My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution. – George Washington, letter, 1789

The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the machinery must be foul. – John Quincy Adams

The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves. – James A. Garfield