No one has needed favours more than I, and, generally, few have been less unwilling to accept them; but in this case favour to me would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must beg your pardon for declining it.
In a letter, Lincoln declines a personal favor, asserting that accepting it would constitute an injustice to the public.
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More from Abraham Lincoln
Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them?
I do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.
Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no organized organ for us to treat with,--no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man.
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