spicuous part, is in no wise to be abandoned, but must be ready
to move by the 1st of, or very early in, October. Let all preparations go
forward accordingly.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

TO GENERAL FREMONT,

WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 12, 1861

MAJOR-GENERAL FREMONT:

Governor Morton telegraphs as follows: "Colonel Lane, just arrived by
special train, represents Owensborough, forty miles above Evansville, in
possession of secessionists. Green River is navigable. Owensborough must
be seized. We want a gunboat sent up from Paducah for that purpose." Send
up the gunboat if, in your discretion, you think it right. Perhaps you had
better order those in charge of the Ohio River to guard it vigilantly at
all points.

A. LINCOLN.

To O. H. BROWNING.

(Private and Confidential)

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON SEPTEMBER 22, 1861

HON. O. H. BROWNING.

MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 17th is just received; and coming from you, I
confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my adhering to a law
which you had assisted in making and presenting to me less than a month
before is odd enough. But this is a very small part. General Fremont's
proclamation as to confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves
is purely political and not within the range of military law or necessity.
If a commanding general finds a necessity to seize the farm of a private
owner for a pasture, an encampment, or a fortification, he has the right
to do so, and to so hold it as long as the necessity lasts; and this is
within military law, because within military necessity. But to say the
farm shall no longer belong to the owner, or his heirs forever, and this
as well when the farm is not needed for military purposes as when it is,
is purely political, without the savor of military law about it. And the
same is true of slaves. If the general needs them, he can seize them
and use them; but when the need is past, it is not for him to fix their
permanent future condition. That must be settled according to laws made
by law-makers, and not by military proclamations. The proclamation in the
point in question is simply "dictatorship." It assumes that the general
may do anything he pleases confiscate the lands and free the slaves of
loyal people, as well as of disloyal ones. And going the whole figure,
I have no doubt, would be more popular with some thoughtless people than
that which has been done, But I cannot assume this reckless posi