• Inside the Lincoln Sitting Room

    Lincoln Home

    National Historic Site Illinois

We Are Friends

First Inaugural Address March 4, 1861

Friends. I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must no 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.

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Did You Know?

Photo of Model of Lincoln's Patent

Abraham Lincoln is the only president to hold a patent.  His patent was for a system of chambers designed to refloat boats that had run aground.  He received Patent No. 6469 on May 22, 1849. Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Illinois