Abraham Lincoln: “To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit, for the consideration of Congress, a report from the Secretary…”

He said, with a great deal of emphasis, and with an expression of countenance I shall never forget: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned, and there is no…

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

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.