Remarks in Response to a Serenade
10/18/1864
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu...
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it...
The expediency of sanctioning the acceptance of the gift is submitted to your consideration.
To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan, is our duty.
Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, sr., to pass our lines, go South, and return.