In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.

This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave.

Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meanness for the public good.

If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions.

I am the President of the United States of America, clothed in immense power! You will procure me these votes.

This is essentially a people's contest... whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men - to lift artificial weights from all shoulders - to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all - to afford all, an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life.

I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were felt by the whole human race, there would not be one cheerful face left on earth.