retire to the cloak-room for a few
moments, to receive the congratulations of admiring mends.

JOHN ALLEN in a speech in Congress

8. Relying then on the patronage of your good will, I advance
with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever
you become sensible how much better choice it is in your
power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the
destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best,
and give them a favorable issue for your peace and
prosperity.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, _First Inaugural_, 1801

9. My friends, this is wholly an unprepared speech. I did not
expect to be called or to say a word when I came here. I
supposed I was merely to do something toward raising a flag.
I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet. But I have
said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be
the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN at Philadelphia, 1861

10. I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when
it is most necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the
world may know that even in the heat and ardor of the
struggle and when our whole thought is of carrying the war
through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal or
principle for which the name of America has been held in
honor among the nations and for which it has been our glory
to contend in the great generations that went before us. A
supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people
have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon
the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe,
only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and
mercy.

WOODROW WILSON in a speech to Congress, 1917

11. This is what I have to say--ponder it; something you will
agree with, something you will disagree with; but think about
it, if I am wrong, the sooner the wrong is exposed the better
for me--this is what I have to say: God is bringing the
nations together. We must establish courts of reason for the
settlement of controversies between civilized nations. We
must maintain a force sufficient to preserve law and order
among barbaric nations; and we have small need of an army
for any other purpose. We must follow the maintenance of law
and the establishment of order and the foundations of
civilization with t