Annotation
[1] Washington Daily Morning Chronicle and Daily National Republican, November 18, 1864. See Lincoln to Purnell, November 15, supra. As chairman of the committee, William H. Purnell ``delivered an eloquent address, in which he said:
``They rejoiced that the people, by an almost unanimous and unprecedented majority, had again elevated the President to the proudest and most honorable position on earth, and had endorsed his course of action. They felt under deep obligations to him, because he had appreciated their condition as a slave State. It was not too much to say that, by means of the exercise of a rare discretion on his part, Maryland occupies a position in favor of freedom, having forever abolished slavery by the sovereign decree of her own people. They desired that his Administration in the future, as in the past, would result in the restoration of the Union, with freedom as its immutable basis. After further remarks of a like appropriate character, Mr. Purnell expressed the hope that the President, on retiring from his high and important position, would receive the universal approval of mankind; and `may Heaven,' he said, `crown your days with loving kindness and tender mercy.' ''