You Dislike The Emancipation Proclamation; And, Perhaps,

Intelligence, Patriotism, Christianity, And A Firm Reliance On Him, Who Has Never Yet Forsaken This Favored Land, Are Still Competent To Adjust, In The Best Way, All Our Present Difficulty.

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 Have No Oath Registered In Heaven To Destroy The Government, While I Shall Have The Most Solemn One To Preserve, Protect And Defend It.

If We Could First Know Where We Are, And Whither We Are Tending, We Could Then Better Judge What To Do, And How To Do It.

What Constitutes The Bulwark Of Our Own Liberty And Independence? It Is Not Our Frowning Battlements, Our Bristling Sea Coasts, Our Army And Our Navy... Our Reliance Is In The Love Of Liberty Which God Has Planted In Us. Our Defense Is In The Spirit Which Prizes Liberty As The Heritage Of All Men, In All Lands Everywhere. Destroy This Spirit And You Have Planted The Seeds Of Despotism At Your Own Doors... You Have Lost The Genius Of Your Own Independence And Become The Fit Subjects Of The First Cunning Tyrant Who Rises Among You.

Honest Statesmanship Is The Wise Employment Of Individual Meanness For The Public Good.