abraham lincoln quotes from speeches

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Abraham Lincoln’s Most Enduring Speeches and Quotes

By: Aaron Randle

Updated: February 7, 2024 | Original: January 26, 2022

There’s perhaps no better way to grasp Abraham Lincoln ’s outsized American legacy than through his writing.

From his time as a 20-something political hopeful to his tragic death, Lincoln was a voluminous writer, authoring hundreds of letters, speeches, debate arguments and more.

Despite very little formal schooling, the 16th president was an avid reader who from a young age understood the transformative power of words. “Words were Lincoln’s way up and out of the grinding poverty into which he had been born,” wrote historian and author Geoffrey Ward. “If the special genius of America was that it provided an environment in which ‘every man can make himself,’ as Lincoln believed, pen and ink were the tools with which he did his self-carpentering.”

While he often expressed himself with humor and folksy wisdom, Lincoln wasn’t afraid to wade into lofty territory. His writings show how his thoughts on the thorny issues of the day—like slavery, religion and national discord—evolved over time. He penned some of America’s most monumental expressions of statecraft, such as the Gettysburg Address , widely hailed for its eloquence and clarity of thought. His prose, infused with his deep love of poetry, helped him in his efforts to reach—and heal—a fractured nation.

Here are a few excerpts of Lincoln’s writings, both famous and lesser-known.

On the Fractured Nation

The  ‘House Divided’ Speech:  As America expanded West and fought bitterly over whether new territories could extend the practice of slavery, Lincoln spoke out about what he saw as a growing threat to the Union. Many criticized this speech  as radical, believing—mistakenly—that Lincoln was advocating for war.

The 'Better Angels of Our Nature' speech:  By the time Lincoln was first sworn into office , seven states had already seceded from the Union. During his first address as president, he tried to assure the South that slavery would not be interfered with, and to quiet the drumbeat of war by appealing to “the better angels of our nature.”

Was Abraham Lincoln an Atheist?

As a young man, Lincoln openly admitted to his lack of faith. As a politician, he spoke about God but refused to say he was a Christian.

Lincoln‑Douglas Debates

Background and Context for the Debates As the architect of the Kansas‑Nebraska Act, Douglas was one of the most prominent politicians in the country and seen as a future presidential contender. The controversial 1854 law repealed the Missouri Compromise and established the doctrine of popular sovereignty, by which each new territory joining the Union would […]

The Gettysburg Address: Hailed as one of the most important speeches in U.S. history, Lincoln delivered his brief, 272-word address at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield , the site of more than 50,000 casualties. By alluding to the Declaration of Independence , he redefined the war as a struggle not just to preserve the Union, but for the fundamental principle of human freedom.

On Religion

During his younger years, the future President remained notoriously noncommittal on the topic of religion—so much so that even his close friends were unable to verify his personal faith. At times, wrote Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo, “He would actually be aggressive on the subject of unbelief,” asserting that the Bible was just a book or that Jesus was an illegitimate child.

This lack of clarity on his beliefs—Was he an atheist? A skeptic?—proved a political liability early on. After failing to win election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843, a worried Lincoln expressed fears that his lack of religiosity might have been to blame:

Lincoln won that House seat three years later, but not without his opponent, a revivalist preacher, accusing him of being a religious scoffer. Instead of dismissing the allegation, as he might have before, the future President wrote a public message directly to his constituency to deny any disrepect, while still avoiding pinning himself down to one personal faith:

By his first inauguration, Lincoln had evolved to making full-throated avowals of faith, even declaring that adherence to Christianity was critical to the Union's survival.

On Racial Inequality

It might seem that the author of the Emancipation Proclamation , the president hailed as “the Great Liberator,” would have clear and consistent views on racial justice and equality. Not exactly.

From the onset, Lincoln always opposed the idea and existence of slavery . As early as 1837, when addressing Congress as a newly-elected member of the Illinois General Assembly, the 28-year-old Lincoln proclaimed the institution to be “founded on both injustice and bad policy.”

Nearly two decades later, he continued to reject it on moral and political grounds:

Nonetheless, despite his deep opposition to slavery, Lincoln did not believe in racial equality. He made this point clear during his famed debates against rival Stephen A. Douglas during their race for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois:

Lincoln struggled to articulate a vision for how free Black Americans could integrate into white-dominated U.S. society. Under constant political pressure to offset his push for emancipation, Lincoln frequently floated the idea of resettling African Americans elsewhere —to Africa, the Caribbean or Central America. As early as 1854, he articulated this idea:

Lincoln’s views on race equality continued to evolve until his death. In his last public address, just four days before his assassination, Lincoln seemed to denounce a future in which newly freed Black Americans were barred from a chance at equal access to the American dream.

In that same speech, Lincoln also teased the idea of Black suffrage , particularly maddening one attendee. Listening from the crowd, Confederate sympathizer  John Wilkes Booth heard the assertion and remarked, “That is the last speech he will make.”

Lincoln’s Humor

An essential facet of Lincoln the man—and a huge contributor to his political success—was his witty, folksy humor and his talent for mimicry. An inveterate storyteller, Lincoln skillfully spun up puns, jokes, aphorisms and yarns to offset dicey social and political situations, ingratiate himself with hostile audiences, endear himself with the common man and separate himself from political opponents.

As a lawyer , Lincoln always made a point to speak plainly to the judge and jury, avoiding obscure or high-minded legal jargon. One day in court, another lawyer quoted a legal maxim in Latin, then asked Lincoln to affirm it. His response: “If that’s Latin, you had better call another witness.”

So captivating and engaging was Lincoln’s banter that even his vaunted Senate opponent Stephen A. Douglas begrudgingly acknowledged its effectiveness. Douglas likened it to "a slap across my back. Nothing else—not any of his arguments or any of his replies to my questions—disturbs me. But when he begins to tell a story, I feel that I am to be overmatched."

Humor played a key role, historians say, in Lincoln’s victory over Douglas in their famed 1858 debates. In one instance, he colorfully undercut Douglas’s arguments for the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision as “as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death.”

And when hecklers followed a Douglas jibe by calling Lincoln “two-faced,” the future president famously defused the attack with his famed self-deprecating humor:

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” 

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Abraham Lincoln Quotes

“Lincoln’s speech is understandable by people of all walks of life, by immigrants , by young people. Lincoln had no pretentions whatsoever. He allowed what he believed to be convincing on the evidence.” – Lewis Lehrman

Ambition and Opportunity – Civil War and Secession – Constitution – Criticism – Declaration of Independence – Democracy – Determination and Discipline – Education and Self-Development – Equality – Ethics and Honesty – God and Prayer – Grief and Mourning – Labor and Work – Life – Patience and Perseverance – Public Opinion and Persuasion – Reason and Argument – Slavery and Freedom – United States and Union – War and Soldiers

Ambition and Opportunity

“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.”

• Speech to One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment, August 22, 1864

“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. 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. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.”

• Announcement for office , March 9, 1832

“Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.”

• Lyceum Address, January 27, 1838

“Now, as to the young men. You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose that I should have ever got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men?”

• Letter to William H. Herndon, July 22, 1848

“Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.”

• Letter to Quintin Campbell, June 28, 1862

“I say ‘try’; if we never try, we shall never succeed.”

• Letter to George B. McClellan, October 13, 1862

“You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm.”

• Letter to Joseph Hooker, January 26, 1863

Civil War and Secession

“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

“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.”

“This is essentially a People’s contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men — to lift artificial weights from all shoulders — to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all — to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.”

• Message to Congress, July 4, 1861

“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.”

• Special Message to Congress, July 4, 1861

“The struggle of today, is not altogether for today – it is for a vast future also.”

• Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861

“I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me.” Letter to William H. Seward, June 28, 1862

“Broken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has nothing to do now but take her place in the Union as it was, barring the already broken eggs.”

• Letter to August Belmont, July 31, 1862

“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 disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

• Message to Congress, December 1, 1862

“In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.”

“The proportions of this rebellion were not for a long time understood. I saw that it involved the greatest difficulties, and would call forth all the powers of the whole country.”

• Reply to Members of the Presbyterian General Assembly, June 2, 1863

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

• Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

“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 …. Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.”

• Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

“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.”

• Meditation on the Divine Will, circa September 2, 1862

“While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.”

• Letter to Edwin M. Stanton, March 18, 1864

“In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one.”

• Speech to the 164th Ohio Regiment, August 18, 1864

“There is more involved in this contest than is realized by eery one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed.”

“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.”

Constitution

“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. And not to Democrats alone do I make this appeal, but to all who love these great and true principles.”

• Speech at Kalamazoo, Michigan, August 27, 1856

“Let us then turn this government back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it.”

• Speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858

“I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.”

• Speech to the New Jersey Senate, February 21, 1861

“I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.”

• First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

“My purpose is to be, in my action, just and constitutional; and yet practical, in performing the important duty, with which I am charged, of maintaining the unity, and the free principles of our common country.”

• Letter to Horatio Seymour, August 7, 1863

“I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, according to the bond of service — the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them.”

• Letter to James Conkling, August 26, 1863

“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”

• Conversation with Francis B. Carpenter

Declaration of Independence

“Of our political revolution of ’76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.”

• Temperance Address at Springfield , February 22, 1842

“I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.”

• Speech at Philadelphia, February 22, 1861

“Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.”

• Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, January 27, 1838

“Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty.”

“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. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.”

• Speech in the House of Representatives, June 20, 1848

“In leaving the people’s business in their own hands, we cannot be wrong.”

• Speech in the House of Representatives, July 27, 1848

“The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves’.”

• Fragment on Government, circa July 1, 1854

“Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of equal rights of men…ours began, by affirming those rights. They said, some men are too ignorant, and vicious, to share in government. Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you would always keep them ignorant, and vicious, to share in government. Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you would always keep them ignorant, and vicious. We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser; and all better, and happier together.”

• Fragment on slavery, circa July 1854

“According to our ancient faith, the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed.”

• Speech at Peoria, October 16, 1854

“When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism.”

“If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions.”

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle – the sheet anchor of American republicanism.”

“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.”

• Fragment on Democracy, August 1, 1858

“Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them.”

• Letter to Theodore Canisius, May 17, 1859

“The people – the people – are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts – not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.”

• Speech in Kansas, December 1859

“I do not mean to say that this government is charged with the duty of redressing or preventing all the wrongs in the world; but I do think that it is charged with the duty of preventing and redressing all wrongs which are wrongs to itself.”

• Speech at Cincinnati, September 17, 1859

“Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? IS there any better ore qual hope in the world?”

“The people will save their government, if the government itself will do its part only indifferently well.”

“It is as much the duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same between private individuals.”

“The people’s will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all.”

• Response to Serenade, October 19, 1864

“It is said that we have the best government the world ever knew, and I am glad to meet you, the supporters of that government.”

• Speech to the 164th Ohio Regiment, October 24, 1864

“It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its own existence, in great emergencies.”

• Response to a Serenade, November 10, 1864

Determination and Discipline

“Happy day, when, all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected, mind all conquering mind, shall live and move the monarch of the world.”

• Temperance Address, February 22, 1852

I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely determine, that you will not.”

• Letter to George Latham, July 22, 1860

“Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.”

“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.”

• Speech at Pittsburgh, February 14, 1861

“And now, beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward, and give us victories.”

Education and Self-Development

“All creation is a mine, and every man a miner.”

• Lecture on Discoveries, Inventions and Improvements, February 22, 1859

“A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.”

• Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, September 30, 1859

“Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where was but one, is both a profit and pleasure.”

“I believe the declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.”

• Letter to James N. Brown, October 18, 1858

“I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. ”

• Debate at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858

“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.”

• Debate at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858

“We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed.”

• Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-fourth Ohio Regiment, August 22, 1864

Ethics and Honesty

“Holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.”

• Address to the People of Sangamon County, March 9, 1832

“I made a point of honor and conscience in all things to stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act upon it.”

• Letter to Eliza Browning, April 1, 1838

“In very truth he was, the noblest work of God – an honest man.”

• Eulogy for Benjamin Ferguson, February 8, 1842

“I believe it is an established maxim im morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.”

• Letter to Allen N. Ford, August 11, 1846

“Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.” Notes for a Law Lecture, circa July 1, 1850

“Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong.”

“I planted myself upon the truth, and the truth only, so, as far I knew it, or could be brought to know it.”

• Speech at Springfield, July 17, 1858

That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings.”

• Debate at Alton, October 15, 1858

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. 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.”

• Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860

“I have said nothing but I am willing to live by, and, in the pleasure of Almighty God, die by.”

“Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.”

• September 1864

“Bad promises are better broken than kept.”

• Last public speech, April 11, 1865

God and Prayer

“That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or any denomination of Christians in particular.”

• Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity, July 31, 1846

“To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

• Farewell Address, February 11, 1861

“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.”

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.”

• Meditation on the Divine Will, September 1862

“Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will give us the rightful result.”

• Letter to John C. Conkling, August 26, 1863

“Nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance on God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right.”

• Remarks to the Baltimore Presbyterian Synod, October 24, 1863

“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.”

• Conversation with Noah Brooks

“…I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”

“If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.”

• Letter to Albert Hodges, April 4, 1864

“In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.”

• Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible, September 7, 1864

“Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the almighty and them.”

• Letter to Thurlow Weed, March 15, 1865

Grief and Mourning

In the untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here, is scarcely less than your own. So much of promised usefulness to one’s country, and of bright hopes for one’s self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall.

• Letter to Ephraim D. and Phoebe Ellsworth, May 25, 1861

“In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares.”

• Letter to Fanny McCullough, December 23, 1862

“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

• Letter to Lydia Bixby, November 21, 1864

Labor and Work

“To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government.”

• Temperance Address at Springfield, February 22, 1842

“If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to work, you can not get along anywhere.”

• Letter to John D. Johnson, November 4, 1851

“As labor is the common burden of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share of the burden on the shoulders of others is the greatest durable curse of the race.”

• Fragment on Slavery, circa July 1854

“The ant who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest will furiously defend the fruit of his labor against whatever robber assails him. So plain that the most dumb and stupid slave that ever toiled for a master does constantly know that he is wronged.”

“Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.”

• Fragment on Free Labor, circa September 1859

“I hold if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he had intended should do all the work and none of the eating, eh would have made them without mouths and with all hands.”

• Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 17, 1859

“Every man is proud of what he does well; and no man is proud of what he does not do well. With the former, his heart is in his work; and he will do twice as much of it with less fatigue. The latter performs a little imperfectly, looks at it in disgust, turns from it, and imagines himself exceedingly tired. The little he has done, comes to nothing, for want of finishing.”

• Speech before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, September 30, 1859

“The old general rule was that educated people did not perform manual labor. They managed to eat their bread, leaving the toil of producing it to the uneducated. This was not an insupportable evil to the working bees, so long as the class of drones remained very small. But now, especially in these free States, nearly all are educated–quite too nearly all, to leave the labor of the uneducated, in any wise adequate to the support of the whole. It follows from this that henceforth educated people must labor. Otherwise, education itself would become a positive and intolerable evil. No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.”

“The world is agreed that labor is the source from which human wants are mainly supplied. There is no dispute upon that point.”

“Every man, black, white or yellow, has a mouth to be fed and two hands with which to feed it – and that bread should be allowed to go to that mouth without controversy.”

• Speech at Hartford, Connecticut, March 5, 1860

“Work, work, work, is the main thing.”

• Letter to John M. Brockman, September 25, 1860

“I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flatboat – just what might happen to any poor man’s son. I want every man to have a chance.

• Speech at New Haven, March 6, 1860

“I hold that while man exists it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind; and therefore, I will simply say that I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest numbers.”

• Speech at Cincinnati, February 12, 1861

“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.”

• First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861

“Let 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.”

• Reply to New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association, March 21, 1864

“Others have been made fools of by the girls; but this can never be with truth said of me. I most emphatically, in this instance, made a fool of myself.”

“In this troublesome world, we are never quite satisfied.”

• Letter to Mary Todd Lincoln, April 16, 1848

“The true rule, in determining to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it, but whether it have more of evil than of good.”

• Speech on Internal Improvements, June 20, 1848

“I wish to do justice to all.”

• Speech to U.S. House of Representatives, July 27, 1848

“Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.”

• Notes for a law lecture, circa July 1, 1850

“The better part of one’s life consists in his friendships.”

• Letter to Joseph Gillespie, May 19, 1849

“Let bygones be bygones; let past differences as nothing be.”

• Speech at Chicago, December 10, 1856

“It really hurts me very much to suppose that I have wronged anybody on earth.”

• Debate at Quincy, October 13, 1858

“The inclination to exchange thoughts with one another is probably an original impulse of our nature.”

• Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions, February 11, 1859

“I have found that it is not entirely safe, when one is misrepresented under his very nose, to allow this misrepresentation to go uncontradicted.”

• Speech at Columbus, September 16, 1859

“I have found that when one is embarrassed, usually the shortest way to get through with it is to quit talking or thinking about it, and go at something else.”

“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.”

• Farewell Address at Springfield, February 11, 1861

“How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world. If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss.”

• Letter to Joshua F. Speed, February 25, 1862

“It is a cheering thought throughout life that something can be done to ameliorate the condition of those who have been subject to the hard usage of the world.”

• Address on Colonization to a deputation of Negroes, August 14, 1862

“Yield larger things to which you can show nor more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite.”

• Letter to James M. Cutts, Jr., October 26, 1863

“I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it.”

• Letter to James H. Hackett, November 2, 1863

“Important principles may and must be inflexible.”

Patience and Perseverance

“Let none falter, who thinks he is right, and we may succeed.”

• Speech at Springfield, December 26, 1839

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

• Letter to Isham Reavis, November 5, 1855

“A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at the length falls into his lap.”

• Remarks at White House, circa February 1865

“We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.”

Public Opinion and Persuasion

“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a “drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.”

“Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.”

“Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions. He makes possible the enforcement of them, else impossible.”

• Note for speeches, circa October 1858

“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”

• Debate at Ottawa, August 21, 1858

“No policy that does not rest upon philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.”

Reason and Argument

“Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.”

• Lyceum Address at Springfield, January 27, 1838

“Happy day, when, all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected, mind, all conquering mind, shall live and move the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail fall of Fury! Reign of Reason, all hail!

• Temperance Address, February 22, 1842

“If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat and re-assert, that two and two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument that can stop him.”

“If a man says he knows a thing, then he must show how he knows it.

“There are two ways of establishing a proposition. One is by trying to demonstrate it upon reason; and the other is to show that great men in former times have thought so and so, and thus to pass it by the weight of pure authority.”

• Speech at Columbus, Ohio, September 16, 1859

Slavery and Freedom

“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature — opposition to it is in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromises — repeal the declaration of independence — repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.

“You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it.”

• Letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855

“The slave-breeders and slave-traders, are a small, odious and detested class, among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters, as you are the master of your own negroes.”

“On the question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been. When we were the political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that “all men are created equal” a self evident truth; but now when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have become so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim “a self evident lie.”

• Letter to George Robertson, August 15, 1855

“The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves.”

“Welcome, or unwelcome, agreeable, or disagreeable, whether this shall be an entire slave nation, is the issue before us.”

• Fragment of a Speech, circa May 18, 1858

“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.”

• House Divided Speech, June 16, 1858

“I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man’s rights.”

• Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858

“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.”

“If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature.”

“Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere.

• Speech at Edwardsville, September 11, 1858

“I think we have fairly entered upon a durable struggle as to whether this nation is to ultimately become all slave or all free, and though I fall early in the contest, it is nothing if I shall have contributed, in the least degree, to the final rightful result.

• Letter to H.D. Sharpe, December 8, 1858

“If slavery is right, it ought to be extended; if not, it ought to be restricted – there is no middle ground.”

• Speech at Hartford, March 5, 1860

“You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.”

• Letter to Alexander H. Stephens, December 22, 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.”

• Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862

“What I did, I did after very full deliberation, and under a heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God that I have made no mistake.”

• Reply to Serenade in Honor of [Preliminary] Emancipation Proclamation, September 24, 1862

“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.”

“Still, to use a coarse, but an expressive figure, broken eggs can not be mended. I have issued the emancipation proclamation, and I can not retract it.”

• Letter to John A. McClernand, January 8, 1863

“I have very earnestly urged the slave-states to adopt emancipation; and it ought to be, and is an object with me not to overthrow, or thwart what any of them may in good faith do, to that end.”

• Letter to John M. Schofield, June 23, 1863

“You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you, then exclusively to save the Union.

“And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation…”

“You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional – I think differently.”

“I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.”

“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 may 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.”

• Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland, April 18, 1864

“The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.”

I wish all men to be free.”

• Letter to Henry W Hoffman, October 4, 1864

“One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.”

“I have always thought all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire ti for themselves, and secondly, those who desire it others. Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

• Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment, March 17, 1865

United States and Union

“Let North and South – let all Americans – let all lovers of liberty everywhere join in the great and good work.”

“We do not want to dissolve the Union; you shall not.”

• Speech at Galena, August 1, 1856

“To the best of my judgment I have labored for, and not against the Union.”

• Speech at Springfield, October 29, 1858

“Let us neither express nor cherish any hard feelings toward any citizen who by his vote has differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.”

• Remarks at Springfield, November 20, 1860

“[M]y opinion is that no state can, in any way lawfully, get out of the Union, without the consent of the others; and that it is the duty of the President, and other government functionaries to run the machine as it is.”

• Letter to Thurlow Weed, December 17, 1860

“The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776.”

“The United States don’t need the services of boys who disobey their parents.”

• Letter to Gideon Welles, undated

“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’”

“May our children and our children’s children to a thousand generations, continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a united country, and have cause yet to rejoice under those glorious institutions bequeathed us by Washington and his compeers.”

• Speech at Frederick, Maryland, October 4, 1862

“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.”

• Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862

“A fair examination of history has seemed to authorize a belief that the past action and influences of the Untied States were generally regarded as having been beneficent towards mankind.”

• Letter to the Workingmen of Manchester, England, January 19, 1863

“Four score 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.

“The restoration of the Rebel States to the Union must rest upon the principle of civil and political equality of both races; and it must be sealed by general amnesty.

• Letter to James S. Wadsworth, January 1864

“It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives.”

• Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment, August 22, 1864

“Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions. The present moment finds me at the White House, yet there is as good a chance for your children as there was for my father’s.”

• Speech to 148th Ohio Regiment, August 31, 1864

“Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this continent is involved in the issue of our contest.”

• Letter to John Maclean, December 27, 1864

“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.”

War and Soldiers

“He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred.”

• Letter to David Hunter, December 31, 1861

“With us every soldier is a man of character, and must be treated with more consideration than is customary in Europe.”

• Letter to Count Gasparin, August 4, 1862

“I would like to speak in terms of praise du to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war.”

• Response to Serenade, July 7, 1863

“Men who, by fighting our battles, bear the chief burthen of saving our country.”

• Letter to Montgomery Blair, July 24, 1863

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

“War at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.”

• Speech at Philadelphia, June 16, 1864

Abraham Lincoln's Quotes

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today."

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar."

Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed."

Love is the chain to lock a child to its parent."

You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help."

Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves."

A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home."

For people who like that kind of a book that is the kind of book they will like."

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."

I don't like that man. I must get to know him better."

Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life."

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

Every man's happiness is his own responsibility."

If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again."

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

I would rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody."

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other thing."

I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down."

I have a congenital aversion to failure."

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."

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land."

The best way to predict your future is to create it."

What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree."

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others."

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity."

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

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."

The one victory we can ever call complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or one drunkard on the face of God's green earth."

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."

No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle - the sheet anchor of American republicanism."

I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."

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."

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it."

The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

The love of property and consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often makes a man's course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle."

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace."

If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss."

I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me."

I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are."

Abraham Lincoln Quotations Everyone Should Know

What Lincoln Actually Said: 10 Verified Quotes in Context

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Abraham Lincoln's quotations have become a part of American life, and for good reason. During years of experience as a courtroom advocate and political stump speaker , the Rail Splitter developed a remarkable knack for saying things in a memorable way.

In his own time, Lincoln was often quoted by admirers. And in modern times, Lincoln quotes are often cited to prove one point or another.

All too often the circulating Lincoln quotes turn out to be bogus. The history of fake Lincoln quotes is long, and it seems that people, for at least a century, have tried to win arguments by citing something supposedly said by Lincoln .

Despite the endless cascade of fake Lincoln quotes, it's possible to verify a number of brilliant things Lincoln actually did say. Here is a list of particularly good ones:

Ten Lincoln Quotes Everyone Should Know

1.   "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."

Source: Lincoln's speech to the Republican State Convention in Springfield, Illinois on June 16, 1858. Lincoln was running for U.S. Senate , and was expressing his differences with Senator Stephen Douglas , who often defended the institution of enslavement .

2.   "We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

Source: Lincoln's first inaugural address , March 4, 1861. Though the states that allowed enslavement had been seceding from the Union, Lincoln expressed a wish that the  Civil War would not begin. The war did break out the next month.

3.   "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."

Source: Lincoln's second inaugural address , which was given on March 4, 1865, as the Civil War was coming to an end. Lincoln was referring to the imminent job of putting the Union back together after years of very bloody and costly warfare.

4. "It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river."

Source: Lincoln was addressing a political gathering on June 9, 1864 while expressing his wish to run for a second term . The comment is actually based on a joke of the time, about a man crossing a river whose horse is sinking and is offered a better horse but says it isn't the time to be changing horses. The comment attributed to Lincoln has been used many times since in political campaigns.

5. "If McClellan is not using the army, I should like to borrow it for a while."

Source: Lincoln made this comment on April 9, 1862 to express his frustration with General George B. McClellan, who was commanding the Army of the Potomac and was always very slow to attack.

6. "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."

Source: The famous opening of the Gettysburg Address , delivered November 19, 1863.

7. "I can't spare this man, he fights."

Source: According to Pennsylvania politician Alexander McClure, Lincoln said this regarding General Ulysses S. Grant after the Battle of Shiloh in the spring of 1862. McClure had advocated removing Grant from command, and the quote was Lincoln's way of disagreeing strongly with McClure.

8. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

Source: A reply to editor Horace Greeley published in Greeley's newspaper, the New York Tribune, on August 19, 1862. Greeley had criticized Lincoln for moving too slowly in bringing an end to the system of enslavement. Lincoln resented pressure from Greeley, and from North American 19th-century Black activists , though he was already working on what would become the Emancipation Proclamation .

9. "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."

Source: The conclusion of Lincoln's speech at Cooper Union in New York City on February 27, 1860. The speech received extensive coverage in the New York City newspapers and instantly made Lincoln, a virtual outsider to that point, a credible candidate for the Republican nomination for president in the election of 1860 .

10. "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."

Source: According to journalist and Lincoln friend Noah Brooks, Lincoln said the pressures of the presidency and the Civil War had prompted him to pray on many occasions.

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Gettysburg Address

Text of lincoln's speech.

• Trebuchet MS

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(Bliss copy)

Delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Four score 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.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—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.

Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863.

The Civil War has gone by a variety of different names throughout the years. One popular name in the postwar South was “The War Between the States.” Other names employed by Southerners include “The War for Southern Independence” and “The War of Separation”; in the North popular names included “The War for the Union” and “The War of the Rebellion.” The most common and lasting name, however, has always been “The Civil War,” the name used by Lincoln, Davis, Lee, and Grant during the war and by most Americans ever since.

This short, declarative sentence contains evocative visual imagery that powerfully conveys the magnitude of the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln’s use of a passive verb construction here also emphasizes the power of the place—Lincoln conveys that something brought them all to Gettysburg. Years later, Lincoln would use this notion of a divine plan, or fate, in his second inaugural address to portray the Civil War as an inevitable confrontation.

The United States was founded in 1776 on principles of democracy and freedom that were revolutionary for the time. Lincoln states that the Civil War is the first true test of whether or not a country founded on liberty and democracy is capable of surviving. His use of the word “conceived” emphasizes the singularity of the country’s origin and employs a birth metaphor that returns at the end of the speech.

The first hostilities in the American Civil War took place in April, 1861, with the Confederate army’s attack on the US Army base of Fort Sumter in South Carolina. When Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address two years later, the tide of the war was turning in favor of the Union. The Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee had recently lost the Battle of Gettysburg, ending their northern advance and forcing them to retreat.

One of Lincoln’s primary goals as president was to stop the spread of slavery. After the start of the Civil War, this approach quickly shifted towards the emancipation of the slaves, and Lincoln began taking steps to accomplish that goal by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Lincoln uses this line, taken from the Declaration of Independence, to evoke the founding principles of the country, namely equality and freedom. Given the context of Lincoln’s speech, this is also a clear reference to the Union’s desire to eradicate slavery.

Lincoln begins his speech by alluding to the founding of the United States and the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776—four score and seven, or eighty-seven, years ago. Lincoln draws on the nation’s history to use the ideas of the founders as a key element of his own speech. In doing so, Lincoln aligns the Northern cause with the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence.

In this address, Lincoln coined the phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people,” which has since entered the national lexicon as an elegant and concise definition of American democracy. Just as Lincoln began the speech with a reference to the Declaration of Independence , this final statement nods to the same founding document. The spirit of the declaration, with its insistence that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” can be heard echoing through the Gettysburg Address and, in particular, its stirring conclusion.

Five-known copies of the Gettysburg Address exist: the Nicolay draft, the Hay draft, the Everett copy, the Bancroft copy, and the Bliss copy. Each is named after the person to whom Lincoln sent the version. The Bliss copy (sent to Colonel Alexander Bliss) is the best known and is widely accepted as the standard because Lincoln signed and dated this version, and provided it with a title. It is also the version chosen for inscription at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

This passage reveals the threading together of two separate strands of repetition. The long final sentence of the speech is divided by em dashes, each of which proceeds a statement about “the great task remaining before us” beginning with the word “that.” In the final such statement, Lincoln embeds another piece of repetition—“of the people, by the people, for the people”—thus ending the speech on a rhythmically and rhetorically powerful note.

In the conclusion of the address, Lincoln emphasizes “a new birth of freedom,” reiterating the birth metaphor he introduced at the start of the speech. The implication is that through conflict, sacrifice, and even death, there is the possibility for a rebirth and renewal of the nation’s values—democracy, equality, and freedom. Lincoln’s use of sustained metaphor brings the important themes and ideas to the forefront again and again, an effective rhetorical strategy.

To do something “in vain” is to do it uselessly, without effect or purpose. The word derives from the Latin vanus , which means “empty” or “void.” Lincoln’s aim is to ensure that the Union dead did not die without meaning, and therefore to call on the living to fulfill the purpose of the dead.

Lincoln carefully transforms the deaths of the soldiers at Gettysburg into a call to action for his fellow citizens of the Union. Rather than viewing the battle as a tragedy, Lincoln attends to the greater cause and purpose for which the soldiers fought. In such a light, the proper way to honor the dead is to further the cause they died for.

In this passage, Lincoln conveys the idea that actions speak louder than words. As he puts it, the words used to consecrate the battlefield will fade in time, but the efforts of the soldiers will not. In a twist of irony, Lincoln’s words in this speech—“what we say here”—have been canonized for their eloquence, and thus will be long remembered, despite his predictions to the contrary. The construction of this statement is an example of antithesis , a technique which contrasts opposing ideas to emphasize a larger point.

One of Lincoln’s primary themes in the Gettysburg Address is the weakness of words compared to actions. Lincoln claims that the battlefield cannot be consecrated by an exchange of words; rather, it has already been consecrated by the deeds of the soldiers who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. One of the great ironies, both of this address and of Lincoln’s political career, is that Lincoln’s words are powerful, despite the claims he made otherwise throughout his life. The humility of his presentation is integral to his rhetorical power.

To “hallow” means to sanctify or purify a person, place, or object. The word derives from the Old Saxon “hêlagôn,” from which we also derive “holy.” Lincoln uses a series of related words— dedicate , consecrate , and hallow —in order to emphasize his point that the ground at Gettysburg has already been rendered sacred by the sacrifices of the fallen soldiers.

The verb “consecrate” means to designate a person, place, or thing as sacred, to dedicate it to a religious purpose. In many cases, the act of consecration grants a place—often a church or cemetery—a special legal status. The process of assigning events a religious purpose was familiar to Abraham Lincoln, who spoke eloquently of the divine purposes animating the Civil War in his Second Inaugural Address .

Throughout the Gettysburg address, Lincoln uses the literary device of anaphora —the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of statements. In this passage, Lincoln repeats “we can not” in order to drive home his point that Gettysburg has already been consecrated, by the dead rather than the living.

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” (19 NOVEMBER 1863)

[1] 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.

[2] Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

[3] But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-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.

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Abraham Lincoln Quotes

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We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Nations do not die from invasion; they die from internal rottenness.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

Great men are ordinary men with extra ordinary determination.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

What are you gonna do for a face when the baboon wants his ass back?

Any society that takes away from those most capable and gives to the least will perish.

When you make it to the top, turn and reach down for the person behind you.

Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.

Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember

Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry

When arguing with a fool, make sure the opponent isn't doing the exact same thing.

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Abraham Lincoln

• Born: February 12, 1809
• Died: April 15, 1865
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Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Abraham Lincoln was a skilled wordsmith and orator, renowned for being able to distill the essence of an argument into just a few pithy words. In fact, the Gettysburg Address , one of Lincoln's best and most often quoted works is a very short speech, and was considerably briefer than the other addresses delivered the same day. The speeches delivered by the other speakers at the Gettysburg ceremony are now completely forgotten, while Lincoln's straightforward but deeply moving words still resound through history. We have collected here a collection of some of Abraham Lincoln's best quotes on a number of subjects. They are not only still meaningful, but also offer an insight into the character and soaring intellect of this remarkable president.

Abraham Lincoln Quote On America and God

We have been the recipient of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! -- President Abraham Lincoln, in a proclamation appointing a National Fast Day , March 30, 1863

Abraham Lincoln Quote On the American People

I think very much of the people, as an old friend said that he thought of woman. He said when he lost his first wife, who had been a great help to him in his business, he thought he was ruined -- that he could never find another to fill her place. At length, however, he married another, who he found did quite as well as the first, and that his opinion now was that any woman would do who was well done by. We will try to do well by them in all parts of the country, North and South, with entire confidence that all will be well with all of us. -- President Elect, Abraham Lincoln , November 21, 1860

Abram Lincoln Quote About Alcohol and Drinking

I believe, if we take drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. -- Abraham Lincoln, in a speech to the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society, 1843

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Doing his Best

I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end makes me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. -- Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Public Confidence

If the people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign that we intend the Union shall go on. -- Abraham Lincoln, defending his decision to continue construction of the White House during wartime, which many thought was an extravagant expenditure.

Abraham Lincoln Quote On the US Constitution

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. -- Abraham Lincoln, 1856

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Debt

As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured by interest, and next to no one left to borrow from - so it must be with a government. -- Abraham Lincoln, 1843

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Defense

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. -- Abraham Lincoln, 1838

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Natural Resources and Mining

I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our Nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced .... Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon our shores hundred of thousands more per year from overcrowded Europe. I intend to point them to the gold and silver that waits for them in the West. Tell the miners from me, that I shall promote their interests to the utmost of my ability; because their prosperity is the prosperity of the Nation, and we shall prove in a very few years that we are indeed the treasury of the world. -- Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865. Later that afternoon Lincoln left for Ford's Theater and his rendezvous with death.

Abraham Lincoln Quote Internal Enemies

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. -- Abraham Lincoln, 1838

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Evil and Moral Ambiguity

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. -- Abraham Lincoln, 1843

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Experience and Predicting the Future

We know nothing of what will happen in the future, but by the analogy of experience. -- Abraham Lincoln, 1839

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Being Honest

You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. -- Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Quote On God

In know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side. -- Abraham Lincoln, replying to a clergyman who had said that the Lord was on their side.

My friends - ... I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon [George] Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being, who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. -- Lincoln's farewell speech to Springfield, Illinois before setting out for Washington after being elected President. On the way to Washington Lincoln survived an assassination attempt.

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Government

Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence? -- Abraham Lincoln, 1861

When the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years. -- President Lincoln, in his first inaugural address.

The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves in their separate, individual capacities. In all that people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere. -- Abraham Lincoln, 1854

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Criticism of Government and Politicians

Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the cable, or keep shouting out to him -- "Blondin, stand up a little straighter -- Blondin, stoop a little more -- go a little faster -- lean a little more to the north -- lean a little more to the south?" No, you would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over. The Government is carrying an immense weight. Untold treasures are in their hands, They are doing the very best they can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we'll get you safe across. -- Abraham Lincoln, in a 1864 speech aimed at critics of his administration. Blondin was a famous tightrope walker who had crossed the Niagara Falls three times on a tight rope.

There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. An man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose particular principles and methods of administration. -- Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Quote On History

What has happened, will invariably happen again, when the same circumstances which combined to produce it, shall combine again in the same way. - Abraham Lincoln, 1839

Abraham Lincoln Quote On Slavery and Injustice

I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that his hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me - and I think He has - I believe I am ready. -- Abraham Lincoln, on the coming Civil War .

See also: Quotes by Other Writers and Politicians About Lincoln

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A Call for Reconciliation: Lincoln's Final Speech

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Abraham Lincoln delivered his last speech on April 11, 1865, just three days before he was shot. Speaking from a White House window to a crowd below, the president shared some of his thoughts on Reconstruction, the process of reuniting the nation and determining the role of African Americans who were now free from slavery.

Despite being overshadowed by his death, the speech offers a tantalizing glimpse of how Reconstruction might have proceeded under Lincoln instead of his successor, the racist Andrew Johnson. Lincoln focused on re-admitting Louisiana, where a new government had abolished slavery, promised education to children of all races, and opened the door to letting some African Americans vote. 

Lincoln urged the nation not to focus on whether Louisiana's new government was perfect but on whether it was a good start to build upon. "The question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable," he said. "The question is, 'Will it be wiser to take it as it is, and help to improve it; or to reject, and disperse it?'"

One of the more important parts of this final speech was Lincoln's support of limited suffrage for African Americans. He advocated giving the vote to those who were "very intelligent" or who had fought for the Union.

Salmon P. Chase, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and Lincoln's former Treasury secretary, wrote to Lincoln the next day and expressed support for African American participation in Reconstruction. "No one, connected with your administration, has questioned the citizenship of free colored men more than that of free men," Chase wrote.

Not all were happy with Lincoln's plan. Joel P. Bishop, a northern abolitionist and legal expert, felt it was too forgiving of the South. He wrote to Lincoln and warned against putting "the political power in the late rebel States into the hands of the disloyal ministries, to the inconceivable woe of the loyal majorities, & the perpetual turmoil of the nation."

Meanwhile, far to the other side of political spectrum, another person in the crowd was infuriated by Lincoln's support for African American suffrage. "That is the last speech he will ever make," actor John Wilkes Booth vowed.

He shot the president three days later. Lincoln's call for reconciliation and for small steps toward racial equality had ended in bloodshed. His plans for Reconstruction would never be carried out.

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Presidential Speeches

June 16, 1858: "a house divided" speech, about this speech.

Abraham Lincoln

June 16, 1858

Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech upon accepting the Republican nomination for Senate in Springfield, Illinois. In this speech he famously states "a house divided against itself cannot stand" in describing the coming national conflict over slavery.

Mr. PRESIDENT and Gentlemen of the Convention.

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.

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased , but has constantly augmented .

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed.

"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.

Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new-- North as well as South .

Have we no tendency to the latter condition?

Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination--piece of machinery so to speak--compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted; but also, let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail , if he can, to trace the evidences of design, and concert of action, among its chief bosses, from the beginning.

But, so far, Congress only, had acted; and an indorsement by the people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already gained, and give chance for more.

The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional prohibition.

Four days later, commenced the struggle, which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition.

This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained.

This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of " squatter sovereignty,"  otherwise called " sacred right of self government,"  which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if any one man, choose to enslave another , no third man shall be allowed to object.

That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: " It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or state, not exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."

Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of "Squatter Sovereignty," and "Sacred right of self government."

"But," said opposition members, "let us be more specific --let us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may exclude slavery." "Not we," said the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment.

While the Nebraska bill was passing through congress, a law case , involving the question of a negroe's freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then a territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave, for a long time in each, was passing through the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negroe's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision finally made in the case.

Before the then next Presidential election, the law case came to , and was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requests the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers, "That is a question for the Supreme Court."

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement , such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory.

The outgoing President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and authority of the indorsement.

The Supreme Court met again; did not announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument.

The Presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the incoming President, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be .

Then, in a few days, came the decision.

The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capitol indorsing the Dred Scott Decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it.

The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment that any different view had ever been entertained.

At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact , whether the Lecompton constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that squabble the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up . I do not understand his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the public mind--the principle for which he declares he has suffered much, and is ready to suffer to the end.

And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle, is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision, "squatter sovereignty" squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding--like the mould at the foundry served through one blast and fell back into loose sand--helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point, the right of a people to make their own constitution, upon which he and the Republicans have never differed.

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas' "care not" policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of advancement. This was the third point gained.

The working points of that machinery are:

First, that no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such slave can ever be a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States.

This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of this provision of the United States Constitution, which declares that--

"The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."

Secondly, that "subject to the Constitution of the United States," neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature can exclude slavery from any United States territory.

This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institution through all the future.

Thirdly, that whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master.

This point is made, not to be pressed immediately ; but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one , or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State.

Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mould public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, to not care whether slavery is voted down or voted up .

This shows exactly where we now are ; and partially also, whither we are tending.

It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when they were transpiring. The people were to be left "perfectly free" "subject only to the Constitution." What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough now , it was an exactly fitted niche , for the Dred Scott decision to afterwards come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people, to be just no freedom at all.

Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now , the adoption of it, would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.

Why was the court decision held up? Why, even a Senator's individual opinion withheld, till after the Presidential election? Plainly enough now , the speaking out then would have damaged the " perfectly free"  argument upon which the election was to be carried.

Why the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming President's advance exhortation in favor of the decision?

These things look like the cautious patting and petting a spirited horse, preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall.

And why the hasty after indorsements of the decision by the President and others?

We can not absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen--Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance--and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few--not omitting even scaffolding--or, if a single piece be lacking, we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece in--in such a case, we find it impossible to not believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first lick was struck.

It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people of a State as well as Territory , were to be left " perfectly free" " subject only to the Constitution."

Why mention a State ? They were legislating for territories , and not for or about States. Certainly the people of a State are and ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely territorial law? Why are the people of a territory and the people of a state therein lumped together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same?

While the opinion of the Court , by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a Territorial legislature to exclude slavery from any United States territory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a state , or the people of a State, to exclude it.

Possibly , this was a mere omission ; but who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a state to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Macy sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill--I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have been voted down, in the one case, as it had been in the other.

The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost the language too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact language is, "except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction."

In what cases the power of the states is so restrained by the U.S. Constitution, is left an open question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the territories was left open in the Nebraska act. Put that and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude slavery from its limits.

And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of "care not whether slavery be voted down or voted up ,"  shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made.

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.

Welcome or unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown.

We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free ; and we shall awake to the reality , instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State.

To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation.

That is what we have to do.

But how can we best do it?

There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and yet whisper us softly , that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument there is, with which to effect that object. They do not tell us, nor has he told us, that he wishes any such object to be effected. They wish us to infer all, from the facts, that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted with us, on a single point, upon which, he and we, have never differed.

They remind us that he is a very great man , and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But "a living dog is better than a dead lion ." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work , is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the "public heart" to care nothing about it.

A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas' superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade.

Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he really think so? But if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And, unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia .

He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property ; and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave trade--how can he refuse that trade in that "property" shall be "perfectly free"--unless he does it as a protection to the home production? And as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition.

Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday --that he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong.

But, can we for that reason, run ahead, and infer that he will make any particular change, of which he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we safely base our action upon any such vague inference?

Now, as ever, I wish to not misrepresent Judge Douglas' position , question his motives , or do ought that can be personally offensive to him.

Whenever, if ever , he and we can come together on principle so that our great cause may have assistance from his great ability , I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle.

But clearly, he is not now with us--he does not pretend to be--he does not promise to ever be.

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work--who do care for the result.

Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong.

We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us.

Of strange, discordant , and even, hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy.

Did we brave all then , to falter now?-- now --when that same enemy is wavering , dissevered and belligerent?

The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail--if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise councils may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later the victory is sure to come.

The source for this text is: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln .

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Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches Hardcover – Illustrated, February 1, 2009

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• Print length 160 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Cumberland House
• Publication date February 1, 2009
• Dimensions 4.25 x 0.65 x 6.25 inches
• ISBN-10 9781581826777
• ISBN-13 978-1581826777
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 158182677X
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cumberland House; Illustrated edition (February 1, 2009)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781581826777
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1581826777
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.3 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.65 x 6.25 inches
• #219 in Quotation Reference Books
• #341 in American Civil War Biographies (Books)
• #834 in US Presidents

About the authors

Abraham lincoln.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Gordon Leidner

Gordon Leidner is the author of many books about Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Founding Fathers. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Institute and is a past president of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. He has lectured on Lincoln and the Civil War at the Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University, and has written articles for academic journals and trade magazines analyzing Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton in light of transformational leadership theory.

He is author of the website Great American History, a popular American history website among students and educators.

He has a MGA in Applied Management and a BS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. His latest book, "Abraham Lincoln and the Bible" focuses on Lincoln's extensive use of the Bible for moral leadership in the fight against slavery, and the Civil War

He can be followed at Twitter: @lincolnsaid

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Selected Quotations on Slavery by Abraham Lincoln