Historical voices

How long emancipation may be delayed, is among the things concealed from our knowledge, but not so the certain result.

Stoicism, that had no charity for error, never converted any human society to virtue; Christianity, that remembers the true nature of man, has encompassed a large portion of the globe.

It depends not on the zeal and firmness only of the reformers, but on their wisdom and moderation also.

For the rest, the work of emancipation abides the action, whether it be slow or fast, of the moral sense of the American people.

From and after the fourth day of July, 1842, there shall be, throughout the United States, NO HEREDITARY SLAVERY, but on and after that day every child born within the United States shall be FREE.

Slavery therefore must be restrained, and, without violence or injustice, must be abolished.

That freedom and that security required that the nations of Europe should relax their grasp on the American Continent.

But the emancipation of Spanish America was necessary for our own larger freedom, and our own complete security.

He who surpasses or subdues mankind, Must look down on the hate of those below.

He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow.

Nevertheless, the republican cause, however odious in Europe, was our national cause.

It was a sublime thought, that where he had toiled in the house of the nation, in hours of the day devoted to its service, the stroke of death should reach him, and there sever the ties of love and patriotism which bound him to earth.

When a great man falls, the nation mourns; when a patriarch is removed, the people weep.

The State I have the honor in part to represent once endured, with yours, a common suffering, battled for a common cause, and rejoiced in a common triumph.

But it may be due to ourselves and to the country, that the national sense of his character and services should be fitly commemorated.

Rulers, statesmen, legislators! study and emulate such a life--seek after a character so beloved, a death so honorable, a fame so immortal.

A man had been kidnapped in Boston--kidnapped at noon-day, 'on the high road between Faneuil Hall and old Quincy,' and carried off to be a slave!

I can only repeat thanks, thanks, thanks to you, one and all, and implore the blessings of God upon you and your children.

The only answer I can make, is a declaration, that during my public service, now protracted to nearly the age of eighty, I have endeavored to serve my country honestly and faithfully.

The praises we bestow are already echoed back to us by voices which come rich and full across the Atlantic, hailing you as the indefatigable champion of humanity--not the humanity which embraces a single race or clime, but that humanity…

You have devoted the energies of a mind unperverted, the learning and experience acquired through more than sixty years, and even the influence and fame derived from your high career of public service, to the great cause of universal…

We cannot expect, with the agency of free and universal suffrage, to be always governed by the wise and the good.

For when before has it happened that in such a condition of society the son has, by mere civic achievement, attained the eminence of such a sire, and effaced remembrance of birth by justly acquired renown?

We not merely deny hereditary claims to civil trust, but regard even hereditary distinction with jealousy.