Lincoln’s proclamation ordered both houses of Congress to come back into session on July 4 “to consider and determine, such measures, as, in their wisdom, the public safety, and interest may seem to demand.” His choice of date, Independence Day, was hardly an accident; it was meant to call forth those mystic chords of memory to which he had alluded in his inaugural speech. His secretary of war set quotas for the number of troops each state should provide, the largest—seventeen regiments—for New York.
