I Should Not Be Trading On The

Duty, Then Is The Sublimest Word In Our Language. Do Your Duty In All Things. You Cannot Do More; You Should Never Wish To Do Less.

My Experiences Of Men Has Neither Disposed Me To Think Worse Of Them Nor Be Indisposed To Serve Them: Nor, In Spite Of Failures Which I Lament, Of Errors Which I Now See And Acknowledge, Or The Present Aspect Of Affairs, Do I Despair Of The Future. The Truth Is This: The March Of Providence Is So Slow And Our Desires So Impatient; The Work Of Progress So Immense And Our Means Of Aiding It So Feeble; The Life Of Humanity Is So Long, That Of The Individual So Brief, That We Often See Only The Ebb Of The Advancing Wave And Are Thus Discouraged. It Is History That Teaches Us To Hope.

I Did Only What My Duty Demanded. I Could Have Taken No Other Course Without Dishonor.

So Far From Engaging In A War To Perpetuate Slavery, I Am Rejoiced That Slavery Is Abolished. I Believe It Will Be Greatly For The Interest Of The South. So Fully Am I Satisfied Of This That I Would Have Cheerfully Lost All That I Have Lost By The War, And Have Suffered All That I Have Suffered To Have This Object Attained.

I Pray That On This Day [christmas] When Only Peace And Good-will Are Preached To Mankind, Better Thoughts May Fill The Hearts Of Our Enemies And Turn Them To Peace.