Abraham Lincoln's Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861

    Source citation
    Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861, in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 4: 190-191, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.
    Original source
    (Springfield) Illinois State Journal
    Type
    Speech
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Transcription adapted from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953), edited by Roy P. Basler
    Adapted by Don Sailer, Dickinson College
    The following transcript has been adapted from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953).

    Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois

    February 11, 1861

    Friends,

    No one who has never been placed in a like position, can understand my feelings at this hour, nor the oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a quarter of a century I have lived among you, and during all that time I have received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth until now I am an old man. Here the most sacred ties of earth were assumed; here all my children were born; and here one of them lies buried. To you, dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am.

    All the strange, chequered past seems to crowd now upon my mind. To-day I leave you; I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon General Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him, shall be with and aid me, I must fail. But if the same omniscient mind, and Almighty arm that directed and protected him, shall guide and support me, I shall not fail, I shall succeed. Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To him I commend you all---permit me to ask that with equal security and faith, you all will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me. With these few words I must leave you---for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an affectionate farewell.

    How to Cite This Page: "Abraham Lincoln's Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/25142.