To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.

The course of events is so rapidly hastening forward that the emergency may soon arise when you may be called upon to decide the momentous question whether you possess the power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union

The distribution of patronage of the Government is by far the most disagreeable duty of the President.

If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.

If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country.

All the friends that I loved and wanted to reward are dead, and all the enemies that I hated and I had marked out for punishment are turned to my friends.

Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world.