No. A clue: the person was not African-American.
No.
The person was female.
Since we recently discussed Uncle Tom's Cabin, perhaps this was uttered by Mrs. Stowe?
No. Hint: the lady herself is not well known, but her husband was.
Edward Bates' wife? (I recall they both were very religious.)
Hannibal Hamlin's second wife, Ellen Hamlin?
Nope! Hint: the woman's husband died before the Civil War.
I was going to say John Brown's widow too , Steve. But I'm fairly sure she died before the Proclamation. ( I see that John Brown had 20 children)
I'll guess Julia Grant ...
No I wont ... because I see that a previous hint was that the woman's husband died before the Civil War ... Grant was a very special person but I doubt he was capable of doing what he did whilst deceased.
Argh! I now see that Susan has said the correct answer is Mary Brown ! I hereby retract my retraction.
( This is what comes through skimming through Wikipedia ... I saw Brown had been married twice but only looked at Dianthe Lusk's date of death).
Reading about John Brown and Harper's Ferry and all that baby talk reminds me of a song (Gene, please note) ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS7_e9LdvDI
Score! John Brown's widow, Mary Brown, wrote the quote above as a postscript to a letter to Mary Stearns on January 7, 1863.
http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvmemor...ext&Id=680
Mary Brown lived until 1884. In 1864, she, her only surviving son, and her three daughters crossed the plains to California, where she spent the rest of her life except for a trip back east near the end of her life.