I Have An Irrepressible Desire To Live

...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.

The Better Angels Of Our Nature

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.

The Case Of Andrews Is Really A Very Bad One, As Appears By The Record Already Before Me. Yet Before Receiving This I Had Orderedhis Punishment Commuted To Imprisonmentand Had So Telegraphed. I Did This, Not On Any Merit In The Case, But Because I Am Trying To Evade The Butchering Business Lately.

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.