To Gideon Welles Executive Mansion, April 29. 1861 Hon. Secretary of the Navy, Sir: You will please to have as strong a War Steamer as you can conveniently put on that duty, to cruise upon the Potomac, and to look in upon, and, if practicable, examine the Bluff and vicinity, at what is called the [...]
To Winfield Scott April 27, 1861 To the Commanding General of the Army of the United States: You are engaged in repressing an insurrection against the laws of the United States. If at any point on or in the vicinity of the military line, which is now used between the City of Philadelphia and the [...]
Reply to the Frontier Guard1 April 26, 1861 I have desired as sincerely as any man—I sometimes think more than any other man—that our present difficulties might be settled without the shedding of blood. I will not say that all hope is yet gone. But if the alternative is presented, whether the Union is to [...]
To Winfield Scott1 Lieutenant General Scott Washington, April 25— 1861. My dear Sir: The Maryland Legislature assembles to-morrow at Anapolis; and, not improbably, will take action to arm the people of that State against the United States. The question has been submitted to, and considered by me, whether it would not be justifiable, upon the [...]
To Reverdy Johnson1 Confidential. Hon. Reverdy Johnson Executive Mansion, April 24th 1861. My dear Sir: Your note of this morning is just received. I forebore to answer yours of the 22d because of my aversion (which I thought you understood,) to getting on paper, and furnishing new grounds for misunderstanding. I do say the sole [...]
Lincoln’s Reply to a Baltimore Committee April 22, 1861 You, gentlemen, come here to me and ask for peace on any terms, and yet have no word of condemnation for those who are making war on us. You express great horror of bloodshed, and yet would not lay a straw in the way of those [...]
Washington, April 20. 1861 Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown: Gentlemen: Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dobbin & Brume,1, 2 is received. I tender you both my sincere thanks for your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation in which you are placed. For the future, troops must be brought here, but I make [...]
Washington, April 15. 1861 Col. E. E. Ellsworth My dear Sir: Ever since the beginning of our acquaintance, I have valued you highly as a person[al] friend, and at the same time (without much capacity of judging) have had a very high estimate of your military talent. Accordingly I have been, and still am anxious [...]
April 15, 1861 By the President of the United States A Proclamation.1, 2 Whereas, The laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed [...]
[“War Department.] Washington, April 6. 1861 Sir—You will proceed directly to Charleston, South Carolina; and if, on your arrival there, the flag of the United States shall be flying over Fort-Sumpter, and the Fort shall not have been attacked, you will procure an interview with Gov. Pickens, and read to him as follows: “I am [...]
WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, D.C., April 4, 1861. Major ROBERT ANDERSON, U. S. Army: SIR: Your letter of the 1st instant occasions some anxiety to the President. On the information of Captain Fox he had supposed you could hold out till the 15th instant without any great inconvenience; and had prepared an expedition to relieve you [...]