Adlai Stevenson

Possibly, sir, no case can be found on any page of American history where the commanding officer has been fined for an act absolutely necessary to the salvation of his country.

As to precedents, let us make one now that will challenge the admiration of the world and stand the test of all the ages.

The one vital and portentous question--in some one of its many phases--was that of human slavery.

This institution--until its final extinction amid the flames of war--cast its ominous shadow over our nation's pathway from the beginning.

If you withdraw the slavery question from the halls of Congress and the political arena, and commit it to the arbitrament of those who are immediately interested in and alone responsible for its consequences, there is nothing left out of…

When the people of the North shall all be rallied under one banner, and the whole South marshalled under another banner, and each section excited to frenzy and madness by hostility to the institutions of the other, then the patriot may…

Withdraw the slavery question from the political arena and remove it to the States and Territories, each to decide for itself, and such a catastrophe can never happen.

In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this country cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

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.

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 until it shall become…

That he possessed rare power as a debater, all who heard him can bear witness.

The spirit of the mob is in deadly antagonism to all constituted authority.