John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body.

In a free government the demand for moral qualities should be made superior to that of talents.

The safety of the republic being the supreme law, and Texas having offered us the key to the safety of our country from all foreign intrigues and diplomacy, I say accept the key and bolt the door at once.

In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.

Give me a thousand Tennesseans, and I'll whip any other thousand men on the globe!

I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.

If they [Mexicans] touch the hair of the head of one of our citizens, tell him [Commodore Dallas] to batter down and destroy their town and exterminate the inhabitants from the face of the earth!