Do they think that I am such a damned fool as to think myself fit for President of the United States? No, sir; I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.
All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.
There is nothing that I shudder at more than the idea of a separation of the Union. Should such an event ever happen, which I fervently pray God to avert, from that date I view our liberty gone.
Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.
I have never in my life seen a Kentuckian who didn’t have a gun, a pack of cards, and a jug of whiskey.
War is a blessing compared with national degradation.
Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.
When death comes, he respects neither age nor merit. He sweeps from the earthly existence the sick and the strong, the rich and the poor, and should teach us to live to be prepared for death.
To extraordinary powers of labor, both mental and physical, he unites that tact and judgement which are requisite to the successful direction of such an office as that of Chief Magistrate of a free people.
Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions.
There goes a man made by the Lord Almighty and not by his tailor.
This season has been full of rewards. The dinners and banquets just keep on coming. It’s great. We want to carry it on as long as we can.
I am fearful that the paper system will ruin the state. Its demoralizing effects are already seen and spoken of everywhere. I therefore protest against receiving any of that trash.
There are, perhaps, few men who can for any length of time enjoy office and power without being more or less under the influence of feelings unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their political duties.
When the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.
Give me a thousand Tennesseans, and I’ll whip any other thousand men on the globe!
In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.
Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments.
Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of high importance.
I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.