Latest from the North.
message of Abraham Lincoln — Daring capture by Confederates of a New York steamer,We are under obligations to the officers of the Exchange Bureau for New York papers of Thursday, the 10th inst. The most important intelligence contained in them is the message of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln's annual message — annual Cost of the War — a plan for the reconstruction of the "Union"--proposed amnesty to all "rebels"below Colonels in the army and Captains in the Navy, &c.
The annual message of Abraham Lincoln was read in the Yankee Congress on Wednesday. We give a synopsis of the document as far as it will interest our readers. He says that "another year of health and of sufficiently abundant harvests has passed." The United States remains at peace with foreign powers. The following is his allusion to this fact: ‘ The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us in foreign were, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been unavailing. Her Britannic Majesty's Government, us was justly expected, have exercised their authority to prevent the departure of new hostile expeditions from British ports. ’ The Emperor of France has, by a like proceeding, promptly vindicated the neutrality which he proclaimed at the beginning of the contest. Questions of great intricacy and importance have arisen out of the blockade and other belligerent operations between the Government and several of the maritime Powers, but they have been discussed, and, as far as was possible, accommodated in a spirit of frankness, justice and national good will.The finances of the Nation.
The operations of the Treasury during the last year have been successfully conducted. The enactment by Congress of a National Banking law has proved a valuable support of the public credit, and the general legislation in relation to loans has fully answered the expectations of its favorers.--Some amendments may be required to perfect existing laws; but no change in their principles or general scope is believed to be needed. Since these measures have been in operation all demands on the Treasury, including the pay of the army and navy, have been promptly met and fully satisfied. No considerable body of troops, it is believed, were ever more amply provided and more liberally and punctually paid; and it may be added that by no people were the burdens incidental to a great war more cheerfully borne. The receipts during the year from all sources, including loans and the balance in the Treasury at the commencement, were $901, 125,674.86, and the aggregate disbursement $895,796,636.65, leaving a balance on the 1st of July, 1863, of $5,329,044.21. Of the receipts there were received from customs, $69,059,642.40; from internal revenue, $37,640,787.95; from direct tax, $1,485,103.61; from lands, $167,617.17; from miscellaneous sources, $3,046,615.35, and from loans, $776,682,361.57--making the aggregate $901,125,674.86. Of the disbursements there were for the civil service, $23,253,922.08; for pensions and Indians, $4,216,526.59; for interest on public debt, $24,729,846.;51 for the War Department, $599,298,600.83; for the Navy Department, $63,211,105.27; for payment of funded and temporary debt, $181,086,635.07--making the aggregate $895,796,630.65, and leaving the balance of $5.389,044.21. But the payments of the funded and temporary debt, having been made from moneys borrowed during the year, must be regarded as merely nominal payments, and the moneys borrowed to make them as merely nominal receipts; and their amount, $181,086,635.07, should therefore be deducted both from receipts and disbursements. This being done, there remains, as actual receipts, $720,039,039.79, and the actual disbursements, $714,709,995.58, leaving the balance as already stated. The actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter and the estimated receipts and disbursements for the remaining three-quarters of the current fiscal year, 1864, will be shown in detail by the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to which I invite your attention. It is sufficient to say here that it is not believed that actual results will exhibit a state of the finances less favorable to the country than the estimates of that officer heretofore submitted, while it is confidently expected that at the close of the year both disbursements and debts will be found very considerably less than has been anticipated.The War report.
The report of the Secretary of War is a document of great interest. It consists of--- First--The military operations of the year, detailed in the report of the General-in-Chief.
- Second--The organization of colored persons into the war service.
- Third--The exchange of prisoners, fully set forth in the letter of Gen. Hitchcock.
- Fourth--The operations and the act of enrolling and calling out the national forces — detailed in the report of the Provost Marshal General.
- Fifth--The organization of the invalid corps, and
- Sixth--The operation of the several departments of the Quartermaster General, Commissary General, Paymaster General, Chief of Engineers, Chief of Ordnance, and Surgeon General.
Miscellaneous recommendations and Affairs
Arrangements have been made with the Emperor of Russia for a telegraph line through his territory on this continent. Immigration is to be encouraged. The steam navy is to be greatly increased. The number of seamen in the navy has increased from 7,500 to 34,000. The Post-Office Department lacks $150,000 of paying its expenses. A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the Island of Cuba, has been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is proposed, in an amicable spirit, to refer it to the arbitrament of a friendly power. A convention for that purpose will be submitted to the Senate.The rebellion.
When Congress assembled a year ago the war had already lasted twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and sea, with varying results. The rebellion had been pressed back into reduced limits; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion at home and abroad was not satisfactory. With other signs the popular elections, then just passed, indicated uneasiness among ourselves, while, amid much that was cold and menacing, the kindest words coming from Europe were uttered in accents of pity that we were too blind to surrender a hopeless cause. Our commerce was suffering greatly by a few armed vessels — built upon and furnished from foreign shores — and we were threatened with such additions from the same quarters as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade. We had faited to elicit from European Governments anything hopeful upon this subject.The emancipation proclamation.
The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in September, was running its assigned period to the beginning of the new year. A month later the final proclamation came, including the announcement that colored men of suitable condition would be received in the war service. The policy of emancipation and of employing black soldiers gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope, and fear, and doubt, contended in uncertain conflict. According to our political system, as a matter of civil administration the Government had no lawful power to effect emancipation in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure. It was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and that if it should the crisis of the contest would then be presented. It came, and, as was anticipated, was followed by dark and doubtful days.The Contraband in service.
Eleven months having now passed, we are now permitted to take another review. The rebel borders are pressed still further back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country dominated by the rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no practical communication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery, at the beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in their respective States. Of those States not included in the Emancipation Proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slavery into new Territories, only dispute now as to the best mode of removing it within their own limits. Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full one hundred thousand are now in the United States military service, about one-half of which number actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause and supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so many white men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any. No servile insurrection and tendency to violence or cruelty has marked the measures of emancipation and arming the blacks. These measures have been much discussed in foreign countries, and contemporary with such discussion the tone of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the same measures have been fully discussed, supported, criticised, and denounced; and the annual elections following are highly encouraging to those whose official duty it is to bear the country through this great trial. Thus we have the new reckoning.The crisis past — a proclamation.
The crisis which threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past. Looking now to the present and future, and with a reference to a resumption of the national authority in the States wherein that authority has been suspended, I have thought it proper to issue a proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. On examination of this proclamation it will appear (as is believed) that nothing is attempted beyond what is amply justified by the Constitution. True, the form of an oath is given, but no man is coerced to take it. The man is only promised a pardon in case he voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute discretion, and this includes the power to grant on terms, as is fully established by judicial and other authorities. It is also proffered that if in any of the States named a State government shall be recognized and guaranteed by the United States, under it the State shall, on the constitutional conditions, be protected against invasion and domestic violence.The proposed reconstruction.
The constitutional obligation of the United States to guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government, and to protect the State in the cases stated, is explicit and full. But why tender the benefits of this provision only to a State Government set up in this particular way? This section of the Constitution contemplates a case wherein the element within a State favorable to a republican government in the Union may be too feeble for an opposite and hostile element, external to, or even within, the State, and such are precisely the cases with which we are now dealing. An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State Government, constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing elements so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a sufficiently liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make as worn recantation of his former movements. But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the political body an oath of allegiance to the United States, and to the Union under it, why not also to the laws and proclamations in regard to slavery?The oath
Those laws and proclamations were enacted and put forth for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of the rebellion. To give them their fullest effect there had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my judgment they have aided, and will further aid, the cause for which they were intended. To now abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but would also be a cruel and astonishing breach of faith. I may add, at this point, while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress.--For these and other reasons it is thought best that support of these measures shall be included in the oath; and it is believed that the Executive may lawfully claim it in return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, which he has a clear constitutional power to withhold altogether or grant upon the terms he shall deem wisest for the public interest. It should be observed also that this part of the oath is subject to the modifying and abrogating power of legislation and supreme judicial decision.The revolution in the labor system.
The proposed acquiescence of the national Executive in any reasonable temporary State arrangement for the freed people is made with the view of possibly modifying the confusion and destitution which must at best attend all classes by a total revolution of labor throughout whole States.--It is hoped that the already deeply afflicted people in those States may be somewhat more ready to give up the cause of their affliction, if to this extent this vital matter be left to themselves, while no power of the national Executive to prevent an abuse is abridged by the proposition. The suggestion in the proclamation as to maintaining the political framework of the States, on what is called reconstruction, is made in the hope that it may do good without danger of harm. It will save labor and avoid great confusion. But why any proclamation now upon this subject? --The subject is beset with the conflicting views that the step might be delayed too long, or be taken too soon. In some States the elements for resumption seem ready for action, but remain inactive, apparently for want of a rallying point — a plan of action.--Why should A adopt the plan of B, rather than B that of A? And if A and B should agree, how can they know but that the General Government here will reject their plan? By the proclamation a plan is presented which may be accepted by them as a rallying point, and which they are assured in advance will not be regretted here. This may bring them to act sooner than they otherwise would. The objection to a premature presentation of a plan by the National Executive consists in the danger of committal on points which could be more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken to shape the movement as to avoid embarrassment from this source, saying that on certain terms certain classes will be pardoned, with rights restored. It is not said that other classes or other terms will never be included, saying that reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specific way. It is not said it will never be accepted in any other way. The movements by State action for emancipation in several of the States not included in the emancipation proclamation are matters of profound gratulation.Appeal to Congress — Thanks to the army and Navy.
And, while I do not repeat in detail what I have heretofore so earnestly urged upon this subject, my general views and feelings remain unchanged; and I trust that Congress will omit no fair opportunity of aiding these important steps to the great consummation. In the midst of other cares, however important, we must not lose sight of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that power alone can we look for a time to give confidence to the people in the contested regions that the insurgent power will not again overrun them. Until that confidence shall be established little can be done anywhere for what is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest care must still be directed to the army and navy, which have thus far borne their harder part so nobly and well; and it may be esteemed fortunate that, in giving the greatest efficiency to these indispensable arms, we do honorably recognize the gallant men, from commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom more than to others the world must stand indebted for the home of freedom disenthralled, regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated. December 8, 1863.
Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln.
