h characteristic prudence
and good taste, he uttered no word of boasting, and indulged in no
syllable of acrimony; on the contrary, in terms of fatherly kindness he
again offered the rebellious States the generous conditions he had
previously tendered them.

"The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe,
inexhaustible. The public purpose to reestablish and maintain the
national authority is unchanged and, as we believe, unchangeable. The
manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful
consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that no
attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any
good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union--precisely
what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to this effect are
explicit and oft-repeated.... What is true, however, of him who heads
the insurgent cause is not necessarily true of those who follow.
Although he cannot reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them, we know,
already desire peace and reunion. The number of such may increase. They
can, at any moment, have peace simply by laying down their arms and
submitting to the national authority under the Constitution. After so
much, the government could not, if it would, maintain war against them.
The loyal people would not sustain or allow it. If questions should
remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legislation,
conference, courts, and votes, operating only in constitutional and
lawful channels.... In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to
the national authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only
indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the government,
I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the
declaration made a year ago, that 'While I remain in my present
position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation
proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by
the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.' If
the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty
to reenslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument
to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to
say that the war will cease on the part of the government whenever it
shall have ceased on the part of those who began it." The country was
about to enter upon the fifth year of actual war; but all indi