land forces of the United States, as general-inchief, and that he repair to this capital so soon as he can with safety to the positions and operations within the department now under his charge.

A. LINCOLN,

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, July 11, 1862 Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: I recommend that the thanks of Congress be given to the following officers of the United States Navy:

Captain John L. Lardner, for meritorious conduct at the battle of Port Royal, and distinguished services on the coast of the United States against the enemy.

Captain Charles Henry Davis, for distinguished services in conflict with the enemy at Fort Pillow, at Memphis, and for successful operations at other points in the waters of the Mississippi River.

Commander John A. Dahlgren, for distinguished services in the line of his profession, improvements in ordnance, and zealous and efficient labors in the ordnance branch of the service.

Commander Stephen C. Rowan, for distinguished services in the waters of North Carolina, and particularly in the capture of Newbern, being in chief command of the naval forces.

Commander David D. Porter, for distinguished services in the conception and preparation of the means used for the capture of the forts below New Orleans, and for highly meritorious conduct in the management of the mortar flotilla during the bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip.

Captain Silas H. Stringham, now on the retired list, for distinguished services in the capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR JOHNSON

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
July 11, 1862.

My dear Sir: Yours of yesterday is received. Do you not, my good friend, perceive that what you ask is simply to put you in command in the West? I do not suppose you desire this.

You only wish to control in your own localities; but this you must know may derange all other posts. Can you not, and will you not, have a full conference with General Halleck?

Telegraph him, and meet him at such place as he and you agree upon. I telegraph him to meet you and confer fully with you.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK

WAR DEPARTMENT, July 11, 1862. Major-General Halleck, Corinth:

Governor Johnson, at Nashville, is in great trouble and anxiety about a raid into Kentucky. The governor is a true and a valuable man—indispensable to us in Tennessee. Will you please get in communication with him, and have a full conference with him before you leave for here? I have telegraphed him on the subject.

A. LINCOLN.

APPEAL TO FAVOR COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION, READ BY THE PRESIDENT TO BORDERSTATE REPRESENTATIVES, July 12, 18621

GE

ENTLEMEN: After the adjournment of Congress, now very near, I shall have no opportunity of seeing you for several months. Believing that you of the border States hold more power for good than any other equal number of members, I feel it a duty which I cannot justifiably waive to make this appeal to you. I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, in my opinion, if

you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual-emancipation message of last March, the war would now be substantially ended. And the plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and swift means of ending it. Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly that in no event will the States you represent ever join their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the con

'This was the last attempt made by Lincoln to effect his cherished project of freeing slaves without ruining their owners. The result was that two-thirds of the Border-State representatives thought the scheme impracticable, while one-third promised to submit it to their constituents.

test. But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you with them so long as you show a determination to perpetuate the institution within your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have overwhelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their own. You and I know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever before their faces, and they can shake you no more forever. Most of you have treated me with kindness and consideration, and I trust you will not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively your own, when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask, Can you, for your States, do better than to take the course I urge? Discarding punctilio and maxims adapted to more manageable times, and looking only to the unprecedentedly stern facts of our case, can you do better in any possible event? You prefer that the constitutional relation of the States to the nation shall be practically restored without disturbance of the institution; and if this were done, my whole duty in this respect, under the Constitution and my oath of office, would be performed. But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by war. The incidents of the war cannot be avoided. If the war continues long, as it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution in your States will be extinguished by mere