time a volunteer is offered the officers must stop and reconstruct the quota. At least I fear there might be this difficulty; but, at all events, let credits for volunteers be given up to the last moment which will not produce confusion or delay. That the principle of giving credits for volunteers shall be applied by districts seems fair and proper, though I do not know how far by present statistics it is practicable. When for any cause a fair credit is not given at one time, it should be given as soon thereafter as practicable. My purpose is to be just and fair, and yet to not lose time. A. LINCOLN. TO J. H. HACKETT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, JAMES H. HACkett, Esq. MY DEAR SIR:-Months ago I should have acknowledged the receipt of your book and accompanying kind note; and I now have to beg your pardon for not having done so. For one of my age I have seen very little of the drama. The first presentation of Falstaff I ever saw was yours here, last winter or spring. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is to say, as I truly can, I am very anxious to see it again. Some of Shakespeare's plays I have never read, while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader. Among the latter are Lear, Richard III., Henry VIII., Hamlet, and especially Macbeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth. It is wonderful. Unlike you gentlemen of the profession, I think the soliloquy in Hamlet commencing "Oh, my offense is rank," surpasses that commencing "To be or not to be. But pardon this small attempt at criticism. I should like to hear you pronounce the opening speech of Richard III. Will you not soon visit Washington again? If you do, please call and let me make your personal acquaintance. Yours truly, A. LINCOLN. TO F. F. LOWE. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 17, 1863. HON. F. F. Lowe, San Francisco, Cal.: There seems to be considerable misunderstanding about the recent movement to take possession of the "New Almaden" mine. It has no reference to any other mine or mines. In regard to mines and miners generally, no change of policy by the Government has been decided on, or even thought of, so far as I know. The "New Almaden" mine was peculiar in this: that its occupants claimed to be the legal owners of it on a Mexican grant, and went into court on that claim. The case found its way into the Supreme Court of the United States, and last term, in and by that court, the claim of the occupants was decided to be utterly fraudulent. Thereupon it was considered the duty of the Government by the Secretary of the Interior, the Attorney-General, and myself to take possession of the premises; and the Attorney-General carefully made out the writ and I signed it. It was not obtained surreptitiously, although I suppose General Halleck thought it had been, when he telegraphed, simply because he thought possession was about being taken by a military order, while he knew no such order had passed through his hands as general-in-chief. The writ was suspended, upon urgent representations from California, simply to keep the peace. It never had any direct or indirect reference to any mine, place, or person, except the "New Almaden❞ mine and the persons connected with it. A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 21, 1863. MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Warrenton, Va.: At this late moment I am appealed to in behalf of William Thompson of Company K, Third Maryland Volunteers, in Twelfth Army Corps, said to be at Kelly's Ford, under sentence to be shot to-day as a deserter. He is represented to me to be very young, with symptoms of insanity. Please postpone the execution till further order. A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 22, 1863. GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.: Please send me if you can a transcript of the record in the case of McQuin and Bell, convicted of murder by a military commission. I telegraphed General Strong for it, but he does not answer. A. LINCOLN. TELEGRAM TO MRS. GRIMSLEY. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 24, 1863. MRS. ELIZABETH J. GRIMSLEY, Springfield, Ill.: A. LINCOLN. TO J. C. CONKLING. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, HON. JAMES C. CONKLING. MY DEAR SIR:-Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois, on the 3d day of September, has been received. It would be very agreeable for me thus to meet my old friends at my own home, but I cannot just now be absent from here so long as a visit there would require. The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion to the Union, and I am sure that my old political friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble men whom no partisan malice or partisan hope can make false to the nation's life. There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: You desire peace, and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we obtain it? There are but three conceivable ways: First-to suppress the rebellion by force of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for it? If you are, so far we are agreed. If you are not for it, a second way is to give up the Union. I am against this. Are you for it? If you are you should say so plainly. If you are not for force nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginable compromise. I do not believe that any compromise embracing the maintenance of the Union is now possible. All that I learn leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion is its military, its army. That army dominates all the country and all the people within its range. Any offer of terms made by any man or men within that range, in opposition to that army, is simply nothing for the present; because such man or men have no power whatever to enforce their side of a compromise, if one were made with them. To illustrate: Suppose refugees from the South and peace men of the North get together in convention, and frame and proclaim a compromise |