Abraham Lincoln: “But they can not be required to take an oath of allegiance to this Government, because it conflicts with the duty they…”

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

He said, with a great deal of emphasis, and with an expression of countenance I shall never forget: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned, and there is no…

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.