Speeches of Abraham Lincoln 1861 - Address To The Legislature Of Ohio At Columbus
by Abraham Lincoln
FEBRUARY 13, 1861
Mr. PRESIDENT AND Mr. SPEAKER, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
OHIO:--It is true, as has been said by the president of the Senate, that
very great responsibility rests upon me in the position to which the
votes of the American people have called me. I am deeply sensible of that
weighty responsibility. I cannot but know what you all know, that without
a name, perhaps without a reason why I should have a name, there has
fallen upon me a task such as did not rest even upon the Father of his
Country; and so feeling, I can turn and look for that support without
which it will be impossible for me to perform that great task. I turn,
then, and look to the American people and to that God who has never
forsaken them. Allusion has been made to the interest felt in relation to
the policy of the new administration. In this I have received from some a
degree of credit for having kept silence, and from others some
deprecation. I still think that I was right.
In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes of the present, and without
a precedent which could enable me to judge by the past, it has seemed
fitting that before speaking upon the difficulties of the country I
should have gained a view of the whole field, being at liberty to modify
and change the course of policy as future events may make a change
necessary.
I have not maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. It is a good
thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there is nothing going
wrong. It is a consoling circumstance that when we look out there is
nothing that really hurts anybody. We entertain different views upon
political questions, but nobody is suffering anything. This is a most
consoling circumstance, and from it we may conclude that all we want is
time, patience, and a reliance on that God who has never forsaken this
people.
Fellow-citizens, what I have said I have said altogether
extemporaneously, and I will now come to a close.