Rainey in the House--would be honorable to any race.

Coals of fire were heaped on the heads of all their enemies when the colored men in Congress heartily joined in removing the disabilities of those who had before been their oppressors, and who, with deep regret be it said, have continued…

Never before or since has a great party adopted as its candidate a conspicuous public man, who was not merely outside its own ranks, but who, in the thick of every political battle for a third of a century, had been one of its most…

Not simply to the leading statesmen of the Senate and the House, but to Congress as a whole, in its aggregate wisdom,--always greater than the wisdom of any one man,--credit and honor are due; due for intelligence, for courage, for zeal in…

The self-restraint which the citizens of the Republic exhibited in the hour of need, the great burdens which they bore under the inspiration of patriotic duty, the public order which they maintained by their instinctive obedience to the…

Full liberty to criticise the acts of persons in official station, free agitation of all political questions, frequent elections that give opportunity for prompt settlement of all issues, tend to insure popular content and public safety.

No Government of modern times has encountered the dangers that beset the United States, or achieved the triumphs wherewith the Nation is crowned.

The murder of Lincoln was the maddened and aimless blow of an expiring rebellion.

The murder of Garfield was the fatuous impulse of a debauched conscience if not a disordered brain.

Neither crime had its origin in the political institutions or its growth in the social organization of the country.

In the universal horror which they inspired, in the majestic supremacy of law, which they failed to disturb, may be read the strongest proof of the stability of a Government which is founded upon the rights, fortified by the intelligence…

The great battle between Freedom and Slavery for supremacy in the Territories had been fought and won in Kansas, and the people had elected a Chief Magistrate on Freedom's side, so that the influences of National Administration would no…

That struggle reached its last peaceable stage in the triumph of Freedom in Kansas and the election of Lincoln to the Presidency.

In each instance the subsequent course of events determined the popularity of unpopularity of similar acts performed with similar motives,--acts altogether honorable, motives altogether patriotic in both cases.

This was the first territory of which the General Government had exclusive control, and the prompt prohibition of slavery therein by the Ordinance of 1787 is an important and significant fact.

The founders of the government not only looked to the speedy extinction of slavery, but they especially abhorred the idea of a geographical line, with freedom decreed on one side, and slavery established on the other.

Within the limits of the Union as originally formed the slavery question had therefore been compromised, the common territory partitioned, and the Republic, half slave, half free, organized and sent forth upon its mission.

One of the great problems imposed upon the founders of the Union was to remove the burdens and embarrassments which obstructed the development of the Western States, and thus to render their inhabitants as loyal by reason of material…

The opportunity for relief came from remote and foreign causes, without our own agency; but the courageous statesmanship which discerned and grasped the opportunity, deserved, as it has received, the commemoration of three generations.

The ambitions developed by the acquisition of new territory led to serious conflicts of opinion between North and South,--conflicts which steadily grew in intensity until, by the convulsion of war, slavery was finally extinguished.

Jefferson restrained every movement that might involve us in a war with Spain, from which nothing was to be gained, and by which every thing would be risked.

He saw with clear vision that by the commercial disability upon the western section of the Union its progress would be obstructed, its already attained prosperity checked; and that possibly its population, drawn first into discontent with…

He determined, therefore, to acquire the control of the left bank of the Mississippi to its mouth, and by the purchase of the Floridas to give to Georgia and the Mississippi territory (now constituting the States of Alabama and…

I know the full value of Louisiana, and have been desirous of repairing the fault of the French negotiators who lost it in 1763.

The wonder excited by the raising of the vast army which saved the Union from destruction was even surpassed by the wonder excited by its prompt and peaceful dissolution.