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.

There is nothing stable but Heaven and the Constitution.

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.

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

Whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my 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.