Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
16th President of the United States and led the country during the American Civil War.
Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of [our] population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend upon it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the world.
O captain! my captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack; the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring?
But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my captain lies, fallen cold and dead.
Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.
We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read.
If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?