Annotation
[1] Copy, DLC-RTL. The unsigned copy in John Hay's handwriting has ``Dear Sir'' added in Lincoln's hand. A translation of Count Gasparin's letter of July 18, furnished to Lincoln by Secretary Seward on August 1, reads as follows:
``It is in moments of difficulty that friends should show themselves.
``The check sustained by the federal army before Richmond was certainly a situation of difficulty for the United States. Learn that your friends in Europe do not lose courage, and that they pray for you.
``This, besides, is not a Bull Run. There is nothing in it like defeat. The mischief, please God, will soon be repaired.
``Why is it that the north with her great armies, so often is found, with inferiority in numbers, face to face with the armies of the South? You know that battles are won by the feet! and that the great principle of war is to concentrate forces in place of scattering them. It is necessary that at important points the national troops should always outnumber those of the rebel forces. It seems that the contrary has too often taken place.
``Have you received, recently, the volume and the letter I had the honor to address to you? I have attempted to sustain in Europe a struggle which is not always easy. There, assuredly, the greatest peril of America is to be found; without Europe; without the chances of European intervention, or mediation, the revolt . . . would have been at an end long since.
``That ideas of intervention may be counteracted in our old world, there is need not only of military successes achieved by you, but more than that, a continuation of your wise policy; avoid, I entreat you, the complications you may find in Mexico---avoid also, revolutionary me[a]sures---confiscations---capital punishments---appeals to the negroes---precipitate emancipation.
``You have traced a programme which every upright mind must applaud. Whilst developing it in the spirit of liberty, it tends to the preservation of fundamental principles. On the day when it can be said in Europe that your Government is, either indifferent to abolition, or carried away by the extreme abolitionists, the partizans of intervention, in favor of the South, will succeed in effecting it.
``Pardon me for writing these things to you, my excuse lies in the interest which I take in the cause of which you are the worthy representative.
``Accept Sir the assurance of my devotion and of my respect.''(DLC-RTL).