Abraham Lincoln and the Union: A Chronicle of the Embattled North |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln accept action anti-slavery appear army attempt August Belmont Benjamin Wade biographical blockade Buchanan Cabinet called Cameron cause Charleston Chase coln Compromise Confederacy Confederate Congress conscription constitution convention course Court crisis Davis defeat demand Douglas Douglas's Dred Scott election Emancipation Proclamation enemies famous federacy Federal force Frémont friends Government Greeley groups hand Henry Winter Davis Horace Greeley issue Jefferson Davis Kansas Kansas-Nebraska Act labor leaders Lecompton constitution Lincoln matter ment military million mind Missouri Missouri Compromise motives Napoleon Navy North Northern Ohio party of political peace political evasion politicians popular ports position President problem proclamation question Republican resignation secession Secretary sectional seems Senate Seward ships slave trade slavery soldiers South Carolina Southern party speech Stanton strange Sumter territory thing tion took Toombs Treasury Union Party United Vallandigham Virginia vote Washington Whigs Yancey York
Popular passages
Page 120 - Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Page 53 - It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations.
Page 139 - Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert...
Page 89 - I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.
Page 55 - That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts related in history at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends in little else than his own execution.
Page 139 - ... that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptible government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy.
Page 89 - In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.
Page 165 - I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.
Page 78 - They break the links of Union: shall we light The fires of hell to weld anew the chain On that red anvil where each blow is pain?
Page 53 - Those police regulations can only be established by the local legislature; and if the people are opposed to slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst.