Abraham Lincoln, and the semi-colon

A few days ago I came upon a very enjoyable remark by Abraham Lincoln, from 1864.  Perhaps the quote is well-known, yet I was not familiar with it.

Mr. Lincoln said:

"With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling.  But I must say that I have a great respect for the semi-colon;  it's a very useful little chap."