In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong.

Silly people, and there are many, not only in enemy countries, might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand bloodletting. Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyse their war horizon to friend or foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch.

I have been unwilling to go beyond the pressure of necessity in the unusual exercise of power.

So much of promised usefulness to one's country, and of bright hopes for one's self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall.

I have desired as sincerely as any man - I sometimes think more than any other man - that our present difficulties might be settled without the shedding of blood.

Our men are not moles, and can't dig under the earth; they are not birds, and can't fly through the air. There is no way but to march across, and that they must do.