Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Last Updated March 11, 2011
With Lincoln’s quotes first followed in alphabetical order of the person making the quote
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
Abraham Lincoln
Oct 3 1863
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln’s secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary that he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.
From “A Proclamation of Thanksgiving.”Abraham Lincoln Online. Retrieved from http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm
Originally From The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 8 volumes, Edited by Roy Basler. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953
“My policy is to have no policy.”
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln’s oft stated maxim
From McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union by Ethan Rafuse. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. page 126
Originally From “Abraham Lincoln and the American Pragmatic Tradition,” by David Donald. Lincoln Reconsidered Essays on the Civil War Era. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956 page 128-43
“If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it.”
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln after the Battle of Fredericksburg
From Blue and Gray Diplomacy by Howard Jones. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010. page 281
Originally From Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988
Page 574
“I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or until I die or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes em.”
Abraham Lincoln
Jun 28 1862
Letter from Lincoln to Seward regarding his determination to end the rebellion
From The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 Vol. 1 South Mountain. Edited by Thomas Clemens. New York: Savas Beatie, 2010. page 131
Originally From OR 3 (2) page 179-180
“if we never try we shall never succeed….It is all easy if our troops march as well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to say they cannot.”
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln in a letter to McClellan urging him to press forward
From McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union by Ethan Rafuse. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. page 354
“Aint the old bugger lean? Why he wouldn’t pay for skinning.”
A soldier
A soldier from the 9th New York Zouaves who observes Lincoln at the review at the Battle of Antietam
From Counter-Thrust From the Peninsula to the Antietam by Benjamin Franklin Cooling. Lincoln: University of Nebraska 2007.
page 273
“riding in an ambulance with some half dozen Western-looking politicians…with his long legs doubled up so that his knees almost stuck his chin, and grinning out the windows like a baboon.”
An officer
Oct 2 1862
An officer describes seeing Lincoln during his inspection of the Army
From McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union by Ethan Rafuse. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. page 344
“There was not the slightest enthusiasm on the part of the men; and how could there be for a President who did not show the smallest interest in them?
An officer
An officer describes seeing Lincoln during his inspection of the Army
From McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union by Ethan Rafuse. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. page 345
“His fingers itch to be into everything going on.”
Henry Halleck
Halleck describing Lincoln
From How the North Won by Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1983. page 293
Originally From Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff by Stephen Ambrose. (Baton Rouge, 1962) page 110
“More than once I have been with him in out-of-the-way countryseats…and in the lack of sleeping accommodations, have spent the night in front of s stove listening to the unceasing flow of anecdotes from his lips….I could never quite make up my mind how many of them he had really heard before, and how many he invented on the spur of the moment….seldom refined, but…always to the point.”
George B. McClellan
McClellan describing his pre-war association with Abraham Lincoln, a counsel for the Illinois Central Railroad
From Hattaway, Herman and Archer Jones. How the North Won. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1983. page 86
Originally From McClellan’s Own Story by George B. McClellan. (New York: Webster, 1887) page 170, 176
“had nothing very particular to say, except some stories to tell, which were as usual very pertinent and some pretty good. I never in my life met anyone so full of anecdote as our friend Abraham-he is never at a loss for a story apropos of any known subject or incident.”
George B. McClellan
Oct 16 1861
McClellan to his wife describing a meeting with Lincoln
From McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union by Ethan Rafuse. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. page 139
Originally From The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence, 1860-1865, Edited by Steven W. Sears. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1989 page 106-07
“In out of the way county seats where some important case was being tried…in front of a stove listening to the unceasing flow of anecdotes from his lips. He never was at a loss, and I could never quite make up my mind how many of them he really heard before and how many he invented on the spur of the moment.”
George B. McClellan
McClellan describing working with Lincoln as a counsel for the railroad.
From McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union by Ethan Rafuse. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. page 75
Originally From McClellan’s Own Story by George B. McClellan. (New York: Webster, 1887)
“Lincoln…very kind to me personally-told me he was convinced I was the best general in the country etc. He was very affable and I really think he does feel very kindly to me personally. I showed him the battle fields & am sure he departed with a more vivid idea of the great difficulty of the task we had accomplished.”
George B. McClellan
McClellan to his wife regarding Lincoln’s visit to the Army after the Battle of Antietam
From McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union by Ethan Rafuse. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. page 346
“I got back very hot, very tired, and utterly disgusted, a feeling which I think was pretty general throughout the command. There was not the slightest enthusiasm on the part of the men; and how could there be for a President who did not show the smallest interest in them.”
Charles S. Wainright Oct 2 1862
Wainright reporting on Lincoln’s no-show for the First Corps Review while at Sharpsburg to meet with McClellan
From A Diary of Battle The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainright 1861-1865 by Charles Wainwright edited by Allan Nevins. New York: De Capo Press, 1998. page 259
“It would be hard work to find the great man in his face or figure, and he is infinitely uglier than any of his pictures.”
Charles S. Wainright
Jan 15 1862
Wainwright describes Lincoln when he sees him at an opera
From A Diary of Battle The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainright 1861-1865 by Charles Wainwright edited by Allan Nevins. New York: De Capo Press, 1998. page 10
“We had got halfway there when we met the “great mogul” riding in an ambulance with some half dozen Western-looking politicians. Republican simplicity is well enough, but I should have preferred to see the President of the United States traveling with a little more regard to appearances than can be afforded by a common ambulance, with his long legs doubled up so that his knees almost struck his chin, and grinning out of the windows like a baboon. Mr. Lincoln not only is the ugliest man I ever saw, but the most uncouth and gawky in his manners and appearance.”
Charles S. Wainright
Oct 1 1862
Wainwright, a New York aristocrat who sees Lincoln at Sharpsburg after the battle
From A Diary of Battle The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainright 1861-1865 by Charles Wainwright edited by Allan Nevins. New York: De Capo Press, 1998. page 109
“When calm history comes to be written, Mr. Lincoln must appear as one of the smallest of men, ever harping on trifles.”
Charles S. Wainright Mar 13 1864
Wainwright on Lincoln’s apparent legacy.
From A Diary of Battle The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainright 1861-1865 by Charles Wainwright edited by Allan Nevins. New York: De Capo Press, 1998. page 331
“Sigel in the Valley too, had come to a full stop and has now been replaced by old Hunter. Mr. Lincoln certainly does hold on to his fourth-rate men, however fond he may be of disgracing his best generals.”
Charles S. Wainright
May 31 1864
Wainwright on Lincoln’s appointments
From A Diary of Battle The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainright 1861-1865 by Charles Wainwright edited by Allan Nevins. New York: De Capo Press, 1998. page 395
“He is really the most unaffected, simple-minded, honest, frank man I have ever met. I wish he had a little more firmness, thought I suppose the main difficulty with him is to make up his mind as to the best policy amongst the multitudes of advisers and advice.”
Alpheus Williams
Williams on Lincoln after meeting him at his visit to Sharpsburg
From “General McClellan’s Bodyguard.” by Brooks Simpson. The Antietam Campaign. Edited by Gary Gallagher Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999. page 56
Originally From From the Cannon’s Mouth, by Alpheus Williams. Edited by Milo M Quaife. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1959
Antietam Voices 
Leave a Reply