"Our One Common Country" author talk in Stratford, CT

[David Lockmiller]

Last night, I was reading more from Professor Guelzo's book Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and came across a paragraph that may yield new information as to whether or not Mary Todd Lincoln was against President Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation.

On pages 184-85 of Professor Guelzo's book, there is the following paragraph:

In Boston, the epicenter of abolitionism, two great meetings were organized at Music Hall and Tremont Temple, the first largely for whites and the second for Boston's black community. Tremont Temple hosted the elite of black abolitionism--Frederick Douglass, Charles Lenox Redmond, William Wells Brown, John S. Rock. Ascending the rostrum, Douglass thanked God that he was alive to see the end of slavery. . . . It was not until Douglass was finished, however, that the news of the Proclamation was rushed into the church, and it was not until another seven speakers had taken their turn at the rostrum that the full text of the Proclamation was hurried in to be read. "The joyous enthusiasm manifested was beyond description. Cheers were proposed for the President and for the proclamation, the whole audience rising to their feet and shouting at the tops of their voices, throwing up their hats and indicating the gratification in every conceivable manner." "It was a day & an occasion never to be forgotten," wrote Eliza Quincy to Mary Todd Lincoln. "I wish you & the President could have enjoyed it with us, here." (Footnote 45 reads: Eliza S. Quincy to Mary Todd Lincoln, January 2, 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress.)

Presumably, Mary Todd Lincoln would have responded by mail to Eliza Quincy within a month. Does anyone have access to a copy of such a letter written by Mary Todd Lincoln?