We should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.

I do not allow myself to suppose that either the convention or the League, have concluded to decide that I am either the greatest or the best man in America, but rather they have concluded it is not best to swap horses while crossing the river, and have further concluded that I am not so poor a horse that they might not make a botch of it in trying to swap.

I am the President of the United States of America, clothed in immense power! You will procure me these votes.

Military glory-that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood-that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy.

He who sees cruelty and does nothing about it is himself cruel.

The political horizon looks dark and lowering; but the people, under Providence, will set all right.

In using the strong hand, as now compelled to do, the government has a difficult duty to perform. At the very best, it will by turns do both too little and too much. It can properly have no motive of revenge, no purpose to punish merely for punishment's sake. While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.