Friends:No one who has never been placed in a like position can understand my feeling at this hour, nor the oppressive sadness I feel at this parting.
For more than a quarter of a century I have lived among you, and received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth, untill now I am an old man. Here the most sacred ties of the earth assumed .Here all my children were born, here one of them lies buried. To you, my dear friends, I owe you all that I have, all that I am. All the strange, checkered past seems now to crowd upon my mind.
Today I leave you, I go to assume a task more difficult more than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him shall be with me and aid me, I must fail, but if the omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail, I shall succeed.
Let us all pray that the God of our father may not forsake us now. To him, I commend you all. Permit me to ask that, with equall security and faith, you will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me. With these few words I must leave you, for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an affectionate farewell.
Abraham Lincoln
