To Edwin M. Stanton1Jump to section
Sir--- Washington, Aug. 4. 1862.
Please see these Texas gentlemen, and talk with them. They think if we could send 2500 or 3000 arms, in a vessel, to the vicinity of the Rio. Grande, that they can find the men there who will re-inaugerate the National Authority on the Rio Grande first, and probably on the Nuesces also. Perhaps Gen. Halleck's opinion should should [sic] be asked. Yours truly A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, RPB. The Texas gentlemen may have been Edmund J. Davis (judge of the U.S. District Court at Austin, Texas, 1855-1860) and John L. Haynes, whose proposal to rearm unionists in Texas is listed on August 24, 1862, as referred to the War Department (DNA WR RG 107, Register of Letters Received, P 113, Irregular Book 5). Other possibilities are Andrew J. Hamilton and Edward L. Plumb (former minister to Mexico) who in company with Haynes and the ``War Committee of the Citizens of New York'' headed by John A. Stevens, Jr., pressed a similar proposal on October 9, 1862. (New York Tribune, October 8, 1862). The Report of the Stevens' committee, published as a pamphlet sometime later, indicated that Stanton and Lincoln did not find the proposal practicable at the time.