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Lincoln and Democracy, 1863-1865 331 some have chosen one hom and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this I doubt not; and believing it, I shall still receive, for our country and myself, your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. Your sincere friend A. LINCOLN. "STRUGGLING TO MAINTAIN GOVERNMENT, NOT TO OVERTHROW IT" From a Response to a Serenade, the White House [OCTOBER 19, 1864] Lincoln was serenaded by loyal Marylanders celebrating the end ofslavery in their state. He acknowledged them from an upstairs White House window, and with his eleven-year-old son, Tad, holding a torch for light, read this reply, pledging to abide by the Constitution if he was defeated for reelection. Something said by the Secretary of State in his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat that, if I shall be beaten at the election, I will between then and the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able, to ruin the government. Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall be elected, he will at once seize control ofthe government. I hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling to maintain government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say, that 332 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY if I shall live, I shall remain President until the fourth of next March; and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected therefor in November , shall be duly installed as President on the fourth ofMarch; and that in the interval I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage, shall start with the best possible chance to save the ship. This is due to the people both on principle, and under the constitution . Their will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace even at the loss oftheir country, and their liberty, I know not the power or the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country and their liberty; and in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add that in this purpose to save the country and it's liberties, no classes ofpeople seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the field and the seamen afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders. "DISCHARGE HIM AT ONCE" Letter to the Governor ofKentucky [NOVEMBER 10, 1864] On election day, November 9, Kentucky governor Thomas E. Bramlette wired Lincoln to complain that a general he described as "a loyal man and prominent citizen" had been arrested merely for opposing the President 's reelection. Although so-called arrests of civilians by the military were by then not uncommon, the governor could not believe that Lincoln would "sanction this ostracizing of loyal men who honestly oppose you." This is Lincoln's reply, complete with a self-depreciating reference to his poor showing at the polls in his native Kentucky, one of only two states he had lost in the election. ...

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