Historical voices

In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority.

I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.

Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary.

It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.

Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.

I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules.

And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that "the citizen of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the…

Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave?

I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause--as cheerfully to one section as to another.

I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.

But I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by.

But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.

It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time.

I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together.

I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated in and were given to the world from this hall.

I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing in this place, where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live.

I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that these men struggled for.

The crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessians, the great hardships endured at that time,--all fixed themselves upon my memory more than any single Revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how those…

As a rule, I think it better that Congress should originate as well as perfect its measures without external bias.

My political education strongly inclines me against a very free use of any of the means by the Executive to control the legislation of the country.

We should do neither more nor less than we gave the people reason to believe we would when they gave us their votes.