I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion once that 'it was not best to swap horses while crossing streams'.

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The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, Reply to Delegation from the National Union League (June 9, 1864), p. 384.

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