“Secretary of State William Seward (during the Lincoln Administration) is said to have bragged to the British ambassador: ‘I can touch a bell on my right hand and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio. I can touch the bell again and order the arrest of a citizen of New York. Can Queen Victoria do as much?’ She could not, nor could the emperor of France or the king of Prussia.”

–Clyde N. Wilson, "War, reconstruction, and the end of the old republic." *Society* 33, no. 6 (September 1996): 68-74.

#AmazingQuotesFromAmericanHistory