Abraham Lincoln: “Any person liable to draft who shall absent himself from his county or State before such draft is made will be arrested.”

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.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

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.

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.