But the proclamation, as law, either is valid, or is not valid. If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is valid, it can not be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life.

He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred.

Now, and ever, I shall do all in my power for peace, consistently with the maintenance of government.

No man has a right to judge Andrew Johnson in any respect who has not suffered as much and done as much as he for the Nation's sake.

Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite

There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.

Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet.