Record Data
Source citation
Abraham Lincoln to John A. J. Creswell, Monday, March 07, 1864 (Emancipation in Maryland), Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.
Type
Letter
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Transcribed by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College, Galesburg, IL Adapted by John Osborne, Dickinson College
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, March 7, 1864.
My dear Sir:
I am very anxious for emancipation to be effected in Maryland in some substantial form. I think it probable that my expressions of a preference for gradual, over immediate emancipation, are misunderstood. I supposed had thought the for gradual, would produce less confusion and destitution; and therefore would be more satisfactory; but if those who are better acquainted with the subject, and are more [ illegible] deeply interested in it, prefer the immediate, most certainly I have no objection to it-- their judgment prevailing.
My wish is that all who are for emancipation, in any form, shall co-operate, all treating all respectfully, and all adopting and acting upon, the major opinion when fairly ascertained-- What I have dreaded is the danger that, by jealousies, rivalries, and consequent ill-blood -- driving one another out of meetings and Conventions, perchance from the polls -- the friends of emancipation them selves may divide, and lose the whole measure altogether.
I wish this letter to not be made public; but no man representing me as I herein represent myself, will be in any danger of being contradicted contradiction by me--
Yours truly
A. Lincoln
