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therein state l, and also declaring that the president was thereby authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any state, or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare; and

Whereas, The congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon accords with the well established judicial exposition of the pardoning power; and

Whereas, With reference to the said rebellion, the president of the United States has issued several proclamations with provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves; and

Whereas, It is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to re-inaugurate loyal state governments within and for their respective states;

Therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, president of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have directly, or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of al' rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property cases where the rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:

"I, ———, do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the states thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress or by decision of the Supreme Court, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the president made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God."

The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are: all who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the socalled confederate government; all who have left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are or shall have been military

or naval officers of said so-called confederate government above the rank of colonel in the army, of | lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States, and afterward aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that whenever, in any of the states of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such states, at the presidential election of the year of our Lord 1860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the state existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a state government, which shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the state, and the state shall receive thereunder the benefit of the constitutional provision, which declares that

"The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on application to the Legislature, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence."

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that any provision which may be adopted by such state government in relation to the freed people of such state which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national executive.

And it is suggested as not improper, that, in constructing a loyal state government in any state, the name of the state, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions herein before stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be decmed expedient by those framing the new state government. To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this proclamation, so far as it relates to state governments, has no reference tc

CH. VI.]

THE AMNESTY PROCLAMATIONS.

states wherein loyal state governments have all the while been maintained; and for the same reason it may be proper to further say, that whether members sent to Congress from any state shall be admitted to seats, constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the executive. And still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the people of the states wherein the national authority has been suspended, and the loyal state governments have been subverted, a mode in and by which the national authority and loyal state governments may be re-established within said states, or in any of them. And, while the mode presented is the best the executive can suggest with his present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the 8th day of December, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the president,

W. H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

II.-PROCLAMATION EXPLANATORY. WHEREAS, It has become necessary to define the cases in which insurgent enemies are entitled to the benefits of the proclamation of the president of the United States, which was made on the 8th day of December, 1863, and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail themselves of these benefits; and whereas the objects of that proclamation were to suppress the insurrection and to restore the authority of the United States; and whereas the amnesty therein proposed by the president was offered with reference to these objects alone:

Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, president of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the said proclamation does not apply to the cases of persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the benefits thereof by taking the nath therek y prescribed, are in military, naval, or

399

civil confinement or custody, or under bonds, or on parole of the civil, military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States, as prisoners of war, of persons detained for offences of any kind, either be fore or after conviction; and that on the contrary it does apply only to those persons who, being yet at large, and free from any arrest, confinement, or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the oath, with the purpose of restoring peace, and establishing the national authority.

Persons excluded from the amnesty offered in the said proclamation may apply to the president for clemency, like all other offenders, and their application will receive due consideration.

I do further declare and proclaim, that the oath presented in the aforesaid proclamation of the 8th of December, 1863, may be taken and subscribed before any commissioned officer, civil, military, or naval, in the service of the United States, or any civil or military officer of a state or territory not in insurrection, who, by the laws thereof, may be qualified for administering oaths.

All officers who receive such oaths are hereby authorized to give certificates thereof to the persons respectively by whom they are made, and such officers are hereby required to transmit the original record of such oaths, at as early a day as may be convenient, to the department of state, where they will be deposited, and remain in the archives of the government.

The secretary of state will keep a register thereof, and will, on application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such record in the customary form of official certificates.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, the 26th day of March, in the year of our Lord, 1864, and of the independence of the United States the eighty eighth.

By the president:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

CHAPTER VII.

1864.

OPENING OF THE YEAR 1864: MILITARY EVENTS, ETC

Military operations at the opening of the year 1864- General condition of affairs, preparations for the spring campaign, etc. - Mr. Lincoln's call for 200,000 men Matter how arranged - Action of Congress on the enrollment question, etc.- Proceedings of rebel Congress on conscription, finances, etc. - Jeff. Davis's proclamation-Tone and temper of the rebels - Gen. Gillmore's expedition into Florida- Its objects Gen. Seymour in command - Advance of the troops - Seymour's unhappy decision - Disaster at Olustee Sherman's expedition into the interior of Mississippi - Sets out February 3d, and advances to Meridian Waits for cavalry force - Gen. Smith's advance from Memphis - Failure to join Sherman - Result of the expedition - Mobile threatened by Farragut - Gen. Palmer's march upon Dalton, Georgia -ResultCruel treatment of our officers and men in prison at Richmond - Expedition set on foot by Gen. ButlerRebel attempts upon Newbern - Wistar's movement - Kilpatrick's cavalry expedition - In sight of Richmond, March 1st-Forced to return by way of the Peninsula - Colonel Dahlgren's attempt and his ill success, death, etc. - Rebel charges against him- The prospect ahead.

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1964.

DURING the early months of the year | the Mississippi, to protect the border 1864, military operations were operations were not states of the West from invasion, and carried on to any great extent. The to maintain the needed communications winter season, except in the far South, of the army; but these services, though was unfavorable, of course, to the en- requiring earnest care and attention, tering upon work of any magnitude; and involving various contests with the time, consequently, was mainly guerrilla and other forces, were rather spent in preparation for the severe and in the ordinary routine of regular duty, even deadly struggle which the spring and did not attract public atcampaign clearly indicated. The ground tention to any particular extent. was now much narrower than it was a Expectation, in the loyal states, no less year ago. In Tennessee, Arkansas, on than in those still under the control the line of the Mississippi, and in Loui- of the rebel leaders, was mainly centred siana, there was good hope of being upon the armies of Meade and Lee in able speedily to include all these re- Virginia, and Grant and Johnston in gions among the loyal supporters of the vicinity of Chattanooga; for it was the Constitution and laws of the land. evident, from the present position of A large and important work, it is true, affairs, that the campaigns of the spring remained to be done to the west of the would be of great and decisive impor Mississippi, before the whole territory tance, and would tax the energies and could be fully restored to its rightful resources of the government to their allegiance in the Union, and constant fullest extent. The rebel authorities, vigilance had to be maintained at the too, conscious of their doubtful condi various posts on the frontier and on tion, were straining every nerve to re

CI. VII.]

PREPARATIONS FOR SPRING CAMPAIGN.

sist the onward progress of the Union arms, by accumulating stores, gather ing in of conscripts, strengthening their armies, etc.

1864.

401

tiously opposed to the bearing of arms, and be prohibited from doing so by the rules and articles of faith and prac tice of said religious denominations, were to be considered non-combatants and assigned to duty in the hospitals, or the care of freedmen, or be relieved on payment of the stipulated sum of $300.

On the 1st of February, 1864, President Lincoln issued an order for 200,000 men, in addition to the 300,000 called for in October, 1863, and appointed the 10th of March for a draft of such portion of this 500,000 as should As we have stated on a preceding not then be furnished by the states ac page, every nerve was now to be straincording to their several quotas. Strenu-ed by the rebel leaders to prepare for ous efforts, by bounties and by means the coming campaign. Their congress of furloughs to the old regiments in the met, and at the beginning of February field, whose terms of service were about passed a new and stringent conscription to expire, were made, and resulted in act. It was provided by this, that all largely supplying the men called for, white men, residents of the states under so that the draft ordered for March was their control, betweeen the ages of dispensed with. In fact, so successful seventeen and fifty, should be in the did the movements for recruiting prove, military service for the war. All in that, on the 14th of March, Pre- the service between eighteen and fortysident Lincoln (in addition to five were to be retained during the the two calls above noted), "in order war. Those between seventeen and to supply the force required to be eighteen, and between forty-five and drafted for the navy, and to provide an fifty, were to form a reserve for state adequate reserve force for all contin- defence and detail duty. An act imgencies," ordered a further enlistment posing additional taxes was also passed of 200,000 men, appointing the 15th at this session, and another, in acof April as the period when any defi- cordance with Secretary Memminger's ciencies should be made good by a and Jeff. Davis's recommendation, prodraft. By an act of Congress, passed viding for the funding of the outstand. in February, amendatory of the Enroll- ing treasury notes or currency of the ment Act of the previous year, the mea- states in confederate bonds. This consure was strengthened by various pro- version was, in great measure, rendered visions, checking frauds and evasions, compulsory by the refusal of the rebel and otherwise rendering the enactment authorities to receive the currency after more efficient. Clergymen, and minis- an early day in payment of public dues, ters of the Gospel in general, were still and by the imposition of a tax on the liable to draft; but a provision was notes not funded. By another act, made by which members of religious February 16th, the privilege of the writ denominations who should, on being of habeas corpus was suspended in cerdrafted, declare themselves conscien- tain specified cases, and it was to con

VOL. IV.-51

tinue in force for ninety days after the next meeting of the rebel Congress. An address was issued at the close of the session, February 18th, 1864, to the people of the insurgent states, containing the usual topics of consolation and encouragement, and striving to excite them to renewed efforts in carrying on the war, especially by furnishing supplies to support and equip the rebel armies. Jeff. Davis, also, sent forth a proclamation to the soldiers in the field, in which he took his usual lofty tone, asserting, on the one hand, in regard to the loyal states, that "debt, taxation, repetition of heavy drafts, dissensions occasioned by the strife for power, by the pursuit of the spoils of office, by the thirst for the plunder of the public treasury, and above all, the consciousness of a bad cause, must tell with fearful force upon the overstrained energies of the enemy." On the other hand, he was equally confident in as serting that "assured success awaits us in our holy struggle for liberty and independence, and for the preservation of all that renders life desirable to honorable men."*

Although no great military move. ments were undertaken during Febru

* Certain resolutions were adopted by the rebel congress, and a manifesto issued relative to the existing

war with the United States. The tone and temper of

this document were similar to those of Davis, quoted above: "For ourselves we have no fear of the result.

The wildest picture ever drawn by a disordered ima

gination comes short of the extravagance which would dream of the conquest of 8,000,000 of people, resolved

with one mind to die freemen rather than live slaves,

and forewarned of the savage and exterminating spirit in which this war has been waged upon them, and by the mad avowals of the supporters of the worse than Egyptian bondage that awaits them in the event of their subjugation."

ary or March, yet several expeditious of less consequence were set on 1864. foot for the purpose of checking the enemy's designs in the south and south-west. About the middle of December, 1863, Gen. Gillmore had obtained permission to send an expedition into Florida, in order to cut off rebel supplies, to procure an outlet for cotton, lumber, and other productions of the country, and to gather in for the army recruits from among the negroes. He also, in January, 1864, in accordance with Mr. Lincoln's request, inaugurated measures for restoring the state of Florida to her allegiance under the terms of the president's proclamation (p. 397). Having organized an expe dition for the purpose above stated, Gillmore dispatched from Port Royal on the 5th of February, a force of about 6,000 cavalry, infantry and artillery, under command of Gen. Seymour. They entered the St. John's River on the 7th, and the next day effected a landing at Jacksonville, without opposition, the few rebel soldiers there having taken to flight immediately. Seymour was directed to move forward his mounted

force to Baldwin, some twenty miles distant, on the Central Railroad. The advance, under Col. Henry, pushed for ward into the interior, on the night of the 8th of February, passed by the enemy, drawn up in line of battle at Camp Finnegan, seven miles from Jacksonville, surprised and captured a battery, three miles in the rear of the camp, about midnight, and reached Baldwin about sunrise the next morning. The enemy absconded, sunk the steamer St. Mary's, and burned 270 bales of cotton

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