Elections belong to the people. It's their decision.

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.

No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.

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 do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that. I have here stated my purpose according to my official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere, could be free.

In law it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not.

Human-nature will not change.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.