LETTER TO REV. ALEXANDER REED.

February 22, 1863.

YOUR note by which you, as general superintendent of the United States Christian Commission, invite me to preside at a meeting to be this day held at the hall of the House of Representatives in this city, is received.

While, for reasons which I deem sufficient, I must decline to preside, I cannot withhold my approval of the meeting and its worthy objects. Whatever shall be sincerely, and in God's name, devised for the good of the soldier and seaman in their hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to be blessed. And whatever shall tend to turn our thoughts from the unreasoning and uncharitable passions, prejudices, and jealousies incident to a great national trouble such as ours, and to fix them upon the vast and long-enduring consequences, for weal or for woe, which are to result from the struggle, and especially to strengthen our reliance on the Supreme Being for the final triumph of the right, cannot but be well for us all.

The birthday of Washington and the Christian Sabbath, coinciding this year, and suggesting together the highest interests of this life and of that to come, is most propitious for the meeting proposed.

FROM HIS REPLY TO THE PRESBYTERIAN

CLERGYMEN.

May, 1863.

"IT has been my happiness to receive testimonies of a similar nature from, I believe, all denominations of Christians. They are all loyal, but perhaps not in the same degree, or in the same numbers; but I think they all claim to be loyal. This to me is most gratifying, because from the beginning I saw that the issue of our great struggle depended on the Divine interposition and favour. If we had that, all would be well. The proportions of this rebellion were not for a long time understood. I saw that it involved the greatest difficulties, and would call forth all the powers of the country. The end is not yet.

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"The point made in your paper is well taken as to the government' and 'the administration,' in whose hands are these interests. I fully appreciate its correctness and justice. In my administration I may have committed some errors. It would be indeed remarkable if I had not. I have acted according to my best judgment in every case. The views expressed by the committee accord with my own; and on this principle 'the government' is to be supported, though the ad

ministration' may not in every case wisely act. As a pilot I have used my best exertions to keep afloat our ship of state, and shall be glad to resign my trust at the appointed time to another pilot, more skilful and successful than I may prove. In every case and at all hazards, the government must be perpetuated. Relying as I do upon the Almighty Power, and encouraged as I am by the resolutions which you have just read, with the support which I receive from Christian men, I shall not hesitate to use all the means at my control to secure the termination of this rebellion, and will hope for success.

LETTER TO ERASTUS CORNING AND OTHERS.

June 12, 1863.

[THIS letter is the President's answer to the resolutions of a Democratic convention which assert the loyalty of its members, but censure Mr. Lincoln for his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and for approving military arrests in places not actually in rebellion. The reply is an unanswerable justification of his acts. As a legal argument it is conclusive, and as a specimen of English composition it is clear, logical, and beautiful. Its length (about 4500 words) prevents the insertion here of the entire document. To

take an extract from it would be like removing a stone from the granite wall of a noble edifice: it would deface the beauty and weaken the strength of the wall, without giving any adequate idea of the building. No selection from it is therefore attempted.]

FROM HIS REPLY TO THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION OF OHIO.

June 29, 1863.

[C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, a member of the last Congress from Ohio, and a man of misdirected ability, had by his speeches in Congress and elsewhere promoted the rebellion up to the verge of treason. On the 19th of May, 1863, the President ordered General Canby to put Vallandigham beyond the lines, and if he returned, to arrest and imprison him. The Democratic Convention of Ohio then nominated him for governor, and passed and sent resolutions to the President which, while declaring its purpose to sustain the National Union by all constitutional means, reasserted the objections of the Corning letter, and protested against the arrest and deportation of Vallandigham as unlawful and an insult to Ohio. In this reply, among other things, the President said:]

"You claim that men may, if they choose, embarrass those whose duty it is to combat a

giant rebellion, and then be dealt with in turn as if there were no rebellion. The Constitution itself rejects this view. The military arrests and detentions which have been made, including those of Mr. Vallandigham, which are not different in principle from the others, have been made for prevention and not for punishment, — as injunctions to stay injury, as proceedings to keep the peace.

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"... I am unable to perceive an insult to Ohio in the case of Mr. Vallandigham. Quite surely nothing of the sort was or is intended. wholly unaware that Mr. Vallandigham was, at the time of his arrest, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor until so informed by your reading to me the resolutions of the convention. I am grateful to the State of Ohio for many things, especially for the brave soldiers and officers she has given in the present national trial to the armies of the Union.

". . . We all know that combinations, armed in some instances, to resist the arrest of deserters began several months ago; that more recently the like has appeared in resistance to the enrolment preparatory to the draft; and that quite a number of assassinations have occurred from the same animus. These had to be met by military force,