“The severest justice may not always be the best policy.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Veto message, eventually not executed, written as a response to the Second Confiscation Act passed by Congress. (17 July 1862)
The Emancipation Proclamation, by John Hope Franklin, Doubleday Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1963, p. 19
1860s

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Abraham Lincoln 618

16th President of the United States 1809–1865

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