De Alexander

And yet no victim of those days, sleeping under the green sod, is more truly a martyr of Liberty than every murdered man whose bones lie bleaching in this summer sun upon the silent plains of Kansas.

Not sweeter are the flowers that make your valley fair, not greener are the pines that give your valley its name, than the memory of the brave men who died for freedom.

To him, the struggle for freedom in Kansas was not less glorious than the heroic resistance in 1776, and he made it vivid by the use of historic associations.

They cherish more bitter hatred of their own countrymen than they have ever shown towards the enemies of our land.

The battlefields of Yorktown, of Camden, of New Orleans, are unrepresented in their conventions; and no delegates speak for the States where rest the remains of Washington, Jefferson, Marion, Sumter, or Morgan, or of the later hero…

It excludes from its councils the people of nearly one-half of the Union; it seeks a triumph over one-half our country.

Another tie which has heretofore held our country together has been disbanded, and from its ruins has sprung a political organisation trusting for its success to sectional prejudices.

The pulpit became a platform, and the great editors spoke as well as wrote.

Of imposing appearance, he looked like a man formed to rule.

These brothers brought to the service of the people a perfect integrity, coupled with a gracious urbanity that kept them in public life longer than either desired to remain.

He waited to be called to an office, but he did not wait to be called to join a movement which would be helpful to the public.

They have withstood the seduction of the seducers, and are like a rock in the defence of the right.

Many people who never saw him were strongly attracted to him by sympathy of political opinions and by gratitude for important services rendered the country.

He believed in normal schools and in district school libraries, and he may properly be called one of the founders of the educational system of the State.

In the Free-soil secession of 1847, he proclaimed uncompromising hostility to the extension of slavery, and he never changed his position until death ended his gallant and noble service in the Civil War.

He had associated with scholars and thinkers, and in the estimation of his contemporaries there were few stronger or clearer intellects in the State.

But, as a politician, he was as false as his capacity would allow him to be, having no hesitation, either from principle or fear, to say or do anything that served his purpose.

He was a serious, simple-hearted, wise man, well fitted for governor.

He had become a leader of energy and courage; and, although destined for many years to lead a divided and often a defeated organisation, he was ever after recognised as the most gifted and notable member of his party.

In this crisis Horatio Seymour assumed the leadership that had been his in 1852, and that was not to be laid down for more than a decade.

It was argued, also, that although the Whigs were numerically the largest portion of the Republican party, a candidate of Democratic antecedents would be preferable, especially in Pennsylvania, a State, they declared, which Seward could…

It was deemed advisable not to put in issue either the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or the repeal of the fugitive slave law, and Seward's pronounced attitude on these questions, it was asserted, would involve them in…

He argued that, although Republicans were sure of 114 electoral votes, it was essential to carry Pennsylvania to secure the additional 35, and that Pennsylvania could not be carried.

He represented Republican principles and aims more fully than any man in the country, but Thurlow Weed, looking into the future through the eyes of a practical politician, disbelieved in Republican success.

Such brutal outrages, it was thought, would certainly discredit any party that approved the policy leading to them.