September 3, 1863: Lincoln Letter to Springfield Rally

 

Lincoln during the Civil War probably often wished he could make multiple copies of himself, so great were the demands on his time, and so massive the amount of the work he accomplished.  On September 3, 1863 a huge pro-Union rally was held in Springfield, Illinois.  Lincoln’s home state was very important for the Union.  It contributed over a quarter of a million soldiers and was a major source of food, as well as being a rising manufacturing center.  If Lincoln was to be re-elected in 1864, Illinois was also going to be a battle ground state.  Lincoln understood how strong the Democrat party was in Illinois, and he probably wished that he could appear at the rally.  He did the next best thing and sent a letter to be read at the rally.  In the letter defends the Emancipation and celebrates recent Union victories:

Executive Mansion, Washington, August 26, 1863.

Hon. James C. Conkling My Dear Sir.

Your letter inviting me to attend a mass-meeting of unconditional  Union-men, to be held at the Capitol of Illinois, on the 3d day of  September, has been received.

It would be very agreeable to me, to thus meet my old friends, at my  own home; but I can not, just now, be absent from here, so long as  a visit there, would require.

The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion  to the Union; and I am sure my old political friends will thank me  for tendering, as I do, the nation’s gratitude to those other noble  men, whom no partizan malice, or partizan hope, can make false to  the nation’s life.