Annotation
[1] ADS, DLC; DS copy, owned by Mrs. Arthur Wendell, Rahway, New Jersey. The copy signed by Lincoln was originally in the papers of Joseph A. Wright. As printed by Nicolay and Hay (X, 99-100) the response is misdated ``May 14,'' perhaps because the address to which Lincoln replied bore that date in the newspapers (Washington Morning Chronicle, May 19, 1864), and was followed by the undated text of Lincoln's response. The address from the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, presented by a committee composed of Bishop Edward R. Ames, Reverend Joseph Cummings, Reverend Granville Moody, Reverend Charles Elliott, and Reverend George Peck, pointed to the Methodist record of loyalty to the Union and support of the administration and pledged a continuation of prayers for the ``preservation of our country undivided, for the triumph of our cause, and for a permanent peace, gained by the sacrifice of no moral principles, but founded on the Word of God, and securing, in righteousness, liberty and equal rights to all.''