FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: I believe I shall never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have anything [nothing?] to talk about. [Laughter and cheering.] I have no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news to tell. We have talked of elections until there is nothing more to say about them. The most interesting news we now have is from Sherman. We all know where he went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. Cheers and cries, "He'll come out all right."] I will now close by proposing three cheers for Gen. Sherman and the army.
New York Tribune, December 8, 1864. Brackets are in the source except in the case of the single emendation.
Abraham Lincoln, Remarks in Response to a Serenade Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/342171
