Toward the end of the recent canvass, and still more since the election, Mr. Lincoln had received urgent letters to make some public declaration to reassure and pacify the South, especially the cotton States, which were manifesting a constantly growing spirit of rebellion.  Most of such letters remained unanswered, but in a number of strictly confidential replies he explained the reasons for his refusal.

“I appreciate your motive,” he wrote October 23, “when you suggest the propriety of my writing for the public something disclaiming all intention to interfere with slaves or slavery in the States:  but, in my judgment, it would do no good.  I have already done this many, many times; and it is in print, and open to all who will read.  Those who will not read or heed what I have already publicly said, would not read or heed a repetition of it.  ’If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.’”

To the editor of the “Louisville Journal” he wrote October 29: 

“For the good men of the South—­and I regard the majority of them as such—­I have no objection to repeat seventy and seven times.  But I have bad men to deal with, both North and South; men who are eager for something new upon which to base new misrepresentations; men who would like to frighten me, or at least to fix upon me the character of timidity and cowardice.”

Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, who afterward became Confederate Vice-President, made a strong speech against secession in that State on November 14; and Mr. Lincoln wrote him a few lines asking for a revised copy of it.  In the brief correspondence which ensued, Mr. Lincoln again wrote him under date of December 22: 

“I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the weight of responsibility on me.  Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly or indirectly, interfere with the slaves, or with them about the slaves?  If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears.  The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington.  I suppose, however, this does not meet the case.  You think slavery is right and ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted.  That, I suppose, is the rub.  It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.”

So, also, replying a few days earlier in a long letter to Hon. John A. Gilmer of North Carolina, to whom, as already stated, he offered a cabinet appointment, he said: