In the Constitutional Convention, George Mason of Virginia made a more violent abolition speech than my friends Lovejoy or Codding would desire to make here to-day--a speech which could not be safely repeated anywhere on Southern soil in this enlightened year.
Lincoln observes that a Founding Father's anti-slavery speech from the Constitutional Convention would be too radical and dangerous to utter in the South of his own time.
Share
More from Abraham Lincoln
As a general rule I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.
If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.
Other voices in this conversation
