Excerpt from Interview Between President Lincoln and Col. John B. Baldwin: April 4th, 1861, Statements Evidence

I regret very much that circumstances beyond my control have prevented an earlier notice from me of the testimony given before the Reconstruction Committee by John F. Lewis, John M. Botts and myself in relation to my interview with President Lincoln on the 4th of April, 1861.

I regarded it as just to all parties to await the publication of the testimony in full, and when, by the kindness of friends and the courtesy of public officers, I was furnished with it in advance of the regular publication, I found it necessary to submit it to the examination of the gentlemen to whose testimony I desired to appeal in support of my statement.

I publish herewith so much of the testimony as relates to the subject.

I find the report of my testimony to be substantially correct, and I refer to the account therein given as in accordance with my distinct recollection of what passed, and with what I have uniformly and invariably stated to every one, without exception, with whom I have, at anytime, conversed fully on the subject.

My memory is fully and strikingly sustained by the statements herewith published from Allen B. Magruder, Esq., the special messenger with whom I went to Washington and to whom I gave a hurried account of interview immediately after it terminated, and from Messrs. George W. Summers, John Janney, Alex. H. H. Stuart and Samuel Price, members of the Convention, who, with Roberts E. Scott, Esq., of Fauquier, had concurred in sending me to Washington, and to whom I reported fully on my return to Richmond next day.

I think it probable I have made the same statement to at least fifty different persons.

No witness was present at the conversation between Mr. Lincoln and myself, and no opportunity afterward occurred to compare our recollections of what passed. If, therefore, any substantial discrepancy shall be found between my account and any well authenticated statement given by Mr. Lincoln, I can only say, that, claiming what I have said to be correct and true, I have yet no disposition to question that he had the same belief as to what he started.

I use the term "Well Authenticated, " intending thereby to exclude any such account as that reported by Mr. Botts, which, though given as "due to history and due to the memory of Mr. Lincoln, " would cast upon him the reproach of a statement inaccurate in its details and impossible in its substance.

The very first sentence attributed by Mr. Botts to Mr. Lincoln misstates the manner in which the interview was brought about, and the time at which it took place.

He is represented as saying, "that he had about a week or ten days before that, possibly a fortnight, written to Mr. Summers, asking him to come to Washington, without delay, as he had a most important proposition to make to him, " and as making no allusion whatever to having sent a special messenger.

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