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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC01569 |
| From Archive Folder | Unassociated Civil War Documents 1862 |
| Title | John Hay to Mary Jay concerning the Peninsula campaign and Emancipation Proclamation |
| Date | 20 July 1862 |
| Author | Hay, John (1838-1905) |
| Recipient | Jay, Mary |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Content Description | Written while serving as Assistant Secretary to President Abraham Lincoln to a family friend. Writes of General George McClellan and his failed Peninsula campaign, "...What a wretched conclusion of all our little General's boasting addresses and orders have we seen on the bloody banks of the Chickahominy! Sad as is the result to himself and the country..." Mentions General David Hunter's attempt to emancipate slaves, "How gloriously General Hunter has justified my statement that the future would prove his soundness in hatred of Slavery..." Hints of the coming of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, "But he will not conserve slavery much longer. When next he speaks in relation to this defiant and ungrateful villainy it will be with no uncertain sound. Even now he speaks more boldly and sternly to slaveholders than to the world." |
| Subjects | African American History Battle Union Forces Union General Civil War Military History Emancipation Emancipation Proclamation Slavery Abolition President |
| People | Hay, John (1838-1905) Jay, Mary (fl. 1861) Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) McClellan, George B. (1826-1885) Hunter, David (1802-1886) |
| Place written | Washington, D.C. |
| Theme | The American Civil War; The Presidency; African Americans; Government & Politics; Slavery & Abolition |
| Sub-collection | Papers and Images of the American Civil War |
| Additional Information | General Hunter commanded the Union Army that seized Fort Pulaski, Georgia from the rebels on 11 April 1862. The next day he issued orders to liberate all slaves in Union hands and a month later extended this to cover all Union controlled territory in the Department of the South under his control. Lincoln repealed the order on 19 May stating that Hunter did not have authority to eliminate slavery, upsetting abolitionists. Lincoln presented a preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation on 22 July 1862 and the presidential decree was issued on 19 September to go into effect on 1 January 1863. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945 |