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Vol 43: The Classics - Part 2
And the Six
Nations, and each of them, will forever allow to the people of the
United States, a free passage through their lands, and the free use
of their harbors and rivers adjoining and within their respective
tracts of land, for the passing and securing of vessels and boats, and
liberty to land their cargoes when necessary for their safety.
ARTICLE VI
In consideration of the peace and friendship hereby established,
and of the engagements entered into by the Six Nations; and because
the United States desire, with humanity and kindness, to contribute
to their comfortable support; and to render the peace and friend-
ship hereby established strong and perpetual; the United States now
deliver to the Six Nations, and the Indians of the other nations re-
siding among and united with them, a quantity of goods of the
value of ten thousand dollars. And for the same considerations, and
with a view to promote the future welfare of the Six Nations, and of
their Indian friends aforesaid, the United States will add the sum
of three thousand dollars to the one thousand five hundred dollars,
heretofore allowed them by an article ratified by the President, on the
twenty-third day of April 1792; making in the whole, four thousand
five hundred dollars; which shall be expended yearly forever, in
purchasing clothing, domestic animals, implements of husbandry and
other utensils suited to their circumstances, and in compensating use-
ful artificers, who shall reside with them or near them, and be
employed for their benefit. The immediate application of the whole
annual allowance now stipulated, to be made by the superintendent
232 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
appointed by the President for the affairs of the Six Nations, and
their Indian friends aforesaid.
ARTICLE VII
Lest the firm peace and friendship now established should be
interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, the United States and
Six Nations agree, that for injuries done by individuals on either
side, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place; but, instead
thereof, complaint shall be made by the party injured, to the other:
By the Six Nations or any of them, to the President of the United
States, or the Superintendent by him appointed: and by the Super-
intendent, or other person appointed by the President, to the prin-
cipal chiefs of the Six Nations, or of the nation to which the offender
belongs: and such prudent measures shall then be pursued as shall
be necessary to preserve our peace and friendship unbroken; until
the legislature (or great council) of the United States shall make the
equitable provision for the purpose.
NOTE: It is clearly understood by the parties to this treaty, that
the annuity stipulated in the sixth article, is to be applied to the
benefit of such of the Six Nations and of their Indian friends united
with them as aforesaid, as do or shall reside within the boundaries
of the United States: for the United States do not interfere with
nations, tribes or families, of Indians elsewhere resident.
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL
ADDRESS
(1796)
[Washington refused to be a candidate for a third term of the Presidency; and in
May, 1796, he sent to Hamilton a rough draft of his farewell address, asking for his
criticism. After much revision by both the document was published on Sept. 19,
and was read to the House of Representatives. The advice contained in it has ever
since exercised a profound influence on the policy of the nation.]
Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
THE period for a new election of a Citizen, to administer the
Executive Government of the United States, being not far
distant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts
must be employed in designating the person, who is to be clothed
with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it
may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I
should now apprize you of the resolution I have formed, to decline
being considered among the number of those, out of whom a choice
is to be made.
I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured, that
this resolution has not been taken, without a strict regard to all the
considerations appertaining to the relation, which binds a dutiful
citizen to his country and that, in withdrawing the tender of
service which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced
by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of
grateful respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a full
conviction that the step is compatible with both.
The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which
your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice
of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what
appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have
been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives, which I
was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement, from
233
234 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclina-
tion to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the prep-
aration of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on
the then perplexed and critical posture of our afTairs with foreign
Nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my con-
fidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.
I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal,
no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the
sentiment of duty, or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever par-
tiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circum-
stances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination
to retire.
The impressions, with which I first undertook the arduous trust,
were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this
trust, I will only say, that I have, with good intentions, contributed
towards the organization and administration of the government,
the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.
Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications,
experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others,
has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day
the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.
Satisfied, that, if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my
services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that,
while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene,
patriotism does not forbid it.
In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate
the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend
the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude, which I owe
to my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon
me; still more for the stedfast confidence with which it has supported
me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting
my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering,
though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted
to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to
your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under
circumstances in which the Passions, agitated in every direction,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 235
were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicis-
situdes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not
unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism,
the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts,
and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Pro-
foundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my
grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may
continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence that your
union and brotherly affection may be perpetual that the free Con-
stitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly main-
tained that its administration in every department may be stamped
with wisdom and virtue that, in fine, the happiness of the people
of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete,
by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing, as
will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause,
the affection, and adoption of every nation, which is yet a stranger
to it.
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare,
which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger,
natural to that solicitude, urge me on an occasion like the present,
to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your
frequent review, some sentiments; which are the result of much
reflection, of no inconsiderable observation and which appear to me
all important to the permanency of your felicity as a People. These
will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see
in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can pos-
sibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget,
as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments
on a former and not dissimilar occasion.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your
hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm
the attachment.
The Unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is
also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main Pillar in the
Edifice of your real independence; the support of your tranquillity
at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity in
every shape; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But
236 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes, and from different
quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to
weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the
point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal
and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though
often covertly and insidiously) directed it is of infinite moment, that
you should properly estimate the immense value of your national
Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should
cherish a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attachment to it; accus-
toming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of
your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation
with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even
a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly
frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any
portion of our Country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties
which now link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest.
Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has
a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN,
which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the
just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local
discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same
Religion, Manners, Habits, and Political Principles. You have in a
common cause fought and triumphed together; the Independence
and Liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint
efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
But these considerations, however powerfully they address them-
selves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply
more immediately to your Interest. Here every portion of our
country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding
and preserving the Union of the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, pro-
tected by the equal Laws of a common government, finds, in the
productions of the latter, great additional resources of maritime and
commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing
industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the
agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 237
expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the
North, it finds its particular navigation envigorated; and, while it
contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general
mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of
a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The East,
in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the pro-
gressive improvement of interior communications, by land and water,
will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which
it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives
from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and
what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe
the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions
to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the
Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of
interest as one Nation. Any other tenure by which the West can
hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate
strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any
foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.
While then every part of our Country thus feels an immediate
and particular interest in Union, all the parts combined in the united
mass of means and efforts cannot fail to find greater strength, greater
resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less
frequent interruption of their Peace by foreign Nations; and, what
is of inestimable value! they must derive from Union an exemption
from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently
afflict neighbouring countries, not tied together by the same govern-
ments; which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to pro-
duce; but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues
would stimulate and embitter. Hence likewise they will avoid the
necessity of those overgrown Military establishments, which, under
any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are
to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In this
sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop
to your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you
the preservation of the other.
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflect-
ing and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the UNION as
238 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
a primary object of Patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, whether a
common government can embrace so large a sphere ? Let experience
solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal.
We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole,
with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective sub-
divisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth
a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives
to Union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall
not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be
reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in any quarter may
endeavour to weaken its bands.
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it
occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should have
been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discrimina-
tions Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence de-
signing men may endeavour to excite a belief, that there is a real
difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of
Party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepre-
sent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield
yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart burnings, which
spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to
each other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affec-
tion. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a
useful lesson on this head they have seen, in the negotiation by the
Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the
treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event,
throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were
the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General
Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests
in regard to the MISSISSIPPI they have been witnesses to the forma-
tion of two Treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain,
which secure to them every thing they could desire, in respect to our
Foreign Relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not
be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on
the UNION by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth
be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them
from their Brethren, and connect them with Aliens ?
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 239
To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for
the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict between the
parts can be an adequate substitute. They must inevitably experi-
ence the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times
have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have im-
proved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of
Government, better calculated than your former for an intimate
Union, and for the efficacious management of your common con-
cerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice uninflu-
enced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature
deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of
its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself
a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your con-
fidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance
with its Laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by
the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. The basis of our political
systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Consti-
tutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time
exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole
People, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power
and the right of the People to establish Government presupposes the
duty of every individual to obey the established Government.
All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and
associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design
to direct, controul, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and
action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this funda-
mental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize
faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force to put in the
place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party; often a
small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and,
according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the
public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous
projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome
plans digested by common councils, and modified by mutual inter-
ests. However combinations or associations of the above descriptions
may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course
of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning,
240 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the
Power of the People, and to usurp for themselves the reins of Govern-
ment; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them
to unjust dominion.
Towards the preservation of your Government, and the per-
manency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged
authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation
upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of
assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations
which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine
what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which
you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as
necessary to fix the true character of Governments, as of other human
institutions that experience is the surest standard, by which to test
the real tendency of the existing Constitution of a Country that
facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion
exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis
and opinion: and remember, especially, that, for the efficient man-
agement of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours,
a Government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect
security of Liberty is indispensible. Liberty itself will find in such
a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its
surest Guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the
Government is too feeble to withstand the enterprise of faction, to
confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by
the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment
of the rights of person and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State,
with particular reference to the founding of them on Geographical
discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and
warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of
the Spirit of Party, generally.
This Spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having
its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under
different shapes in all Governments, more or less stifled, controuled,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 24!
or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest
rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened
by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different
ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal
and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which re-
sult, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose
in the absolute power of an Individual; and sooner or later the chief
of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his
competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own eleva-
tion, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and
continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the
interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the
Public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded
jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against
another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the
door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated
access to the Government itself through the channels of party pas-
sions. Thus the policy and the will of one country, are subjected to
the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks
upon the Administration of the Government, and serve to keep
alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is probably
true and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may
look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party.
But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective,
it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is
certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary
purpose, and there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought
to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire
not to be quenched; it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its
bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
242 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free
country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administra-
tion, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional
spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to
encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to con-
solidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create,
whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate
of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates
in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this
position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of
political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depos-
itories, and constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against
invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and
modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes.
To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the
opinion of the People, the distribution or modification of the Consti-
tutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an
amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let
there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance,
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which
free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly
overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which
the use can at any time yield.
Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political pros-
perity, Religion, and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain
would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to
subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props
of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally
with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume
could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity.
Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for repu-
tation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths,
which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?
And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can
be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the
influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure reason
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 243
and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can
prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
'Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring
of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less
force to every species of Free Government. Who that is a sincere
friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the
foundation of the fabric ?
Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for
the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure
of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that
public opinion should be enlightened.
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public
credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as
possible: avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but
remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger
frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it avoiding
likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions
of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of Peace to discharge
the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungen-
erously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves
ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your Repre-
sentatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate.
To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential
that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the payment
of debts there must be Revenue that to have Revenue there must
be taxes that no taxes can be devised, which are not more or less
inconvenient and unpleasant that the intrinsic embarrassment, in-
separable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always
a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid
construction of the conduct of the Government in making it, and for
a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining Revenue, which
the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations. Cultivate
peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this con-
duct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it?
It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a
244 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel
example of a People always guided by an exalted justice and benevo-
lence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things, the
fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages,
which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that
Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation
with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every
sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered im-
possible by its vices?
In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that
permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and pas-
sionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in
place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be
cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habit-
ual hatred or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a
slave to its animosity or to its aflection, either of which is sufficient
to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one
nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and
injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty
and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute
occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed and bloody
contests. The Nation prompted by ill-will and resentment, some-
times impels to War the Government, contrary to the best calcula-
tions of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the
national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would
reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the Nation sub-
servient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and
other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes
perhaps the Liberty, of Nations has been the victim.
So likewise a passionate attachment of one Nation for another
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation,
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the
enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the
quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of
privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 245
making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought
to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposi-
tion to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are with-
held; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who
devote themselves to the favorite Nation) facility to betray or
sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, some-
times even with popularity: gilding, with the appearances of a
virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish
compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such at-
tachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and in-
dependent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to
tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to
mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils!
Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and power-
ful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure you
to believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought
to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that
foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican
Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial;
else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided,
instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign
nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they
actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even
second the arts of influence on the other. Real Patriots, who may
resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become suspected
and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and con-
fidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations, is,
in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little
Political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here
let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or
a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent
246 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our
concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate
ourselves, by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics,
or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships, or
enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to
pursue a different course. If we remain one People, under an
efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy
material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such
an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve
upon to be scrupulously respected. When belligerent nations,
under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not
lightly hazard the giving us provocation when we may choose
peace or war, as our interest, guided by our justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why
quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweav-
ing our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace
and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest,
humor, or caprice?
'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any
portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liber-
ty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing
infidelity to existing engagements. (I hold the maxim no less ap-
plicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the
best policy.) I repeat it therefore let those engagements be observed
in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and
would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments,
on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary
alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended
by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy
should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor
granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural
course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the
streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with
Powers so disposed in order to give trade a stable course, to de-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 247
fine the rights of our Merchants, and to enable the Government
to support them conventional rules of intercourse, the best that
present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit; but tempo-
rary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as
experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in
view, that 'tis folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors
from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence
for whatever it may accept under that character that by such ac-
ceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equiv-
alents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with in-
gratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than
to expect or calculate upon real favors from Nation to Nation. 'T is
an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought
to discard.
In offering to you, my Countrymen, these counsels of an old
and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong
and lasting impression, I could wish, that they will controul the
usual current of the passions, or prevent our Nation from running
the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of Nations. But if
I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some
partial benefit; some occasional good; that they may now and
then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against
the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impos-
tures of pretended patriotism, this hope will be a full recom-
pense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been
dictated.
How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided
by the principles which have been delineated, the public Records and
other evidences of my conduct must witness to You and to the
world. To myself the assurance of my own conscience is, that I
have at least believed myself to be guided by them.
In relation to the still subsisting War in Europe, my Proclama-
tion of the 22d of April 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned
by your approving voice and by that of your Representatives in
both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually
governed me: uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert
me from it.
248 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
After deliberate examination with the aid of the best lights I
could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the
circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in
duty and interest to take, a Neutral position. Having taken it, I
determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with
moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct,
it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe,
that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far
from being denied by any of the Belligerent Powers, has been virtual-
ly admitted by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without
any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity
impose on every Nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to main-
tain inviolate the relations of Peace and Amity towards other Na-
tions.
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best
be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a
predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our
country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to
progress without interruption to that degree of strength and con-
sistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the com-
mand of its own fortunes.
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my Administration, I am
unconscious of intentional error I am nevertheless too sensible of
my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed
many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Al-
mighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I
shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease
to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my
life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of
incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must
soon be to the mansions of rest.
Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated
by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man, who
views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several
generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 249
which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoy-
ment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign
influence of good Laws under a free Government, the ever favorite
object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual
cares, labors, and dangers.
TREATY WITH FRANCE
(1803)
[By a treaty concluded in 1795, Spain had agreed to allow to the United States
the use of New Orleans or an equivalent port on the Mississippi; but in 1802 she
violated this agreement by closing the Mississippi, and ceding all Louisiana to
France. The United States, realizing the danger of having such a power as France
holding the natural outlet for a large proportion of the produce of the country, appro-
priated $2,000,000 to purchase New Orleans. Livingston and Monroe concluded
with Napoleon the purchase of the whole Louisiana territory for $15,000,000; their
action was ratified; and the United States took possession on Dec. 20, 1805.]
TREATY WITH FRANCE FOR THE CESSION OF LOUISIANA, CONCLUDED
AT PARIS, APRIL 30, 1803; RATIFICATION ADVISED BY SENATE,
OCTOBER 20, 1803; RATIFIED BY PRESIDENT OCTOBER 21, 1803;
RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT WASHINGTON OCTOBER 21, 1803;
PROCLAIMED OCTOBER 21, 1803.
THE President of the United States of America, and the
First Consul of the French Republic, in the name of the
French people, desiring to remove all source of misunder-
standing relative to objects of discussion mentioned in the second
and fifth articles of the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, an 9
(30th September, 1800) relative to the rights claimed by the United
States, in virtue of the treaty concluded at Madrid, the 27th of
October, 1795, between His Catholic Majesty and the said United
States, arid willing to strengthen the union and friendship which
at the time of the said convention was happily re-established be-
tween the two nations, have respectively named their Plenipo-
tentiaries, to wit: the President of the United States, [of America,]
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the said States,
Robert R. Livingston, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States,
and James Monroe, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraor-
dinary of the said States, near the Government of the French
Republic; and the First Consul, in the name of the French people,
Citizen Francis Barbe Marbois, Minister of the Public Treasury;
250
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 251
who, after having respectively exchanged their full powers, have
agreed to the following articles:
ARTICLE I
Whereas by the article of the third of the treaty concluded at St.
Idelfonso, the 9th Vendemiaire, an 9 (ist October, 1800,) between
the First Consul of the French Republic and His Catholic Majesty,
it was agreed as follows: "His Catholic Majesty promises and en-
gages on his part, to cede to the French Republic, six months after
the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations herein
relative to His Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or
province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the
hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such
as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between
Spain and other States." And whereas, in pursuance of the treaty,
and particularly of the third article, the French Republic has an in-
contestable title to the domain and to the possession of the said
territory: The First Consul of the French Republic desiring to
give to the United States a strong proof of his friendship, doth
hereby cede to the said United States, in the name of the French
Republic, forever and in full sovereignty, the said territory, with
all its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner
as they have been acquired by the French Republic, in virtue of the
above-mentioned treaty, concluded with His Catholic Majesty.
ARTICLE II
In the cession made by the preceding article are included the ad-
jacent islands belonging to Louisiana, all public lots and squares,
vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, barracks and
other edifices which are not private property. The archives, papers,
and documents, relative to the domain and sovereignty of Louisiana
and its dependences, will be left in the possession of the commissaries
of the United States, and copies will be afterwards given in due
form to the magistrates and municipal officers of such of the said
papers and documents as may be necessary to them.
252 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ARTICLE III
The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in
the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible,
according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the en-
joyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens
of the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained
and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and
the religion which they profess.
ARTICLE IV
There shall be sent by the Government of France a commissary
to Louisiana, to the end that he do every act necessary, as well to
receive from the officers of His Catholic Majesty the said country and
its dependences, in the name of the French Republic, if it has not
been already done, as to transmit it in the name of the French
Republic to the commissary or agent of the United States.
ARTICLE V
Immediately after the ratification of the present treaty by the
President of the United States, and in case that of the First Consul
shall have been previously obtained, the commissary of the French
Republic shall remit all military posts of New Orleans, and other
parts of the ceded territory, to the commissary or commissaries
named by the President to take possession; the troops, whether of
France or Spain, who may be there shall cease to occupy any mil-
itary post from the time of taking possession, and shall be embarked
as soon as possible, in the course of three months after the ratifica-
tion of this treaty.
ARTICLE VI
The United States promise to execute such treaties and articles as
may have been agreed between Spain and the tribes and nations of
Indians, until, by mutual consent of the United States and the said
tribes or nations, other suitable articles shall have been agreed upon.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 253
ARTICLE VII
As it is reciprocally advantageous to the commerce of France and
the United States to encourage the communication of both nations
for a limited time in the country ceded by the present treaty, until
general arrangements relative to the commerce of both nations may
be agreed on; it has been agreed between the contracting parties,
that the French ships coming directly from France or any of her
colonies, loaded only with the produce and manufactures of France
or her said colonies; and the ships of Spain coming directly from
Spain or any of her colonies, loaded only with the produce or manu-
factures of Spain or her colonies, shall be admitted during the space
of twelve years in the port of New Orleans, and in all other legal
ports of entry within the ceded territory, in the same manner as the
ships of the United States coming directly from France or Spain,
or any of their colonies, without being subject to any other or
greater duty on merchandize, or other or greater tonnage than that
paid by the citizens of the United States.
During the space of time above mentioned, no other nation shall
have a right to the same privileges in the ports of the ceded territory;
the twelve years shall commence three months after the exchange of
ratifications, if it shall take place in France, or three months after it
shall have been notified at Paris to the French Government, if it
shall take place in the United States; it is however well understood
that the object of the above article is to favor the manufactures,
commerce, freight, and navigation of France and of Spain, so far
as relates to the importations that the French and Spanish shall make
into the said ports of the United States, without in any sort affecting
the regulations that the United States may make concerning the
exportation of the produce and merchandize of the United States,
or any right they may have to make such regulations.
ARTICLE VIII
In future and forever after the expiration of the twelve years, the
ships of France shall be treated upon the footing of the most favoured
nations in the ports above mentioned.
254 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ARTICLE IX
The particular convention signed this day by the respective
ministers, having for its object to provide for the payment of debts
due to the citizens of the United States by the French Republic
prior to the 30th Septr., 1800, (8th Vendemiaire, an 9,) is approved,
and to have its execution in the same manner as if it had been
inserted in this present treaty; and it shall be ratified in the same
form and in the same time, so that the one shall not be ratified
distinct from the other.
Another particular convention signed at the same date as the
present treaty relative to a definitive rule between the contracting
parties is in the like manner approved, and will be ratified in the
same form, and in the same time, and jointly.
ARTICLE X
The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due form, and
the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six months after
the date of the signature by the Ministers Plenipotentiary, or sooner
if possible.
In faith whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed these
articles in the French and English languages; declaring neverthe-
less that the present treaty was originally agreed to in the French
language; and have thereunto affixed their seals.
Done at Paris the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh year of
the French Republic, and the 30th of April, 1803.
ROBT. R. LIVINGSTON [L. s.]
JAS. MONROE [L. s.]
F. BARBE MARBOIS [L. s.]
TREATY
WITH GREAT BRITAIN
(1814)
[This treaty brought to a close the "War of 1812."]
TREATY OF PEACE AND AMITY BETWEEN His BRITANNIC MAJESTY
AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CONCLUDED AT GHENT,
DECEMBER 24, 1814; RATIFICATION ADVISED BY SENATE, FEBRUARY
16, 1815; RATIFIED BY PRESIDENT, FEBRUARY 17, 1815; RATIFICA-
TIONS EXCHANGED AT WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 17, 1815; PRO-
CLAIMED, FEBRUARY 18, 1815.
HIS Britannic Majesty and the United States of America,
desirous of terminating the war which has unhappily sub-
sisted between the two countries, and of restoring, upon
principles of perfect reciprocity, peace, friendship, and good under-
standing between them, have, for that purpose, appointed their
respective Plenipotentiaries, that is to say:
His Britannic Majesty, on his part, has appointed the Right Hon-
ourable James Lord Gambier, late Admiral of the White, now
Admiral of the Red Squadron of His Majesty's fleet, Henry Goul-
burn, Esquire, a member of the Imperial Parliament, and Under
Secretary of State, and William Adams, Esquire, Doctor of Civil
Laws; and the President of the United States, by and with the ad-
vice and consent of the Senate thereof, has appointed John Quincy
Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert
Gallatin, citizens of the United States;
Who, after a reciprocal communication of their respective full
powers, have agreed upon the following articles:
ARTICLE I
There shall be a firm and universal peace between His Britannic
Majesty and the United States, and between their respective coun-
255
256 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
tries, territories, cities, towns, and people, of every degree, without
exception of places or persons. All hostilities, both by sea and land,
shall cease as soon as this treaty shall have been ratified by both
parties, as hereinafter mentioned. All territory, places, and posses-
sions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the
war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, except-
ing only the islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored without
delay, and without causing any destruction or carrying away any
of the artillery or other public property originally captured in the
said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the ex-
change of the ratifications of this treaty, or any slaves or other
private property. And all archives, records, deeds, and papers,
either of a public nature or belonging to private persons, which, in
the course of the war, may have fallen into the hands of the officers
of either party, shall be, as far as may be practicable, forthwith
restored and delivered to the proper authorities and persons to whom
they respectively belong. Such of the islands in the Bay of Pas-
samaquoddy as are claimed by both parties, shall remain in the
possession of the party in whose occupation they may be at the
time of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, until the
decision respecting the title to the said islands shall have been made
in conformity with the fourth article of this treaty. No disposition
made by this treaty as to such possession of the islands and ter-
ritories claimed by both parties shall, in any manner whatever, be
construed to affect the right of either.
ARTICLE II
Immediately after the ratifications of this treaty by both parties,
as hereinafter mentioned, orders shall be sent to the armies, squad-
rons, officers, subjects and citizens of the two Powers to cease from
all hostilities. And to prevent all causes of complaint which might
arise on account of the prizes which may be taken at sea after the
said ratifications of this treaty, it is reciprocally agreed that all
vessels and effects which may be taken after the space of twelve
days from the said ratifications, upon all parts of the coast of North
America, from the latitude of twenty-three degrees north to the
latitude of fifty degrees north, and as far eastward in the Atlantic
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 257
Ocean as the thirty-sixth degree of west longitude from the meridian
of Greenwich, shall be restored on each side: that the time shall be
thirty days in all other parts of the Atlantic Ocean north of the
equinoctial line or equator, and the same time for the British and
Irish Channels, for the Gulf of Mexico, and all parts of the West
Indies; forty days for the North Seas, for the Baltic, and for all parts
of the Mediterranean; sixty days for the Atlantic Ocean south of
the equator, as far as the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope; ninety
days for every other part of the world south of the equator; and
one hundred and twenty days for all other parts of the world, with-
out exception.
ARTICLE III
All prisoners of war taken on either side, as well by land as by
sea, shall be restored as soon as practicable after the ratifications of
this treaty, as hereinafter mentioned, on their paying the debts which
they may have contracted during their captivity. The two con-
tracting parties respectively engage to discharge, in specie, the ad-
vances which may have been made by the other for the sustenance
and maintenance of such prisoners.
ARTICLE IV
Whereas it was stipulated by the second article in the treaty of
peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, between His
Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, that the bound-
ary of the United States should comprehend all islands within
twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and
lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the
aforesaid boundaries, between Nova Scotia on the one part, and
East Florida on the other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy
and the Atlantic Ocean, excepting such islands as now are, or here-
tofore have been, within the limits of Nova Scotia; and whereas
the several islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, which is part of
the Bay of Fundy, and the Island of Grand Menan, in the said Bay
of Fundy, are claimed by the United States as being comprehended
within their aforesaid boundaries, which said islands are claimed
as belonging to His Britannic Majesty, as having been, at the time
258 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
of and previous to the aforesaid treaty of one thousand seven hundred
and eighty-three, within the limits of the Province of Nova Scotia.
In order, therefore, finally to decide upon these claims, it is agreed
that they shall be referred to two Commissioners to be appointed in
the following manner, viz : One Commissioner shall be appointed by
His Britannic Majesty, and one by the President of the United
States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof;
and the said two Commissioners so appointed shall be sworn im-
partially to examine and decide upon the said claims according to
such evidence as shall be laid before them on the part of His Britan-
nic Majesty and of the United States respectively. The said Com-
missioners shall meet at St. Andrews, in the Province of New
Brunswick, and shall have power to adjourn to such other place or
places as they shall think fit. The said Commissioners shall, by a
declaration or report under their hands and seals, decide to which
of the two contracting parties the several islands aforesaid do re-
spectively belong, in conformity with the true intent of the said
treaty of peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.
And if the said Commissioners shall agree in their decision, both
parties shall consider such decision as final and conclusive. It is
further agreed that, in the event of the two Commissioners differing
upon all or any of the matters so referred to them, or in the event
of both or either of the said Commissioners refusing, or declining,
or wilfully omitting to act as such, they shall make, jointly or
separately, a report or reports, as well to the Government of His
Britannic Majesty as to that of the United States, stating in detail
the points on which they differ, and the grounds upon which their
respective opinions have been formed, or the grounds upon which
they, or either of them, have so refused, declined, or omitted to act.
And His Britannic Majesty and the Government of the United
States hereby agree to refer the report or reports of the said Com-
missioners to some friendly sovereign or State, to be then named for
that purpose, and who shall be requested to decide on the differences
which may be stated in the said report or reports, or upon the report
of one Commissioner, together with the grounds upon which the
other Commissioner shall have refused, declined, or omitted to act,
as the case may be. And if the Commissioner so refusing, declining,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 259
or omitting to act, shall also wilfully omit to state the grounds upon
which he has so done, in such manner that the said statement may
be referred to such friendly sovereign or State, together with the
report of such other Commissioner, then such sovereign or State
shall decide ex parte upon the said report alone. And His Britannic
Majesty and the Government of the United States engage to con-
sider the decision of such friendly sovereign or State to be final and
conclusive on all the matters so referred.
ARTICLE V
Whereas neither that point of the highlands lying due north from
the source of the river St. Croix, and designated in the former
treaty of peace between the two Powers as the northwest angle of
Nova Scotia, nor the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River,
has yet been ascertained; and whereas that part of the boundary line
between the dominions of the two Powers which extends from the
source of the river St. Croix directly north to the above mentioned
north west angle of Nova Scotia, thence along the said highlands
which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St.
Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean to the
northwesternmost head of Connecticut River, thence down along the
middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; thence
by a line due west on said latitude until it strikes the river Iroquois
or Cataraquy, has not yet been surveyed: it is agreed that for these
several purposes two Commissioners shall be appointed, sworn, and
authorized to act exactly in the manner directed with respect to
those mentioned in the next preceding article, unless otherwise
specified in the present article. The said Commissioners shall meet
at St. Andrews, in the Province of New Brunswick, and shall have
power to adjourn to such other place or places as they shall think
fit. The said Commissioners shall have power to ascertain and de-
termine the points above mentioned, in conformity with the pro-
visions of the said treaty of peace of one thousand seven hundred
and eighty-three, and shall cause the boundary aforesaid, from the
source of the river St. Croix to the river Iroquois or Cataraquy, to
be surveyed and marked according to the said provisions. The
said Commissioners shall make a map of the said boundary, and
260 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
annex to it a declaration under their hands and seals, certifying it
to be the true map of the said boundary, and particularizing the
latitude and longitude of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, of
the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River, and of such other
points of the said boundary as they may deem proper. And both
parties agree to consider such map and declaration as finally and
conclusively fixing the said boundary. And in the event of the said
two Commissioners differing, or both or either of them refusing,
declining, or wilfully omitting to act, such reports, declarations, or
statements shall be made by them, or either of them, and such ref-
erence to a friendly sovereign or State shall be made in all respects
as in the latter part of the fourth article is contained, and in as full
a manner as if the same was herein repeated.
ARTICLE VI
Whereas by the former treaty of peace that portion of the boundary
of the United States from the point where the forty-fifth degree of
north latitude strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy to the Lake
Superior, was declared to be "along the middle of said river into
Lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake, until it strikes the
communication by water between that lake and Lake Erie, thence
along the middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through
the middle of said lake until it arrives at the water communication
into Lake Huron, thence through the middle of said lake to the
water communication between that lake and Lake Superior;" and
whereas doubts have arisen what was the middle of the said river,
lakes, and water communications, and whether certain islands lying
in the same were within the dominions of His Britannic Majesty or
of the United States: In order, therefore, finally to decide these
doubts, they shall be referred to two Commissioners, to be appointed,
sworn, and authorized to act exactly in the manner directed with
respect to those mentioned in the next preceding article, unless
otherwise specified in this present article. The said Commissioners
shall meet, in the first instance, at Albany, in the State of New
York, and shall have power to adjourn to such other place or places
as they shall think fit. The said Commissioners shall, by a report
or declaration, under their hands and seals, designate the boundary
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 26 1
through the said river, lakes, and water communications, and de-
cide to which of the two contracting parties the several islands lying
within the said rivers, lakes, and water communications, do respect-
ively belong, in conformity with the true intent of the said treaty of
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. And both parties
agree to consider such designation and decision as final and con-
clusive. And in the event of the said two Commissioners differing,
or both or either of them refusing, declining, or wilfully omitting
to act, such reports, declarations, or statements shall be made by
them, or either of them, and such reference to a friendly sovereign
or State shall be made in all respects as in the latter part of the
fourth article is contained and in as full a manner as if the same
was herein repeated.
ARTICLE VII
It is further agreed that the said two last-mentioned Commis-
sioners, after they shall have executed the duties assigned to them
in the preceding article, shall be, and they are hereby, authorized
upon their oaths impartially to fix and determine, according to the
true intent of the said treaty of peace of one thousand seven hundred
and eighty-three, that part of the boundary between the dominions of
the two Powers which extends from the water communication
between Lake Huron and Lake Superior, to the most northwestern
point of the Lake of the Woods, to decide to which of the two
parties the several islands lying in the lakes, water communications,
and rivers, forming the said boundary, do respectively belong, in
conformity with the true intent of the said treaty of peace of one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-three; and to cause such parts
of the said boundary as require it to be surveyed and marked. The
said Commissioners shall, by a report or declaration under their
hands and seals, designate the boundary aforesaid, state their deci-
sion on the points thus referred to them, and particularize the latitude
and longitude of the most northwestern point of the Lake of the
Woods, and of such other parts of the said boundary as they may
deem proper. And both parties agree to consider such designation
and decision as final and conclusive. And in the event of the said
two Commissioners differing, or both or either of them refusing,
262 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
declining, or wilfully omitting to act, such reports, declarations, or
statements shall be made by them, or either of them, and such ref-
erence to a friendly sovereign or state shall be made in all respects as
in the latter part of the fourth article is contained, and in as full a
manner as if the same was herein repeated.
ARTICLE VIII
The several boards of two Commissioners mentioned in the four
preceding articles shall respectively have power to appoint a sec-
retary, and to employ such surveyors or other persons as they shall
judge necessary. Duplicates of all their respective reports, declara-
tions, statements, and decisions, and of their accounts, and of the
journal of their proceedings, shall be delivered by them to the agents
of His Britannic Majesty and to the agents of the United States,
who may be respectively appointed and authorized to manage the
business on behalf of their respective Governments. The said Com-
missioners shall be respectively paid in such manner as shall be
agreed between the two contracting parties, such agreement being
to be settled at the time of the exchange of the ratifications of this
treaty. And all other expenses attending the said commissions shall
be defrayed equally by the two parties. And in the case of death,
sickness, resignation, or necessary absence, the place of every such
Commissioner, respectively, shall be supplied in the same manner
as such Commissioner was first appointed, and the new Commis-
sioner shall take the same oath or affirmation, and do the same duties.
It is further agreed between the two contracting parties, that in case
any of the islands mentioned in any of the preceding articles, which
were in the possession of one of the parties prior to the commence-
ment of the present war between the two countries, should, by the
decision of any of the boards of commissioners aforesaid, or of the
sovereign or State so referred to, as in the four next preceding
articles contained, fall within the dominions of the other party, all
grants of land made previous to the commencement of the war, by
the party having had such possession, shall be as valid as if such
island or islands had, by such decision or decisions, been adjudged
to be within the dominions of the party having had such possession.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 263
ARTICLE IX
The United States of America engage to put an end, immediately
after the ratification of the present treaty, to hostilities with all the
tribes or nations of Indians with whom they may be at war at the
time of such ratification; and forthwith to restore to such tribes or
nations, respectively, all the possessions, rights, and privileges which
they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in one thousand eight
hundred and eleven, previous to such hostilities. Provided always
that such tribes or nations shall agree to desist from all hostilities
against the United States of America, their citizens and subjects,
upon the ratification of the present treaty being notified to such
tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly. And his Britannic
Majesty engages, on his part, to put an end immediately after the
ratification of the present treaty, to hostilities with all the tribes or
nations of Indians with whom he may be at war at the time of
such ratification, and forthwith to restore to such tribes or nations
respectively all the possessions, rights, and privileges which they
may have enjoyed or been entitled to in one thousand eight hundred
and eleven, previous to such hostilities. Provided always that such
tribes or nations shall agree to desist from all hostilities against His
Britannic Majesty, and his subjects, upon ratification of the present
treaty being notified to such tribes or nations, and shall so desist
accordingly.
ARTICLE X
Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles
of humanity and justice, and whereas both His Majesty and the
United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote
its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the contracting
parties shall use their best endeavours to accomplish so desirable an
object.
ARTICLE XI
This treaty, when the same shall have been ratified on both sides,
without alteration by either of the contracting parties, and the
ratifications mutually exchanged, shall be binding on both parties,
264 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington, in the
space of four months from this day, or sooner if practicable.
In faith whereof we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed
this treaty, and have thereunto affixed our seals.
Done, in triplicate, at Ghent, the twenty-fourth day of December,
one thousand eight hundred and fourteen.
GAMBIER [L. s.]
HENRY GOULBURN [L. s.]
WILLIAM ADAMS [L. s.]
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS [L. s.]
J. A. BAYARD [L. s.]
H. CLAY [L. s.]
JON A. RUSSELL [L. s.]
ALBERT GALLATIN [L. s.]
ARRANGEMENT AS TO THE
NAVAL FORCE
TO BE RESPECTIVELY MAINTAINED
ON THE AMERICAN LAKES
(1817)
[The following letters contain the standing agreement between Great Britain and
the United States as to the naval force to be maintained by either country in the
Great Lakes.]
Mr. Bagot to Mr. Rush.
WASHINGTON, April 28th, 1817.
THE undersigned, His Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraor-
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, has the honour to
acquaint Mr. Rush, that having laid before His Majesty's
Government the correspondence which passed last year between the
Secretary of the Department of State and the undersigned upon
the subject of a proposal to reduce the Naval Force of the respective
countries upon the American Lakes, he has received commands of
His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, to acquaint the Govern-
ment of the United States, that His Royal Highness is willing to
accede to the proposition made to the undersigned by the Secretary
of the Department of State in his note of the 2d of August last.
His Royal Highness acting in the name and on the behalf of His
Majesty, agrees, that the Naval force to be maintained upon the
American Lakes by His Majesty and the Government of the United
States shall henceforth be confined to the following vessels on each
side. That is:-
On Lake Ontario to one vessel not exceeding one hundred Tons
burthen and armed with one eighteen pound cannon.
On the upper lakes to two vessels not exceeding like burthen
each and armed with like force.
265
266 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
On the waters of Lake Champlain to one vessel not exceeding
like burthen and armed with like force.
And His Royal Highness agrees that all other armed vessels on
these Lakes shall be forthwith dismantled, and that no other vessels
of war shall be there built or armed.
His Royal Highness further agrees that if either Party should
hereafter be desirous of annulling this stipulation and should give
notice to that effect to the other Party, it shall cease to be binding
after the expiration of six months from the date of such notice.
The undersigned has it in command from His Royal Highness,
the Prince Regent, to acquaint the American Government, that His
Royal Highness has issued orders to His Majesty's officers on the
lakes directing that the Naval force so to be limited shall be re-
stricted to such services as will in no respect interfere with the proper
duties of the armed vessels of the other Party.
The undersigned has the honour to renew to Mr. Rush the as-
surances of his highest consideration. CHARLES BAGOT.
Mr. Rush to Mr. Bagot.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
April 29th, 1817.
The undersigned, acting Secretary of State, has the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Bagot's note of the 28th of this
month informing him that, having laid before the Government of
His Britannic Majesty, the correspondence which passed last year
between the Secretary of State and himself upon the subject of a
proposal to reduce the naval force of the two countries upon the
American Lakes, he had received the commands of His Royal
Highness, The Prince Regent, to inform this Government that His
Royal Highness was willing to accede to the proposition made by
the Secretary of State in his note of the second of August last.
The undersigned has the honor to express to Mr. Bagot the satis-
faction which the President feels at His Royal Highness, The Prince
Regent's having acceded to the proposition of this Government as
contained in the note alluded to. And in further answer to Mr.
Bagot's note, the undersigned, by direction of the President, has
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 267
the honor to state, that this Government, cherishing the same sen-
timents expressed in the note of the second of August, agrees, that
the naval force to be maintained upon the Lakes of the United
States and Great Britain shall henceforth, be confined to the follow-
ing vessels on each side that is:
On Lake Ontario to one vessel not exceeding One Hundred Tons
burden and armed with an eighteen pound cannon. On the Upper
Lakes to two vessels not exceeding the like burden each, and armed
with like force, and on the waters of Lake Champlain to one vessel
not exceeding like burden and armed with like force.
And it agrees that all other armed vessels on these Lakes, shall
be forthwith dismantled, and that no other vessels of war shall be
there built or armed. And it further agrees, that if either party
should hereafter be desirous of annulling this stipulation and should
give notice to that effect to the other party, it shall cease to be bind-
ing after the expiration of six months from the date of such notice.
The undersigned, is also directed by The President to state, that
proper orders will be forthwith issued by this Government to restrict
the naval force thus limited to such services as will in no respect
interfere with the proper duties of the armed vessels of the other
party.
The undersigned, eagerly avails himself of this opportunity to
tender to Mr. Bagot the assurances of his distinguished considera-
tion and respect.
RICHARD RUSH.
TREATY WITH SPAIN
(1819)
[While in the hands of Spain, Florida was the source of much annoyance to the
Southern States. Fugitive slaves took refuge there; the white population was largely
of a lawless character; and the Seminole Indians often made incursions into Georgia.
After the United States had been forced to invade the territory and take possession
of part of it, Spain ceded it by the treaty of 1819.]
TREATY OF AMITY, SETTLEMENT, AND LIMITS BETWEEN THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA AND His CATHOLIC MAJESTY, CONCLUDED
AT WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 22, 1819; RATIFICATION ADVISED BY
SENATE, FEBRUARY 24, 1819; RATIFIED BY PRESIDENT; RATIFIED
BY THE KING OF SPAIN, OCTOBER 24, 1820; RATIFICATION AGAIN
ADVISED BY SENATE, FEBRUARY 19, 1821; RATIFIED BY PRESIDENT,
FEBRUARY 22, 1821; RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT WASHINGTON,
FEBRUARY 22, 1821; PROCLAIMED, FEBRUARY 22, 1821.
A" | AHE United States of America and His Catholic Majesty,
desiring to consolidate, on a permanent basis, the friend-
J- ship and good correspondence which happily prevails be-
tween the two parties have determined to settle and terminate all
their differences and pretensions, by a treaty, which shall designate,
with precision, the limits of their respective bordering territories in
North America.
With this intention, the President of the United States, has
furnished with their full powers, John Quincy Adams, Secretary of
State of the said United States; and His Catholic Majesty has ap-
pointed the Most Excellent Lord Don Luis De Onis, Gonzales,
Lopez y Vara, Lord of the town of Rayaces, Perpetual Regidor of
the Corporation of the city of Salamanca, Knight Grand Cross of
the Royal American Order of Isabella the Catholic, decorated with
the Lys of La Vendee, Knight Pensioner of the Royal and Distin-
guished Spanish Order of Charles the Third, Member of the Su-
preme Assembly of the said Royal Order; of the Council of His
268
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 269
Majesty; His Secretary, with Exercise of Decrees, and His Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near the United States
of America;
And the said Plenipotentiaries, after having exchanged their
powers, have agreed upon and concluded the following articles:
ARTICLE I
There shall be a firm and inviolable peace and sincere friendship
between the United States and their citizens and His Catholic
Majesty, his successors and subjects, without exception of persons
or places.
ARTICLE II
His Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States, in full property
and sovereignty, all the territories which belong to him, situated
the eastward of the Mississippi, known by the name of East and
West Florida. The adjacent islands dependent on said provinces,
all public lots and squares, vacant lands, public edifices, fortifications,
barracks, and other buildings, which are not private property, ar-
chives and documents, which relate directly to the property and
sovereignty of said provinces, are included in this article. The said
rchives and documents shall be left in possession of the commis-
ries or officers of the United States, duly authorized to receive
ARTICLE III
The boundary line between the two countries, west of the Missis-
sippi, shall begin on the Gulph of Mexico, at the mouth of the river
Sabine, in the sea, continuing north, along the western bank of
that river, to the 32d degree of latitude; thence, by a line due north,
to the degree of latitude where it strikes the Rio Roxo of Nachi-
toches, or Red River; then following the course of the Rio Roxo
westward, to the degree of longitude 100 west from London and
23 from Washington; then, crossing the said Red River, and run-
ning thence by a line due north, to the river Arkansas; thence, fol-
>wing the course of the southern bank of the Arkansas, to its
)urce, in latitude 42 north; and thence, by that parallel of latitude,
2yO AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
to the South Sea. The whole being as laid down in Melish's map
of the United States, published at Philadelphia, improved to the
first o January, 1818. But if the source of the Arkansas River shall
be found to fall north or south of latitude 42, then the line shall run
from the said source due south or north, as the case may be, till it
meets the said parallel of latitude 42, and thence, along the said
parallel, to the South Sea: All the islands in the Sabine, and the
said Red and Arkansas Rivers, throughout the course thus described,
to belong to the United States; but the use of the waters, and the
navigation of the Sabine to the sea, and of the said rivers Roxo and
Arkansas, throughout the extent of the said boundary, on their re-
spective banks, shall be common to the respective inhabitants of both
nations.
The two high contracting parties agree to cede and renounce all
their rights, claims, and pretensions, to the territories described by
the said line, that is to say : The United States hereby to His Catholic
Majesty, and renounce forever, all their rights, claims and preten-
sions, to the territories lying west and south of the above-described
line; and, in like manner, His Catholic Majesty cedes to the said
United States all his rights, claims, and pretensions to any territories
east and north of the said line, and for himself, his heirs, and suc-
cessors, renounces all claim to the said territories forever.
ARTICLE IV
To fix this line with more precision, and to place the landmarks
which shall designate exactly the limits of both nations, each of the
contracting parties shall appoint a Commissioner and a surveyor,
who shall meet before the termination of one year from the date
of the ratification of this treaty at Nachitoches, on the Red River,
and proceed to run and mark the said line, from the mouth of the
Sabine to the Red River, and from the Red River to the river Arkan-
sas, and to ascertain the latitude of the source of the said river
Arkansas, in conformity to what is above agreed upon and stipulated,
and the line of latitude 42, to the South Sea: they shall make out
plans, and keep journals of their proceedings, and the result agreed
upon by them shall be considered as part of this treaty, and shall
have the same force as if it were inserted therein. The two Gov-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 27!
ernments will amicably agree respecting the necessary articles to
be furnished to those persons, and also as to their respective escorts,
should such be deemed necessary.
ARTICLE V
The inhabitants of the ceded territories shall be secured in the free
exercise of their religion, without any restriction; and all those who
may desire to remove to the Spanish dominions shall be permitted
to sell or export their effects, at any time whatever, without being
subject, in either case, to duties.
ARTICLE VI
The inhabitants of the territories which His Catholic Majesty
cedes to the United States, by this treaty, shall be incorporated in
the Union of the United States, as soon as may be consistent with the
principles of the Federal Constitution, and admitted to the enjoy-
ment of all the privileges, rights, and immunities of the citizens of
the United States.
ARTICLE VII
The officers and troops of His Catholic Majesty, in the territories
hereby ceded by him to the United States, shall be withdrawn, and
possession of the places occupied by them shall be given within six
months after the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, or sooner
if possible, by the officers of His Catholic Majesty to the commis-
sioners or officers of the United States duly appointed to receive
them; and the United States shall furnish the transports and escorts
necessary to convey the Spanish officers and troops and their bag-
gage to the Havana.
ARTICLE VIII
All the grants of land made before the 24th of January, 1818, by
His Catholic Majesty, or by his lawful authorities, in the said terri-
tories ceded by His Majesty to the United States, shall be ratified
and confirmed to the persons in possession of the lands, to the same
extent that the same grants would be valid if the territories had re-
mained under the dominion of His Catholic Majesty. But the own-
272 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ers in possession of such lands, who, by reason of the recent circum-
stances of the Spanish nation, and the revolutions in Europe, have
been prevented from fulfilling all the conditions of their grants,
shall complete them within the terms limited in the same, respec-
tively, from the date of this treaty; in default of which the said
grants shall be null and void. All grants made since the said 24th
of January, 1818, when the first proposal, on the part of His Catholic
Majesty, for the cession of the Floridas was made, are hereby declared
and agreed to be null and void.
ARTICLE IX
The two high contracting parties, animated with the most earnest
desire of conciliation, and with the object of putting an end to all
the differences which have existed between them, and of confirming
the good understanding which they wish to be forever maintained
between them, reciprocally renounce all claims for damages or in-
juries which they, themselves, as well as their respective citizens
and subjects, may have suffered until the time of signing this treaty.
The renunciation of the United States will extend to all the in-
juries mentioned in the convention of the nth of August, 1802.
(2) To all claims on account of prizes made by French privateers,
and condemned by French Consuls, within the territory and juris-
diction of Spain.
(3) To all claims of indemnities on account of the suspension
of the right of deposit at New Orleans in 1802.
(4) To all claims of citizens of the United States upon the Gov-
ernment of Spain, arising from the unlawful seizures at sea, and in
the ports and territories of Spain, or the Spanish colonies.
(5) To all claims of citizens of the United States upon the
Spanish Government, statements of which, soliciting the interposi-
tion of the Government of the United States, have been presented
to the Department of State, or to the Minister of the United States
in Spain, since the date of the convention of 1802, and until the sig-
nature of this treaty.
The renunciation of His Catholic Majesty extends
(i) To all the injuries mentioned in the convention of the nth of
August, 1802.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 273
(2) To the sums which His Catholic Majesty advanced for the
return of Captain Pike from the Provincias Internas.
(3) To all injuries caused by the expedition of Miranda, that
was fitted out and equipped at New York.
(4) To all claims of Spanish subjects upon the Government of
the United States arizing from unlawful seizures at sea, or within
the ports and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
Finally, to all the claims of subjects of His Catholic Majesty upon
the Government of the United States in which the interposition of
his Catholic Majesty's Government has been solicited, before the
date of this treaty and since the date of the convention of 1802, or
which may have been made to the department of foreign affairs of
His Majesty, or to His Minister in the United States.
And the high contracting parties, respectively, renounce all claim
to indemnities for any of the recent events or transactions of their
respective commanders and officers in the Floridas.
The United States will cause satisfaction to be made for the in-
juries, if any, which, by process of law, shall be established to have
been suffered by the Spanish officers, and individual Spanish in-
habitants, by the late operations of the American Army in Florida.
ARTICLE X
The convention entered into between the two Governments, on
the nth of August, 1802, the ratifications of which were exchanged
the 2ist December, 1818, is annulled.
ARTICLE XI
The United States, exonerating Spain from all demands in future,
on account of the claims of their citizens to which the renunciations
herein contained extend, and considering them entirely cancelled,
undertake to make satisfaction for the same, to an amount not ex-
ceeding five millions of dollars. To ascertain the full amount and
validity of those claims, a commission, to consist of three Commis-
sioners, citizens of the United States, shall be appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, which
commission shall meet at the city of Washington, and, within the
space of three years from the time of their first meeting, shall re-
274 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ceive, examine, and decide upon the amount and validity of all the
claims included within the descriptions above mentioned. The said
Commissioners shall take an oath or affirmation, to be entered on
the record o their proceedings, for the faithful and diligent dis-
charge of their duties; and, in case of the death, sickness, or necessary
absence of any such Commissioner, his place may be supplied by
the appointment, as aforesaid, or by the President of the United
States, during the recess of the Senate, of another Commissioner in
his stead. The said Commissioners shall be authorized to hear and
examine, on oath, every question relative to the said claims, and to
receive all suitable authentic testimony concerning the same. And
the Spanish Government shall furnish all such documents and
elucidations as may be in their possession, for the adjustment of the
said claims, according to the principles of justice, the laws of nations,
and the stipulations of the treaty between the two parties of 27th
October, 1795; the said documents to be specified, when demanded,
at the instance of the said Commissioners.
The payment of such claims as may be admitted and adjusted by
the said Commissioners, or the major part of them, to an amount
not exceeding five millions of dollars, shall be made by the United
States, either immediately at their Treasury, or by the creation of
stock, bearing an interest of six per cent, per annum, payable from
the proceeds of sales of public lands within the territories hereby
ceded to the United States, or in such other manner as the Congress
of the United States may prescribe by law.
The records of the proceedings of the said Commissioners, together
with the vouchers and documents produced before them, relative
to the claims to be adjusted and decided upon by them, shall, after
the close of their transactions, be deposited in the Department of
State of the United States; and copies of them, or any part of them,
shall be furnished to the Spanish Government, if required, at the
demand of the Spanish Minister in the United States.
ARTICLE XII
The treaty of limits and navigation, of 1795, remains confirmed
in all and each one of its articles excepting the 2, 3, 4, 21, and the
second clause of the 22d article, which having been altered by this
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 275
treaty, or having received their entire execution, are no longer valid.
With respect to the i5th article of the same treaty of friendship,
limits, and navigation of 1795, in which it is stipulated that the flag
shall cover the property, the two high contracting parties agree that
this shall be so understood with respect to those Powers who rec-
ognize this principle; but if either of the two contracting parties
shall be at war with a third party, and the other neutral, the flag
of the neutral shall cover the property of enemies whose Government
acknowledge this principle, and not of others.
ARTICLE XIII
Both contracting parties, wishing to favour their mutual com-
merce, by affording in their ports every necessary assistance to their
respective merchant-vessels, have agreed that the sailors who shall
desert from their vessels in the ports of the other, shall be arrested
and delivered up, at the instance of the Consul, who shall prove,
nevertheless, that the deserters belonged to the vessels that claimed
them, exhibiting the document that is customary in their nation:
that is to say, the American Consul in a Spanish port shall exhibit
the document known by the name of articles, and the Spanish
Consul in American ports the roll of the vessel; and if the name
of the deserter or deserters who are claimed shall appear in the one
or the other, they shall be arrested, held in custody, and delivered
to the vessel to which they shall belong.
ARTICLE XIV
The United States hereby certify that they have not received any
compensation from France for the injuries they suffered from her
privateers, Consuls, and tribunals on the coasts and in the ports
of Spain, for the satisfaction of which provision is made by this
treaty; and they will present an authentic statement of the prizes
made, and of their true value, that Spain may avail herself of the
same in such manner as she may deem just and proper.
ARTICLE XV
The United States, to give to His Catholic Majesty, a proof of
their desire to cement the relations of amity subsisting between the
276 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
two nations, and to favour the commerce of the subjects of His
Catholic Majesty, agree that Spanish vessels, coming laden only with
productions of Spanish growth or manufactures, directly from the
ports of Spain, or of her colonies, shall be admitted, for the term of
twelve years, to the ports of Pensacola and St. Augustine, in the
Floridas, without paying other or higher duties on their cargoes, or
of tonnage, than will be paid by the vessels of the United States.
During the said term no other nation shall enjoy the same privileges
within the ceded territories. The twelve years shall commence three
months after the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty.
ARTICLE XVI
The present treaty shall be ratified in due form, by the contracting
parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in six months from
this time, or sooner if possible.
In witness whereof we, the underwritten Plenipotentiaries of the
United States of America and of His Catholic Majesty, have signed,
by virtue of our powers, the present treaty of amity, settlement, and
limits, and have thereunto affixed our seals, respectively.
Done at Washington this twenty-second day of February, one
thousand eight hundred and nineteen.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS [L. s.]
Luis DE ONIS [L. s.]
THE MONROE DOCTRINE
(1823)
[The reaction in favor of monarchical government which followed the fall of
Napoleon had among its consequences the proposal of Spain to regain her South
American colonies, which had won their independence. Russia also began to extend
her claims on the Pacific coast. It was with reference to such tendencies that Presi-
dent Monroe included in his message of 1823, this statement of the policy of the
United States toward foreign powers attempting "to extend their system to this por-
tion of the hemisphere." This doctrine was not ratified by Congress, and its validity
depends, not on international law, but merely on the power of the United States
to enforce it.]
A THE proposal of the Russian imperial government made
through the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full
power and instructions have been transmitted to the Min-
ister of the United States at St. Petersburgh, to arrange, by amicable
negotiation, the respective rights and interests of the two nations on
the northwest coast of this continent. A similar proposal has been
made by his Imperial Majesty to the government of Great Britain,
which has likewise been acceded to. The government of the United
States has been desirous, by this friendly proceeding, of manifesting
the great value which they have invariably attached to the friendship
of the emperor, and their solicitude to cultivate the best understand-
ing with his government. In the discussions to which this interest
has given rise, and in the arrangements by which they may terminate,
the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in
which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that
the American continents, by the free and independent condition
which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be
considered as subjects for future colonization by any European
powers.
***********
It was stated at the commencement of the last session, that a great
effort was then making in Spain and Portugal, to improve the condi-
tion of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be con-
277
278 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked,
that the result has been, so far, very different from what was then
anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which we
have so much intercourse, and from which we derive our origin, we
have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of
the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly, in favor of
the liberty and happiness of their fellow men on that side of the
Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating
to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it comport
with our policy, so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded, or
seriously menaced, that we resent injuries, or make preparation for
our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere, we are, of
necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes which must
be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political
system of the allied powers is essentially different, in this respect,
from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which
exists in their respective governments. And to the defence of our
own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and
treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened
citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this
whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to
the amicable relations existing between the United States and those
powers, to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part
to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous
to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies
of any European power, we have not interfered, and shall not
interfere. But with the governments who have declared their inde-
pendence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on
great consideration, and on just principles, acknowledged, we could
not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or
controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by any European
power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly
disposition towards the United States. In the war between those new
governments and Spain, we declared our neutrality at the time of
their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue
to adhere, provided no change shall occur, which, in the judgment
of the competent authorities of this government, shall make a corre-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 279
spending change, on the part of the United States, indispensable to
their security.
The late events in Spain and Portugal, shew that Europe is still
unsettled. Of this important fact, no stronger proof can be adduced
than that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any
principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed, by force, in
the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition
may be carried, on the same principle, is a question, to which all
independent powers, whose governments differ from theirs, are inter-
ested; even those most remote, and surely none more so than the
United States. Our policy, in regard to Europe, which was adopted
at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter
of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere
in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the govern-
ment de facto as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate
friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank,
firm, and manly policy; meeting, in all instances, the just claims of
every power; submitting to injuries from none. But, in regard to
these continents, circumstances are eminently and conspicuously
different. It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their
political system to any portion of either continent, without endanger-
ing our peace and happiness: nor can any one believe that our
Southern Brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own
accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold
such interposition, in any form, with indifference. If we look to
the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new
governments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious
that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the
United States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that
other powers will pursue the same course.
TREATY
WITH GREAT BRITAIN
(1842)
[The purpose of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was to settle various outstanding
questions between Great Britain and the United States, mainly concerned with
boundary-lines. With the exception of the Oregon line, most of the frontier between
Canada and the United States was defined by this agreement. The boundary west
of the Rocky Mountains was decided in 1846.]
TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND HER BRITANNIC
MAJESTY RELATIVE TO BOUNDARIES, SUPPRESSION OF THE SLAVE-
TRADE, AND EXTRADITION OF CRIMINALS, CONCLUDED AT WASH-
INGTON, AUGUST 9, 1842; RATIFICATION ADVISED BY SENATE,
AUGUST 20, 1842; RATIFIED BY PRESIDENT, AUGUST 22, 1842; RATI-
FICATIONS EXCHANGED AT LONDON, OCTOBER 13, 1842; PROCLAIMED,
NOVEMBER 10, 1842.
"W "IT 7HEREAS certain portions of the line of boundary between
% /% / the United States of America and the British dominions in
T T North America, described in the second article of the treaty
of peace of 1783, have not yet been ascertained and determined, not-
withstanding the repeated attempts which have been heretofore made
for that purpose; and whereas it is now thought to be for the inter-
est of both parties, that, avoiding further discussion of their respective
rights, arising in this respect under the said treaty, they should agree
on a conventional line in said portions of the said boundary, such as
may be convenient to both parties, with such equivalents and com-
pensations as are deemed just and reasonable; and whereas, by the
treaty concluded at Ghent on the 24th day of December, 1814, be-
tween the United States and His Britannic Majesty, an article was
agreed to and inserted of the following tenor, viz.: "Art. 10. Whereas
the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity
and justice; and whereas both His Majesty and the United States are
280
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 28 1
desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition,
it is hereby agreed that both the contracting parties shall use their
best endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object;" and whereas,
notwithstanding the laws which have at various times been passed
by the two Governments, and the efforts made to suppress it, that
criminal traffic is still prosecuted and carried on; and whereas the
United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland are determined that, so far
as may be in their power, it shall be effectually abolished; and
whereas it is found expedient, for the better administration of justice
and the prevention of crime within the territories and jurisdiction of
the two parties respectively, that persons committing the crimes here-
inafter enumerated, and being fugitives from justice, should, under
certain circumstances, be reciprocally delivered up : The United States
of America and Her Britannic Majesty, having resolved to treat on
these several subjects, have for that purpose appointed their respective
Plenipotentiaries to negotiate and conclude a treaty, that is to say :
The President of the United States has, on his part, furnished with
full powers Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of the United States,
and Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland has, on her part, appointed the Right Honorable Alex-
ander Lord Ashburton, a peer of the said United Kingdom, a mem-
ber of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, and Her
Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary on a special mission to the United
States;
Who, after a reciprocal communication of their respective full
powers, have agreed to and signed the following articles:
ARTICLE I
It is hereby agreed and declared that the line of boundary shall be
as follows: Beginning at the monument at the source of the river
St. Croix as designated and agreed to by the Commissioners under
the fifth article of the treaty of 1794, between the Governments of
the United States and Great Britain; thence, north, following the
exploring line run and marked by the surveyors of the two Govern-
ments in the years 1817 and 1818, under the fifth article of the
treaty of Ghent, to its intersection with the river St. John, and to
282 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
the middle of the channel thereof; thence, up the middle of the main
channel of the said river St. John, to the mouth of the river St.
Francis; thence, up the middle of the channel of the said river St.
Francis, and of the lakes through which it flows, to the outlet of the
Lake Pohenagamook; thence, southwesterly, in a straight line, to a
point on the northwest branch of the river St. John, which point shall
be ten miles distant from the main branch of the St. John, in a
straight line, and in the nearest direction; but if the said point shall
be found to be less than seven miles from the nearest point of the
summit or crest of the highlands that divide those rivers which empty
themselves into the river Saint Lawrence from those which fall into
the river Saint John, then the said point shall be made to recede down
the said northwest branch of the river St. John, to a point seven
miles in a straight line from the said summit or crest; thence, in a
straight line, in a course about south, eight degrees west, to the point
where the parallel of latitude of 46 25' north intersects the south-
west branch of the St. John's; thence, southerly, by the said branch,
to the source thereof in the highlands at the Metjarmette portage;
thence, down along the said highlands which divide the waters
which empty themselves into the river Saint Lawrence from those
which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the head of Hall's Stream;
thence, down the middle of said stream, till the line thus run inter-
sects the old line of boundary surveyed and marked by Valentine
and Collins, previously to the year 1774, as the 45th degree of north
latitude, and which has been known and understood to be the line
of actual division between the States of New York and Vermont
on one side, and the British province of Canada on the other; and
from said point of intersection, west, along the said dividing line, as
heretofore known and understood, to the Iroquois or St. Lawrence
River.
ARTICLE II
It is moreover agreed, that from the place where the joint Com-
missioners terminated their labors under the sixth article of the
treaty of Ghent, to wit, at a point in the Neebish Channel, near
Muddy Lake, the line shall run into and along the ship-channel
between Saint Joseph and St. Tammany Islands, to the division of
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 283
the channel at or near the head of St. Joseph's Island; thence, turning
eastwardly and northwardly around the lower end of St. George's
or Sugar Island, and following the middle of the channel which
divides St. George's from St. Joseph's Island; thence up the east
Neebish Channel, nearest to St. George's Island, through the middle
of Lake George; thence, west of Jonas' Island, into St. Mary's River,
to a point in the middle of that river, about one mile above St.
George's or Sugar Island, so as to appropriate and assign the said
island to the United States; thence, adopting the line traced on the
maps by the Commissioners, thro' the river St. Mary and Lake
Superior, to a point north of He Royale, in said lake, one hundred
yards to the north and east of He Chapeau, which last-mentioned
island lies near the northeastern point of He Royale, where the line
marked by the Commissioners terminates; and from the last-
mentioned point, southwesterly, through the middle of the sound
between He Royale and the northwestern main land, to the mouth
of Pigeon River, and up the said river, to and through the north
and south Fowl Lakes, to the lakes of the height of land between
Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods; thence, along the water
communication to Lake Saisaginaga, and through that lake; thence,
to and through Cypress Lake, Lac du Bois Blanc, Lac la Croix, Little
Vermilion Lake, and Lake Namecan and through the several smaller
lakes, straits, or streams, connecting the lakes here mentioned, to that
point in Lac la Pluie, or Rainy Lake, at the Chaudiere Falls, from
which the Commissioners traced the line to the most northwestern
point of the Lake of the Woods; thence, along the said line, to the
said most northwestern point, being in latitude 49 23' 55" north and
in longitude 95 14' 38" west from the observatory at Greenwich;
thence, according to existing treaties, due south to its intersection
with the 49th parallel of north latitude, and along that parallel to
the Rocky Mountains. It being understood that all the water com-
munications and all the usual portages along the line from Lake
Superior to the Lake of the Woods, and also Grand Portage, from
the shore of Lake Superior to the Pigeon River, as now actually used,
shall be free and open to the use of the citizens and subjects of both
countries.
284 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ARTICLE III
In order to promote the interests and encourage the industry of
all the inhabitants of the countries watered by the river St. John and
its tributaries, whether living within the State of Maine or the prov-
ince of New Brunswick, it is agreed that, where, by the provisions
of the present treaty, the river St. John is declared to be the line of
boundary, the navigation of the said river shall be free and open to
both parties, and shall in no way be obstructed by cither; that all the
produce of the forest, in logs, lumber, timber, boards, staves, or
shingles, or of agriculture, not being manufactured, grown on any
of those parts of the State of Maine watered by the river St. John, or
by its tributaries, of which fact reasonable evidence shall, if required,
be produced, shall have free access into and through the said river
and its said tributaries, having their source within the State of Maine,
to and from the sea-port at the mouth of the said river St. John's,
and to and round the falls of the said river, either by boats, rafts, or
other conveyance; that when within the province of New Brunswick,
the said produce shall be dealt with as if it were the produce of the
said province; that, in like manner, the inhabitants of the territory
of the upper St. John, determined by this treaty to belong to Her
Britannic Majesty, shall have free access to and through the river,
for their produce, in those parts where the said river runs wholly
through the State of Maine; Provided, always, that this agreement
shall give no right to either party to interfere with any regulations
not inconsistent with the terms of this treaty which the governments,
respectively, of Maine or of New Brunswick may make respecting
the navigation of the said river, where both banks thereof shall
belong to the same party.
ARTICLE IV
All grants of land heretofore made by either party, within the
limits of the territory which by this treaty falls within the dominions
of the other party, shall be held valid, ratified, and confirmed to the
persons in possession under such grants, to the same extent as if
such territory had by this treaty fallen within the dominions of the
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 285
party by whom such grants were made; and all equitable possessory
claims, arising from a possession and improvement of any lot or
parcel of land by the person actually in possession, or by those under
whom such person claims, for more than six years before the date
of this treaty, shall, in like manner, be deemed valid, and be con-
firmed and quieted by a release to the persons entitled thereto, of
the title to such lot or parcel of land, so described as best to include
the improvements made thereon; and in all other respects the two
contracting parties agree to deal upon the most liberal principles of
equity with the settlers actually dwelling upon the territory falling
to them, respectively, which has heretofore been in dispute between
them.
ARTICLE V
Whereas in the course of the controversy respecting the disputed
territory on the northeastern boundary, some moneys have been
received by the authorities of Her Britannic Majesty's province of
New Brunswick, with the intention of preventing depredations, on
the forests of the said territory, which moneys were to be carried to
a fund called the "disputed territory fund," the proceeds whereof
it was agreed should be hereafter paid over to the parties interested,
in the proportions to be determined by a final settlement of bound-
aries, it is hereby agreed that a correct account of all receipts and
payments on the said fund shall be delivered to the Government of
the United States within six months after the ratification of this
treaty ; and the proportion of the amount due thereon to the States of
Maine and Massachusetts, and any bonds or securities appertaining
thereto shall be paid and delivered over to the Government of the
United States; and the Government of the United States agrees to
receive for the use of, and pay over to, the States of Maine and
Massachusetts, their respective portions of said fund, and further, to
pay and satisfy said States, respectively, for all claims for expenses
incurred by them in protecting the said heretofore disputed territory
and making a survey thereof in 1838; the Government of the United
States agreeing with the States of Maine and Massachusetts to pay
them the further sum of three hundred thousand dollars, in equal
286 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
moieties, on account of their assent to the line of boundary described
in this treaty, and in consideration of the conditions and equivalents
received therefor from the Government of Her Britannic Majesty.
ARTICLE VI
It is furthermore understood and agreed that, for the purpose of
running and tracing those parts of the line between the source of the
St. Croix and the St. Lawrence River which will require to be run
and ascertained, and for marking the residue of said line by proper
monuments on the land, two Commissioners shall be appointed, one
by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate thereof, and one by Her Britannic Majesty;
and the said Commissioners shall meet at Bangor, in the State of
Maine, on the first day of May next, or as soon thereafter as may be,
and shall proceed to mark the line above described, from the source
of St. Croix to the river St. John; and shall trace on proper maps the
dividing-line along said river and along the river St. Francis to the
outlet of the Lake Pohenagamook; and from the outlet of the said
lake they shall ascertain, fix, and mark, by proper and durable monu-
ments on the land, the line described in the first article of this treaty;
and the said Commissioners shall make to each of their respective
Governments a joint report or declaration, under their hands and
seals, designating such line of boundary, and shall accompany such
report or declaration with maps, certified by them to be true maps
of the new boundary.
ARTICLE VII
It is further agreed that the channels in the river St. Lawrence on
both sides of the Long Sault Islands and of Barnhart Island, the
channels in the river Detroit on both sides of the island Bois Blanc,
and between that Island and both the American and Canadian
shores, and all the several channels and passages between the various
islands lying near the junction of the river St. Clair with the lake
of that name, shall be equally free and open to the ships, vessels, and
boats of both parties.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 287
ARTICLE VIII
The parties mutually stipulate that each shall prepare, equip, and
maintain in service on the coast of Africa a sufficient and adequate
squadron or naval force of vessels of suitable numbers and descrip-
tions, to carry in all not less than eighty guns, to enforce, separately
and respectively, the laws, rights and obligations of each of the two
countries for the suppression of the slave-trade, the said squadrons to
be independent of each other, but the two Governments stipulating,
nevertheless, to give such orders to the officers commanding their
respective forces as shall enable them most effectually to act in
concert and co-operation, upon mutual consultation, as exigencies
may arise, for the attainment of the true object of this article, copies
of all such orders to be communicated by each Government to the
other, respectively.
ARTICLE IX
Whereas, notwithstanding all efforts which may be made on the
coast of Africa for suppressing the slave-trade, the facilities for carry-
ing on that traffic and avoiding the vigilance of cruisers, by the
fraudulent use of flags and other means, are so great, and the tempta-
tions for pursuing it, while a market can be found for slaves, so
strong, as that the desired result may be long delayed unless all
markets be shut against the purchase of African negroes, the parties
to this treaty agree that they will unite in all becoming representa-
tions and remonstrances with any and all Powers within whose
dominions such markets are allowed to exist, and that they will urge
upon all such Powers the propriety and duty of closing such markets
effectually, at once and forever.
ARTICLE X
It is agreed that the United States and Her Britannic Majesty shall,
upon mutual requisitions by them, or their Ministers, officers, or
authorities, respectively made, deliver up to justice all persons who,
being charged with the crime of murder, or assault with intent to
commit murder, or piracy, or arson, or robbery, or forgery, or the
utterance of forged paper, committed within the jurisdiction of either,
288 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
shall seek an asylum or shall be found within the territories of the
other: Provided, that this shall only be done upon such evidence of
criminality as, according to the laws of the place where the fugitive
or person so charged shall be found, would justify his apprehension
and commitment for trial if the crime or offence had there been
committed; and the respective judges and other magistrates of the
two Governments shall have power, jurisdiction, and authority, upon
complaint made under oath, to issue a warrant for the apprehension
of the fugitive or person so charged, that he may be brought before
such judges or other magistrates, respectively, to the end that the
evidence of criminality may be heard and considered; and if, on such
hearing, the evidence be deemed sufficient to sustain the charge, it
shall be the duty of the examining judge or magistrate to certify the
same to the proper executive authority, that a warrant may issue for
the surrender of such fugitive. The expense of such apprehension
and delivery shall be borne and defrayed by the party who makes the
requisition and receives the fugitive.
ARTICLE XI
The eighth article of this treaty shall be in force for five years
from the date of the exchange of the ratification, and afterwards
until one or the other party shall signify a wish to terminate it. The
tenth article shall continue in force until one or the other of the
parties shall signify its wish to terminate it, and no longer.
ARTICLE XII
The present treaty shall be duly ratified, and the mutual exchange
of ratification shall take place in London, within six months from
the date hereof, or earlier if possible.
In faith whereof we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed
this treaty and have hereunto affixed our seals.
Done, in duplicate, at Washington, the ninth day of August, anno
Domini one thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
DANL. WEBSTER [L. s.]
ASHBURTON [L. S.]
TREATY WITH MEXICO
[By the Louisiana Purchase, Texas had become a part of the United States; but in
1819 it had been ceded to Spain in the negotiations for Florida. Two years later
Mexico, including Texas, had become independent, and the United States made two
unsuccessful attempts to purchase Texas from Mexico. The settlement of Texas by
immigrants from the United States finally led to the secession of Texas and its
annexation by the United States, with the result that the Mexican War broke out in
May, 1846. It was closed by this treaty, by which the United States gained not only
Texas but New Mexico and Upper California.]
TREATY OF PEACE, FRIENDSHIP, LIMITS, AND SETTLEMENT BETWEEN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES,
CONCLUDED AT GUADALUPE HIDALGO, FEBRUARY 2, 1848; RATIFI-
CATION ADVISED BY SENATE, WITH AMENDMENTS, MARCH 10, 1848;
RATIFIED BY PRESIDENT, MARCH 16, 1848; RATIFICATIONS EX-
CHANGED AT QUERETARO, MAY 30, 1848; PROCLAIMED, JULY 4, 1848.
IN THE name of Almighty God:
The United States of America and the United Mexican States
animated by a sincere desire to put an end to the calamities of
the war which unhappily exists between the two Republics, and to
establish upon a solid basis relations of peace and friendship, which
shall confer reciprocal benefits upon the citizens of both, and assure
the concord, harmony, and mutual confidence wherein the two
people should live, as good neighbours, have for that purpose
appointed their respective plenipotentiaries, that is to say :
The President of the United States has appointed Nicholas P.
Trist, a citizen of the United States, and the President of the Mexi-
can Republic has appointed Don Luis Gonzaga Cuevas, Don Ber-
nardo Couto, and Don Miguel Atristain, citizens of the said
Republic;
Who, after a reciprocal communication of their respective full
powers, have, under the protection of Almighty God, the author of
peace, arranged, agreed upon, and signed the following:
289
290 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the
United States of America and the Mexican Republic.
ARTICLE I
There shall be firm and universal peace between the United States
of America and the Mexican Republic, and between their respective
countries, territories, cities, towns, and people, without exception of
places or persons.
ARTICLE II
Immediately upon the signature of this treaty, a convention shall
be entered into between a commissioner or commissioners appointed
by the General-in-chief of the forces of the United States, and such as
may be appointed by the Mexican Government, to the end that a
provisional suspension of hostilities shall take place, and that, in the
places occupied by the said forces, constitutional order may be re-
established, as regards the political, administrative, and judicial
branches, so far as this shall be permitted by the circumstances of
military occupation.
ARTICLE III
Immediately upon the ratification of the present treaty by the
Government of the United States, orders shall be transmitted to the
commanders of their land and naval forces, requiring the latter (pro-
vided this treaty shall then have been ratified by the Government of
the Mexican Republic, and the ratifications exchanged) immediately
to desist from blockading any Mexican ports and requiring the
former (under the same condition) to commence, at the earliest
moment practicable, withdrawing all troops of the United States
then in the interior of the Mexican Republic, to points that shall be
selected by common agreement, at a distance from the seaports not
exceeding thirty leagues; and such evacuation of the interior of the
Republic shall be completed with the least possible delay; the Mexi-
can Government hereby binding itself to afford every facility in its
power for rendering the same convenient to the troops, on their
march and in their new positions, and for promoting a good under-
standing between them and the inhabitants. In like manner orders
shall be despatched to the persons in charge of the custom-houses at
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 29!
all ports occupied by the forces of the United States, requiring them
(under the same condition) immediately to deliver possession of
the same to the persons authorized by the Mexican Government to
receive it, together with all bonds and evidences of debt for duties
on importations and on exportations, not yet fallen due. Moreover,
a faithful and exact account shall be made out, showing the entire
amount of all duties on imports and on exports, collected at such
custom-houses, or elsewhere in Mexico, by authority of the United
States, from and after the day of ratification of this treaty by the
Government of the Mexican Republic; and also an account of the
cost of collection; and such entire amount, deducting only the cost
of collection, shall be delivered to the Mexican Government, at the
city of Mexico, within three months after the exchange of rati-
fications.
The evacuation of the capital of the Mexican Republic by the troops
of the United States, in virtue of the above stipulation, shall be com-
pleted in one month after the orders there stipulated for shall have
been received by the commander of said troops, or sooner if possible.
ARTICLE IV
Immediately after the exchange of ratifications of the present
treaty all castles, forts, territories, places, and possessions, which have
been taken or occupied by the forces of the United States during the
present war, within the limits of the Mexican Republic, as about to
be established by the following article, shall be definitely restored to
the said Republic, together with all the artillery, arms, apparatus of
war, munitions, and other public property, which were in the said
castles and forts when captured, and which shall remain there at the
time when this treaty shall be duly ratified by the Government of
the Mexican Republic. To this end, immediately upon the signature
of this treaty, orders shall be despatched to the American officers com-
manding such castles and forts, securing against the removal or
destruction of any such artillery, arms, apparatus of war, munitions,
or other public property. The city of Mexico, within the inner line
of intrenchments surrounding the said city, is comprehended in the
above stipulation, as regards the restoration of artillery, apparatus of
war, &c.
292 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
The final evacuation of the territory of the Mexican Republic, by
the forces of the United States, shall be completed in three months
from the said exchange of ratifications, or sooner if possible; the
Mexican Government hereby engaging, as in the foregoing article,
to use all means in its power for facilitating such evacuation, and
rendering it convenient to the troops, and for promoting a good
understanding between them and the inhabitants.
If, however, the ratification of this treaty by both parties should not
take place, in time to allow the embarcation of the troops of the
United States to be completed before the commencement of the
sickly season, at the Mexican ports on the Gulf of Mexico, in such
case a friendly arrangement shall be entered into between the
General-in-chief of the said troops and the Mexican Government,
whereby healthy and otherwise suitable places, at a distance from the
ports not exceeding thirty leagues, shall be designated for the resi-
dence of such troops as may not yet have embarked, until the return
of the healthy season. And the space of time here referred to as
comprehending the sickly season shall be understood to extend from
the first day of May to the first day of November.
All prisoners of war taken on either side, on land or on sea, shall
be restored as soon as practicable after the exchange of ratifications
of this treaty. It is also agreed that if any Mexicans should now be
held as captives by any savage tribe within the limits of the United
States, as about to be established by the following article, the Govern-
ment of the said United States will exact the release of such captives,
and cause them to be restored to their country.
ARTICLE V
The boundary line between the two Republics shall commence in
the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of
the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite
the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one
branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence up the middle of
that river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than
one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New
Mexico; thence, westwardly, along the whole southern boundary of
New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 293
western termination; thence, northward, along the western line of
New Mexico, until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila; (or
if it should not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point
on the said line nearest to such branch, and thence in a direct line to
the same) ; thence down the middle of the said branch and of the
said river, until it empties into the Rio Colorado; thence across the
Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower
California, to the Pacific Ocean.
The southern and western limits of New Mexico, mentioned in
this article, are those laid down in 'the map entitled "Map of the
United Mexican States, as organized and defined by various acts of
the Congress of said republic, and constructed according to the best
authorities. Revised edition. Published at New Yor^, in I&4J, by
/. Disturnell;" of which map a copy is added to this treaty, bearing
the signatures and seals of the undersigned Plenipotentiaries. And,
in order to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon the ground the limit
separating Upper from Lower California, it is agreed that the said
limit shall consist of a straight line drawn from the middle of the
Rio Gila, where it unites with the Colorado, to a point on the coast
of the Pacific Ocean, distant one marine league due south of the
southernmost point of the port of San Diego, according to the plan
of said port made in the year 1782 by Don Juan Pantoja, second
sailing-master of the Spanish fleet, and published at Madrid in the
year 1802, in the atlas to the voyage of the schooners Sutil and Mexi-
cana; of which plan a copy is hereunto added, signed and sealed by
the respective Plenipotentiaries.
In order to designate the boundary line with due precision, upon
authoritative maps, and to establish upon the ground land-marks
which shall show the limits of both republics, as described in the
present article, the two Governments shall each appoint a commis-
sioner and a surveyor, who, before the expiration of one year from
the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty, shall meet at
the port of San Diego, and proceed to run and mark the said boun-
dary in its whole course to the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte.
They shall keep journals and make out plans of their operations;
and the result agreed upon by them shall be deemed a part of this
treaty, and shall have the same force as if it were inserted therein.
294 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
The two Governments will amicably agree regarding what may be
necessary to these persons, and also as to their respective escorts,
should such be necessary.
The boundary line established by this article shall be religiously
respected by each of the two republics, and no change shall ever be
made therein, except by the express and free consent of both nations,
lawfully given by the General Government of each, in conformity
with its own constitution.
ARTICLE VI
The vessels and citizens of the United States shall, in all time,
have a free and uninterrupted passage by the Gulf of California,
and by the river Colorado below its confluence with the Gila, to and
from their possessions situated north of the boundary line defined
in the preceding article; it being understood that this passage is to
be by navigating the Gulf of California and the river Colorado, and
not by land, without the express consent of the Mexican Government.
If, by the examinations which may be made, it should be ascer-
tained to be practicable and advantageous to construct a road, canal,
or railway, which should in whole or in part run upon the river
Gila, or upon its right or its left bank, within the space of one marine
league from either margin of the river, the Governments of both
republics will form an agreement regarding its construction, in order
that it may serve equally for the use and advantage of both countries.
ARTICLE VII
The river Gila, and the part of the Rio Bravo del Norte lying
below the southern boundary of New Mexico, being, agreeably to
the fifth article, divided in the middle between the two republics, the
navigation of the Gila and of the Bravo below said boundary shall
be free and common to the vessels and citizens of both countries;
and neither shall, without the consent of the other, construct any
work that may impede or interrupt, in whole or in part, the exercise
of this right; not even for the purpose of favoring new methods of
navigation. Nor shall any tax or contribution, under any denomina-
tion or title, be levied upon vessels or persons navigating the same,
or upon merchandise or effects transported thereon, except in the
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 295
case of landing upon one of their shores. If, for the purpose of mak-
ing the said rivers navigable, or for maintaining them in such state,
it should be necessary or advantageous to establish any tax or contri-
bution, this shall not be done without the consent of both Govern-
ments.
The stipulations contained in the present article shall not impair
the territorial rights of either republic within its established limits.
ARTICLE VIII
Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to
Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the
United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to con-
tinue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexi-
can Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said
territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever
they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any
contribution, tax, or charge whatever.
Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either
retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of
citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation
to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange
of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said
territories after the expiration of that year, without having declared
their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, shall be consid-
ered to have elected to become citizens of the United States.
In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to
Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The
present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may here-
after acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect to it
guarantees equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the
United States.
ARTICLE IX
The Mexicans who, in the territories aforesaid, shall not preserve
the character of citizens of the Mexican Republic, conformably with
what is stipulated in the preceding article, shall be incorporated into
the Union of the United States, and be admitted at the proper time
296 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
(to be judged of by the Congress of the United States) to the enjoy-
ment of all the rights of citizens of the United States, according to
the principles of the Constitution; and in the mean time, shall be
maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and
property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without
restriction.
ARTICLE X
[Stricken out.]
ARTICLE XI
Considering that a great part of the territories, which, by the
present treaty, are to be comprehended for the future within the
limits of the United States, is now occupied by savage tribes, who
will hereafter be under the exclusive control of the Government of
the United States, and whose incursions within the territory of
Mexico would be prejudicial in the extreme, it is solemnly agreed
that all such incursions shall be forcibly restrained by the Govern-
ment of the United States whensoever this may be necessary; and
that when they cannot be prevented, they shall be punished by the
said Government, and satisfaction for the same shall be exacted all
in the same way, and with equal diligence and energy, as if the same
incursions were meditated or committed within its own territory,
against its own citizens.
It shall not be lawful, under any pretext whatever, for any inhabi-
tant of the United States to purchase or acquire any Mexican, or any
foreigner residing in Mexico, who may have been captured by Indians
inhabiting the territory of either of the two republics; nor to purchase
or acquire horses, mules, cattle, or property of any kind, stolen within
Mexican territory by such Indians.
And in the event of any person or persons, captured within Mexi-
can territory by Indians, being carried into the territory of the United
States, the Government of the latter engages and binds itself, in the
most solemn manner, so soon as it shall know of such captives being
within its territory, and shall be able so to do, through the faithful
exercise of its influence and power, to rescue them and return them
to their country, or deliver them to the agent or representative of the
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 297
Mexican Government. The Mexican authorities will, as far as prac-
ticable, give to the Government of the United States notice of such
captures; and its agents shall pay the expenses incurred in the main-
tenance and transmission of the rescued captives; who, in the mean
time, shall be treated with the utmost hospitality by the American
authorities at the place where they may be. But if the Government
of the United States, before receiving such notice from Mexico,
should obtain intelligence, through any other channel, of the ex-
istence of Mexican captives within its territory, it will proceed forth-
with to effect their release and delivery to the Mexican agent, as
above stipulated.
For the purpose of giving to these stipulations the fullest possible
efficacy, thereby affording the security and redress demanded by their
true spirit and intent, the Government of the United States will now
and hereafter pass, without unnecessary delay, and always vigilantly
enforce, such laws as the nature of the subject may require. And,
finally, the sacredness of this obligation shall never be lost sight of
by the said Government, when providing for the removal of the
Indians from any portion of the said territories, or for its being
settled by citizens of the United States; but, on the contrary, special
care shall then be taken not to place its Indian occupants under the
necessity of seeking new homes, by committing those invasions which
the United States have solemnly obliged themselves to restrain.
ARTICLE XII
In consideration of the extension acquired by the boundaries of
the United States, as defined in the fifth article of the present treaty,
the Government of the United States engages to pay to that of the
Mexican Republic the sum of fifteen millions of dollars.
Immediately after the treaty shall have been duly ratified by the
Government of the Mexican Republic, the sum of three millions of
dollars shall be paid to the said Government by that of the United
States, at the city of Mexico, in the gold or silver coin of Mexico.
The remaining twelve millions of dollars shall be paid at the same
place, and in the same coin, in annual instalments of three millions
of dollars each, together with interest on the same at the rate of six
per centum per annum. This interest shall begin to run upon the
298 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
whole sum of twelve millions from the day of the ratification of the
present treaty by the Mexican Government, and the first of the
instalments shall be paid at the expiration of one year from the same
day. Together with each annual instalment, as it falls due, the whole
interest accruing on such instalment from the beginning shall also
be paid.
ARTICLE XIII
The United States engage, moreover, to assume and pay to the
claimants all the amounts now due them, and those hereafter to
become due, by reason of the claims already liquidated and decided
against the Mexican Republic, under the conventions between the
two republics severally concluded on the eleventh day of April,
eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, and on the thirtieth day of Jan-
uary, eighteen hundred and forty-three; so that the Mexican Republic
shall be absolutely exempt, for the future, from all expense whatever
on account of the said claims.
ARTICLE XIV
The United States do furthermore discharge the Mexican Republic
from all claims of citizens of the United States, not heretofore decided
against the Mexican Government, which may have arisen previously
to the date of the signature of this treaty; which discharge shall be
final and perpetual, whether the said claims be rejected or be allowed
by the board of commissioners provided for in the following article,
and whatever shall be the total amount of those allowed.
ARTICLE XV
The United States, exonerating Mexico from all demands on
account of the claims of their citizens mentioned in the preceding
article, and considering them entirely and forever cancelled, what-
ever their amount may be, undertake to make satisfaction for the
same, to an amount not exceeding three and one-quarter millions
of dollars. To ascertain the validity and amount of those claims, a
board of commissioners shall be established by the Government of
the United States, whose awards shall be final and conclusive; pro-
vided that, in deciding upon the validity of each claim, the board
shall be guided and governed by the principles and rules of decision
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 299
prescribed by the first and fifth articles of the imratified convention,
concluded at the city of Mexico on the twentieth day of November,
one thousand eight hundred and forty-three; and in no case shall
an award be made in favour of any claim not embraced by these
principles and rules.
If, in the opinion of the said board of commissioners or of the
claimants, any books, records, or documents, in the possession or
power of the Government of the Mexican Republic, shall be deemed
necessary to the just decision of any claim, the commissioners, or the
claimants through them, shall, within such period as Congress may
designate, make an application in writing for the same, addressed to
the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, to be transmitted by the
Secretary of State of the United States; and the Mexican Government
engages, at the earliest possible moment after the receipt of such
demand, to cause any of the books, records, or documents so specified,
which shall be in their possession or power (or authenticated copies
or extracts of the same), to be transmitted to the said Secretary of
State, who shall immediately deliver them over to the said board of
commissioners; provided that no such application shall be made by
or at the instance of any claimant, until the facts which it is expected
10 prove by such books, records, or documents, shall have been stated
under oath or affirmation.
ARTICLE XVI
Each of the contracting parties reserves to itself the entire right
to fortify whatever point within its territory it may judge proper so
to fortify for its security.
ARTICLE XVII
The treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, concluded at the
city of Mexico, on the fifth day of April, A. D. 1831, between the
United States of America and the United Mexican States, except the
additional article, and except so far as the stipulations of the said
treaty may be incompatible with any stipulation contained in the
present treaty, is hereby revived for the period of eight years from the
day of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty, with the same
force and virtue as if incorporated therein; it being understood that
3OO AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
each of the contracting parties reserves to itself the right, at any time
after the said period of eight years shall have expired, to terminate
the same by giving one year's notice of such intention to the other
party.
ARTICLE XVIII
All supplies whatever for troops of the United States in Mexico,
arriving at ports in the occupation of such troops previous to the
final evacuation thereof, although subsequently to the restoration of
the custom-houses at such ports, shall be entirely exempt from duties
and charges of any kind; the Government of the United States hereby
engaging and pledging its faith to establish and vigilantly to enforce,
all possible guards for securing the revenue of Mexico, by preventing
the importation, under cover of this stipulation, of any articles other
than such, both in kind and in quantity, as shall really be wanted
for the use and consumption of the forces of the United States during
the time they may remain in Mexico. To this end it shall be the
duty of all officers and agents of the United States to denounce to
the Mexican authorities at the respective ports any attempts at a
fraudulent abuse of this stipulation, which they may know of, or
may have reason to suspect, and to give to such authorities all the
aid in their power with regard thereto; and every such attempt, when
duly proved and established by sentence of a competent tribunal,
shall be punished by the confiscation of the property so attempted to
be fraudulently introduced.
ARTICLE XIX
With respect to all merchandise, effects, and property whatsoever,
imported into ports of Mexico, whilst in the occupation of the forces
of the United States, whether by citizens of either republic, or by
citizens or subjects of any neutral nation, the following rules shall
be observed :
(i) All such merchandise, effects, and property, if imported pre-
viously to the restoration of the custom-houses to the Mexican author-
ities, as stipulated for in the third article of this treaty, shall be
exempt from confiscation, although the importation of the same be
prohibited by the Mexican tariff.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 30 1
(2) The same perfect exemption shall be enjoyed by all such
merchandise, effects, and property, imported subsequently to the
restoration of the custom-houses, and previously to the sixty days
fixed in the following article for the coming into force of the Mexi-
can tariff at such ports respectively; the said merchandise, effects,
and property being, however, at the time of their importation, subject
to the payment of duties, as provided for in the said following article.
(3) All merchandise, effects, and property described in the two
rules foregoing shall, during their continuance at the place of im-
portation, and upon their leaving such place for the interior, be
exempt from all duty, tax, or imposts of every kind, under whatso-
ever title or denomination. Nor shall they be there subject to any
charge whatsoever upon the sale thereof.
(4) All merchandise, effects, and property, described in the first
and second rules, which shall have been removed to any place in the
interior, whilst such place was in the occupation of the forces of the
United States, shall, during their continuance therein, be exempt
from all tax upon the sale or consumption thereof, and from every
kind of impost or contribution, under whatsoever title or denom-
ination.
(5) But if any merchandise, efTects, or property, described in the
first and second rules, shall be removed to any place not occupied
at the time by the forces of the United States, they shall, upon their
introduction into such place, or upon their sale or consumption
there, be subject to the same duties which, under the Mexican laws,
they would be required to pay in such cases if they had been imported
in time of peace, through the maritime custom-houses, and had there
paid the duties conformably with the Mexican tariff.
(6) The owners of all merchandise, efTects, or property, described
in the first and second rules, and existing in any port of Mexico, shall
have the right to reship the same, exempt from all tax, impost, or
contribution whatever.
With respect to the metals, or other property, exported from any
Mexican port whilst in the occupation of the forces of the United
States, and previously to the restoration of the custom-house at such
port, no person shall be required by the Mexican authorities, whether
general or state, to pay any tax, duty, or contribution upon any such
3O2 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
exportation, or in any manner to account for the same to the said
authorities.
ARTICLE XX
Through consideration for the interests of commerce generally, it
is agreed, that if less than sixty days should elapse between the date
of the signature of this treaty and the restoration of the custom-
houses, conformably with the stipulation in the third article, in such
case all merchandise, effects and property whatsoever, arriving at the
Mexican ports after the restoration of the said custom-houses, and
previously to the expiration of sixty days after the day of signature
of this treaty, shall be admitted to entry; and no other dudes shall
be levied thereon than the duties established by the tariff found in
force at such custom-houses at the time of the restoration of the same.
And to all such merchandise, effects, and property, the rules estab-
lished by the preceding article shall apply.
ARTICLE XXI
If unhappily any disagreement should hereafter arise between the
Governments of the two republics, whether with respect to the inter-
pretation of any stipulation in this treaty, or with respect to any other
particular concerning the political or commercial relations of the
two nations, the said Governments, in the name of those nations, do
promise to each other that they will endeavour, in the most sincere
and earnest manner, to settle the differences so arising, and to pre-
serve the state of peace and friendship in which the two countries
are now placing themselves, using, for this end, mutual representa-
tions and pacific negotiations. And if, by these means, they should
not be enabled to come to an agreement, a resort shall not, on this
account, be had to reprisals, aggression, or hostility of any kind, by
the one republic against the other, until the Government of that
which deems itself aggrieved shall have maturely considered, in
the spirit of peace and good neighbourship, whether it would not
be better that such difference should be settled by the arbitration of
commissioners appointed on each side, or by that of a friendly na-
tion. And should such course be proposed by either party, it shall
be acceded to by the other, unless deemed by it altogether incom-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 303
patible with the nature of the difference, or the circumstances of the
case.
ARTICLE XXII
If (which is not to be expected, and which God forbid) war
should unhappily break out between the two republics, they do
now, with a view to such calamity, solemnly pledge themselves
to each other and to the world to observe the following rules; ab-
solutely where the nature of the subject permits, and as closely as
possible in all cases where such absolute observance shall be impos-
sible:
(i) The merchants of either republic then residing in the other
shall be allowed to remain twelve months (for those dwelling in
the interior), and six months (for those dwelling at the seaports)
to collect their debts and settle their affairs; during which periods
they shall enjoy the same protection, and be on the same footing,
in all respects, as the citizens or subjects of the most friendly na-
tions; and, at the expiration thereof, or at any time before, they
shall have full liberty to depart, carrying off all their effects without
molestation or hindrance, conforming therein to the same laws
which the citizens or subjects of the most friendly nations are re-
quired to conform to. Upon the entrance of -the armies of either
nation into the territories of the other, women and children, ec-
clesiastics, scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, mer-
chants, artisans, manufacturers, and fishermen, unarmed and in-
habiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in general all
persons whose occupations are for the common subsistence and
benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective
employments, unmolested in their persons. Nor shall their houses
or goods be burnt or otherwise destroyed, nor their cattle taken,
nor their fields wasted, by the armed force into whose power, by
the events of war, they may happen to fall; but if the necessity
arise to take anything from them for the use of such armed force,
the same shall be paid for at an equitable price. All churches, hos-
pitals, schools, colleges, libraries, and other establishments for
charitable and beneficent purposes, shall be respected, and all
persons connected with the same protected in the discharge of
their duties, and the pursuit of their vocations.
304 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
(2) In order that the fate of prisoners of war may be alleviated,
all such practices as those of sending them into distant, inclement,
or unwholesome districts, or crowding them into close and noxious
places, shall be studiously avoided. They shall not be confined in
dungeons, prisonships, or prisons; nor be put in irons, or bound,
or otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. The officers shall
enjoy liberty on their paroles, within convenient districts, and have
comfortable quarters; and the common soldiers shall be disposed
in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise,
and lodged in barracks as roomy and good as are provided by the
party in whose power they are for its own troops. But if any officer
shall break his parole by leaving the district so assigned him, or
any other prisoner shall escape from the limits of his cantonment,
after they shall have been designated to him, such individual, officer,
or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article
as provides for his liberty on parole or in cantonment. And if
any officer so breaking his parole, or any common soldier so escaping
from the limits assigned him, shall afterwards be found in arms,
previously to his being regularly exchanged, the person so offending
shall be dealt with according to the established laws of war. The
officers shall be daily furnished, by the party in whose power they
are, with as many rations, and of the same articles, as are allowed,
either in kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in its own
army; and all others shall be daily furnished with such radon as
is allowed to a common soldier in its own service; the value of all
which supplies shall, at the close of the war, or at periods to be
agreed upon between the respective commanders, be paid by the
other party, on a mutual adjustment of accounts for the subsistence
of prisoners; and such accounts shall not be mingled with or set
of! against any others, nor the balance due on them withheld, as
a compensation or reprisal for any cause whatever, real or pretended.
Each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners, ap-
pointed by itself, with every cantonment of prisoners, in possession
of the other; which commissary shall see the prisoners as often as
he pleases; shall be allowed to receive, exempt from all duties or
taxes, and to distribute, whatever comforts may be sent to them by
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 305
their friends; and shall be free to transmit his reports in open letters
to the party by whom he is employed.
And it is declared that neither the pretence that war dissolves all
treaties, nor any other whatever, shall be considered as annulling
or suspending the solemn covenant contained in this article. On the
contrary, the state of war is precisely that for which it is provided;
and, during which, its stipulations are to be as sacredly observed as
the most acknowledged obligations under the law of nature or
nations.
ARTICLE XXIII
This treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States
of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate there-
of; and by the President of the Mexican Republic, with the previous
approbation of its general Congress; and the ratifications shall be
exchanged in the City of Washington, or at the seat of Government
of Mexico, in four months from the date of the signature hereof,
or sooner if practicable.
In faith whereof we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed
this treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement, and have
hereunto affixed our seals respectively. Done in quintuplicate, at the
city of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of February, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
N. P. TRIST [L. s.]
Luis P. CUEVAS [L. s.]
BERNADO COUTO [L. s.]
MIGL. ATRISTAIN [L. s.]
FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT
(1850)
[The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the group of measures known collectively as
the "Compromise of 1850." By this compromise, the anti-slavery party gained the
admission of California as a free state, and the prohibition of slave-trading in the
District of Columbia. The slavery party, on the other hand, besides concessions with
regard to Texas, gained this act, which, however, by its stringency did much to
rouse abolitionist sentiment in the North.]
M ^\E IT enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
r^ the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
M J the persons who have been, or may hereafter be, appointed
commissioners, in virtue of any act of Congress, by the Circuit
Courts of the United States, and Who, in consequence of such ap-
pointment, are authorized to exercise the powers that any justice of
the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United States, may
exercise in respect to offenders for any crime or offense against
the United States, by arresting, imprisoning, or bailing the same
under and by the virtue of the thirty-third section of the act of the
twenty-fourth of September seventeen hundred and eighty-nine,
entitled "An Act to establish the judicial courts of the United States"
shall be, and are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and
discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Superior Court of each
organized Territory of the United States shall have the same power
to appoint commissioners to take acknowledgments of bail and
affidavits, and to take depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which
is now possessed by the Circuit Court of the United States; and all
commissioners who shall hereafter be appointed for such purposes
by the Superior Court of any organized Territory of the United
States, shall possess all the powers, and exercise all the duties, con-
ferred by law upon the commissioners appointed by the Circuit
Courts of the United States for similar purposes, and shall moreover
exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this
act.
306
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 307
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Circuit Courts of the
United States shall from time to time enlarge the number of the
commissioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim
fugitives from labor, and to the prompt discharge of the duties im-
posed by this act.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners above
named shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges of the
Circuit and District Courts of the United States, in their respective
circuits and districts within the several States, and the judges of the
Superior Courts of the Territories, severally and collectively, in
term-time and vacation; shall grant certificates to such claimants,
upon satisfactory proof being made, with authority to take and re-
move such fugitives from service or labor, under the restrictions
herein contained, to the State or Territory from which such persons
may have escaped or fled.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of
all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants
and precepts issued under the provisions of this act, when to them
directed; and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to re-
ceive such warrant, or other process, when tendered, or to use all
proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall, on conviction
thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars, to the use of
such claimant, on the motion of such claimant, by the Circuit or
District Court for the district of such marshal; and after arrest of
such fugitive, by such marshal or his deputy, or whilst at any time
in his custody under the provisions of this act, should such fugitive
escape, whether with or without the assent of such marshal or his
deputy, such marshal shall be liable, on his official bond, to be pros-
ecuted for the benefit of such claimant, for the full value of the
service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Territory, or District
whence he escaped : and the better to enable the said commissioners,
when thus appointed, to execute their duties faithfully and efficient-
ly, in conformity with the requirements of the Constitution of the
United States and of this act, they are hereby authorized and em-
powered, within their counties respectively, to appoint, in writing
under their hands, any one or more suitable persons, from time to
time, to execute all such warrants and other process as may be issued
308 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
by them in the lawful performance of their respective duties; with
authority to such commissioners, or the persons to be appointed by
them, to execute process as aforesaid, to summon and call to their
aid the bystanders, or posse comitatus of the proper county, when
necessary to ensure a faithful observance of the clause of the Con-
stitution referred to, in conformity with the provisions of this act;
and all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the
prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services
may be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose; and said warrants
shall run, and be executed by said officers, any where in the State
within which they are issued.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That when a person held to
service or labor in any State or Territory of the United States, has
heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another State or Territory
of the United States, the person or persons to whom such service or
labor may be due, or his, her, or their agent or attorney, duly author-
ized, by power of attorney, in writing, acknowledged and certified
under the seal of some legal officer or court of the State or Territory
in which the same may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such
fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one of
the courts, judges, or commissioners aforesaid, of the proper circuit,
district, or county, for the apprehension of such fugitive from service
or labor, or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same
can be done without process, and by taking, or causing such person
to be taken, forthwith before such court, judge, or commissioner,
whose duty it shall be to hear and determine the case of such claim-
ant in a summary manner; and upon satisfactory proof being made,
by deposition or affidavit, in writing, to be taken and certified by
such court, judge, or commissioner, or by other satisfactory testi-
mony, duly taken and certified by some court, magistrate, justice
of the peace, or other legal officer authorized to administer an oath
and take depositions under the laws of the State or Territory from
which such person owing service or labor may have escaped, with
a certificate of such magistracy or other authority, as aforesaid, with
the seal of the proper court or officer thereto attached, which seal
shall be sufficient to establish the competency of the proof, and with
proof, also by affidavit, of the identity of the person whose service
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 309
or labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the person so arrested
does in fact owe service or labor to the person or persons claiming
him or her, in the State or Territory from which such fugitive may
have escaped as aforesaid, and that said person escaped, to make
out and deliver to such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a
certificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the service or labor
due from such fugitive to the claimant, and of his or her escape
from the State or Territory in which he or she was arrested, with
authority to such claimant, or his or her agent or attorney, to use
such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the
circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person
back to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped
as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony
of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence; and the certificates
in this and the first [fourth] section mentioned, shall be conclusive
of the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted, to re-
move such fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped,
and shall prevent all molestation of such person or persons by any
process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whom-
soever.
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That any person who shall
knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant,
his agent or attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting
him, her, or them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or
labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue, or
attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor, from the
custody of such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or other
person or persons lawfully assisting as aforesaid, when so arrested,
pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall aid,
abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor as aforesaid,
directly or indirectly, to escape from such claimant, his agent or at-
torney, or other person or persons legally authorized as aforesaid;
or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the dis-
covery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the
fact that such person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid,
shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding
one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months,
310 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
by indictment and conviction before the District Court of the
United States for the district in which such offence may have been
committed, or before the proper court of criminal jurisdiction, if
committed within any one of the organized Territories of the
United States; and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil
damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of
one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be
recovered by action of debt, in any of the District or Territorial
Courts aforesaid, within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have
been committed.
Sec. 8. And be it junker enacted, That the marshals, their dep-
uties, and the clerks of the said District and Territorial Courts,
shall be paid, for their services, the like fees as may be allowed for
similar services in other cases; and where such services are rendered
exclusively in the arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the
claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or where such supposed
fugitive may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient
proof as aforesaid, then such fees are to be paid in whole by such
claimant, his or her agent or attorney; and in all cases where the
proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee
of ten dollars in full for his services in each case, upon the delivery
of the said certificate to the claimant, his agent or attorney; or a
fee of five dollars in cases where the proof shall not, in the opinion
of such commissioner, warrant such certificate and delivery, in-
clusive of all services incident to such arrest and examination, to
be paid, in either case, by the claimant, his or her agent or attorney.
The person or persons authorized to execute the process to be issued
by such commissioner for the arrest and detention of fugitives from
service or labor as aforesaid, shall also be entitled to a fee of five
dollars each for each person he or they may arrest, and take be-
fore any commissioner as aforesaid, at the instance and request of
such claimant, with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable
by such commissioner for such other additional services as may be
necessarily performed by him or them; such as attending at the
examination, keeping the fugitive in custody, and providing him
with food and lodging during his detention, and until the final de-
termination of such commissioners; and, in general, for performing
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
such other duties as may be required by such claimant, his or her
attorney or agent, or commissioner in the premises, such fees to be
made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by the officers
of the courts of justice within the proper district or county, as near
as may be practicable, and paid by such claimants, their agents or
attorneys, whether such supposed fugitives from service or labor
be ordered to be delivered to such claimant by the final determina-
tion of such commissioner or not.
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That, upon affidavit made by
the claimant of such fugitive, his agent or attorney, after such cer-
tificate has been issued, that he has reason to apprehend that such
fugitive will be rescued by force from his or their possession before
he can be taken beyond the limits of the State in which the arrest
is made, it shall be the duty of the officer making the arrest to re-
tain such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the State
whence he fled, and there to deliver him to said claimant, his agent,
or attorney. And to this end, the officer aforesaid is hereby authorized
and required to employ so many persons as he may deem necessary
to overcome such force, and to retain them in his service so long as
circumstances may require. The said officer and his assistants, while
so employed, to receive the same compensation, and to be allowed
the same expenses, as are now allowed by law for transportation of
criminals, to be certified by the judge of the district within which
the arrest is made, and paid out of the treasury of the United States.
SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That when any person held
to service or labor in any State or Territory, or in the District of
Columbia, shall escape therefrom, the party to whom such service or
labor shall be due, his, her, or their agent or attorney, may apply to
any court of record therein, or judge thereof in vacation, and make
satisfactory proof to such court, or judge in vacation, of the escape
aforesaid, and that the person escaping owed service or labor to
such party. Whereupon the court shall cause a record to be made
of the matters so proved, and also a general description of the person
so escaping, with such convenient certainty as may be; and a tran-
script of such record, authenticated by the attestation of the clerk
and of the seal of the said court, being produced in any other State,
Territory, or district in which the person so escaping may be found,
312 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
and being exhibited to any judge, commissioner, or other officer
authorized by the law of the United States to cause persons escaping
from service or labor to be delivered up, shall be held and taken to
be full and conclusive evidence of the fact of escape, and that the
service or labor of the person escaping is due to the party in such
record mentioned. And upon the production by the said party of
other and further evidence if necessary, either oral or by affidavit, in
addition to what is contained in the said record of the identity of the
person escaping, he or she shall be delivered up to the claimant.
And the said court, commissioner, judge, or other person authorized
by this act to grant certificates to claimants or fugitives, shall, upon
the production of the record and other evidences aforesaid, grant
to such claimant a certificate of his right to take any such person
identified and proved to be owing service or labor as aforesaid,
which certificate shall authorize such claimant to seize or arrest
and transport such person to the State or Territory from which he
escaped : Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed
as requiring the production of a transcript of such record as evidence
as aforesaid. But in its absence the claim shall be heard and de-
termined upon other satisfactory proofs, competent in law.
Approved, September 18, 1850.
LINCOLN'S
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS
(1861)
[The platform on which Abraham Lincoln was elected President is sufficiently
indicated in his inaugural address. But between the date of his election on that plat-
form and his inauguration, seven Southern States had seceded from the Union,
formed a provisional government, and seized most of the forts, etc., belonging to the
United States within the seceding territory. It was this situation that Lincoln faced
as he took up the task of government.]
r^ELLOW -CITIZENS of the United States: In compliance
f*4 with a custom as old is the Government itself, I appear
M before you to address you briefly, and to take in your
presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United
States to be taken by the President "before he enters on the execution
of his office."
I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety
or excitement.
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern
States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their
property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered.
There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension.
Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while
existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly
all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do
but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have
no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution
of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful
right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Those who
nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had
made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted
them. And, more than this, they placed in the platform for my
acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and
emphatic resolution which I now read:
313
314 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
"Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the
States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its
own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively,
is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce the law-
less invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory,
no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes."
I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press
upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which
the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no
section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Ad-
ministration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently
with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheer-
fully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever
cause as cheerfully to one section, as to another.
There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives
from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written
in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:
"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or
regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due."
It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those
who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and
the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All Members of Congress
swear their support to the whole Constitution to this provision as
much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose
cases come within the terms of this clause, "shall be delivered up,"
their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in
good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame
and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous
oath ?
There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should
be enforced by national or by State authority; but surely that
difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered,
it can be of but little consequence to him, or to others, by which
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 315
authority it is done. And should any one, in any case, be content
that his oath shall go unkept, on a merely unsubstantial controversy
as to how it shall be kept?
Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards
of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be in-
troduced so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a
slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by
law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which
guarantees that "the citizen of each State shall be entitled to all
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States"?
I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and
with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hyper-
critical rules. And while I do not choose now to specify particular
acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will
be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to con-
form to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than
to violate any of them trusting to find impunity in having them
held to be unconstitutional.
It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President
under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen
different and greatly distinguished citizens have, in succession, ad-
ministered the Executive branch of the Government. They have
conducted it through many perils, and generally with great suc-
cess. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon the
same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great
and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, here-
tofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.
I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Con-
stitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is im-
plied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national gov-
ernments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had
a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to
execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and
the Union will endure forever it being impossible to destroy it ex-
cept by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.
Again, if the United States be not a Government proper, but an
association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a
316 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made
it? One party to a contract may violate it break it, so to speak,
but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?
Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition
that, in legal contemplation, the Union is perpetual, confirmed by
the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the
Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Associa-
tion in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of
Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of
all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that
it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778.
And, finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and
establishing the Constitution was, "to form a more perfect Union."
But if the destruction of the Union by one, or by a part only, of
the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before
the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.
It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere mo-
tion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances
to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence, within any
State or States, against the authority of the United States, are in-
surrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.
I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the
laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall
take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that
the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all of the States. Do-
ing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall
perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the
American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some
authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be
regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union
that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.
In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and
there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority.
The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess
the property and places belonging to the Government, and to col-
lect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for
these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 317
among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States,
in any interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent
competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there
will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people
for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Gov-
ernment to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do
so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, that
I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices.
The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all
parts of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall
have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm
thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed
unless current events and experience shall show a modification or
change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best dis-
cretion will be exercised according to circumstances actually exist-
ing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the na-
tional troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and
affections.
That there are persons in one section or another who seek to
destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it,
I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address
no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union
may I not speak?
Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our
national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes,
would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it ? Will you
hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any
portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you,
while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones
you fly from will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ?
All profess to be content in the Union, if all constitutional rights
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written
in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the
human mind is so constituted, that no party can reach to the audacity
of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a
plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied.
If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minor-
318 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ity in any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral
point of view, justify revolution certainly would if such a right
were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of
minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by
affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Con-
stitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no
organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically ap-
plicable to every question which may occur in practical administra-
tion. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable
length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall
fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State author-
ity? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress
prohibit slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not
expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories?
The Constitution does not expressly say.
From questions of this class spring all our constitutional contro-
versies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities.
If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Govern-
ment must cease. There is no other alternative; for continuing the
Government is acquiescence on one side or the other.
If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they
make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them; for a
minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority
refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may
not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily
secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim
to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now
being educated to the exact temper of doing this.
Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to com-
pose a new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed
secession ?
Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A
majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations,
and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular
opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.
Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism.
Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 319
arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority
principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.
I do not forget the position, assumed by some, that constitutional
questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny
that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties
to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to
very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other
departments of the Government. And while it is obviously possible
that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil
effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the
chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for
other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different
practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if
the policy of the Government, upon vital questions affecting the
whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme
Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between
parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their
own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their govern-
ment into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this
view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from
which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before
them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their deci-
sions to political purposes.
One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to
be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to
be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave
clause of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the
foreign slave trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law
can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people
imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people
abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over
in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; and it would be
worse in both cases after the separation of the sections, than before.
The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ulti-
mately revived without restriction, in one section; while fugitive
slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at
all by the other.
32O AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall
between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out
of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different
parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face
to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue
between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more
advantageous or more satisfactory ajter separation than before? Can
aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? Can treaties
be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among
friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when,
after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease
fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are
again upon you.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who
inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Govern-
ment, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or
their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be
ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are
desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I
make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the
rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exer-
cised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and
I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose, a
fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will
venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in
that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves,
instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions origi-
nated by others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which
might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or
refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution
which amendment, however, I have not seen has passed Congress,
to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with
the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held
to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart
from my purpose, not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 321
say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional
law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.
The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people,
and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separa-
tion of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they
choose; but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His
duty is to administer the present Government, as it came to his
hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor.
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate
justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?
In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the
right ? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth and
justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that
truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this
great tribunal of the American people.
By the frame of the Government under which we live, this same
people have wisely given their public servants but little power for
mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of
that little, to their own hands at very short intervals. While the
people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any
extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the govern-
ment in the short space of four years.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this
whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there
be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you
would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking
time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are
now dissatisfied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and,
on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while
the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would,
to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied
hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason
for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a
firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land
are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine,
322 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail
you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggres-
sors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Govern-
ment, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect,
and defend it."
I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must
not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not
break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretch-
ing from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart
and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus
of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.
EMANCIPATION
PROCLAMATION
(1863)
[The war for the maintenance of the Union had been going on for a year and a
half before Lincoln issued the preliminary proclamation quoted in the beginning of
the present document. The emancipation proclamation of January I, 1863, enlarged
the basis of the conflict, and from the point of view of foreign nations gave the North
the advantage of a moral as well as a political issue.]
WHEREAS, on the twenty-second day of September, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-
two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the
United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves
within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof
shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of
the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof,
will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do
no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts
they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by
proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which
the people thereof respectively, shall then be in rebellion against
the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof,
shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the
United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a
majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated,
shall in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed
conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not
then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
323
324 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
States, by virtue o the power in me vested as commander-in-chief
of the Army and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed
rebellion against authority and government of the United States, and
as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do,
on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so
to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days
from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the
States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively,
are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following,
to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard,
Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,
Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and
Orleans, including the city of New Orleans ) , Mississippi, Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia
(except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and
also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City,
York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk
and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the present, left
precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do
order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said desig-
nated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free;
and that the Executive government of the United States, including
the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and main-
tain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to
abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I rec-
ommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully
for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of
suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the
United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places,
and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 325
the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of
Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-
seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
L.S.
By the President :
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
THE
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG
BY FRANK ARETAS HASKELL
[Frank Aretas Haskell was born at Tunbridge, Vermont, on July 13, 1828. He
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1854, and went to Madison, Wisconsin, to prac-
tice law. On the outbreak of the War, he received a commission as First Lieutenant
of Company I, of the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and served as Adjutant
of his regiment until April 14, 1862, when he became aide-de-camp to General John
Gibbon, commander of the Iron Brigade. This was his rank in the battle of Gettys-
burg. On Feb. 9, 1864, Haskell was appointed Colonel of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin;
and on June 3, of the same year, he fell when leading a charge at the battle of Cold
Harbor, one of the most distinguished soldiers of the Army of the Potomac.
This account of Gettysburg was written by Haskell to his brother, shortly after the
battle, and was not intended for publication. This fact ought to be borne in mind in
connection with some severe reflections cast by the author upon certain officers and
soldiers of the Union army. The present text follows the unabridged reprint of the
Wisconsin Historical Commission; and the notes on Haskell's estimates of numbers
and losses have been supplied by Colonel Thomas L. Livermore, the well-known
authority on this subject.]
THE great battle o Gettysburg is now an event of the past.
The composition and strength of the armies, their leaders,
the strategy, the tactics, the result, of that field are to-day by
the side of those of Waterloo matters of history. A few days ago
these things were otherwise. This great event did not so "cast its
shadow before," as to moderate the hot sunshine that streamed upon
our preceding march, or to relieve our minds of all apprehension of
the result of the second great Rebel invasion of the soil North of the
Potomac.
No, not many days since, at times we were filled with fears and
forebodings. The people of the country, I suppose, shared the
anxieties of the army, somewhat in common with us, but they could
not have felt them as keenly as we did. We were upon the imme-
diate theatre of events, as they occurred from day to day, and were of
them. We were the army whose province it should be to meet this
invasion and repel it; on us was the immediate responsibility for
results, most momentous for good or ill, as yet in the future. And so
in addition to the solicitude of all good patriots, we felt that our own
326
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 327
honor as men and as an army, as well as the safety of the Capitol and
the country, were at stake.
And what if that invasion should be successful, and in the coming
battle, the Army of the Potomac should be overpowered ? Would it
not be? When our army was much larger than at present had
rested all winter and, nearly perfect in all its departments and
arrangements, was the most splendid army this continent ever saw,
only a part of the Rebel force, which it now had to contend with,
had defeated it its leader, rather at Chancellorsville! Now the
Rebel had his whole force assembled, he was flushed with recent
victory, was arrogant in his career of unopposed invasion, at a
favorable season of the year. His daring plans, made by no unskilled
head, to transfer the war from his own to his enemies' ground, were
being successful. He had gone a day's march from his front before
Hooker moved, or was aware of his departure. Then, I believe, the
army in general, both officers and men, had no confidence in Hooker,
in either his honesty or ability.
Did they not charge him, personally, with the defeat at Chancei-
lorsville ? Were they not still burning with indignation against him
for that disgrace? And now, again under his leadership, they were
marching against the enemy! And they knew of nothing, short of
the providence of God, that could, or would, remove him. For many
reasons, during the marches prior to the battle, we were anxious, and
at times heavy at heart.
But the Army of the Potomac was no band of school girls. They
were not the men likely to be crushed or utterly discouraged by any
new circumstances in which they might find themselves placed.
They had lost some battles, they had gained some. They knew what
defeat was, and what was victory. But here is the greatest praise
that I can bestow upon them, or upon any army: With the elation
of victory, or the depression of defeat, amidst the hardest toils of
the campaign, under unwelcome leadership, at all times, and under
all circumstances, they were a reliable army still. The Army of the
Potomac would do as it was told, always.
Well clothed, and well fed there never could be any ground for
complaint on these heads but a mighty work was before them.
Onward they moved night and day were blended over many a
328 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
weary mile, through dust, and through mud, in the broiling sunshine,
in the flooding rain, over steeps, through defiles, across rivers, over
last year's battle fields, where the skeletons of our dead brethren, by
hundreds, lay bare and bleaching, weary, without sleep for days, tor-
mented with the newspapers, and their rumors, that the enemy was
in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, in all places where he was not, yet
these men could still be relied upon, I believe, when the day of
conflict should come. "Haec olim meminisse juvabit." We did not
then know this. I mention them now, that you may see that in those
times we had several matters to think about, and to do, that were
not as pleasant as sleeping upon a bank of violets in the shade.
In moving from near Falmouth, Va., the army was formed in
several columns, and took several roads. The Second Corps, the rear
of the whole, was the last to move, and left Falmouth at daybreak,
on the 1 5th of June, and pursued its march through Aquia, Dum-
fries, Wolf Run Shoales, Centerville, Gainesville, Thoroughfare
Gap this last we left on the 25th, marching back to Haymarket,
where we had a skirmish with the cavalry and horse artillery of the
enemy Gum Spring, crossing the Potomac at Edward's Ferry,
thence through Poolesville, Frederick, Liberty, and Union Town.
We marched from near Frederick to Union Town, a distance of
thirty-two miles, from eight o'clock A. M. to nine P. M., on the 28th,
and I think this is the longest march, accomplished in so short a time,
by a corps during the war. On the 28th, while we were near this
latter place, we breathed a full breath of joy, and of hope. The Provi-
dence of God had been with us we ought not to have doubted it
General Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac.
Not a favorable time, one would be apt to suppose, to change the
General of a large army, on the eve of battle, the result of which
might be to destroy the Government and country! But it should
have been done long before. At all events, any change could not
have been for the worse, and the Administration, therefore, hazarded
little, in making it now. From this moment my own mind was
easy concerning results. I now felt that we had a clear-headed, honest
soldier, to command the army, who would do his best always that
there would be no repetition of Chancellorsville. Meade was not as
much known in the Army as many of the other corps commanders,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 329
but the officers who knew, all thought highly of him, a man of great
modesty, with none of those qualities which are noisy and assuming,
and hankering for cheap newspaper fame, not at all of the "gallant"
Sickles stamp. I happened to know much of General Meade he and
General Gibbon had always been very intimate, and I had seen much
of him I think my own notions concerning General Meade at this
time, were shared quite generally by the army; at all events, all who
knew him shared them.
By this time, by reports that were not mere rumors, we began to
hear frequently of the enemy, and of his proximity. His cavalry was
all about us, making little raids here and there, capturing now and
then a few of our wagons, and stealing a good many horses, but
doing us really the least amount possible of harm, for we were not
by these means impeded at all, and his cavalry gave no information
at all to Lee, that he could rely upon, of the movements of the Army
of the Potomac. The Infantry of the enemy was at this time in the
neighborhood of Hagerstown, Chambersburg, and some had been
at Gettysburg, possibly were there now. Gettysburg was a point of
strategic importance, a great many roads, some ten or twelve at
least concentrating there, so the army could easily converge to, or,
should a further march be necessary, diverge from this point. General
Meade, therefore, resolved to try to seize Gettysburg, and accordingly
gave the necessary orders for the concentration of his different col-
umns there. Under the new auspices the army brightened, and
moved on with a more elastic step towards the yet undefined field
of conflict.
The ist Corps, General Reynolds, already having the advance, was
ordered to push forward rapidly, and take and hold the town, if he
could. The rest of the Army would assemble to his support. Buford's
Cavalry co-operated with this corps, and on the morning of the ist
of July found the enemy near Gettysburg and to the West, and
promptly engaged him. The First Corps having bivouacked the
night before, South of the town, came up rapidly to Buford's support,
and immediately a sharp battle was opened with the advance of the
enemy. The First Division (Gen. Wadsworth) was the first of the
infantry to become engaged, but the other two, commanded respec-
tively by Generals Robinson and Doubleday, were close at hand,
33O AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
and forming the line of battle to the West and North-west of the
town, at a mean distance of about a mile away, the battle continued
for some hours, with various success, which was on the whole with
us until near noon. At this time a lull occurred, which was occupied,
by both sides, in supervising and re-establishing the hastily formed
lines of the morning. New Divisions of the enemy were constantly
arriving and taking up positions, for this purpose marching in upon
the various roads that terminate at the town, from the West and
North. The position of the First Corps was then becoming perilous
in the extreme, but it was improved a little before noon by the arrival
upon the field of two Divisions of the Eleventh Corps (Gen. How-
ard), these Divisions commanded respectively by Generals Schurz
and Barlow, who by order posted their commands to the right of the
First Corps, with their right retired, forming an angle with the line
of the First Corps. Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon
the enemy, now in overwhelming force, resumed the battle, with
spirit. The portion of the Eleventh Corps making but feeble opposi-
tion to the advancing enemy, soon began to fall back.
Back in disorganized masses they fled into the town, hotly pur-
sued, and in lanes, in barns, in yards and cellars, throwing away
their arms, they sought to hide like rabbits, and were there captured,
unresisting, by hundreds.
The First Corps, deprived of this support, if support it could be
called, outflanked upon either hand, and engaged in front, was
compelled to yield the field. Making its last stand upon what is
called "Seminary Ridge," not far from the town, it fell back in con-
siderable confusion, through the South-west part of the town, making
brave resistance, however, but with considerable loss. The enemy
did not see fit to follow, or to attempt to, further than the town,
and so the fight of the ist of July closed here. I suppose our losses
during the day would exceed four thousand, of whom a large number
were prisoners. Such usually is the kind of loss sustained by the
Eleventh Corps. You will remember that the old "Iron Brigade" is
in the First Corps, and consequently shared this fight, and I hear
their conduct praised on all hands.
In the 2nd Wis., Col. Fairchild lost his left arm; Lieut. Col. Stevens
was mortally wounded, and Major Mansfield was wounded; Lieut.
i
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 331
Col. Callis, of the 7th Wis., and Lieut. Col. Dudley, of the I9th Ind.,
were badly, dangerously, wounded, the latter by the loss of his right
leg above the knee.
I saw "John Burns," the only citizen of Gettysburg who fought in
the battle, and I asked him what troops he fought with. He said:
"O, I pitched in with them Wisconsin fellers." I asked what sort of
men they were, and he answered: "They fit terribly. The Rebs
couldn't make anything of them fellers."
And so the brave compliment the brave. This man was touched
by three bullets from the enemy, but not seriously wounded.
But the loss of the enemy to-day was severe also, probably in killed
and wounded, as heavy as our own, but not so great in prisoners.
Of these latter, the "Iron Brigade" captured almost an entire Mis-
sissippi Brigade, however.
Of the events so far, of the ist of July, I do not speak from personal
knowledge. I shall now tell my introduction to these events.
At eleven o'clock A. M., on that day, the Second Corps was halted
at Taneytown, which is thirteen miles from Gettysburg, South, and
there awaiting orders, the men were allowed to make coffee and rest.
At between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, a message was
brought to Gen. Gibbon, requiring his immediate presence at the
headquarters of Gen. Hancock, who commanded the Corps. I went
with Gen. Gibbon, and we rode at a rapid gallop, to Gen. Hancock.
At Gen. Hancock's headquarters the following was learned: The
First Corps had met the enemy at Gettysburg, and had possession
of the town. Gen. Reynolds was badly, it was feared mortally,
wounded; the fight of the First Corps still continued. By Gen.
Meade's order, Gen. Hancock was to hurry forward and take com-
mand upon the field, of all troops there, or which should arrive there.
The Eleventh Corps was near Gettysburg when the messenger who
told of the fight left there, and the Third Corps was marching up,
by order, on the Emmetsburg Road Gen. Gibbon he was not the
ranking officer of the Second Corps after Hancock was ordered to
assume the command of the Second Corps.
All this was sudden, and for that reason at least, exciting; but
there were other elements in this information, that aroused our pro-
foundest interest. The great battle that we had so anxiously looked
332 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
for during so many days, had at length opened, and it was a relief,
in some sense, to have these accidents of time and place established.
What would be the result? Might not the enemy fall upon and
destroy the First Corps before succor could arrive ?
Gen. Hancock, with his personal staff, at about two o'clock P. M.,
galloped off towards Gettysburg; Gen. Gibbon took his place in
command of the Corps, appointing me his acting Assistant Adjutant
General. The Second Corps took arms at once, and moved rapidly
towards the field. It was not long before we began to hear the dull
booming of the guns, and as we advanced, from many an eminence
or opening among the trees, we could look out upon the white battery
smoke, puffing up from the distant field of blood, and drifting up to
the clouds. At these sights and sounds, the men looked more serious
than before and were more silent, but they marched faster, and
straggled less. At about five o'clock P. M., as we were riding along at
the head of the column, we met an ambulance, accompanied by two
or three mounted officers we knew them to be staff officers of Gen.
Reynolds their faces told plainly enough what load the vehicle car-
ried it was the dead body of Gen. Reynolds. Very early in the
action, while seeing personally to the formation of his lines under
fire, he was shot through the head by a musket or rifle bullet, and
killed almost instantly. His death at this time affected us much, for
he was one of the soldier Generals of the army, a man whose soul
was in his country's work, which he did with a soldier's high honor
and fidelity.
I remember seeing him often at the first battle of Fredericksburg
he then commanded the First Corps and while Meade's and Gib-
bon's Divisions were assaulting the enemy's works, he was the very
beau ideal of the gallant general. Mounted upon a superb black
horse, with his head thrown back and his great black eyes flashing
fire, he was every where upon the field, seeing all things and giving
commands in person. He died as many a friend, and many a foe to
the country have died in this war.
Just as the dusk of evening fell, from Gen. Meade, the Second
Corps had orders to halt, where the head of the column then was,
and to go into position for the night. The Second Division (Gib-
bon's) was accordingly put in position, upon the left of the (Taney-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 333
town) road, its left near the South-eastern base of "Round Top" of
which mountain more anon and the right near the road; the Third
Division was posted upon the right of the road, abreast of the Second,
and the first Division in the rear of these two all facing towards
Gettysburg.
Arms were stacked, and the men lay down to sleep, alas! many
of them their last but the great final sleep upon the earth.
Late in the afternoon as we came near the field, from some slightly
wounded men we met, and occasional stragglers from the scene of
operations in front, we got many rumors, and much disjointed in-
formation of battle, of lakes of blood, of rout and panic and unde-
scribable disaster, from all of which the narrators were just fortunate
enough to have barely escaped, the sole survivors. These stragglers
are always terrible liars!
About nine o'clock in the evening, while I was yet engaged in
showing the troops their positions, I met Gen. Hancock, then on his
way from the front, to Gen. Meade, who was back toward Taney-
town; and he, for the purpose of having me advise Gen. Gibbon, for
his information, gave me quite a detailed account of the situation of
matters at Gettysburg, and of what had transpired subsequently to
his arrival.
He had arrived and assumed command there, just when the troops
of the First and Eleventh Corps, after their repulse, were coming
in confusion through the town. Hancock is just the man for such
an emergency as this. Upon horseback I think he was the most
magnificent looking General in the whole Army of the Potomac at
that time. With a large, well shaped person, always dressed with
elegance, even upon that field of confusion, he would look as if he
was "monarch of all he surveyed," and few of his subjects would dare
to question his right to command, or do aught else but to obey. His
quick eye, in a flash, saw what was to be done, and his voice and
his royal right hand at once commenced to do it. Gen. Howard had
put one of his Divisions Steinwehr with some batteries, in posi-
tion, upon a commanding eminence, at the "Cemetery," which, as a
reserve, had not participated in the fight of the day, and this Division
was now of course steady. Around this Division the fugitives were
stopped, and the shattered Brigades and Regiments, as they returned,
334 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
were formed upon either flank, and faced toward the enemy again.
A show of order at least, speedily came from chaos the rout was at
an end the First and Eleventh Corps were in line of battle again
not very systematically formed perhaps in a splendid position, and
in a condition to offer resistance, should the enemy be willing to try
them. These formations were all accomplished long before night.
Then some considerable portion of the Third Corps Gen. Sickles
came up by the Emmetsburg road, and was formed to the left of
the Taneytown road, on an extension of the line that I have men-
tioned; and all the Twelfth Corps Gen. Slocum arriving before
night, the Divisions were put in position, to the right of the troops
already there, to the East of the Baltimore Pike. The enemy was in
town, and behind it, and to the East and West, and appeared to be in
strong force, and was jubilant over his day's success. Such was the
posture of affairs as evening came on of the first of July. Gen. Han-
cock was hopeful, and in the best of spirits; and from him I also
learned that the reason for halting the Second Corps in its present
position, was that it was not then known where, in the coming fight,
the line of battle would be formed, up near the town, where the
troops then were, or further back towards Taneytown. He would
give his views upon this subject to Gen. Meade, which were in favor
of the line near the town the one that was subsequently adopted
and Gen. Meade would determine.
The night before a great pitched battle would not ordinarily, I
suppose, be a time for much sleep for Generals and their staff officers.
We needed it enough, but there was work to be done. This war
makes strange confusion of night and day! I did not sleep at all
that night. It would, perhaps, be expected, on the eve of such great
events, that one should have some peculiar sort of feeling, something
extraordinary, some great arousing and excitement of the sensibili-
ties and faculties, commensurate with the event itself; this certainly
would be very poetical and pretty, but so far as I was concerned,
and I think I can speak for the army in this matter, there was nothing
of the kind. Men who had volunteered to fight the battles of the
country, had met the enemy in many battles, and had been constantly
before them, as had the Army of the Potomac, were too old soldiers
and long ago too well had weighed chances and probabilities, to be
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 335
so disturbed now. No, I believe, the army slept soundly that night,
and well, and I am glad the men did, for they needed it.
At midnight Gen. Meade and staff rode by Gen. Gibbon's Head
Quarters, on their way to the field; and in conversation with Gen.
Gibbon, Gen. Meade announced that he had decided to assemble the
whole army before Gettysburg, and offer the enemy battle there.
The Second Corps would move at the earliest daylight, to take up
its position.
At three o'clock, A. M., of the second of July, the sleepy soldiers
of the Corps were aroused; before six the Corps was up to the field,
and halted temporarily by the side of the Taneytown road, upon
which it had marched, while some movements of the other troops
were being made, to enable it to take position in the order of battle.
The morning was thick and sultry, the sky overcast with low, vapory
clouds. As we approached all was astir upon the crests near the
Cemetery, and the work of preparation was speedily going on. Men
looked like giants there in the mist, and the guns of the frowning
batteries so big, that it was a relief to know that they were our
friends.
Without a topographical map, some description of the ground and
location is necessary to a clear understanding of the battle. With the
sketch I have rudely drawn, without scale or compass, I hope you
may understand my description. The line of battle as it was estab-
lished, on the evening of the first, and morning of the second of July
was in the form of the letter "U," the troops facing outwards. And
the "Cemetery," which is at the point of the sharpest curvature of the
line, being due South of the town of Gettysburg. "Round Top," the
extreme left of the line, is a small, woody, rocky elevation, a very
little West of South of the town, and nearly two miles from it.
The sides of this are in places very steep, and its rocky summit
is almost inaccessible. A short distance North of this is a smaller
elevation called "Little Round Top." On the very top of "Little
Round Top," we had heavy rifled guns in position during the battle.
Near the right of the line is a small, woody eminence, named "Gulp's
Hill." Three roads come up to the town from the South, which near
the town are quite straight, and at the town the external ones unite,
forming an angle of about sixty, or more degrees. Of these, the
336 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
farthest to the East is the "Baltimore Pike," which passes by the
East entrance to the Cemetery; the farthest to the West is the "Em-
metsburg road," which is wholly outside of our line of battle, but near
the Cemetery, is within a hundred yards of it; the "Taneytown road"
is between these, running nearly due North and South, by the Eastern
base of "Round Top," by the Western side of the Cemetery, and
uniting with the Emmetsburg road between the Cemetery and the
town. High ground near the Cemetery, is named "Cemetery Ridge."
The Eleventh Corps Gen. Howard was posted at the Cemetery,
some of its batteries and troops, actually among the graves and
monuments, which they used for shelter from the enemy's fire, its
left resting upon the Taneytown road, extending thence to the East,
crossing the Baltimore Pike, and thence bending backwards towards
the South-east; on the right of the Eleventh came the First Corps,
now, since the death of Gen. Reynolds, commanded by Gen. Newton,
formed in a line curving still more towards the South. The troops
of these two Corps, were re-formed on the morning of the second,
in order that each might be by itself, and to correct some things not
done well during the hasty formations here the day before.
To the right of the First Corps, and on an extension of the same
line, along the crest and down the South-eastern slope of Gulp's Hill,
was posted the Twelfth Corps Gen. Slocum its right, which was
the extreme right of the line of the army, resting near a small stream
called "Rock Run." No changes, that I am aware of, occurred in the
formation of this Corps, on the morning of the Second. The Second
Corps, after the brief halt that I have mentioned, moved up and took
position, its right resting upon the Taneytown road, at the left of
the Eleventh Corps, and extending the line thence, nearly a half
mile, almost due South, towards Round Top, with its Divisions in
the following order, from right to left: The Third, Gen. Alex Hays;
the Second (Gibbon's), Gen. Harrow, (temporarily); the First, Gen.
Caldwell. The formation was in line by brigade in column, the
brigade being in column by regiment, with forty paces interval
between regimental lines, the Second and Third Divisions having
each one, and the First Division, two brigades there were four bri-
gades in the First similarly formed, in reserve, one hundred and
fifty paces in the rear of the line of their respective Divisions. That
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 337
is, the line of the Corps, exclusive of its reserves, was the length of
six regiments, deployed, 1 and the intervals between them, some of
which were left wide for the posting of the batteries, and consisted
of four common deployed lines, each of two ranks of men, and a
little more than one-third over in reserve.
The five batteries, in all twenty-eight guns, were posted as follows :
Woodruff's regular, six twelve-pound Napoleon's, brass, between the
two brigades, in line of the Third Division; Arnold's "A" first R. I.,
six three-inch Parrotts, rifled, and Cushing's Regular, four three-
inch Ordnance, rifled, between the Third and Second Division; Haz-
ard's, (commanded during the battle by Lieut. Brown,) "B" first
R. I., and Rhorty's N. G. each, six twelve-pound Napoleon's, brass,
between the Second and First Division.
I have been thus specific in the description of the posting and
formation of the Second Corps, because they were works that I
assisted to perform; and also that the other Corps were similarly
posted, with reference to the strength of the lines, and the inter-
mixing of infantry and artillery. From this, you may get a notion
of the whole.
The Third Corps Gen. Sickles the remainder of it arriving
upon the field this morning, was posted upon the left of the Second
extending the line still in the direction of Round Top, with its left
resting near "Little Round Top." The left of the Third Corps was
the extreme left of the line of battle, until changes occurred, which
will be mentioned in the proper place. The Fifth Corps Gen. Sykes
coming on the Baltimore Pike about this time, was massed there,
near the line of battle, and held in reserve until some time in the
afternoon, when it changed position, as I shall describe.
I cannot give a detailed account of the cavalry, for I saw but little
of it. It was posted near the wings, and watched the roads and the
movements of the enemy upon the flanks of the enemy, but further
than this participated but little in the battle. Some of it was also
used for guarding the trains, which were far to the rear. The artil-
lery reserve, which consisted of a good many batteries, were posted
between the Baltimore Pike and the Taneytown road, on very nearly
1 As the Second and Third Divisions had three brigades each, it follows that two
brigades from each of the three divisions were in the front line. T. L. L.
338 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
the center of a direct line passing through the extremities of the
wings. Thus it could be readily sent to any part of the line. The
Sixth Corps Gen. Sedgwick did not arrive upon the field until
some time in the afternoon, but it was now not very far away, and
was coming up rapidly on the Baltimore Pike. No fears were enter-
tained that "Uncle John," as his men call Gen. Sedgwick, would
not be in the right place at the right time.
These dispositions were all made early, I think before eight o'clock
in the morning. Skirmishers were posted well out all around the
line, and all put in readiness for battle. The enemy did not yet
demonstrate himself. With a look at the ground now, I think you
may understand the movements of the battle. From Round Top, by
the line of battle, round to the extreme right, I suppose is about
three miles. From this same eminence to the Cemetery, extends a
long ridge or hill more resembling a great wave than a hill, how-
ever with its crest, which was the line of battle, quite direct, between
the points mentioned. To the West of this, that is towards the enemy,
the ground falls away by a very gradual descent, across the Emmets-
burg road, and then rises again, forming another ridge, nearly paral-
lel to the first, but inferior in altitude, and something over a thou-
sand yards away. A belt of woods extends partly along this second
ridge, and partly farther to the West, at distances of from one thou-
sand to thirteen hundred yards away from our line. Between these
ridges, and along their slopes, that is, in front of the Second and
Third Corps, the ground is cultivated, and is covered with fields of
wheat, now nearly ripe, with grass and pastures, with some peach
orchards, with fields of waving corn, and some farm houses, and
their out buildings along the Emmetsburg road. There are very few
places within the limits mentioned where troops and guns could
move concealed. There are some oaks of considerable growth, along
the position of the right of the Second Corps, a group of small trees,
sassafras and oak, in front of the right of the Second Division of this
Corps also; and considerable woods immediately in front of the left
of the Third Corps, and also to the West of, and near Round Top.
At the Cemetery, where is Cemetery Ridge, to which the line of the
Eleventh Corps conforms, is the highest point in our line, except
Round Top. From this the ground falls quite abruptly to the town,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 339
the nearest point o which is some five hundred yards away from
the line, and is cultivated, and checkered with stone fences.
The same is the character of the ground occupied by, and in front
of the left of the First Corps, which is also on a part of Cemetery
Ridge. The right of this Corps, and the whole of the Twelfth, are
along Gulp's Hill, and in woods, and the ground is very rocky, and
in places in front precipitous a most admirable position for defense
from an attack in front, where, on account of the woods, no artillery
could be used with effect by the enemy. Then these last three men-
tioned Corps, had, by taking rails, by appropriating stone fences, by
felling trees, and digging the earth, during the night of the first of
July, made for themselves excellent breast works, which were a very
good thing indeed. The position of the First and Twelfth Corps
was admirably strong, therefore. Within the line of battle is an
irregular basin, somewhat woody and rocky in places, but present-
ing few obstacles to the moving of troops and guns, from place to
place along the lines, and also affording the advantage that all such
movements, by reason of the surrounding crests, were out of view of
the enemy. On the whole this was an admirable position to fight
a defensive battle, good enough, I thought, when I saw it first, and
better I believe than could be found elsewhere in a circle of many
miles. Evils, sometimes at least, are blessings in disguise, for the
repulse of our forces, and the death of Reynolds, on the first of July,
with the opportune arrival of Hancock to arrest the tide of fugitives
and fix it on these heights, gave us this position perhaps the posi-
tion gave us the victory. On arriving upon the field, Gen. Meade
established his headquarters at a shabby little farm house on the left
of the Taneytown road, the house nearest the line, and a little more
than five hundred yards in the rear of what became the center of
the position of the Second Corps, a point where he could communi-
cate readily and rapidly with all parts of the army. The advantages
of the position, briefly, were these: the flanks were quite well pro-
tected by the natural defences there, Round Top up the left, and a
rocky, steep, untraversable ground up the right. Our line was more
elevated than that of the enemy, consequently our artillery had a
greater range and power than theirs. On account of the convexity
of our line, every part of the line could be reinforced by troops having
340 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
to move a shorter distance than if the line were straight; further, for
the same reason, the line of the enemy must be concave, and, conse-
quently, longer, and with an equal force, thinner, and so weaker
than ours. Upon those parts of our line which were wooded, neither
we nor the enemy could use artillery; but they were so strong by
nature, aided by art, as to be readily defended by a small, against a
very large, body of infantry. When the line was open, it had the
advantage of having open country in front, consequently, the enemy
here could not surprise, as we were on a crest, which besides the
other advantages that I have mentioned, had this: the enemy must
advance to the attack up an ascent, and must therefore move slower,
and be, before coming upon us, longer under our fire, as well as
more exhausted. These, and some other things, rendered our position
admirable for a defensive battle.
So, before a great battle, was ranged the Army of the Potomac.
The day wore on, the weather still sultry, and the sky overcast, with
a mizzling effort at rain. When the audience has all assembled, time
seems long until the curtain rises; so to-day. "Will there be a battle
to-day?" "Shall we attack the Rebel?" "Will he attack us?" These
and similar questions, later in the morning, were thought or asked
a million times.
Meanwhile, on our part, all was put in the last state of readiness
for battle. Surgeons were busy riding about selecting eligible places
for Hospitals, and hunting streams, and springs, and wells. Ambu-
lances, and ambulance men, were brought up near the lines, and
stretchers gotten ready for use. Who of us could tell but that he
would be the first to need them? The Provost Guards were busy
driving up all stragglers, and causing them to join their regiments.
Ammunition wagons were driven to suitable places, and pack mules
bearing boxes of cartridges; and the commands were informed
where they might be found. Officers were sent to see that the men
had each his hundred rounds of ammunition. Generals and their
Staffs were riding here and there among their commands to see that
all was right. A staff officer, or an orderly might be seen galloping
furiously in the transmission of some order or message. All, all was
ready and yet the sound of no gun had disturbed the air or
ear to-day.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 34!
And so the men stacked their arms in long bristling rows they
stood along the crests and were at ease. Some men of the Second
and Third Corps pulled down the rail fences near and piled them
up for breastworks in their front. Some loitered, some went to sleep
upon the ground, some, a single man, carrying twenty canteens
slung over his shoulder, went for water. Some made them a fire
and boiled a dipper of coffee. Some with knees cocked up, enjoyed
the soldier's peculiar solace, a pipe of tobacco. Some were mirthful
and chatty, and some were serious and silent. Leaving them thus I
suppose of all arms and grades there were about a hundred thousand
of them somewhere about that field each to pass the hour accord-
ing to his duty or his humor, let us look to the enemy.
Here let me state, that according to the best information that I
could get, I think a fair estimate of the Rebel force engaged in this
battle would be a little upwards of a hundred thousand men of all
arms. Of course we can't now know, but there are reasonable data
for this estimate. At all events there was no great disparity of num-
bers in the two opposing armies. We thought the enemy to be
somewhat more numerous than we, and he probably was. 2 But if
ninety-five men should fight with a hundred and five, the latter
would not always be victors and slight numerical differences are
of much less consequence in great bodies of men.
Skillful generalship and good fighting are the jewels of war. These
concurring are difficult to overcome; and these, not numbers, must
determine this battle.
During all the morning and of the night, too the skirmishers
of the enemy had been confronting those of the Eleventh, First and
Twelfth Corps. At the time of the fight of the First, he was seen in
heavy force North of the town he was believed to be now in the
same neighborhood, in full force. But from the woody character
of the country, and thereby the careful concealment of troops, which
2 The returns of the Union army for June 30 gave 89,238 infantry and artillery,
and 14,973 cavalry "present for duty." If there is deducted 5,520 in three brigades
of the Sixth Corps and 2,337 in detachments, which, although available, were not
opposed to the enemy, and the usual per cent of non-combatants, 88,289 remains for
the number engaged.
The number engaged on the Confederate side in the same manner, is estimated at
75,000, from the returns of May 31, July 20 and 31. See Livermore's "Numbers and
Losses," pp. 69, 1 02, 103. T. L. L.
342 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
the Rebel is always sure to effect, during the early part of the morn-
ing almost nothing was actually seen by us of the invaders of the
North. About nine o'clock in the morning, I should think, our
glasses began to reveal them at the West and North-west of the town,
a mile and a half away from our lines. They were moving towards
our left, but the woods of Seminary Ridge so concealed them that
we could not make out much of their movements. About this time
some rifled guns in the Cemetery, at the left of the Eleventh Corps,
opened fire almost the first shots of any kind this morning and
when it was found they were firing at a Rebel line of skirmishers
merely, that were advancing upon the left of that, and the right of
the Second Corps, the officer in charge of the guns was ordered to
cease firing, and was rebuked for having fired at all. These skirm-
ishers soon engaged those at the right of the Second Corps, who
stood their ground and were reinforced to make the line entirely
secure. The Rebel skirmish line kept extending further and further
to their right toward our left. They would dash up close upon ours
and sometimes drive them back a short distance, in turn to be re-
pulsed themselves and so they continued to do until their right was
opposite the extreme left of the Third Corps. By these means they
had ascertained the position and extent of our lines but their own
masses were still out of view. From the time that the firing com-
menced, as I have mentioned, it was kept up, among the skirmishers,
until quite noon, often briskly; but with no definite results further
than those mentioned, and with no considerable show of infantry
on the part of the enemy to support. There was a farm house and
outbuildings in front of the Third Division of the Second Corps at
which the skirmishers of the enemy had made a dash, and dislodged
ours posted there, and from there their sharp shooters began to annoy
our line of skirmishers and even the main line, with their long range
rifles. I was up to the line, and a bullet from one of the rascals hid
there, hissed by my cheek so close that I felt the movement of the air
distinctly. And so I was not at all displeased when I saw one of our
regiments go down and attack and capture the house and buildings
and several prisoners, after a spirited little fight, and, by Gen. Hays*
order, burn the buildings to the ground. About noon the Signal
Corps, from the top of Little Round Top, with their powerful
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 343
glasses, and the cavalry at the extreme left, began to report the
enemy in heavy force, making disposition of battle, to the West of
Round Top, and opposite to the left of the Third Corps. Some few
prisoners had been captured, some deserters from the enemy had
come in, and from all sources, by this time, we had much important
and reliable information of the enemy of his disposition and ap-
parent purposes. The Rebel infantry consisted of three Army Corps,
each consisting of three Divisions, Longstreet, Ewell the same
whose leg Gibbon's shell knocked off at Gainesville on the 28th of
August last year and A. P. Hill, each in the Rebel service having
the rank of Lieutenant General, were the commanders of these
Corps. Longstreet's Division commanders were Hood, McLaws
and Pickett; E well's were Rhodes, Early and Johnson, and Hill's
were Pender, Heth and Anderson. Stewart and Fitzhugh Lee
commanded Divisions of the Rebel cavalry. The rank of these Divi-
sions commands, I believe, was that of Major General. The Rebels
had about as much artillery as we did; but we never have thought
much of this arm in the hands of our adversaries. They have courage
enough, but not the skill to handle it well. They generally fire far
too high, and the ammunition is usually of a very inferior quality.
And, of late, we have begun to despise the enemies' cavalry too. It
used to have enterprise and dash, but in the late cavalry contests
ours have always been victor; and so now we think about all this
chivalry is fit for is to steal a few of our mules occasionally, and their
negro drivers. This army of the rebel infantry, however, is good
to deny this is useless. I never had any desire to and if one should
count up, it would possibly be found that they have gained more
victories over us, than we have over them, and they will now, doubt-
less, fight well, even desperately. And it is not horses or cannon
that will determine the result of this confronting of the two armies,
but the men with the muskets must do it the infantry must do the
sharp work. So we watched all this posting of forces as closely as
possible, for it was a matter of vital interest to us, and all information
relating to it was hurried to the commander of the army. The Rebel
line of battle was concave, bending around our own, with the extrem-
ities of the wings opposite to, or a little outside of ours. Longstreet's
Corps was upon their right; Hill's in the center. These two Rebel
344 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Corps occupied the second or inferior ridge to the West of our posi-
tion, as I have mentioned, with Hill's left bending towards, and
resting near the town, and Ewell's was upon their left, his troops
being in, and to the East of the town. This last Corps confronted
our Twelfth, First, and the right of the Eleventh Corps. When I
have said that ours was a good defensive position, this is equivalent
to saying that that of the enemy was not a good offensive one; for
these are relative terms, and cannot be both predicated of the respec-
tive positions of the two armies at the same time. The reasons that
this was not a good offensive position, are the same already stated in
favor of ours for defense. Excepting, occasionally, for a brief time,
during some movement of troops, as when advancing to attack, their
men and guns were kept constantly and carefully, by woods and
inequalities of ground, out of our view.
Noon is past, one o'clock is past, and, save the skirmishing that
I have mentioned, and an occasional shot from our guns, at some-
thing or other, the nature of which the ones who fired it were
ignorant, there was no fight yet. Our arms were still stacked, and
the men were at ease. As I looked upon those interminable rows of
muskets along the crests, and saw how cool and good spirited the
men were, who were lounging about on the ground among them,
I could not, and did not, have any fears as to the result of the
battle. The storm was near, and we all knew it well enough by this
time, which was to rain death upon these crests and down their
slopes, and yet the men who could not, and would not escape it,
were as calm and cheerful, generally, as if nothing unusual were
about to happen. You see, these men were veterans, and had been
in such places so often that they were accustomed to them. But I was
well pleased with the tone of the men to-day I could almost see the
foreshadowing of victory upon their faces, I thought. And I thought,
too, as I had seen the mighty preparations go on to completion for
this great conflict the marshaling of these two hundred thousand
men and the guns of the hosts, that now but a narrow valley
divided, that to have been in such a battle, and to survive on the
side of the victors, would be glorious. Oh, the world is most
unchristian yet!
Somewhat after one o'clock P. M. the skirmish firing had nearly
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 345
ceased now a movement of the Third Corps occurred, which I
shall describe. I cannot conjecture the reason of this movement.
From the position of the Third Corps, as I have mentioned, to the
second ridge West, the distance is about a thousand yards, and there
the Emmetsburg road runs near the crest of the ridge. Gen. Sickles
commenced to advance his whole Corps, from the general line,
straight to the front, with a view to occupy this second ridge, along,
and near the road. What his purpose could have been is past con-
jecture. It was not ordered by Gen. Meade, as I heard him say,
and he disapproved of it as soon as it was made known to him.
Generals Hancock and Gibbon, as they saw the move in progress,
criticized its propriety sharply, as I know, and foretold quite ac-
curately what would be the result. I suppose the truth probably is
that General Sickles supposed he was doing for the best; but he
was neither born nor bred a soldier. But one can scarcely tell what
may have been the motives of such a man a politician, and some
other things, exclusive of the Barton Key affair a man after show
and notoriety, and newspaper fame, and the adulation of the mob!
O, there is a grave responsibility on those in whose hands are the
lives of ten thousand men; and on those who put stars upon men's
shoulders, too! Bah! I kindle when I see some things that I have to
see. But this move of the Third Corps was an important one it
developed the battle the results of the move to the Corps itself
we shall see. O, if this Corps had kept its strong position upon the
crest, and supported by the rest of the army, had waited for the
attack of the enemy!
It was magnificent to see those ten or twelve thousand men 3
they were good men with their batteries, and some squadrons of
cavalry upon the left flank, all in battle order, in several lines, with
flags streaming, sweep steadily down the slope, across the valley,
and up the next ascent, toward their destined position! From our
position we could see it all. In advance Sickles pushed forward
his heavy line of skirmishers, who drove back those of the enemy,
across the Emmetsburg road, and thus cleared the way for the
main body. The Third Corps now became the absorbing object
3 The returns give 12,630 "present for duty" in the Third Corps. See 43 War
Records, 151. T. L. L.
346 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
of interest of all eyes. The Second Corps took arms, and the ist
Division of this Corps was ordered to be in readiness to support
the Third Corps, should circumstances render support necessary.
As the Third Corps was the extreme left of our line, as it advanced,
if the enemy was assembling to the West of Round Top with a
view to turn our left, as we had heard, there would be nothing
between the left flank of the Corps and the enemy, and the enemy
would be square upon its flank by the time it had attained the road.
So when this advance line came near the Emmetsburg road, and
we saw the squadrons of cavalry mentioned, come dashing back
from their position as flankers, and the smoke of some guns, and
we heard the reports away to Sickles' left, anxiety became an element
in our interest in these movements. The enemy opened slowly at
first, and from long range; but he was square upon Sickles' left
flank. General Caldwell was ordered at once to put his Division
the ist of the Second Corps, as mentioned in motion, and to take
post in the woods at the left slope of Round Top, in such a man-
ner as to resist the enemy should he attempt to come around
Sickles' left and gain his rear. The Division moved as ordered,
and disappeared from view in the woods, towards the point in-
dicated at between two and three o'clock P. M., and the reserve
brigade the First, Col. Heath temporarily commanding of the
Second Division, was therefore moved up and occupied the position
vacated by the Third Division. About the same time the Fifth
Corps could be seen marching by the flank from its position on
the Baltimore Pike, and in the opening of the woods heading for
the same locality where the ist Division of the Second Corps had
gone. The Sixth Corps had now come up and was halted upon the
Baltimore Pike. So the plot thickened. As the enemy opened upon
Sickles with his batteries, some five or six in all, I suppose, firing
slowly, Sickles with as many replied, and with much more spirit.
The artillery fire became quite animated, soon; but the enemy was
forced to withdraw his guns farther and farther away, and ours
advanced upon him. It was not long before the cannonade ceased
altogether, the enemy having retired out of range, and Sickles,
having temporarily halted his command, pending this, moved for-
ward again to the position he desired, or nearly that. It was now
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 347
about five o'clock, and we shall soon see what Sickles gained by his
move. First we hear more artillery firing upon Sickles' left the
enemy seems to be opening again, and as we watch the Rebel bat-
teries seem to be advancing there. The cannonade is soon opened
again, and with great spirit upon both sides. The enemy's bat-
teries press those of Sickles, and pound the shot upon them, and
this time they in turn begin to retire to position nearer the in-
fantry. The enemy seems to be fearfully in earnest this time. And
what is more ominous than the thunder or the shot of his ad-
vancing guns, this time, in the intervals between his batteries, far
to Sickles' left, appear the long lines and the columns of the Rebel
infantry, now unmistakably moving out to the attack. The posi-
tion of the Third Corps becomes at once one of great peril, and it
is probable that its commander by this time began to realize his
true situation. All was astir now on our crest. Generals and their
Staffs were galloping hither and thither the men were all in their
places, and you might have heard the rattle of ten thousand ram-
rods as they drove home and "thugged" upon the little globes and
cones of lead. As the enemy was advancing upon Sickles' flank, he
commenced a change, or at least a partial one, of front, by swing-
ing back his left and throwing forward his right, in order that his
lines might be parallel to those of his adversary, his batteries mean-
time doing what they could to check the enemy's advance; but this
movement was not completely executed before new Rebel batteries
opened upon Sickles' right flank his former front and in the same
quarter appeared the Rebel infantry also. Now came the dread-
ful battle picture, of which we for a time could be but spectators.
Upon the front and right flank of Sickles came sweeping the in-
fantry of Longstreet and Hill. Hitherto there had been skirmish-
ing and artillery practice now the battle began; for amid the
heavier smoke and larger tongues of flame of the batteries, now be-
gan to appear the countless flashes, and the long fiery sheets of the
muskets, and the rattle of the volleys, mingled with the thunder
of the guns. We see the long gray lines come sweeping down upon
Sickles' front, and mix with the battle smoke; now the same colors
emerge from the bushes and orchards upon his right, and envelope
his flank in the confusion of the conflict.
348 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
O, the din and the roar, and these thirty thousand Rebel wolf
cries! What a hell is there down that valley!
These ten or twelve thousand men of the Third Corps fight well,
but it soon becomes apparent that they must be swept from the
field, or perish there where they are doing so well, so thick and
overwhelming a storm of Rebel fire involves them. It was fearful
to see, but these men, such as ever escape, must come from that
conflict as best they can. To move down and support them with
other troops is out of the question, for this would be to do as Sickles
did, to relinquish a good position, and advance to a bad one. There
is no other alternative the Third Corps must fight itself out of its
position of destruction! What was it ever put there for?
In the meantime some other dispositions must be made to meet
the enemy, in the event that Sickles is overpowered. With this
Corps out of the way, the enemy would be in a position to advance
upon the line of the Second Corps, not in a line parallel with its
front, but they would come obliquely from the left. To meet this
contingency the left of the Second Division of the Second Corps is
thrown back slightly, and two Regiments, the I5th Mass., Col.
Ward, and the 82nd N. Y., Lieut. Col. Horton, are advanced down
to the Emmetsburg road, to a favorable position nearer us than
the fight has yet come, and some new batteries from the artillery
reserve are posted upon the crest near the left of the Second Corps.
This was all Gen. Gibbon could do. Other dispositions were made
or were now being made upon the field, which I shall mention
presently. The enemy is still giving Sickles fierce battle or rather
the Third Corps, for Sickles has been borne from the field minus
one of his legs, and Gen. Birney now commands and we of the
Second Corps, a thousand yards away, with our guns and men are,
and must be, still idle spectators of the fight.
The Rebel, as anticipated, tries to gain the left of the Third Corps,
and for this purpose is now moving into the woods at the west of
Round Top. We knew what he would find there. No sooner had
the enemy gotten a considerable force into the woods mentioned, in
the attempted execution of his purpose, than the roar of the con-
flict was heard there also. The Fifth Corps and the First Division
of the Second were there at the right time, and promptly engaged
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 349
him; and there, too, the battle soon became general and obstinate.
Now the roar of battle has become twice the volume that it was
before, and its range extends over more than twice the space. The
Third Corps has been pressed back considerably, and the wounded
are streaming to the rear by hundreds, but still the battle there goes
on, with no considerable abatement on our part. The field of actual
conflict extends now from a point to the front of the left of the
Second Corps, away down to the front of Round Top, and the
fight rages with the greatest fury. The fire of artillery and infantry
and the yells of the Rebels fill the air with a mixture of hideous
sounds. When the First Division of the Second Corps first engaged
the enemy, for a time it was pressed back somewhat, but under the
able and judicious management of Gen. Caldwell, and the support
of the Fifth Corps, it speedily ceased to retrograde, and stood its
ground; and then there followed a time, after the Fifth Corps be-
came well engaged, when from appearances we hoped the troops
already engaged would be able to check entirely, or repulse the
further assault of the enemy. But fresh bodies of the Rebels con-
tinued to advance out of the woods to the front of the position of
the Third Corps, and to swell the numbers of the assailants of this
already hard pressed command. The men there begin to show signs
of exhaustion their ammunition must be nearly expended they
have now been fighting more than an hour, and against greatly
superior numbers. From the sound of the firing at the extreme left,
and the place where the smoke rises above the tree tops there, we
know that the Fifth Corps is still steady, and holding its own there;
and as we see the Sixth Corps now marching and near at hand to
that point, we have no fears for the left we have more apparent
reason to fear for ourselves.
The Third Corps is being overpowered here and there its lines
begin to break the men begin to pour back to the rear in confu-
sion the enemy are close upon them and among them organiza-
tion is lost to a great degree guns and caissons are abandoned and
in the hands of the enemy the Third Corps, after a heroic but un-
fortunate fight, is being literally swept from the field. That Coips
gone, what is there between the Second Corps, and these yelling
masses of the enemy ? Do you not think that by this time we began to
350 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
feel a personal interest in this fight? We did indeed. We had been
mere observers the time was at hand when we must be actors in
this drama.
Up to this hour Gen. Gibbon had been in command of the Second
Corps, since yesterday, but Gen. Hancock, relieved of his duties
elsewhere, now assumed command. Five or six hundred yards away
the Third Corps was making its last opposition; and the enemy
was hotly pressing his advantages there, and throwing in fresh
troops whose line extended still more along our front, when Gen-
erals Hancock and Gibbon rode along the lines of their troops; and
at once cheer after cheer not Rebel, mongrel cries, but genuine
cheers rang out all along the line, above the roar of battle, for
"Hancock" and "Gibbon," and "our Generals." These were good.
Had you heard their voices, you would have known these men would
fight. Just at this time we saw another thing that made us glad :
we looked to our rear, and there, and all up the hillside which was
the rear of the Third Corps before it went forward, were rapidly
advancing large bodies of men from the extreme right of our line
of battle, coming to the support of the part now so hotly pressed.
There was the whole Twelfth Corps, with the exception of about
one brigade, that is, the larger portion of the Divisions of Gens.
Williams and Geary; the Third Division of the First Corps, Gen.
Doubleday; and some other brigades from the same Corps and
some of them were moving at the double quick. They formed lines
of battle at the foot of the Taneytown road, and when the broken
fragments of the Third Corps were swarming by them towards the
rear, without halting or wavering they came sweeping up, and with
glorious old cheers, under fire, took their places on the crest in line
of battle to the left of the Second Corps. Now Sickles' blunder is
repaired. Now, Rebel chief, hurl forward your howling lines and
columns! Yell out your loudest and your last, for many of your
best will never yell, or wave the spurious flag again!
The battle still rages all along the left, where the Fifth Corps is,
and the West slope of Round Top is the scene of the conflict; and
nearer us there was but short abatement, as the last of the Third
Corps retired from the field, for the enemy is flushed with his sue-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 35!
cess. He has been throwing forward brigade after brigade, and Divi-
sion after Division, since the battle began, and his advancing line
now extends almost as far to our right as the right of the Second
Division of the Second Corps. The whole slope in our front is full
of them; and in various formation, in line, in column, and in
masses which are neither, with yells and thick volleys, they are
rushing towards our crest. The Third Corps is out of the way.
Now we are in for it. The battery men are ready by their loaded
guns. All along the crest is ready. Now Arnold and Brown now
Gushing, and Woodruff, and Rhorty! you three shall survive to-day!
They drew the cords that moved the friction primers, and gun
after gun, along the batteries, in rapid succession, leaped where it
stood and bellowed its canister upon the enemy. The enemy still
advance. The infantry open fire first the two advance regiments,
the 1 5th Mass, and the 82d N. Y. then here and there through-
out the length of the long line, at the points where the enemy comes
nearest, and soon the whole crest, artillery and infantry, is one con-
tinued sheet of fire. From Round Top to near the Cemetery
stretches an uninterrupted field of conflict. There is a great army
upon each side, now hotly engaged.
To see the fight, while it went on in the valley below us, was ter-
rible, what must it be now, when we are in it, and it is all around
us, in all its fury ?
All senses for the time are dead but the one of sight. The roar of
the discharges and the yells of the enemy all pass unheeded; but the
impassioned soul is all eyes, and sees all things, that the smoke does
not hide. How madly the battery men are driving home the double
charges of canister in those broad-mouthed Napoleons, whose fire
seems almost to reach the enemy. How rapidly these long, blue-
coated lines of infantry deliver their file fire down the slope.
But there is no faltering the men stand nobly to their work.
Men are dropping dead or wounded on all sides, by scores and by
hundreds, and the poor mutilated creatures, some with an arm
dangling, some with a leg broken by a bullet, are limping and
crawling towards the rear. They make no sound of complaint or
pain, but are as silent as if dumb and mute. A sublime heroism seems
352 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
to pervade all, and the intuition that to lose that crest, all is lost.
How our officers, in the work of cheering on and directing the men,
are falling.
We have heard that Gen. Zook and Col. Cross, in the First Divi-
sion of our Corps, are mortally wounded they both commanded
brigades, now near us Col. Ward of the i5th Mass. he lost a leg at
Balls Bluff and Lieut. Col. Horton of the 8id N. Y., are mortally
struck while trying to hold their commands, which are being forced
back; Col. Revere, 2oth Mass., grandson of old Paul Revere, of the
Revolution, is killed, Lieut. Col. Max Thoman, commanding 59th
N. Y., is mortally wounded, and a host of others that I cannot name.
These were of Gibbon's Division. Lieut. Brown is wounded among
his guns his position is a hundred yards in advance of the main
line the enemy is upon his battery, and he escapes, but leaves three
of his six guns in the hands of the enemy.
The fire all along our crest is terrific, and it is a wonder how
anything human could have stood before it, and yet the madness of
the enemy drove them on, clear up to the muzzle of the guns, clear
up to the lines of our infantry but the lines stood right in their
places. Gen. Hancock and his Aides rode up to Gibbon's Division,
under the smoke. Gen. Gibbon, with myself, was near, and there
was a flag dimly visible, coming towards us from the direction of
the enemy. "Here, what are these men falling back for?" said Han-
cock. The flag was no more than fifty yards away, but it was the
head of a Rebel column, which at once opened fire with a volley.
Lieut. Miller, Gen. Hancock's Aide, fell, twice struck, but the General
was unharmed, and he told the ist Minn., which was near, to drive
these people away. That splendid regiment, the less than three hun-
dred that are left out of fifteen hundred that it has had, swings
around upon the enemy, gives them a volley in their faces, and ad-
vances upon them with the bayonet. The Rebels fled in confusion,
but Col. Colville, Lieut. Col. Adams and Major Downie, are all
badly, dangerously wounded, and many of the other officers and men
will never fight again. More than two-thirds fell.
Such fighting as this cannot last long. It is now near sundown,
and the battle has gone on wonderfully long already. But if you
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 353
will stop to notice it, a change has occurred. The Rebel cry has
ceased, and the men of the Union begin to shout there, under the
smoke, and their lines to advance. See, the Rebels are breaking!
They are in confusion in all our front! The wave has rolled upon
the rock, and the rock has smashed it. Let us shout, too!
First upon their extreme left the Rebels broke, where they had
almost pierced our lines; thence the repulse extended rapidly to their
right. They hung longest about Round Top, where the Fifth Corps
punished them, but in a space of time incredibly short, after they
first gave signs of weakness, the whole force of the Rebel assault
along the whole line, in spite of waving red flags, and yells, and the
entreaties of officers, and the pride of the chivalry, fled like chaff
before the whirlwind, back down the slope, over the valley, across the
Emmetsburg road, shattered, without organization in utter confu-
sion, fugitive into the woods, and victory was with the arms of the
Republic. The great Rebel assault, the greatest ever made upon
this continent, has been made and signally repulsed, and upon this
part of the field the fight of to-day is now soon over. Pursuit was
made as rapidly and as far as practicable, but owing to the proximity
of night, and the long distance which would have to be gone over
before any of the enemy, where they would be likely to halt, could
be overtaken, further success was not attainable to-day. Where the
Rebel rout first commenced, a large number of prisoners, some
thousands at least, were captured; almost all their dead, and such
of their wounded as could not themselves get to the rear, were
within our lines; several of their flags were gathered up, and a good
many thousand muskets, some nine or ten guns and some caissons
lost by the Third Corps, and the three of Brown's battery these
last were in Rebel hands but a few minutes were all safe now with
us, the enemy having had no time to take them off.
Not less, I estimate, than twenty thousand men were killed or
wounded in this fight. Our own losses must have been nearly half
this number, about four thousand in the Third Corps, fully two
thousand in the Second, and I think two thousand in the Fifth, and
I think the losses of the First, Twelfth, and a little more than a
brigade of the Sixth all of that Corps which was actually engaged
354 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
would reach nearly two thousand more. 4 Of course it will never
be possible to know the numbers upon either side who fell in this
particular part of the general battle, but from the position of the
enemy and his numbers, and the appearance of the field, his loss
must have been as heavy, or as I think much heavier than our own,
and my estimates are probably short of the actual loss.
The fight done, the sudden revulsions of sense and feeling follow,
which more or less characterize all similar occasions. How strange
the stillness seems! The whole air roared with the conflict but a
moment since now all is silent; not a gunshot sound is heard, and
the silence comes distinctly, almost painfully to the senses. And the
sun purples the clouds in the West, and the sultry evening steals
on as if there had been no battle, and the furious shout and the can-
non's roar had never shaken the earth. And how look these fields ?
We may see them before dark the ripening grain, the luxuriant
corn, the orchards, the grassy meadows, and in their midst the
rural cottage of brick or wood. They were beautiful this morning.
They are desolate now trampled by the countless feet of the com-
batants, plowed and scored by the shot and shell, the orchards
splintered, the fences prostrate, the harvest trodden in the mud.
And more dreadful than the sight of all this, thickly strewn over
all their length and breadth, are the habiliments of the soldiers, the
knapsacks cast aside in the stress of the fight, or after the fatal lead
had struck; haversacks, yawning with the rations the owner will
never call for; canteens of cedar of the Rebel men of Jackson, and
of cloth-covered tin of the men of the Union; blankets and trowsers,
and coats, and caps, and some are blue and some are gray; muskets
and ramrods, and bayonets, and swords, and scabbards and belts,
some bent and cut by the shot or shell; broken wheels, exploded
caissons, and limber-boxes, and dismantled guns, and all these are
sprinkled with blood; horses, some dead, a mangled heap of
carnage, some alive, with a leg shot clear off, or other frightful
wounds, appealing to you with almost more than brute gaze as
4 The returns give the total loss in the battle as follows: 1,275 in First Division
of Second Corps; 4,211 in Third Corps; 2,187 in Fifth Corps; 242 in Sixth Corps.
Substantially all these losses were suffered July 2. See 43 War Records. The losses
in the First Corps and Second Division of Second Corps on July 2 cannot be separated
from those of July i and 3 in the War Records. T. L. L.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 355
you pass; and last, but not least numerous, many thousands of men
and there was no rebellion here now the men of South Carolina
were quiet by the side of those of Massachusetts, some composed,
with upturned faces, sleeping the last sleep, some mutilated and
frightful, some wretched, fallen, bathed in blood, survivors still and
unwilling witnesses of the rage of Gettysburg.
And yet with all this before them, as darkness came on, and the
dispositions were made and the outposts thrown out for the night,
the Army of the Potomac was quite mad with joy. No more light-
hearted guests ever graced a banquet, than were these men as they
boiled their coffee and munched their soldiers' supper to-night. Is
it strange?
Otherwise they would not have been soldiers. And such sights
as all these, will be certain to be seen as long as war lasts in the
world, and when war is done, then is the end and the days of the
rmllenium are at hand.
The ambulances commenced their work as soon as the battle
opened the twinkling lanterns through the night, and the sun
of to-morrow saw them still with the same work unfinished.
I wish that I could write, that with the coming on of darkness,
ended the fight of to-day, but such was not the case. The armies
have fought enough to-day and ought to sleep to-night, one would
think, but not so thought the Rebel. Let us see what he gained by
his opinion. When the troops, including those of the Twelfth Corps
had been withdrawn from the extreme right of our line, in the
afternoon, to support the left, as I have mentioned, thereby, of
course, weakening that part of the line so left, the Rebel Ewell,
either becoming aware of the fact, or because he thought he could
carry our right at all events, late in the afternoon commenced an
assault upon that part of our line. His battle had been going on
there simultaneously with the fight on the left, but not with any
great degree of obstinacy on his part. He had advanced his men
through the woods, and in front of the formidable position lately
held by the Twelfth Corps cautiously, and to his surprise, I have
no doubt, found our strong defenses upon the extreme right, entirely
abandoned. These he at once took possession of, and simultaneously
made an attack upon our right flank, which was now near the
356 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
summit of Gulp's hill, and upon the front of that part of the line.
That small portion of the Twelfth Corps, which had been left there,
and some of the Eleventh Corps, sent to their assistance, did what
they could to check the Rebels; but the Eleventh Corps men were
getting shot at there, and they did not want to stay. Matters began
to have a bad look in that part of the field. A portion of the First
Division of the First Corps, was sent there for support the 6th
Wisconsin, among others, and this improved matters but still, as
we had but a small number of men there, all told, the enemy with
their great numbers, were having too much prospect of success, and
it seems that, probably emboldened by this, Ewell had resolved upon
a night attack upon that wing of the army, and was making his
dispositions accordingly. The enemy had not at sundown, actually
carried any part of our rifle pits there, save the ones abandoned, but
he was getting troops assembled upon our flank, and altogether,
with our weakness there, at that time, matters did not look as we
would like to have them. Such was then the posture of affairs,
when the fight upon our left, that I have described, was done.
Under such circumstances it is not strange that the Twelfth Corps,
as soon as its work was done upon the left, was quickly ordered
back to the right, to its old position. There it arrived in good time;
not soon enough, of course, to avoid the mortification of finding the
enemy in the possession of a part of the works the men had labored
so hard to construct, but in ample time before dark to put the men
well in the pits we already held, and to take up a strong defensible
position, at right angles to, and in rear of the main line, in order
to resist these flanking dispositions of the enemy. The army was
secure again. The men in the works would be steady against all
attacks in front, as long as they knew that their flank was safe.
Until between ten and eleven o'clock at night, the woods upon the
right, resounded with the discharges of musketry. Shortly after or
about dark, the enemy made a dash upon the right of the Eleventh
Corps. They crept up the windings of a valley, not in a very heavy
force, but from the peculiar mode in which this Corps does outpost
duty, quite unperceived in the dark until they were close upon the
main line. It is said, I do not know it to be true, that they spiked
two guns of one of the Eleventh Corps' batteries, and that the
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 357
battery men had to drive them ofiF with their sabres and rammers,
and that there was some fearful "Dutch" swearing on the occasion,
"donner wetter" among other similar impious oaths, having been
freely used. The enemy here were finally repulsed by the assistance
of Col. Correll's brigade of the Third Division of the Second Corps,
and the io6th Pa., from the Second Division of the same Corps,
was by Gen. Howard's request sent there to do outpost duty. It
seems to have been a matter of utter madness and folly on the part
of the enemy to have continued their night attack, as they did upon
the right. Our men were securely covered by ample works and even
in most places, a log was placed a few inches above the top of the
main breastwork, as a protection to the heads of the men as they
thrust out their pieces beneath it to fire. Yet in the darkness, the
enemy would rush up, clambering over rocks and among trees,
even to the front of the works, but only to leave their riddled bodies
there upon the ground or to be swiftly repulsed headlong into the
woods again. In the darkness the enemy would climb trees close
to the works, and endeavor to shoot our men by the light of the
flashes. When discovered, a thousand bullets would whistle after
them in the dark, and some would hit, and then the Rebel would
make up his mind to come down.
Our loss was light, almost nothing in this fight the next morn-
ing the enemy's dead were thick all along this part of the line.
Near eleven o'clock the enemy, wearied with his disastrous work,
desisted, and thereafter until morning, not a shot was heard in all
the armies.
So much for the battle. There is another thing that I wish to
mention, of the matters of the 2d of July.
After evening came on, and from reports received, all was known
to be going satisfactorily upon the right, Gen. Meade summoned
his Corps Commanders to his Headquarters for consultation. A
consultation is held upon matters of vast moment to the country,
and that poor little farmhouse is honored with more distinguished
guests than it ever had before, or than it will ever have again,
probably.
Do you expect to see a degree of ceremony, and severe military
aspect characterize this meeting, in accordance with strict military
358 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
rules, and commensurate with the moment of the matters of their
deliberation? Name it "Major General Meade, Commander of the
Army of the Potomac, with his Corps Generals, holding a Council
of War, upon the field of Gettysburg," and it would sound pretty
well, and that was what it was; and you might make a picture of
it and hang it up by the side of "Napoleon and his Marshals," and
"Washington and his Generals," maybe, at some future time. But
for the artist to draw his picture from, I will tell how this council
appeared. Meade, Sedgwick, Slocum, Howard, Hancock, Sykes,
Newton, Pleasanton commander of the cavalry and Gibbon,
were the Generals present. Hancock, now that Sickles is wounded,
has charge of the Third Corps, and Gibbon again has the Second.
Meade is a tall, spare man, with full beard, which with his hair,
originally brown, is quite thickly sprinkled with gray has a Roman-
ish face, very large nose, and a white, large forehead, prominent
and wide over the eyes, which are full and large, and quick in their
movements, and he wears spectacles. His fibres are all of the long
and sinewy kind. His habitual personal appearance is quite care-
less, and it would be rather difficult to make him look well dressed.
Sedgwick is quite a heavy man, short, thick-set and muscular, with
florid complexion, dark, calm, straight-looking eyes, with full,
heavyish features, which, with his eyes, have plenty of animation
when he is aroused. He has a magnificent profile, well cut, with
the nose and forehead forming almost a straight line, curly, short,
chestnut hair and full beard, cut short, with a little gray in it. He
dresses carelessly, but can look magnificently when he is well dressed.
Like Meade, he looks and is, honest and modest. You might see at
once, why his men, because they love him, call him "Uncle John,"
not to his face, of course, but among themselves. Slocum is small,
rather spare, with black, straight hair and beard, which latter is
unshaven and thin, large, full, quick, black eyes, white skin, sharp
nose, wide cheek bones, and hollow cheeks and small chin. His
movements are quick and angular, and he dresses with a sufficient
degree of elegance. Howard is medium in size, has nothing marked
about him, is the youngest of them all, I think has lost an arm in
the war, has straight brown hair and beard, shaves his short upper
lip, over which his nose slants down, dim blue eyes, and on the whole,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 359
appears a very pleasant, affable, well dressed little gentleman. Han-
cock is the tallest and most shapely, and in many respects is the best
looking officer of them all. His hair is very light brown, straight
and moist, and always looks well, his beard is o the same color, of
which he wears the moustache and a tuft upon the chin; complexion
ruddy, features neither large nor small, but well cut, with full
jaw and chin, compressed mouth, straight nose, full, deep blue eyes,
and a very mobile, emotional countenance. He always dresses re-
markably well, and his manner is dignified, gentlemanly and com-
manding. I think if he were in citizens' clothes, and should give
commands in the army to those who did not know him, he would
be likely to be obeyed at once, and without any question as to his
right to command. Sykes is a small, rather thin man, well dressed
and gentlemanly, brown hair and beard, which he wears full, with a
red, pinched, rough-looking skin, feeble blue eyes, long nose, with
the general air of one who is weary and a little ill-natured. Newton
is a well-sized, shapely, muscular, well dressed man, with brown
hair, with a very ruddy, clean-shaved, full face, blue eyes, blunt,
round features, walks very erect, curbs in his chin, and has some-
what of that smart sort of swagger that people are apt to suppose
characterizes soldiers. Pleasonton is quite a nice little dandy, with
brown hair and beard, a straw hat with a little jockey rim, which
he cocks upon one side of his head, with an unsteady eye, that looks
slyly at you and then dodges. Gibbon, the youngest of them all,
save Howard, is about the same size as Slocum, Howard, Sykes
and Pleasonton, and there are none of these who will weigh one
hundred and fifty pounds. He is compactly made, neither spare nor
corpulent, with ruddy complexion, chestnut brown hair, with a
clean-shaved face, except his moustache, which is decidedly reddish
in color, medium-sized, well-shaped head, sharp, moderately-jutting
brow, deep blue, calm eyes, sharp, slightly aquiline nose, compressed
mouth, full jaws and chin, with an air of calm firmness in his
manner. He always looks well dressed. I suppose Howard is about
thirty-five and Meade about forty-five years of age; the rest are
between these ages, but not many under forty. As they come to
the council now, there is the appearance of fatigue about them,
which is not customary, but is only due to the hard labors of the
360 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
past few days. They all wear clothes of dark blue, some have top
boots and some not, and except the two-starred straps upon the
shoulders of all save Gibbon, who has but one star, there was scarce-
ly a piece of regulation uniform about them all. They wore their
swords, of various patterns, but no sashes, the Army hat, but with
the crown pinched into all sorts of shapes and the rim slouched
down and shorn of all its ornaments but the gilt band except Sykes
who wore a blue cap, and Pleasonton with his straw hat with broad
black band. Then the mean little room where they met, its only
furniture consisted of a large, wide bed in one corner, a small pine
table in the center, upon which was a wooden pail of water, with a
tin cup for drinking, and a candle, stuck to the table by putting the
end in tallow melted down from the wick, and five or six straight-
backed rush-bottomed chairs. The Generals came in some sat,
some kept walking or standing, two lounged upon the bed, some
were constantly smoking cigars. And thus disposed, they deliber-
ated whether the army should fall back from its present position to
one in rear which it was said was stronger, should attack the enemy
on the morrow, wherever he could be found, or should stand there
upon the horse-shoe crest, still on the defensive, and await the further
movements of the enemy.
The latter proposition was unanimously agreed to. Their heads
were sound. The Army of the Potomac would just halt right
there, and allow the Rebel to come up and smash his head against
it, to any reasonable extent he desired, as he had to-day. After some
two hours the council dissolved, and the officers went their several
ways.
Night, sultry and starless, droned on, and it was almost midnight
that I found myself peering my way from the line of the Second
Corps, back down to the General's Headquarters, which were an
ambulance in the rear, in a little peach orchard. All was silent now
but the sound of the ambulances, as they were bringing off the
wounded, and you could hear them rattle here and there about the
field, and see their lanterns. I am weary and sleepy, almost to such
an extent as not to be able to sit on my horse. And my horse can
hardly move the spur will not start him what can be the reason?
I know that he has been touched by two or three bullets to-day,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 361
but not to wound or lame him to speak of. Then, in riding by a
horse that is hitched, in the dark, I got kicked; had I not a very
thick boot, the blow would have been likely to have broken my
ankle it did break my temper as it was and, as if it would cure
matters, I foolishly spurred my horse again. No use, he would but
walk. I dismounted; I could not lead him along at all, so out of
temper I rode at the slowest possible walk to the Headquarters,
which I reached at last. Generals Hancock and Gibbon were asleep
in the ambulance. With a light I found what was the matter with
"Billy." A bullet had entered his chest just in front of my left leg,
as I was mounted, and the blood was running down all his side
and leg, and the air from his lungs came out of the bullet-hole. I
begged his pardon mentally for my cruelty in spurring him, and
should have done so in words if he could have understood me. Kind
treatment as is due to the wounded he could understand and he
had it. Poor Billy! He and I were first under fire together, and I
rode him at the second Bull Run and the first and second Fredericks-
burg, and at Antietam after brave "Joe" was killed; but I shall never
mount him again Billy's battles are over.
"George, make my bed here upon the ground by the side of this
ambulance. Pull off my sabre and my boots that will do!" Was
ever princely couch or softest down so soft as those rough blankets,
there upon the unroofed sod? At midnight they received me for
four hours delicious dreamless oblivion of weariness and of battle.
So to me, ended the Second of July.
At four o'clock on the morning of the Third, I was awakened
by Gen. Gibbon's pulling me by the foot and saying: "Come, don't
you hear that?" I sprang up to my feet. Where was I? A moment
and my dead senses and memory were alive again, and the sound of
brisk firing of musketry to the front and right of the Second Corps,
and over at the extreme right of our line, where we heard it last
in the night, brought all back to my memory. We surely were on the
field of battle, and there were palpable evidences to my reason that
to-day was to be another of blood. Oh! for a moment the thought
of it was sickening to every sense and feeling! But the motion of
my horse as I galloped over the crest a few minutes later, and the
serene splendor of the morning now breaking through rifted clouds
362 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
and spreading over the landscape soon reassured me. Come day of
battle! Up Rebel hosts, and thunder with your arms! We are all
ready to do and to die for the Republic!
I found a sharp skirmish going on in front of the right of the
Second Corps, between our outposts and those of the enemy, but
save this and none of the enemy but his outposts were in sight all
was quiet in that part of the field. On the extreme right of the line
the sound of musketry was quite heavy; and this I learned was
brought on by the attack of the Second Division, Twelfth Corps,
Gen. Geary, upon the enemy in order to drive him out of our works
which he had sneaked into yesterday, as I have mentioned. The
attack was made at the earliest moment in the morning when it was
light enough to discern objects to fire at. The enemy could not use
the works, but was confronting Geary in woods, and had the cover
of many rocks and trees, so the fight was an irregular one, now
breaking out and swelling to a vigorous fight, now subsiding to a
few scattering shots; and so it continued by turns until the morning
was well advanced, when the enemy was finally wholly repulsed
and driven from the pits, and the right of our line was again re-
established in the place it first occupied. The heaviest losses the
Twelfth Corps sustained in all the battle, occurred during this at-
tack, and they were here quite severe. I heard Gen. Meade express
dissatisfaction at Gen. Geary for making this attack, as a thing not
ordered and not necessary, as the works of ours were of no intrinsic
importance, and had not been captured from us by a fight, and
Geary's position was just as good as they, where he was during
the night. And I heard Gen. Meade say that he sent an order to
have the fight stopped; but I believe the order was not communicated
to Geary until after the repulse of the enemy. Late in the forenoon
the enemy again tried to carry our right by storm. We heard that
old Rebel Ewell had sworn an oath that he would break our right.
He had Stonewall Jackson's Corps, and possibly imagined himself
another Stonewall, but he certainly hankered after the right of our
line and so up through the woods, and over the rocks, and up the
steeps he sent his storming parties our men could see them now
in the day time. But all the Rebel's efforts were fruitless, save in
one thing, slaughter to his own men. These assaults were made
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 363
with great spirit and determination, but as the enemy would come
up, our men lying behind their secure defenses would just singe
them with the blaze of their muskets, and riddle them, as a hail-
storm, the tender blades of corn. The Rebel oath was not kept,
any more than his former one to support the Constitution of the
United States. The Rebel loss was very heavy indeed, here, ours
but trifling. I regret that I cannot give more of the details of this
fighting upon the right it was so determined upon the part of the
enemy, both last night and this morning so successful to us. About
all that I actually saw of it during its progress, was the smoke, and
I heard the discharges. My information is derived from officers who
were personally in it. Some of our heavier artillery assisted our in-
fantry in this by firing, with the piece elevated, far from the rear,
over the heads of our men, at a distance from the enemy of two
miles, I suppose. Of course, they could have done no great damage.
It was nearly eleven o'clock that the battle in this part of the field
subsided, not to be again renewed. All the morning we felt no ap-
prehension for this part of the line, for we knew its strength, and
that our troops engaged, the Twelfth Corps and the First Division,
Wadsworth's, of the First, could be trusted.
For the sake of telling one thing at a time, I have anticipated
events somewhat, in writing of this fight upon the right. I shall now
go back to the starting point, four o'clock this morning, and, as
other events occurred during the day, second to none in the battle
in importance, which I think I saw as much of as any man living,
I will tell you something of them, and what I saw, and how the
time moved on. The outpost skirmish that I have mentioned, soon
subsided. I suppose it was the natural escape of the wrath which
the men had, during the night, hoarded up against each other, and
which, as soon as they could see in the morning, they could no
longer contain, but must let it off through their musket barrels,
at their adversaries. At the commencement of the war such firing
would have awaked the whole army and roused it to its feet and
to arms; not so now. The men upon the crest lay snoring in their
blankets, even though some of the enemy's bullets dropped among
them, as if bullets were as harmless as the drops of dew around
them. As the sun arose to-day, the clouds became broken, and we
364 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
had once more glimpses of sky, and fits of sunshine a rarity, to
cheer us. From the crest, save to the right of the Second Corps, no
enemy, not even his outposts could be discovered, along all the
position where he so thronged upon the Third Corps yesterday.
All was silent there the wounded horses were limping about the
field; the ravages of the conflict were still fearfully visible the
scattered arms and the ground thickly dotted with the dead but no
hostile foe. The men were roused early, in order that the morning
meal might be out of the way in time for whatever should occur.
Then ensued the hum of an army, not in ranks, chatting in low tones,
and running about and jostling among each other, rolling and pack-
ing their blankets and tents. They looked like an army of rag-
gatherers, while shaking these very useful articles of the soldier's
outfit, for you must know that rain and mud in conjunction have
not had the effect to make them clean, and the wear and tear of
service have not left them entirely whole. But one could not have
told by the appearance of the men, that they were in battle yesterday,
and were likely to be again to-day. They packed their knapsacks,
boiled their coffee and munched their hard bread, just as usual just
like old soldiers who know what campaigning is; and their talk
is far more concerning their present employment some joke or
drollery than concerning what they saw or did yesterday.
As early as practicable the lines all along the left are revised and
reformed, this having been rendered necessary by yesterday's battle,
and also by what is anticipated to-day.
It is the opinion of many of our Generals that the Rebel will not
give us battle to-day that he had enough yesterday that he will
be heading towards the Potomac at the earliest practicable moment,
if he has not already done so; but the better, and controlling judg-
ment is, that he will make another grand effort to pierce or turn
our lines that he will either mass and attack the left again, as yes-
terday, or direct his operations against the left of our center, the
position of the Second Corps, and try to sever our line. I infer that
Gen. Meade was of the opinion that the attack to-day would be
upon the left this from the disposition he ordered, I know that
Gen. Hancock anticipated the attack upon the center.
The dispositions to-day upon the left are as follows:
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 365
The Second and Third Divisions of the Second Corps are in the
position of yesterday; then on the left come Doubleday's the Third
Division and Col. Stannard's brigade of the First Corps; then Col-
well's the First Division of the Second Corps; then the Third
Corps, temporarily under the command of Hancock, since Sickles'
wound. The Third Corps is upon the same ground in part,
and on the identical line where it first formed yesterday morning,
and where, had it stayed instead of moving out to the front, we
should have many more men to-day, and should not have been upon
the brink of disaster yesterday. On the left of the Third Corps is
the Fifth Corps, with a short front and deep line; then comes the
Sixth Corps, all but one brigade, which is sent over to the Twelfth.
The Sixth, a splendid Corps, almost intact in the fight of yesterday, is
the extreme left of our line, which terminates to the south of Round
Top, and runs along its western base, in the woods, and thence to
the Cemetery. This Corps is burning to pay off the old scores made
on the 4th of May, there back of Fredericksburg. Note well the posi-
tion of the Second and Third Divisions of the Second Corps it
will become important. There are nearly six thousand men and
officers in these two Divisions here upon the field the losses were
quite heavy yesterday, some regiments are detached to other parts
of the field so all told there are less than six thousand men now
in the two Divisions, 5 who occupy a line of about a thousand yards.
The most of the way along this line upon the crest was a stone
fence, constructed of small rough stones, a good deal of the way
badly pulled down, but the men had improved it and patched it
with rails from the neighboring fences, and with earth, so as to
render it in many places a very passable breastwork against musketry
and flying fragments of shells.
These works are so low as to compel the men to kneel or lie
down generally to obtain cover. Near the right of the Second Divi-
sion, and just by the little group of trees that I have mentioned
there, this stone fence made a right angle, and extended thence to
the front, about twenty or thirty yards, where with another less
than a right angle it followed along the crest again.
5 The returns of June 30 gave 7,546 "present for duty" in these two divisions, but
five of their twenty-six regiments were not in this part of the battle. See 43 War
Records, 53, 176-7, 435, 457, 462, 471. T. L. L.
366 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
The lines were conformed to these breastworks and to the nature
of the ground upon the crest, so as to occupy the most favorable
places, to be covered, and still be able to deliver effective fire upon
the enemy should he come there. In some places a second line
was so posted as to be able to deliver its fire over the heads of the
first line behind the works; but such formation was not practicable
all of the way. But all the force of these two divisions was in line,
in position, without reserves, and in such a manner that every man
of them could have fired his piece at the same instant. The division
flags, that of the Second Division, being a white trefoil upon a
square blue field, and of the Third Division a blue trefoil upon
a white rectangular field, waved behind the divisions at the points
where the Generals of Division were supposed to be; the brigade
flags, similar to these but with a triangular field, were behind the
brigades; and the national flags of the regiments were in the lines
of their regiments. To the left of the Second Division, and ad-
vanced something over a hundred yards, were posted a part of
Stannard's Brigade two regiments or more, behind a small bush-
crowned crest that ran in a direction oblique to the general line.
These were well covered by the crest, and wholly concealed by the
bushes, so that an advancing enemy would be close upon them
before they could be seen. Other troops of Doubleday's Division
were strongly posted in rear of these in the general line.
I could not help wishing all the morning that this line of the two
divisions of the Second Corps was stronger; it was so far as numbers
constitute strength, the weakest part of our whole line of battle.
What if, I thought, the enemy should make an assault here to-day
with two or three heavy lines a great overwhelming mass; would
he not sweep through that thin six thousand?
But I was not General Meade, who alone had power to send
other troops there; and he was satisfied with that part of the line
as it was. He was early on horseback this morning, and rode along
the whole line, looking to it himself, and with glass in hand sweep-
ing the woods and fields in the direction of the enemy, to see if aught
of him could be discovered. His manner was calm and serious,
but earnest. There was no arrogance of hope, or timidity of fear
discernible in his face; but you would have supposed he would do
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 367
his duty conscientiously and well, and would be willing to abide
the result. You would have seen this in his face. He was well
pleased with the left of the line to-day, it was so strong with good
troops. He had no apprehension for the right where the fight now
was going on, on account of the admirable position of our forces
there. He was not of the opinion that the enemy would attack the
center, our artillery had such sweep there, and this was not the
favorite point of attack with the Rebel. Besides, should he attack
the center, the General thought he could reinforce it in good season.
I heard Gen. Meade speak of these matters to Hancock and some
others, at about nine o'clock in the morning, while they were up
by the line, near the Second Corps.
No further changes of importance except those mentioned, were
made in the disposition of the troops this morning, except to re-
place some of the batteries that were disabled yesterday by others
from the artillery reserve, and to brace up the lines well with guns
wherever there were eligible places, from the same source. The
line is all in good order again, and we are ready for general battle.
Save the operations upon the right, the enemy so far as we could
see, was very quiet all the morning. Occasionally the outposts would
fire a little, and then cease. Movements would be discovered which
would indicate the attempt on the part of the enemy to post a bat-
tery. Our Parrotts would send a few shells to the spot, then silence
would follow.
At one of these times a painful accident happened to us, this
morning. First Lieut. Henry Ropes, 20th Mass., in Gen. Gibbon's
Division, a most estimable gentleman and officer, intelligent, edu-
cated, refined, one of the noble souls that came to the country's de-
fense, while lying at his post with his regiment, in front of one of
the Batteries, which fired over the Infantry, was instantly killed
by a badly made shell, which, or some portion of it, fell but a few
yards in front of the muzzle of the gun. The same accident killed
or wounded several others. The loss of Ropes would have pained
us at any time, and in any manner; in this manner his death was
doubly painful.
Between ten and eleven o'clock, over in a peach orchard in front
of the position of Sickles yesterday, some little show of the enemy's
368 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
infantry was discovered; a few shells scattered the gray-backs; they
again appeared, and it becoming apparent that they were only
posting a skirmish line, no further molestation was offered them.
A little after this some of the enemy's flags could be discerned over
near the same quarter, above the top and behind a small crest of
a ridge. There seemed to be two or three of them possibly they
were guidons and they moved too fast to be carried on foot.
Possibly, we thought, the enemy is posting some batteries there.
We knew in about two hours from this time better about the
matter. Eleven o'clock came. The noise of battle has ceased upon
the right; not a sound of a gun or musket can be heard on all the
field; the sky is bright, with only the white fleecy clouds floating
over from the West. The July sun streams down its fire upon the
bright iron of the muskets in stacks upon the crest, and the dazzling
brass of the Napoleons. The army lolls and longs for the shade, of
which some get a hand's breadth, from a shelter tent stuck upon
a ramrod. The silence and sultriness of a July noon are supreme.
Now it so happened, that just about this time of day a very original
and interesting thought occurred to Gen. Gibbon and several of his
stafT; that it would be a very good thing, and a very good time, to
have something to eat. When I announce to you that I had not
tasted a mouthful of food since yesterday noon, and that all I had
had to drink since that time, but the most miserable muddy warm
water, was a little drink of whisky that Major Biddle, General
Meade's aide-de-camp, gave me last evening, and a cup of strong
coffee that I gulped down as I was first mounting this morning, and
further, that, save the four or five hours in the night, there was
scarcely a moment since that time but that I was in the saddle, you
may have some notion of the reason of my assent to this extraor-
dinary proposition. Nor will I mention the doubts I had, as to the
feasibility of the execution of this very novel proposal, except to say
that I knew this morning that our larder was low; not to put too
fine a point upon it, that we had nothing but some potatoes and
sugar and coffee in the world. And I may as well say here, that
of such, in scant proportion, would have been our repast, had it
not been for the riding of miles by two persons, one an officer, to
procure supplies; and they only succeeded in getting some few
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 369
chickens, some butter, and one huge loaf of bread, which last was
bought of a soldier, because he had grown faint in carrying it, and
was afterwards rescued with much difficulty and after a long race
from a four-footed hog, which had got hold of and had actually
eaten a part of it. "There is a divinity," etc. Suffice it, this very
ingenious and unheard of contemplated proceeding, first announced
by the General, was accepted and at once undertaken by his staff.
Of the absolute quality of what we had to eat, I could not pretend
to judge, but I think an unprejudiced person would have said of
the bread that it was good; so of the potatoes before they were
boiled. Of the chickens he would have questioned their age, but
they were large and in good running order. The toast was good
and the butter. There were those who, when coffee was given them,
called for tea, and vice versa, and were so ungracious as to suggest
that the water that was used in both might have come from near
a barn. Of course it did not. We all came down to the little peach
orchard where we had stayed last night, and, wonderful to see
and tell, ever mindful of our needs, had it all ready, had our faith-
ful John. There was an enormous pan of stewed chickens, and the
potatoes, and toast, all hot, and the bread and the butter, and tea
and coffee. There was satisfaction derived from just naming them
all over. We called John an angel, and he snickered and said he
"knowed" we'd come. General Hancock is of course invited to
partake, and without delay, we commence operations. Stools are
not very numerous, two, in all, and these the two Generals have by
common consent. Our table was the top of a mess chest. By this
the Generals sat. The rest of us sat upon the ground, cross-legged,
like the picture of a smoking Turk, and held our plates upon our
laps. How delicious was the stewed chicken. I had a cucumber
pickle in my saddle bags, the last of a lunch left there two or three
days ago, which George brought, and I had half of it. We were
just well at it when General Meade rode down to us from the line,
accompanied by one of his staff, and by General Gibbon's invitation,
they dismounted and joined us. For the General commanding
the Army of the Potomac George, by an effort worthy of the person
and the occasion, finds an empty cracker box for a seat. The staff
officer must sit upon the ground with the rest of us. Soon Generals
37 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Newton and Pleasonton, each with an aide, arrive. By an almost
superhuman effort a roll of blankets is found, which, upon a pinch,
is long enough to seat these Generals both, and room is made for
them. The aides sit with us. And, fortunate to relate, there was
enough cooked for us all, and from General Meade to the young-
est second lieutenant we all had a most hearty and well relished
dinner. Of the "past" we were "secure." The Generals ate, and
after, lighted cigars, and under the flickering shade of a very small
tree, discoursed of the incidents of yesterday's battle and of the
probabilities of to-day. General Newton humorously spoke of
General Gibbon as "this young North Carolinian," and how he
was becoming arrogant and above his position, because he com-
manded a corps. General Gibbon retorted by saying that General
Newton had not been long enough in such a command, only since
yesterday, to enable him to judge of such things. General Meade
still thought that the enemy would attack his left again to-day
towards evening; but he was ready for them. General Hancock
thought that the attack would be upon the position of the Second
Corps. It was mentioned that General Hancock would again as-
sume command of the Second Corps from that time, so that General
Gibbon would again return to the Second Division.
General Meade spoke of the Provost Guards, that they were
good men, and that it would be better to-day to have them in the
works 6 than to stop stragglers and skulkers, as these latter would be
good for but little even in the works; 6 and so he gave the order that
all the Provost Guards should at once temporarily rejoin their reg-
iments. Then General Gibbon called up Captain Parrel, First Min-
nesota, who commanded the provost guard of his division, and di-
rected him for that day to join the regiment. "Very well, sir," said
the Captain, as he touched his hat and turned away. He was a quiet,
excellent gentleman and thorough soldier. I knew him well and
esteemed him. I never saw him again. He was killed in two or
three hours from that time, and over half of his splendid company
were either killed or wounded.
And so the time passed on, each General now and then dispatch-
6 Haskell probably wrote "ranks," as there were but few "works" deserving the
name on the field. T. L. L.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 37!
ing some order or message by an officer or orderly, until about half-
past twelve, when all the Generals, one by one, first General Meade,
rode off their several ways, and General Gibbon and his staff alone
remained.
We dozed in the heat, and lolled upon the ground, with half
open eyes. Our horses were hitched to the trees munching some
oats. A great lull rests upon all the field. Time was heavy, and
for want of something better to do, I yawned, and looked at my
watch. It was five minutes before one o'clock. I returned my watch
to its pocket, and thought possibly that I might go to sleep, and
stretched myself upon the ground accordingly. Ex uno disce omnes.
My attitude and purpose were those of the General and the rest of
the staff.
What sound was that? There was no mistaking it. The distinct
sharp sound of one of the enemy's guns, square over to the front,
caused us to open our eyes and turn them in that direction, when
we saw directly above the crest the smoke of the bursting shell, and
heard its noise. In an instant, before a word was spoken, as if that
was the signal gun for general work, loud, startling, booming, the
report of gun after gun in rapid succession smote our ears and their
shells plunged down and exploded all around us. We sprang to our
feet. In briefest time the whole Rebel line to the West was pouring
out its thunder and its iron upon our devoted crest. The wildest
confusion for a few moments obtained sway among us. The shells
came bursting all about. The servants ran terror-stricken for dear
life and disappeared. The horses, hitched to the trees or held by
the slack hands of orderlies, neighed out in fright, and broke away
and plunged riderless through the fields. The General at the first
had snatched his sword, and started on foot for the front. I called for
my horse; nobody responded. I found him tied to a tree, near by,
eating oats, with an air of the greatest composure, which under the
circumstances, even then struck me as exceedingly ridiculous. He
alone, of all beasts or men near, was cool. I am not sure but that I
learned a lesson then from a horse. Anxious alone for his oats,
while I put on the bridle and adjusted the halter, he delayed me by
keeping his head down, so I had time to see one of the horses of
our mess wagon struck and torn by a shell. The pair plunge the
372 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
driver has lost the reins horses, driver and wagon go into a heap
by a tree. Two mules close at hand, packed with boxes of ammuni-
tion, are knocked all to pieces by a shell. General Gibbon's groom
has just mounted his horse and is starting to take the General's horse
to him, when the flying iron meets him and tears open his breast.
He drops dead and the horses gallop away. No more than a
minute since the first shot was fired, and I am mounted and
riding after the General. The mighty din that now rises to heaven
and shakes the earth is not all of it the voice of the rebellion; for
our guns, the guardian lions of the crest, quick to awake when
danger comes, have opened their fiery jaws and begun to roar the
great hoarse roar of battle. I overtake the General half way up to the
line. Before we reach the crest his horse is brought by an orderly.
Leaving our horses just behind a sharp declivity of the ridge, on
foot we go up among the batteries. How the long streams of fire
spout from the guns, how the rifled shells hiss, how the smoke deep-
ens and rolls. But where is the infantry ? Has it vanished in smoke?
Is this a nightmare or a juggler's devilish trick? All too real. The
men of the infantry have seized their arms, and behind their works,
behind every rock, in every ditch, wherever there is any shelter,
they hug the ground, silent, quiet, unterrified, little harmed. The
enemy's guns now in action are in position at their front of the
woods along the second ridge that I have before mentioned and
towards their right, behind a small crest in the open field, where
we saw the flags this morning. Their line is some two miles long,
concave on the side towards us, and their range is from one thou-
sand to eighteen hundred yards. A hundred and twenty-five rebel
guns, we estimate, are now active, firing twenty-four pound, twenty,
twelve and ten-pound projectiles, solid shot and shells, spherical,
conical, spiral. The enemy's fire is chiefly concentrated upon the
position of the Second Corps. From the Cemetery to Round Top,
with over a hundred guns, and to all parts of the enemy's line, our
batteries reply, of twenty and ten-pound Parrotts, ten-pound rifled
ordnance, and twelve-pound Napoleons, using projectiles as various
in shape and name as those of the enemy. Captain Hazard com-
manding the artillery brigade of the Second Corps was vigilant
among the batteries of his command, and they were all doing
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 373
well. All was going on satisfactorily. We had nothing to do, there-
fore, but to be observers of the grand spectacle of battle. Captain
Wessels, Judge Advocate of the Division, now joined us, and we
sat down behind the crest, close to the left of Cushing's Battery,
to bide our time, to see, to be ready to act when the time should
come, which might be at any moment. Who can describe such a
conflict as is raging around us? To say that it was like a summer
storm, with the crash of thunder, the glare of lightning, the shrieking
of the wind, and the clatter of hailstones, would be weak. The
thunder and lightning of these two hundred and fifty guns and
their shells, whose smoke darkens the sky, are incessant, all per-
vading, in the air above our heads, on the ground at our feet, re-
mote, near, deafening, ear-piercing, astounding; and these hailstones
are massy iron, charged with exploding fire. And there is little of
human interest in a storm; it is an absorbing element of this. You
may see flame and smoke, and hurrying men, and human passion
at a great conflagration; but they are all earthly and nothing more.
These guns are great infuriate demons, not of the earth, whose
mouths blaze with smoky tongues of living fire, and whose murky
breath, sulphur-laden, rolls around them and along the ground,
the smoke of Hades. These grimy men, rushing, shouting, their
souls in frenzy, plying the dusky globes and the igniting spark, are
in their league, and but their willing ministers. We thought that at
the second Bull Run, at the Antietam and at Fredericksburg on the
nth of December, we had heard heavy cannonading; they were but
holiday salutes compared with this. Besides the great ceaseless roar
of the guns, which was but the background of the others, a million
various minor sounds engaged the ear. The projectiles shriek long
and sharp. They hiss, they scream, they growl, they sputter; all
sounds of life and rage; and each has its different note, and all are
discordant. Was ever such a chorus of sound before? We note the
effect of the enemies' fire among the batteries and along the crest.
We see the solid shot strike axle, or pole, or wheel, and the tough
iron and heart of oak snap and fly like straws. The great oaks there
by Woodruff's guns heave down their massy branches with a crash,
as if the lightning smote them. The shells swoop down among the
battery horses standing there apart. A half a dozen horses start,
374 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
they stumble, their legs stiffen, their vitals and blood smear the
ground. And these shot and shells have no respect for men either.
We see the poor fellows hobbling back from the crest, or unable to do
so, pale and weak, lying on the ground with the mangled stump of
an arm or leg, dripping their life-blood away; or with a cheek torn
open, or a shoulder mashed. And many, alas! hear not the roar as
they stretch upon the ground with upturned faces and open eyes,
though a shell should burst at their very ears. Their ears and their
bodies this instant are only mud. We saw them but a moment
since there among the flame, with brawny arms and muscles of
iron wielding the rammer and pushing home the cannon's plethoric
load.
Strange freaks these round shot play! We saw a man coming up
from the rear with his full knapsack on, and some canteens of water
held by the straps in his hands. He was walking slowly and with
apparent unconcern, though the iron hailed around him. A shot
struck the knapsack, and it, and its contents flew thirty yards in
every direction, the knapsack disappearing like an egg, thrown
spitefully against a rock. The soldier stopped and turned about in
puzzled surprise, put up one hand to his back to assure himself
that the knapsack was not there, and then walked slowly on again
unharmed, with not even his coat torn. Near us was a man crouching
behind a small disintegrated stone, which was about the size of a
common water bucket. He was bent up, with his face to the ground,
in the attitude of a Pagan worshipper before his idol. It looked so
absurd to see him thus, that I went and said to him, "Do not lie
there like a toad. Why not go to your regiment and be a man?"
He turned up his face with a stupid, terrified look upon me, and
then without a word turned his nose again to the ground. An
orderly that was with me at the time, told me a few moments later,
that a shot struck the stone, smashing it in a thousand fragments,,
but did not touch the man, though his head was not six inches
from the stone.
All the projectiles that came near us were not so harmless. Not
ten yards away from us a shell burst among some small bushes,
where sat three or four orderlies holding horses. Two of the men
and one horse were killed. Only a few yards oft a shell exploded
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 375
over an open limber box in Cushing's battery, and at the same in-
stant, another shell over a neighboring box. In both the boxes the
ammunition blew up with an explosion that shook the ground,
throwing fire and splinters and shells far into the air and all around,
and destroying several men. We watched the shells bursting in
the air, as they came hissing in all directions. Their flash was a
bright gleam of lightning radiating from a point, giving place in
the thousandth part of a second to a small, white, puffy cloud, like
a fleece of the lightest, whitest wool. These clouds were very numer-
ous. We could not often see the shell before it burst; but sometimes,
as we faced towards the enemy, and looked above our heads, the
approach would be heralded by a prolonged hiss, which always
seemed to me to be a line of something tangible, terminating in a
black globe, distinct to the eye, as the sound had been to the ear.
The shell would seem to stop, and hang suspended in the air an
instant, and then vanish in fire and smoke and noise. We saw the
missiles tear and plow the ground. All in rear of the crest for a
thousand yards, as well as among the batteries, was the field of
their blind fury. Ambulances, passing down the Taneytown road
with wounded men, were struck. The hospitals near this road were
riddled. The house which was General Meade's headquarters was
shot through several times, and a great many horses of officers and
orderlies were lying dead around it. Riderless horses, galloping
madly through the fields, were brought up, or down rather, by
these invisible horse-tamers, and they would not run any more.
Mules with ammunition, pigs wallowing about, cows in the pastures,
whatever was animate or inanimate, in all this broad range, were no
exception to their blind havoc. The percussion shells would strike,
and thunder, and scatter the earth and their whistling fragments;
the Whitworth bolts would pound and ricochet, and bowl far away
sputtering, with the sound of a mass of hot iron plunged in water;
and the great solid shot would smite the unresisting ground with a
sounding "thud," as the strong boxer crashes his iron fist into the
jaws of his unguarded adversary. Such were some of the sights and
sounds of this great iron battle of missiles. Our artillerymen upon
the crest budged not an inch, nor intermitted, but, though caisson
and limber were smashed, and the guns dismantled, and men and
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
horses killed, there amidst smoke and sweat, they gave back, without
grudge, or loss of time in the sending, in kind whatever the enemy
sent, globe, and cone, and bolt, hollow or solid, an iron greeting to
the rebellion, the compliments of the wrathful Republic. An hour
has droned its flight since first the war began. There is no sign of
weariness or abatement on either side. So long it seemed, that the
din and crashing around began to appear the normal condition of
nature there, and fighting man's element. The General proposed to
go among the men and over to the front of the batteries, so at about
two o'clock he and I started. We went along the lines of the infantry
as they lay there flat upon the earth, a little to the front of the bat-
teries. They were suffering little, and were quiet and cool. How
glad we were that the enemy were no better gunners, and that they
cut the shell fuses too long. To the question asked the men, "What
do you think of this?" the replies would be, "O, this is bully," "We
are getting to like it," "O, we don't mind this." And so they lay
under the heaviest cannonade that ever shook the continent, and
among them a thousand times more jokes than heads were cracked.
We went down in front of the line some two hundred yards, and
as the smoke had a tendency to settle upon a higher plain than where
we were, we could see near the ground distinctly all over the fields,
as well back to the crest where were our own guns as to the opposite
ridge where were those of the enemy. No infantry was in sight, save
the skirmishers, and they stood silent and motionless a row of gray
posts through the field on one side confronted by another of blue.
Under the grateful shade of some elm trees, where we could see
much of the field, we made seats of the ground and sat down. Here
all the more repulsive features of the fight were unseen, by reason of
the smoke. Man had arranged the scenes, and for a time had taken
part in the great drama; but at last, as the plot thickened, conscious
of his littleness and inadequacy to the mighty part, he had stepped
aside and given place to more powerful actors. So it seemed; for
we could see no men about the batteries. On either crest we could
see the great flaky streams of fire, and they seemed numberless, of
the opposing guns, and their white banks of swift, convolving smoke;
but the sound of the discharges was drowned in the universal ocean
of sound. Over all the valley the smoke, a sulphury arch, stretched
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 377
its lurid span; and through it always, shrieking on their unseen
courses, thickly flew a myriad iron deaths. With our grim horizon
on all sides round toothed thick with battery flame, under that dis-
sonant canopy of warring shells, we sat and heard in silence. What
other expression had we that was not mean, for such an awful
universe of battle ?
A shell struck our breastwork of rails up in sight of us, and a
moment afterwards we saw the men bearing some of their wounded
companions away from the same spot; and directly two men came
from there down toward where we were and sought to get shelter
in an excavation near by, where many dead horses, killed in yester-
days fight had been thrown. General Gibbon said to these men,
more in a tone of kindly expostulation than of command "My men,
do not leave your ranks to try to get shelter here. All these matters
are in the hands of God, and nothing that you can do will make you
safer in one place than in another." The men went quietly back to
the line at once. The General then said to me : "I am not a member
of any church, but I have always had a strong religious feeling; and
so in all these battles I have always believed that I was in the hands
of God, and that I should be unharmed or not, according to His will.
For this reason, I think it is, I am always ready to go where duty
calls, no matter how great the danger." Half-past two o'clock, an
hour and a half since the commencement, and still the cannonade
did not in the least abate; but soon thereafter some signs of weariness
and a little slacking of fire began to be apparent upon both sides.
First we saw Brown's battery retire from the line, too feeble for
further battle. Its position was a litde to the front of the line. Its
commander was wounded, and many of its men were so, or worse;
some of its guns had been disabled, many of its horses killed; its
ammunition was nearly expended. Other batteries in similar case
had been withdrawn before to be replaced by fresh ones, and some
were withdrawn afterwards. Soon after the battery named had gone,
the General and I started to return, passing towards the left of the
division, and crossing the ground where the guns had stood. The
stricken horses were numerous, and the dead and wounded men lay
about, and as we passed these latter, their low, piteous call for water
would invariably come to us, if they had yet any voice left. I found
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
canteens of water near no difficult matter where a battle has been
and held them to livid lips, and even in the faintness of death the
eagerness to drink told of their terrible torture of thirst. But we
must pass on. Our infantry was still unshaken, and in all the can-
nonade suffered very little. The batteries had been handled much
more severely. I am unable to give any figures. A great number of
horses had been killed, in some batteries more than half of all. Guns
had been dismounted. A great many caissons, limbers and carriages
had been destroyed, and usually from ten to twenty-five men to
each battery had been struck, at least along our part of the crest.
Altogether the fire of the enemy had injured us much, both in the
modes that I have stated, and also by exhausting our ammunition
and fouling our guns, so as to render our batteries unfit for further
immediate use. The scenes that met our eyes on all hands among
the batteries were fearful. All things must end, and the great can-
nonade was no exception to the general law of earth. In the number
of guns active at one time, and in the duration and rapidity of their
fire, this artillery engagement, up to this time, must stand alone and
pre-eminent in this war. It has not been often, or many times, sur-
passed in the battles of the world. Two hundred and fifty guns, at
least, rapidly fired for two mortal hours. Cipher out the number of
tons of gunpowder and iron that made these two hours hideous.
Of the injury of our fire upon the enemy, except the facts that ours
was the superior position, if not better served and constructed artil-
lery, and that the enemy's artillery hereafter during the battle was
almost silent, we know little. Of course, during the fight we often
saw the enemy's caissons explode, and the trees rent by our shot
crashing about his ears, but we can from these alone infer but little
of general results. At three o'clock almost precisely the last shot
hummed, and bounded and fell, and the cannonade was over. The
purpose of General Lee in all this fire of his guns we know it now,
we did not at the time so well was to disable our artillery and
break up our infantry upon the position of the Second Corps, so as
to render them less an impediment to the sweep of his own brigades
and divisions over our crest and through our lines. He probably
supposed our infantry was massed behind the crest and the batteries;
and hence his fire was so high, and his fuses to the shells were cut
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 379
so long, too long. The Rebel General failed in some of his plans in
this behalf, as many generals have failed before and will again. The
artillery fight over, men began to breathe more freely, and to ask,
What next, I wonder? The battery men were among their guns,
some leaning to rest and wipe the sweat from their sooty faces, some
were handling ammunition boxes and replenishing those that were
empty. Some batteries from the artillery reserve were moving up to
take the places of the disabled ones; the smoke was clearing from
the crests. There was a pause between acts, with the curtain down,
soon to rise upon the final act, and catastrophe of Gettysburg. We
have passed by the left of the Second Division, coming from the
First; when we crossed the crest the enemy was not in sight, and all
was still we walked slowly along in the rear of the troops, by the
ridge cut off now from a view of the enemy in his position, and were
returning to the spot where we had left our horses. General Gibbon
had just said that he inclined to the belief that the enemy was falling
back, and that the cannonade was only one of his noisy modes of
covering the movement. I said that I thought that fifteen minutes
would show that, by all his bowling, the Rebel did not mean retreat.
We were near our horses when we noticed Brigadier General Hunt,
Chief of Artillery of the Army, near Woodruff's Battery, swiftly
moving about on horseback, and apparently in a rapid manner giving
some orders about the guns. Thought we, what could this mean?
In a moment afterwards we met Captain Wessels and the orderlies
who had our horses; they were on foot leading the horses. Captain
Wessels was pale, and he said, excited : "General, they say the enemy's
infantry is advancing." We sprang into our saddles, a score of bounds
brought us upon the all-seeing crest. To say that men grew pale
and held their breath at what we and they there saw, would not be
true. Might not six thousand men be brave and without shade of
fear, and yet, before a hostile eighteen thousand, armed, and not five
minutes' march away, turn ashy white? None on that crest now
need be told that the enemy is advancing. Every eye could see his
legions, an overwhelming resistless tide of an ocean of armed men
sweeping upon us! Regiment after regiment, and brigade after
brigade, move from the woods and rapidly take their places in the
lines forming the assault. Pickett's proud division, with some addi-
380 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
tional troops, hold their right; Pettigrew's (Worth's) their left. The
first line at short interval is followed by a second, and that a third
succeeds; and columns between, support the lines. More than half
a mile their front extends; more than a thousand yards the dull
gray masses deploy, man touching man, rank pressing rank, and line
supporting line. The red flags wave, their horsemen gallop up and
down; the arms of eighteen thousand men, barrel and bayonet, gleam
in the sun, a sloping forest of flashing steel. Right on they move,
as with one soul, in perfect order, without impediment of ditch, or
wall or stream, over ridge and slope, through orchard and meadow,
and cornfield, magnificent, grim, irresistible. All was orderly and
still upon our crest; no noise and no confusion. The men had little
need of commands, for the survivors of a dozen battles knew well
enough what this array in front portended, and, already in their
places, they would be prepared to act when the right time should
come. The click of the locks as each man raised the hammer to
feel with his fingers that the cap was on the nipple; the sharp jar as
a musket touched a stone upon the wall when thrust in aiming over
it, and the clicking of the iron axles as the guns were rolled up by
hand a little further to the front, were quite all the sounds that could
be heard. Cap-boxes were slid around to the front of the body;
cartridge boxes opened, officers opened their pistol-holsters. Such
preparations, little more was needed. The trefoil flags, colors of the
brigades and divisions moved to their places in rear; but along the
lines in front the grand old ensign that first waved in battle at Sara-
toga in 1777, and which these people coming would rob of half its
stars, stood up, and the west wind kissed it as the sergeants sloped its
lance towards the enemy. I believe that not one above whom it then
waved but blessed his God that he was loyal to it, and whose heart
did not swell with pride towards it, as the emblem of the Republic
before that treason's flaunting rag in front. General Gibbon rode
down the lines, cool and calm, and in an unimpassioned voice he
said to the men, "Do not hurry, men, and fire too fast, let them come
up close before you fire, and then aim low and steadily." The coolness
of their General was reflected in the faces of his men. Five minutes
has elapsed since first the enemy have emerged from the woods no
great space of time surely, if measured by the usual standard by
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 381
which men estimate duration but it was long enough for us to
note and weigh some of the elements of mighty moment that sur-
rounded us; the disparity of numbers between the assailants and
the assailed; that few as were our numbers we could not be supported
or reinforced until support would not be needed or would be too late;
that upon the ability of the two trefoil divisions to hold the crest and
repel the assault depended not only their own safety or destruction,
but also the honor of the Army of the Potomac and defeat or victory
at Gettysburg. Should these advancing men pierce our line and
become the entering wedge, driven home, that would sever our army
asunder, what hope would there be afterwards, and where the blood-
earned fruits of yesterday ? It was long enough for the Rebel storm
to drift across more than half the space that had at first separated
it from us. None, or all, of these considerations either depressed or
elevated us. They might have done the former, had we been timid;
the latter had we been confident and vain. But, we were there wait-
ing, and ready to do our duty that done, results could not dis-
honor us.
Our skirmishers open a spattering fire along the front, and, fight-
ing, retire upon the main line the first drops, the heralds of the
storm, sounding on our windows. Then the thunders of our guns,
first Arnold's, then Cushing's and Woodruff's and the rest, shake
and reverberate again through the air, and their sounding shells
smite the enemy. The General said I had better go and tell General
Meade of this advance. To gallop to General Meade's headquarters,
to learn there that he had changed them to another part of the field,
to dispatch to him by the Signal Corps in General Gibbon's name
the message, "The enemy is advancing his infantry in force upon
my front," and to be again upon the crest, were but the work of a
minute. All our available guns are now active, and from the fire
of shells, as the range grows shorter and shorter, they change to
shrapnel, and from shrapnel to canister; but in spite of shells, and
shrapnel and canister, without wavering or halt, the hardy lines of
the enemy continue to move on. The Rebel guns make no reply to
kours, and no charging shout rings out to-day, as is the Rebel wont;
but the courage of these silent men amid our shots seems not to need
the stimulus of other noise. The enemy's right flank sweeps near
382 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Stannard's bushy crest, and his concealed Vermonters rake it with a
well-delivered fire of musketry. The gray lines do not halt or reply,
but withdrawing a little from that extreme, they still move on. And
so across all that broad open ground they have come, nearer and
nearer, nearly half the way, with our guns bellowing in their faces,
until now a hundred yards, no more, divide our ready left from their
advancing right. The eager men there are impatient to begin. Let
them. First, Harrow's breastworks flame; then Hall's; then Webb's.
As if our bullets were the fire coals that touched off their muskets,
the enemy in front halts, and his countless level barrels blaze back
upon us. The Second Division is struggling in battle. The rattling
storm soon spreads to the right, and the blue trefoils are vieing with
the white. All along each hostile front, a thousand yards, with nar-
rowest space between, the volleys blaze and roll; as thick the sound
as when a summer hailstorm pelts the city roofs; as thick the fire as
when the incessant lightning fringes a summer cloud. When the
Rebel infantry had opened fire our batteries soon became silent, and
this without their fault, for they were foul by long previous use.
They were the targets of the concentrated Rebel bullets, and some of
them had expended all their canister. But they were not silent before
Rhorty was killed, Woodruff had fallen mortally wounded, and
Gushing, firing almost his last canister, had dropped dead among
his guns shot through the head by a bullet. The conflict is left to
the infantry alone. Unable to find my general, when I had returned
to the crest after transmitting his message to General Meade, and
while riding in the search having witnessed the development of
the fight, from the first fire upon the left by the main lines until all
of the two divisions were furiously engaged, I gave up hunting as
useless I was convinced General Gibbon could not be on the field;
I left him mounted; I could easily have found him now had he so
remained but now, save myself, there was not a mounted officer
near the engaged lines and was riding towards the right of the
Second Division, with purpose to stop there, as the most eligible
position to watch the further progress of the battle, there to be ready
to take part according to my own notions whenever and wherever
occasion was presented. The conflict was tremendous, but I had
seen no wavering in all our line. Wondering how long the Rebel
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 383
ranks, deep though they were, could stand our sheltered volleys, I had
come near my destination, when great heaven! were my senses
mad ? The larger portion o Webb's brigade my God, it was true
there by the group of trees and the angles of the wall, was breaking
from the cover of their works, and, without orders or reason, with
no hand lifted to check them, was falling back, a fear-stricken flock
of confusion! The fate of Gettysburg hung upon a spider's single
thread! A great magnificent passion came on me at the instant, not
one that overpowers and confounds, but one that blanches the face
and sublimes every sense and faculty. My sword, that had always
hung idle by my side, the sign of rank only in every battle, I drew,
bright and gleaming, the symbol of command. Was not that a fit
occasion, and these fugitives the men on whom to try the temper of
the Solinzen steel? All rules and proprieties were forgotten; all con-
siderations of person, and danger and safety despised; for, as I met
the tide of these rabbits, the damned red flags of the rebellion began
to thicken and flaunt along the wall they had just deserted, and one
was already waving over one of the guns of the dead Gushing. I or-
dered these men to "halt," and "face about" and "fire," and they heard
my voice and gathered my meaning, and obeyed my commands. On
some unpatriotic backs of those not quick of comprehension, the flat
of my sabre fell not lightly, and, at its touch their love of country
returned, and, with a look at me as if I were the destroying angel, as
I might have become theirs, they again faced the enemy. General
Webb soon came to my assistance. He was on foot, but he was
active, and did all that one could do to repair the breach, or to avert
its calamity. The men that had fallen back, facing the enemy, soon
regained confidence in themselves, and became steady. This portion
of the wall was lost to us, and the enemy had gained the cover
of the reverse side, where he now stormed with fire. But Webb's
men, with their bodies in part protected by the abruptness of the
crest, now sent back in the enemies' faces as fierce a storm. Some
scores of venturesome Rebels, that in their first push at the wall had
dared to cross at the further angle, and those that had desecrated
Cushing's guns, were promptly shot down, and speedy death met
him who should raise his body to cross it again. At this point little
could be seen of the enemy, by reason of his cover and the smoke,
384 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
except the flash of his muskets and his waving flags. These red flags
were accumulating at the wall every moment, and they maddened us
as the same color does the bull. Webb's men are falling fast, and
he is among them to direct and encourage; but, however well they
may now do, with that walled enemy in front, with more than a
dozen flags to Webb's three, it soon becomes apparent that in not
many minutes they will be overpowered, or that there will be none
alive for the enemy to overpower. Webb has but three regiments,
all small, the 69th, 71 st and 72nd Pennsylvania the io6th Pennsyl-
vania, except two companies, is not here to-day and he must have
speedy assistance, or this crest will be lost. Oh, where is Gibbon?
where is Hancock ? some general anybody with the power and the
will to support that wasting, melting line? No general came, and
no succor! I thought of Hayes upon the right, but from the smoke
and war along his front, it was evident that he had enough upon his
hands, if he stayed the inrolling tide of the Rebels there. Doubleday
upon the left was too far off and too slow, and on another occasion
I had begged him to send his idle regiments to support another line
battling with thrice its numbers, and this "Old Sumpter Hero" had
declined. As a last resort, I resolved to see if Hall and Harrow could
not send some of their commands to reinforce Webb. I galloped to
the left in the execution of my purpose, and as I attained the rear
of Hall's line from the nature of the ground and the position of the
enemy it was easy to discover the reason and the manner of this
gathering of Rebel flags in front of Webb. The enemy, emboldened
by his success in gaining our line by the group of trees and the angle
of the wall, was concentrating all his right against and was further
pressing that point. There was the stress of his assault; there would
he drive his fiery wedge to split our line. In front of Harrow's and
Hall's Brigades he had been able to advance no nearer than when he
first halted to deliver fire, and these commands had not yielded an
inch. To effect the concentration before Webb, the enemy would
march the regiment on his extreme right of each of his lines by the
left flank to the rear of the troops, still halted and facing to the front,
and so continuing to draw in his right, when they were all massed in
the position desired, he would again face them to the front, and
advance to the storming. This was the way he made the wall before
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 385
Webb's line blaze red with his battle flags, and such was the purpose
there of his thick-crowding battalions. Not a moment must be lost.
Colonel Hall I found just in rear of his line, sword in hand, cool,
vigilant, noting all that passed and directing the battle of his brigade.
The fire was constantly diminishing now in his front, in the manner
and by the movement of the enemy that I have mentioned, drifting
to the right. "How is it going?" Colonel Hall asked me, as I rode
up. "Well, but Webb is hotly pressed and must have support, or he
will be overpowered. Can you assist him?" "Yes." "You cannot be
too quick." "I will move my brigade at once." "Good." He gave the
order, and in briefest time I saw five friendly colors hurrying to the
aid of the imperilled three; and each color represented true, battle-
tried men, that had not turned back from Rebel fire that day nor
yesterday, though their ranks were sadly thinned, to Webb's brigade,
pressed back as it had been from the wall, the distance was not
great from Hall's right. The regiments marched by the right flank.
Col. Hall superintended the movement in person. Col. Devereux
coolly commanded the i9th Massachusetts. His major, Rice, had
already been wounded and carried off. Lieut. Col. Macy, of the 20th
Mass., had just had his left hand shot off, and so Capt. Abbott gal-
lantly led over this fine regiment. The 42d New York followed their
excellent Colonel Mallon. Lieut. Col. Steel, 7th Mich., had just been
killed, and his regiment, and the handful of the 59th N. Y., followed
their colors. The movement, as it did, attracting the enemy's fire,
and executed in haste, as it must be, was difficult; but in reasonable
time, and in order that is serviceable, if not regular, Hall's men are
fighting gallantly side by side with Webb's before the all important
point. I did not stop to see all this movement of Hall's, but from him
I went at once further to the left, to the ist brigade. Gen'l Harrow
I did not see, but his fighting men would answer my purpose as well.
The i9th Me., the i5th Mass., the 8id N. Y. and the shattered old
thunderbolt, the ist Minn. poor Farrell was dying then upon the
ground where he had fallen, all men that I could find I took over
to the right at the double quicJ^.
As we were moving to, and near the other brigade of the division,
from my position on horseback, I could see that the enemy's right,
under Hall's fire, was beginning to stagger and to break. "See," I said
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
to the men, "See the chivalry! See the gray-backs run!" The men
saw, and as they swept to their places by the side of Hall and
opened fire, they roared, and this in a manner that said more plainly
than words for the deaf could have seen it in their faces, and the
blind could have heard it in their voices the crest is safe!
The whole Division concentrated, and changes of position, and
new phases, as well on our part as on that of the enemy, having as
indicated occurred, for the purpose of showing the exact present
posture of affairs, some further description is necessary. Before the
2d Division the enemy is massed, the main bulk of his force covered
by the ground that slopes to his rear, with his front at the stone wall.
Between his front and us extends the very apex of the crest. All there
are left of the White Trefoil Division yesterday morning there were
three thousand eight hundred, this morning there were less than
three thousand at this moment there are somewhat over two thou-
sand; twelve regiments in three brigades are below or behind the
crest, in such a position that by the exposure of the head and upper
part of the body above the crest they can deliver their fire in the
enemy's faces along the top of the wall. By reason of the disorgani-
zation incidental in Webb's brigade to his men's having broken and
fallen back, as mentioned, in the two other brigades to their rapid
and difficult change of position under fire, and in all the division
in part to severe and continuous battle, formation of companies and
regiments in regular ranks is lost; but commands, companies, regi-
ments and brigades are blended and intermixed an irregular ex-
tended mass men enough, if in order, to form a line of four or five
ranks along the whole front of the division. The twelve flags of the
regiments wave defiantly at intervals along the front; at the stone wall,
at unequal distances from ours of forty, fifty or sixty yards, stream
nearly double this number of the battle flags of the enemy. These'
changes accomplished on either side, and the concentration complete,
although no cessation or abatement in the general din of conflict
since the commencement had at any time been appreciable, now it
was as if a new battle, deadlier, stormier than before, had sprung
from the body of the old a young Phoenix of combat, whose eyes
stream lightning, shaking his arrowy wings over the yet glowing
ashes of his progenitor. The jostling, swaying lines on either side
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 387
boil, and roar, and dash their flamy spray, two hostile billows of a
fiery ocean. Thick flashes stream from the wall, thick volleys answer
from the crest. No threats or expostulation now, only example and
encouragement. All depths of passion are stirred, and all combatives
fire, down to their deep foundations. Individuality is drowned in a
sea of clamor, and timid men, breathing the breath of the multitude,
are brave. The frequent dead and wounded lie where they stagger
and fall there is no humanity for them now, and none can be
spared to care for them. The men do not cheer or shout; they growl,
and over that uneasy sea, heard with the roar of musketry, sweeps
the muttered thunder of a storm of growls. Webb, Hall, Devereux,
Mallon, Abbott among the men where all are heroes, are doing deeds
of note. Now the loyal wave rolls up as if it would overleap its bar-
rier, the crest. Pistols flash with the muskets. My "Forward to the
wall" is answered by the Rebel counter-command, "Steady, men!"
and the wave swings back. Again it surges, and again it sinks. These
men of Pennsylvania, on the soil of their own homesteads, the first
and only to flee the wall, must be the first to storm it. "Major ,
lead your men over the crest, they will follow." "By the tactics I
understand my place is in rear of the men." "Your pardon, sir; I see
your place is in rear of the men. I thought you were fit to lead."
"Capt. Suplee, come on with your men." "Let me first stop this
fire in the rear, or we shall be hit by our own men." "Never mind
the fire in the rear; let us take care of this in front first." "Sergeant,
forward with your color. Let the Rebels see it close to their eyes
once before they die." The color sergeant of the y2d Pa., grasping the
stump of the severed lance in both his hands, waved the flag above
his head and rushed towards the wall. "Will you see your color
storm the wall alone?" One man only starts to follow. Almost half
way to the wall, down go color bearer and color to the ground the
gallant sergeant is dead. The line springs the crest of the solid
ground with a great roar, heaves forward its maddened load, men,
arms, smoke, fire, a fighting mass. It rolls to the wall flash meets
flash, the wall is crossed a moment ensues of thrusts, yells, blows,
shots, and undistinguishable conflict, followed by a shout universal
that makes the welkin ring again, and the last and bloodiest fight
of the great battle of Gettysburg is ended and won.
388 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Many things cannot be described by pen or pencil such a fight
is one. Some hints and incidents may be given, but a description or
picture never. From what is told the imagination may for itself
construct the scene; otherwise he who never saw can have no
adequate idea of what such a battle is.
When the vortex of battle passion had subsided, hopes, fears,
rage, joy, of which the maddest and the noisiest was the last, and
we were calm enough to look about us, we saw that, as with us, the
fight with the Third Division was ended, and that in that division
was a repetition of the scenes immediately about us. In that moment
the judgment almost refused to credit the senses. Are these abject
wretches about us, whom our men are now disarming and driving
together in flocks, the jaunty men of Pickett's Division, whose steady
lines and flashing arms but a few moments since came sweeping up
the slope to destroy us? Are these red cloths that our men toss
about in derision the "fiery Southern crosses," thrice ardent, the
battle flags of the rebellion that waved defiance at the wall? We
know, but so sudden has been the transition, we yet can scarce
believe.
Just as the fight was over, and the first outburst of victory had a
little subsided, when all in front of the crest was noise and confu-
sion prisoners being collected, small parties in pursuit of them far
down into the fields, flags waving, officers giving quick, sharp com-
mands to their men I stood apart for a few moments upon the
crest, by that group of trees which ought to be historic forever, a
spectator of the thrilling scene around. Some few musket shots were
still heard in the Third Division; and the enemy's guns, almost
silent since the advance of his infantry until the moment of his
defeat, were dropping a few sullen shells among friend and foe upon
the crest. Rebellion fosters such humanity. Near me, saddest sight
of the many of such a field and not in keeping with all this noise,
were mingled alone the thick dead of Maine and Minnesota, and
Michigan and Massachusetts, and the Empire and Keystone States,
who, not yet cold, with the blood still oozing from their death-
wounds, had given their lives to the country upon that stormy field.
So mingled upon that crest, let their honored graves be. Look with
me about us. These dead have been avenged already. Where the
**+++***
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Battle
of Gettysburg
Final Attack
July 3
(Compiled by
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UNION FOR&C3
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39O AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
long lines of the enemy's thousands so proudly advanced, see how
thick the silent men of gray are scattered. It is not an hour since
these legions were sweeping along so grandly; now sixteen hundred 7
of that fiery mass are strewn among the trampled grass, dead as
the clods they load; more than seven thousand, probably eight thou-
sand, are wounded, some there with the dead, in our hands, some
fugitive far towards the woods, among them Generals Pettigrew,
Garnett, Kemper and Armstead, the last three mortally, and the last
one in our hands. "Tell General Hancock," he said to Lieutenant
Mitchell, Hancock's aide-de-camp, to whom he handed his watch,
"that I know I did my country a great wrong when I took up arms
against her, for which I am sorry, but for which I cannot live to
atone." Four thousand, not wounded, are prisoners of war. More in
number of the captured than the captors. Our men are still "gather-
ing them in." Some hold up their hands or a handkerchief in sign
of submission; some have hugged the ground to escape our bullets
and so are taken; few made resistance after the first moment of our
crossing the wall; some yield submissively with good grace, some
with grim, dogged aspect, showing that but for the other alternative
they could not submit to this. Colonels, and all less grades of officers,
in the usual proportion are among them, and all are being stripped of
their arms. Such of them as escaped wounds and capture are fleeing
routed and panic stricken, and disappearing in the woods. Small
arms, more thousands than we can count, are in our hands, scattered
over the field. And these defiant battle-flags, some inscribed with
"First Manassas," the numerous battles of the Peninsula, "Second
Manassas," "South Mountain," "Sharpsburg," (our Antietam,)
"Fredericksburg," "Chancellorsville," and many more names, our
men have, and are showing about, over thirty of them.
Such was really the closing scene of the grand drama of Gettys-
burg. After repeated assaults upon the right and the left, where, and
in all of which repulse had been his only success, this persistent and
presuming enemy forms his chosen troops, the flower of his army,
for a grand assault upon our center. The manner and result of such
assault have been told a loss to the enemy of from twelve thousand
7 Final returns gave 1,653 buried by the First and Second Corps, presumably in
this field. See 43 War Records, 264, 378. T. L. L.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 39!
to fourteen thousand, killed, wounded and prisoners, and o over
thirty battle-flags. This was accomplished by not over six thousand
men, with a loss on our part of not over two thousand five hundred
killed and wounded.
Would to Heaven Generals Hancock and Gibbon could have
stood there where I did, and have looked upon that field! It would
have done two men, to whom the country owes much, good to have
been with their men in that moment of victory to have seen the
result of those dispositions which they had made, and of that splendid
fighting which men schooled by their discipline, had executed. But
they are both severely wounded and have been carried from the
field. One person did come then that I was glad to see there, and
that was no less than Major General Meade, whom the Army of the
Potomac was fortunate enough to have at that time to command it.
See how a great General looked upon the field, and what he said and
did at the moment, and when he learned of his great victory. To
appreciate the incident I give, it should be borne in mind that one
coming up from the rear of the line, as did General Meade, could
have seen very little of our own men, who had now crossed the crest,
and although he could have heard the noise, he could not have told
its occasion, or by whom made, until he had actually attained the
crest. One who did not know results, so coming, would have been
quite as likely to have supposed that our line there had been carried
and captured by the enemy so many gray Rebels were on the crest
as to have discovered the real truth. Such mistake was really made
by one of our officers, as I shall relate.
General Meade rode up, accompanied alone by his son, who is
his aide-de-camp, an escort, if select, not large for a commander of
such an army. The principal horseman was no bedizened hero of
some holiday review, but he was a plain man, dressed in a service-
able summer suit of dark blue cloth, without badge or ornament,
save the shoulder-straps of his grade, and a light, straight sword of
a General or General staff officer. He wore heavy, high-top boots
and buff gauntlets, and his soft black felt hat was slouched down over
his eyes. His face was very white, not pale, and the lines were
marked and earnest and full of care. As he arrived near me, coming
up the hill, he asked in a sharp, eager voice: "How is it going here?"
392 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
"I believe, General, the enemy's attack is repulsed," I answered. Still
approaching, and a new light began to come in his face, of gratified
surprise, with a touch of incredulity, of which his voice was also the
medium, he further asked: "What! Is the assault already repulsed?"
his voice quicker and more eager than before. "It is, sir," I replied.
By this time he was on the crest, and when his eye had for an instant
swept over the field, taking in just a glance of the whole the masses
of prisoners, the numerous captured flags which the men were de-
risively flaunting about, the fugitives of the routed enemy, disappear-
ing with the speed of terror in the woods partly at what I had told
him, partly at what he saw, he said, impressively, and his face lighted :
"Thank God." And then his right hand moved as if it would have
caught off his hat and waved it; but this gesture he suppressed, and
instead he waved his hand, and said "Hurrah!" The son, with more
youth in his blood and less rank upon his shoulders, snatched off
his cap, and roared out his three "hurrahs" right heartily. The Gen-
eral then surveyed the field, some minutes, in silence. He at length
asked who was in command he had heard that Hancock and Gib-
bon were wounded and I told him that General Caldwell was the
senior officer of the Corps and General Harrow of the Division. He
asked where they were, but before I had time to answer that I did
not know, he resumed: "No matter; I will give my orders to you and
you will see them executed." He then gave direction that the troops
should be reformed as soon as practicable, and kept in their places,
as the enemy might be mad enough to attack again. He also gave
directions concerning the posting of some reinforcements which he
said would soon be there, adding: "If the enemy does attack, charge
him in the flank and sweep him from the field; do you understand."
The General then, a gratified man, galloped in the direction of his
headquarters.
Then the work of the field went on. First, the prisoners were
collected and sent to the rear. "There go the men," the Rebels were
heard to say, by some of our surgeons who were in Gettysburg, at
the time Pickett's Division marched out to take position "There
go the men that will go through your d d Yankee lines, for you."
A good many of them did "go through our lines for us," but in a
very different way from the one they intended not impetuous vie-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 393
tors, sweeping away our thin lines with ball and bayonet, but crest-
fallen captives, without arms, guarded by the true bayonets of the
Union, with the cheers of their conquerors ringing in their ears.
There was a grim truth after all in this Rebel remark. Collected,
the prisoners began their dreary march, a miserable, melancholy
stream of dirty gray, to pour over the crest to our rear. Many of the
officers were well dressed, fine, proud gentlemen, such men as it
would be a pleasure to meet, when the war is over. I had no desire
to exult over them, and pity and sympathy were the general feelings
of us all upon the occasion. The cheering of our men, and the uncere-
monious handling of the captured flags was probably not gratifying
to the prisoners, but not intended for taunt or insult to the men; they
could take no exception to such practices. When the prisoners were
turned to the rear and were crossing the crest, Lieut. Col. Morgan,
General Hancock's Chief of Staff, was conducting a battery from
the artillery reserve, towards the Second Corps. As he saw the men
in gray coming over the hill, he said to the officer in command of
the battery: "See up there! The enemy has carried the crest. See
them come pouring over! The old Second Corps is gone, and you
had better get your battery away from here as quickly as possible,
or it will be captured." The officer was actually giving the order
to his men to move back, when close observation discovered that the
gray-backs that were coming had no arms, and then the truth flashed
upon the minds of the observers. The same mistake was made by
others.
In view of the results of that day the successes of the arms of the
country, would not the people of the whole country, standing there
upon the crest with General Meade, have said, with him: "Thank
God?"
I have no knowledge and little notion of how long a time elapsed
from the moment the fire of the infantry commenced, until the
enemy was entirely repulsed, in this his grand assault. I judge, from
the amount of fighting and the changes of position that occurred,
that probably the fight was of nearly an hour's duration, but I cannot
tell, and I have seen none who knew. The time seemed but a very
few minutes, when the battle was over.
When the prisoners were cleared away and order was again estab-
394 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
lished upon our crest, where the conflict had impaired it, until be-
tween five and six o'clock, I remained upon the field, directing some
troops to their position, in conformity to the orders of General Meade.
The enemy appeared no more in front of the Second Corps; but while
I was engaged as I have mentioned, farther to our left some consid-
erable force of the enemy moved out and made show of attack. Our
artillery, now in good order again, in due time opened fire, and the
shells scattered the "Butternuts," as clubs do the gray snow-birds of
winter, before they came within range of our infantry. This, save
unimportant outpost firing, was the last of the battle.
Of the pursuit of the enemy and the movements of the army sub-
sequent to the battle, until the crossing of the Potomac by Lee and
the closing of the campaign, it is not my purpose to write. Suffice
it that on the night of the 3rd of July the enemy withdrew his left,
Swell's Corps, from our front, and on the morning of the 4th we
again occupied the village of Gettysburg, and on that national day
victory was proclaimed to the country; that floods of rain on that
day prevented army movements of any considerable magnitude, the
day being passed by our army in position upon the field, in burying
our dead, and some of those of the enemy, and in making the move-
ments already indicated; that on the 5th the pursuit of the enemy
was commenced his dead were buried by us and the corps of our
army, upon various roads, moved from the battlefield.
With a statement of some of the results of the battle, as to losses
and captures, and of what I saw in riding over the field, when the
enemy was gone, my account is done.
Our own losses in killed, wounded and missing I estimate at
twenty-three thousand* Of the "missing" the larger proportion were
prisoners, lost on the ist of July. Our loss in prisoners, not wounded,
probably was jour thousand. The losses were distributed among the
different army corps about as follows: In the Second Corps, which
sustained the heaviest loss of any corps, a little over jour thousand five
hundred, of whom the missing were a mere nominal number; in the
8 Final returns stated the loss as 23,049, as follows: First Corps, 3,897 killed and
wounded, 2,162 missing; Second Corps, 3,991 and 387: Third Corps, 3,622 and
589; Fifth Corps, 1,976 and 211; Sixth Corps, 212 and 30; Eleventh Corps, 2,291
and 1,510; Twelfth Corps, 1,016 and 66; Artillery Reserve, 230 and 12; Cavalry, 445
and 407. See 43 War Records, 187. T. L. L.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 395
First Corps a little over jour thousand, of whom a great many were
missing; in the Third Corps jour thousand, of whom some were
missing; in the Eleventh Corps nearly jour thousand, of whom the
most were missing; and the rest of the loss, to make the aggregate
mentioned, was shared by the Fifth, Sixth and Twelfth Corps and
the cavalry. Among these the missing were few; and the losses of
the Sixth Corps and of the cavalry were light. I do not think the
official reports will show my estimate of our losses to be far from
correct, for I have taken great pains to question staff officers upon
the subject, and have learned approximate numbers from them. We
lost no gun or flag that I have heard of in all the battle. Some small
arms, I suppose, were lost on the ist of July.
The enemy's loss in killed, wounded and prisoners I estimate at
forty thousand, and from the following data and for the following
reasons: So far as I can learn, we took ten thousand prisoners, who
were not wounded many more than these were captured, but several
thousands of them were wounded. I have so far as practicable ascer-
tained the number of dead the enemy left upon the field, approxi-
mately, by getting the reports of different burying parties. I think
his dead upon the field were five thousand, almost all of whom, save
those killed on the first of July, were buried by us the enemy not
having them in their possession. In looking at a great number of
tables of killed and wounded in battles I have found that the propor-
tion of the killed to the wounded is as one to five, or more than five,
rarely less than five. So with the killed at the number stated, twenty-
five thousand mentioned. I think jourteen thousand of the enemy,
wounded and unwounded, fell into our hands. Great numbers of his
small arms, two or three guns, and forty or more was there ever
such bannered harvest ? of his regimental battle-flags, were captured
by us. Some day possibly we may learn the enemy's loss, but I doubt
if he will ever tell truly how many flags he did not take home with
him. I have great confidence however in my estimates, for they have
been carefully made, and after much inquiry, and with no desire or
motive to overestimate the enemy's loss.
The magnitude of the armies engaged, the number of the casual-
ties, the object sought by the Rebel, the result, will all contribute to
give Gettysburg a place among the great historic battles of the world.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
That General Meade's concentration was rapid over thirty miles a
day was marched by some of the Corps that his position was skil-
fully selected and his dispositions good; that he fought the battle hard
and well; that his victory was brilliant and complete, I think all
should admit. I cannot but regard it as highly fortunate to us and
commendable in General Meade, that the enemy was allowed the
initiative, the offensive, in the main battle; that it was much better
to allow the Rebel, for his own destruction, to come up and smash
his lines and columns upon the defensive solidity of our position,
than it would have been to hunt him, for the same purpose, in the
woods, or to unearth him from his rifle-pits. In this manner our
losses were lighter, and his heavier, than if the case had been re-
versed. And whatever the books may say of troops fighting the
better who make the attack, I am satisfied that in this war, Ameri-
cans, the Rebels, as well as ourselves, are best on the defensive. The
proposition is deducible from the battles of the war, I think, and
my own observation confirms it.
But men there are who think that nothing was gained or done
well in this battle, because some other general did not have the com-
mand, or because any portion of the army of the enemy was per-
mitted to escape capture or destruction. As if one army of a hundred
thousand men could encounter another of the same number of as
good troops and annihilate it! Military men do not claim or expect
this; but the McClellan destroyers do, the doughty knights of pur-
chasable newspaper quills; the formidable warriors from the brothels
of politics, men of much warlike experience against honesty and
honor, of profound attainments in ignorance, who have the maxims
of Napoleon, whose spirit they as little understand as they do most
things, to quote, to prove all things; but who, unfortunately, have
much influence in the country and with the Government, and so
over the army. It is very pleasant for these people, no doubt, at safe
distances from guns, in the enjoyment of a lucrative office, or of a
fraudulently obtained government contract, surrounded by the lux-
uries of their own firesides, where mud and flooding storms, and
utter weariness never penetrate, to discourse of battles and how
campaigns should be conducted and armies of the enemy destroyed.
But it should be enough, perhaps, to say that men here, or elsewhere,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 397
who have knowledge enough of military affairs to entitle them to
express an opinion on such matters, and accurate information
enough to realize the nature and the means of this desired destruc-
tion of Lee's army before it crossed the Potomac into Virginia, will
be most likely to vindicate the Pennsylvania campaign of Gen.
Meade, and to see that he accomplished all that could have been
reasonably expected of any general of any army. Complaint has
been, and is, made specially against Meade, that he did not attack
Lee near Williamsport before he had time to withdraw across the
river. These were the facts concerning this matter :
The 1 3th of July was the earliest day when such an attack, if
practicable at all, could have been made. The time before this, since
the battle, had been spent in moving the army from the vicinity of
the field, finding something of the enemy and concentrating before
him. On that day the army was concentrated and in order of battle
near the turnpike that leads from Sharpsburg to Hagerstown, Md.,
the right resting at or near the latter place, the left near Jones' cross-
roads, some six miles in the direction of Sharpsburg, and in the
following order from left to right: the i2th corps, the 2d, the 5th, the
6th, the ist, the nth; the 3d being in reserve behind the 2d. The
mean distance to the Potomac was some six miles, and the enemy
was between Meade and the river. The Potomac, swelled by the
recent rain, was boiling and swift and deep, a magnificent place to
have drowned all the Rebel crew. I have not the least doubt but
that Gen. Meade would have liked to drown them all, if he could,
but they were unwilling to be drowned, and would fight first. To
drive them into the river then, they must be routed. Gen. Meade,
I believe, favored an attack upon the enemy at that time, and he
summoned his corps commanders to a council upon the subject.
The ist corps was represented by William Hayes, the 3d by French,
the 5th by Sykes, the 6th by Sedgwick, the nth by Howard, the I2th
by Slocum, and the Cavalry by Pleasanton. Of the eight generals
there, Wadsworth, Howard and Pleasanton were in favor of imme-
diate attack, and five, Hayes, French, Sykes, Sedgwick and Slocum
were not in favor of attack until better information was obtained
of the position and situation of the enemy. Of the pros Wadsworth
only temporarily represented the ist corps in the brief absence of
398 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Newton, who, had a battle occurred, would have commanded. Pleas-
anton, with his horses, would have been a spectator only, and How-
ard, with the brilliant nth corps, would have been trusted nowhere
but a safe distance from the enemy not by Gen. Howard's fault,
however, for he is a good and brave man. Such was the position of
those who felt sanguinarily inclined. Of the cons were all of the
fighting generals of the fighting corps, save the ist. This, then, was
the feeling of these generals all who would have had no responsi-
bility or part in all probability, hankered for a fight those who
would have had both part and responsibility, did not. The attack
was not made. At daylight on the morning of the i4th, strong recon-
naissances from the i2th, 2d and 5th corps were the means of discov-
ering that between the enemy, except a thousand or fifteen hundred
of his rear guard, who fell into our hands, and the Army of the
Potomac, rolled the rapid, unbridged river. The Rebel General,
Pettigrew, was here killed. The enemy had constructed bridges, had
crossed during all the preceding night, but so close were our cavalry
and infantry upon him in the morning, that the bridges were
destroyed before his rear guard had all crossed.
Among the considerations influencing these generals against the
propriety of attack at that time, were probably the following: The
army was wearied and worn down by four weeks of constant forced
marching or battle, in the midst of heat, mud and drenching show-
ers, burdened with arms, accoutrements, blankets, sixty to a hundred
cartridges, and five to eight days' rations. What such weariness
means few save soldiers know. Since the battle, the army had been
constantly diminished by sickness or prostration and by more strag-
gling than I ever saw before. Poor fellows they could not help it.
The men were near the point when further efficient physical exer-
tion was quite impossible. Even the sound of the skirmishing, which
was almost constant, and the excitement of impending battle, had no
effect to arouse for an hour the exhibition of their wonted former
vigor. The enemy's loss in battle, it is true, had been far heavier
than ours; but his army was less weary than ours, for in a given time
since the first of the campaign, it had marched far less and with
lighter loads. These Rebels are accustomed to hunger and naked-
ness, customs to which our men do not take readily. And the enemy
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 399
had straggled less, for the men were going away from battle and
towards home, and for them to straggle was to go into captivity,
whose end they could not conjecture. The enemy was somewhere in
position in a ridgy, wooded country, abounding in strong defensive
positions, his main bodies concealed, protected by rifle-pits and
epaulements, acting strictly on the defensive. His dispositions, his
position even, with any considerable degree of accuracy was un-
known, nor could they be known except by reconnaissances in such
force, and carried to such extent, as would have constituted them
attacks liable to bring on at any moment a general engagement, and
at places where we were least prepared and least likely to be success-
ful. To have had a battle there then, Gen. Meade would have had to
attack a cunning enemy in the dark, where surprises, undiscovered
rifle-pits and batteries, and unseen bodies of men might have met
his forces at every point. With his not greatly superior numbers,
under such circumstances had Gen. Meade attacked, would he have
been victorious? The vote of these generals at the council shows
their opinion my own is that he would have been repulsed with
heavy loss, with little damage to the enemy. Such a result might
have satisfied the bloody politicians better than the end of the cam-
paign as it was; but I think the country did not need that sacrifice
of the Army of the Potomac at that time that enough odor of
sacrifice came up to its nostrils from the ist Fredericksburg field, to
stop their snuffing for some time. I felt the probability of defeat
strongly at the time, when we all supposed that a conflict would
certainly ensue; for always before a battle at least it so happens to
me some dim presentiment of results, some unaccountable fore-
shadowing pervades the army. I never knew the result to prove
it untrue, which rests with the weight of a conviction. Whether
such shadows are cause or consequence, I shall not pretend to deter-
mine; but when, as they often are, they are general, I think they
should not be wholly disregarded by the commander. I believe the
Army of the Potomac is always willing, often eager, to fight the
enemy, whenever, as it thinks, there is a fair chance for victory; that
it always will fight, let come victory or defeat whenever it is ordered
so to do. Of course the army, both officers and men, had very great
disappointment and very great sorrow that the Rebels escaped so it
4OO AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
was called across the river; the disappointment was genuine, at least
to the extent that disappointment is like surprise; but the sorrow
to judge by looks, tones and actions, rather than by words, was not
of that deep, sable character for which there is no balm.
Would it be an imputation upon the courage or patriotism of this
army if it was not rampant for fight at this particular time and
under the existing circumstances? Had the enemy stayed upon the
left bank of the Potomac twelve hours longer, there would have been
a great battle there near Williamsport on the I4th of July.
After such digression, if such it is, I return to Gettysburg.
As good generalship is claimed for Gen. Meade in the battle, so
was the conduct of his subordinate commanders good. I know, and
have heard, of no bad conduct or blundering on the part of any
officer, save that of Sickles, on the 2d of July, and that was so gross,
and came so near being the cause of irreparable disaster that I cannot
discuss it with moderation. I hope the man may never return to
the Army of the Potomac, or elsewhere, to a position where his
incapacity, or something worse, may bring fruitless destruction to
thousands again. The conduct of officers and men was good. The
nth corps behaved badly; but I have yet to learn the occasion when,
in the opinion of any save their own officers and themselves, the men
of this corps have behaved well on the march or before the enemy,
either under Siegel or any other commander. With this exception,
and some minor cases of very little consequence in the general result,
our troops whenever and wherever the enemy came, stood against
them storms of impassable fire. Such was the infantry, such the artil-
lery the cavalry did less but it did all that was required.
The enemy, too, showed a determination and valor worthy of a
better cause. Their conduct in this battle even makes me proud of
them as Americans. They would have been victorious over any but
the best of soldiers. Lee and his generals presumed too much upon
some past successes, and did not estimate how much they were due
on their part to position, as at Fredericksburg, or on our part to bad
generalship, as at the 2d Bull Run and Chancellorsville.
The fight of the ist of July we do not, of course, claim as a victory;
but even that probably would have resulted differently had Reynolds
not been struck. The success of the enemy in the battle ended with
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 40!
the ist of July. The Rebels were joyous and jubilant so said our
men in their hands, and the citizens of Gettysburg at their achieve-
ments on that day. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were re-
membered by them. They saw victory already won, or only to be
snatched from the streaming coat-tails of the nth corps, or the "raw
Pennsylvania militia" as they thought they were, when they saw
them run; and already the spires of Baltimore and the dome of the
National Capitol were forecast upon their glad vision only two or
three days march away through the beautiful valleys of Pennsylvania
and "my" Maryland. Was there ever anything so fine before? How
splendid it would be to enjoy the poultry and the fruit, the meats,
the cakes, the beds, the clothing, the Whiskey, without price in this
rich land of the Yankee! It would, indeed! But on the 2d of July
something of a change came over the spirit of these dreams. They
were surprised at results and talked less and thought more as they
prepared supper that night. After the fight of the 3d they talked
only of the means of their own safety from destruction. Pickett's
splendid division had been almost annihilated, they said, and they
talked not of how many were lost, but of who had escaped. They
talked of these "Yanks" that had clubs on their flags and caps, the
trefoils of the 2d corps that are like clubs in cards.
The battle of Gettysburg is distinguished in this war, not only as
by far the greatest and severest conflict that has occurred, but for
some other things that I may mention. The fight of the 2d of July,
on the left, which was almost a separate and complete battle, is, so far
as I know, alone in the following particulars: the numbers of men
actually engaged at one time, and the enormous losses that occurred
in killed and wounded in the space of about two hours. If the truth
could be obtained, it would probably show a much larger number of
casualties in this than my estimate in a former part of these sheets.
Few battles of the war that have had so many casualties altogether
as those of the two hours on the 2d of July. The 3d of July is dis-
tinguished. Then occurred the "great cannonade" so we call it, and
so it would be called in any war, and in almost any battle. And be-
sides this, the main operations that followed have few parallels in
history, none in this war, of the magnitude and magnificence of the
assault, single and simultaneous, the disparity of the numbers
4O2 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
engaged, and the brilliancy, completeness and overwhelming char-
acter of the result in favor of the side numerically the weaker. I think
I have not, in giving the results of this encounter, overestimated the
numbers or the losses of the enemy. We learned on all hands, by
prisoners and by the newspapers, that over two divisions moved up
to the assault Pickett's and Pettigrew's that this was the first en-
gagement of Pickett's in the battle, and the first of Pettigrew's, save
a light participation on the ist of July. The Rebel divisions usually
number nine or ten thousand, or did at that time, as we understood.
Then I have seen something of troops and think I can estimate their
numbers somewhat. The number of the Rebels killed here I have
estimated in this way : the 2d and 3d divisions of the 2d corps buried
the Rebel dead in their own front, and where they fought upon their
own grounds, by count they buried over one thousand eight hun-
dred. I think no more than about two hundred of these were killed
on the 2d of July in front of the 2d division, and the rest must have
fallen upon the 3d. My estimates that depend upon this contingency
may be erroneous, but to no great extent. The rest of the particulars
of the assault, our own losses and our captures, I know are approxi-
mately accurate. Yet the whole sounds like romance, a grand stage
piece of blood.
Of all the corps d'armie, for hard fighting, severe losses and bril-
liant results, the palm should be, as by the army it is, awarded to the
"Old Second." It did more fighting than any other corps, inflicted
severer losses upon the enemy in killed and wounded, and sustained
a heavier life loss, and captured more flags than all the rest of the
army, and almost as many prisoners as the rest of the army. The loss
of the 2d corps in killed and wounded in this battle there is no
other test of hard fighting was almost as great as that of all Gen.
Grant's forces in the battle that preceded and in the siege of Vicks-
burg. Three-eighths of the whole corps were killed and wounded.
Why does the Western Army suppose that the Army of the Potomac
does not fight? Was ever a more absurd supposition? The Army
of the Potomac is grand! Give it good leadership let it alone and
it will not fail to accomplish all that reasonable men desire.
Of Gibbon's white trefoil division, if I am not cautious, I shall
speak too enthusiastically. This division has been accustomed to
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 403
distinguished leadership. Sumner, Sedgwick and Howard have
honored, and been honored by, its command. It was repulsed under
Sedgwick at Antietam and under Howard at Fredericksburg; it was
victorious under Gibbon at the 2d Fredericksburg and at Gettysburg.
At Gettysburg its loss in killed and wounded was over one thousand
seven hundred, near one-half of all engaged; it captured seventeen
battle-flags and two thousand three hundred prisoners. Its bullets
hailed on Pickett's division, and killed or mortally wounded four
Rebel generals, BarJ^sdale on the 2d of July, with the three on the
3d, Armstead, Garnett and Kemper. In losses, in killed and
wounded, and in captures from the enemy of prisoners and flags,
it stood pre-eminent among all the divisions at Gettysburg.
Under such generals as Hancock and Gibbon, brilliant results may
be expected. Will the country remember them ?
It is understood in the army that the President thanked the slayer
of Barton Key for saving the day at Gettysburg. Does the country
know any better than the President, that Meade, Hancock and Gib-
bon were entitled to some little share of such credit ?
At about six o'clock on the afternoon of the 3d of July, my duties
done upon the field, I quitted it to go to the General. My brave horse
Dic\ poor creature, his good conduct in the battle that afternoon
had been complimented by a Brigadier was a sight to see. He was
literally covered with blood. Struck repeatedly, his right thigh had
been ripped open in a ghastly manner by a piece of shell, and three
bullets were lodged deep in his body, and from his wounds the
blood oozed and ran down his sides and legs and with the sweat,
formed a bloody foam. Dick's was no mean part in that battle.
Good conduct in men under such circumstances as he was placed
in might result from a sense of duty his was the result of his
bravery. Most horses would have been unmanageable with the flash
and roar of arms about and the shouting. Dick was utterly cool,
and would have obeyed the rein had it been a straw. To Dick,
belongs the honor of first mounting that stormy crest before the
enemy, not forty yards away, whose bullets smote him, and of being
the only horse there during the heat of the battle. Even the enemy
noticed Dick, and one of their reports of the battle mentions the
"solitary horseman" who rallied our wavering line. He enabled me
404 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
to do twelve times as much as I could have done on foot. It would
not be dignified for an officer on foot to run; it is entirely so,
mounted, to gallop. I do not approve of officers dismounting in
battle, which is the time of all when they most need to be
mounted, for thereby they have so much greater facilities for being
everywhere present. Most officers, however, in close action, dis-
mount. Dick deserves well of his country, and one day should have
a horse-monument. If there be "ut sapientibus placit," and equine
elysium, I will send to Charon the brass coin, the fee for Dick's
passage over, and on the other side of the Styx in those shadowy
clover-fields he may nibble the blossoms forever.
I had been struck upon the thigh by a bullet which I think must
have glanced and partially spent its force upon my saddle. It had
pierced the -thick cloth of my trowsers and two thicknesses of under-
clothing, but had not broken the skin, leaving me with an enormous
bruise that for a time benumbed the entire leg. At the time of
receiving it, I heard the thump, and noticed it and the hole in the
cloth into which I thrust my finger, and I experienced a feeling of
relief, I am sure, when I found that my leg was not pierced. I think
when I dismounted my horse after that fight that I was no very
comely specimen of humanity. Drenched with sweat, the white of
battle, by the reaction, now turned to burning red. I felt like a
boiled man; and had it not been for the exhilaration at results I
should have been miserable. This kept me up, however, and having
found a man to transfer the saddle from poor Dick, who was now
disposed to lie down by loss of blood and exhaustion, to another
horse, I hobbled on among the hospitals in search of Gen. Gibbon.
The skulkers were about, and they were as loud as any in their
rejoicings at the victory, and I took a malicious pleasure as I went
along and met them, in taunting the sneaks with their cowardice
and telling them it was not true that Gen. Meade had just given
the order to the Provost Guard to arrest and shoot all men they
could find away from their regiments who could not prove a good
account of themselves. To find the General was no easy matter.
I inquired for both Generals Hancock and Gibbon I knew well
enough that they would be together and for the hospitals of the 2d
corps. My search was attended with many incidents that were pro-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 405
vokingly humorous. The stupidity of most men is amazing. I
would ask of a man I met, "Do you know, sir, where the 2d corps
hospitals are?" "The i2th corps hospital is there!" Then I would
ask sharply, "Did you understand me to ask for the I2th corps
hospital?" "No!" "Then why tell me what I do not ask or care
to know?" Then stupidity would stare or mutter about the ingrati-
tude of some people for kindness. Did I ask for the Generals I was
looking for, they would announce the interesting fact, in reply, that
they had seen some other generals. Some were sure that Gen. Han-
cock or Gibbon was dead. They had seen his dead body. This was
a falsehood, and they knew it. Then it was Gen. Longstreet. This
was also, as they knew, a falsehood.
Oh, sorrowful was the sight to see so many wounded! The whole
neighborhood in rear of the field became one vast hospital of miles
in extent. Some could walk to the hospitals; such as could not were
taken upon stretchers from the places where they fell to selected
points and thence the ambulances bore them, a miserable load, to
their destination. Many were brought to the building, along the
Taneytown road, and too badly wounded to be carried further, died
and were buried there, Union and Rebel soldiers together. At every
house, and barn, and shed the wounded were; by many a cooling
brook, or many a shady slope or grassy glade, the red flags beckoned
them to their tented asylums, and there they gathered, in numbers
a great army, a mutilated, bruised mass of humanity. Men with gray
hair and furrowed cheeks and soft-lipped, beardless boys were there,
for these bullets have made no distinction between age and youth.
Every conceivable wound that iron and lead can make, blunt or
sharp, bullet, ball and shell, piercing, bruising, tearing, was there;
sometimes so light that a bandage and cold water would restore the
soldier to the ranks again; sometimes so severe that the poor victim
in his hopeless pain, remedyless save by the only panacea for all
mortal suffering, invoked that. The men are generally cheerful, and
even those with frightful wounds, often are talking with animated
faces of nothing but the battle and the victory. But some are down-
cast, their faces distorted with pain. Some have undergone the sur-
geon's work; some, like men at a ticket office, await impatiently their
turn to have an arm or a leg cut off. Some walk about with an arm
406 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
in a sling; some sit idly upon the ground; some lie at full length
upon a little straw, or a blanket, with their brawny, now blood-
stained, limbs bare, and you may see where the minie bullet has
struck or the shell has torn. From a small round hole upon many a
manly breast, the red blood trickles, but the pallid cheek, the hard-
drawn breath and dim closed eyes tell how near the source of life
it has gone. The surgeons, with coats of! and sleeves rolled up, and
the hospital attendants with green bands upon their caps, are about
their work; and their faces and clothes are spattered with blood;
and though they look weary and tired, their work goes systematically
and steadily on. How much and how long they have worked, the
piles of legs, arms, feet, hands, and fingers about partially tell. Such
sounds are heard sometimes you would not have heard them upon
the field as convince that bodies, bones, sinews and muscles are
not made of insensible stone. Near by appear a row of small fresh
mounds, placed side by side. They were not there day before yester-
day. They will become more numerous every day.
Such things I saw as I rode along. At last I found the Generals.
Gen. Gibbon was sitting on a chair that had been borrowed some-
where, with his wounded shoulder bare, and an attendant was
bathing it with cold water. Gen. Hancock was near by in an ambu-
lance. They were at the tents of the Second Corps hospitals, which
were on Rock Run. As I approached Gen. Gibbon, when he saw me,
he began to hurrah and wave his right hand. He had heard the result.
I said: "O, General, long and well may you wave" and he shook
me warmly by the hand. Gen. Gibbon was struck by a bullet in the
left shoulder, which had passed from the front through the flesh and
out behind, fracturing the shoulder blade and inflicting a severe but
not dangerous wound. He thinks he was the mark of a sharpshooter
of the enemy hid in the bushes, near where he and I had sat so long
during the cannonade; and he was wounded and taken off the field
before the fire of the main lines of infantry had commenced, he
being at the time he was hit near the left of his division. Gen. Han-
cock was struck a little later near the same part of the field by a
bullet, piercing and almost going through his thigh, without touch-
ing the bone, however. His wound was severe, also. He was carried
back out of range, but before he would be carried off the field, he lay
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 407
upon the ground in sight of the crest, where he could see something
of the fight, until he knew what would be the result.
And then, at Gen. Gibbon's request, I had to tell him and a large
voluntary crowd of the wounded who pressed around now, for the
wounds they showed not rebuked for closing up to the Generals, the
story of the fight. I was nothing loth; and I must say though I used
sometimes before the war to make speeches, that I never had so
enthusiastic an audience before. Cries of "good," "glorious," fre-
quently interrupted me, and the storming of the wall was applauded
by enthusiastic tears and the waving of battered, bloody hands.
By the custom of the service the General had the right to have
me along with him, while away with his wound; but duty and in-
clination attracted me still to the field, and I obtained the General's
consent to stay. Accompanying Gen. Gibbon to Westminster, the
nearest point to which railroad trains then ran, and seeing him
transferred from an ambulance to the cars for Baltimore on the 4th,
the next day I returned to the field to his division, since his wound-
ing in the command of Gen. Harrow.
On the 6th of July, while my bullet bruise was yet too inflamed
and sensitive for me to be good for much in the way of duty the
division was then halted for the day some four miles from the field
on the Baltimore turnpike I could not repress the desire or omit
the opportunity to see again where the battle had been. With the
right stirrup strap shortened in a manner to favor the bruised leg,
I could ride my horse at a walk without serious discomfort. It
seemed very strange upon approaching the horse-shoe crest again,
not to see it covered with the thousands of troops and horses and
guns, but they were all gone the armies, to my seeming, had van-
ished and on that lovely summer morning the stillness and silence
of death pervaded the localities where so recently the shouts and the
cannon had thundered. The recent rains had washed out many an
unsightly spot, and smoothed many a harrowed trace of the conflict;
but one still needed no guide save the eyes, to follow the track of
that storm, which the storms of heaven were powerless soon to
entirely efface. The spade and shovel, so far as a little earth for the
human bodies would render their task done, had completed their
work a great labor, that. But still might see under some concealing
408 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
bush, or sheltering rock, what had once been a man, and the thou-
sands of stricken horses still lay scattered as they had died. The
scattered small arms and the accoutrements had been collected and
carried away, almost all that were of any value; but great numbers
of bent and splintered muskets, rent knapsacks and haversacks,
bruised canteens, shreds of caps, coats, trowsers, of blue or gray
cloth, worthless belts and cartridge boxes, torn blankets, ammuni-
tion boxes, broken wheels, smashed limbers, shattered gun carriages,
parts of harness, of all that men or horses wear or use in battle, were
scattered broadcast over miles of the field. From these one could
tell where the fight had been hottest. The rifle-pits and epaulements
and the trampled grass told where the lines had stood, and the bat-
teries the former being thicker where the enemy had been than
those of our own construction. No soldier was to be seen, but num-
bers of civilians and boys, and some girls even, were curiously
loitering about the field, and their faces showed not sadness or
horror, but only staring wonder or smirking curiosity. They looked
for mementoes of the battle to keep, they said; but their furtive
attempts to conceal an uninjured musket or an untorn blanket
they had been told that all property left here belonged to the
Government showed that the love of gain was an ingredient at
least of their motive for coming here. Of course, there was not
the slightest objection to their taking anything they could find
now; but their manner of doing it was the objectionable thing. I
could now understand why soldiers had been asked a dollar for a
small strip of old linen to bind their own wound, and not be com-
pelled to go off to the hospitals.
Never elsewhere upon any field have I seen such abundant
evidences of a terrific fire of cannon and musketry as upon this.
Along the enemy's position, where our shells and shot had struck
during the cannonade of the third, the trees had cast their trunks
and branches as if they had been icicles shaken by a blast. And
graves of the Rebels' making, and dead horses and scattered ac-
coutrements, showed that other things besides trees had been
struck by our projectiles. I must say that, having seen the work
of their guns upon the same occasion, I was gratified to see these
things. Along the slope of Gulp's Hill, in front of the position of
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 409
the i2th, and the ist Division of the ist Corps, the trees were almost
literally peeled, from the ground up some fifteen or twenty feet,
so thick upon them were the scars the bullets had made. Upon
a single tree, not over a foot and a half in diameter, I actually counted
as many as two hundred and fifty bullet marks. The ground was
covered by the little twigs that had been cut off by the hailstorm of
lead. Such were the evidences of the storm under which Ewell's
bold Rebels assaulted our breastworks on the night of the 2d and
the morning of the 3d of July. And those works looked formid-
able, zig-zaging along these rocky crests, even now when not a
musket was behind them. What madness on the part of the enemy
to have attacked them! All along through these bullet-stormed
woods were interspersed little patches of fresh earth, raised a foot
or so above the surrounding ground. Some were very near the
front of the works; and near by, upon a tree whose bark had been
smoothed by an axe, written in red chalk would be the words, not in
fine handwriting, "75 Rebels buried here." "j3JT 54 Rebs. there."
And so on. Such was the burial and such the epitaph of many
of those famous men, once led by the mighty Stonewall Jackson.
Oh, this damned rebellion will make brutes of us all, if it is not
soon quelled! Our own men were buried in graves, not trenches;
and upon a piece of board, or stave of a barrel, or bit of cracker
box, placed at the head, were neatly cut or penciled the name and
regiment of the one buried in such. This practice was general,
but of course there must be some exceptions, for sometimes the
cannon's load had not left enough of a man to recognize or name.
The reasons here for the more careful interment of our own dead
than such as was given to the dead of the enemy are obvious and I
think satisfactory. Our own dead were usually buried not long
after they fell, and without any general order to that effect. It was
a work that the men's hearts were in as soon as the fight was over
and opportunity offered, to hunt out their dead companions, to
make them a grave in some convenient spot, and decently composed
with their blankets wrapped about them, to cover them tenderly
with earth and mark their resting place. Such burials were not
without as scalding tears as ever fell upon the face of coffined
mortality. The dead of the enemy could not be buried until after
41 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
the close of the whole battle. The army was about to move some
of it was already upon the march, before such burial commenced.
Tools, save those carried by the pioneers, were many miles away
with the train, and the burying parties were required to make all
haste in their work, in order to be ready to move with their reg-
iments. To make long shallow trenches, to collect the Rebel dead,
often hundreds in one place, and to cover them hastily with a little
earth, without name, number, or mark, save the shallow mound
above them their names of course they did not know was the
best that could be done. I should have been glad to have seen
more formal burial, even of these men of the rebellion, both be-
cause hostilities should cease with death, and of the respect I have
for them as my brave, though deluded, countrymen. I found fault
with such burial at the time, though I knew that the best was done
that could be under the circumstances; but it may perhaps soften
somewhat the rising feelings upon this subject, of any who may be
disposed to share mine, to remember that under similar circum-
stances had the issue of the battle been reversed our own dead
would have had no burial at all, at the hands of the enemy, but,
stripped of their clothing, their naked bodies would have been
left to rot, and their bones to whiten upon the top of the ground
where they fell. Plenty of such examples of Rebel magnanimity
are not wanting, and one occurred on this field, too. Our dead
that fell into the hands of the enemy on the ist of July had been
plundered of all their clothing, but they were left unburied until
our own men buried them after the Rebels had retreated at the end
of the battle.
All was bustle and noise in the little town of Gettysburg, as I
entered it on my tour of the field. From the afternoon of the ist
to the morning of the 4th of July, the enemy was in possession. Very
many of the inhabitants had, upon the first approach of the enemy,
or upon the retirement of our troops, fled their homes and the
town not to return until after the battle. Now the town was a
hospital where gray and blue mingled in about equal proportion.
The public buildings, the courthouse, the churches and many
private dwellings were full of wounded. There had been in some
of the streets a good deal of fighting, and bullets had thickly spat-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 4! I
tered the fences and walls, and shells had riddled the houses from
side to side. And the Rebels had done their work of pillage there,
too, in spite of the smooth-sounding general order of the Rebel
commander enjoining a sacred regard for private property the
order was really good and would sound marvelously well abroad
or in history. All stores of drugs and medicines, of clothing, tin-
ware and all groceries had been rifled and emptied without pay or
offer of recompense. Libraries, public and private, had been entered
and the books scattered about the yards or destroyed. Great numbers
of private dwellings had been entered and occupied without cere-
mony and whatever was liked had been appropriated or wanton-
ly destroyed. Furniture had been smashed and beds ripped open,
and apparently unlicensed pillage had reigned. Citizens and women
who had remained had been kindly relieved of their money, their
jewelry and their watches all this by the high-toned chivalry, the
army of the magnanimous Lee! Put these things by the side of
the acts of the "vandal Yankees" in Virginia, and then let mad
Rebeldom prate of honor! But the people, the women and children
that had fled, were returning, or had returned to their homes
such homes and amid the general havoc were restoring as they
could order to the desecrated firesides. And the faces of them all
plainly told that, with all they had lost and bad as was the con-
dition of all things they found, they were better pleased with such
homes than with wandering houseless in the fields with the Rebels
there. All had treasures of incidents of the battle and of the occu-
pation of the enemy wonderful sights, escapes, witnessed en-
counters, wounds, the marvelous passage of shells or bullets which,
upon the asking, or even without, they were willing to share with
the stranger. I heard of no more than one or two cases of any
personal injury received by any of the inhabitants. One woman
was said to have been killed while at her wash-tub, sometime
during the battle; but probably by a stray bullet coming a very
long distance from our own men. For the next hundred years
Gettysburg will be rich in legends and traditions of the battle. I
rode through the Cemetery on "Cemetery Hill." How these quiet
sleepers must have been astounded in their graves when the twenty-
pound Parrott guns thundered above them and the solid shot
412 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
crushed their gravestones! The flowers, roses and creeping vines
that pious hands had planted to bloom and shed their odors over
the ashes of dear ones gone, were trampled upon the ground and
black with the cannon's soot. A dead horse lay by the marble
shaft, and over it the marble finger pointed to the sky. The marble
lamb that had slept its white sleep on the grave of a child, now lies
blackened upon a broken gun-carriage. Such are the incongruities
and jumblings of battle.
I looked away to the group of trees the Rebel gunners know
what ones I mean, and so do the survivors of Pickett's division
and a strange fascination led me thither. How thick are the marks
of battle as I approach the graves of the men of the 3d Division
of the 2d Corps; the splintered oaks, the scattered horses seventy-
one dead horses were on a spot some fifty yards square near the
position of Woodruff's battery, and where he fell.
I stood solitary upon the crest by "the trees" where, less than three
days ago, I had stood before; but now how changed is all the eye
beholds. Do these thick mounds cover the fiery hearts that in the
battle rage swept the crest and stormed the wall? I read their
names them, alas, I do not know but I see the regiments marked
on their frail monuments "20th Mass. Vols.," "69 P. V.," "ist
Minn. Vols." and the rest they are all represented, and as they
fought commingled here. So I am not alone. These, my brethren
of the fight, are with me. Sleep, noble brave! The foe shall not
desecrate your sleep. Yonder thick trenches will hold them. As
long as patriotism is a virtue, and treason a crime, your deeds have
made this crest, your resting place, hallowed ground!
But I have seen and said enough of this battle. The unfortunate
wounding of my General so early in the action of the 3d of July,
leaving important duties which, in the unreasoning excitement of the
moment, I in part assumed, enabled me to do for the successful
issue, something which under other circumstances would not have
fallen to my rank or place. Deploring the occasion for taking away
from the division in that moment of its need its soldierly, appropriate
head, so cool, so clear, I am yet glad, as that was to be, that his
example and his tuition have not been entirely in vain to me, and
that my impulses then prompted me to do somewhat as he might
have done had he been on the field. The encomiums of officers,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 413
so numerous and some of so high rank, generously accorded me
for my conduct upon that occasion I am not without vanity-
were gratifying. My position as a staff officer gave me an op-
portunity to see much, perhaps as much as any one person, of that
conflict. My observations were not so particular as if I had been
attached to a smaller command; not so general as may have been
those of a staff officer to the General commanding the army; but
of such as they were, my heart was there, and I could do no less
than to write something of them, in the intervals between marches
and during the subsequent repose of the army at the close of the
campaign. I have put somewhat upon these pages I make no
apology for the egotism, if such there is, of this account it is not
designed to be a history, but simply my account of the battle. It
should not be assumed, if I have told of some occurrences, that there
were not other important ones. I would not have it supposed that I
have attempted to do full justice to the good conduct of the fallen,
or the survivors of the ist and I2th Corps. Others must tell of
them. I did not see their work. A full account of the battle as it was
will never, can never be made. Who could sketch the changes, the
constant shifting of the bloody panorama? It is not possible. The
official reports may give results as to losses, with statements of at-
tacks and repulses; they may also note the means by which results
were attained, which is a statement of the number and kind of the
forces employed, but the connection between means and results,
the mode, the battle proper, these reports touch lightly. Two prom-
inent reasons at least exist which go far to account for the general
inadequacy of these official reports, or to account for their giving
no true idea of what they assume to describe the literary infirmity
of the reporters and their not seeing themselves and their commands
as others would have seen them. And factions, and parties, and
politics, the curses of this Republic, are already putting in their
unreasonable demands for the foremost honors of the field. "Gen.
Hooker won Gettysburg." How? Not with the army in person
or by infinitesimal influence leaving it almost four days before the
battle when both armies were scattered and fifty miles apart! Was
ever claim so absurd? Hooker, and he alone, won the result at
Chancellorsville. "Gen. Howard won Gettysburg!" "Sickles saved
the day!" Just Heaven, save the poor Army of the Potomac from
414 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
its friends! It has more to dread and less to hope from them than
from the red bannered hosts of the rebellion. The states prefer
each her claim for the sole brunt and winning of the fight. "Penn-
sylvania won it!" "New York won it!" "Did not Old Greece, or
some tribe from about the sources of the Nile win it?" For modern
Greeks from Cork and African Hannibals were there. Those
intermingled graves along the crest bearing the names of every
loyal state, save one or two, should admonish these geese to cease
to cackle. One of the armies of the country won the battle, and
that army supposes that Gen. Meade led it upon that occasion.
If it be not one of the lessons that this war teaches, that we have
a country paramount and supreme over faction, and party, and
state, then was the blood of fifty thousand citizens shed on this
field in vain. For the reasons mentioned, of this battle, greater than
that of Waterloo, a history, just, comprehensive, complete will never
be written. By-and-by, out of the chaos of trash and falsehood that
the newspapers hold, out of the disjointed mass of reports, out of
the traditions and tales that came down from the field some eye
that never saw the battle will select, and some pen will write what
will be named the history. With that the world will be and, if we
are alive, we must be, content.
Already, as I rode down from the heights, nature's mysterious
loom was at work, joining and weaving on her ceaseless web the
shells had broken there. Another spring shall green these trampled
slopes, and flowers, planted by unseen hands, shall bloom upon
these graves; another autumn and the yellow harvest shall ripen
there all not in less, but in higher perfection for this poured out
blood. In another decade of years, in another century, or age, we
hope that the Union, by the same means, may repose in a securer
peace and bloom in a higher civilization. Then what matters it if
lame Tradition glean on this field and hand down her garbled
sheaf if deft story with furtive fingers plait her ballad wreaths,
deeds of her heroes here? or if stately history fill as she list her
arbitrary tablet, the sounding record of this fight ? Tradition, story,
history all will not efface the true, grand epic of Gettysburg.
FRANK A. HASKELL.
To H. M. Has^cU.
LINCOLN'S
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
(1863)
[On Nov. 19, 1863, a part of the battlefield of Gettysburg was set aside as a
cemetery, where monuments to the soldiers who fell there might be set up. The
main oration was delivered by Edward Everett, at the conclusion of which Lincoln
dedicated the field in this most pregnant and eloquent of his utterances.]
FOURSCORE and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long en-
dure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come
to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those
who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense,
we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate we cannot hallow
this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here
have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The
world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather,
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from
the earth.
PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY
(1863)
[The Proclamation of Amnesty gives an interesting indication of the lines along
which Lincoln, had he lived, would have attempted to solve the problem of recon-
etruction. The main idea was to create by generous treatment a party loyal to the
Union in each State, in whose hands the restored state government might, as speedily
as possible, be placed.]
WHEREAS, in and by the Constitution of the United
States, it is provided that the President "shall have power
to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the
United States, except in cases of impeachment;" and
Whereas, a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State gov-
ernments of several States have for a long time been subverted,
and many persons have committed and are now guilty of treason
against the United States; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have
been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of
property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions
therein stated, and also declaring that the President was thereby
authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to
persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion of any
State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and
at such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient
for the public welfare; and
Whereas, the congressional declaration for limited and condi-
tional pardon, accords with well-established judicial exposition of
the pardoning power; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the
United States has issued several proclamations with provisions, in
regard to the liberation of slaves; and
Whereas, it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged
in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States,
416
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 417
and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their
respective states: Therefore
I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do proclaim,
declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by
implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as herein-
after excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and
each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as
to slaves, and in property cases, where rights of third parties shall
have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person
shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and main-
tain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for
permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect follow-
ing, to wit:
"I, , do solemnly swear, in presence of Al-
mighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the
States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and
faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing
rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not re-
pealed, modified, or held void by Congress, or by decision of the
supreme court; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faith-
fully support all proclamations of the President made during the
existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as
not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court.
So help me God."
The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provi-
sions are all who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers
or agents of the so-called Confederate government; all who have
left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion;
all who are, or shall have been, military or naval officers of said so-
called Confederate government above the rank of colonel in the
army or of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United
States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in
the army or navy of the United States and afterwards aided the
rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored
persons, or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than law-
fully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been found
41 8 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other
capacity.
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that when-
ever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North
Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one tenth in number
of the votes cast in such state at the presidential election of the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, each
having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since violated it,
and being a qualified voter by the election laws of the state existing
immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all
others, shall reestablish a State government which shall be republi-
can, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized
as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive
thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision, which de-
clares that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in this
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each
of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or
the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against
domestic violence."
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that any
provision which may be adopted by such State government in re-
lation to the freed people of such State, which shall recognize and
declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and
which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with
their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class,
will not be objected to by the National Executive.
And it is suggested as not improper that, in constructing a loyal
State government in any State, the name of the State, the boundary,
the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as
before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifica-
tions made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and
such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which
may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State govern-
ment.
To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this
proclamation, so far as it relates to state governments, has no ref-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 419
erence to states wherein loyal state governments have all the while
been maintained. And, for the same reason, it may be proper
to further say, that whether members sent to congress from any
state shall be admitted to seats constitutionally, rests exclusively
with the respective houses, and not to any extent with the Executive.
And still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the
people of the states wherein the national authority has been sus-
pended, and loyal state governments have been subverted, a mode
in and by which the national authority and loyal state governments
may be reestablished within said states, or in any of them; and,
while the mode presented is the best the Executive can suggest,
with his present impressions, it must not be understood that no
other possible mode would be acceptable.
Given under my hand at the city of Washington, on the 8th day
of December, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
SEAL
LINCOLN'S LETTER
TO MRS. BIXBY
(.864)
Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864.
MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts:
DEAR MADAM: I have been shown in the files of the War
Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Mas-
sachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have
died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruit-
less must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile
you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot re-
frain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in
the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our
Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement,
and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost,
and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a
sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
420
TERMS OF LEE'S SURRENDER
AT APPOMATTOX
(1865)
[The following letters exchanged by Generals Grant and Lee give the terms
under which the latter surrendered his army and practically brought to a close the
War of Secession.]
"Appomattox Court-House, Virginia, April 9, 1865.
: In accordance with the substance of my letter
to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender
of the army of Northern Virginia on the following terms,
to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate,
one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other
to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The
officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against
the government of the United States until properly exchanged; and
each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for
the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public prop-
erty to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers ap-
pointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-
arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done,
each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to
be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe
their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.
"U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General.
"General R. E. Lee."
"Head-Quarters, Army of Northern Virginia,
April 9, 1865.
"GENERAL: I received your letter of this date containing the terms
of the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia, as proposed by
421
422 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your
letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to des-
ignate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.
"R. E. LEE, General.
"Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant."
LEE'S FAREWELL
TO HIS ARMY
(1865)
"Head-Quarters, Army of Northern Virginia,
April 10, 1865.
l4 FTER four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed
Z-\ courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has
X JL been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and re-
sources. I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles,
who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to
this result from no distrust of them: but, feeling that valour and
devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the
loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I
have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past
services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms
of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and
remain there until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfac-
tion that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully per-
formed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to
you His blessing and protection. With an increasing admiration
of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful
remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of myself,
I bid you an affectionate farewell.
"R. E. LEE, General."
423
LINCOLN'S SECOND
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
(1865)
[By the date of Lincoln's second inauguration, the tide of war had turned in
favour of the Union, and the end was in sight. The tone of the address, however, is
subdued rather than triumphant, and it rises to a rare pitch of eloquence, marked by
a singular combination of tenderness and determination.]
r\ELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to
LJ take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion
M for an extended address than there was at first. Then, a
statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed
fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during
which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every
point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the at-
tention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new
could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else
chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and
it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With
high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it
all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being de-
livered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy
it without war seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects,
by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would
make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern
part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest.
All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To
424
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 425
strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for
which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while
the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the
territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the
magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither
anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even
before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier
triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read
the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His
aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should
dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from
the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not
judged. The prayers of both could not be answered that of neither
has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.
"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be
that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those
offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but
which, having continued through His appointed time, He now
wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this
terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,
shall, we discern therein, any departure from those divine attributes
which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him ? Fondly
do we hope fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of
war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue
until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood
drawn with the lash shall be paid by another, drawn with the
sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be
said: "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto-
gether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for
him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his
orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace among ourselves, and with all nations.
PROCLAMATION DECLARING
THE INSURRECTION
AT AN END
(1866)
CPresident Johnson's proclamation of May 10, 1865, marked the actual close of
hostilities; that of April 2, 1866, declared the insurrection at an end in all the
States save Texas; and this of Aug. 20, 1866, gave notice of the resumption of civil
government in the States which had seceded.]
^T "IT THERE AS, by proclamations of the i5th and i9th of
%/%/ April, 1861, the President of the United States in virtue
T v of the power vested in him by the Constitution and the
laws, declared that the laws of the United States were opposed and
the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas by
combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course
of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals of
the law; and
Whereas, by another proclamation made on the i6th day of
August, in the same year, in pursuance of an act of Congress
approved July 13, 1861, the inhabitants of the States of Georgia,
South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama,
Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida (except the
inhabitants of the State of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany
Mountains, and except also the inhabitants of such other parts of
that State and the other States before named as might maintain
a loyal adhesion to the Union and Constitution or might be from
time to time occupied and controlled by forces of the United States
engaged in the dispersion of the insurgents) were declared to be in
a state of insurrection against the United States; and
Whereas, by another proclamation of the ist of July, 1862, issued
in pursuance of an act of Congress approved June 7, in the same
426
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 427
year, the insurrection was declared to be still existing in the States
aforesaid, with the exception of certain specified counties in the State
of Virginia; and
Whereas, by another proclamation made on the second day of
April, 1863, in pursuance of an act of Congress of July 13, 1861, the
exceptions named in the proclamation of August 16, 1861, were re-
voked and the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
Mississippi, Florida, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties of
Virginia designated as West Virginia and the ports of New Orleans,
Key West, Port Royal, and Beaufort, in North Carolina) were
declared to be still in a state of insurrection against the United
States; and
Whereas, by another proclamation, of the i5th day of September,
1863, made in pursuance of the act of Congress approved March 3,
1863, the rebellion was declared to be still existing and the privilege
of the writ of habeas corpus was in certain specified cases suspended
throughout the United States, said suspension to continue through-
out the duration of the rebellion or until said proclamation
should, by a subsequent one to be issued by the President of the
United States, be modified or revoked; and
Whereas, the House of Representatives on the 22d day of July,
1861, adopted a resolution in the following words, namely:
Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
United States, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced
upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States now in
revolt against the constitutional Government, and in arms around
the capitol; that in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all
feelings of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty
to the whole country; that this war is not waged upon our part in
any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or sub-
jugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights
or established institutions of those States; but to defend and main-
tain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union,
with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States, unim-
paired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war
ought to cease ; and
428 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Whereas, the Senate of the United States on the 25th day of July,
1861, adopted a resolution in the words following, to wit:
Resolved, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced
upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States now in
revolt against the constitutional Government and in arms around the
capitol; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all
feelings of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its own
duty to the whole country; that this war is not prosecuted upon our
part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or
subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the
rights or established institutions of those States; but to defend
and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws
made in pursuance thereof and to preserve the Union, with all
the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired;
that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to
cease; and
Whereas, these resolutions though not joint or concurrent in form,
are substantially identical, and as such have hitherto been and yet
are regarded as having expressed the sense of Congress upon the
subject to which they relate; and
Whereas, the President of the United States by proclamation of
the i3th of June, 1865, declared that the insurrection in the State of
Tennessee had been suppressed, and that the authority of the United
States therein was undisputed, and such United States officers as
had been duly commissioned were in the undisturbed exercise of
their official functions; and
Whereas, the President of the United States by further proclama-
tion, issued on the 2d day of April, 1866, did promulgate and declare
that there no longer existed any armed resistance of misguided
citizens or others to the authority of the United States in any or in
all the States before mentioned, excepting only the State of Texas,
and did further promulgate and declare that the laws could be sus-
tained and enforced in the several States before mentioned, except
Texas, by the proper civil authorities, State or Federal, and that the
people of the said States, except Texas, are well and loyally disposed,
and have conformed or will conform in their legislation to the
condition of affairs growing out of the amendment to the Constitu-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 429
tion o the United States, prohibiting slavery within the jurisdiction
of the United States;
And did further declare, in the same proclamation that it is the
manifest determination of the American people that no State, of its
own will, has a right or power to go out of, or separate itself from,
or be separated from the American Union; and that, therefore, each
State ought to remain and constitute an integral part of the United
States;
And did further declare, in the same last-mentioned proclamation,
that the several aforementioned States, excepting Texas, had in the
manner aforesaid given satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce in
this sovereign and important resolution of national unity; and
Whereas, the President of the United States in the same proclama-
tion did further declare, that it is believed to be a fundamental prin-
ciple of government that the people who have revolted and who
have been overcome and subdued, must be dealt with so as to
induce them voluntarily to become friends, or else they must be held
by absolute military power or devastated so as to prevent them from
ever again doing harm as enemies, which last-named policy is
abhorrent to humanity and to freedom; and
Whereas, the President did, in the same proclamation further
declare, that the Constitution of the United States provides for
constituent communities only as States, and not as Territories,
dependencies, provinces, or protectorates;
And further, that such constituent States must necessarily be, and
by the Constitution and laws of the United States are, made equals
and placed upon a like footing as to political rights, immunities,
dignity, and power with the several States with which they are
united;
And did further declare, that the observance of political equality,
as a principle of right and justice, is well calculated to encourage
the people of the before-named States, except Texas, to become more
and more constant and persevering in their new allegiance; and
Whereas, the President did further declare, that standing armies,
military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, and the suppres-
sion of the writ of habeas corpus are in times of peace dangerous to
public liberty, incompatible with the individual right of the citizen,
43 O AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
contrary to the genius and spirit of our free institutions, and ex-
haustive of the national resources, and ought not, therefore, to be
sanctioned or allowed except in cases of actual necessity for repelling
invasion and suppressing insurrection or rebellion;
And the President did further, in the same proclamation, declare
that the policy of the Government of the United States from the
beginning of the insurrection to its overthrow and final suppression
had been conducted in conformity with the principles in the last-
named proclamation recited; and
Whereas, the President, in the said proclamation, of the I3th of
June, 1865, upon the grounds therein stated and hereinbefore recited,
did then and thereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection
which heretofore existed in the several States before named, except
in Texas, was at an end, and was therefore to be so regarded; and
Whereas, subsequently to the said 2d day of April, 1866, the
insurrection in the State of Texas has been completely and every-
where suppressed and ended, and the authority of the United States
has been successfully and completely established in the said State of
Texas and now remains therein unassisted and undisputed, and
such of the proper United States officers as have been duly commis-
sioned within the limits of the said State are now in the undisturbed
exercise of their official functions; and
Whereas, the laws can now be sustained and enforced in the said
State of Texas by the proper civil authority, State or Federal, and
the people of the said State of Texas, like the people of the other
States before named, are well and loyally disposed and have con-
formed or will conform in their legislation to the condition of affairs
growing out of the amendment to the Constitution of the United
States prohibiting slavery within the limits and jurisdiction of the
United States; and
Whereas, all the reasons and conclusions set forth in regard to the
several States therein especially named now apply equally and in
all respects to the State of Texas, as well as to the other States which
have been involved in the insurrection; and
Whereas, adequate provision has been made by military orders to
enforce the execution of the acts of Congress, aid the civil authorities,
and secure obedience to the Constitution and laws of the United
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 43!
States within the State of Texas, if a resort to military force for
such purpose should at any time be necessary :
Now therefore, I,Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which here-
tofore existed in the State of Texas is at an end, and is to be hence-
forth so regarded in that State as in the other States before named,
in which the said insurrection was proclaimed to be at an end, by the
aforesaid proclamation of the 2d of April, 1866.
And I do further proclaim, that the said insurrection is at an end,
and that peace, order, and tranquility, and civil authority now exist
in and throughout the whole United States of America.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused
the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[Seal.] Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of August,
A. D. 1866, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the ninety-first.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
TREATY WITH RUSSIA
(1867)
[The risk of encroachment by Russia had been one of the causes which induced
President Monroe to give official utterance to the "Monroe Doctrine." After his
statement, Russia ceased from attempts to increase her influence on the Pacific coast,
and became willing to dispose of Alaska, regarding it as a possession difficult to defend
and of little value. The territory was formally transferred on Oct. 18, 1867.]
CONVENTION between the United States of America and
His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, for the Cession of the
Russian Possessions in North America to the United States,
Concluded at Washington, March 30, 1867; Ratification Advised by
Senate, April 9, 1867; Ratified by President, May 28, 1867; Ratifica-
tions Exchanged at Washington, June 20, 1867; Proclaimed, June
20, 1867.
The United States of America and His Majesty the Emperor of
all the Russias, being desirous of strengthening, if possible, the good
understanding which exists between them, have, for that purpose,
appointed as their Plenipotentiaries, the President of the United
States, William H. Seward, Secretary of State; and His Majesty the
Emperor of all the Russias, the Privy Counsellor Edward de Stoeckl,
his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United
States;
And the said Plenipotentiaries, having exchanged their full pow-
ers, which were found to be in due form, have agreed upon and
signed the following articles:
ARTICLE I
His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, agrees to cede to
the United States, by this convention, immediately upon the ex-
change of the ratifications thereof, all the territory and dominion
now possessed by his said Majesty on the continent of America and
in adjacent islands, the same being contained within the geographi-
432
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 433
cal limits herein set forth, to wit: The eastern limit is the line of
demarcation between the Russian and the British possessions in
North America, as established by the convention between Russia and
Great Britain, of February 28-16, 1825, and described in Articles III
and IV of said convention, in the following terms:
"III Commencing from the southernmost point of the island
called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54
degrees 40 minutes north latitude, and between the I3ist and i33d
degree of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line
shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel,
as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the 56th degree
of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point, the line of de-
marcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel
to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of the 141 st degree of
west longitude (of the same meridian) ; and finally, from the said
point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141 st degree, in
its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean.
"IV With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the
preceding article, it is understood
"ist That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong
wholly to Russia" (now, by this cession to the United States).
"2d That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend
in a direction parallel to the coast, from the 56th degree of north
latitude to the point of intersection of the 14151 degree of west
longitude, shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine
leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and
the line of coast which is to belong to Russia as above mentioned
(that is to say, the limit to the possessions ceded by this convention),
shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, and
which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues there-
from."
The western limit within which the territories and dominion
conveyed are contained passes through a point in Behring's Straits
on the parallel of sixty-five degrees thirty minutes north latitude,
at its intersection by the meridian which passes midway between the
islands of Krusenstern or Ignalook, and the island of Ratmanoff,
or Noonarbook, and proceeds due north without limitation, into the
434 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
same Frozen Ocean. The same western limit, beginning at the same
initial point, proceeds thence in a course nearly southwest, through
Behring's Straits and Behring's Sea, so as to pass midway between
the northwest point of the island of St. Lawrence and the southeast
point of Cape Choukotski, to the meridian of one hundred and
seventy-two west longitude; thence, from the intersection of that
meridian, in a southwesterly direction, so as to pass midway between
the island of Attou and the Copper Island of the Kormandorski
couplet or group, in the North Pacific Ocean, to the meridian of
one hundred and ninety^three degrees west longitude, so as to
include in the territory conveyed the whole of the Aleutian Islands
east of 'that meridian.
ARTICLE II
In the cession of territory and dominion made by the preceding
article, are included the right of property in all public lots and
squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, bar-
racks, and other edifices which are not private individual property.
It is, however, understood and agreed, that the churches which have
been built in the ceded territory by the Russian Government, shall
remain the property of such members of the Greek Oriental Church
resident in the territory as may choose to worship therein. Any
Government archives, papers, and documents relative to the terri-
tory and dominion aforesaid, which may now be existing there,
will be left in the possession of the agent of the United States; but
an authenticated copy of such of them as may be required, will be,
at all times, given by the United States to the Russian Government,
or to such Russian officers or subjects as they may apply for.
ARTICLE III
The inhabitants of the ceded territory, according to their choice,
reserving their natural allegiance, may return to Russia within three
years; but if they should prefer to remain in the ceded territory,
they, with the exception of uncivilized native tribes, shall be admit-
ted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities
of citizens of the United States, and shall be maintained and pro-
tected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 435
The uncivilized tribes will be subject to such laws and regulations
as the United States may from time to time adopt in regard to
aboriginal tribes of that country.
ARTICLE IV
His Majesty, the Emperor of all the Russias, shall appoint, with
convenient despatch, an agent or agents for the purpose of formally
delivering to a similar agent or agents, appointed on behalf of the
United States, the territory, dominion, property, dependencies, and
appurtenances which are ceded as above, and for doing any other
act which may be necessary in regard thereto. But the cession, with
the right of immediate possession, is nevertheless to be deemed com-
plete and absolute on the exchange of ratifications, without waiting
for such formal delivery.
ARTICLE V
Immediately after the exchange of the ratifications of this con-
vention, any fortifications or military posts which may be in the
ceded territory shall be delivered to the agent of the United States,
and any Russian troops which may be in the territory shall be
withdrawn as soon as may be reasonably and conveniently prac-
ticable.
ARTICLE VI
In consideration of the cession aforesaid, the United States agree to
pay at the Treasury in Washington, within ten months after the
exchange of the ratifications of this convention, to the diplomatic
representative or other agent of His Majesty the Emperor of all the
Russias, duly authorized to receive the same, seven million two
hundred thousand dollars in gold. The cession of territory and
dominion herein made is hereby declared to be free and unencum-
bered by any reservations, privileges, franchises, grants, or posses-
sions, by any associated companies, whether corporate or incor-
porate, Russian or any other, or by any parties, except merely private
individual property-holders; and the cession hereby made conveys all
the rights, franchises, and privileges now belonging to Russia in the
said territory or dominion, and appurtenances thereto.
436 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ARTICLE VII
When this convention shall have been duly ratified by the Presi-
dent, of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate, on the one part, and, on the other, by His Majesty the
Emperor of all the Russias, the ratifications shall be exchanged at
Washington within three months from the date thereof, or sooner
if possible.
In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed
this convention, and thereto affixed the seals of their arms.
Done at Washington, the thirtieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD [L.S.]
EDOUARD DE STOECKL [L. s.]
ANNEXATION
OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
(1898)
[Queen Liliuokalani, of the Hawaiian Islands, attempted, in 1893, to introduce a
new constitution, which would place the government of the Islands much more
completely in her power than it had previously been. The attempt did not succeed;
the Queen was forced to abdicate; and the foreigners in Honolulu set up a provisional
government with a view to negotiating for annexation to the United States. Presi-
dent Harrison sent an annexation treaty to the Senate, but President Cleveland, on
his coming into power, withdrew it. President McKinley, in 1897, sent in a second
treaty, which was passed by Congress in June and July, 1898, and the sovereignty
was transferred to the United States on Aug. 12, 1898.]
JOINT Resolution To provide for annexing the Hawaiian
Islands to the United States.
Whereas, the Government of the Republic of Hawaii hav-
ing, in due form, signified its consent, in the manner provided by
its constitution, to cede absolutely and without reserve to the United
States of America, all rights of sovereignty of whatsoever kind in
and over the Hawaiian Islands and their dependencies, and also to
cede and transfer to the United States, the absolute fee and owner-
ship of all public, Government, or Crown lands, public buildings or
edifices, ports, harbors, military equipment, and all other public
property of every kind and description belonging to the Government
of the Hawaiian Islands, together with every right and appurtenance
thereunto appertaining: Therefore,
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That said cession
is accepted, ratified, and confirmed, and that the said Hawaiian
Islands and their dependencies be, and they are hereby, annexed as
a part of the territory of the United States and are subject to the
sovereign dominion thereof, and that all and singular the property
and rights hereinbefore mentioned are vested in the United States
of America.
The existing laws of the United States relative to public lands
437
438 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
shall not apply to such lands in the Hawaiian Islands; but the
Congress of the United States shall enact special laws for their man-
agement and disposition: Provided, That all revenue from or pro-
ceeds of the same, except as regards such part thereof as may be
used or occupied for the civil, military, or naval purposes of the
United States, or may be assigned for the use of the local govern-
ment, shall be used solely for the benefit of the inhabitants of the
Hawaiian Islands for educational and other public purposes.
Until Congress shall provide for the government of such islands
all the civil, judicial, and military powers exercised by the officers
of the existing government in said islands shall be vested in such
person or persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the
President of the United States shall direct; and the President shall
have power to remove said officers and fill the vacancies so occa-
sioned.
The existing treaties of the Hawaiian Islands with foreign nations
shall forthwith cease and determine, being replaced by such treaties
as may exist, or as may be hereafter concluded, between the United
States and such foreign nations. The municipal legislation of the
Hawaiian Islands, not enacted for the fulfillment of the treaties so
extinguished, and not inconsistent with this joint resolution nor
contrary to the Constitution of the United States nor to any existing
treaty of the United States, shall remain in force until the Congress
of the United States shall otherwise determine.
Until legislation shall be enacted extending the United States
customs laws and regulations to the Hawaiian Islands the existing
customs relations of the Hawaiian Islands with the United States and
other countries shall remain unchanged.
The public debt of the Republic of Hawaii, lawfully existing at
the date of the passage of this joint resolution, including the amounts
due to depositors in the Hawaiian Postal Savings Bank, is hereby
assumed by the Government of the United States; but the liability
of the United States in this regard shall in no case exceed four
million dollars. So long, however, as the existing Government and
the present commercial relations of the Hawaiian Islands are con-
tinued as hereinbefore, provided said Government shall continue
to pay the interest on said debt.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 439
There shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the
Hawaiian Islands, except upon such conditions as are now or may
hereafter be allowed by the laws of the United States; and no Chi-
nese, by reason of anything herein contained, shall be allowed to
enter the United States from the Hawaiian Islands.
SEC. i. The President shall appoint five commissioners, at least
two of whom shall be residents of the Hawaiian Islands, who shall,
as soon as reasonably practicable, recommend to Congress such
legislation concerning the Hawaiian Islands as they shall deem
necessary or proper.
SEC. 2. That the commissioners hereinbefore provided for shall
be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate.
SEC. 3. That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so
much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to be
immediately available, to be expended at the discretion of the Presi-
dent of the United States of America, for the purpose of carrying
this joint resolution into effect.
APPROVED, July 7, 1898.
RECOGNITION OF THE
INDEPENDENCE OF CUBA
(1898)
[The following resolution not only recognized the independence of Cuba, but
authorized the levying of war upon Spain in order to force upon that country a
similar recognition. The resolution was passed in response to a message sent to
Congress by President McKinley, April n, 1898, asking for permission to intervene
in Cuba.]
JOINT Resolution for the recognition of the independence of the
people of Cuba, demanding that the Government of Spain
relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba,
and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban
waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the
land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions
into effect.
Whereas, the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more
than three years in the Island of Cuba, so near our own borders,
have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States,
have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they
have, in the destruction of a United States battle-ship, with two
hundred and sixty-six of its officers and crew, while on a friendly
visit in the harbor of Havana, and can not longer be endured, as
has been set forth by the President of the United States in his mes-
sage to Congress of April eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-
eight, upon which the action of Congress was invited: Therefore,
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, First. That the
people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent.
Second. That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and
the Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the
Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and govern-
440
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 44!
ment in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces
from Cuba and Cuban waters.
Third. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby
is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces
of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United
States, the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be
necessary to carry these resolutions into effect.
Fourth. That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition
or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said
Islands except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determina-
tion, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control
of the Island to its people.
APPROVED, April 20, 1898.
TREATY WITH SPAIN
(1898)
[On July 26, 1898, nine days after the surrender of Santiago, the Spanish govern-
ment opened negotiations for peace through the French ambassador at Washington.
Fighting ceased on Aug. 12; and on Oct. i, the commissioners of Spain and the
United States met at Paris, where the following treaty was drawn up.]
f | ^REATY of Peace between the United States of America
and the Kingdom of Spain, Signed at Paris, December 10,
JL 1898; ratification advised by the Senate, February 6, 1899;
ratified by the President, February 6, 1899; ratified by Her Majesty
the Queen Regent of Spain, March 19, 1899; ratifications exchanged
at Washington, April u, 1899; proclaimed at Washington, April
n, 1899.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
REGENT OF SPAIN, IN THE NAME OF HER AUGUST SON, DON ALFONSO
XIII, desiring to end the state of war now existing between the two
countries, have for that purpose appointed as Plenipotentiaries :
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
WILLIAM R. DAY, CUSHMAN K. DAVIS, WILLIAM P. FRYE, GEORGE
GRAY, and WHITELAW REID, citizens of the United States;
AND HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN REGENT OF SPAIN,
DON EUGENIO MONTERO Rios, President of the Senate,
DON BUENAVENTURA DE ABARZUZA, Senator of the Kingdom, and
ex-Minister of the Crown,
DON JOSE DE GARNICA, Deputy to the Cortes and Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court;
DON WENCESLAO RAMIREZ DE VILLA-URRUTIA, Envoy Extraordi-
nary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Brussels, and
DON RAFAEL CERERO, General of Division;
Who, having assembled in Paris, and having exchanged their full
powers, which were found to be in due and proper form, have, after
442
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 443
discussion of the matters before them, agreed upon the following
articles :
ARTICLE I
Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to
Cuba.
And as the island is, upon its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied
by the United States, the United States will, so long as such occupa-
tion shall last, assume and discharge the obligations that may under
international law result from the fact of its occupation, for the
protection of life and property.
ARTICLE II
Spain cedes to the United States, the island of Porto Rico and
other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies,
and the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones.
ARTICLE III
Spain cedes to the United States, the archipelago known as the
Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the
following line :
A line running from west to east along or near the twentieth
parallel of north latitude, and through the middle of the navigable
channel of Bachi, from the one hundred and eighteenth (n8th)
to the one hundred and twenty-seventh (i27th) degree meridian of
longitude east of Greenwich, thence along the one hundred and
twenty-seventh (i27th) degree meridian of longitude east of Green-
wich to the parallel of four degrees and forty-five minutes (4 45')
north latitude, thence along the parallel of four degrees and forty-
five minutes (4 45') north latitude to its intersection with the
meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty-
five minutes (119 35') east of Greenwich, thence along the merid-
ian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty-five
minutes (119 35') east of Greenwich to the parallel of latitude seven
degrees and forty minutes (7 40') north, thence along the parallel
of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7 40') north to its
intersection with the one hundred and sixteenth (n6th) degree
444 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to
the intersection of the tenth (loth) degree parallel of north latitude
with the one hundred and eighteenth (n8th) degree meridian of
longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the one hundred and
eighteenth (n8th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich
to the point of beginning.
The United States will pay to Spain, the sum of twenty million
dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the
ratifications of the present treaty.
ARTICLE IV
The United States will, for the term of ten years from the date
of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, admit Span-
ish ships and merchandise to the ports of the Philippine Islands on
the same terms as ships and merchandise of the United States.
ARTICLE V
The United States will, upon the signature of the present treaty,
send back to Spain, at its own cost, the Spanish soldiers taken as
prisoners of war on the capture of Manila by the American forces.
The arms of the soldiers in question shall be restored to them.
Spain will, upon the exchange of the ratifications of the present
treaty, proceed to evacuate the Philippines, as well as the island of
Guam, on terms similar to those agreed upon by the Commissioners
appointed to arrange for the evacuation of Porto Rico and other
islands in the West Indies, under the Protocol of August 12, 1898,
which is to continue in force till its provisions are completely
executed.
The time within which the evacuation of the Philippine Islands
and Guam shall be completed shall be fixed by the two Govern-
ments. Stands of colors, uncaptured war vessels, small arms, guns
of all calibres, with their carriages and accessories, powder, ammuni-
tion, live stock, and materials and supplies of all kinds, belonging to
the land and naval forces of Spain in the Philippines and Guam,
remain the property of Spain. Pieces of heavy ordnance, exclusive
of field artillery, in the fortifications and coast defences, shall remain
in their emplacements for the term of six months, to be reckoned
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 445
from the exchange of ratifications of the treaty; and the United States
may, in the meantime, purchase such material from Spain, if a satis-
factory agreement between the two Governments on the subject shall
be reached.
ARTICLE VI
Spain will, upon the signature of the present treaty, release all
prisoners of war, and all persons detained or imprisoned for political
offences, in connection with the insurrections in Cuba and the Phil-
ippines and the war with the United States.
Reciprocally, the United States will release all persons made pris-
oners of war by the American forces, and will undertake to obtain
the release of all Spanish prisoners in the hands of the insurgents in
Cuba and the Philippines.
The Government of the United States will at its own cost, return
to Spain, and the Government of Spain will at its own cost, return
to the United States, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, accord-
ing to the situation of their respective homes, prisoners released or
caused to be released by them, respectively, under this article.
ARTICLE VII
The United States and Spain mutually relinquish all claims for
indemnity, national and individual, of every kind, of either Govern-
ment, or of its citizens or subjects, against the other Government,
that may have arisen since the beginning of the late insurrection in
Cuba and prior to the exchange of ratifications of the present treaty,
including all claims for indemnity for the cost of the war.
The United States will adjudicate and settle the claims of its
citizens against Spain relinquished in this article.
ARTICLE VIII
In conformity with the provisions of Articles I, II, and III of this
treaty, Spain relinquishes in Cuba, and cedes in Porto Rico and other
islands in the West Indies, in the island of Guam, and in the Philip-
pine Archipelago, all the buildings, wharves, barracks, forts, struc-
tures, public highways and other immovable property which, in
446 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
conformity with law, belong to the public domain, and as such
belong to the Crown of Spain.
And it is hereby declared that the relinquishment or cession, as
the case may be, to which the preceding paragraph refers, cannot in
any respect impair the property or rights which by law belong to
the peaceful possession of property of all kinds, of provinces, munici-
palities, public or private establishments, ecclesiastical or civic bodies,
or any other associations having legal capacity to acquire and possess
property in the aforesaid territories renounced or ceded, or of private
individuals, of whatsoever nationality such individuals may be.
The aforesaid relinquishment or cession, as the case may be,
includes all documents exclusively referring to the sovereignty re-
linquished or ceded that may exist in the archives of the Peninsula.
Where any document in such archives only in part relates to said
sovereignty, a copy of such part will be furnished whenever it shall
be requested. Like rules shall be reciprocally observed in favor of
Spain in request of documents in the archives of the islands above
referred to.
In the aforesaid relinquishment or cession, as the case may be,
are also included such rights as the Crown of Spain and its authori-
ties possess in respect of the official archives and records, executive
as well as judicial, in the islands above referred to, which relate to
said islands or the rights and property of their inhabitants. Such
archives and records shall be carefully preserved, and private persons
shall without distinction have the right to require, in accordance
with law, authenticated copies of the contracts, wills and other instru-
ments forming part of notarial protocols or files, or which may be
contained in the executive or judicial archives, be the latter in Spain
or in the islands aforesaid.
ARTICLE IX
Spanish subjects, natives of the Peninsula, residing in the territory
over which Spain by the present treaty relinquishes or cedes her
sovereignty, may remain in such territory or may remove therefrom,
retaining in either event all their rights of property, including the
right to sell or dispose of such property or of its proceeds; and they
shall also have the right to carry on their industry, commerce and
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 447
professions, being subject in respect thereof to such laws as are
applicable to other foreigners. In case they remain in the territory
they may preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain by making,
before a court of record, within a year from the date of the exchange
of ratifications of this treaty, a declaration of their decision to pre-
serve such allegiance; in default of which declaration they shall be
held to have renounced it and to have adopted the nationality of the
territory in which they may reside.
The civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of
the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined
by the Congress.
ARTICLE X
The inhabitants of the territories over which Spain relinquishes
or cedes her sovereignty shall be secured in the free exercise of their
religion.
ARTICLE XI
The Spaniards residing in the territories over which Spain by this
treaty cedes or relinquishes her sovereignty shall be subject in mat-
ters civil as well as criminal to the jurisdiction of the courts of the
country wherein they reside, pursuant to the ordinary laws govern-
ing the same; and they shall have the right to appear before such
courts, and to pursue the same course as citizens of the country to
which the courts belong.
ARTICLE XII
Judicial proceedings pending at the time of the exchange of
ratifications of this treaty in the territories over which Spain relin-
quishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be determined according to
the following rules :
(i) Judgments rendered either in civil suits between private
individuals, or in criminal matters, before the date mentioned, and
with respect to which there is no recourse or right of review under
the Spanish law, shall be deemed to be final, and shall be executed
in due form by competent authority in the territory within which
such judgments should be carried out.
448 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
(2) Civil suits between private individuals which may on the
date mentioned be undetermined shall be prosecuted to judgment
before the court in which they may then be pending or in the court
that may be substituted therefor.
(3) Criminal actions pending on the date mentioned before the
Supreme Court of Spain against citizens of the territory which by
this treaty ceases to be Spanish shall continue under its jurisdiction
until final judgment; but, such judgment having been rendered, the
execution thereof shall be committed to the competent authority of
the place in which the case arose.
ARTICLE XIII
The rights of property secured by copyrights and patents acquired
by Spaniards in the Island of Cuba, and in Porto Rico, the Philip-
pines and other ceded territories, at the time of the exchange of the
ratifications of this treaty, shall continue to be respected. Spanish
scientific, literary and artistic works, not subversive of public order
in the territories in question, shall continue to be admitted free of
duty into such territories, for the period of ten years, to be reckoned
from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty.
ARTICLE XIV
Spain shall have the power to establish consular officers in the
ports and places of the territories, the sovereignty over which has
been either relinquished or ceded by the present treaty.
ARTICLE XV
The Government of each country will, for the term of ten years,
accord to the merchant vessels of the other country the same treat-
ment in respect of all port charges, including entrance and clearance
dues, light dues, and tonnage duties, as it accords to its own mer-
chant vessels, not engaged in the coastwise trade.
This article may at any time be terminated on six months' notice
given by either Government to the other.
ARTICLE XVI
It is understood that any obligations assumed in this treaty by
the United States with respect to Cuba are limited to the time of its
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 449
occupancy thereof; but it will upon the termination of such occu-
pancy, advise any Government established in the island to assume
the same obligations.
ARTICLE XVII
The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United
States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof,
and by her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain; and the ratifications
shall be exchanged at Washington within six months from the date
hereof, or earlier if possible.
In faith whereof, we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed
this treaty and have hereunto affixed our seals.
Done in duplicate at Paris, the tenth day of December, in the year
of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.
[SEAL.] WILLIAM R. DAY
[SEAL.] CUSHMAN K. DAVIS
[SEAL.] WM. P. FRYE
[SEAL.] GEO. GRAY
[SEAL.] WHITELAW REID
CONVENTION BETWEEN
THE UNITED STATES AND
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA
(1904)
[The attempt on the part of a French company to build a Panama canal was
begun in 1879 under a concession from the Republic of Colombia, through whose
territory the canal was to pass. When the enterprise was taken over by the United
States in 1903, the treaty with Colombia, arranging for United States control of the
canal strip, was rejected by the Congress of Colombia. The people of the isthmus,
whose prosperity largely depended on the building of the canal, thereupon seceded
from Colombia, set up the Republic of Panama, and agreed to the following con-
vention.]
FOR the Construction of a Ship Canal to Connect the Waters
of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Signed at Washington,
November 18, 1903. Ratification advised by the Senate, Feb-
ruary 23, 1904. Ratified by the President, February 25, 1904. Ratified
by Panama, December 2, 1903. Ratifications exchanged at Washing-
ton, February 26, 1904. Proclaimed, February 26, 1904.
By the President of the United States of America.
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas, a Convention between the United States of America and
the Republic of Panama to insure the construction of a ship canal
across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, was concluded and signed by their respective Plenipoten-
tiaries at Washington, on the eighteenth day of November, one
thousand nine hundred and three, the original of which Convention,
being in the English language, is word for word as follows:
ISTHMIAN CANAL CONVENTION
The United States of America and the Republic of Panama being
desirous to insure the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus
450
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 45!
of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Con-
gress of the United States of America having passed an act approved
June 28, 1902, in furtherance of that object, by which the President
of the United States is authorized to acquire within a reasonable
time the control of the necessary territory of the Republic of Colom-
bia, and the sovereignty of such territory being actually vested in the
Republic of Panama, the high contracting parties have resolved for
that purpose to conclude a convention and have accordingly ap-
pointed as their plenipotentiaries,
The President of the United States of America, John Hay, Secre-
tary of State, and
The Government of the Republic of Panama, Philippe Bunau-
Varilla, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the
Republic of Panama, thereunto specially empowered by said govern-
ment, who after communicating with each other their respective
full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon
and concluded the following articles:
ARTICLE I
The United States guarantees and will maintain the independence
of the Republic of Panama.
ARTICLE II
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity,
the use, occupation and control of a zone of land and land under
water for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and
protection of said Canal of the width of ten miles extending to the
distance of five miles on each side of the center line of the route of
the Canal to be constructed; the said zone beginning in the Carrib-
bean Sea three marine miles from mean low water mark and
extending to and across the Isthmus of Panama into the Pacific
Ocean to a distance of three marine miles from mean low water
mark with the proviso that the cities of Panama and Colon and the
harbors adjacent to said cities, which are included within the boun-
daries of the zone above described, shall not be included within this
grant. The Republic of Panama further grants to the United States
in perpetuity, the use, occupation and control of any other lands
452 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
and waters outside of the zone above described which may be neces-
sary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation,
sanitation and protection of the said Canal or of any auxiliary canals
or other works necessary and convenient for the construction, main-
tenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the said enterprise.
The Republic of Panama further grants in like manner to the
United States in perpetuity, all islands within the limits of the zone
above described and in addition thereto, the group of small islands
in the Bay of Panama, named Perico, Naos, Culebra and Flamenco.
ARTICLE III
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States all the rights,
power and authority within the zone mentioned and described in
Article II of this agreement, and within the limits of all auxiliary
lands and waters mentioned and described in said Article II which
the United States would possess and exercise, if it were the sovereign
of the territory within which said lands and waters are located to
the entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of Panama of
any such sovereign rights, power or authority.
ARTICLE IV
As rights subsidiary to the above grants the Republic of Panama
grants in perpetuity, to the United States the right to use the rivers,
streams, lakes and other bodies of water within its limits for navi-
gation, the supply of water or waterpower or other purposes, so far
as the use of said rivers, streams, lakes and bodies of water and the
waters thereof may be necessary and convenient for the construction,
maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the said Canal.
ARTICLE V
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity,
a monopoly for the construction, maintenance and operation of any
system of communication by means of canal or railroad across its
territory between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 453
ARTICLE VI
The grants herein contained shall in no manner invalidate the
titles or rights of private land holders or owners of private property
in the said zone or in or to any of the lands or waters granted to the
United States by the provisions of any Article of this treaty, nor
shall they interfere with the rights of way over the public roads
passing through the said zone or over any of the said lands or waters
unless said rights of way or private rights shall conflict with rights
herein granted to the United States in which case the rights of the
United States shall be superior. All damages caused to the owners
of private lands or private property of any kind by reason of the
grants contained in this treaty or by reason of the operations of the
United States, its agents or employees, or by reason of the construc-
tion, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the said
Canal or of the works of sanitation and protection herein provided
for, shall be appraised and settled by a joint Commission appointed
by the Governments of the United States and the Republic of Pan-
ama, whose decisions as to such damages shall be final and whose
awards as to such damages shall be paid solely by the United States.
No part of the work on said Canal or the Panama railroad or on
any auxiliary works relating thereto and authorized by the terms
of this treaty shall be prevented, delayed or impeded by or pending
such proceedings to ascertain such damages. The appraisal of said
private lands and private property and the assessment of damages
to them shall be based upon their value before the date of this
convention.
ARTICLE VII
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States within the
limits of the cities of Panama and Colon and their adjacent harbors
and within the territory adjacent thereto the right to acquire by
purchase or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain, any
lands, buildings, water rights or other properties necessary and con-
venient for the construction, maintenance, operation and protection
of the Canal and of any works of sanitation, such as the collection
454 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
and disposition of sewage and the distribution of water in the said
cities of Panama and Colon, which, in the discretion of the United
States may be necessary and convenient for the construction, main-
tenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the said Canal and
railroad. All such works of sanitation, collection and disposition
of sewage and distribution of water in the cities of Panama and
Colon shall be made at the expense of the United States, and the
Government of the United States, its agents or nominees shall be
authorized to impose and collect water rates and sewage rates
which shall be sufficient to provide for the payment of interest
and the amortization of the principal of the cost of said works
within a period of fifty years and upon the expiration of said term
of fifty years the system of sewers and water works shall revert to
and become the properties of the cities of Panama and Colon
respectively, and the use of the water shall be free to the inhabitants
of Panama and Colon, except to the extent that water rates may be
necessary for the operation and maintenance of said system of
sewers and water.
The Republic of Panama agrees that the cities of Panama and
Colon shall comply in perpetuity, with the sanitary ordinances
whether of a preventive or curative character prescribed by the
United States and in case the Government of Panama is unable
or fails in its duty to enforce this compliance by the cities of Panama
and Colon with the sanitary ordinances of the United States the
Republic of Panama grants to the United States the right and
authority to enforce the same.
The same right and authority are granted to the United States
for the maintenance of public order in the cities of Panama and
Colon and the territories and harbors adjacent thereto in case the
Republic of Panama should not be, in the judgment of the United
States, able to maintain such order.
ARTICLE VIII
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States all rights
which it now has or hereafter may acquire to the property of the
New Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railroad Company
as a result of the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 455
Columbia to the Republic of Panama over the Isthmus of Panama
and authorizes the New Panama Canal Company to sell and
transfer to the United States its rights, privileges, properties and
concessions as well as the Panama Railroad and all the shares or
part of the shares of that company; but the public lands situated
outside of the zone described in Article II of this treaty now in-
cluded in the concessions of both said enterprises and not required
in the construction or operation of the Canal shall revert to the
Republic of Panama except any property now owned by or in the
possession of said companies within Panama or Colon or the ports
or terminals thereof.
ARTICLE IX
The United States agrees that the ports at either entrance of the
Canal and the waters thereof, and the Republic of Panama agrees
that the towns of Panama and Colon shall be free for all time so
that there shall not be imposed or collected custom house tolls,
tonnage, anchorage, lighthouse, wharf, pilot, or quarantine dues or
any other charges or taxes of any kind upon any vessel using or
passing through the Canal or belonging to or employed by the
United States, directly or indirectly, in connection with the con-
struction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the
main Canal, or auxiliary works, or upon the cargo, officers, crew, or
passengers of any such vessels, except such tolls and charges as may be
imposed by the United States for the use of the Canal and other
works, and except tolls and charges imposed by the Republic of
Panama upon merchandise destined to be introduced for the con-
sumption of the rest of the Republic of Panama, and upon vessels
touching at the ports of Colon and Panama and which do not cross
the Canal.
The Government of the Republic of Panama shall have the right
to establish in such ports and in the towns of Panama and Colon
such houses and guards as it may deem necessary to collect duties
on importations destined to other portions of Panama and to prevent
contraband trade. The United States shall have the right to make
use of the towns and harbors of Panama and Colon as places of
anchorage, and for making repairs, for loading, unloading, deposit-
456 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
ing, or transshipping cargoes either in transit or destined for the
service of the Canal and for other works pertaining to the Canal.
ARTICLE X
The Republic of Panama agrees that there shall not be imposed
any taxes, national, municipal, departmental, or of any other class,
upon the Canal, the railways and auxiliary works, tugs and other
vessels employed in the service of the Canal, store houses, work
shops, offices, quarters for laborers, factories of all kinds, warehouses,
wharves, machinery and other works, property, and effects ap-
pertaining to the Canal or railroad and auxiliary works, or their
officers or employees, situated within the cities of Panama and
Colon, and that there shall not be imposed contributions or charges
of a personal character of any kind upon officers, employees, laborers,
and other individuals in the service of the Canal and railroad and
auxiliary works.
ARTICLE XI
The United States agrees that the official dispatches of the Gov-
ernment of the Republic of Panama shall be transmitted over any
telegraph and telephone lines established for canal purposes and
used for public and private business at rates not higher than those
required from officials in the service of the United States.
ARTICLE XII
The Government of the Republic of Panama shall permit the im-
migration and free access to the lands and workshops of the Canal
and its auxiliary works of all employees and workmen of what-
ever nationality under contract to work upon or seeking employ-
ment upon or in any wise connected with the said Canal and its
auxiliary works, with their respective families, and all such persons
shall be free and exempt from the military service of the Republic
of Panama.
ARTICLE XIII
The United States may import at any time into the said zone
and auxiliary lands, free of custom duties, imposts, taxes, or other
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 457
charges, and without any restrictions, any and all vessels, dredges,
engines, cars, machinery, tools, explosives, materials, supplies, and
other articles necessary and convenient in the construction, main-
tenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the Canal and
auxiliary works, and all provisions, medicines, clothing, supplies
and other things necessary and convenient for the officers, employees,
workmen and laborers in the service and employ of the United
States and for their families. If any such articles are disposed of
for use outside of the zone and auxiliary lands granted to the United
States and within the territory of the Republic, they shall be subject
to the same import or other duties as like articles imported under the
laws of the Republic of Panama.
ARTICLE XIV
As the price or compensation for the rights, powers and privileges
granted in this convention by the Republic of Panama to the United
States, the Government of the United States agrees to pay to the
Republic of Panama the sum of ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in
gold coin of the United States on the exchange of the ratification of
this convention and also an annual payment during the life of this
convention of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000)
in like gold coin, beginning nine years after the date aforesaid.
The provisions of this Article shall be in addition to all other
benefits assured to the Republic of Panama under this convention.
But no delay or difference of opinion under this Article or any
other provisions of this treaty shall affect or interrupt the full opera-
tion and effect of this convention in all other respects.
ARTICLE XV
The joint commission referred to in Article VI shall be established
as follows:
The President of the United States shall nominate two persons
and the President of the Republic of Panama shall nominate two
persons and they shall proceed to a decision; but in case of dis-
agreement of the Commission (by reason of their being equally
divided in conclusion), an umpire shall be appointed by the two
Governments who shall render the decision. In the event of the
458 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
death, absence, or incapacity of a Commissioner or Umpire, or of
his omitting, declining or ceasing to act, his place shall be filled by
the appointment of another person in the manner above indicated.
All decisions by a majority of the Commission or by the umpire
shall be final.
ARTICLE XVI
The two Governments shall make adequate provision by future
agreement for the pursuit, capture, imprisonment, detention and
delivery within said zone and auxiliary lands to the authorities of
the Republic of Panama of persons charged with the commitment
of crimes, felonies, or misdemeanors without said zone and for the
pursuit, capture, imprisonment, detention and delivery without said
zone to the authorities of the United States of persons charged with
the commitment of crimes, felonies and misdemeanors within said
zone and auxiliary lands.
ARTICLE XVII
The Republic of Panama grants to the United States the use of
all the ports of the Republic open to commerce as places of refuge
for any vessels employed in the Canal enterprise, and for all vessels
passing or bound to pass through the Canal which may be in dis-
tress and be driven to seek refuge in said ports. Such vessels shall
be exempt from anchorage and tonnage dues on the part of the
Republic of Panama.
ARTICLE XVIII
The Canal, when constructed, and the entrances thereto shall be
neutral in perpetuity, and shall be opened upon the terms provided
for by Section I of Article three of, and in conformity with all the
stipulations of, the treaty entered into by the Governments of the
United States and Great Britain on November 18, 1901.
ARTICLE XIX
The Government of the Republic of Panama shall have the right
to transport over the Canal, its vessels and its troops and munitions
of war in such vessels at all times without paying charges of any
kind. The exemption is to be extended to the auxiliary railway for
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 459
the transportation of persons in the service of the Republic of
Panama, or of the police force charged with the preservation of
public order outside of said zone, as well as to their baggage,
munitions of war and supplies.
ARTICLE XX
If by virtue of any existing treaty in relation to the territory of
the Isthmus of Panama, whereof the obligations shall descend or be
assumed by the Republic of Panama, there may be any privilege
or concession in favor of the Government or the citizens and sub-
jects of a third power relative to an interoceanic means of com-
munication which in any of its terms may be incompatible with the
terms of the present convention, the Republic of Panama agrees to
cancel or modify such treaty in due form, for which purpose it shall
give to the said third power the requisite notification within the
term of four months from the date of the present convention, and
in case the existing treaty contains no clause permitting its modifica-
tions or annulment, the Republic of Panama agrees to procure its
modification or annulment in such form that there shall not exist
any conflict with the stipulations of the present convention.
ARTICLE XXI
The rights and privileges granted by the Republic of Panama
to the United States in the preceding Articles are understood to be
free of all anterior debts, liens, trusts, or liabilities, or concessions
or privileges to other Governments, corporations, syndicates or in-
dividuals, and consequently, if there should arise any claims on ac-
count of the present concessions and privileges or otherwise, the
claimants shall resort to the Government of the Republic of Panama,
and not to the United States for any indemnity or compromise which
may be required.
ARTICLE XXII
The Republic of Panama renounces and grants to the United
States, the participation to which it might be entitled in the future
earnings of the Canal under Article XV of the concessionary con-
tract with Lucien N. B. Wyse, now owned by the New Panama
460 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Canal Company and any and all other rights or claims of a pecuniary
nature arising under or relating to said concession, or arising under
or relating to the concessions to the Panama Railroad Company or
any extension or modification thereof; and it likewise renounces,
confirms and grants to the United States, now and hereafter, all the
rights and property reserved in the said concessions which otherwise
would belong to Panama at or before the expiration of the terms
of ninety-nine years of the concessions granted to or held by the
above mentioned party and companies, and all right, title and in-
terest which it now has or may hereafter have, in and to the lands,
canal, works, property and rights held by the said companies under
said concessions or otherwise, and acquired or to be acquired by the
United States from or through the New Panama Canal Company,
including any property and rights which might or may in the future
either by lapse of time, forfeiture or otherwise, revert to the Republic
of Panama under any contracts or concessions, with said Wyse, the
Universal Panama Canal Company, the Panama Railroad Company
and the New Panama Canal Company.
The aforesaid rights and property shall be and are free and re-
leased from any present or reversionary interest in or claims of
Panama and the title of the United States thereto upon consumma-
tion of the contemplated purchase by the United States from the
New Panama Canal Company, shall be absolute, so far as concerns
the Republic of Panama, excepting always the rights of the Republic
specifically secured under this treaty.
ARTICLE XXIII
If it should become necessary at any time to employ armed forces
for the safety or protection of the Canal, or of the ships that make
use of the same, or the railways and auxiliary works, the United
States shall have the right, at all times and in its discretion, to use
its police and its land and naval forces or to establish fortifications
for these purposes.
ARTICLE XXIV
No change either in the Government or in the laws and treaties
of the Republic of Panama shall, without the consent of the United
AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 461
States, affect any right of the United States under the present con-
vention, or under any treaty stipulation between the two countries
that now exists or may hereafter exist touching the subject matter
of this convention.
If the Republic of Panama shall hereafter enter as a constituent
into any other Government or into any union or confederation of
states, so as to merge her sovereignty or independence in such Gov-
ernment, union or confederation, the rights of the United States
under this convention shall not be in any respect lessened or im-
paired.
ARTICLE XXV
For the better performance of the engagements of this convention
and to the end of the efficient protection of the Canal and the pres-
ervation of its neutrality, the Government of the Republic of
Panama will sell or lease to the United States lands adequate and
necessary for the naval or coaling stations on the Pacific coast and
on the western Caribbean coast of the Republic at certain points
to be agreed upon with the President of the United States.
ARTICLE XXVI
This convention when signed by the Plenipotentiaries of the Con-
tracting Parties shall be ratified by the respective Governments and
the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington at the earliest
date possible.
In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the
present convention in duplicate and have hereunto affixed their re-
spective seals.
Done at the City of Washington, the i8th day of November in
the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and three.
JOHN HAY. [SEAL.]
P. BUNAU VARILLA. [SEAL.]
And whereas the said Convention has been duly ratified on both
parts, and the ratifications of the two governments were exchanged
in the City of Washington, on the twenty-sixth day of February,
one thousand nine hundred and four;
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Theodore Roosevelt, President
462 AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
of the United States of America, have caused the said Convention
to be made public, to the end that the same and every article and
clause thereof, may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by
the United States and the citizens thereof.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this twenty-sixth day of Feb-
P .j ruary, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hun-
dred and four, and of the Independence of the United
States the one hundred and twenty-eighth.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
By the President:
JOHN HAY,
Secretary of State.
PN
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