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Who, then, will govern? The answer must be, Man - for we have no angels in the shape of men, as yet, who are willing to take charge of our political affairs.

Andrew Johnson

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Andrew Johnson
Age: 66 †
Born: 1808
Born: December 29
Died: 1875
Died: July 31
17Th U.S. President
Military Officer
Politician
Slaveholder
Statesperson
Tailor
Raleigh
North Carolina
A. Johnson
President Johnson
Political
Angels
Take
Affair
Must
Shape
Men
Angel
Shapes
Answer
Govern
Willing
Affairs
Answers
Charge

More quotes by Andrew Johnson

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I have reached the summit of my ambition.
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I have lived among negroes, all my life, and I am for this Government with slavery under the Constitution as it is. I am for the Government of my fathers with negroes. I am for it without negroes. Before I would see this Government destroyed I would send every negro back to Africa, disintegrated and blotted out of space
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My right side is paralyzed. I need no doctor. I can overcome my own troubles.
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If the rabble were lopped off at one end and the aristocrat at the other, all would be well with the country.
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Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests.
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I hold it the duty of the executive to insist upon frugality in the expenditure, and a sparing economy is itself a great national source.
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It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.
Andrew Johnson
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Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribed for our motto: 'Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,' and exclaim, 'Christ first, our country next!'
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Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.
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The life of a republic lies certainly in the energy, virtue, and intelligence of its citizens.
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Notwithstanding a mendacious press notwithstanding a subsidized gang of hirelings who have not ceased to traduce me, I have discharged all my official duties and fulfilled my pledges. And I say here tonight that if my predecessor had lived, the vials of wrath would have poured out upon him.
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Whenever you hear a man prating about the Constitution, spot him as a traitor.
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I feel incompetent to perform duties...which have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me.
Andrew Johnson
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For myself, I care not whether treason be committed North or South he that is guilty of treason is entitled to a traitor's fate!
Andrew Johnson
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I never thought I would be impeached.
Andrew Johnson
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It is our sacred duty to transmit unimpaired to our posterity the blessings of liberty which were bequeathed to us by the founders of the Republic.
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I realized, there are people out there who can beat me, want to beat me. And unless I continue to innovate and evolve, I am going to learn a painful lesson from someone who has.
Andrew Johnson
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The enactment of the Homestead Act would create the strongest tie between the citizen and the Government-he would with cheerfulness contribute his proportionable part of the taxes to defray the expenses of the political system under which he lived.
Andrew Johnson
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The homestead policy was established only after long and earnest resistance experience proves its wisdom. The lands in the hands of industrious settlers, whose labor creates wealth and contributes to the public resources, are worth more to the United States than if they had been reserved as a solitude for future purchasers.
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If I am to be shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet.
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