Saturday, April 30, 1864.Washington, DC.
| President discusses with O. H. Browning and former Sen. Thomas
Ewing (Ohio) case of Commodore Charles Wilkes guilty of unauthorized
publication of letters of Sec. Welles, and case of Capt. Samuel Black.
Browning, Diary. President Lincoln
"pardon[s]" and frees twenty-five "Indian prisoners now in confinement at Camp
McClellan near Davenport Iowa." The men represent a portion of the Indians who
have been confined since November 1862, as a result of the August 1862 Dakota
uprising. Missionary Thomas S. Williamson and Special Commissioner to the
Indians George E. H. Day wrote to Lincoln and urged him to release the
prisoners. Day wrote, "[I]n the name of humanity [I] beg that you will . . .
order them released and sent to take care of their starving families now
perishing for want of food." Thomas S. Williamson to
Abraham Lincoln, 27 April 1864; William P. Dole to Abraham Lincoln, 28 April
1864, both in Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library
of Congress, Washington, DC;
Order for Pardon of Sioux Indians,
30 April 1864, CW, 7:325-26. F. B. Carpenter introduces Lincoln to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, leader in
women's rights movement, and her brother-in-law, Samuel Wilkeson, head of New
York "Tribune" bureau in Washington. Carpenter,
Six Months, 101. After
midnight Lincoln visits offices of John Nicolay and John Hay to show caricature
by Thomas Hood and enjoy laugh. Hay,
Letters and Diary.
Acknowledges invitation to attend Grand Musical Festival in Philadelphia on
Wednesday, May 4, 1864. "I shall be most happy to be present at an
entertainment which promises so much, especially as it is in aid of so
beneficent a charity as that in which you are interested, if my engagements
next week will allow it." Abraham Lincoln to James R. Fry, 30
April 1864, CW, 7:323-24. Writes Gen. Grant and expresses "entire satisfaction with what you have
done up to this time, . . . If there is anything wanting which is within my
power to give, do not fail to let me know. And now with a brave Army, and a
just cause, may God sustain you." Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S.
Grant, 30 April 1864, CW,
7:324-25. |