Quote of the Day

I'm still working my way through Bruce Catton's The Coming Fury, the first of his three volume history of the Civil War.

As Lincoln has now arrived in Washington, he meets with some delegates of the last-chance Peace Convention, who are trying to find a solution before war breaks out. This is after his election, after all seven of the Southern states have left the Union and formed the Confederacy, but before Lincoln's inauguration and the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter.

Speaking of the dwindling chances of finding a peaceful path and the growing certainty of a dreadful war, Lincoln observes:

In a choice of evils, war may not always be the worst.