Source?
Honorable Michael Hahn
My dear Sir:
March 13. 1864.
I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first-free-state Governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have a Convention which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in---as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone.
Yours truly
A. LINCOLN
You can find this letter in the "Library of the Americas" Lincoln, Speeches, Letters and Presidential Proclamations 1859-65 Don Fehrenbacher ed.
But it's been posted many times before.
To suggest that your interpretation is well supported in the record is just nonsense.
You can find almost this exact wording in Lincoln's last public address of 4/11/65.
Walt
My dear Sir:
March 13. 1864.
I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first-free-state Governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have a Convention which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in---as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone.
Yours truly
A. LINCOLN
You can find this letter in the "Library of the Americas" Lincoln, Speeches, Letters and Presidential Proclamations 1859-65 Don Fehrenbacher ed. But it's been posted many times before. To suggest that your interpretation is well supported in the record is just nonsense. You can find almost this exact wording in Lincoln's last public address of 4/11/65.
Thanks, Wlat, this letter proves my position quite well, just as Abe's last speech does. Notice the very exclusionary aspects of Abe's idea of black suffrage. Also notice that he had no intentions of doing anything other than "suggesting" his exclusionary idea of suffrage to the 'rebel' slave States (hmmm...what of the UNION slave states). Notice especially, that HIS idea of black suffrage was qickly made illegal. I wonder what kind of tests he would have used to determine the "very intelligent". His intentions for the REST of the freed slaves that didn't pass his tests are quite apparent based on his discussions with General Butler.