ourselves,
and with all nations.

_A Letter to Thurlow Weed. Executive Mansion, Washington. March 15,
1865_

Dear Mr. Weed, Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my
little notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect
the latter to wear as well as--perhaps better than--anything I have
produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not
flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose
between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to
deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I
thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in
it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me
to tell it.

Truly yours,
A. LINCOLN.

_From an Address to an Indiana Regiment. March 17, 1865_

There are but few aspects of this great war on which I have not already
expressed my views by speaking or writing. There is one--the recent
effort of "Our erring brethren," sometimes so called, to employ the
slaves in their armies. The great question with them has been, "Will the
negro fight for them?" They ought to know better than we, and doubtless
do know better than we. I may incidentally remark, that having in my
life heard many arguments--or strings of words meant to pass for
arguments--intended to show that the negro ought to be a slave,--if he
shall now really fight to keep himself a slave, it will be a far better
argument why he should remain a slave than I have ever before heard. He,
perhaps, ought to be a slave if he desires it ardently enough to fight
for it. Or, if one out of four will, for his own freedom fight to keep
the other three in slavery, he ought to be a slave for his selfish
meanness. I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any
should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves,
and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear any one
arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him
personally.

_From his Reply to a Serenade. Lincoln's Last Public Address. April 11,
1865_

Fellow-citizens, We meet this evening, not in sorrow but in gladness of
heart. The evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg, and the surrender of
the principal insurgent army, give the hope of a just and speedy peace,
the joyous expression of which cannot be restrained. In all this joy,
however,