The Lincoln Conspiracy Quotes

“It is one of the foundational pillars of Abraham Lincoln—and of America itself. We’re not simply a country of ideas; we’re a country of ideals. What makes America exceptional is not our weapons or our might. It’s our principles and our continuing fight to live up to them. Faced with darkness, we must reach for the light. It was true a century and half ago at Gettysburg, but it’s just as true today: When you speak your mind—and speak for those who need help—there’s no more powerful way to be heard.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“The Emancipation Proclamation was the first great step. But it was two years later, near war’s end, that Lincoln would throw his support behind the monumental Thirteenth Amendment, formally declaring the practice of slavery illegal, forever, throughout the United States.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“Throughout the long four years of the Civil War, more Americans will die than in any other war in the nation’s history—in fact, more Americans will die in the Civil War than in every other war combined from the American Revolution through the Korean War, including both World Wars. On average, nearly 3,500 lives are lost every week”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“Some observers, particularly Southerners, were critical of this show of force. “I have seen today such a sight as I could never have believed possible at the capital of my country,” one Southern reporter wrote, “an inauguration of a President surrounded by armed soldiery, with loaded pieces and fixed bayonets.” Another observer reported that the procession “seemed more like escorting a prisoner to his doom than a President to his inauguration.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“At noon, an open horse-drawn carriage pulls up in front of the Willard Hotel. Out of it steps current President James Buchanan, who will serve as Lincoln’s escort to the Capitol several blocks away. When Lincoln emerges from the hotel, the two men shake hands and step up into the horse-drawn barouche. The scene is witnessed by scores of advisors and reporters. The passage together of the current and future President is a symbol of the peaceful transfer of power—an ideal that both men want to reinforce in public during the current political moment.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles—the oppression of tyranny—to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke … if there are any abroad who desire to make this the land of their adoption, it is not in my heart to throw aught in their way, to prevent them from coming to the United States.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. [applause] It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“It is one of the foundational pillars of Abraham Lincoln—and of America itself. We’re not simply a country of ideas; we’re a country of ideals. What makes America exceptional aren’t our weapons or our might. It’s our principles and our continuing fight to live up to them. Faced with darkness, we must reach for the light.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“At this moment, he happens to glance at a mirror affixed to a bureau across the room. In this mirror, he sees something that disturbs him. “Looking in that glass,” he’d later describe it, “I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed, had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other.” It’s a double image of his face, and “one of the faces was a little paler—say five shades—than the other.” When he stands up to look closer, “the illusion vanished,” but when he lies on the lounge again, the double image reappears: the “ghostly face in the mirror, mocking its healthy and hopeful fellow.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“When you speak your mind—and speak for those who need help—there’s no more powerful way to be heard.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“As Lincoln himself said, “Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed

“When a man hears himself misrepresented, it provokes him … But when the misrepresentation becomes very gross and palpable, it is more apt to amuse him.”
― Brad Meltzer, The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed