The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

553

EXICUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 8, 1864.
Hon. F. A. CONKLING and others:
GENTLEMEN:-Your letter, inviting me to be present at a miass meeting of loyal citizens, to be held at New York, on the 4th instant,
for the purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for
his signal services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to
attend. I approve, nevertheless, of whatever may tend to strengthen and
sustain General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction.
My previous high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and
heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now
conducting, while the magnitude and difficulty of the task before hin
does not prove less than I expected. He and his brave soldiers are now
in the midst of their great trial, and I trust that at your meeting you
will so shape your good words that they inay turn to men and guns,
moving to his and their support.
Yours truly, A. LINCOLN.
Whatever political purposes prompted the call for this
meeting, they were entirely overborne by the simple but
resistless appeal, made by the President in this letter, to
the patriotism of the country. Its effect was to stimulate
instantly and largely the effort to fill up the ranks of the
army, and thus aid General Grant in the great campaign
by which he hoped to end the war. In a private letter
to a personal friend, however, General Grant put a
decisive check upon all these attempts of politicians to
make his name the occasion of division among Union
men, by peremptorily refusing to allow himself to be
made a candidate, and by reiterating in still more emphatic
and hopeful terms the President's appeal to the people
for aid and support.
None of these schemes of ambitious aspirants to political leadership had any effect upon the settled sentiment
and purpose of the great body of the people. They
appreciated the importance of continuing the administration of the government in the same channel, and saw
clearly enough that nothing would more thoroughly
impress upon the rebels and the world the determination
of the people to preserve the Union at all hazards, and at
whatever cost, than the indorsement by a popular vote,
in spite of all mistakes and defects of policy, of tlio.