Adlai Stevenson

He could lead a crowd almost irresistibly to his own conclusions.

In phrase the simplest and most telling, he struck at once at the very core of the controversy.

Nothing that can be uttered or withheld can add to, or detract from, his imperishable fame.

It is not the Lincoln of history, but Lincoln the country lawyer, the debater, the candidate of his party for political office, with whom we have now to do.

As an advocate, he had probably no superior in the State.

I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States north as well as south of…

I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to acquisition of any more territory unless slavery is prohibited therein.

Uniformity in the local laws and institutions of the different States is neither possible nor desirable; that if uniformity had been adopted when the Government was established it must inevitably have been the uniformity of slavery…

I hold that humanity and Christianity both require that the negro shall have and enjoy every right and every privilege and every immunity consistent with the safety of the society in which he lives.

The question then arises, What rights and privileges are consistent with the public good?

Now, my friends, if we will only act conscientiously upon this great principle of popular sovereignty, it guarantees to each State and Territory the right to do as it pleases on all things local and domestic; instead of Congress…

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