The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law.

Individuals may wear for a time the glory of our institutions, but they carry it not to the grave with them. Like raindrops from heaven, they may pass through the circle of the shining bow and add to its luster; but when they have sunk in the earth again, the proud arch still spans the sky and shines gloriously on.

Honesty is the best policy, says the familiar axiom; but people who are honest on that principle defraud no one but themselves.

..remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship.

Monuments may be builded to express the affection or pride of friends, or to display their wealth, but they are only valuable for the characters which they perpetuate.

It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits them.

The possession of great powers no doubt carries with it a comtempt for mere external show