All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.

[I]t would be unjust to our people and dangerous to our institutions to apply any portion of revenues of the nation or of the States to the support of sectarian schools.

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.

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

The chief instrument of American statistics is the census, which should accomplish a two-fold object. It should serve the country by making a full and accurate exhibit of the elements of national life and strength, and it should serve the science of statistics by so exhibiting general results that they may be compared with similar data obtained by other nations.

Justice and goodwill will outlast passion.

Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it.