BLOODY STRUGGLES WITH MOSQUITOES

It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break; but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in desperation; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry.—Speech in Congress, July 27, 1848, vol. II, p. 75.

DISTINCTION IN CONGRESS

As you are all so anxious for me to distinguish myself, I have concluded to do so before long.Letter to William H. Herndon, Dec. 13, 1847, vol. I, p. 317.

SELF DISTRUST AND REGAINED CONFIDENCE

I must gain my confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability you know I once prided myself.

I have

not yet regained it; and until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance.Letter to J. F. Speed, July 4, 1842, vol. I, p. 218.

TEACHING THE "THREE R's"

No qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin' and cipherin'" to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard.- -Letter to J. W. Fell, Dec. 20, 1589, vol. I, p. 287.

TASK GREATER THAN WASHINGTON'S

I cannot but know what you all know, that without a name, perhaps without a reason why I should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task such. as did not rest even upon the Father of his Country. -Address to Ohio Legislature at Columbus, O., Feb. 13, 1861, vol. VI, p. 121.

HUGGED BY A RUSSIAN BEAR

Just to think of it! right at the outset of his canvass, I, a poor, kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman -I am to be slain in this way. Why, my friend the judge, is not only, as it turns out, not a dead lion, nor even a living one-he is the rugged Russian bear. -Speech at Chicago, Ill., July 10, 1858, vol. III,

p. 20.

NONSENSE HURTS NOBODY

In my present position it is hardly proper for me to make speeches. Every word is so closely noted

If

that it will not do to make foolish ones, and I cannot be expected to be prepared to make sensible ones. I were as I have been for most of my life, I might, perhaps, talk nonsense to you for half an hour, and it wouldn't hurt anybody.- Remarks at Frederick, Md., Oct. 4, 1862, vol. XI, p. 125.

I

HOPELESS EFFORT TO CONVINCE

suppose I cannot reasonably hope to convince you that we have any principles. The most I can expect is to assure you that we think we have, and are quite contented with them. -Speech in Congress, July 27, 1848, vol. II, p. 70.

DEVOTION TO THE UNION

I cannot fly from my thoughts-my solicitude for this great country follows me wherever I go. I do not think it is personal vanity or ambition, though I am not free from these infirmities, but I cannot but feel that the weal or woe of this great nation will be decided in November.- -Interview with John T. Mills, Aug. 15, 1864, vol. X, p. 189.

SQUEEZED OUT IN THE MIDDLE

Your discomfited assailants are most bitter against me; and they will, for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the South, and to the Seward egg in the North, and go far toward squeezing me out in

the middle with nothing. Can you not help me a little in this matter in your end of the vineyard? Letter to N. B. Judd, Feb. 9, 1860, vol. V, p. 291.

AN ALEXANDER IN OBSCURITY

I would like to know who is the great Alexander that talks so oracularly about "if the President keeps his word" and Banks not having "capacity to run an omnibus on Broadway?" How has this Alexander's immense light been obscured hitherto?Letter to F. P. Blair, Sr., July 30, 1863, vol. IX, p. 49.

TIED TO MILITARY COAT-TAILS

All his biographies (and they are legion) have him in hand, tying him to a military tail, like so many mischievous boys tying a dog to a bladder of beans. True, the material they have is very limited, but they drive at it might and main.- -Speech in Congress, July 27, 1848, vol. II, p. 74.

HARD TO DRIVE MEN

It is not much in the nature of man to be driven to anything; still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his own business; and least of all where such driving is to be submitted to at the expense of pecuniary interest or burning appetite.- -Temperance Address, Feb. 22, 1842, vol. I, p. 196.

DREAD OF THE HALTER

I might procrastinate the evil day for a time, which I really dreaded as much, perhaps more, than an Irishman does the halter.- -Letter to Mrs. O. H. Browning, Apr. 1, 1838, vol. I, p. 90.

Too VAST FOR MALICE

I shall no nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.- -Letter to Cuthbert Bullitt, July 28, 1862, vol. VII, p. 298.