EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
_August 22, 1862_

HON. HORACE GREELEY:--Dear Sir: I have just read yours of
the 19th, addressed to myself through the _New York
Tribune_. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of
facts which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and
here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences
which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and
here, argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an
imperious and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to
an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be
right.

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 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 to
destroy slavery_. If I could save the Union _without_
freeing _any_ slave _I would do it_, and if I could save it
by freeing _all_ the slaves I would do it; and if I could