All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.

My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.

Now, at the end of three years struggle the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man devised, or expected. God alone can claim it.

On the whole, my impression is that mercy bears richer fruits than any other attribute.

In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.

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.

God bless the Methodist Church - bless all the churches - and blessed be God, Who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches.