The outraged reaction of Virginia governor John Letcher to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. It includes the text of a 5 January 1863 "Freedom to Slaves!" proclamation by Union General R.H. Milroy in Winchester, VA. This was forwarded 11 days later by a Confederate congressman to the governor, regarding "the fiendish abolition policy which the infamous John Brown vainly attempted to inaugurate at Harpers Ferry." Governor Letcher's 4-page response to the state legislature quotes the Emancipation Proclamation with horror, and denounces Lincoln as acting "in violation of all the principles of humanity. . . . No public man in our country has exhibited such depravity; no statesman has shown such an abandonment of moral principle." The governor insists that the law of the land dictates the same fate for Lincoln as for John Brown, but reassures his citizens that the enslaved population "with rare exceptions remain loyal, true, and contented." Parrish & Willingham 4398 (as part of a set of 45 General Assembly documents issued in early 1863).
