Governor of Tennessee, and also a manuscript paper, purporting to be extracts from the Code of Tennessee, were laid before me.

The protest, proclamation, and extracts are respectively as follows:

[The protest is here recited, and also the proclamation of Governor Johnson, dated September 30, to which it refers, together with a list of the counties in East, Middle, and West Tennessee; also extracts from the Code of Tennessee in relation to electors of President and Vice-President, qualifications of voters for members of the General Assembly, places of holding elections, and officers of popular elections.]

At the time these papers were presented, as before stated, I had never seen either of them, nor heard of the subject to which they relate, except in a general way one day previously.

Up to the present moment, nothing whatever upon the subject has passed between Governor Johnson, or any one else, connected with the proclamation, and myself.

Since receiving the papers, as stated, I have given the subject such brief consideration as I have been able to do, in the midst of so many pressing public duties.

My conclusion is, that I can have nothing to do with the matter, either to sustain the plan as the convention and Governor Johnson have initiated it, or to revoke or modify it as you demand.

By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty in the Presidential election in any State, nor do I in this case perceive any military reason for his interference in the matter.

The movement set on foot by the convention and Governor Johnson does not, as seems to be assumed by you, emanate from the National Executive.

In no proper sense can it be considered other than an independent movement of, at least, a portion of the loyal people of Tennessee.

I do not perceive in the plan any menace, or violence, or coercion towards any one.

Governor Johnson, like any other loyal citizen of Tennessee, has the right to favor any political plan he chooses, and, as military governor, it is his duty to keep the peace among and for the loyal people of the State. I cannot discern that by this plan he purposes any more. But you object to the plan.

Leaving it alone will be your perfect security against it. It is not proposed to force you into it.

Do as you please, on your own account, peaceably and loyally, and Governor Johnson will not molest you, but will protect you against violence as far as in his power.

I presume that the conducting of a Presidential election in Tennessee in strict accordance with the old code of the State, is not now a possibility. It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any election shall be held and any votes shall be cast in the State of Tennessee for President and Vice

President of the United States, it will not belong to the military agents, nor yet to the Executive Department, but exclusively to another department of the Government, to determine whether they are entitled to be counted in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Except it be to give protection against violence, I decline to interfere in any way with any Presidential election.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

The signers of the protest thereupon declared the McClellan electoral ticket withdrawn. And this incident was made the basis of fresh attacks upon the President for interfering in the election.

Like all other persons in similar position, Mr. Lincoln was subjected to assaults upon his personal character and conduct. One of these charges was, that while all other public creditors drew their compensation in paper money, his salary was paid in gold. The charge is important, now, only because it led to the publication of the following letter from the Treasurer of the United States:

UNITED STATES TREASURY, WASHINGTON, October 13.

MY DEAR SIR-Since the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, I have found the article spoken of by you, and which, although I am told it has gone the rounds of the Democratic press, I have not before seen. is in the words following:

It

"Jeff. Davis's salary is nominally twenty-five thousand a year, but by the depreciation of the Confederate money is equal to about fifteen hundred dollars, and on this practically he has to live. Abraham Lincoln's salary is legally twenty-five thousand dollars a year. But his legal-tender money, having depreciated to less than half its nominal value, he refuses to take, and demands and receives his pay in gold or gold certificates, while the soldiers of his army have to take their pay in greenbacks. Isn't this patriotic and honest in Old Abe, and ought not he to be re-elected to another four years' hard money for himself, and of largely depreciated money for the people?"

Now, this story is perhaps as true as other slanders that have been heaped upon the head of Mr. Lincoln by his malignant Copperhead and traitor enemies, North and South. The facts in the case, however, are entirely at variance with, and the very reverse of, the statements made in the article quoted. The salary of the President is, in accordance with law, paid in warrant drafts on the Treasury of the United States for the amount, less the income tax, which have been sent him regularly monthly. Instead of drawing his money on these drafts, he has been in the habit of leaving

for eleven months.

it for a long time without interest. In one case all his salary so remained On several occasions I solicited the President to draw what was due him, urging that he was losing largely in interest on the amount due him. He asked me, "Who gains my loss?" On my answering, "The United States," he replied, "Then as it goes for the good of the country, let it remain. The Treasury needs it more than I do." Having at length satisfied the President that it was necessary to the closing of my annual accounts that the drafts on the Treasury that he held should be presented and paid, he indorsed and handed them to me. I drew the amount in United States notes, and placed it to his credit as a temporary loan at five per cent. per annum, payable, principal and interest, in greenbacks. Since then his salary has been from time to time mostly invested in the stocks of the United States, purchased at current rates by his friends for him. The interest of these stocks is payable in coin. When this interest became due, I tried to induce him to draw it. Failing in doing so, the amount due him was sent by Honorable John C. Underwood, Judge of the United States Court for the District of Virginia. The result of his interview with the President is best told in the letter of Judge Underwood to me, which is herewith enclosed to you. I have caused an investigation to be made of the transactions of the President with the receipt of his salary, and the investment of the sums in United States stocks, and enclose you herewith the letter of Leroy Tuttle, Esq., the Assistant Cashier, from which it appears that Mr. Lincoln, from his forbearance in collecting his dues, has lost at least four thousand dollars, and which he has virtually given to the people of the United States. I have great doubts as to the propriety of answering this foul falsehood, well knowing that others perhaps even grosser will be made, so as to keep the Union party on the defensive, and thus preventing the loyal men of the country from attacking the peaceat-any-price Democracy for their damning heresies and treasonable practices. You, however, ask me to make the statement and to put it in an official form. I have therefore done so, and I authorize you to use it and the accompanying letters, or any part of either, in any way that may seem best calculated to place the President and his calumniators in their true light and positions before the American people.

Very respectfully yours,

Clarke,

F. E. SPINNER, U. S. Treasurer.

Tc General D. W. O. CLARKE, Burlington, Vermont.

We may say here, that this gift of money to the cause of the country was not the only way in which Mr. Lincoln shared in the burdens of the war. He set an example to his fellow-citizens, also, by sending a representative recruit to the army.

The differences in the Union ranks had all disappeared

before the common danger. Efforts were made on every side, not for discord, but for harmony and united effort. With this desire, and in accordance with an intimation in the Baltimore Platform that a change in the Cabinet would be desirable, Mr. Lincoln determined to displace Mr. Blair from the position of Postmaster-General. The following correspondence passed between them :—

Hon. MONTGOMERY BLAIR:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 28, 1864.

MY DEAR SIR:-You have generously said to me, more than once, that whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any other friend, and while it is true that the war does not so greatly add to the difficulties of your department as to those of some others, it is yet much to say, as I nost truly can, that in the three years and a half during which you have administered the General Post-Office, I remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith. Yours, as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

MR. BLAIR'S REPLY.

MY DEAR SIR:-I have received your note of this date, referring to my offers to resign whenever you should deem it advisable for the public interest that I should do so, and stating that, in your judgment, that time has now come. I now, therefore, formally tender my resignation of the office of Postmaster-General. I cannot take leave of you without renewing the expressions of my gratitude for the uniform kindness which has marked your course towards Yours truly,

THE PRESIDent.

M. BLAIR.

The political canvass was prosecuted with energy and confidence in every section of the country. The main consideration which was pressed upon the public mind was, that the defeat of Mr. Lincoln would be, in the eyes of the rebels, an explicit disapproval of the general line of policy he had pursued, and a distinct repudiation by the people of the Northern States of the Baltimore declaration, that the war should be prosecuted to the complete and final overthrow of the rebellion. This view of the case completely controlled the sentiment and action of the people, and left little room or disposition for wran

gling over the many petty issues to which such a contest gives birth. As the canvass advanced the confidence of success increased, and received a still further impulse from the grand military victories which, in quick succession, began to crown the Union arms.

During the months of September and October, General Hood, in a vain endeavor to regain the ground lost by the fall of Atlanta, made a movement upon General Sherman's communications. He might have caused some trouble, if it had not been for the gallant defence of Alatoona, by General Corse, which enabled Sherman to adopt such measures as drove Hood away from his line of communication, into the northern part of Alabama, where he gathered his forces for that fatal march which led his army to be crushed upon the heights of Nashville.

General Grant had not been idle before Petersburg during this time. Several attacks had been made by our forces both on the north side of the James and towards the south of Petersburg, resulting in steady gains for Grant's operations.

But the most important of all were the brilliant victories gained by General Sheridan, in the Shenandoah Valley, one on September 19th, near Winchester, the second three days later, at Fisher's Hill, and the greatest of all at Cedar Creek, on the 19th of October, when what had already been a repulse of our army, by a surprise on the part of General Early, was turned into a glorious victory by the timely arrival of Sheridan, who on his return from Washington, hearing the guns of the battle at Winchester, rode full speed to join his men, whom he reformed and led instantly to the destruction of the exulting rebels.

It was with the joy of this last victory kindling his heart, that the President, on the 20th of October, issued his proclamation for a national thanksgiving, as follows:

A PROCLAMATION.

It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over