Show exposition OF MR TION IN REGARD TO SLAVERY EXECUTIVE MANSION I 1 washington april 4 1864 5 j to A G HODGES E esq sq frankfort ky my dear sir sin you ask me to put in wr writing ting the substance of what I 1 verbally verbal y said the other day in your presence to gov bram brain bettee and senator dixon it was about as folio follow e P 1 I am naturally antislavery anti antl slavery if slavery is not wrong nothing is wrong I 1 cannot remember when I 1 did not see think and feel that it was wrong and yet I 1 have never understood der stood that the presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon thia this judgment 11 and feeling feeling it was in the oath I 1 took thata would to t the e best of my ability preserve protect and defend the constitution oe of the united states I 1 could not take the office without taking the oath nor was it my y view that I 1 might take an oath to get power and break the oath in using the power I 1 understood too that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically aily allf indulge 11 my primary abstract judgment menton on the moral question of or slavery I 1 had hai publicly declared this many times and in many way ways and I 1 aver that to this day I 1 have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judkin judgment ent and feeling on slavery I 1 did mider wider understand stand however that my oath to pre preserve serve sirve the constitution to the best of my toy ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by every indispensable means that gov ern erh eminent ment that nation of which that constitution was the organic law was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve preserve the constitution 1 by general law life and limb must be protected e I yet often a limb must be e ampula j i ted to save a life but a life ia is never wisely given to save a limb I 1 feel fee that measures otherwise ur unconstitutional constitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the nation right or wrong I 1 assumed this ground and now avow it I 1 could not roel reel that 0 to o the best of my ability I 1 bad even tried to preserve the constitution if to preserve slavery or any minor matter I 1 should permit the erk of the government country and constitution altogether when early in the war gen fremont attempted militar military y emar emancipation ci pation I 1 forbade its it because I 1 did not net then think it an indispensable necessity when a little later gen cameron then secretary ot of war suggested the arming of the thes blacks I 1 I 1 0 objected because I 1 did not yet think it an indispensable necessity when still later gen hunter attempted military emancipation I 1 i I 1 again forbade it because I 1 did not yet think i the indi pen sable necessity had come when in march may and july 1862 1802 1 made earnest and successive appeals to the border states to favor compensated emancipation I 1 believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation ei ci and arming of the blacks would come unless averted by that measure they declined the proposition and I 1 was in my best bes t I 1 judgment driven to the alternative of eith r surrendering the union and with it the constitution ution or oe laying the etring han hand dupon upon the colored element I 1 chose the latter in chod aing it I 1 hoped for greater gain than loss but of this I 1 kasnot entirely confident more than toan a year of trial now snows chows no loss by it in our foreign relations none in oun our home popular none in our white military force no loss by it anyhow or anywhere 0 on the contrary it shows a again gain of quite soldiers seamen and laborers The these seare are palpable facts about which as facts the there re can be no caviling we have the men and we could not have had bad them without the measure now let any union man who complains of the measure test himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing tue the rebellion by force of arms and ind the next that he is for taking these men from the union side and placing them where they would be but far for the measure he condemns if he cannot face his cause BO so stated it ia is because lie be cannot face the truth I 1 add a word which was not in the verbal conversation intellini in telling this tale I 1 attempt no compliment on my own sagacity I 1 claim not to have controlled events but confess plainly that events have controlled me now at the end of three years yeara struggle the nations condition is not what either arty party or ok any man devised or expected pec d gor gon god alone can claim it whither it is te tending 6 dg seems plain if god now wills the removal of a great wrong and wills also that we of the north aa as well as you of the south shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong impartial history will find fid gid therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of god yours youra truly A LINCOLN 1 it ia is a point of good breeding never to refuse a civil offer in such a manner as even to reprove the one who offers it this was neatly exemplified in the ready reply of footes foote the comedian when a lady asked him to go to church no thank than kyou you I 1 never go to church howe however ver I 1 see in iu itty |