Letter to William H. Herndon
03/05/1864
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu...
The slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by Democratic strategy.
Freedom has given us one hundred and fifty thousand men, raised on Southern soil.
Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe.
So long as I am President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the Union.