Richmond Whig. Richmond, Virginia, 30 August 1862. 2 pages, 17 3/4 x 24 in.

A fascinating and rare Confederate newspaper featuring a printing of President Abraham Lincoln's response to Horace Greeley's "Prayer of Twenty Millions" letter. 

Horace Greeley (1811-1872) was an abolitionist and founder of the New York Tribune. Though a supporter of Lincoln, Greeley was growing frustrated with Lincoln's inaction on slavery and published a critical editorial on 20 August 1862. Lincoln responded directly to Greeley, emphasizing the importance of the Union and explaining why he was hesitant to take drastic measures. 

Lincoln's response, published on the verso, reads in part: "As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer the union will be 'the Union as it was.' If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them - my paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union..." 

Unknown to Greeley and most Americans, however, Lincoln had already drafted the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and was waiting to deliver it until after a strategic Union military victory. 

In Four Years in Rebel Capitals, journalist T.C. DeLeon writes that the Richmond Whig was among the South's best wartime newspapers. Its pages "recorded the real and true history of public opinion during the war. In their columns is to be found the only really correct and indicative 'map of busy life, its fluctuations and its vast concerns' in the South, during her days of darkness and trial." Though it was also reputed to have conspired to send secret messages to Southern sympathizers in the North via advertisements and editorials, notably in October 1864, an editorial was run that signaled for insurrection in New York City. 

The front page also includes reporting on the state of European sentiment towards the Confederacy, an article on "the Indian Atrocities in Minnesota," and war reporting. 

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Small separations along flattened old folds, with some toning.