Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but, if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.
Public opinion in this country is everything.
In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.
With this honor devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so under God it will sustain you.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.
May our children and our children’s children to a thousand generations, continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a united country, and have cause yet to rejoice under those glorious institutions bequeathed us by Washington and his compeers.
A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country can not do this. They can but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them.
If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions, not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly, alone, hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.
Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views, and boldest action to bring it speedy relief.
Reduce the supply of black labor by colonizing the black laborer out of the country, and by precisely so much you increase the demand for and wages of white labor.
Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil...
One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.
Again I admonish you not to be turned from your stern purpose of defending your beloved country and its free institutions by any arguments urged by ambitious and designing men, but stand fast to the Union and the old flag.
No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.
Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling.
An allusion has been made to the Homestead Law. I think it worthy of consideration, and that the wild lands of the country should be distributed so that every man should have the means and opportunity of benefitting his condition.
I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself.
I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.
Any country where I am not bored is a country that teaches me nothing.