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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: of defeat, and shed the luster of renown over results of barren
failure. But it was a weary time, and the outlook was very dark.
The President never despaired. On the most dismal day of the
whole dismal summer of 1862 he sent Secretary Seward to New York
with a confidential letter full of courage, to be shown such of
the governors of free States as could be hastily summoned to meet
him there. In it he said: "I expect to maintain this contest
until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term
expires, or Congress or the country forsake me," and he asked for
100,000 fresh volunteers with which to carry on the war. His
confidence was not misplaced. The governors of eighteen free
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