John Sherman: “The assignats of France, issued during her revolutionary period, shared the same fate.”

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

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.

If my life is prolonged I will do all I can to add to the strength and prosperity of the United States, but nothing to extend its limits or to add new dangers by acquisition of foreign territory.

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.