No, Mr. president, rather than allow this war to terminate except upon the restoration of the Union intact in all its breadth and length, I would sacrifice the last man and see the country itself submerged.

Rather than yield to traitors or the intervention of foreign powers, rather than bequeath to the next generation a broken Union, and an interminable civil war, I would light the torch of fanaticism and destroy all that the labor of two…

Better a desert and universal poverty than disunion; better the war of the French Revolution than an oligarchy founded upon the labor of slaves.

The resources, wealth, and labor of twenty millions of freemen are amply sufficient to meet not only the physical, but financial, difficulties of the war.

If we conquer a peace by preserving the Union, the constitution, our nationality, all our ample territories, the rebound of prosperity in this country will enable a single generation easily to pay the national debt, even if the war is…

With opinions so widely divergent in the two sections, and with a fixed purpose of each to stand by them, there was no way that poor frail human nature could devise to decide the controversy except to fight.

From the graves of the dead, who fought on opposite sides for their country of their state, there has been a resurrection, honorable to both sections, a Union stronger, more united and glorious than the Union established by our fathers…

This war, though fearful in the sacrifice of property and life, has resulted in a better understanding among the people of both sections.

I sincerely hope and believe in the good time coming when sectional lines will not divide political parties, and common interests and a broader nationality will have destroyed sectional feeling and jealousy.

The United States, as a great republic, has become an example already followed by European nations.

It has stamped the language, the laws, and the boasted freedom of Englishmen, upon a population double that in the mother country, and they, in turn, are taking lessons from us in extending to their people equality of rights and privileges.

The alternative is to authorize me to accept the guaranty, or leave the treasury with scarcely anything in it and with outstanding demands, some of them very pressing, of at least six millions of dollars, for you and your political friends…

There was no escaping the issue of credit money in some form, and of whatever form adopted we knew that gold and silver would soon disappear under the shadow of war--that they would be hoarded or exported.

The only answer was to substitute for the time the notes of the United States, with all the sanction and credit which the republic could confer, in the place of coin.

We could not, with safety, accept bank notes issued by state corporations, varying in terms and credit according to the laws of twenty-three separate states.

It presents to the whole family of man the question, whether a constitutional republic, or democracy--a government of the people by the same people--can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes.

So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the government; and so to resist force employed for its destruction, by force for its preservation.

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

And having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.

The problem was not whether we could muster men, but whether we could raise money.

If that was the process why issue them at all?

They did not prevent, but rather expedited, the disappearance of gold.

Still, the necessity existed for some form of paper money that would be available for circulation.

Still, the battle of Bull Run was an important event.

It dispelled the illusion of the people of the north as to the duration and gravity of the war.