I feel incompetent to perform duties...which have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me.

The life of a republic lies certainly in the energy, virtue, and intelligence of its citizens.

When I die, I desire no better winding sheet than the Stars and Stripes, and no softer pillow than the Constitution of my country.

Let them impeach and be damned.

The homestead policy was established only after long and earnest resistance; experience proves its wisdom. The lands in the hands of industrious settlers, whose labor creates wealth and contributes to the public resources, are worth more to the United States than if they had been reserved as a solitude for future purchasers.

It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.

I tell our sisters in the South that so far as Tennessee is concerned she will not be dragged into a Southern or any other confederacy until she has had time to consider; and then she will go when she believes it to be her interest, and not before.