st 18, 1862

S. B. MOODY, Springfield, Ill.:

Which do you prefer--commissary or quartermaster? If appointed it must be
without conditions.

A. LINCOLN.

Operator please send above for President. JOHN HAY

TO Mrs. PRESTON.

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 21, 1862.

Mrs. MARGARET PRESTON, Lexington, Ky.:

Your despatch to Mrs. L. received yesterday. She is not well. Owing to
her early and strong friendship for you, I would gladly oblige you, but I
cannot absolutely do it. If General Boyle and Hon. James Guthrie, one
or both, in their discretion see fit to give you the passes, this is my
authority to them for doing so.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BURNSIDE OR GENERAL PARKE.

WASHINGTON, August 21.

TO GENERAL BURNSIDE OR GENERAL PARKE:

What news about arrival of troops?

A. LINCOLN.

TO G. P. WATSON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 21, 1862.

GILLET F. WATSON, Williamsburg, Va.:

Your telegram in regard to the lunatic asylum has been received. It
is certainly a case of difficulty, but if you cannot remain, I cannot
conceive who under my authority can. Remain as long as you safely can and
provide as well as you can for the poor inmates of the institution.

A. LINCOLN.

TO HORACE GREELEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 22, 1862.

HON. HORACE GREELEY.

DEAR SIR:--I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to myself through
the New York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of
fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert
them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely
drawn, I do not now and here argue against them. If there be perceptible
in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old
friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to
leave any one in doubt.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the
Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the
nearer the Union will be, "the Union as it was." If there be those who
would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery,
I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union
unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with
them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, an