For more than a quarter of a century on active duty, my house has been my tent, and my home the battlefield.
The idea that I should become president seems to me too visionary to require a serious answer. It has never entered my head, nor is it likely to enter the head of any other person.
In no case can I permit myself to be a candidate of any party or yield myself to any party schemes.
I cannot in any case permit myself to be brought before the people, exclusively, by any of the political parties that now so unfortunately divide our country, as their candidate for office.
As to the Constitution and the Union, I have taken an oath to support the one, and I cannot do so without preserving the other, unless I commit perjury, which I certainly don't intend to do. We must cherish the Constitution to the last.
It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe.
