Lincoln on Democracy

"DISCHARGE HIM AT ONCE"

332 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY if I shall live, I shall remain President until the fourth of next March; and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected therefor in November , shall be duly installed as President on the fourth ofMarch; and that in the interval I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage, shall start with the best possible chance to save the ship. This is due to the people both on principle, and under the constitution . Their will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace even at the loss oftheir country, and their liberty, I know not the power or the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country and their liberty; and in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add that in this purpose to save the country and it's liberties, no classes ofpeople seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the field and the seamen afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders. "DISCHARGE HIM AT ONCE" Letter to the Governor ofKentucky [NOVEMBER 10, 1864] On election day, November 9, Kentucky governor Thomas E. Bramlette wired Lincoln to complain that a general he described as "a loyal man and prominent citizen" had been arrested merely for opposing the President 's reelection. Although so-called arrests of civilians by the military were by then not uncommon, the governor could not believe that Lincoln would "sanction this ostracizing of loyal men who honestly oppose you." This is Lincoln's reply, complete with a self-depreciating reference to his poor showing at the polls in his native Kentucky, one of only two states he had lost in the election. Gov. Bramlette Frankfort, Ky. Lincoln and Democracy, 1863-1865 333 Office U.S. Military Telegraph, War Department, Washington, D.C., Nov. to. 1864. Yours of yesterday received. I can scarcely believe that Gen. Jno. B. Houston has been arrested "for no other offence than opposition to my re-election" for if that had been deemed sufficient cause of arrest, I should have heard ofmore than one arrest in Kentucky on election day. If however, Gen. Houston has been arrested for no other cause than opposition to my re-election Gen. Burbridge will discharge him at once. I send him a copy of this as an order to that effect. A. LINCOLN. "THE ELECTION WAS A NECESSITY" Response to a Serenade, the White House [NOVEMBER 10, 1864] Two days after his reelection, the President read this response to a victory serenade by local Lincoln-Johnson clubsfrom a second-floor White House window. "Not very graceful, " he said ofthe effort later, "but I am growing old enough not to care much for the manner of doing things." It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its own existence, in great emergencies. On this point the present rebellion brought our republic to a severe test; and a presidential election occurring in regular course during the rebellion added not a little to the strain. Ifthe loyal people, united, were put to the utmost of their strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided, and partially paralized, by a political war among themselves ? ...