A. Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT.

Washington, March 25, 1863.

Major-general Hurlbut, Memphis: 

What news have you?  What from Vicksburg?  What from Yazoo Pass? 
What from Lake Providence?  What generally?

A. Lincoln.

QUESTION OF RAISING NEGRO TROOPS

To governor Johnson. 
(Private.)
Executive Mansion, Washington
March 26, 1863.

Hon.  Andrew Johnson.

My dear sir:—­I am told you have at least thought of raising a negro military force.  In my opinion the country now needs no specific thing so much as some man of your ability and position to go to this work.  When I speak of your position, I mean that of an eminent citizen of a slave State and himself a slaveholder.  The colored population is the great available and yet unavailed of force for restoring the Union.  The bare sight of fifty thousand armed and drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once; and who doubts that we can present that sight if we but take hold in earnest?  If you have been thinking of it, please do not dismiss the thought.

Yours very truly,

A. Lincoln.

PROCLAMATION APPOINTING A NATIONAL FAST-DAY.

By the president of the united states of America: 

A Proclamation.

March 30, 1863.

Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation: 

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord: 

And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?  We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.  We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth,