We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.
Remarks in Response to a Serenade
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More from Abraham Lincoln
The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it?
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.
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