ery truly, your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

RESPONSE TO A METHODIST DELEGATION, MAY 14, 1864.

GENTLEMEN:-In response to your address, allow me to attest the accuracy of
its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it expresses, and thank
you in the nation's name for the sure promise it gives. Nobly sustained,
as the Government has been, by all the churches, I would utter nothing
which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet without this,
it may fairly be said, that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less
devoted than the best, is by its greatest numbers the most important
of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more
soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers
to Heaven than--any other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the
churches; and blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the
churches.

TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR YATES. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864.

His EXCELLENCY RICHARD YATES, Springfield, Ill.:

If any such proclamation has appeared, it is a forgery.

A. LINCOLN.

ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF IRRESPONSIBLE NEWSPAPER REPORTERS AND EDITORS

ORDER TO GENERAL J. A. DIX.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 18, 1864.

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, Commanding at New York:

Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and published
this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of Commerce,
newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a false and
spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the President and to
be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which publication is of a
treasonable nature, designed to give aid and comfort to the enemies of
the United States and to the rebels now at war against the Government and
their aiders and abettors, you are therefore hereby commanded forthwith
to arrest and imprison in any fort or military prison in your command, the
editors, proprietors, and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all
such persons as, after public notice has been given of the falsehood of
said publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and
comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in close
custody until they can be brought to trial before a military commission
for their offense. You will also take possession by military force of the
printing establishments of the New York World and Journ