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 loathe 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 hearthstone
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.
End Project Gutenberg's Etext of Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
from http://mc.clintock.com/gutenberg/
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