With Malice Toward None

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition    

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President Lincoln drafted this unusual document under the conviction that public sentiment, moved by heavy Union casualties and lack of definitive Union victories, would weigh heavily against him and result in his defeat in the 1864 presidential election. Lincoln folded and sealed this memorandum, often called the “Blind Memo,” without revealing its contents to the members of his cabinet and asked them to sign their names on the verso. After the election, an exultant President Lincoln ceremoniously opened the memorandum and read it to his cabinet, explaining it as his pledge to place country above party.
* Currently on Exhibit

(Transcription)

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect ...


President Lincoln drafted this unusual document under the conviction that public sentiment, moved by heavy Union casualties and lack of definitive Union victories, would weigh heavily against him and result in his defeat in the 1864 presidential election. Lincoln folded and sealed this memorandum, often called the “Blind Memo,” without revealing its contents to the members of his cabinet and asked them to sign their names on the verso. After the election, an exultant President Lincoln ceremoniously opened the memorandum and read it to his cabinet, explaining it as his pledge to place country above party.