I have now only to thank you warmly for your kind attendance, and bid you all an affectionate farewell.

ADDRESS AT HUDSON, NEW YORK,.

FEBRUARY 19, 1860

Fellow-citizens:—­I see that you are providing a platform for me.  I shall have to decline standing upon it, because the president of the company tells me that I shall not have time to wait until it is brought to me.  As I said yesterday, under similar circumstances at another gathering, you must not draw the inference that I have any intention of deserting any platform with which I have a legitimate connection because I do not stand on yours.  Allow me to thank you for this splendid reception, and I now bid you farewell.

ADDRESS AT PEEKSKILL, NEW YORK,

FEBRUARY 19, 1861

Ladies and gentlemen:—­I have but a moment to stand before you to listen to and return your kind greeting.  I thank you for this reception, and for the pleasant manner in which it is tendered to me by our mutual friends.  I will say in a single sentence, in regard to the difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if I can only be as generously and unanimously sustained as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate I shall be, I shall not fail; but without your sustaining hands I am sure that neither I nor any other man can hope to surmount these difficulties.  I trust that in the course I shall pursue I shall be sustained not only by the party that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole country.

ADDRESS AT FISHKILL LANDING

FEBRUARY 19, 1861

Ladies and gentlemen:—­I appear before you not to make a speech.  I have not sufficient time, if I had the strength, to repeat speeches at every station where the people kindly gather to welcome me as we go along.  If I had the strength, and should take the time, I should not get to Washington until after the inauguration, which you must be aware would not fit exactly.  That such an untoward event might not transpire, I know you will readily forego any further remarks; and I close by bidding you farewell.

REMARKS AT THE ASTOR HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 19, 1861

Fellow-citizens:—­I have stepped before you merely in compliance with what appears to be your wish, and not with the purpose of making a speech.  I do not propose making a speech this afternoon.  I could not be heard by any but a small fraction of you, at best; but, what is still worse than that, I have nothing just now to say that is worthy of your hearing.  I beg you to believe that I do not now refuse to address you from any disposition to disoblige you, but to the contrary.  But, at the same time, I beg of you to excuse me for the present.