{"id":1013,"date":"2013-06-29T12:32:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T12:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=1013"},"modified":"2016-06-21T18:40:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T18:40:20","slug":"letter-to-hannibal-hamlin-september-28-1862","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-hannibal-hamlin-september-28-1862\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Hannibal Hamlin (September 28, 1862)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

#85<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n

Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n

“The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.”<\/a><\/p>\n

On This Date<\/h3>\n

HD Daily Report, September 28, 1862<\/a><\/p>\n

The Lincoln Log, September 28, 1862<\/a><\/p>\n

Custom Map<\/h3>\n

\"Screen<\/a>
\nView in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n

How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n

\u201cNot too many days after the preliminary proclamation was issued, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin wrote a letter to the president to express his \u2018undissembled and sincere thanks for your Emancipation proclamation,\u2019 which he predicted would \u2018stand as the great act of the age\u2026 wise in Statesmanship as it is Patriotic.\u2019 But Lincoln was not so sure. In a reply he labeled \u2018strictly private,\u2019 the president poured out his fears and frustrations over the early public response to his document. The fascinating letter reveals a chief executive who knows he will be judged not just by history but by his public constituency \u2013 and is clearly not at all sure he will emerge a winner. Modern Americans who doubt the revolutionary impetus and grand daring behind Lincoln\u2019s most famous act will understand from the Hamlin letter how unpredictable its author believed its impact would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Frank J. Williams, \u201c\u2019Doing less\u2019 and \u2018Doing more\u2019: The president and the Proclamation \u2013 Legally, Militarily, and Politically,\u201d<\/a> in The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views <\/em>ed. Harold Holzer, Edna Greene Medford, Frank J. Williams (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006), 66.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic response to emancipation did not encourage Lincoln. On September 28, he told his vice-president that \u2018while I hope something from the proclamation, my expectations are not as sanguine as are those of some friends. The time for its effect southward has not come; but northward the effect should be instantaneous. It is six days old, and while commendation in newspapers and by distinguished individuals is all that a vain man could wish, the stocks have declined, and troops come forward more slowly than ever. This, looked soberly in the face, is not very satisfactory. We have fewer troops in the field at the end of six days than we had at the beginning \u2013 the attrition among the old outnumbering the addition by the new. The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

— Michael Burlingame,\u00a0Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) Unedited Manuscript by Chapter, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 2, Chapter 28 (PDF), 3530.<\/p>\n

NOTE TO READERS<\/h3>\n

This page is under construction and will be developed further by students in the new \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d online course sponsored by the House Divided Project at Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To find out more about the course and to see some of our videotaped class sessions, including virtual field trips to Ford’s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n
(Strictly private.)<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Executive Mansion,<\/span><\/div>\n
Washington,<\/span><\/div>\n
September 28, 1862.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
My Dear Sir:<\/span><\/div>\n
Your kind letter of the 25th is just received. It is known to some that while I hope something from the proclamation, my expectations are not as sanguine as are those of some friends. The time for its effect southward has not come; but northward the effect should be instantaneous.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
It is six days old, and while commendation in newspapers and by distinguished individuals is all that a vain man could wish, the stocks have declined, and troops come forward more slowly than ever. This, looked soberly in the face, is not very satisfactory. We have fewer troops in the field at the end of six days than we had at the beginning—the attrition among the old outnumbering the addition by the new. The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
I wish I could write more cheerfully; nor do I thank you the less for the kindness of your letter.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Yours very truly,<\/span><\/div>\n
A. LINCOLN.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranking #85 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript “The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.” On This Date HD Daily Report, September 28, 1862 The Lincoln Log, September 28, 1862 Custom Map View in Larger Map How Historians Interpret \u201cNot too many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10858],"tags":[11632,10900,6088,11642,11669,10865,10862,10876],"class_list":["post-1013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-emancipator","tag-determination","tag-emancipation","tag-letter","tag-management-style","tag-needs-close-reading","tag-private","tag-wartime","tag-younger-readers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1013"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4520,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013\/revisions\/4520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}