"The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the beneficent purposes of good government."

“Mister Speaker, I am not able to understand the mental organization of the man who can consider this bill, and the subject of which it treats, as free from very great difficulties. He must be a man of very moderate abilities, whose ignorance is bliss, or a man of transcendent genius, whom no difficulties can daunt and whose clear vision no cloud can obscure.”

“Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself.”

“Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.”

“The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.”

“The lesson of History is rarely learned by the actors themselves.”

“Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.”