Your having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the 12th instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.
Message to the House of Representatives Containing a Chronologic Review of Peace Proposals
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More from Abraham Lincoln
I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it.
The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it?
As a general rule I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.
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