Harpers+25

Harper's Weekly, February 6, 1864, page 83
 * Domestic Intelligence **

EAST TENNESSEE. The President’s Amnesty Proclamation, in East Tennessee, as in all other portions of the Confederacy, seems to have its designed effect upon the rebel soldiers. We have now the most indubitable assurance that this is the case, as General Longstreet himself has lately, in an official correspondence with General Foster, bitterly complained of the conduct of the latter in circulating this document among the Confederate soldiers, causing desertion and disaffection, and suggested that the proclamation should have circulated through himself or not at all. Foster replied by sending Longstreet twenty copies for circulation, agreeing with him that the proclamation exactly meant the return of the disaffected to their allegiance, and the restoration of peace.

SOUTH CAROLINA. Pursuant to instructions from Washington, a circular has been issued respecting the purchase and culture of land in the vicinity of Beaufort and the neighboring islands. The President’s instructions are that any loyal person who has resided for six months upon, or is engaged in cultivating any lands in that district, owned by the United States, may enter the same for pre-emption to the extent of one, or, at the option of the pre-emptor, two tracts of twenty acres each, paying therefor $125 per acre. Preference in all cases is given to heads of families, and to married women whose husbands are engaged in the service of the United States, or are necessarily absent. Soldiers, sailors, or marines, in service or honorably discharged, may pre-empt at the same rate, one tract if single, and if married, two tracts of twenty acres each.


 * 1. What was Lincoln’s Amnesty Proclamation? **
 * 2. Why would southern generals circulate Lincoln’s proclamation among the soldiers? **
 * 3. Why is the President offering these lands in South Carolina for sale? **