Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President. Autograph quotation FROM HIS ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, signed in full as President, addressed to Henry C. Wright of the Masachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Washington, D.C., 20 December 1863. One page, 8vo, integral blank, on Executive Mansion stationery, lightly browned, mat-burn at edges, central fold strenthened from back, tipped into a blue morocco gilt album with portraits and transcript [ with ] 1) A 4-line card, on which Lincoln has written Wright's address in Boston ("care of Wendell Philips") for the guidance of his secretary, 157 x 92mm., 2 3/16 x 3 5/8 in.), affixed to lower blank portion of the letter ; On the integral blank are affixed 2) the original envelope panel in the hand of John Hay, Lincoln's secretary, with his free frank and imprinted legend "from the President of the United States" and with original postmarks; and 3) A small card with explanatory note in an unidentified contemporary hand. LINCOLN'S VOW NOT TO "RETRACT OR MODIFY" THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, SIGNED "ABRAHAM LINCOLN" "'I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation; nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.' Abraham Lincoln." The attached card explains: "This sentence from President Lincoln's annual message to Congress in December 1863, was copied by him at the request of Henry C. Wright, a lecturing agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He also wrote the latter's address for the guidance of his secretary, John Hay, who addressed and forwarded the envelope." The letter of Wright requesting the manuscript is preserved in the Robert Todd Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress. It reads: "God bless thee, Abraham Lincoln! With all my heart, & bless thee, in the name of God & Humanity. But-- mark! I want nothing of you - you can do nothing for me -- except -- this one favor...that you will write for me, & subscribe your name to it -- with your own hand -- this sentence in your late Message -- i.e. 'I shall not attempt to retract or modify...[etc].' I have given 30 years of my life to the Abolition of slavery -- by lecturing, by public & private discussions, & by scattering, broad cast, tracts and pamphlets bearing on that subject. I regard the American Republic as the God-appointed Messiah of Liberty to the great family of Nations...." (see Basler). It is also of great interest that Wright asked Lincoln to send the manuscript to him in care of Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), a leading member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, himself an author, polemicist and lyceum lecturer on the question of slavery. Phillips' uncompromising views on the issue led him, like William Lloyd Garrison, to advocate the forcible division of the United States into slave and free nations. Like many in the abolition movement, he considered the President's position on the issue of slavery a compromising one, and was a frequent critic of Lincoln's administration up until the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was to take effect on January 1, 1864, not long after the present quotation was penned. Lincoln delivered his Annual Message to the 38th Congress for the year of 1863 on 8 December (the full text is in Basler, 7:36-52). The President's preliminary draft survives, in part, in the Library of Congress. The passage requested by Wright occurs in a section in which Lincoln discusses the nature of the "Oath of December 8, 1863," and considers whether it should make mention of the Emancipation Proclamation in addition to the Constitution. Lincoln explains that the proclamation and other acts in regard to slavery "were enacted and put forth for the suppression of the rebellion. To give them their fullest effect, there had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my judgement they have aided, and will further aid, the cause for which they were intended. To now abandon them would not only to relinquish