{"id":104188,"date":"2021-04-24T01:00:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T06:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/?p=104188"},"modified":"2021-04-17T14:31:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T19:31:19","slug":"i-have-no-purpose-to-invade-virginia-or-any-other-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/i-have-no-purpose-to-invade-virginia-or-any-other-state\/","title":{"rendered":"I have no purpose to invade Virginia or any other State..,"},"content":{"rendered":"
To Reverdy Johnson1<\/sup><\/strong><\/div>\n
Confidential.<\/div>\n
Hon. Reverdy Johnson<\/div>\n
Executive Mansion, April 24th 1861.<\/div>\n
My dear Sir: Your note of this morning is just received. I forebore to answer yours of the 22d because of my aversion (which I thought you understood,) to getting on paper, and furnishing new grounds for misunderstanding.
\nI do<\/em> say the sole purpose of bringing troops here is to defend this capital.<\/span>
\nI do<\/em> say I have no purpose to invade<\/em> Virginia, with them or any other troops, as I understand the word invasion<\/em>. But suppose Virginia sends her troops, or admits others through her borders, to assail this capital, am I not to repel them, even to the crossing of the Potomac if I can?<\/span>
\nSuppose Virginia erects, or permits to be erected, batteries on the opposite shore, to bombard the city, are we to stand still and see it done? In a word, if Virginia strikes us, are we not to strike back, and as effectively as we can?<\/span>
\nAgain, are we not to hold Fort Monroe (for instance) if we can? I have no objection to declare a thousand times that I have no purpose to invade<\/em> Virginia or any other State, but I do not mean to let them invade us without striking back. Yours truly<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
A. Lincoln<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
    \n
  1. Maryland’s ex-senator (1845-1849) and recent delegate to the Peace Conference wrote on April 24 that he desired an answer to his letter of April 22 before he left Washington. A contemporary copy of the earlier letter made by Joseph Holt, in the Lincoln Papers, reads in part as follows: “. . . The existing excitement and alarm . . . of my own State and of Virginia are owing . . . to an apprehension that it is your purpose to use the military force you are assembling in this District for the invasion of . . . these States . . .”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    To Reverdy Johnson1 Confidential. Hon. Reverdy Johnson Executive Mansion, April 24th 1861. My dear Sir: Your note of this morning is just received. I forebore to answer yours of the 22d because of my aversion (which I thought you understood,) to getting on paper, and furnishing new grounds for misunderstanding. I do say the sole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":68956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-104188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-collected-works-of-abraham-lincoln"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Abraham-Lincoln.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}