Brave rifles! Veterans! You have been baptized in fire and blood and have come out steel!

You are very fortunate to be assigned to duty at Fortress Monroe on Chesapeake Bay; it is just the season for soft shelled crabs, and hog fish have just come in, and they are the most delicious panfish you ever ate.

Every man as well as every day has its lights and shades.

Say to the seceded States, "Wayward sisters, depart in peace."

I placed the Marines where the hardest work was to be accomplished, and I never once found my confidence in them misplaced.

My politics are of a practical kind - the integrity of the country, the supremacy of the Federal government, an honorable peace, or none at all.

I give it as my fixed opinion, that but for our graduated cadets, the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas, in less than two campaigns, we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish.