Hay, John, 1838-1905 to Mary Jay
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01569 Author/Creator: Hay, John, 1838-1905 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: July 20, 1862 Pagination: 7 p. : docket ; 20.5 x 25.5 cm. Order a Copy
Written while serving as Assistant Secretary to President Abraham Lincoln to a family friend. Writes of General George McClellan and his failed Peninsula campaign, "...What a wretched conclusion of all our little General's boasting addresses and orders have we seen on the bloody banks of the Chickahominy! Sad as is the result to himself and the country..." Mentions General David Hunter's attempt to emancipate enslaved people, "How gloriously General Hunter has justified my statement that the future would prove his soundness in hatred of Slavery..." Hints of the coming of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, "But he will not conserve slavery much longer. When next he speaks in relation to this defiant and ungrateful villainy it will be with no uncertain sound. Even now he speaks more boldly and sternly to slaveholders than to the world."
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