As those fathers marked it, so let it again be marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because of and so far as its actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity.
In his Cooper Union Address, Lincoln defines the Republican position on slavery, viewing it as an evil to be contained rather than expanded, tolerated only out of necessity.
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Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.
Or, if one out of four will, for his own freedom fight to keep the other three in slavery, he ought to be a slave for his selfish meanness.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.
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