Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-10-30
Letter from Hon. Josiah Quincy
to President Lincoln.

We find in the New York Epening Post
the following letter by the venerable Josiah
Quincy, who already in the tenth decade of
the years of his life, preserves the clearness
Of perception and the vigor, promptness and
soundness of judgment which belonged to his
best days. The occasion Of his writing was
the appearance of Mr.. Lincoln's letter to the
Illinois Conventions subject eminently wor-
thy of the congratulations of every veteran
statesman of Massachusetts,. Mr.. Quincy
remarks that the subject of negro slavery and
the possibility of emancipation has engaged
his thoughts for more than seventy years.
What other living man can say this? Sew
enty years, the ordinary measure of fortu-
nate human life, connect the present day with
the time Of those great men who framed the
institutions under which we live. Of the
evil of slavery and its remedy, his views are
the same with theirs. Those wise and illus
trious men-that generation whose minds
were enlightened and enlarged by the vast
responsibilities cast upon them by the mo,
mentoUs events of their time-may be re-
garded as speaking to us through his voice.
His letter is the utterance of a glorious Past
addressing its counsels and admonitions tc
the Present. Let us hope that they will
be needed and obeyed.
Hon Abraham Lincoln:
"S1R old age has its privileges, which
hope this letter will not exceed. But can
not refrain from expressing to you my graft
| ficaton and my gratitude for your letter tt
the Illinois Convention; happy, timely, conclu
sive and effective. What you say concern
ing emancipation, your proclamation and your
course of proceeding in relation to it, wa:
due to truth and your own character-shame
fully assailed as it has been. The develop
ment is an imperishab!e monument Of wis
dom and virtue.
'Negro slavery and the possibility of eman
cipation have been subjects of my though
for more than seventy years being first in
troduced to it by the debates in the cOnven
ton of Massachusetts for adopting the Con
stitution, in l7SS, which | attended. | ha(
subsequently opportunities of knowing tn
views on that subject, not only of such mel
as Hamilton, King, Jay and Pickering. bu
also of distinguished slaveholders-of boil
the Piucknevs, of VIM. Smith of South Car
DINA, and of many others. With the first o
these had personal intercourse and acqnain
lance. | can truly say that never knew th
individual, STAKEHOLDER or non-slaveholder
who did not express detestation of it, ant
the desire and disposition to get rid OF it.
| .,,o Of
was, what shall we do for the master, ant
what shall we do with the slave? A salts
factory answer to both these questions ha
been, until now, beyond the reach and tn
grasp Of human wisdom and power.
Through the direct influence of goo
and grac Gus God, the people of the Unite
States have been invested with the power 9
answering satisfactorily both these questions
and also of providing for the difficulties inc
dent to both, of which if they fail to ava
themselves, thoroughly and conclusiyely
they will entail shame OH themselves an
sorrow and misery on many generations.
sit is impossible for me to regard the pow
er thus granted to this people otherwise tina
as proceeding from the influence of superir
tending Providence who ever makes thOs
mad aohom He intends to Destroy
"The only possible way in which slavery
after it had grown to such height, coul
have been abolished, IS that which heaven ha
adopted.
"Your fundamentally in the work is t
you a subject of special glory, favor and felie
ity. The madness of secession and its inevl
table consequence, civil war, will, in their re
suit, give the right and the power of univel
sal emancipation sooner or later. If the Uni
ted States do not understand and fully az
preciate the boon thus bestowed on them
and fail to improve it to the utmost extent
the power granted. they will prove recrean
to themselves and posterity.
81 write under the impression that the vic
tory of the United States in this war is inev
table.
compromise is impossible. Peace O
any other basis would be the establishment
of two nations, each hating the other, bot
military, both necessarily hostile, their teri
tories interlocked, with tendency to never
ceasing hostility. Can we leave to posterit
a more cruel Inheritance, or one more hope
less of happiness and prosperity?
=" Pardon the liberty have taken in thi
let err, and do not feel obliged in any way t
take notice of it and believe me,
"Ever your grateful and obliged servant,
josiah QUINCY"
"Quincy, Sept. 7, 1868"