From An Old Albany Family

Union Brigadier General Henry Bell Van Rensselaer a New York State Representative and Congressman, died March 23^rd 1864.

Henry Bell Van Rensselaer was born May 14^th 1810 at the family manor in Albany, New York, the son of Stephen and Margaret (Schuyler) Van Rensselaer III.  He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1831.  He served in the 5^th United States Infantry until January 27^th 1832, when he resigned his commission.  Van Rensselaer then settled near Ogdensburg, New York to be a gentleman farmer and serve as the military aide to New York State Governor William H Seward.  Running as a Whig, he was elected to Congress, serving from 1841 to 1843.

When the Civil War started Van Rensselaer rejoined the military, with the rank of Colonel, he was appointed to Chief of Staff for Union General Winfield Scott.  He served as the Union Inspector General from November 1861 until his death.  Van Rensselaer died March 23^rd 1863 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He is buried in the Grace Episcopal Churchyard in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

From Bangor To Washington

Union President Abraham Lincoln extended the reach of the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus on October 14^th 1861.

Near the beginning of the Civil War Union President Abraham Lincoln ordered a suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in Maryland and parts of the Midwestern states.  This was in response to the arrest by Union troops in Maryland of secessionist John Merryman, whom Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B Taney ordered released under a writ of habeas corpus.  Lincoln and the military ignored the ruling.

On October 14^th 1861 Lincoln expanded the suspension with this written order:

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT:

The military line of the United States for the suppression of the insurrection may be extended so far as Bangor, in Maine. You and any officer acting under your authority are hereby authorized to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in any place between that place and the city of Washington.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Suspension Of Rights

President Abraham Lincoln had the writ of Habeas Corpus suspended April 27th 1861 in Maryland.

In a response to riots, and the threat that Maryland would secede from the Union, President Abraham Lincoln had Habeas Corpus suspended April 27th 1861. The suspension covered Maryland and some parts of the Midwestern states. The suspension of Habeas Corpus allowed for private citizens to be tried in military courts. Lincoln was encouraged to this move as a way to control Peace Democrats and those who lived in Union but supported the Confederate cause.

The suspension was challenged and overturned by the United State Circuit Court in Maryland, under the leadership of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B Taney. Taney ruled the suspension of Habeas Corpus was unconstitutional as is could only be suspended by an Act of Congress. Lincoln ignored the courts decision. There were 13,000 arrested under martial law during the course of the war. It wasn't until 1866 that the Supreme Court officially restored Habeas Corpus, ruling that trying civilians in a military court was illegal.

Lincoln’s act read, “Whereas, It has become necessary to call into service, not only volunteers, but also portions of the militia of the States by draft, in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the ordinary processes of law from hindering this measure, and from giving aid and comfort in various ways to the insurrection. Now, therefore, be it ordered, that during the existing insurrection, and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and comfort to the rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law, and liable to trial and punishment by courts-martial or military commission.

Second: That the writ of habeas corpus is suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military prisons, or other place of confinement, by any military authority, or by the sentence of any court-martial or military commission.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Twenty-fourth day of September,/// in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

Give Peace A Try

President Abraham Lincoln met with Confederate Assistant Secretary of War John A Campbell February 3rd 1865 for the Hampton Roads Peace Conference.

The Hampton Roads Conference was an attempt to bring the Civil War to a negotiate end, and was arranged by Lincoln‘s adviser Francis P Blair Sr. President Abraham Lincoln with his Secretary of State William H Seward met near Fort Monroe, Virginia with Confederate representatives Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Assistant Secretary of War John A Campbell and Senator Robert M T Hunter. They used the ship the USS River Queen a Union transport ship on February 3rd 1865 for the meeting.

After four hours, there were no agreements. President Lincoln dominated the meeting. He demanded an immediate end to fighting, with the disbandment of the Confederate military, southern recognition of emancipation, and all Confederate States returned to the Union. Lincoln was willing to consider compensation for slave owners, and good treatment for Confederate officials. The men representing the Confederacy were not authorized to accept anything short of independence. At the conclusion of the conference the Confederate Representatives returned to Richmond, Virginia, and the war went on.

Two Hundred Seventy-One Words

President Abraham Lincoln gave his few appropriate remarks at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery November 19th 1863.


Four month after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln gave what is probably one of the best known speeches in history, to dedicated the Soldier‘s National Cemetery. Lincoln’s few remarks were given in just over two minutes on November 19th 1863. He arrived in Gettysburg Pennsylvania by train the day before. Lincoln spent the night in the David Will’s house, where he put the final touches on his speech. At 9:30 on the morning of November 19th Lincoln along with Secretary of State William H Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P Chase joined the procession traveling down Baltimore Street to the dedication.

It is estimated that 15,000 people attended the ceremony, including six sitting governors, and a Canadian politician William McDougall. The re-interment of Union bodies was only about half completed at the time of the ceremony. Following the featured speaker for the day, Edward Everett, Lincoln spoke for just a few short minutes, summing up the war in 271 words “The Gettysburg Address.”

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 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 poor 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 nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. “

The GOP Choice

United States Representative Abraham Lincoln was nominated at the National Republican Convention May 16th 1860.


At the second ever National Convention of the Republican Party held on May 16th 1860 at the Wigwam in Chicago Illinois, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President of the United States. Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice President. This convention is notable as every person who was nominated would eventually become a member of Lincoln’s cabinet, including William H Seward of New York, Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, Salmon P Chase of Ohio and Edward Bates of Missouri. It took three votes before Lincoln received enough votes to get the conformation, finally happening on May 18th 1860. The final count was 364 votes out of 466 votes cast.

The Lincoln / Hamlin ticket defeated three other tickets in 1860’s election.

Another good web site with more information about this subject
Mr Lincoln and New York