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My Dear Sir. Yours of the 16th. by the hand of Governor Shepley is received. It seems the Union feeling in Louisiana is being crushed out by the course of General Phelps. Please pardon me for believing that is a false pretense. The people of Louisiana---all intelligent people every where---know full well, that I never
had a wish to touch the foundations of their society, or any right of theirs. With perfect knowledge of this, they forced a necessity upon me to send armies among them, and it is their own fault, not mine, that they are annoyed by the presence of General Phelps. They also know the remedy---know how to be cured of General Phelps. Remove the necessity of his presence. And might it not be well for them to consider whether they have not already had time enough to do this? If they can conceive of anything worse than General Phelps, within my power, would they not better be looking out for it? They very well know the way to avert all this is simply to take their place in the Union upon the old terms. If they will not do this, should they not receive harder blows rather than lighter ones?
You are ready to say I apply to friends what is due only to enemies. I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends, who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me. This appeal of professed friends has paralyzed me more in this struggle than any other one thing. You remember telling me the day after the Baltimore mob in April 1861, that it would crush all Union feeling in Maryland for me to attempt bringing troops over Maryland soil to Washington. I brought the troops notwithstanding, and yet there was Union feeling enough left to elect a Legislature the next autumn which in turn elected a very excellent Union U. S. Senator!
I am a patient man---always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for repentance. Still I must save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed. Yours truly A LINCOLN
[1] Copy, DLC-RTL. The copy is in John Hay's handwriting. Reverdy Johnson, who had been appointed by the Department of State as a special agent to investigate and report on complaints by foreign consuls against military proceedings in New Orleans under Benjamin F. Butler, wrote that ``So far, for want, mainly, of adequate military force, little has been done but to obtain the possession of this City, & the Country, immediately surrounding it. . . . Whatever Union feeling (& it is said to have been extensive---) there was . . . has nearly subsided, & principally, from an impression that it is the purpose of the Govt. to force the Emancipation of the slaves. This impression grows, in a great measure, from the course of Genl. Phelps. . . . Depend upon it, my Dear Sir, that unless this is at once corrected, this State cannot be, for years, if ever, reinstated in the Union. . . .'' (DLC-RTL). Brigadier General John S. Phelps was military governor of Arkansas and Louisiana. In May, Butler placed Colonel George F. Shepley of the Twelfth Maine Volunteers in command at New Orleans, and in June Shepley became military governor of Louisiana.
On September 5, 1862, Reverdy Johnson answered Lincoln's letter, which
had been forwarded from New Orleans to Washington, ``Your private letter to me of the 26th of July, has been forwarded to me from New Orleans. When, some days since, you read a copy of it to me, in the presence of some Louisiana Gentlemen, I deemed it due to us both, to correct you in a fact that it alleged. It was that I told you `the day after the Baltimore mob of April `61, that it would crush all union feeling in Maryland, for me to attempt bringing troops over Md. soil to Washington.' You were never more mistaken. I never said so, to you or any one else, nor ever thought so.'' (DLC-RTL).