Historical voices

Did we brave all then to falter now?--now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent?

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the result.

To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation.

We shall lie down, pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free, and we shall awake to the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State.

Welcome or unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown.

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.

And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of "care not whether slavery be voted down or voted up" shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made.

Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a State to exclude slavery from…

Under the Dred Scott decision, "squatter sovereignty" squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding; like the mould at the foundry, it served through one blast, and fell back into loose sand,--helped to carry an…

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become…

It will become all one thing, or all the other.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved,--I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.

They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant, when such should reappear in this fair land and commence their vocation, that they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack.

Its authors meant it to be as, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling-block to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism.

The assertion that "all men are created equal," was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the Declaration, not for that, but for future use.

They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.

They defined with tolerable distinctness in what respects they did consider all men created equal,--equal with "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they said, and this they meant.

I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects.

In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others.

Now I protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes that because I do not want a black woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife.

It is grossly incorrect to say or assume that the public estimate of the negro is more favourable now than it was at the origin of the government.

Mammon is after him; ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of the day is fast joining in the cry.