Lincoln's greatest fear politically was that he would be the last president of the United States of America--that the Confederate states would win their war for secession and that the Republic would collapse into a collection of micro-states. Lincoln was willing to bend the rules of the Constitution--he suspended the writ of habeas corpus several times during the war to persecute Rebel sympathizers. He authorized his armies to wage war against civilians in order to bring the states in rebellion under control. He ignored pleas from his own party to free the slaves outright--the amendment which freed the slaves was only ratified upon his death in 1865. Lincoln knew that he was not politically popular and did little to grow his party base or to make himself more re-electable in 1864; rather, he acted according to his conscience and kept the nation together as he swore to do when he took the oath of office.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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