From an Address at a Sanitary Fair in Baltimore.  April 18, 1864

...  The world has never had a good definition of the word “liberty,” and the American people, just now, are much in want of one.  We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word, we do not all mean the same thing.  With some, the word “liberty” may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labour; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men’s labour.  Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name,—­liberty.  And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names,—­liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one.  Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word “liberty;” and precisely the same difference prevails to-day, among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty.  Hence we behold the process by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty.  Recently, as it seems, the people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty, and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf’s dictionary has been repudiated.

Letter to General Grant.  April 30, 1864

Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it.  The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know.  You are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints nor restraints upon you.  While I am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would be mine.  If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it.  And now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you.

From an Address to the 166th Ohio Regiment.  August 22, 1864

I almost always feel inclined, when I happen to say anything to soldiers, to impress upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success in this contest.  It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come, that we should perpetuate for our children’s children that great and free government which we have enjoyed all our lives.  I beg you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours.  I happen, temporarily, to occupy this White House.  I am a living witness that any one of your children