Such will be a great lesson of peace: teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by war.

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

I soon began to dream. ... I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. ... I left my bed and wandered downstairs. ... There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.''

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.

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.

We believe that the spreading out and perpetuity of the institution of slavery impairs the general welfare. We believe - nay, we know, that that is the only thing that has ever threatened the perpetuity of the Union itself.

And upon this act [Emancipation Proclamation]...I invoke...the gracious favor of Almighty God.