Political Quotes

On the recordAugust 24, 1855
I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down and caught and carried back to their stripes and unrequited toil; but I bite my lips and keep quiet.
Said by
Abraham Lincoln
Republican · Illinois

Editor's note · Context

In a letter to his friend Joshua Speed, Lincoln expresses his personal moral revulsion at the enforcement of fugitive slave laws, contrasting it with his constitutional obligations.

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Mar 17, 1865

Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

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Mar 4, 1865

All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.

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Mar 4, 1865

Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.

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Apr 11, 1865

He said, with a great deal of emphasis, and with an expression of countenance I shall never forget: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned, and there is no…

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