At President Abraham Lincoln's request, Secretary of State William H. Seward wrote this:

I am further instructed to say that the exposition ... in the Pastoral Letter, of the intimate connection which exists between fervent patriotism and true Christianity, seems to the President equally seasonable and unanswerable. 1

• 1. Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, Developed in the Official and Historical Annals of the Republic., by B. F. MORRIS, Philadelphia, 1864