We must settle this question now -- whether in a free government the minority have the right to break it up whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

The slave-breeders and slave-traders, are a small, odious and detested class, among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters, as you are the master of your own negroes.

Money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace & conspire against it in times of adversity.

I was elected a Captain of Volunteers--a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since.

I have had so many evidences of [God's] direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will, that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above.

Nothing is stronger than gentleness.