Martin Van Buren

Present excitement will at all times magnify present dangers, but true philosophy must teach us that none more threatening than the past can remain to be overcome

All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess.

I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men... in receiving from the people the sacred trust confided to my illustrious predecessor.

From a small community we have risen to a people powerful in numbers and in strength; but with our increase has gone hand in hand the progress of just principles.

How imperious, then, is the obligation imposed upon every citizen, in his own sphere of action, whether limited or extended, to exert himself in perpetuating a condition of things so singularly happy.

The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me an obligation I cheerfully fulfill—to accompany the first and solemn act of my public trust with an avowal of the principles that will guide me in performing it and an expression of my …