TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 3, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER (or whoever may be in command of the military department with headquarters at Fort Monroe, Va.):
If Dr. Wright, on trial at Norfolk, has been or shall be convicted, send me a transcript of his trial and conviction, and do not let execution be done upon him until my further order.
A. LINCOLN. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
TO GENERAL N. P. BANKS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 5,1863.
MY DEAR GENERAL BANKS:
While I very well know what I would be glad for Louisiana to do, it is quite a different thing for me to assume direction of the matter. I would be glad for her to make a new constitution, recognizing the emancipation proclamation, and adopting emancipation in those parts of the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And while she is at it, I think it would not be objectionable for her to adopt some practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better prepared for the new. Education for young blacks should be included in the plan. After all, the power or element of "contract" may be sufficient for this probationary period, and by its simplicity and flexibility may be the better.
As an antislavery man, I have a motive to desire emancipation which proslavery men do not have but even they have strong enough reason to thus place themselves again under the shield of the Union, and to thus perpetually hedge against the recurrence of the scenes through which we are now passing.