Abraham Lincoln: “They are the props that hold up the house and sustain the Union.”

As a general rule I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.

If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

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.