To Thurlow Weed1Jump to section
My dear Sir. Washington, March 15, 1865.
Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little notification speech, and on the recent Inaugeral Address. I expect the latter to wear as well as---perhaps better than---any thing I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told; and as whatever of humiliation there is in it, falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it. Yours truly
A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, NRU. Thurlow Weed had written Lincoln on March 4:
``The sour Weather has spoiled the Celebration, so I send you my Badge. It is prettily got up, though with by no means a flattered reflext of our President. . . .
``The reply to the Committee of Congress, informing of your re-election, is not only the neatest but the most pregnant and effective use to which the English Language was ever put.'' (DLC-RTL).
No letter of Weed mentioning the Second Inaugural Address has been found, and it seems probable that Lincoln misread or misrecollected Weed's reference to the ``prettily got up'' badge.