I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades… - Abraham Lincoln

I wish it might be more generally and universally understood what the country is now engaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed.

He said: Do you then understand what you worship -- You and your forefathers? -- Surely they are an enemy to me, except the Lord of the worlds, Who created me, then He shows me the way, And Who gives me to eat and to drink, And when I am sick, He heals me, And Who will cause me to die, then give me life, And Who, I hope, will forgive me my mistakes on the day of Judgment.

Gentlemen, reading from speeches is a very tedious business, particularly for an old man that has to put on spectacles, and more so if the man be so tall that he has to bend over to the light.