HON. HORACE GREELEY--_Dear Sir_: I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to myself through the _New York Tribune_. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. If there be in it any inference which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right. “As to the policy I ‘seem to be pursuing,’ as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. “I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time _save_ Slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time _destroy_ Slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle _is_ to save the Union, and is _not_ either to save or destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing _any_ slave, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing _all_ the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do _not_ believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do _less_ whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do _more_ whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of _official_ duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed _personal_ wish that all men, every where, could be free. “Yours, A. LINCOLN.” What that policy was, every manly heart learned with delight when the following Proclamation appeared, the most important state-paper ever penned by any American President: