Abraham Lincoln: “The thanks of the nation will follow you, and may God's blessing rest upon you now and forever.”

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.

Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them?

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.