Abraham Lincoln's merciful Christmas letter to his Confederate cousins sold

Belle Montgomery

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It was days before Christmas 1863, and Abraham Lincoln wanted to offer an example of goodwill to the fractured nation in the midst of the Civil War.
The Craig family, cousins to Lincoln's wife Mary Todd, were a slave-holding family in Arkansas who had fled their plantation as Union forces took over much of the state. But the Craigs were nearing the end of their lives and wished to return to their home for Christmas.
Despite the ongoing war -- or perhaps because of it -- Lincoln agreed. After meeting with the family, he wrote and signed a letter that they could use to safely move past Union forces and reoccupy their Arkansas plantation.
"Mr. and Mrs. Craig, of Arkansas, whose plantation, situated upon the Mississippi River a few miles below Helena, has been desolated during the present war, propose returning to reoccupy and cultivate said plantation," Lincoln wrote in the letter.
"(And) it is my wish that they be permitted to do so, and that the United States military forces in that vicinity will not molest them or allow them to be molested, as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States."
Lincoln's original letter, long held by descendants of the Todd family, was recently...
REST OF ARTICLE:https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/24/us/abraham-lincoln-christmas-letter/index.html
 
No greater example of a tyrant. Lincoln was a monster.

"as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States."

And since Lincoln had shut down 300 Northern News papers, arrested tens of thousands of people who disagreed with him, arrested the Maryland legislature, illegal suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and started the war, what does Lincoln mean when he says, "as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States."?

I'll tell you what Abe means, he means, SO LONG as the Craig family doesn't go against MY PLANS, leave them alone.
 
No greater example of a tyrant. Lincoln was a monster.

"as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States."

And since Lincoln had shut down 300 Northern News papers, arrested tens of thousands of people who disagreed with him, arrested the Maryland legislature, illegal suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and started the war, what does Lincoln mean when he says, "as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States."?

I'll tell you what Abe means, he means, SO LONG as the Craig family doesn't go against MY PLANS, leave them alone.



LMFAO with tears.gif


He wants to tell you that you're probably off topic for this thread but he can't stop laughing at the comment.
 
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No greater example of a tyrant. Lincoln was a monster.

"as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States."

And since Lincoln had shut down 300 Northern News papers, arrested tens of thousands of people who disagreed with him, arrested the Maryland legislature, illegal suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and started the war, what does Lincoln mean when he says, "as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States."?

I'll tell you what Abe means, he means, SO LONG as the Craig family doesn't go against MY PLANS, leave them alone.

@Tommygun ,

(Sigh!)

Sincerely,
Unionblue
 
I honestly believe that Abraham Lincoln was many things but never a tryant and certainly not a monster. He was a man elected to the highest office in the nation and found himself in the position of having the country unraveling in his hands. Sectional differences had been boiling for years and the slavery issue was the straw that broke all bonds and efforts to reconcile. Acussing and charging Lincoln as the man who created the Civil War and used his powers for his own purposes and pleasures is wrong. Read the remarks below from his first ignaugural address which are conciliatory in nature.
Regards
David

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
 
The Lincolns couldn't win. Mary Todd had a dreadful war, family mostly still in the South, brothers and brothers in law in uniform, most detested the Todd married to the man who symbolized the enemy. She tried to maintain ties only to be called a traitor by the north. When his wife asked Lincoln to intervene as with the Craigs you can see how much the effort cost both of them.

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."


Just reading that makes me remember to hope. Nice way to start the day, thank you.
 
I honestly believe that Abraham Lincoln was many things but never a tryant and certainly not a monster. He was a man elected to the highest office in the nation and found himself in the position of having the country unraveling in his hands. Sectional differences had been boiling for years and the slavery issue was the straw that broke all bonds and efforts to reconcile. Acussing and charging Lincoln as the man who created the Civil War and used his powers for his own purposes and pleasures is wrong. Read the remarks below from his first ignaugural address which are conciliatory in nature.
Regards
David

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
Very good reply. I believe he was as kind as circumstances permitted. It would be a tough spot to defend with everyone wanting to trample him down. I remember reading somewhere a circumstance in the south that reflects on the difficulty of conciliation. It goes something like;
'These southern men were brought up to believe their Constitution and Nation would defend their ways of life that had been passed down by their forefathers.' The idea of inherent right.
It really didn't.
Lubliner.
 
I wonder how Mary REALLY felt... it was tough enough losing Confederate family members to the war yet her husband gave clemency here. God knows why she had some phycological "issues" going through everything she had gone through already. What do you think my dear friends from the "Ladies Tea?" @JPK Huson 1863 and @18thVirginia


I realize there's been a lot written about Mary. We don't have much by her, you know? Found a letter written in reply to a friend who was so enraged by her treatment she vowed to defend her in print. Mary asked her not to saying it was futile and would only make a target of her friend.

Who can say how she felt? We can imagine, maybe. You can see she tried desperately to maintain ties with the Todds. Her sisters were passed through the lines for visits to the White House and that backfired in several ways. Northern papers accused her of Southern sympathies and one sister who'd been welcomed later wrote some of the same nonsense we've seen from Herndon. Her sister. Nice. She seems genuinely committed to the Union, there's never a waver in her loyalties to both country and husband.

Yes, poor thing. It was a feeding frenzy, reviled by the South as a Southern woman who married THE Unionist, dismissed by Washington society as a social wanna-be with no graces ( she was raised a beautifully educated Southern belle ) and accused by the North of Southern sympathies, too. What's the first accusation thrown at women to this day when someone needs a handy weapon? The whole ' she's crazy ' thing. It stuck.
 
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