For honest merit to succeed amid the tricks and intrigues which are now so lamentably common, I know is difficult; but the honor of success is increased by the obstacles which are to be surmounted. Let me triumph as a man or not at all.

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.

There are some things I am afraid of: I am afraid to do a mean thing.

A law is not a law without coercion behind it.

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

The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.

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