"Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the nineteenth instant, addressed to myself through The New York Tribune.
"If there be any statements or assumptions of facts which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.
"If there may be any inferences which I may to believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against them.
"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
"As to the policy 'I seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution.
"The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the
Union will be—the Union as it was.
"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.
"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.
"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery.
"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that.