Before going further consider well whether this is or is not your position.  If it is, it is a position that neither the President himself, nor any friend of his, so far as I know, has ever taken.  Their only positions are—­first, that the soil was ours when the hostilities commenced; and second, that whether it was rightfully ours or not, Congress had annexed it, and the President for that reason was bound to defend it; both of which are as clearly proved to be false in fact as you can prove that your house is mine.  The soil was not ours, and Congress did not annex or attempt to annex it.  But to return to your position.  Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure.  Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose.  If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him?  You may say to him,—­“I see no probability of the British invading us”; but he will say to you, “Be silent:  I see it, if you don’t.”

The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons:  kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object.  This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.  But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.  Write soon again.

Yours truly,
A. Lincoln.

REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

March 9, 1848.

Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Postoffice and Post Roads, made the following report: 

The Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, to whom was referred the resolution of the House of Representatives entitled “An Act authorizing postmasters at county seats of justice to receive subscriptions for newspapers and periodicals, to be paid through the agency of the Post-office Department, and for other purposes,” beg leave to submit the following report: 

The committee have reason to believe that a general wish pervades the community at large that some such facility as the proposed measure should be granted by express law, for subscribing, through the agency of the Post-office Department, to newspapers and periodicals which diffuse daily, weekly, or monthly intelligence of passing events.  Compliance with this general wish is deemed to be in accordance with our republican