...general question having been decided, nothing can be said further about that. Would it not, however, make the Proclamation more clear and decided, to leave...that it will maintain, the freedom it proclaims?" pressed the conclusion to which you have arrived, clearly and distinctly. This it was your right, and...

...government promised not only to recognize but to "maintain" the freedom of the former slaves, leaving "out all reference to the act being sustained during the incumbency of the present President"? Lincoln answered that he had thought about this, but "it was not my way to promise what I was not entirely...