Abraham Lincoln: “Missouri is comparatively quiet, and, I believe, can not again be overrun by the insurrectionists.”

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

I am considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper.

I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it.

I do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.