Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.

I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.

The carping and bickering of political factions in the nation's capital reminds me of two pelicans quarreling over a dead fish.

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

I see every chance of a long, confused and disorganizing civil war, and I feel no desire to take a hand therein.

The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth - right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.