I desire to see the time when education, and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry shall become much more general than at present.

Oh, that [his Thanksgiving Message] is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough.

Much is being said about peace; and no man desires peace more ardently than I. Still I am yet unprepared to give up the Union fora peace which, so achieved, could not be of much duration.

If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature.

If elected I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same.