Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, August 23, 1851

Elms Farm, August 23, 1851, Thursday morning, five o'clock-?

A little foggy, but will be a fine day.

MY DEAR SIR, — At noon yesterday I received your letter of Monday, P. M. The warmth with which you express your friendship towards me deeply touches me. Be assured, my dear Sir, that your affectionate regard is fully reciprocated. I like your intelligence, I respect your judgment, I have sympathy with your principles, and your feelings, and I like your society. It is my fervent wish that your friendship, as a source of happiness to me, may continue to refresh and gladden my way through all the little remainder of the path of life, which is yet to be trodden. Heaven's blessing ever rest on you and yours! and may you see many, many happy days, when all that you know of me, shall be matter of memory!

In regard to health, my dear friend, I remain as when you left me, except I think my general strength has improved, and the affection of the feet, which I am forced to believe is gout, is less troublesome and painful. Still, my feet are quite tender, and not without occasional twinges. I cannot say, that at this moment I feel any symptom of catarrh whatever. Still, I am cautious, and continue the use of all the medicines, keep indoors, except in fine weather, and avoid every thing, which might give the enemy an opening, through which he might enter.

In the P. M. yesterday, I received your despatch, and suppose that an hour hence, you will be at the Tremont. I thank you for having written to Mrs. Webster, for really I hardly know where to direct letters for her. I have not as yet heard from her, as actually at Niagara.

My dear Sir, may I ask if I am likely to get any slippers, or soft shoes, or boots? You undertook a very humble service, but you are so sure to perform what you undertake, that I relied on no one else. I suppose you could find none ready made, and I write this only to pray you not to let even so small a matter to slip out of your memory.

If detained in Boston, though but for a day, and that day be not a busy one, I trust you will come up. I wrote you yesterday on a subject of some little interest, but no great. You will find the letter at New York.

Yours, always sincerely and truly,

DAN'L WEBSTER

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, pp. 464-5

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, August 31, 1851

[Franklin, August 31, 1851.] Sunday evening.

MY DEAR SIR, — This has been a lonely and rather unhappy day. Since last evening the pain in my feet has been constant and intense, and I do not think I slept twenty minutes at one time, last night, between nine o'clock and three. Nor have I been able to sleep to-day. The weather is fine, and I drove up to the village this P. M. to ask the doctor to come down and see if he could not give me something, colchicum, or something else, to relieve pain without opium. He says he will try.

Friday about noon, I thought I felt catarrhal symptoms. There were some tendency of defluxion from the nose, the eyes did not feel right, and what was more important, I felt a degree of general depression, which belongs to the disease. I fought the demonstration off, however, and at present feel nothing of it. Indeed, while I write this, such is the burning in my feet, that I could not well feel any thing else. The complaint in the feet does not spread. It is confined to the extremities, the toes of the two feet. No external application gives any relief.

Monday morning, seven o'clock. I am glad I did not fill up this sheet last evening, as I am better to-day, and have no bad signs or symptoms about me.

I expect to hear from you at eleven o'clock.

Yours, truly always,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, pp. 468-9

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, September 15, 1851

Marshfield, Green Harbor, September 15, 1851.        

Monday morning, eight o'clock.

MY DEAR FRIEND, — Since I wrote you last, I have gone through sudden and various changes in regard to my health. Things wore on, much as they had been going, until the first of this month. Then excessively hot weather set in, and gave a new turn to matters. Saturday the 6th, Sunday the 7th, and Monday the 8th were intolerable days for heat. On Saturday, although I did not step over the threshold, my eyes became strongly affected, much after the catarrh fashion, and this continued. Monday afternoon the weather appearing to cool a little, and the cars not passing till six o'clock, I ventured on board for Boston. We were unlucky. The engine was thrown off the track by running over cattle; it was midnight before we got in. I took a heavy cold, and the next day was quite ill all day. Wednesday afternoon I broke away by violence, and came hither by way of the Hingham boat. While in Boston, Dr. Jeffries advised me to leave off all medicine for a time, which I did, and have not yet resumed the taking of any. These things, or some of them, have caused a very sudden improvement. My feet became at once quite well, nor have I felt any great influence of catarrh, since I have been here. On Thursday, I caught thirty very fine Tautog, under Sunk Rock. It was just the day for them; mild, still, and a little cloudy. On such a day, and just at the commencement of flood tide, throw your hook into their den, and the chiefs will all contend for it. I took one seven pound fellow. On Saturday, I went out in the Lapwing with Fletcher, and some of his Boston friends. We had no great luck, and it came on to rain, during a perfect calm, so that we did not escape a wetting. I took little harm from it.

Saturday night wind and weather changed, and we have had it quite cold. This morning the wind is east, and at sunrise the mercury stood 51°. I doubt whether I shall leave the house to-day. Mr. Lanman came with me from New Hampshire, has been here, and went off this morning for New York. Mrs. Webster, Miss Kate Le Roy, and myself constitute the parlour part of the household.

I received an invitation from the City Government to attend the railroad celebration, which I declined. The President wrote me on the 10th, that he should not be here, but a telegraphic despatch announced, Saturday evening, that he would leave Washington this morning for Boston.

Mrs. Webster and I propose to go to town to-morrow, to see the fashions a little, and spend two or three days. Then one more short stay at this place, will bring us to October.

Marshfield looks finely, and every thing is right but the potatoes. The rot has taken them. The barns are crowded full of hay and grain, the fields have quite an English green about them, and the cattle are up to their knees in fresh grown grass. N. B. Since writing so far, I have yours, saying you have flown off to Niagara.

Yours truly,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, pp. 471-2

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, September 26, 1851

Marshfield, September 26, 1851. Friday, two P. M.

MY DEAR SIR, — Here I am once more, and here, I assure you, I am most happy to be. After a noisy week of "celebrations," we went to Beverly, and passed a few highly agreeable days with Mr. Haven's family. It is a charming spot, and a most hospitable mansion. You were looked for, and a room kept for you till we left. We came up to Boston yesterday forenoon, and I came to this place early this morning, leaving Mrs. Webster to come down at two o'clock, with Mr. Edward Curtis, who, I hope, arrived at Boston this morning.

At Boston I received your letter, saying you should come to Boston on Tuesday. I pray you come immediately here. Call on Mr. Haven, who, I hope, will accompany you, as I wish to see you and him together.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 473

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, May 1851

[May.] Albany, Tuesday evening, six o'clock.

MY DEAR SIR,—I arrived here at four o'clock, received your letter, and have dispatched the Boston papers.

I have also written to Washington to provide for the matter there, until I see you. In tantis laboribus magnis, in quibus sesemens mea penitus agitat, rerum non sum oblitus parvorum.¹

I hope this is pretty good Latin; if not, it is at least good English, to say that I am always, with most sincere regard, your obliged friend and obedient servant,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

_______________

¹ Translation: Amid such great labors, in which my mind is deeply troubled, I have not forgotten the small things.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 438

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, May 2, 1851

Washington, May 2, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR,—I was rejoiced to receive your letter yesterday, signifying that your health was better. We shall look out for Ellen till she comes.

It is very cold weather. The mercury this morning was as low as 35°, at five o'clock. I fear for the fruit-trees. At present, I am busy with Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

My wagon is a treasure. Morning or evening I get a drive in it, every day. If it had not been so cold, I was to have driven down to the Seines to-day, to witness for an hour or two, the drafts of rock fish, shad, sturgeon, &c., &c. As it is, I shall keep over the fire.

Yours truly,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, pp. 439-40

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, May 4, 1851—8 a.m.

Washington, May 4, 1851, eight A. M.

MY DEAR SIR,—We have a great change in the weather, the mercury being now twenty-five degrees higher than yesterday morning at the same hour. The wind is south, and not unlikely to bring rain. There were frosts in various places in this neighborhood on the nights of the 2d and the 3d; but I think we shall now have summer upon us.

I am steadily engaged in my official duties, and make progress in some things which require despatch. There are but few people here, and it is a good time for work.

I have given up my professional engagements, both in New York and Boston. This has been done at a great sacrifice, three thousand dollars at least, but I felt it to be my duty. For the next two or three months I may calculate on good health, after which my annual visitation of "hay fever," or "catarrh," may render me incapable of doing much of any thing for the residue of the summer. I feel, therefore, that I owe it to my place, and to my duties, to let nothing interfere for the present with close attention to public affairs.

There never was a time, I think, in which our foreign relations were more quiet. There seems no disturbing breath on the surface. All the diplomatic gentlemen here are amicably disposed, and our intercourse is quite agreeable. I think Mr. Hülsemann is the most satisfied and happy of them all.

An hour hence I receive my mail, and then go to church, always expecting a good sermon from Dr. Butler.

By the way, if you would see something in the prophetic books of Scripture, remarkably applicable to our days, turn to the second chapter of Nahum, and the fourth verse.

Yours, always truly,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

P. S. For something to remind you of telegraphic wires, see Job, xxxviii. 35.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 441

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, Monday, May 5, 1851—7 a.m.

Monday morning, seven o'clock, May 5, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR,—I was happy to find a short letter from you in my mail yesterday. As to the "especially special" letter to me from New York, I shall receive it with great gratitude and sincere respect, but I hope it will not be of a character to call me away immediately from my engagements here.

I shall look for you with hope and confidence, on Saturday morning, and trust you will bring some friend with you. There are two or three things I want to say to you, by word of mouth.

It is again wet and rainy, and the glass down to 40°, as disagreeable a morning as you would wish to see.

Yours, truly always,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 442

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, Sunday, May 11, 1851—1 p.m.

[May 11, 1851,] Sunday, one o'clock.

MY DEAR SIR,—I thank you for your letter from Philadelphia. I am well, and leave to-morrow morning, at six o'clock. I dread the journey awfully.

I see four elements of distress in it: 1. Heat. 2. Crowds. 3. Limestone water. 4. The necessity of speech-making.

This last is not the least, for I have exhausted my opinions and my thoughts, my illustrations and my imaginations; all that remains in my mind is as "dry as a remainder biscuit, after a voyage."

Your notion that no evil can come from this jaunt, cheers me; but still I feel a caving in at the prospect before me. But never mind. If I should not be remarkably foolish, nor remarkably unlucky, I shall not spoil all the past.

Yours,

D. W.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 443

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, April 29, 1851

[Washington.] Tuesday morning, eight o'clock. April 29, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR,—We were glad to learn that Ellen Fletcher found shelter under your hospitable roof. My telegraphic message to Boston seems to have miscarried. In two hours, I presume, we shall hear something from her.

The point of rendezvous for these Cuban patriots is now said to be Savannah. Men and arms are collecting there. They must be quick. If they are not out of the river in twenty-four hours from this time, they will not get out at all. If they should get out, they will be followed.

It is a beautiful morning. I have walked through the market, where I saw fine lamb, asparagus plenty and cheap, cucumbers, all sorts of green things, young chickens, &c., to say nothing of shad right out of the river, at twenty-five cents a pair.

This place lies south of Marshfield.

Yours,

D. W.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 436-7

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, April 30, 1851—2:30 p.m.

[April 30.] Wednesday, half-past two o'clock.

MY DEAR SIR,—I have yours of yesterday, and am most happy to hear your cold is better. We shall be happy to see Ellen.

We have bad weather, and I am just closing up a long day's work.

The Cuban expedition will all blow out, North and South. Those engaged in it are a set of geese.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 437

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, March 12, 1851

Washington, March 12, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR,—I am tired of sitting, and Mr. Sargent writes this note, while I am acting the part of a peripatetic philosopher. You will find herein a certain document, defunct and obliterated.

The weather is very fine, and I am very well. Morgan is here, and when I am in the saddle on his back, I am far from being motionless. The Morgan horse is a cross between a Normandy horse, now spread all over Canada, and the English blood horse; it has the sloping hip, and strong shoulder, and crooked hind leg, and broad shin of Normandy, with the spirit of the English hunter. Its chef-d'œuvre is best performed in a single wagon. In two respects he resembles the Narraganset horse, to wit, he has a broad spread nostril, and great breadth between the eyes; the line from the top of his head along his mane, and back to his hips, is nearly straight; on a level road, therefore, his draught is parallel to the surface of the ground. Whereas a horse, who carries his head very high, though the ground be level, is constantly pulling up hill. So much for Morgan, and a dissertation on horses. If you wish to see a perfectly graphic thing on such a subject, turn to Walter Scott's description of Lord Marmion's horse flying from Flodden Field.

Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are well; we had a very pleasant dinner there yesterday, with Mr. Stephens, and Mr. Aspinwall, and Miss Mary Scott. Mrs. Webster and I hope to see the same company to-day, at five o'clock, partaking of a Potomac shad, and some other provant or other vivres, at our house in Louisiana avenue.

When you think of it, tell me who is successor to Brigham. And here, my dear Sir, I stop from walking and talking.

Yours, always most truly,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 421-2

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, March 9, 1851

Washington, [March 28, 1851,] Friday, two o'clock.

MY DEAR SIR, —I have nothing from you to-day and am besides a little out of sorts. I am a little overworked. Yester day over my table from nine to four, and then four hours in the evening in my study, upon an embarrassing Mexican correspondence. The day is fine, I mean to mount Morgan, in ten minutes, and take the air. Business seems to press quite as hard as when Congress was here; but I will break off and go North, next Tuesday, if I am well. I want to see the sea; want to see Mr. Blatchford pull in a great cod; I want to see Mr. Baker's Alderney cows.

I have directed a boat to be made ready. We will hope that the skies may be propitious in the first ten or twelve days in April, so that we two, and Durf Hatch, and Dwelly Baker, may be on Ned's Ground, some warm, still, smoky day.

Yours,

D. W.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 426-7

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, April 13, 1851

Green Harbor, April 13, one o'clock.

MY DEAR SIR,—The meeting is, I presume, to come off on Thursday. So I understand, although as yet I have not received the official document.

We are quite well. Mr. Appleton and his two oldest children are with us.

The weather is too cold and windy for any thing but reading, writing, and talking.

Yours,

D. W.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 428

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, March 9, 1851

Washington, March 9, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR,—I thank you for your brother's letter, which I should like to keep in the Department. I thank you also for your short note received to-day. I keep it for the warmth and strength of its expression.

I have a reply from Vienna, very amiable. To-morrow or next day will be published a despatch to Mr. Marsh respecting Kossuth.

Yours,

D. WEBSTER.

To Richard Milford Blatchford, towards whom my feelings, founded in regard, have grown into affection.

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 421

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, December 10, 1850

Washington, December 10, 1850,}

Department of State, Friday, three o'clock.}

MY DEAR SIR,—I am glad you like the message, it seems generally agreeable, and I hope may do good. I regret that some of our New York Whigs still insist that the late measures cannot allay the excitement on the slave question. To say they cannot, is much the same as to say they shall not. To declare that slavery is unreasonable, that it is too exigent, that it cannot and will not be appeased, what is this but to instigate renewed agitation, to keep the angry controversy still up?

The South finds itself still exasperated, and as it thinks, insulted, by terms of contumely and reproach. I am sick at heart when I see eminent and able men, fall into such a train of thought and expression. Burke says, that in cases of domestic disturbance, peace is to be sought in the spirit of peace. Other oracles nowadays prevail, and we seem to expect to obtain the return of domestic peace by the continuance of reciprocal assaults, affront, and contumely. But enough of this. The peace of the country to a considerable extent will be restored, whoever resists, or whoever opposes.

I want to see you very much, on three or four things. Come as soon as you can.

It is too dark to see, and so I have made a blunder, in writing on two sheets. I have made many greater blunders.

D. W.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 406-7

Daniel Webster to Richard M. Blatchford, Sunday, November 3, 1850—6 p.m.

Elms Farm, Sunday evening,

November 3, 1850, six o'clock.

MY DEAR SIR,—I expect to take my leave of Franklin tomorrow morning, and the last thing I propose to do, is to write to you. I have now been here a fortnight, having arrived on Monday, the 21st of October. It is the longest visit which I have paid to my native place for many years, and it has been quite agreeable. It is hard to say when I shall look on these hills and vales again, for so many successive days.

Your visit is a marked part of the occasion, and I like to repeat the expression of the pleasure it has afforded me. I sometimes wonder that you should take any interest in those scenes or these things; but that you do is so much the better and the happier for me. You left me on Friday, the 1st of this month. I did not leave home on that day, as I had a good deal of company. Yesterday I was quite alone till afternoon, when I went to Boscawen, to see and take leave of my relatives. To-day the weather has been damp, threatening rain, and I have been out no further than to the barn. The clouds seem now dispersing themselves, and I look for a good day tomorrow. I duly received your note of Friday from Boston. The Union meeting was a stirring and spirited occasion, but what may be the end, I do not know. I expressed to you, you know, three weeks ago, my fears of a decisive split in the Whig party, and I now strongly fear that result. Nevertheless, my dear Sir, I go to Washington to stay for a longer or a shorter time, but determined to do my duty while I do stay. Of personal consequences, I grow every day more and more careless.

To-morrow is Amin Bey's dinner. Then I go to Marshfield for a day, and then South. I have been quite well since you left, though I must confess all the time melancholy, at leaving a place which is dear to my recollection, and which I cannot expect to see often. But away with low spirits. Dum vivimus, vivamus.

P. S. The stars are all out, but it is too warm for them to be very bright. The night is so perfectly still that one may hear the trickling of the little brooks. Or else it is the fall in the Winnipiseogee, away up near “Tin Corner.”

I have got 'em.¹

Yours,

D. W.

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¹ During Mr. Blatchford's visit at Franklin, to which this letter alludes, Mr. Webster expressed much anxiety to find a pair of steel spectacles which his father had worn the last ten years of his life; he feared they were lost, but said he should devote a day to hunting for them; he found them, and told Mr. Blatchford of it by the words "I have got 'em."

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 399-400

Abraham Lincoln to the Congress of the United States, May 26, 1862

WASHINGTON, May 26, 1862.

To the SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

The insurrection which is yet existing in the United States, and aims at the overthrow of the Federal Constitution and the Union, was clandestinely prepared during the winter of 1860 and 1861, and assumed an open organization in the form of a treasonable Provisional Government at Montgomery, in Alabama, on the 18th day of February, 1861. On the 12th day of April, 1861, the insurgents committed the flagrant act of civil war by the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter, which cut off the hope of immediate conciliation. Immediately afterward all the roads and avenues to this city were obstructed, and the capital was put into the condition of a siege. The mails in every direction were stopped, and the lines of telegraph cut off by the insurgents, and military and naval forces, which had been called out by the Government for the defense of Washington, were prevented from reaching the city by organized and combined treasonable resistance in the State of Maryland. There was no adequate and effective organization for the public defense. Congress had indefinitely adjourned. There was no time to convene them. It became necessary for me to choose whether, using only the existing means, agencies, and processes which Congress had provided, I should let the Government fall at once into ruin, or whether, availing myself of the broader powers conferred by the Constitution in cases of insurrection, I would make an effort to save it with all its blessings for the present age and for posterity. I thereupon summoned my constitutional advisers — the heads of all the Departments — to meet on Sunday, the 20th [21st] day of April, 1861, at the office of the Navy Department, and then and there, with their unanimous concurrence, I directed that an armed revenue cutter should proceed to sea, to afford protection to the commercial marine, and especially the California treasure ships, then on their way to this coast. I also directed the commandant of the navy-yard at Boston to purchase or charter, and arm as quickly as possible, five steam-ships, for purposes of public defense. I directed the commandant of the navy-yard at Philadelphia to purchase, or charter and arm, an equal number for the same purpose. I directed the commandant at New York to purchase, or charter and arm, an equal number. I directed Commander Gillis to purchase, or charter and arm, and put to sea two other vessels. Similar directions were given to Commodore Du Pont with a view to the opening of passages by water to and from the capital. I directed the several officers to take the advice and obtain the aid and efficient services in the matter of His Excellency Edwin D. Morgan, Governor of New York, or in his absence, George D. Morgan, William M. Evarts, R. M. Blatchford, and Moses H. Grinnell, who were by my direction especially empowered by the Secretary of the Navy to act for his Department in that crisis in matters pertaining to the forwarding of troops and supplies for the public defense. On the same occasion I directed that Governor Morgan and Alexander Cummings, of the city of New York, should be authorized by the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, to make all necessary arrangements for the transportation of troops and munitions of war in aid and assistance of the officers of the Army of the United States until communication by mails and telegraph should be completely re-established between the cities of Washington and New York. No security was required to be given by them, and either of them was authorized to act in case of inability to consult with the other. On the same occasion I authorized and directed the Secretary of the Treasury to advance, without requiring security, $2,000,000 of public money to John A. Dix, George Opdyke, and Richard M. Blatchford, of New York, to be used by them in meeting such requisitions as should be directly consequent upon military and naval measures necessary for the defense and support of the Government, requiring them only to act without compensation, and to report their transactions when duly called upon.

The several departments of the Government at that time contained so large a number of disloyal persons that it would have been impossible to provide safely, through official agents only, for the performance of the duties thus confided to citizens favorably known for their ability, loyalty, and patriotism. The several orders issued upon these occurrences were transmitted by private messengers, who pursued a circuitous way to the sea-board cities, inland, across the States of Pennsylvania and Ohio and the Northern Lakes. I believe that by these and other similar measures taken in that crisis, some of which were without any authority of law, the Government was saved from overthrow. I am not aware that a dollar of the public funds thus confided without authority of law to unofficial persons was either lost or wasted, although apprehensions of such misdirection occurred to me as objections to those extraordinary proceedings, and were necessarily overruled. I recall these transactions now because my attention has been directed to a resolution which was passed by the House of Representatives on the 30th day of last month, which is in these words:

Resolved, That Simon Cameron, late Secretary of War, by investing Alexander Cummings with the control of large sums of the public money, and authority to purchase military supplies without restriction, without requiring from him any guarantee for the faithful performance of his duties, when the services of competent public officers were available, and by involving the Government in a vast number of contracts with persons not legitimately engaged in the business pertaining to the subject-matter of such contracts, especially in the purchase of arms for future delivery, has adopted a policy highly injurious to the public service, and deserves the censure of the House.

Congress will see that I should be wanting equally in candor and in justice if I should leave the censure expressed in this resolution to rest exclusively or chiefly upon Mr. Cameron. The same sentiment is unanimously entertained by the heads of Departments, who participated in the proceedings which the House of Representatives has censured. It is due Mr. Cameron to say that, although he fully approved the proceedings, they were not moved nor suggested by himself, and that not only the President but all the other heads of Departments were at least equally responsible with him for whatever error, wrong, or fault was committed in the premises.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 2 (Serial No. 123), p. 73-5