In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all, and to the young it comes with bittered agony because it takes them unawares.
The older have learned ever to expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress, perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say, and you need only to believe it to feel better at once. The memory of your dear father, instead of an agony, will yet be a sad, sweet feeling in your heart, of a purer and holier sort than you have known before.
Please present my kind regards to your afflicted mother.
Your sincere friend,
A. LINCOLN.
TO SECRETARY OF WAR.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 26, 1862
HONORABLE SECRETARY OF WAR.
Sir:--Two Ohio regiments and one Illinois regiment which were captured at Hartsville have been paroled and are now at Columbus, Ohio. This brings the Ohio regiments substantially to their homes. I am strongly impressed with the belief that the Illinois regiment better be sent to Illinois, where it will be recruited and put in good condition by the time they are exchanged so as to re-enter the service. They did not misbehave, as I am satisfied, so that they should receive no treatment nor have anything withheld from them by way of punishment.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL CURTIS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1862.
MAJOR-GENERAL CURTIS, Saint Louis, Mo.:
Let the order in regard to Dr. McPheeters and family be suspended until you hear from me.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR GAMBLE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, December 27, 1862.
HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR GAMBLE:
I do not wish to leave the country north of the Missouri to the care of the enrolled militia except upon the concurrent judgment of yourself and General Curtis. His I have not yet obtained. Confer with him, and I shall be glad to act when you and he agree.
A. LINCOLN
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, D.C., December 30, 1862. 3.30 PM.
MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE:
I have good reason for saying you must not make a general movement of the army without letting me know.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL DIX.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 31, 1862.
MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, Fort Monroe, Va.:
I hear not a word about the Congressional election of which you and I corresponded. Time clearly up.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO H. J. RAYMOND. (Private.) EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 31, 1862.
HON. H. J. RAYMOND:
The proclamation cannot be telegraphed to you until during the day to-morrow.
JNO. G. NICOLAY.
[Same to Horace Greeley]
1863
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION,
JANUARY 1, 1863.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas on the 22d day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the 1st day of January, A.D., 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.