Description
At the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-1865), Virginia-born abolitionist Moncure Conway made no secret of his desire for emancipation. His 1861 book The Rejected Stone, an anonymous plea on the subject, was popular enough that copies were distributed to Union soldiers at the outbreak of fighting. In this letter from May of that year, Conway, now living in Ohio, writes to U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, offering to supply his knowledge of the topography of [Stafford County, Falmouth] and a very large part of Eastern Va. Later that year, he would secure a meeting with Lincoln, lobbying on behalf of emancipation and arguing that the abolition of slavery would cripple the Confederate war effort and hasten peace.
