The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, vol 6 | Page 9

north of Banks, on the road to Winchester.
Banks ran a race with them, beating them into Winchester yesterday
evening. This morning a battle ensued between the two forces, in which
Banks was beaten back into full retreat toward Martinsburg, and
probably is broken up into a total rout. Geary, on the Manassas Gap
railroad, just now reports that Jackson is now near Front Royal, With
10,000, following up and supporting, as I understand, the forces now
pursuing Banks, also that another force of 10,000 is near Orleans,

following on in the same direction. Stripped here, as we are here, it will
be all we can do to prevent them crossing the Potomac at Harper's
Ferry or above. We have about 20,000 of McDowell's force moving
back to the vicinity of Front Royal, and General Fremont, who was at
Franklin, is moving to Harrisonburg; both these movements intended to
get in the enemy's rear.
One more of McDowell's brigades is ordered through here to Harper's
Ferry; the rest of his force remains for the present at Fredericksburg.
We are sending such regiments and dribs from here and Baltimore as
we can spare to Harper's Ferry, supplying their places in some sort by
calling in militia from the adjacent States. We also have eighteen
cannon on the road to Harper's Ferry, of which arm there is not a single
one yet at that point. This is now our situation.
If McDowell's force was now beyond our reach, we should be utterly
helpless. Apprehension of something like this, and no unwillingness to
sustain you, has always been my reason for withholding McDowell's
force from you. Please understand this, and do the best you can with
the force you have.
A. LINCOLN.

HISTORY OF CONSPIRACY OF REBELLION
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.
MAY 16, 1862
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
The insurrection which is yet existing in the United States and aims at
the overthrow of the Federal Constitution and the Union, was
clandestinely prepared during the Winter of 1860 and 1861, and
assumed an open organization in the form of a treasonable provisional
government at Montgomery, in Alabama on the 18th day of February,
1861. On the 12th day of April, 1861, the insurgents committed the
flagrant act of civil war by the bombardment and the capture of Fort
Sumter, Which cut off the hope of immediate conciliation. Immediately
afterward all the roads and avenues to this city were obstructed, and the
capital was put into the condition of a siege. The mails in every
direction were stopped and the lines of telegraph cut off by the
insurgents, and military and naval forces which had been called out by
the government for the defense of Washington were prevented from

reaching the city by organized and combined treasonable resistance in
the State of Maryland. There was no adequate and effective
organization for the public defense. Congress had indefinitely
adjourned. There was no time to convene them. It became necessary for
me to choose whether, using only the existing means, agencies, and
processes which Congress had provided, I should let the government
fall at once into ruin or whether, availing myself of the broader powers
conferred by the Constitution in cases of insurrection, I would make an
effort to save it, with all its blessings, for the present age and for
posterity.
I thereupon summoned my constitutional advisers, the heads of all the
departments, to meet on Sunday, the 20th day of April, 1861, at the
office of the Navy Department, and then and there, with their
unanimous concurrence, I directed that an armed revenue cutter should
proceed to sea to afford protection to the commercial marine, and
especially the California treasure ships then on their way to this coast. I
also directed the commandant of the navy-yard at Boston to purchase or
charter and arm as quickly as possible five steamships for purposes of
public defense. I directed the commandant of the navy-yard at
Philadelphia to purchase or charter and arm an equal number for the
same purpose. I directed the commandant at New York to purchase or
charter and arm an equal number. I directed Commander Gillis to
purchase or charter and arm and put to sea two other vessels. Similar
directions were given to Commodore Dupont, with a view to the
opening of passages by water to and from the capital. I directed the
several officers to take the advice and obtain the aid and efficient
services, in the matter, of his Excellency Edwin D. Morgan, the
Governor of New York, or in his absence George D. Morgan, William
M. Evarts, R. M. Blatchford, and Moses H. Grinnell, who were by my
directions especially empowered by the Secretary of the Navy to act for
his department in that crisis in matters pertaining