be loosened by degrees; any sudden attempt to detach it would render it more tenacious.  Had President Lincoln issued his emancipation message six months before he did, it would have failed of its object.  Had Gen. Fremont waited six months longer, he might have published his order with impunity.  We live in an age of progress, and somehow the United States has come to be the nucleus around which the concretions gather.  The war with its ten thousand evils is doing wonders in the way of enlightening our people upon certain truths, to which they have before been blind.

Before slavery “let slip the dogs of war” upon the North, our people in large numbers had been accustomed to regard it as a local institution – one affecting only those among whom it existed, having no bearing upon the free States of the North; that the efforts of the Republican party to circumscribe its limits was intermeddling with a matter that did not concern them; while the denunciations of the whole institution by certain persons, was looked upon as purely fanaticism.  The lessons of a twelvemonth have opened the eyes of our understanding, and we see things in a different light from what we had been accustomed to regard them.

The enormity of the evil of slavery, its wide-spread influence, is beginning to be felt and acknowledged, and as men get greater insight into it they find it to contain more ills than Pandora’s box, and, as good citizens, they would rid themselves of it altogether.  The feeling is growing; day by day, the tentacles of reason are reaching out and grasping truths with which to fortify the human mind.  What to-day would be temerity, tomorrow may be discretion.  Men who oppose the confiscation of rebel property now, will be as heartily ashamed of their course a year hence, as they are at this time free to disown their actions of a twelvemonth ago.  Gen. Hunter’s proclamation startles the North, and its friends say it is premature – six months hence, and it will be the policy of the Government, and the man who has the hardihood to oppose it will be branded as entertaining secession proclivities.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 2

Proclamation by the President of the United States

WASHINGTON, May 19.

WHEREAS, There appears in the public prints what purports to be a proclamation of Maj. Gen. Hunter; and whereas, the same is producing some excitement and misunderstanding, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, Prest. Of the U. S., proclaim and declare that the Government of the United States had no knowledge or belief of an intention on the part of Gen. Hunter to issue such a proclamation, nor has it yet any authentic information that the document is genuine; and further, that Gen. Hunter, nor any other commander or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States to make proclamation declaring the slaves of any State free; and that the supposed proclamation now in question, whether genuine or false, is altogether void, so far as respects such declaration. – I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any State or States free, and whether at any time or in any case, it shall have been a necessity, indispensable to the maintainance [sic] of the Government to excise such supposed power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field. – There are not only different questions from these of police regulations in armies and camps.

On the 6th day of March last, by a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint resolution to be substantially as follows:

Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such States in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an authentic, definite and solemn proposal of the nation to the States and people most interested in the subject matter.  To the people of these States now, I earnestly appeal.  I do not argue.  I beseech you to make the arguments for yourselves.  You cannot, if you would be blind to the signs of the times.  I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them ranging, if it may be, far above personal and party politics.  This proposal makes common cause for all, and common object, casting no reproaches upon any.  It acts not like the Pharisee.  The changes it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven – not rending or wrecking anything.  Will you not embrace this opportunity.  So much good has not been done by one effort in all past time, as in the Providence of God it is now your high privilege to do.  May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be annexed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 19th day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States, the eighty-sixth.

(Signed)

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WM. H. SEWARD, Sec’y of State.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 2

From Washington

Herald’s Dispatch.

WASHINGTON, May 19.

It is stated that Gov. Stanley is greatly grieved at the course of Gen. Hunter, and until the prompt and emphatic proclamation of the President, to-day, was unwilling to undertake the office assigned to him in North Carolina.  It is clear that what rebels there are this side of the Blue Ridge, are between McDowell’s Corps and Fredericksburg and Richmond.

Mr. Spaulding, an active business man of Washington has returned from a brief visit to Norfolk.  The citizens there are not on bad terms with our soldiers, but they are confident that Gen. McClellan cannot reach Richmond.

The Senate committee on commerce gave Mr. Lathrop, the newly nominated collector for New Orleans, a hearing to-day. – His statement, however, in his own behalf, did not alter the unfavorable decision previously arrived at by the committee.  Mr. Lathrop requested an opportunity to have his name withdrawn, which was granted.  The President will probably send in the name of Cuthbert Bullitt to-morrow, for the same position.  Mr. Bullitt has been a merchant and resident of New Orleans over twenty years, and left [there] last year for reason of his loyalty.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 2

From Washington

WASHINGTON, May 19.

No official dispatch has been received from Com. Goldsboro about the expedition up James River.  It comprised the steam frigate Susquehanna, three gunboats and tug Wave.  The latter mounting one gun.  They found the first rebel battery at Dog’s Point deserted.  The rebel flag was flying over the battery at Hardy’s Point, 15 miles above Newport News, but on landing was found deserted.  Also all the rebel batteries between there and Jamestown, with guns mostly dismounted.  Near Jamestown they met a squadron under Commander Rogers, which had previously gone up the river, and learned from them particulars of the fight at Fort Darling, and the disaster to the Naugatuck.

Goldsboro’s expedition was last heard from Friday, and was still going up river, securing most of the ordnance left by the rebels.

The general evacuation below Fort Darling doubtless gives Goldsboro a chance to bring up mortar boats, &c., to act effectively against the fort.  James River and banks are now clear of rebel soldiers.  The Monitor and Galena were the only vessels run by Dog’s Point and Hardy’s bluff batteries.  The remainder of the fleet stopped below.  Of twenty-eight shells which struck the Galena eighteen penetrated.  None did the Monitor any damage, all glancing off.  Both returned down river Friday last.  The Galena is not materially injured.  They doubtless followed Goldsboro, Saturday up the river.

The universal topic is of course the President’s proclamation, denouncing and repudiating the conduct of Maj. Gen. Hunter.  It was understood yesterday that the President would await advice of the authenticity of the alleged proceeding of Hunter, but to-day it was too obvious that the mischief would be irreparable, if immediate action was not taken.  The effect in Washington has been most happy and reassuring.  The grand patriarchal spirit manifested, yearning for the good of the whole nation more than ever, exalts the President in the confidence and love of the people, and increases the sway he has over al extremes of political parties here represented.

The circuit court to-day appointed three commissioners for adjudication of cases arising under the fugitive slave law.  Seven arrests only were made to-day.  There seems to be concurrent jurisdiction claimed by the military authorities, regarding the fugitives under their protection, therefore it cannot be said the law has full course.

This morning about 50 of the citizens of the adjoining counties of Maryland, proceeded to the White House, accompanied by Messrs. Crissfield, Calvert, Webster, and Leary, representatives in Congress from that state, who had a conversation with the President regarding the interest of their constituents, as involved in the fugitive law.  They say the President promised a response on some other occasion.

The U. S. military telegraph has an office open and working, in a saw mill, at the 14th mile post from Richmond.  The lines to the various camps and stations between headquarters and Fort Monroe are in good condition and working admirably, under the personal superintendence of F. F. Rekert.

WASHINGTON, May 20.

Hon. Edward Stanley is on the eve of departure for North Carolina.  He to-day received his commission as Military Governor of that State.  He is invested with the powers and duties of that station, including the power to establish all necessary offices and tribunals, and suspend the writ of Habeas corpus, during the pleasure of the President, or until the loyal inhabitants shall organize a State government in accordance with the Constitution of the United States.  His powers are exactly similar to those with which Gov. Johnson, of Tennessee, is invested.

An army officer, just arrived here, from Port Royal, denies the published statement that at the last accounts our pickets were within four miles of Savannah.

A private letter from an officer of the flotilla, speaking of the recent engagement, says: The iron-clad Galena was maneuvered so beautifully and saucily that she passed five or six times as close as she could get, and silenced one of the batteries; she then passed and repassed the second battery six times, but finding they were using so much ammunition, for which we expect to have better use further up, Rogers, the commander, ordered the wooden vessels to run up, whilst he in the galena lay just off the battery, and disconcerted the rebel gunners.  The Galena then followed, but the buoys have been displaced so that the pilots lost their bearing, and run the galena ashore, and she is still aground.  None of our vessels are seriously injured.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 1

Gen. Hunter’s Proclamation

The proclamation of Gen. Hunter, freeing the slaves of his military district, has created excitement more intense than any document issued during the war, with the single exception of President Lincoln’s emancipation message.  Gen. Fremont’s order on the one hand and Gen. Halleck’s on the other did not strike the public mind with that force which Gen. Hunter’s proclamation has done; simply from the fact that they were not so sweeping in their effects.  A proclamation like Hunter’s, fulminated at the time Fremont’s order was issued would have thrown our nation on its beam ends, and nothing but the prompt counteraction of our President, would have prevented the entire slave party of the North from uniting in a body with the rebels.

But “the world moves,” and notwithstanding the general demoralizing effects of war, it moves in the right direction.  The blasting effect of slavery on the minds of those who practice it, and the cursedness of the institution on the peace and prosperity of the country, have been developed by the war, until every right-thinking man in the nation seeks the propriety of the abolition of slavery, and unless he be a demagogue with stronger attachments for the ashes of the old Democratic party than for the throbbing heart of the great Republic, he will use his best endeavors to accomplish that object.

In this condition of affairs, the proclamation of Gen. Hunter falls upon the North with the startling detonation of a bombshell, but it finds an echo in the many hearts, that the old ship of State does not feel the concussion.  Whether the President takes any action in the matter we care not, it is simply a question of time, and with his superior means of judging of the consequences, he thinks the act premature, we, for one, shall defer to his better judgment, and bide the time when we can unite with the loyal men of the North, in ascriptions of praise to God, for being ride of an ulcer that even now threatens the vitals of our great nation.  In the meantime, to the “noblest Roman of them all,” brave old General Hunter, we say in the language of Longfellow:

“Go on, until this land revokes,

The old and chartered lie,

The feudal curse, whose whips and yokes

Insult humanity.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1862, p. 2

From Washington

Herald’s Dispatch.

WASHINGTON, May 18.

The recall of Gen. Hunter is fully determined on.  His proclamation will be made the subject of a communication by the President to Congress, and in that way to the country, unmistakeably [sic] condemning the course of General Hunter, as the policy of the Administration in the conduct of the war.  An effort has been made to have Gen. Bonham placed in command of the department of the South.  It is stated that if he could have had the consent of Gen. Hunter, he would long ago have recaptured Sumter, and restored Federal authority in Charleston.  Probably hereafter army officers will be required to attend exclusively to military duties, and leave the management of social and political affairs to the Government.

The intelligence received from the department of the South, states that our army is impatient at the kind of duties assigned them.

Accounts form McClellan’s army are, that Gen. Sumner has been relieved from active service in consequence of his refusal to reinforce Gen. Heintzelman at the battle of Williamsburg.

Special to Times.

Memphis papers of the 14th are looking for a battle at Corinth with terrible interest.  They estimate the Federal army at 60,000, and insist that it is greatly demoralized.  They say they don’t allow themselves to think of being defeated.

Beauregard is undoubtedly at Corinth.

WASHINGTON, May 18.

They navy department has received a communication from Com. Dupont, dated Port Royal, May 13th, giving an account of the capture of several rebel schooners.  No other news of importance.

The Post Office department directs that all mail matter destined for Burnside’s command be sent to New York.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1862, p. 2

From Port Royal

NEW YORK, May 18.

By the Atlantic from Port Royal, we learn that negro pilot brought from Charleston a fast rebel tug with a number of men destined for Fort Ripley.  He surrendered her to our squadron.  He is [a] great acquisition, knowing all intricacies of navigation in that region.

Gen. Hunter’s proclamation being published in Charleston, negro insurrection was imminent.  Vast preparations are making to bombard Savannah.

Our gunboats are up the river, and pickets within four miles of the city.

Massive batteries, with Parrott guns, are erected around the city.

We have a portion of Charleston and Savannah RR in our possession.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1862, p. 2

Southern News

NEW YORK, May 14.

News from North Carolina states that Gov. Clark has refused to furnish any more troops to Jeff. Davis, and has recalled all the N. C. soldiers now in the rebel army.

North Carolina has held a convention of its citizens, and pronounced against giving further aid to the rebellion, thus virtually returning to the Union.  In reply to the demand of Jeff. Davis for additional troops and means of transportation for his army through the Cotton States, Gov. Clark said that Davis had received all the aid from North Carolina that he could expect and that hereafter no more troops would be permitted to leave the State, and he has ordered all the N. C. troops home.

Gov. Clark also informed the rebels that they could use the railroads in retreating homewards, and that they would run their own risk of being intercepted by a Union force at any part of the State.

The Tribune has the following:  “We can positively assert that whatever modification may be made in his order Gen. Hunter will not be recalled, nor placed in position necessitating his resignation.”

Fort Darling, where our gunboats were engaged is situated on a bluff, 200 feet above the river, high enough to direct a plunging fire upon the attacking boats, which could not use their guns in response.

A loyal black who left Richmond on Friday, brought the first news of the fight, which was at the time going on.  The Richmond people were very apprehensive of the result.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1862, p. 1

Proclamation by the President of the United States

WASHINGTON, May 19.

WHEREAS, There appears in the public prints what purports to be a proclamation of Maj. Gen. Hunter; and whereas, the same is producing some excitement and misunderstanding, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, Prest. Of the U. S., proclaim and declare that the Government of the United States had no knowledge or belief of an intention on the part of Gen. Hunter to issue such a proclamation, nor has it yet any authentic information that the document is genuine; and, further, that Gen. Hunter, nor any other commander or person, has been authorized by the government of the United States to make proclamation declaring the slaves of any State free; and that the supposed proclamation now in question, whether genuine or false, is altogether void, so far as respects such declaration. – I further make known that whether it be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves of any State or States free, and whether at any time, or in any case, it shall have been a necessity, indispensable to the maintainance [sic] of the Government, to excise such supposed power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the field.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1862, p. 1

Confiscation of Rebel Property

So little has been said upon this subject of late by the papers, and the action of Congress seem to be so decisive in favor of adopting a measure for the relief of the over-taxed citizens of the North, by calling upon those in rebellion at the South to assist, nolens volens, in defraying the expenses of the war, that we were quite surprised to see our cotemporary of the Democrat come out in his issue of Saturday, and oppose the passage of such an act.  Our neighbor is entitled to his opinion, though he come out flat-footed in favor of the North meekly bearing the entire expense of the rebellion; but he will find very few persons, even among those for whom he is in the habit of catering, who will agree with him in that particular.

The Democrat opposes the passage of a confiscation act, because it thinks it may conflict with the constitution.  If such an act be passed, it will no doubt be so worded as not to conflict with the constitution, so that the tender consciences of those who would feign have the people believe they are the specially appointed guardians of that instrument,  may not be wounded.  It is a plain and every day principle in common law, that where a party commits a trespass or inflicts an injury, he shall not only repair the damages but pay the costs of suit.  We believe with Ben. Wade, the noble Senator from Ohio, when he said, that as no jurist has undertaken to define the limits to which a man might go in the defence of his life when assailed, so no statesman would undertake to limit the powers which the Government might use to preserve its life when assailed by traitors.”  This proposition challenges contradiction.  The constitution is not only threatened but is assaulted.  Shall those who would destroy the constitution use that instrument to effect their object?  That’s the question, and here the law of self-preservation comes in to upset the casuistain of theorists and lawyers.

But the subject of confiscation is not one for debate just now, as newspaper discussion cannot affect the result, and that result is bound to be the passage of an act confiscating the property of rebels.  If Congress do not pass such law, the President, as the constitution fully empowers him, will issue a proclamation declaring all the property of men in arms against the Government confiscate after a certain day.  In the meantime, our loyal Generals are freeing the rebels’ slaves – which, after all, is the secret of the “constitutional” cry against confiscation, uttered by the pro-slavery press – as witness the following sweeping order, said to have been recently issued by Gen. Hunter, of the Military Department of the South.  We doubt very much, if true, whether the order will be permitted to stand; nevertheless it strikes at the very heart of the rebellion, and it is only by the adoption of such stringent measures that the rebels will be brought to their senses:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH

HILTON HEAD, May 9th, 1862.

GENERAL ORDER NO. 10 – The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, comprising the Military Department of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms against the United States, it became a military necessity to declare martial law.  This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862.  Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible.  The persons in these three States – Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina – heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 19, 1862, p. 2

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, May 23, 1862

CAMP OPPOSITE FREDERICKSBURG, May 23, 1862.

To-day we had a visit from the President and the Secretary of War, in anticipation of an immediate forward movement. This afternoon these gentlemen reviewed our division, and as the cortege passed my brigade, I joined it, and found among them my friend Mr. Mercier, the French Minister. I observed to him, in a joking way, that all Europe, as well as this country, were talking of his visit to Richmond. "Yes," he replied, "and both parties attaching an importance which it utterly wants, for it had no political object whatever." Previous to the review I had been at General McDowell's headquarters, and there saw the President. I took the liberty of saying to him that I believed the army was much gratified to see his recent proclamation in regard to Hunter's order. He expressed himself gratified for the good opinion of the army, and said: "I am trying to do my duty, but no one can imagine what influences are brought to bear on me." I believe the party returned to Washington this evening, having come down last night. General Shields, with his division, reached here yesterday, so that McDowell's corps of four divisions (about forty thousand) are all assembled, and we expect now to be off in a day or two to Richmond. Whether we will be too late and McClellan ahead of us, is not to be told. I rather think he will await our approach, as from all I can learn the enemy at present outnumber him, and our force will be a very welcome addition to his army. It is impossible to tell whether we shall meet with any resistance before we get to the immediate vicinity of Richmond or not. They certainly have a force about fifteen miles from here, said to be twenty thousand strong; but whether they are designed only to watch us and to retreat before us, or whether they will be reinforced and give us battle at this place, are questions that time only can solve. I should think the former, inasmuch as it would be very dangerous for them to leave a force so far in front of Richmond, with McClellan so near, cutting off their retreat, and we pressing them in front. I therefore hardly expect much opposition till we get close to Richmond and in communication with McClellan, where I expect they will give us a big fight just outside the city and do their best to drive us away. If McClellan can see his way clear, and thinks he can get into Richmond without our co-operation, he will be greatly tempted to try it. At the last accounts he was only eight miles off, and could have a fight any hour he advanced. His troops were nearly all up, and he had almost completed the repairs to the railroad from West Point, by which he expected to draw his supplies.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 267-8

From Washington

Times’ Special

NEW YORK, May 16.

Hunter’s proclamation excites scarcely any interest in Washington, no one attaching any importance to its efficiency to produce the end designed.  Martial law is only enforced by martial power, and Hunter has no force at his command adequate to enforce this proclamation.  His declaring freedom to all the slaves in three States, when he has no power to free a single one outside of his camp, is regarded in Washington as an act of stultification highly discreditable to any one holding the rank of General, supposed to have ordinary intelligence.  If the military power is withdrawn from Hunter’s department before his proclamation is executed throughout those States, it is conceded that the civil power will not complete or countenance what martial law proclaimed but did not practically execute.

The President’s policy is supposed to be authoritatively settled by his action in Fremont’s case, in which all his Cabinet concurred.

Gen. Fremont freed, by proclamation the slaves of all men engaged in the rebellion.  Hunter’s proclamation frees the slaves of all men in three States, whether they have engaged in the rebellion or not, punishing loyalists as well as traitors, and all because he had declared martial law where he has confessedly no ability to execute it.  It is understood that Hunter took no specific instruction from the President, in regard to the management of matters in his department, but was left as all other military commanders have been, to his own discretion, in this attempt to re-establish the constitution and laws in the revolted States.

It is said that the President will be waited on this evening by gentlemen, to ascertain under what authority was acting.

Tribune’s Special.

WASHINGTON, May 16.

Gen. Hunter’s proclamation, it can be positively stated, was issued without the authority or knowledge of the President, whom it took entirely by surprise.  What will be done with it, is a question yet to be settled.  There was no Cabinet meeting, and it is not probably that any determination will be definitely made until the three members of the Cabinet, Secretary Seward, Secretary Wells and Attorney General Bates, who are still at Ft. Monroe, return, which will not be till Monday.

The Senate committee on public lands have unanimously reported back Senator Wade’s bill donating 20,000 acres of land for each Senator and Representative, to every State which provides a college for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.

The House naval committee have authorized the chairman, Mr. Sedgwick, to report the Senate bill re-organizing the Navy department.  It creates three additional bureaus.

The Committee have also authorized Mr. Sedgwick to report the bill re-organizing the naval service, which was some time since prepared by a sub-committee of both Houses.  It provides for ten grades, running from a cadet to rear admiral.

Herald’s Special.

The Hunter proclamation has presented an issue which it is believed will result in the breaking up of the cabinet.  The President has expressed not only dissatisfaction but indignation.  It is ascertained that four members of the cabinet sustain the course of Gen. Hunter, one at least of [the] others is known to entertain different views.  It is stated positively that Gen. Hunter will be recalled, and the characteristic firmness of the President will be exhibited in the manner in which he will meet the issue thus forced upon him, and that he will, whether with our without the support of the cabinet, act substantially with his repeatedly expressed opinions and intentions.

Senator Rice is extremely ill, suffering from a sever hemorrhage.  Fears are entertained for his recovery.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 19, 1862, p. 1

New York, May 15 [1862].

The Post says advices per the [Catawba] state that Gen. Hunter had issued a proclamation freeing the slaves in his department.  He was organizing a negro brigade, and had detailed some officers to train the contrabands in the use of arms.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 1