That Mr.Lincoln said to Mr.Stephens, "Let me write Union at the top of this page and you may write below it whatever else you please," is referable to Mr.Stephens' statement made to many friends and attested by a number of reliable persons.

But that he meditated the most liberal terms, including payment for the slaves, rests neither upon conjecture nor hearsay, but on documentary proof.

It may be argued that he could not have secured the adoption of any such plan; but of his purpose, and its genuineness, there can be no question and there ought to be no equivocation.
Indeed, payment for the slaves had been all along in his mind.

He believed the North equally guilty with the South for the original existence of slavery.

He clearly understood that the Irrepressible Conflict was a Conflict of systems, not a merely sectional and partisan quarrel.