I would suggest the taxation of all property equally whether church or corporation.

Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions.

How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? . . . Twelve white men say a black man must die, and another white man sets the date and time without consulting one black person. . . . They sentence you to death because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, with no proof that you had anything at all to do with the crime . . . . Yet six months later they come and unlock your cage and tell you, We, us, white folks all, have decided it's time for you to die, because this is the convenient date and time.

I never knew what to do with a paper except to put it in a side pocket or pass it to a clerk who understood it better than I did.

There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword.

In 1856...I preferred the success of a candidate whose election would prevent or postpone secession, to seeing the country plunged into a war the end of which no man could foretell. With a Democrat elected by the unanimous vote of the Slave States, there could be no pretext for secession for four years.... I therefore voted for James Buchanan as President.

Let no guilty man escape, if it can he avoided. . . . No personal consideration should stand in the way of performing a public duty.