Lincoln Depot Museum Opens

[RJNorton]

Thanks for posting, Anita. I checked the Collected Works to see if Lincoln's words at Peekskill were recorded, and here is what I found:


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I have but a moment to stand before you to listen to and return your kind greeting. I thank you for this reception and for the pleasant manner in which it is tendered to me by our mutual friends. I will say in a single sentence, in regard to the difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if I can only be as generously and unanimously sustained as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate I shall be, I shall not fail; but without your sustaining hands I am sure that neither I nor any other man can hope to surmount those difficulties. I trust that in the course I shall pursue I shall be sustained, not only by the party that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole country.

Annotation

[1] New York Herald, February 20, 1861. The New York Tribune version differs verbally, but is substantially the same.