Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

In our Country... one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.

I found so many Jews and speculators here trading in cotton, and secessionists had become so open in refusing anything but gold, that I have felt myself bound to stop it. The gold can have but one use - the purchase of arms and ammunition... Of course, I have respected all permits by yourself or the Secretary of the Treasury, but in these new cases (swarms of Jews), I have stopped it.

At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail.

War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.

...[We] must stop these swarms of Jews who are trading, bartering and robbing.

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.