In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen,
and not in mine
is the momentous issue of Civil War.
The government will not assail you
You can have no conflicts, without being yourselves the aggressions.
We are not enemies, but friends.
We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained,
it must not break our bonds of affection.
The mystic chords of memories,
stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave
to every living heart all across this broad land
will yet swell the chorus of the Union,
when again touched, as surely they will be
By the better angels of our nature.
For if destruction be our lot,
we must ourselves be its author.
As a nation of Free Men,
we must live through all time
or die of suicide.