"At what point shall we expect the approach
of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some
transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?
Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the
treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with
a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the
Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
"
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume I, "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
(January 27, 1838), p. 109.
"There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume I, "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum,of Springfield, Illinois
(January 27, 1838), p. 113.
"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever
you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser
- in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has
a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business
enough."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume II, "Notes for a Law Lecture" (July 1, 1850?), p. 81.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses
my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the
difference, is no democracy."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume II, (August 1, 1858?), p. 532.
"I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and
half free."
Speech, June 16, 1858.
"Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let
us dare to do our duty as we understand it."
Address, New York City, Feb. 21, 1859.
"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms
until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and
equal."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume II, "Speech at Chicago, Illinois" (July 10, 1858), p. 502.
"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves;
and, under a just God, can not long retain it."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume III, "Letter To Henry L. Pierce and Others" (April 6, 1859), p.
376.
"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent
him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate
in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too,
shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of
pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume III, "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin" (September 30, 1859), pp. 481-482.
"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth."
Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.
"With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right."
Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
"In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, -
honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve."
Second Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862.
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let
us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Lincoln's
Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is
not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without
freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all
the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving
others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored
race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear,
I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall
do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I
shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388.
"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming
conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all
about me seemed insufficient for that day."
Lincoln Observed: The Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks edited
by Michael Burlingame (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1998),
p. 210.
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only
the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first
existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher
consideration."
Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.
"I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly
favor colonization."
Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.
"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that
events have controlled me."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VII, "Letter to Albert G. Hodges" (April 4, 1864), p. 281.
"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -
honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save,
or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this
could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which,
if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in
the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves,
and with all nations."
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government
cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect
it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
Lincoln's 'House-Divided' Speech in Springfield, Illinois, June 16,
1858.
"Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather
than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than
let it perish. And the war came."
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not,
it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue
than to find one who cannot."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume IV, "Remarks at the Monogahela House" (February 14, 1861), p. 209.
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal."
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can
fail; without it nothing can succeed."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume III, "Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa" (August 21, 1858), p. 27.
"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died
in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.
"I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but
I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the
creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America,
it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will
close by saying, God bless the women of America!"
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VII, "Remarks at Closing of Sanitary Fair, Washington D.C." (March
18, 1864), p. 254.
"I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the
best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story
of an old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion once that 'it was not
best to swap horses while crossing streams'."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VII, "Reply to Delegation from the National Union League" (June
9, 1864), p. 384.
"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse
to see it tried on him personally."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VIII, "Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment" (March 17,
1865), p. 361.
"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter
us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter
me."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume I, "Speech on the Sub-Treasury" (in the Illinois House of Representatives,
December 26, 1839), p. 178.
"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive
good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become
rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not
him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor
diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his
own shall be safe from violence when built."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VII, "Reply to New York Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association"
(March 21, 1864), pp. 259-260.
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.
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."
Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.
"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling
of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people,
I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed
from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is
buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with
a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without
the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed.
With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me,
and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope
that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your
prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."
Lincoln's Farewell Address at the Great Western Depot in Springfield,
Illinois, February 11, 1861.
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing
about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black
races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors
of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with
white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical
difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever
forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.
And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there
must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other
man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is
to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume III, "Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois"
(September 18, 1858), pp. 145-146.
"I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that
you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume IV, "Remarks at Painesville, Ohio" (February 16, 1861), p. 218.
"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to
act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong.
God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present
civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different
from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities,
working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume V, "Meditation on the Divine Will" (September 2, 1862?), pp. 403-404.
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The
mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot
grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will
yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
be, by the better angels of our nature." Lincoln's First Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1861.
"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried,
against the new and untried?" Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February
27, 1860.
"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not
all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man
to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with
others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with
other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only
different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty.
And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called
by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VII, "Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland" (April 18,
1864), p. 301-302.
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine,
is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you.
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have
no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have
the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it'."
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.
"I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living
witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's
child has."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VII, "Speech to One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment (August 22,
1864), p. 512.
"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United
States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign
lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as
a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth
in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions
justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do
also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,
commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners
or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably
engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to
heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent
with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity
and Union."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VI, "Proclamation of Thanksgiving" (October 3, 1863), p. 497.
"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this
voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume IV, "Speech at Cleveland, Ohio" (February 15, 1861), p. 216.
"Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration,
which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the
conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease.
Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.
Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His
aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to
ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other
men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of
both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The
Almighty has His own purposes."
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason
the Lord makes so many of them."
Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay
selected by Tyler Dennett (Da Capo Press, New York, 1988), p. 143. (Quoted
elsewhere as "The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason
He makes so many of them.)
