Abraham Lincoln: “I tender to you, officers and soldiers, the thanks of the nation.”

If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.

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.

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.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.