GDG- Dueling ground

[Dennis Lawrence]

Thursday, September 22, 1842.

Arriving in Alton at 11 A.M., Lincoln and friends cross Mississippi to 
dueling ground. Shields and party follow. Without Shields' knowledge, "his 
friends withdraw his first note to Lincoln, whose friends then read 
Lincoln's apology, and the duel is called off.

I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be 
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 
affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field 
and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad 
land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our nature. - -