Abraham Lincoln: “This would be compromise, but it would be compromise among the friends and not with the enemies of the Union.”

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

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.

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 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.