September 5, 2012
I hope everyone had a great summer. It is an exciting time right now with all the
150 year milestones. Just recently the
milestones of the Battle of Second Manassas passed and the important events at
Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation will be upon us. As you notice we have some changes this
coming campaign. We have converted our traditional
newsletter to a Blog in which we can post monthly notices and speaker
information to our newest section of the website. This can be found at the url: http://bvcwrt.blogspot.com/. If anyone would be interested in posting
material please reach out to any member of the executive committee and we can accommodate
you!
This month we have a long-time
member and repeat speaker Dr. Sid Copel returning to speak to us about “Civil
War Spies and Guerillas.”
In addition following my pattern
of previous posts I have included a letter from President Abraham Lincoln to
Horace Greeley, editor to the New York Tribune.
This letter addresses President Lincoln’s political genius in balancing
his personal desire for emancipation while at the same time emphasizing his
public views on saving the Union at any cost.
Executive Mansion, Washington,
August 22, 1862
Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir:
I have just read
yours of the 19th, addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there
be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be
erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. If there be in it any inferences
which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against
them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive
it in, deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be
right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as
you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest
way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored
the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those
who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save Slavery, I
do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless
they could at the same time destroy Slavery, I do not agree with them. My
paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to
save or destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave. I
would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it,
and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also
do that. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe
it helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall
believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall
believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when
shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to
be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official
duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all
men, everywhere, could be free. Yours,
A. LINCOLN.
I think this is a poignant message appropriate for this time of year leading up to the Battle at Antietam the results of which was the Emancipation Proclamation. We have a great lineup of Speakers and I look forward to seeing you all. Spread the work and bring a friend!
Richard Charles Crowe Jr., President
Brandywine Valley Civil War Roundtable
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