John Sherman: “Should the great majority yield to a meagre minority, especially under threats of disunion?”

Though my grateful thanks are due to them and have been often expressed, yet I have felt, as they do, that my duty was to the whole country.

During forty years of public life, though many able men have aspired to the office I hold, the people of Ohio, through their general assembly, have preferred me to represent them.

The Union already embraces discordant elements enough without adding others.

Our family of states is already large enough to create embarrassment in the Senate, and a republic should not hold dependent provinces or possessions.