On Executing 300 Indians

Letter To Judge-Advocate-General.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 1, 1862.

JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.

SIR:—Three hundred Indians have been sentenced to death in Minnesota by a military commission, and execution only awaits my action. I wish your legal opinion whether if I should conclude to execute only a part of them, I must myself designate which, or could I leave the designation to some officer on the ground?

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.