Letters to the Editor

One year earlier

President Lincoln signed the D.C. Emancipation Act on April 16, 1862, not in 1863 as stated in your article (Briefly, Metropolitan, Saturday).

The Emancipation Proclamation (for the states in secession) was signed on Jan. 1, 1863, as a matter of military necessity and in celebration of the Union Army’s first “victory”over Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, at Antietam, on Sept. 17, 1862. That battle was fought to a standstill, but Lee recrossed the Potomac the following night, Sept. 18, 1862.

RICHARD G. AMATO

Washington

A confused candidate

If Sen. John Kerry truly believes, as he claims, that “life does begin at conception” (“Double standard,” Inside Politics, Nation, Friday), his March vote against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as Laci and Conner’s Law, is inexplicable.

What seems more likely is that, once again, Mr. Kerry is trying to be on all sides of every issue. In this era of suicidal terrorism and threats of weapons of mass destruction, we can’t afford to elect a president whose moral compass spins like a boat caught in the Bermuda Triangle.

Mr. Kerry’s choice for vice president, Sen. John Edwards, also cast his vote against Laci and Conner’s Law.

JAMES TERPENING

Richmond

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