Abraham Lincoln: “I say 'initiation' because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all.”

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…

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

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?

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