Franklin Pierce Quotes
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READILY and, I trust, feelingly acknowledge the duty incumbent on us all . . . to provide for those who, in the mysterious order of Providence, are subject to want and to disease of body or mind; but I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States . . . .
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The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded.
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Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.
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The constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those ... who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy. ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.
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You have summoned me in my weakness. You must sustain me in your strength.
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After the White House what is there to do but drink?
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The revenue of the country, levied almost insensibly to the taxpayer, goes on from year to year, increasing beyond either the interests or the prospective wants of the Government.
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With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined.
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There is nothing left to do but get drunk.
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While men inhabiting different parts of this vast continent cannot be expected to hold the same opinions, they can unite in a common objective and sustain common principles.
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A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties.
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If your past is limited, your future is boundless.
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I find the remark, "Tis distance lends enchantment to the view" is no less true of the political than of the natural world.
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I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.
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It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.
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I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited.
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Of all knaves the religious knave is the worst.
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The founders of the Republic dealt with things as they were presented to them, in a spirit of self sacrificing Patriotism and as time has proved, with a comprehensive wisdom which it will always be safe for us to consult
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But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man's wisdom. It will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices find no place in the public deliberations. It will not be sufficient that the rash counsels of human passion are rejected. It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.
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There's nothing left . . . but to get drunk.
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In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject which has recently agitated the nation..., I fervently hope that the question is at rest and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions.
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I speak of the war as fruitless; for it is clear that, prosecuted upon the basis of the proclamations of September 22d and September 24th, 1862, prosecuted, as I must understand these proclamations, to say nothing of the kindred blood which has followed, upon the theory of emancipation, devastation, subjugation, it cannot fail to be fruitless in every thing except the harvest of woe which it is ripening for what was once the peerless republic.
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In a body [like Congress] where there are more than one hundred talking lawyers, you can make no calculation upon the termination of any debate.
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I never justify, sustain, or in any way or to any extent uphold this cruel, heartless, aimless unnecessary war.
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Franklin Pierce
- Born: November 23, 1804
- Died: October 8, 1869
- Occupation: 14th U.S. President
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