If five and a half million white men deeply in earnest are resolved to secede, is there any power on earth that can prevent them?
You may beat them in battle, but can you ever force them again inside the confines of the nation?
Remember Chatham's saying: 'Conquer a free population of three million souls--the thing is impossible.' They stand on the rights of democracy, the right of self-government, the right to decide their own future." Lincoln passed a hand over his brow.

His face had suddenly became very worn and weary.
"I've been pondering a deal over the position of the South," he said.

"I reckon I see their point of view, and I'll not deny there's sense in it.
There's a truth in their doctrine of State rights, but they've got it out of focus.

If I had been raised in South Carolina, loving the slave-system because I had grown up with it and thinking more of my State than of the American nation, maybe I'd have followed Jeff Davis.
I'm not saying there's no honesty in the South, I'm not saying there's not truth on their side, but I do say that ours is the bigger truth and the better truth.

I hold that a nation is too sacred a thing to tamper with--even for good reasons.