Abraham Lincoln: “You are hereby appointed chief of construction and transportation in the Department of the Rappahannock, with the rank…”

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.

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

The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it?

Important principles may and must be inflexible.