ON EXECUTING 300 INDIANS
LETTER TO JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 1, 1862.
JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.
SIR:—Three hundred Indians have been sentenced to death in Minnesota by a military commission, and execution only awaits my action. I wish your legal opinion whether if I should conclude to execute only a part of them, I must myself designate which, or could I leave the designation to some officer on the ground?
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 1, 1862.
FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES—Since your last annual assembling another year of health and bountiful harvests has passed; and while it has not pleased the Almighty to bless us with a return of peace, we can but press on, guided by the best light he gives us, trusting that in his own good time and wise way all will yet be well.
The correspondence touching foreign affairs which has taken place during the last year is herewith submitted, in virtual compliance with a request to that effect, made by the House of Representatives near the close of the last session of Congress.