Men ever follow willingly a daring leader: most willingly of all, in great emergencies.

After voluntary exertions on the part of our people to which the history of the world furnishes no parallel, is the old root of bitterness still to remain in the ground, to sprout and bear fruit in the future as it has borne fruit in the past?

Men acquiesce in a thousand things, once righteously and boldly done, to which, if proposed to them in advance, they might find endless objections.

The dangers which threaten us are twofold: First, from the Confederate forces, composed of men whose earnest convictions and reckless bravery it is idle to deny.

It is idle to await unanimity.

Property in man, always morally unjust, has become nationally dangerous.

Boldness and decision command, often even in evil, the respect and concurrence of mankind.