Lincoln's Last Days: March 17, 1865
St. Patrick's Day of 1865 was a Friday and Abraham Lincoln was monitoring the progress of the Union war effort, as well as tending to problems elsewhere. One of those problems concerned the supply of guns and other weapons to hostile Indian tribes. To address the problem, on March 17, 1865 (150 years ago today) Lincoln issued the following proclamation:
March 17, 1865
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, reliable information has been received that hostile Indians within the limits of the United States have been furnished with arms and munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign territory, and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare upon the exposed and sparse settlements of the frontier.
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all persons detected in that nefarious traffic, shall be arrested and tried by Court Martial at the nearest military post, and, if convicted, shall receive the punishment due to their deserts.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this seventeenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Later that day, at about 4 P.M. Lincoln spoke from the balcony of the National Hotel. He spoke to members of the 140th Indiana Regiment, and presented the Governor of Indiana with a flag that the regiment had captured at Fort Anderson, North Carolina. As was the practice, Lincoln gave a copy of his prepared remarks to some of the newspapers. The text of his speech is set out below. As I read it for the first time, I imagined what it must have been like to be in the crowd that day. The subject Lincoln addressed was the Confederacy's recent decision to allow African-American slaves to serve as soldiers in its Army. Here is what Lincoln said, according to an account appearing in the New York Herald the next day:
Fellow citizens: It will be but a very few words that I shall undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana and lived in Illinois. (Laughter.) And now I am here, where it is my business to care equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment on this day able to present the captured flag to the Governor of Indiana. (Applause.) I am not disposed, in saying this, to make a distinction between the States, for all have done equally well. (Applause.) There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have not said or written something whereby my own opinions might be known. But there is one, the recent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are sometimes called, (laughter) to employ the negro to fight for them.
I have neither written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was their business, not mine; and if I had a wish upon the subject I had not the power to introduce it, or make it effective. The great question with them was, whether the negro, being put into the army, would fight for them. I do not know, and therefore cannot decide. (Laughter.) They ought to know better than we. I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery it will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. (Laughter and applause.) He who will fight for that ought to be a slave. (Applause.)
They have concluded at last to take one out of four of the slaves, and put them in the army; and that one out of the four who will fight to keep the others in slavery ought to be a slave himself unless he is killed in a fight. (Applause.) While I have often said that all men ought to be free, yet I would allow those colored persons to be slaves who want to be; and next to them those white persons who argue in favor of making other people slaves. (Applause.) I am in favor of giving an opportunity to such white men to try it on for themselves. (Applause.) I will say one thing in regard to the negro being employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay at home and make bread too (laughter and applause) and as one is about as important as the other to them, I don't care which they do. (Renewed applause.) I am rather in favor of having them try them as soldiers. (Applause.)
They lack one vote of doing that, and I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. (Applause.) But they cannot fight and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them, they must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their last branch of resources. (Applause.) And we can now see the bottom. (Applause.) I am glad to see the end so near at hand. (Applause.) I have said now more than I intended, and will therefore bid you goodbye.
Today the Newseum sits on the site where the National Hotel used to stand. The hotel was home to many prominent guests, including a man who would feature prominently in Lincoln's history, John Wilkes Booth.
March 17, 1865
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, reliable information has been received that hostile Indians within the limits of the United States have been furnished with arms and munitions of war by persons dwelling in conterminous foreign territory, and are thereby enabled to prosecute their savage warfare upon the exposed and sparse settlements of the frontier.
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all persons detected in that nefarious traffic, shall be arrested and tried by Court Martial at the nearest military post, and, if convicted, shall receive the punishment due to their deserts.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this seventeenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Later that day, at about 4 P.M. Lincoln spoke from the balcony of the National Hotel. He spoke to members of the 140th Indiana Regiment, and presented the Governor of Indiana with a flag that the regiment had captured at Fort Anderson, North Carolina. As was the practice, Lincoln gave a copy of his prepared remarks to some of the newspapers. The text of his speech is set out below. As I read it for the first time, I imagined what it must have been like to be in the crowd that day. The subject Lincoln addressed was the Confederacy's recent decision to allow African-American slaves to serve as soldiers in its Army. Here is what Lincoln said, according to an account appearing in the New York Herald the next day:
Fellow citizens: It will be but a very few words that I shall undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana and lived in Illinois. (Laughter.) And now I am here, where it is my business to care equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment on this day able to present the captured flag to the Governor of Indiana. (Applause.) I am not disposed, in saying this, to make a distinction between the States, for all have done equally well. (Applause.) There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have not said or written something whereby my own opinions might be known. But there is one, the recent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are sometimes called, (laughter) to employ the negro to fight for them.
I have neither written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was their business, not mine; and if I had a wish upon the subject I had not the power to introduce it, or make it effective. The great question with them was, whether the negro, being put into the army, would fight for them. I do not know, and therefore cannot decide. (Laughter.) They ought to know better than we. I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery it will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. (Laughter and applause.) He who will fight for that ought to be a slave. (Applause.)
They have concluded at last to take one out of four of the slaves, and put them in the army; and that one out of the four who will fight to keep the others in slavery ought to be a slave himself unless he is killed in a fight. (Applause.) While I have often said that all men ought to be free, yet I would allow those colored persons to be slaves who want to be; and next to them those white persons who argue in favor of making other people slaves. (Applause.) I am in favor of giving an opportunity to such white men to try it on for themselves. (Applause.) I will say one thing in regard to the negro being employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay at home and make bread too (laughter and applause) and as one is about as important as the other to them, I don't care which they do. (Renewed applause.) I am rather in favor of having them try them as soldiers. (Applause.)
They lack one vote of doing that, and I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. (Applause.) But they cannot fight and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them, they must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their last branch of resources. (Applause.) And we can now see the bottom. (Applause.) I am glad to see the end so near at hand. (Applause.) I have said now more than I intended, and will therefore bid you goodbye.
Today the Newseum sits on the site where the National Hotel used to stand. The hotel was home to many prominent guests, including a man who would feature prominently in Lincoln's history, John Wilkes Booth.