I am loathe to close. 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 memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over 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.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)

First Inaugural Address, final paragraph (4 Mar 1861)

A substantially revised version of the original text written by William Seward.