It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty, for yourselves, and not for me. I desire they shall be constitutionally preserved.

Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.

Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.

My Dear McClellan, if you don't want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully.

I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights.

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.