But The Age Of Chivalry Is Gone.

Where Two Motives, Neither Of Them Perfectly Justifiable, May Be Assigned, The Worst Has The Chance Of Being Preferred.

[slavery] Is A Weed That Grows In Every Soil.

I Find Along With Many Virtues In My Countrymen There Is A Jealousy, A Soreness, And Readiness To Take Offence, As If They Were The Most Helpless And Impotent Of Mankind, And Yet A Violence... And A Boistrousness In Their Resentment, As If They Had Been Puffed Up With The Highest Prosperity And Power. They Will Not Only Be Served, But It Must Also Be In Their Own Way And On Their Own Principles And Even In Words And Language That They Liked... Which Renders It Very Difficult For A Plain Unguarded Man As I Am To Have Anything To Do With Them Or Their Affairs.

Tyrants Seldom Want Pretexts.

A Disposition To Preserve, And An Ability To Improve, Taken Together, Would Be My Standard Of A Statesman.