I never justify, sustain, or in any way or to any extent uphold this cruel, heartless, aimless unnecessary war.

The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded.

In a body [like Congress] where there are more than one hundred talking lawyers, you can make no calculation upon the termination of any debate.

I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited.

Of all knaves the religious knave is the worst.

But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man's wisdom. It will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices find no place in the public deliberations. It will not be sufficient that the rash counsels of human passion are rejected. It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.

There is nothing left to do but get drunk.