We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We—even we here—hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

Born this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president (1861–65), preserved the Union during the American Civil War, brought about the emancipation of enslaved people, and was an eloquent spokesman for democracy.