Abraham Lincoln: “The pending call is not for three hundred thousand men subject to fair credits, but is for three hundred thousand…”

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

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

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

Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no organized organ for us to treat with,--no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man.