Read the following lines from the passage: i am naturally anti-slavery. if slavery is not wrong nothing is wrong. i cannot remember when i did not so think and feel; and yet i have never understood that the presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially in this judgment and feeling. which comes closest to capturing lincoln's true meaning in this passage?

The correct answer here is "and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially in this judgment and feeling."

Here we see the conflict which would later be expanded in Lincoln's letter. He personally is against slavery and he think that it is wrong. But he is a President not a dictator nor someone who can use that power however he wishes. His first duty is to the nation and the constitution he swore to protect and uphold. So the union of the nation  and his duty to preserve it has to come before his personal feelings on slavery.