[HandyDandy]

”I know that it really irritates the Lincoln veneration society to MIS-quote his letter to Greeley.”
There, I fixed it. I have no problem with what Frederick Douglass said, or with the whole Lincoln quote. What bothers me is how often you cats think you are quoting Lincoln but leave off the final, closing sentence. That makes it a “clipped” quote. That is what irritates me. It’s odd that you all do that. Once again, here is the closing, final sentence in Lincoln’s letter to Greeley:
“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 every where could be free. Yours,
A. Lincoln.”

One can only conclude that those who leave off that last sentence are intending a modification of his oft-expressed wish that all men every where could be free.

[Pelham]

While you like to whine about not including the part about his personal wish, Lincoln’s letter to Greeley expressly spells out that his overruling goal was to preserve the Union.

And he says that if that meant not freeing any slaves then that’s what he would do.

Those are his words. Abolitionists like Greeley and Marx publicly criticized Lincoln for his failure to act and he was responding to them. John C Fremont had issued an emancipation proclamation for the western Territories and Lincoln fired him for doing it.

Lincoln’s own emancipation order didnt free a single slave in the loyal states that remained in the Union. The 13th Amendment in December 1865 accomplished that 8 months after his death. Had this been his primary goal it should have been possible as soon as he took office. There were no longer enough slave states remaining in Congress to prevent it.