They saw they were dealing with a foregone conclusion; he had convoked them, not to advise as to methods, but to furnish the means.

All reasonable argument he met with his rigid dogmatic formulas, his selected proverbs, his favorite texts of Scripture.

The following, preserved by various witnesses as samples of his sayings at other times, indicate his reasoning on this occasion: "Give a slave a pike and you make him a man.

I would not give Sharps rifles to more than ten men in a hundred, and then only when they have learned to use them.

A ravine is better than a plain.