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Lincoln
and Stephens had shared a boarding house in Washington during Lincoln's
one term in Congress in the late 1840s. Both were members of the
Whig Party, which indicated a degree of agreement on some issues.
This letter began a brief, well-intended, but eventually fruitless
attempt to assure at least one prominent Southern leader that the
incoming Lincoln Administration posed no threat to them. The
sincerity of Lincoln's affection for Stephens is illustrated by his
1865 arrangement to have the Confederate Vice-President's nephew
released from the Johnson's Island POW camp. |
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