To the Editor:

Re “Remains From His Last Day” (column, April 11):

Timothy Egan, writing about the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, correctly states that, in contrast to Lincoln, “Republicans of today are openly hostile to conservation” of the environment.

If Republicans want to reclaim the presidency in 2016, they should revisit their anti-environment ideology and understand, as did Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, who signed the Endangered Species Act into law in 1973, that conservation is a cornerstone of conservatism.

ROBERT H. ALAND

Winnetka, Ill.

To the Editor:

For eight years, Democrats have waged a campaign to persuade America that every Republican lives at the outermost reaches of the right end of the political spectrum. This latest warning — that Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s favorite presidents and a Republican, would find today’s G.O.P. a horror to behold — is an imaginative new twist on the pitch.

Moderate Republicans are not extinct. We aren’t even an endangered species. We believe in private enterprise and free markets. We love our national parks. We think railways and bridges should be repaired. We believe in immigration reform. We are pro-choice, support same-sex marriage and hope that gun control will one day be a reality. President Lincoln would find us simpatico.