the contrary, it shows a gain of quite one hundred and thirty thousand
soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as
facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; and we could not have
had them without the measure.

"And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself by
writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by force
of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred and thirty
thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be but
for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his case so stated, it is
only because he cannot face the truth."

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this
tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have
controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not
what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim
it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a
great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of
the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial
history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and
goodness of God.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

TO MRS. HORACE MANN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 5, 1864.

MRS HORACE MANN:

MADAM:--The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would
free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears you
wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please tell these
little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and
generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the power to grant all they
ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, he
wills to do it.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BUTLER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 12, 1864.

MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, Fort Monroe, Va.:

I am pressed to get from Libby, by special exchange, Jacob C. Hagenbuek,
first lieutenant, Company H, Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers. Please
do it if you can without detriment or embarrassment.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 17, 1864.

MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of the Potomac:

Private William Collins of Company B, of the Sixty-n