READILY and, I trust, feelingly acknowledge the duty incumbent on us all . . . to provide for those who, in the mysterious order of Providence, are subject to want and to disease of body or mind; but I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States . . . .

Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.

With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined.

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.

You have summoned me in my weakness. You must sustain me in your strength.

A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties.

If your past is limited, your future is boundless.