Abraham Lincoln to Henry J. Raymond, March 9, 1862

Private

Executive Mansion

Washington, 9 March 1862.

 Hon. Henry J. Raymond:

My dear Sir:

I am grateful to the New York journals, and not less so to the “Times” than to others, for their kind notices of the late special message to Congress.

Your paper, however, intimates that the proposition, though well intentioned, must fail on the score of expense. I do hope you will reconsider this. Have you noticed the facts that less than one half-day's cost of this war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware at $400 per head — that eighty-seven days' cost of this war would pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri at the same price? Were those States to take the step, do you doubt that it would shorten the war more than eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of expense?

Please look at these things and consider whether there should not be another article in the “Times.”

Yours very truly,

a. lincoln

SOURCE: A copy of this letter can be found in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.