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.

In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; asbad and good.

Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled, the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains, its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.

A tendancy to melancholy...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.

If at any time all labour should cease, and all existing provisions be equally divided among the people, at the end of a single year there could scarcely be one human being left alive--all would have perished by want of subsistence.

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability.