Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears.

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

A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.

There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.

We want, and must have, a national policy, as to slavery, which deals with it as being wrong.

His argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by oiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death.

I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is, but it does not admit of holidays.