Perhaps no navy in the world had at that time abler officers than ours, while the rank and emolument, except for the lowest grades, was shamefully inadequate.

The navy had conquered its own place in the public regard, and had performed an inestimable service in the contest against the rebellion.

One great event of the battle was the death of Albert Sidney Johnston, a soldier of marked skill, a man of the highest personal character.

You will do me the justice to remember that I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not surmounting the difficulty; that we would find the same enemy…

The country will not fail to note (is now noting) that the present hesitation to move upon the intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated.

The weakness of that great military movement was the lack of cordiality and confidence between the commander and the Administration at Washington.

The seeds of distrust had been sown and a bountiful crop of disaster was the natural growth.

The winter preceding the outbreak of the rebellion had been so assiduously devoted by Congress to efforts of compromise and conciliation, that it was difficult to turn the public mind promptly to the other side, and to induce the people to…

The anomaly of this situation was seen by General Butler, and he met it promptly by refusing to permit the slaves to be returned, declaring them to be contraband of war.

But General Butler's judgment is justified by the rules of modern warfare, and its application solved a question of policy which otherwise might have been fraught with serious difficulty.

In the presence of arms the Fugitive-slave Law became null and void, and the Dred Scott decision was trampled under the iron hoof of war.

What God and Nature decree, Rebellion cannot arrest." Mr.

Colonization could be effected only by the forcible removal of the colored people, and this would have been a more cruel violation of their natural rights than a continuance of the slavery in which they were born.

If free choice between the two conditions had been offered, nine-tenths, perhaps even a larger proportion of the slaves, would have preferred to remain in their old homes.

The Colonization scheme deliberately proposed to strip the United States of patient, faithful laborers, acclimated to the cotton and sugar fields of the South, and capable of adding great wealth to the nation.

Colonization would deprive us of this much needed labor, would entail vast expense in the deportation of the negroes, and would devolve upon this country, by a moral responsibility which it could not avoid, the protection and maintenance…

The Liberian experiment, honorable as it was to the colored race, and successful as it had proved in establishing civilization in Africa, had not attained such material prosperity as would justify the United States in the removal of…

Lincoln would have been glad to confine its application to slave property, and he felt moreover that he could deal with that subject without the co-operation of Congress.

The war of 1812 followed, and in the sweep of its disastrous influence a large majority of these banks were destroyed, their notes never redeemed, and great distress consequently inflicted upon the people.

An especially odious feature in the United-States Bank was the favoritism shown in its loans, by which it constantly tended to debauch the public service.

Political friends of the institution were too often accommodated on easy terms, and legitimate banking was thus rendered impossible.

The misfortunes which had come upon the United-States Bank from its connection with party interests were fully appreciated by the wise legislators who drafted the National Bank Act.

The division and distribution of bank capital under the National system do not merely carry its advantages to every community, but they afford the most complete guaranty against every abuse which may spring from a large aggregation of…

If a similar institution were established to-day, bearing a like proportion to the wealth of the country, it would require a capital of at least six hundred millions of dollars--many fold larger than the combined wealth of the Bank of…

It is hardly conceivable that such a power as this could ever be intrusted to the management of a Secretary of the Treasury or to a single board of directors, with the temptations which would beset them.