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The1861State of the Union Address was written by the 16th president of the United States,Abraham Lincoln, and delivered to the37th United States Congress, on Tuesday, December 3, 1861, amid theAmerican Civil War, which had begun earlier in the year.^[1] This was Lincoln's first State of the Union Address and the first since the start of the Civil War. In regard to that war, Lincoln stated that "[t]he last ray of hope for preserving the Union peaceably expired at theassault upon Fort Sumter."^[1] He also announced the retirement ofWinfield Scott asCommanding General of the United States Army and announced the appointment ofGeorge B. McClellan to the post about a month earlier.^[1]

Much of Lincoln's address focused on commerce and relationships with foreign nations, especially in light of the Civil War. Lincoln also addressed the fact that there were now three vacancies on theSupreme Court of the United States which he had not yet nominated individuals to fill.^[1] He also called for theDistrict of Columbia retrocession, which returned land formerly within theDistrict of Columbia to theState of Virginia, to be undone and for the District of Columbia to regain its former land.^[2]

It was also in this address that Lincoln recommended reforming theUnited States circuit court system to ease the burden of hearing cases on theUnited States Supreme Court, a practice which was much later adopted.

Besides this, the country generally has outgrown our present judicial system. If uniformity was at all intended, the system requires that all the States shall be accommodated with circuit courts, attended by Supreme judges, while, in fact, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Florida, Texas, California, and Oregon have never had any such courts. Nor can this well be remedied without a change in the system, because the adding of judges to the Supreme Court, enough for the accommodation of all parts of the country with circuit courts, would create a court altogether too numerous for a judicial body of any sort. And the evil, if it be one, will increase as new States come into the Union. Circuit courts are useful or they are not useful. If useful, no State should be denied them; if not useful, no State should have them. Let them be provided for all or abolished as to all.Three modifications occur to me, either of which, I think, would be an improvement upon our present system. Let the Supreme Court be of convenient number in every event; then, first, let the whole country be divided into circuits of convenient size, the Supreme judges to serve in a number of them corresponding to their own number, and independent circuit judges be provided for all the rest; or, secondly, let the Supreme judges be relieved from circuit duties and circuit judges provided for all the circuits; or, thirdly, dispense with circuit courts altogether, leaving the judicial functions wholly to the district courts and an independent Supreme Court.^[1]

Despite the challenges of the Civil War, Lincoln ended upon a note of hope for the future: "The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day; it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us."^[1]

This address consisted of 6,987 words.^[3]

Lincoln formally released his address to Congress on December 3, 1861. However, excerpts of his address appeared in the morning edition of theNew York Herald (a newspaper known for being anti-Lincoln) hours before it was given to Congress, meaning that someone had leaked Lincoln's address to the press.^[4][5]

TheHouse Judiciary Committee launched an investigation into the leak in February 1862. A correspondent for theNew-York Tribune testified that the leak was arranged byHenry Wikoff, a friend ofHerald editorJames Gordon Bennett Sr. Wikoff claimed that he got his information from "women... members of the president's own family," implicatingMary Todd Lincoln with whom he was a close friend.^[4] However, Wikoff refused to name his source explicitly, so he was jailed in theUnited States Capitol basement forcontempt of Congress.^[5]Daniel Sickles, then a Union general, visited Wikoff under pretense of being his legal counsel and convinced him to testify that the leaker wasWhite House gardener John Watt, who confessed to the committee the next day.^[5] However, Watt, who was involved in severalblackmail schemes, likely confessed falsely in exchange for a job at theUnited States Patent Office after he lost his White House job.^[4]

A few days later,Herald correspondent S. P. Hanscom testified that Wikoff had told him earlier that the leaks came from Mary Todd Lincoln.^[5] Due to the implication of his wife, Abraham Lincoln became the first sitting president to testify before a committee of Congress. He testified in secret, and he said that only members of hiscabinet had seen the address ahead of time, meaning nobody else, including Mary, could have leaked it.^[4] The next week, the committee voted not to publish testimony about the role of "any member of the President's family."^[5] As theCivil War dragged on and the matter remained unresolved, it faded from public attention.^[4]

EnglishWikisource has original text related to this article:

1861 State of the Union Address

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