Friday, December 14, 2012

The president responds to congressional questions

Mr. Lincoln responded to Congress this week. Congress asked about his actions in the Minnesota Indian Uprising.

The chief executive provided information on December 11 concerning the actions of over three hundred Indians in their attack of a white settlement. Mr. Lincoln told them he had reviewed the transcripts and explained, "Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on the one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other. I caused a careful examination of the record of the trials."

He also responded to a request this week by New York Congressman Fernando Wood who aligned himself with the Southern Democrats.  Congressman Wood asked the president to consider a negotiated peace. The president said any serious effort for peace required that the Southern states stop their rebellion and rejoin the United States. And thus he rejected the congressman's proposal.

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