FELLOW-CITIZENS: I was promised not to be called upon for a speech to-night, nor do I propose to make one. But, as we have been hearing some very good news for a day or two, I propose that you give three hearty cheers for Sheridan.
While we are at it we may as well consider how fortunate it was for the Secesh that Sheridan was a very little man. If he had been a large man, there is no knowing what he would have done with them.
I propose three cheers for General Grant, who knew to what use to put Sheridan; three cheers for all our noble commanders and the soldiers and sailors; three cheers for all people everywhere who cheer the soldiers and sailors of the Union---and now, good night.
Washington Daily Morning Chronicle, October 22, 1864. A torchlight parade "passed through the grounds in front of the Presidential Mansion, where a large crowd had gathered, and kept up a continual blaze of light with rockets, bluelights, Roman-candles, &c., lighting up the upper windows under the portico, at which stood the President and 'little Thad,' . . . After the procession had left the grounds, the crowd called loudly for the President, and he responded as follows: [text as above]."
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/342168
