REPLY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON THE RE-ADMISSION OF LOUISIANA. Fall of 1863. Messrs. E. E. Motriol, Bradit, Johnston, and Thomas Gottsman: Gentlemen-Since receiving the letter, reliable information has reached me that a respectable portion of the Louisiana people desire to amend their state constitution, and contemplate holding a convention for that object. This fact alone, as it seems to me, is a sufficient reason why the general government should not give the committee the authority you seek to act under the existing state constitution. I may add that while I do not perceive how such a committee could facilitate our military operations in Louisiana, I really apprehend it might be so used as to embarrass them. As to an election to be held in November, there is abundant time without any order or proclamation from me just now. The people of Louisiana shall not lack an opportunity for a fair election for both Federal and state officers by want of any thing within my power to give them. Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. TO THE HONORABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. In compliance with the request contained in your resolution of the 29th ultimo, a copy of which resolution is herewith returned, I have the honor to transmit the following: Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 2, 1863. Hon. Montgomery Blair: My Dear Sir-Some days ago I understood you to say that your brother, General Frank Blair, desired to be guided by my wishes as to whether he will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. My wish, then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for the country; and it is that he will come here, put his military commission in my hands, take his seat, go into caucus with our friends, abide the nominations, help elect the nominees, and thus aid to organize a House of Representatives which will really support the government in the war. If the result shall be the election of himself as speaker, let him serve in that position. If not, let him retake his commission and return to the army for the benefit of the country. This will heal a dangerous schism for him. It will relieve him from a dangerous position or a misunderstanding, as I think he is in danger of being permanently separated from those with whom only he can ever have a real sympathy-the sincere opponents of slavery. It will be a mistake if he shall allow the provocation offered him by insincere time-servers to drive him from the house of his own building. He is young yet. He has abundant talents-quite enough to occupy all his time without devoting any to temper. He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His recent appointment to the command of a corps, by one so competent to judge as General Sherman, proves this. In that line he can serve both the country and himself more profitably than he could as a member of Congress upon the floor. The foregoing is what I 1863 would say if Frank Blair was my brother instead of A. LINCOLN. yours. ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF GETTYSBURG CEMETERY, NOVEMBER 19, 1863. ر Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in, liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created free and equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract., The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this na tion, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. This finds an echo in the following ever-to-be-remembered words of Daniel Webster, in his reply to Hayne, in the United States Senate, January 26, 1830: "When my eyes turn to behold for the last time. the sun in heaven, may they not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds; or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood.) Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced its arms and, trophies streaming in all their original luster; not a stripe erased or polluted; not a single star obscured bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as What is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, of liberty first and union afterward, but every-where, spread all over in characters of living light, and blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment dear to. every American heart-Liberty AND Union-now and forever-one and inseparable."" 6 PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE. Fellow-citizens of the Sendic and House of Representatives--Another year of health and of sufficiently abundant harvests has passed. For these, and es pecially for the improved condition of our national affairs, our renewed and profoundest gratitude to God is due. We remain in peace and friendship with foreign. powers. The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us in foreign wars, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been unavailing. Her Britannic Majesty's government, as was justly expected, have exercised their authority to prevent the departure of new hostile expeditions from British ports. The Emperor of France has, by a like proceeding, promptly vindicated the neutrality which he proclaimed at the beginning of the contest. Questions of great intricacy and importance have arisen out of the blockade and other belligerent operations, between the government and several of the maritime powers, but they have been discussed, and, as far as possible, accommodated in a spirit of frankness, justice, and mutual good-will. It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by the impartiality of their adjudications, have commanded the respect and confidence of maritime powers. Incidents occurring in the progress of our civil war have forced upon my attention the uncertain state of international questions touching the rights of foreigners in this country and of United States citizens abroad. In regard to some governments, these rights are at least partially defined by treaties. In no instance, however, is it expressly stipulated that in the event of civil war a foreigner residing in this country, within the lines of the insurgents, is to |