more remarkable than these fairs for the
relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And the chief agents in
these fairs are the women of America.

I am not accustomed to the language of eulogy. I have never studied the
art of paying compliments to women. But I must say, that if all that has
been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise
of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them
justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God
bless the women of America!

_Letter to A.G. Hodges, of Kentucky. April 4, 1864_

I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never
understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right
to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath
that I took, that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect,
and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take
office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an
oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood,
too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to
practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question
of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times and in many ways.
And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere
deference to my abstract feeling and judgment on slavery. I did
understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the
best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every
indispensable means, that government--that nation--of which that
Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and
yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be
protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life
is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise
unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the
preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the nation.
Right or wrong, I assumed this ground; and now avow it. I could not feel
that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the
Constitution, if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should permit
the wreck of government, country, and Constitution, all together. When,
early in the war, General Fremont a