Historical voices

May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it.

So much good has not been done by one effort in all past time as in the providence of God it is now your high privilege to do.

You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times.

I do not argue--I beseech you to make arguments for yourselves.

Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all…

No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty, none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned.

This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all.

Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.

Labour is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Labour is prior to and independent of capital.

It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labour, in the structure of government.

In my present position, I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism.

It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government,--the rights of the people.

They can scarcely have failed to perceive that the effort for disunion produces the existing difficulty; and that one strong nation promises a more durable peace and a more extensive, valuable, and reliable commerce than can the same…

Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always able to resist the counsels of seeming expediency and ungenerous ambition, although measures adopted under such influences seldom fail to be injurious and unfortunate to those adopting them.

Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war.

It is worthy of note that while in this, the government's hour of trial, large numbers of those in the army and navy who have been favoured with the offices have resigned and proved false to the hand which had pampered them, not one common…

Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of men and the authority of the people?

They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one signed by Washington, they omit "We, the people," and substitute "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why?

Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of independence in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit the words, "all men are created equal." Why?

Whoever in any section proposes to abandon such a government, would do well to consider in deference to what principle it is that he does it; what better he is likely to get in its stead; whether the substitute will give, or be intended to…

It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of our whole people, beyond any example in the world.

The principle itself is one of disintegration, and upon which no government can stand.

If we now recognize this doctrine by allowing the seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do if others choose to go, or to extort terms upon which they will promise to remain.