them
against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky.

"Allow me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion,
modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections
of the Act of Congress entitled, 'An Act to Confiscate Property used for
Insurrectionary purposes,' approved August 6, 1861, a copy of which Act
I herewith send you.

"This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure.

"I send it by a special messenger, in that it may certainly and speedily
reach you.
"Yours very truly,
"A. LINCOLN.

"Major-General FREMONT."

General Fremont replied to President Lincoln's suggestions, as follows:

"HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT,
"St. Louis, September 8, 1861.

"MY DEAR SIR: Your letter of the second, by special
messenger, I know to have been written before you had received my
letter, and before my telegraphic dispatches and the rapid developments
of critical conditions here had informed you of affairs in this quarter.
I had not written to you fully and frequently, first, because in the
incessant change of affairs I would be exposed to give you contradictory
accounts; and secondly, because the amount of the subjects to be laid
before you would demand too much of your time.

"Trusting to have your confidence, I have been leaving it to events
themselves to show you whether or not I was shaping affairs here
according to your ideas. The shortest communication between Washington
and St. Louis generally involves two days, and the employment of two
days, in time of War, goes largely toward success or disaster. I
therefore went along according to my own judgment, leaving the result of
my movement to justify me with you.

"And so in regard to my proclamation of the thirtieth. Between the
Rebel Armies, the Provisional Government, and the home Traitors, I felt
the position bad, and saw danger. In the night I decided upon the
proclamation and the form of it--I wrote it the next morning and printed
it the same day. I did it without consultation or advice with any one,
acting solely with my best judgment to serve the Country and yourself,
and perfectly willing to receive the amount of censure which should be
thought due, if I had made a false movement.

"This is as much a movement in the War, as a battle, and, in going into
these, I shall have to act accordin