Abraham Lincoln to Samuel Boyd Tobey, March 19, 1862

Executive Mansion,

Washington, March 19, 1862.

Dr. Samuel Boyd Tobey:

My dear Sir:

A domestic affliction, of which doubtless you are informed, has delayed me so long in making acknowledgment for the very kind and appropriate letter, signed, on behalf, and by direction of a Meeting of the Representatives of the Society of Friends for New-England, held at Providence, Rhode Island the 8th of second month 1862, by Samuel Boyce, clerk, and presented to me by yourself and associates.

Engaged, as I am, in a great war, I fear it will be difficult for the world to understand how fully I appreciate the principles of peace, inculcated in this letter, and everywhere, by the Society of Friends. Grateful to the good people you represent for their prayers in behalf of our common country, I look forward hopefully to an early end of war, and return of peace.

Your obliged friend

A. LINCOLN

SOURCES: Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, p. 165; The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress