Abraham Lincoln: “I do therefore nominate Captain Stephen C. Rowan to be a commodore in the Navy on the active list from the 7th February…”

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?

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

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.