Annotation
[1] AD, DLC-RTL. The date supplied to this two-page manuscript in the Lincoln Papers has been retained for want of a better assignment, and is based on the following endorsement written by Robert Todd Lincoln on the back of the second page: ``This was probably written at the time of the Springd Letter, but not incorporated with it---& never published.''
Although the contents of the fragment are apropos of circumstances in August, 1863, it should be noted that they are hardly less apropos of August, 1864 (See Lincoln's letter to Charles D. Robinson, August 17, 1864,infra), and might well have expressed Lincoln's point of view at any one of numerous dates.