"The life of the nation, and the sacred obligations of its citizenship, which so inspire common men that they will die for them, and pass those gates of holy and willing sacrifice with the sacraments of the nation upon their lips, it regards only with moral indifference. If a people in a great crisis are redeemed from slavery, it sees not the glory of their deliverance. It heeds not the roll of the waves parted by the right hand of Majesty on high, but asks only that it still may catch the murmur of waters breaking on the shores of ancient wrong. It repeats its protest against sedition, conspiracy, and rebellion, but to their reality its conscience is dead. It asks, in the litany of human hopes and sorrows, for the unity of all nations, but for those who hold the unity of the nation as a divine gift it is silent and offers only the drowsy opiates of this world that drug the spirits of men."—Mulford.
"When you labored under more sorts of oppression than one, you betook yourselves to God for refuge, and he was graciously pleased to hear your most earnest prayer and desires. He has gloriously delivered you, the first of nations, from the two greatest mischiefs of this life, and most pernicious to virtue, Tyranny and Superstition."—Milton.
"Our commerce was suffering greatly by a few armed vessels built upon and furnished from foreign shores, and we were threatened with such additions from the same quarter as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise our blockade. We had failed to elicit from European governments anything hopeful upon this subject. The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in September, was running its assigned period to the beginning of the new year. A month later the final proclamation came, including the announcement that colored men of suitable condition would be received into the war service."—Lincoln.
"Every step by which you have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."—Washington.
"I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsake me."—Lincoln.
"The struggle between the fury of despotism and the heroism of conviction, between executioners and martyrs, is worthy of eternal remembrance."—Sismondi.
"Among the agencies he employed none proved more admirable or more powerful than this two-edged sword of the final proclamation, blending sentiment with force, leaguing liberty with Union, filling the voting armies
