Download Quotes of Abraham Lincoln

NAME________________________
Lincoln Quotes Activity
AP American
Horton
Directions: Cut the quotes apart on the dashed lines and then place them
in chronological order. As a group, read the quotes and determine the ways in
which Lincoln’s views about slavery changed from the 1850’s to 1865. Then,
compare these changes to the timeline (provided by your teacher) regarding the
status of the Civil War, and decide WHY Lincoln’s thoughts about slavery
changed over time.
"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a
just God, can not long retain it." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited
by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Letter To Henry L. Pierce and Others" (April 6,
1859), p. 376 Quote A
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of
democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no
democracy." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume II, (August 1, 1858?), p. 532. Quote B
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to
save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I
would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I
could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What
I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save
the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to
save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the
cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the
cause." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388. Quote C
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favor colonization."
Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862. Quote D
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in
what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the
last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is
plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever
applaud, and God must forever bless." Lincoln's Second Annual Message to
Congress, December 1, 1862. Quote E
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"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot
endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of
slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind
shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates
will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as
new- North as well as South" Lincoln's 'House-Divided' Speech in Springfield,
Illinois, June 16, 1858. Quote F
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it
tried on him personally." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy
P. Basler, Volume VIII, "Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment"
(March 17, 1865), p. 361. Quote G
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in
anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am
not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of
qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in
addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black
races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of
social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do
remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much
as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the
white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man
is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything." The
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Fourth
Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois" (September 18, 1858),
pp. 145-146. Quote H
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the
same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he
pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same
word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the
product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible
things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is,
by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty
and tyranny." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume VII, "Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland" (April 18, 1864), p.
301-302. Quote I
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"I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one
who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white
people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a
nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now
practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the KnowNothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and
foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to
some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for
instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of
hypocrisy." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler,
Volume II, "Letter to Joshua F. Speed" (August 24, 1855), p. 323. Quote J
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest [slavery] was the object for
which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government
claimed no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither
party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already
attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or
even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph,
and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and
pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem
strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their
bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not
judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been
answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes." Lincoln's Second Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1865. Quote K
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is
wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only
substantial difference between us." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume IV, "Letter to Alexander H. Stephens"
(December 22, 1860), p. 160. (Stephens was the future Confederate vicepresident). Quote L
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------website: http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln78.html for the above quotations
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Slavery is founded on the selfishness of man's nature-opposition to it on his love
of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism; and when brought into
collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and
convulsions must ceaselessly follow. - Abraham Lincoln Attribution: Abraham
Lincoln (1809-1865), U.S. president. comment, Oct. 16, 1854, Peoria, Ill., During
a debate with Stephen Douglas. Quote M
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" Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern states that by
accession of a Republican administration, their property, ,and their peace, and
personal security, are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable
cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary
has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly
all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from
one of those speeches when I declare that 'I have no purpose, directly or
indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address March 4, 1861
Quote N
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the
momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have
no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath
registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most
solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend' it.
I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of
affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and
patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will
yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by
the better angels of our nature."
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address March 4, 1861
Quote O
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a
new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether than nation, or
any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a
great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
final resting place for those who gave their lives that that nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate- we can not consecrate- we
can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled
here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world
will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for
us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the
last full measure of devotion- that 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"
Gettysburg Address: November 19, 1863
Quote P
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or
designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against
the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever free....
...And upon this act sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by
the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of
mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863 Quote Q
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the
colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very
intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers"
Last Public Address April 11, 1865
Quote R
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and
that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in
an inferior position. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people
throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are
created equal"
Campaign Speech in Northern Illinois, July 1858
Quote S
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"If we suppose that American Slavery is one of those offense which, in the
providence of Go, must needs come, but which, having continued through His
appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and
South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall
we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers
in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope- fervently do we praythat this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it
continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years
of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash,
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years
ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether'
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; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for
his widow, and his orphan- to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace,
among ourselves and with all nations."
Second Inaugural Address- March 4, 1865
Quote T
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CIVIL WAR TIMELINE: MAJOR EVENTS:
First Battle of Bull Run: July 21, 1861
Union is routed as rebels stand strong under “Stonewall” Jackson
McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign/Seven Days Battles: Spring 1862
Union is driven back from within sight of Richmond, McClellan temporarily
relieved
Merrimack and Monitor Do Battle: March 1862
Grant Captures Fort Henry and Fort Donelson: February 1862
Grant’s victory secured Tennessee to the Union and opened the way for further
attacks on the deep South. The Confederates blunted Grant’s attempt to attack the
Mississippi Valley at the bloody battle of Shiloh in April 1862.
Second Battle of Bull Run: August 29-30 1862
Lee defeats Union armies under General Pope, opens way to Maryland
Battle of Antietam: September 17, 1862
McClellan was restored to command, Lee’s battle plans were discovered and Mac
successfully stopped Lee’s advance in the bloodiest single day of fighting
Battle of Fredricksburg December 13, 1862
General Burnside attempted a frontal assault on Lee and it led to massive
slaughter of Union troops
New Orleans Falls to Union Spring 1862
Battle of Chancellorsville: May 2-4 1863
Union General Hooker was outflanked by the divided Confederates, Stonewall
Jackson was killed accidentally by his own men
Battle of Gettysburg July1-3, 1863
The “high tide of the Confederacy” (Pickett’s charge) where the Confederate
assault was blunted in three days of heavy fighting.
Vicksburg Captured by the Union: July 4, 1863
Grant captured the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi. He
would defeated the rebels at Chattanooga in November 1863, opening Georgia to
Union attack.
Wilderness Campaign May 1864 and Cold Harbor (June 3) 1864:
Grant presses the attack against Lee in a grind it out campaign (using the superior
resources of the North by attacking). Grant’s frontal assault on Cold Harbor
produced 7,000 casualties in the first few minutes
Sherman Captures Atlanta (September 1864) & March to the Sea (November –December
1864)
Sherman burned Atlanta in November, cut free from supply lines and marched to
Savannah which he captured on December 22, 1864.
Election of 1864:
Victories on the Eve of the election included the capture of Mobile Alabama (by
Farragut), Sherman’s capture of Atlanta, and General Sheridan’s attacks in the
Shenandoah Valley
Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox: April 9, 1865:
Lincoln’s prophetic quote: “Thank God I have lived to see this”. He would be
assassinated on April 14th