No one has ever lived who knows better than you the proper placement of footfalls on treacherous paths.

I am convinced, the longer I live, that life & its blessings are not so entirely unjustly distributed, are [as] when we are suffering greatly, we are inclined to suppose.

If you keep making jokes like that, somebody is going to shoot you, father.

I explain to you, exactly and truly, how we are circumstanced. A greater portion of our means is unavailable, consisting of a house in S. Springfield and some wild lands in Iowa. Notwithstanding my great and good husband's life was sacrificed for his country, we are left to struggle in a manner...of life undeserved. Roving Generals have elegant mansions showered upon them, and the American people leave the family of the Martyred President to struggle as best they may! Strange justice this.

I would rather marry a good man, a man of mind, with a hope and bright prospects ahead for position, fame and power than to marry all the houses, gold and bones in the world.

Tell me, how can I live without my Husband any longer? This is my first awakening thought each morning, and as I watch the waves of the turbulent lake under our windows I sometimes feel I should like to go under them.

No one has ever lived who knows better than you the proper placement of footfalls on treacherous paths.