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Your despatch about seizing seventy rebels to exchange for a like number of Union men, was duly received. I certainly do not disapprove the proposition. A. LINCOLN
[1] ALS, RPB. The copy of this telegram in the Johnson Papers (DLC) is incorrectly dated May 9. Johnson's second telegram of June 5 in reply to Lincoln's telegram of June 4 (supra) proposed to arrest ``seventy 70 vile secessionists in this vicinity & offer them in exchange'' for ``seventy east Tennesseeans now lying in prison at Mobile. . . . & if they refuse to exchange I will at once send them South at their own expense. . . with the. . . understanding that if they. . . come again within said lines. . . they shall be treated as spies and with death. . . . It is no punishment now to send secessionist north In most instances they would rather go to the Infernal regions than to be sent South. . . .'' (DLC-RTL).