De Alexander

I have not hesitated in choosing the path of peace as the path of duty.

I can neither impress others with my views nor surrender my own solemn convictions.

I differ widely with my party about the best means of crushing the rebellion," he said.

He belonged to a class of business men whose experience and ability, when turned to public affairs, prove of decided value to their State and country.

Besides wielding an influence acquired in two gubernatorial terms, he combined the qualities of a shrewd politician with those of a merchant prince willing to spend money.

Although taking little part in debate, his judgment upon questions of governmental policy, indicating an accurate knowledge of men and remarkable familiarity with details, commended him as a safe adviser, especially in political…

The latter was undoubtedly embarrassed by personal enemies who controlled the Welsh vote, but the real cause of his defeat was military disasters, financial embarrassments, and the emancipation proclamation.

People were getting tired of bold action without achievement in the field, and every opponent of the Administration became a threnodist.

He brought the great struggle nearer home, and men listened as to one with a message from the field of patriotic sacrifices.

Thoughtful men who were not in any sense political partisans gave careful heed to his words.

Campaign oratory, no longer softened by the absence of strict party lines, throbbed feverishly with passion and ugly epithet.

But whether running for office himself, or helping some one else, he was a fighter whom an opponent had reason to fear.

To him an honest difference of opinion upon constitutional questions was as corrupt and reprehensible as dishonest practices in the departments at Washington.

It was plain to him that the Republican party, divided on the question of emancipation and weakened by arbitrary arrests, a policy that many people bitterly resented, could be beaten by a candidate who added exceptional popularity to a…

He did not belong to the class of politicians, described by Victor Hugo, who mistake a weather-cock for a flag.

He had taken ultra ground against the Federal Administration, opposing emancipation, denouncing arbitrary arrests, and expressing the belief that the North could not subjugate the South; yet he would be powerless to give life to his own…

What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that.

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.

If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.

He talked reform and grew degenerate; he proclaimed patriotic views and held disloyal sentiments; he listened respectfully to public opinion, and defied it openly in his acts.

We shall hold that man to be as much a traitor who urges our government to overstep its constitutional powers, as he who resists the exercise of its rightful authority.

We are willing to support this war as a means of restoring our Union, but we will not carry it on in a spirit of hatred, malice, or revenge.

The North would not consent that four millions of free negroes should live in their midst....

Let it not be said that the liberties of American citizens are less perfectly protected, or held less sacred than are those of the subjects of a Crown.