In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Abraham Lincoln.

By the President: 
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD.

WASHINGTON D.C., OCTOBER 4, 1863

Major-general Schofield, St. Louis, Mo.: 

I think you will not have just cause to complain of my action.

A. Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.

War department, October 4, 1863. 11.30 A.M.

Major-general Rosecrans, Chattanooga, Tenn.: 

Yours of yesterday received.  If we can hold Chattanooga and East Tennessee, I think the rebellion must dwindle and die.  I think you and Burnside can do this, and hence doing so is your main object.  Of course to greatly damage or destroy the enemy in your front would be a greater object, because it would include the former and more, but it is not so certainly within your power.  I understand the main body of the enemy is very near you, so near that you could “board at home,” so to speak, and menace or attack him any day.  Would not the doing of this be your best mode of counteracting his raid on your communications?  But this is not an order.  I intend doing something like what you suggest whenever the case shall appear ripe enough to have it accepted in the true understanding rather than as a confession of weakness and fear.

A. Lincoln.

TO C. D. DRAKE AND OTHERS.

Executive Mansion, Washington,
October 5, 1863.

Hon.  Charles D. Drake and others, Committee.

Gentlemen:-Your original address, presented on the 30th ult., and the four supplementary ones presented on the 3d inst., have been carefully considered.  I hope you will regard the other duties claiming my attention, together with the great length and importance of these documents, as constituting a sufficient apology for not having responded sooner.

These papers, framed for a common object, consist of the things demanded and the reasons for demanding them.

The things demanded are

First.  That General Schofield shall be relieved, and General Butler be appointed as Commander of the Military Department of Missouri.

Second.  That the system of enrolled militia in Missouri may be broken up, and national forces he substituted for it; and

Third.  That at elections persons may not be allowed to vote who are not entitled by law to do so.