Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.

The plan would, I am confident, secure peace more speedily and maintain it more permanently than can be done by force alone, while all it would cost, considering amounts and manner of payment and times of payment, would be easier paid than…

It is much, very much, that it would cost no blood at all.

This assurance would end the struggle now and save the Union forever.

Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood?

Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity and perpetuate both indefinitely?

Will not the good people respond to a united and earnest appeal from us?

Can we, can they, by any other means so certainly or so speedily assure these vital objects?

The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.

As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Other means may succeed; this could not fail.

I submit the expediency of such an amendment of the law as will make the fact of voting an estoppel against any plea of exemption from military service or other civil obligation on the ground of alienage.

This noble effort demands the aid and ought to receive the attention and support of the Government.

Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in their…

Of those States not included in the emancipation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of which three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slavery into new Territories, only dispute now as to the best mode of…

There must be a test by which to separate the opposing elements, so as to build only from the sound; and that test is a sufficiently liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make a sworn recantation of his former unsoundness.

In my judgment, they have aided and will further aid the cause for which they were intended.

I may add at this point that while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any of…

The movements by State action for emancipation in several of the States not included in the emancipation proclamation are matters of profound gratulation.

And while I do not repeat in detail what I have heretofore so earnestly urged upon this subject, my general views and feelings remain unchanged; and I trust that Congress will omit no fair opportunity of aiding these important steps to a…

In the midst of other cares, however important, we must not lose sight of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance.

To that power alone can we look yet for a time to give confidence to the people in the contested regions that the insurgent power will not again overrun them.

Until that confidence shall be established little can be done anywhere for what is called reconstruction.

It may be expected to derive new vigor from American influence, improved by the rapid disappearance of slavery in the United States.