Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by force; but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one of love and mutual good offices.

All we ask is to be let alone.

It is our duty to keep the memory of our heroes green. Yet they belong to the whole country; they belong to America.

For an enemy so relentless in the war for our subjugation, we could not be expected to mourn; yet, in view of its political consequences, it could not be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune for the South.

We protest solemnly in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor.

Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by force; but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one of love and mutual good offices.

Tradition usually rests upon something which men did know; history is often the manufacture of the mere liar.