To William Crosby and Henry P. Nichols1Jump to section
Gentlemen Washington, January 16, 1864.
The number for this month and year of the North American Review was duly received, and, for which, please accept my thanks. Of course I am not the most impartial judge; yet with due allowance for this, I venture to hope that the artical entitled the ``Presidents Policy'' will be of value to the country. I fear I am not quite worthy of all which is therein kindly said of me personally.
The sentence of twelve lines commencing at the top of page 252, I could wish to be not exactly as it is.2Jump to section In what is there expressed, the writer has not correctly understood me. I have never had a theory that secession could absolve States or people from their obligations. Precisely the contrary is asserted in the inaugeral address; and it was because of my belief in the continuation of these obligations, that I was puzzled, for a time, as to denying the legal rights of those citizens who remained individually innocent of treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call attention to this point. Yours Respectfully
A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, NNP. On December 31, 1863, the publishers of The North American Review wrote Lincoln: ``The subscribers respectfully request, that the President will accept the January number of The North American Review, sent by this mail; and they venture to hope that the article upon `The President's Policy,' written by James Russell Lowell, (one of the editors,) will meet with his approval. . . .'' (DLC-RTL).
On January 22, they wrote Nicolay in appreciation of Lincoln's letter and with the request that they be allowed to publish the letter ``to remove any erroneous impression that may have been given with regard to The President's designs. . . .'' (Ibid.). In the April issue the letter appeared, together with the announcement: ``Nothing could have been further from the intention of the Editors than to misrepresent the opinions of the President. They merely meant that, in their judgment, the policy of the Administration was at first such as practically to concede to any rebel who might choose to profess loyalty, rights under the Constitution whose corresponding obligations he repudiated.'' (p. 630).
[2] James Russell Lowell had written, ``Even so long ago as when Mr. Lincoln, not yet convinced of the danger and magnitude of the crisis, was endeavoring to persuade himself of Union majorities at the South, and to carry on a war that was half peace in the hope of a peace that would have been all war,---