Letter from Gertrude Bloede, Katie Bloede, and Victor G. Bloede to Abraham Lincoln

Letter from Gertrude Bloede, Katie Bloede, and Victor G. Bloede to Abraham Lincoln, Sunday, January 4, 1863. In this letter to President Lincoln, Victor Bloede and two of his sisters expressed their support for the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Gertrude Bloede, Katie Bloede, and Victor G. Bloede to Abraham Lincoln, Sunday, January 04, 1863 (Support for Emancipation Proclamation)

From Gertrude Bloede, Katie Bloede, and Victor G. Bloede to Abraham Lincoln, January 4, 1863

Dear Sir: Amid the rejoicing & thanksgiving of three millions of enfranchised men, & the blessings they shower upon your head, the feeble voices of single individuals may be worth little or nothing, but nations are composed of individuals, & boys & girls (which we yet are) grow up in to men & women, who all add their part to the public weal or woe. For this reason we hope you will accept these words kindly & in the same spirit in which they are spoken.

Language has no words to express how much we thank you for your glorious Proclamation. You have added glory to the sky & splendor to the sun, & there are but few men who have ever done that before, either by words or acts. We enthusiastically “went in” for you at the last Presidential campaign, but pardon us if we candidly tell you that on the day when your Proclamation was issued, we said for the first time since your Administration, from the bottom of our hearts, “God bless Abraham Lincoln”! We know that no President has had to contend with so many difficulties as you, but we could not say it after what happened in consequence of Gen. Fremont's & Gen. Hunter's Proclamations, & we did not say it after your September Proclamation for the “day of Jubilee”, was too far off then. The foul blot of many years on our own glorious flag, you have erased with one stroke of your pen. You have done a great thing, & perhaps God has never before, since the beginning of the world, given to any one man the great privilege, the golden opportunity, of doing such a great act. O! dear “Uncle Abe”, only see the Proclamation carried out; & how brightly will the name of Abraham Lincoln shine through all times & ages! How richly laden with blessings will your Proclamation be handed down to future generations, as great a document as the Declaration of Independence & your memory as much honored & beloved as that of Washington! We are sure that every really loyal man blesses & loves you now, & the salute of hundred guns, fired in honor of the Proclamation, in Boston, must have awakened echoes in the hearts of all good people. How proud & happy you must feel, you a single man, the liberator of three million of our fellow-men, you alone accomplishing that object for which men have been writing & fighting for half a century, or more. But better than all blessings from men, is God's blessing, & we know that you have His. But once more we too repeat, “God bless you a thousand, thousand times.”

Hoping that you will pardon us for troubling you with this letter, amid your many official duties, we remain yours very respectfully,

Gertrude Bloede

Victor Gus. Bloede

Katie Bloede

Brooklyn. L. I.