US Presidency
1863

Executive Mansion, Washington, August 26, 1863. Hon. James C. Conkling My Dear Sir. Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of unconditional Union-men, to be held at the Capital of Illinois, on the 3d day of September, has been received. It would be very agreeable to me, to thus meet my old friends, at my own home; but I can not, just now, be absent from here, so long as a visit there, would require. The meeting is to be of all those who maintain unconditional devotion to the Union; and I am sure my old political friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble men, whom no partizan malice, or partizan hope, can make false to the nation's life. There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: You desire peace; and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we attain it? There are but three conceivable ways. First, to suppress the rebellion by force of arms.