In this letter of December 22, 1860, the recently elected Lincoln wrote to Alexander Stephens about Southern fears regarding his policy towards slavery. Just two days prior, South Carolina had become the first state to declare its intent to secede from the United States. Stephens, a major political figure in Georgia at the time, had been making speeches around the state encouraging his fellow citizens to follow South Carolina’s lead. Lincoln’s letter here responds to one from Stephens, which has since been lost. Lincoln insists that the Southern states should not fear that his administration would seek to confiscate their slaves, but he does not offer further appeasement of the sort Stephens may have requested. Lincoln ends by stating the essential difference between the two sides of the conflict: “You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub.”