The Birchard Letter was a public letter from United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 to M. Birchard and eighteen other Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 Democrats

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 in which Lincoln defended the administration's treatment of antiwar agitators, and offered to release Clement Vallandigham

Clement Vallandigham

Clement Laird Vallandigham was an Ohio resident of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives.-Biography:...

 if a majority of those to whom the letter was addressed would subscribe to certain pledges in connection with the prosecution of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

.

Source

• Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams
  James Truslow Adams
  James Truslow Adams was an American writer and historian. He was not related to the famous Adams family...
  
  , New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940