Southern States would send representatives to the next Congress, provided
that a full and general amnesty should permit them to do so. No guarantee
or terms were asked for other than the amnesty referred to."

I strongly suspect your information will prove to be groundless;
nevertheless, I thank you for communicating it to me. Understanding the
phrase in the paragraph just quoted--"the Southern States would send
representatives to the next Congress"--to be substantially the same as
that "the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would
reinaugurate, submit to, and maintain the national authority within the
limits of such States, under the Constitution of the United States," I say
that in such case the war would cease on the part of the United States;
and that if within a reasonable time "a full and general amnesty" were
necessary to such end, it would not be withheld.

I do not think it would be proper now to communicate this, formally or
informally, to the people of the Southern States. My belief is that they
already know it; and when they choose, if ever, they can communicate
with me unequivocally. Nor do I think it proper now to suspend military
operations to try any experiment of negotiation.

I should nevertheless receive with great pleasure the exact information
you now have, and also such other as you may in any way obtain. Such
information might be more valuable before the 1st of January than
afterwards.

While there is nothing in this letter which I shall dread to see in
history, it is, perhaps, better for the present that its existence should
not become public. I therefore have to request that you will regard it as
confidential.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL CURTIS.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 14, 1862

MAJOR-GENERAL CURTIS, St. Louis, Missouri:

If my friend Dr. William Fithian, of Danville, Ill., should call on YOU,
please give him such facilities as you consistently can about recovering
the remains of a step-son, and matters connected therewith.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL H. H. SIBLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 16, 1862.

BRIG. GEN. H. H. SIBLEY, Saint Paul, Minn.:

As you suggest, let the executions fixed for Friday the 19th instant be
postponed to, and be done on, Friday the 26th instant.

A. LINCOLN. (Private.) Operator please send this very carefully and
accurately. A. L.

TELE