Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. My enemies pretend I am now carrying on the war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I am president it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy, and every other policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion.

Freedom has given us two hundred thousand men, raised on southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has abstracted from the enemy, and instead of checking the South, there are evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our men and the rank and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is not necessary to the restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue.

RESPONSE TO SERENADE AT WASHINGTON, MAY 13, 1864. Fellow-Citizens:-I am very much obliged to you for the compliment of this call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news received to-day from the army, than to a desire to see me.

I am indeed very grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who have directed them, and especially to our Maker.

Our commanders are following up their victories resolutely and successfully.

I think, without knowing the particulars of the plans of General Grant, that what has been accom

plished is of more importance than at first appears. I believe, I know (and am especially grateful to know), that General Grant has not been jostled in his purposes, that he has made all his points, and today he is on his line as he purposed before he moved his armies.

I will volunteer to say that I am very glad at what has happened, but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us victory.

There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest general at the head of our armies, and sink all personal considerations for the sake of the country.

I commend you to keep yourselves in the same tranquil mood that is characteristic of that brave and loyal man. I have said more than I expected when I came before you. Repeating my thanks for this call, I bid you good-bye.

TO A NEW YORK MEETING, JUNE 3, 1864.

Hon. F. A. Conckling, and others: Gentlemen— Your letter, inviting me to be present at a mass meeting of loyal citizens to be held at New York, on the 4th inst., for the purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant for his signal services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to attend. I I approve, nevertheless, whatever may tend to

strengthen and sustain General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction.

My previous high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting. While the magnitude and difficulty of the task before him do not prove less than I expected, he and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they may turn to men and guns. moving to his and their support.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

SPEECH DELIVERED JUNE 9, 1864, TO COMMITTEE INFORMING LINCOLN OF HIS RENOMINATION.

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee:I will neither conceal my gratification, nor restrain the expression of my gratitude, that the Union people, through their convention, in the continued effort. to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not unworthy to remain in my present position.

I know no reason to doubt that I shall accept the nomination tendered, and yet, perhaps I should not declare definitely before reading and considering what is called the platform. I will say now, however, that I approve the declaration in favor of so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the nation. When the people in revolt, with the hundred days explicit notice that they could within those days resume their allegiance without the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could not resume it afterward, elected to stand out, such an amendment

of the Constitution as is now proposed became a fitting and necessary condition to the final success of the Union cause. Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. I now perceive its importance and embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give legal form and practical effort.

SPEECH TO THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE, JUNE 9, 1864.

Gentlemen-I can only say in response to the remarks of your chairman, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has been accorded to me, both by the convention and the National League. I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. The convention and the nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a higher view of the interests of the country, for the present and the great future, and the part I am entitled to appropriate as a compliment, is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the opinion of the convention and of the league, that I am not entirely unworthy to be intrusted with the place I have occupied for the last three years.

I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion once that "it was not best to swap horse when crossing a stream.”

SPEECH AT A PHILADELPHIA FAIR, JUNE 16, 1864. I suppose that this toast was intended to open the way for me to say something.

War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible. It has deranged business, totally in many localities, and partially in all localities. It has destroyed property and ruined homes; it has produced a national debt and taxation unprecedented, at least in this country; it has carried mourning to almost every home, until it çan almost be said that the "heavens are hung in black."

Yet the war continues, and several relieving coincidents have accompanied it from the very beginning which have not been known, as I understand or have any knowledge of, in any former wars in the history of the world. The Sanitary Commission, with all its benevolent labors; the Christian Commission, with all its Christian and benevolent labors; and the various places, arrangements, so to speak, and institutions, have contributed to the comfort and relief of the soldiers. You have two of these places in this city--the Cooper Shop and Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloons. And, lastly, these fairs, which I believe began only in last August if I mistake not in Chicago, then at Boston, at Cincinnati, Brooklyn, New York, at Baltimore, and those at present held at St. Louis, Pittsburg and Philadelphia.

The motive and object that lie at the bottom of all these are most worthy; for, say what you will, after all, the most is due to the soldier, who takes his life