In Washington, he sits between two mighty murals of
plain words. His own words:"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
"It is the eternal struggle between two principles --- right and wrong --- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will continue to struggle. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You work and toil and earn your bread and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."
"Our reliance is in the love of Liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes Liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you will have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors."
--- Abraham Lincoln.