Abraham Lincoln - "Mystic Chords of Memory"

This document, which contains some of the most memorable phrases from Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural, is the last page of that address. The edits are in the President's own handwriting.

The Library of Congress, where this important document is maintained, provides background information regarding its creation:

Until the final draft, Lincoln's address had ended with a question for the South: "Shall it be peace or sword?" In the famous concluding paragraph, Lincoln, following the suggestion of Seward, moderated his tone dramatically and ended on a memorable note of conciliation:

I am loth 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, stre[t]ching from every battle-field, 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.

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