"Poor, foolish Buchanan! He had hoped for a peaceful term of office, but the Dred Scott case unleashed the worst passi…"

"You have lost a child, a dear, dear child. I have lost the only earthly object of my affection.... I have now one req…"

"I am now ‘solitary and alone,’ having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, b…"

"I shall not again be a candidate for the Presidency...I shall be 65 on the 23rd April next, and I had determined upon…"

"All agree that under the Constitution slavery in the States is beyond the reach of any human power except that of the…"

"I am the last President of the United States!"

"The course of events is so rapidly hastening forward that the emergency may soon arise when you may be called upon to…"

"It is said that serious apprehensions are to some extent entertained (in which I do not share) that the peace of this…"

"Sir, if you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man i…"

"Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world."