My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union ... If I could save the Union without freeing any slave... if I could save it by freeing all the slaves... I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.

I could not raise ten thousand dollars if it would save me from the fate of John Brown. Nor have my friends, so far as I know, yet reached the point of staking any money on my chances of success.

I have been occupying a position, since the Presidential election, of silence, of avoiding public speaking, of avoiding public writing. I have been doing so because I thought, upon full consideration, that was the proper course for me to take.

The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred, defeats.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.

Stand by your principles; stand by your guns; and victory complete and permanent is sure at the last.