Abraham Lincoln: “I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do issue this my call for 500,000 volunteers for the military…”

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

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.

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.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.