“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.”
Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address (Primary source)
Abraham Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural Address as the 16th president of the United States on March 4, 1861, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., at a moment when seven Southern states had already declared secession from the Union.
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“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary sourceMore quotes by Abraham Lincoln →
“Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”
— Amelia Earhart Disputed“It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“If you have the ability, you have the obligation.”
— A.P. Møller DisputedPolitics America American Civil War