Thanks much joj!

And speaking of Abraham Lincoln:

"Few great public men have ever been the victims of fiercer denunciation than Abraham Lincoln was during his administration.  He was assailed by abolitionists; he was assailed by slaveholders; he was assailed by men who were for peace at any price; he was assailed by those who were for a more vigorous prosecution of the war; he was assailed for not making war an abolition war; and he was most bitterly assailed for making the war an abolition war....

The tremendous question for him to decide was whether his country should survive the crisis and flourish, or be dismembered and perish.  He brought his strong common sense, sharpened in the school of adversity, to bear upon the question.  He did not hesitate, he did not doubt, he did not falter; but at once resolved that at whatever peril, at whatever cost, the union of the states should be preserved.  A patriot himself, his faith was strong and unwavering in the patriotism of his countrymen.  Timid men said before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, that we had seen the last president of the United States.  A voice in influential quarters said, "Let the Union slide".  Some said that a Union maintained by the sword was worthless.  Others said a rebellion of eight million cannot be suppressed; but in the midst of all this tumult and timidity, and against all this, Abraham Lincoln was clear in his duty and had an oath in heaven.  He calmly and bravely heard the voice of doubt and fear all around him; but he had an oath in heaven, and there was not power enough on the earth to make this honest boatman evade or violate that sacred oath.  His plain life favored his love of truth.  The trust which Abraham Lincoln had in himself and in the people was surprising and grand, but it was also enlightened and well founded.  He knew the American people better than they knew themselves and his truth was based upon this knowledge."

- Frederick Douglass