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

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.

Any society that takes away from those most capable and gives to the least will perish.

I cannot speak so confidently about the fighting qualities of the Eastern men, or what are called Yankees - not knowing myself particularly to whom the appellation belongs - but this I do know - if the Southerners think that man for man they are better than our Illinois men, or western men generally, they will discover themselves in a grievous mistake.

Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil.

Next came the Patent laws. These began in England in 1624; and, in this country, with the adoption of our constitution. Before then [these?], any man might instantly use what another had invented; so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this; secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things.

Never let your correspondence fall behind.