Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1852
AUTHOR:
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65)
QUOTATION:
I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.
ATTRIBUTION:
President-elect ABRAHAM LINCOLN, address to the New Jersey Senate, February 21, 1861.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, p. 236 (1953).
