Abraham Lincoln's Remarks at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1861

    Source citation
    Remarks at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1861, in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 4: 242-243, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.
    Original source
    New York Tribune; New York Times
    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).

    Remarks at Lancaster, Pennsylvania

    February 22, 1861

    LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF OLD LANCASTER: I appear not to make a speech. I have not time to make them at length, and not strength to make them on every occasion, and, worse than all, I have none to make. I come before you to see and be seen and, as regards the ladies, I have the best of the bargain; but, as to the gentlemen, I cannot say as much. There is plenty of matter to speak about in these times, but it is well known that the more a man speaks the less he is understood---the more he says one thing, his adversaries contend he meant something else. I shall soon have occasion to speak officially, and then I will endeavor to put my thoughts just as plain as I can express myself, true to the Constitution and Union of all the States, and to the perpetual liberty of all the people. Until I so speak, there is no need to enter upon details. In conclusion, I greet you most heartily, and bid you an affectionate farewell.

    How to Cite This Page: "Abraham Lincoln's Remarks at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1861," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/25110.