LEADING RULE FOR ALL CALLINGS

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day.

-Notes for

a Law Lecture, July 1, 1850, vol. II, p. 141.

HOW PUBLIC PURPOSE IS INDICATED

The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived through our popular elections.- -Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 6, 1864, vol. X, p. 304.

TRUST THE PEOPLE WITH THEIR OWN

We see it, and to us it appears like principle, and the best sort of principle at that the principle of allowing the people to do as they please with their own business.- -Speech in Congress, July 27, 1848, vol. II, p. 64.

DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION IMPOSSIBLE

All this talk about the dissolution of the Union is humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to dissolve the Union; you shall not. -Speech at Galena, Ill., Aug. 1, 1856, vol. II, p. 295.

SPIRIT OF THE CONSTITUTION

It is said the devil takes care of his own. Much more should a good spirit-the spirit of the Consti

tution and the Union-take care of its own. I think it cannot do less and live. Opinion on Admission of West Virginia, Dec. 31, 1862, vol. VIII, p. 158.

ALLAYING PLASTER AN IRRITANT

That very allaying plaster of Judge Douglas' stirred it up again.- -Reply at Alton Debate, Oct.

15, 1858, vol. V, p. 45.

CURE FOR ARTIFICIAL CRISIS

This crisis is altogether artificial. It has no foundation in fact. It can't be argued up, and it can't be argued down. Let it alone, and it will go down of itself.- -Address at Cleveland, O., Feb. 15, 1861, vol. VI, p. 131.

LAWS AMONG ALIENS AND FRIENDS

Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1861, vol. VI, p. 181.

UNION FOREVER AT ANY COST

If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it

by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.- -Letter to Horace Greeley, Aug. 22, 1862, vol. VIII, p. 16.

ure,

DEVOTED TO PEACE AND BROTHERHOOD

With my consent, or without my great displeasthis country shall never witness the shedding of one drop of blood in fraternal strife. Reply to Gov. Curtin, Feb. 22, 1861, vol. VI, p. 161.

SUGAR-COATED REBELLION

With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years. Message to Congress, July 4, 1861, vol. VI, p. 313.

NO CHICKENS FROM SMASHED EGGS

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only what it should be, as the egg to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.—Last Public Address, Apr. II, 1865, vol. XI, p. 91.

THORN IN ANIMAL'S VITALS

This rebellion can only eke out a short and feeble existence, as an animal sometimes may with a thorn in its vitals.- -Letter to Gen. Halleck, Sept. 21, 1863, vol. IX, p. 132.

FOUL BIRD AND DIRTY REPTILE

Every foul bird comes abroad and every dirty rep-Letter to Charles D. Drake and

tile rises up.

Others, Oct. 5, 1863, vol. IX, p. 157.

QUIET PAST AND STORMY PRESENT

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.- Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862, vol. VIII, p. 131.

NO MENDING FOR BROKEN EGGS

Broken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has nothing to do now but to take her place in the Union as it was, barring the already broken eggs. -Letter to August Belmont, July 31, 1862, vol. VII, p. 299.

STOPPING ONE LEAK TO OPEN ANOTHER

Do we gain anything by opening one leak to stop another? Do we gain anything by quieting one clamor merely to open another, and probably a larger one?—Telegram to Col. A. K. McClure, June 30, 1863, vol. IX, p. 14.

POLITICIANS AND HONEST MEN

This work is exclusively the work of politicians; a set of men who have interests aside from the inter

ests of the people, and who, to say the most of them, are. taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with the greater freedom because, being a politician myself, none can regard it as personal.- -Bank Speech, Jan., 1837,

vol. I, p. 27.

PAYING THE FIDDLER GENEROUSLY

It is an old maxim and a very sound one that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, sir, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people's money being used to pay the fiddler. -Speech before Illinois Legislature, Jan., 1837, vol. I, p. 23.

VULNERABLE HEELS MAKE FAST TIME

"The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel but they are sound in the head and the heart." The first branch of the figure—that is, that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel-I admit is not merely figuratively, but literally true.

It

seems that this malady of their heels operates on these sound-minded and honest-hearted creatures very much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner: which, when he had once got started on it, the more he tried to stop it, the more it would run away.- -Speech on Sub-Treasury, Dec. 20, 1839, vol. I, p. 136.