Abraham Lincoln: “We mean to be as deliberate and calm about it as it is possible to be, but as firm and resolved as it is possible for…”

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?

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.

If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

As a general rule I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.