ment for a change in the course of the San Antonio and El Paso mail, so as to send it by way of Forts Mason, Griffin, and Stockton, instead of by camps Hudson and Lancaster. This application requires immediate decision, but before final action can be had thereon it is desired to have some official information as to the report of the commission above referred to.

Accordingly, I have the honor to request that you will cause this department to be furnished,

as early as possible, with the information desired in the premises, and also with a copy of the report, if any has been made by the commission. Very respectfully, &c., &c., GEORGE W. MCLELLAN,

Second Assistant Postmaster General. The Honorable the SECRETARY Of War. Referred to the General of the army for report. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

FEBRUARY 3, 1868.

XXVI.

LETTERS, PAPERS, TESTIMONY, POLITICO-MILITARY ORDERS,
AND REPORT OF GENERAL GRANT.*

General Grant's Orders respecting Slaves,
issued in the Field.

HEADQUARTERS DIST. OF WEST TENNESSEE,
FORT DONELSON, February 26, 1862.

General Orders, No. 14.

I. General Order No. 3, series 1861, from headquarters department of the Missouri, is still in force and must be observed. The necessity of its strict enforcement is made apparent by the numerous applications from citizens for permissson to pass through the camps to look for fugitive slaves. In no case whatever will permission be granted to citizens for this purpose.

II. All slaves at Fort Donelson at the time of its capture, and all slaves within the line of military occupation that have been used by the enemy in building fortifications, or in any manner hostile to the Government, will be employed by the quartermaster's department for the benefit of the Government, and will under no circumstances be permitted to return to their masters. III. It is made the duty of all officers of this command to see that all slaves above indicated are promptly delivered to the chief quartermaster of the district.

By order of Brig. Gen. U. S. GRANT.

JNO. A. RAWLINS, A. A. G.

HEADQUARTERS DIST. OF WEST TENNESSEE,
CORINTH, MISS., August 11, 1862.

General Orders, No. 72.

Recent acts of Congress prohibit the army from returning fugitives from labor to their claimants, and authorize the employment of such persons in the service of the Government. The following orders are therefore published for the guidance of the army in this military district in this matter.

I. All fugitives thus employed must be registered, the names of the fugitives and claimants given, and must be borne upon morning reports of the command in which they are kept, showing how they are employed.

*For other papers of General Grant, see pages 67, 68, 120, 121, 122, 123 of the Manual of 1866, and 73, 74, and 78 of the Manual of 1867; or 67, 68, 120, 121, 122, 123, 199, 200, and

204 of the combined Manuals.

с

II. Fugitive slaves may be employed as laborers in the quartermaster's, subsistence, and engineer departments, and wherever by such employment a soldier may be saved to the ranks. They may be employed as teamsters, as company cooks (not exceeding four to a company,) or as hospital attendants or nurses. Officers may employ them as private servants, in which latter case the fugitive will not be paid or rationed by the Government. Negroes not thus employed will be deemed unauthorized persons, and must be excluded from the camps.

III. Officers and soldiers are prohibited from enticing slaves to leave their masters. When it becomes necessary to employ this kind of labor, commanding officers of posts or troops must send details (always under the charge of a suitable non-commissioned officer) to press into service the slaves of disloyal persons to the number required.

IV. Citizens within the reach of any military station, known to be disloyal and dangerous, may be ordered away or arrested, and their crops and stocks taken for the benefit of the Government or the use of the army.

V. All property taken from rebel owners must be duly reported and used for the benefit of Government, and be issued to troops through the proper departments, and, when practicable, the act of taking should be avowed by the writ-, ten certificate of the officer taking, to the owner or agent of such property.

It is enjoined on all commanding officers to see that this order is strictly executed. The demoralization of troops consequent on being left to execute laws in their own way, without a head, must be avoided. proper By order of Maj. Gen. U. S GRANT. JNO. A. RAWLINS, A. A. G.

I. At all military posts in States within the department where slavery has been abolished by the proclamation of the President of the United States, camps will be established for such freed people of color as are out of employment. II. Commanders of posts or districts will detail suitable officers from the army as superintendents of such camps. It will be the duty of such superintendents to see that suitable rations are drawn from the subsistence department for such people as are confided to their care.

III. In regiments and companies they may be employed as follows: One cook to each fifteen men, and one teamster to each wagon. Officers may employ them as servants, but not in greater number than they are entitled to commutation

for.

IV. Commanders of regiments and detachments will see that all negroes in or about their respective camps, not employed as provided in this order, are collected and turned over to the provost marshal of the division, post, or army corps to which their regiment or detachment belongs.

V. Provost marshals will keep all negroes thus coming into their hands from straggling and wandering about until they can be put in charge of the superintendent of the camp for colored people nearest them; and all negroes unemployed, in accordance with this or previous orders, not in and about camps of regiments and detachments, will be required to go into the camps established for negroes, and it is enjoined upon provost marshals to see that they do so.

III. All such persons supported by the Government will be employed in every practicable way, so as to avoid, as far as possible, their becoming a burden upon the Government. They may be hired to planters, or other citizens, on proper assurances that the negroes so hired will not be run off beyond the military jurisdiction of the United States; they may be employed on any public works; in gathering crops from abandoned plantations; and generally in any manner local commanders may deem for the best interests of the Government, in compliance with law and the policy of the administration.

VI. Recruiting for colored regiments in negro
camps will be prohibited, except when special
authority to do so is given.

VII. All able bodied negro men who are
found, ten days after publication of this order,
without a certificate of the officer or person em-
ploying them, will be regarded
as unemployed,
and may be pressed into service. Certificates
given to negroes must show how, when, and by
vants, that the officer employing them has not
whom they are empicyed, and if as officers' ser-
greater number than by law he is entitled to
commutation for.

IV. It will be the duty of the provost marshal at every military post to see that every negro within the jurisdiction of the military authority is employed by some white person, or is sent to the camps provided for freed people. V. Citizens may make contracts with freed persons of color for their labor, giving wages per month in money, or employ families of them by the year on plantations, &c., feeding, clothing, and supporting the infirm as well as the able-bodied, and giving a portion-not less than one-twentieth-of the commercial part of their crops in payment for such service.

VI. Where the negroes are employed under this authority, the parties employing will register with the provost marshal their names, occupation, and residence, and the number of negroes employed. They will enter into such bonds as the provost marshal, with the approval of the local commander, may require, for the kind treatment and proper care of those employed, and as security against their being carried be yond the employer's jurisdiction.

VII. Nothing in this order is to be construed to embarrass the employment of such colored persons as may be required by the Government. By order of Major General U. S. GRANT,

a

By order of Major General U. S. Grant.
JNO. A. RAWLINS, A. A. G.

Hon. E. B. Washburne.

DEAR SIR: *

*

*

Letter on Slavery and Reconstruction.
VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI,
August 30, 1863.
the North need not quarrel over the institution
The people of
acknowledges the corner-stone of the Confed-
of slavery.
What Vice President Stephens
dead, and cannot be resurrected. It would take
eracy is already knocked out. Slavery is already
a standing army to maintain slavery in the
South, if we were to make peace to-day, guaran
teeing to the South all their former constitutional
what could be called anti slavery; but I try to
privileges. I never was an abolitionist, not even
judge fairly and honestly, and it became patent
to my mind early in the rebellion that the North
and South could never live at peace with each
other except as one nation, and that without
slavery. As anxious as I am to see peace estab
lished, I would not, therefore, be willing to see

T. S. BOWERS, A. A. A. G. Headquarters DePART. OF THE TENNESSEE, VICKSBURG, Miss., August 23, 1863.

General Orders, No. 53.

I. Hereafter, negroes will not be allowed in

any settlement until this question is forever | a divided North. This might give them reinsettled. Your sincere friend,

On being a Candidate for Political Office.
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE,
January 20, 1864.

Hon. I. N. MORRIS.
DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 29th of Decem-
ber I did not receive until two days ago. I re-
ceive many such, but do not answer. Yours,
however, is written in such a kindly spirit, and
as you ask for an answer, confidentially, I will
not withhold it. Allow me to say, however, that
I am not a politician, never was, and hope never
to be, and could not write a political letter. My
only desire is to serve the country in her present
trials. To do this efficiently it is necessary to
have the confidence of the army and the people.
I know no way to better secure this end than by
a faithful performance of my duties. So long as
I hold my present position, I do not believe that
I have the right to criticize the policy or orders
of those above me, or to give utterance to views
of my own except to the authorities at Washing-
ton, through the General-in-Chief of the army.
In this respect, I know I have proven myself a
good soldier."

On Protecting Colored Soldiers. HEADQ'RS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, October 29, 1864.

General R. E. LEE, C. S. A.,

Commanding Army Northern Virginia. GENERAL: Understanding from your letter of the 19th that the colored prisoners who are employed at work in the trenches near Fort Gumer have been withdrawn, I have directed the withdrawal of the Confederate prisoners employed in the Dutch Gap canal.

I shall always regret the necessity of retaliating for wrongs done our soldiers; but regard it my duty to protect all persons received into the army of the United States, regardless of color or nationality. When acknowledged soldiers of the Government are captured they must be treated as prisoners of war, or such treatment as they receive will be inflicted upon an equal number of prisoners held by us.

I have nothing to do with the discussion of

In answer to the question at the conclusion of your letter, I have to state that all prisoners of war falling into my hands shall receive the kindest treatment possible, consistent with securing them, unless I have good authority for believing any number of our men are being treated otherwise. Then, painful as it may be to me, I shall inflict like treatment on an equal number of Confederate prisoners.

the slavery question; therefore decline answer-change prisoners because we found ours starved, ing the arguments adduced to show the right to diseased, and unserviceable when we received return to former owners such negroes as are cap- them, and did not like to exchange sound men tured from our army. for such men? A. There never has been any such reason as that. That has been a reason for making exchanges. I will confess that if our men who are prisoners in the South were really well taken care of, suffering nothing except a little privation of liberty, then, in a military point of view, it would not be good policy for us to exchange, because every man they get back is forced right into the army at once, while that is not the case with our prisoners when we receive them. In fact, the half of our returned prisoners will never go into the army again, and none of them will until after they have had a furlough of thirty or sixty days. Still, the fact of their suffering as they do is a reason for making this exchange as rapidly as possible.

Hoping that it may never become my duty to order retaliation upon any man held as a prisoner of war, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General.

General Grant's Testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, on Exchange of Prisoners, February 11, 1865.

Q. It is stated, upon what authority I do not know, that you are charged entirely with the exchange of prisoners. A. That is correct. And what is more, I have effected an arrangement for the exchange of prisoners, man for man and officer for officer, or his equivalent, according to the old cartel, until one or the other party has exhausted the number they now hold. I get a great many letters daily from friends of prisoners in the South, every one of which I cause to be answered, telling them that this arrangement has been made, and that I suppose exchanges can be made at the rate of about 3,000 a week. The fact is, that I do not believe the South can deliver our prisoners to us as fast as that, on account of want of transportation on their part. But just as fast as they can deliver our prisoners to us, I will receive them, and deliver their prisoners to them.

Q. There is no impediment in the way? A. No, sir; I will take the prisoners as fast as they can deliver them. Ard, I would add, that after I have caused the letters to be answered, I refer the letters to Colonel Mulford, the commissioner of exchanges, so that he may effect special exchanges in those cases wherever he can do so. The Salisbury prisoners will be coming right on. I myself saw Colonel Hatch, the assistant commissioner of exchanges on the part of the South, and he told me that the Salisbury and Danville prisoners would be coming on at once. He said that he could bring them on at the rate of 5,000 or 6,000 a week. But I do not believe he can. do that. Their roads are now taxed to their utmost capacity for military purposes, and are becoming less and less efficient every day. Many of the bridges are now down. I merely fixed, as a matter of judgment, that 3,000 a week will be as fast as they can deliver them.

Q. The fact is, that there is no impediment now in the way except the lack of transportation? A. That is all. There is no impediment on our side. I could deliver and receive every one of them in a very short time, if they will deliver those they hold. We have lost some two weeks lately on account of the ice in the

river.

Q. It has been said that we refused to ex

Q. And never has been a reason for not making the exchange? A. It never has. Exchanges having been suspended by reason of disagreement on the part of agents of exchange on both sides before I came in command of the armies of the United States, and it then being near the opening of the spring campaign, I did not deem it advisable or just to the men who had to fight our battles to reinforce the enemy with thirty or forty thousand disciplined troops at that time. An immediate resumption of exchanges would have had that effect without giv The suffering ing us corresponding benefits. said to exist among our prisoners South was a powerful argument against the course pursued, and so I felt it.

General Grant and the Proposed Mission to

Mexico.

GENERAL GRANT TO SECRETARY STANTON. HEADQ'RS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, October 27, 1866. Your letter of this date, enclosing one from the President of the United States of the 26th instant, asking you to request me "to proceed to some point on our Mexican frontier most suitable and convenient for communication with our minister; or (if General Grant deems it best) to accompany him to his destination in Mexico, and to give him the aid of his advice in carrying out the instructions of the Secretary State," is received. Also, copy of instructions to Hon. Lewis D. Campbell, minister to Mexico, accompanying your letter, is received.

of

The same request was made of me one week ago to-day, verbally, to which I returned a written reply, copy of which is herewith enclosed.

On the 23d instant, the same request was re
newed in cabinet meeting, where I was invited
to be present, when I again declined respectfully
as I could the mission tendered me, with reasons.

the proposed mission for the following additional
I now again beg most respectfully to decline
reasons, to wit:

and troops distributed as fast as organized, my
Now, whilst the army is being reorganized,
duties require me to keep within telegraphic
communication of all the department command-
ers, and of this city, from which orders must
the United States and Mexico is embraced in the
emanate. Almost the entire frontier between

laws of Maryland. The tendency of giving such
aid or promise would be to produce the very re-
sult intended to be averted. So far there seems
to be merely a very bitter contest for political
ascendancy in the State.

departments commanded by Generals Sheridan | military aid of the government to support the and Hancock, the command of the latter being embraced in the military division under Lieutenant General Sherman, three officers in whom the entire country has unbounded confidence. Either of these general officers can be instructed to accompany the American minister to the Mexican frontier, or the one can through whose command the minister may propose to pass in reaching his destination.

If it is desirable that our minister should communicate with me he can do so through the officer who may accompany him, with but very little delay beyond what would be experienced if I were to accompany him myself. I might add that I would not dare counsel the minister in any matter beyond stationing of troops on the United States soil, without the concurrence of the administration. That concurrence could be more speedily had with me here than if I were upon the frontier, The stationing of troops would be as fully within the control of the accompanying officer as it would of mine.

I sincerely hope I may be excused from undertaking a duty so foreign to my office and tastes as that contemplated.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

U. S. GRANT, General.

Secretary of War.

Military interference would be interpreted as giving aid to one of the factions, no matter how pure the intentions or how guarded and just the instructions. It is a contingency I hope never to see arise in this country, while I occupy the position of general-in-chief of the army, to have to send troops into a State, in full relations with the general government, on the eve of an election, to preserve the peace. If insurrection does come, the law provides the method of calling out forces to suppress it. No such condition seems to exist now. U. S. GRANT, General.

October 25-The President asked for the number of troops at convenient stations; to which General Grant replied, on the 27th, giving them. November 1, President directed Secretary Stanton: "In view of the prevalence in various portions of the country of a revolutionary and turbulent disposition, which might at any moinent assume insurrectionary proportions and lead to serious disorders, and of the duty of the government to be at all times prepared to act with decision and effect, this force is not deemed adequate for the protection and security of the

General Grant and the Baltimore Troubles of seat of government. I therefore request that

October, 1866.

1.-GENERAL GRANT TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON. HEADQ'RS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, October 24, 1866.

His Excellency A. JOHNSON,

you will at once take such measures as will in-
sure its safety, and thus discourage any attempt
for its possession by insurgent or other illegal
combinations."

November 2-The President gave Secretary
Stanton this order:

President of the United States. I have the honor to enclose to you the within EXECUTIVE MANSION, report from General Canby, commander of this WASHINGTON, D. C., November 2, 1866. military department, upon the threatened vioSIR: There is ground to apprehend danger of lence in the city of Baltimore previous to the an insurrection in Baltimore against the constiapproaching elections. Upon receiving your tuted authorities of the State of Maryland, on verbal instructions of the 20th instant, to look or about the day of the election soon to be held into the nature of the threatened difficulties in aid of the United States might be invoked under in that city, and that in such contingency the Baltimore, to ascertain what course should be the acts of Congress which pertain to that subpursued to prevent it, I gave General Canby, ject. While I am averse to any military demonwhose department embraces the State of Mary-stration that would have a tendency to interfere land, instructions, also verbal, to proceed to with the free exercise of the elective franchise Baltimore in person, to ascertain as nearly as he could the cause which threatened to lead to in Baltimore, or be construed into any interfer riot and bloodshed. The report submitted is ence in local questions, I feel great solicitude given in pursuance of these instructions. that, should an insurrection take place, the

Very respectfully, yours,

ANDREW JOHNSON.

Since the rendition of General Canby's report government should be prepared to meet and I had a long conversation with him, and also promptly put it down. I accordingly desire with Governor Swann, of the State of Maryland. you to call General Grant's attention to the It is the opinion of General Canby and the state-subject, leaving to his own discretion and judgment of Governor Swann, that no danger of riot ment the measures of preparation and precauneed be apprehended unless the latter should tion that should be adopted. find it necessary to remove the present police commissioners of Baltimore from office and to appoint their successors. No action in this direction has been taken yet, nor will there be until Friday next, when the trial of the commissioners before the governor is set to take place. I cannot see the possible necessity for calling in the aid of the military in advance of even the cause, (the removal of said commissioners,) which is to induce riot.

The conviction is forced on my mind that no reason now exists for giving or promising the

Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.

Same day, General Grant sent this telegram
to General Canby:
General E. R. S. CANBY,

Comm'g Depart. of Washington.
Enclosed I send you orders just received from
the President of the United States. They fully
explain themselves. As commander of the mili-
tary department including the State of Mary-