Politics, As A Trade, Finds

Towering Genius Disdains A Beaten Path ... It Scorns To Tread In The Footsteps Of Any Predecessor, However Illustrious. It Thirsts For Distinction.

If You Wish To Be A Lawyer, Attach No Consequence To The Place You Are In, Or The Person You Are With; But Get Books, Sit Down Anywhere, And Go To Reading For Yourself. That Will Make A Lawyer Of You Quicker Than Any Other Way.

When I Came Of Age I Did Not Know Much. Still Somehow, I Could Read, Write, And Cipher To The Rule Of Three.... The Little Advancei Now Have Upon This Store Of Education, I Have Picked Up From Time To Time Under The Pressure Of Necessity.

I Wish All Men To Be Free. I Wish The Material Prosperity Of The Already Free Which I Feel Sure The Extinction Of Slavery Would Bring.

The Petition Of Persons Under Eighteen, Praying That I Would Free All Slave Children, And The Heading Of Which Petition It Appears You Wrote, Was Handed Me A Few Days Since By Senator Sumner. Please Tell These Little People I Am Very Glad Their Young Hearts Are So Full Of Just And Generous Sympathy, And That, While I Have Not The Power To Grant All They Ask, I Trust They Will Remember That God Has, And That, As It Seems, He Wills To Do It.