Abraham Lincoln to Cadet Quintin Campbell, June 28, 1862

Washington D.C.

June 28. 1862

Cadet Quintin Campbell¹

My dear Sir

Your good mother tells me you are feeling very badly in your new situation. Allow me to assure you it is a perfect certainty that you will, very soon, feel better – quite happy – if you only stick to the resolution you have taken to procure a military education. I am older than you, have felt badly myself, and know, what I tell you is true. Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life. Take the advice of a friend, who, though he never saw you, deeply sympathizes with you, and stick to your purpose.

Sincerely your friend

A. LINCOLN

¹ St. Paul, Minnesota, Pioneer Press, February 12, 1909. Quintin Campbell, the son of Mrs. Lincoln's cousin Mrs. Ann Todd Campbell of Boonville, Missouri, had just entered West Point. According to the account published in the Pioneer Press, Quintin's mother wrote to Mrs. Lincoln about her son's dissatisfaction, and at his wife's suggestion Lincoln wrote this letter. Quintin graduated at West Point in 1866.

SOURCE: Roy P. Basler, Editor, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5, p. 288;