Isabella Maria "Belle" Boyd, Letter

Title

Isabella Maria "Belle" Boyd, Letter

Contributor

Bysterbusch, Hailey

Biographical Text

Copy of Boyd letter to Abraham Lincoln.
The original letter is held at the Library of Congress in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. This copy is currently held at the Kilbourn Public Library in Wisconsin Dells, WI.

Text

Brunswick Hotel. Jermyn St. London
24th Jany. 1865
Honble Abraham Lincoln
President of the U.S. America
I have heard from good authority that if I suppress the Book I have now ready for publication, you may be induced to consider leniently the case of my husband, S. Wylde Hardinge, now a prisoner in Fort Delaware, I think it would be well for you & me to come to some definite understanding. My Book was not originally intended to be more than a personal narrative, but since my husband's unjust arrest I had intended making it political, & had introduced many [Page Two] atrocious circumstances respecting your Government with which I am so well acquainted & which would open the eyes of Europe to many things of which the world on this side of the water little dreams. If you will release my husband & set him free, so that he may join me here in England by the beginning of March. I pledge you my word that my Book shall be suppressed— Should my husband not be with me by the 25th of March I shall at once place my Books in the hands of a publisher.
Trusting an immediate reply,
[illegible]
Belle Boyd Hardinge

Date Created

1865-01-24

Relation

Boyd, Isabella Maria "Belle" (1844-1900)

Type

English Display

Bibliographic Citation

Belle Boyd Letter to Abraham Lincoln, Kilbourn Public Library

Image 1 of Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916: Belle Boyd Hardinge to Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, January 24, 1865 (Offers to suppress book if Lincoln will release her husband), Library of Congress