Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Letter To Governor Parker
by Abraham Lincoln
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
July 25, 1863.
HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR JOEL PARKER.
SIR:--Yours of the 21st is received, and I have taken time and
considered and discussed the subject with the Secretary of War and
Provost-Marshal General, in order, if possible, to make you a more
favorable answer than I finally find myself able to do.
It is a vital point with us to not have a special stipulation with
the governor of any one State, because it would breed trouble in
many, if not all, other States; and my idea was when I wrote you, as
it still is, to get a point of time to which we could wait, on the
reason that we were not ready ourselves to proceed, and which might
enable you to raise the quota of your State, in whole, or in large
part, without the draft. The points of time you fix are much farther
off than I had hoped. We might have got along in the way I have
indicated for twenty, or possibly thirty, days. As it stands, the
best I can say is that every volunteer you will present us within
thirty days from this date, fit and ready to be mustered into the
United States service, on the usual terms, shall be pro tanto an
abatement of your quota of the draft. That quota I can now state at
eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-three (8783). No draft from
New Jersey, other than for the above quota, will be made before an
additional draft, common to [all] the States, shall be required; and
I may add that if we get well through with this draft, I entertain a
strong hope that any further one may never be needed. This
expression of hope, however, must not be construed into a promise.
As to conducting the draft by townships, I find it would require such
a waste of labor already done, and such an additional amount of it,
and such a loss of time, as to make it, I fear, inadmissible.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
P. S.--Since writing the above, getting additional information, I am
enabled to say that the draft may be made in subdistricts, as the
enrolment has been made, or is in process of making. This will
amount practically to drafting by townships, as the enrollment
subdistricts are generally about the extent of townships.
A.L.