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Two days ago.. I was quite tired, I had just been reading dispatches from the front and felt weary. I went to bed and fell into a great slumber and I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room in search. No living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. I entered the East Room and found in the middle of the room a casket, with mourners around it. Beside the casket itself were soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. "Who is dead in the White House?" I demanded of one of the soldiers, "The President," was his answer;

I woke up in a sweat, cold chills racked my body. It seemed that I had witnessed a glimpse of my own demise. Later that morning, we received calamitous news from abroad. Power upon power aligned against us. They have been bought, cajoled, and bullied to either declare war against us, or to sit in silence and watch as the noose tightens. No longer do concepts like democracy matter in this world. All that seems to matter is coin, cannons, and parcels of land. They would wage war against us and for what reason? That we wish to keep our country together? That we wish to throw from the shackles, those that have long been denied freedom? Have we witnessed a glimpse of this Republic's demise? Perhaps we have... perhaps we have.

No matter. This Republic was founded on the principle that all men are created equal. And we will carry on with that principle, no matter how many states try to succeed, no matter how many European nations try to intimidate us, no matter how much land or money they use to purchase other nation's souls, we will fight. We stand united, Union Forever. This nation, Under God, shall see the dawn of a new freedom, or will perish from this earth. Remember, those that sided against us, when you are wading in the blood of your own soldiers and are left with nothing but the bitter taste of ashes and gunpowder. Remember well that all of this could have been avoided. Union now and Union forever!

-- Abraham Lincoln