Abraham Lincoln

It is, as a principle, no other than that if one man chooses to make a slave of another man, neither that other man nor anybody else has a right to object.

I think a definition of genuine popular sovereignty in the abstract would be about this: that each man shall do precisely as he pleases with himself, and with all those things which exclusively concern him.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under a just God, cannot long retain it.

Whenever the issue can be distinctly made, and all extraneous matter thrown out, so that men can fairly see the real difference between the parties, this controversy will soon be settled, and it will be done peaceably, too.

The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings.

They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle.

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles--right and wrong--throughout the world.

That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent.

But if you insist that one is wrong and the other right, there is no use to institute a comparison between right and wrong....

But if it is a wrong, he cannot say that people have a right to do wrong.

But no man can logically say it who does see a wrong in it; because no man can logically say he don't care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down....

Although Henry Clay could say he wished every slave in the United States was in the country of his ancestors, I am denounced by those who pretend to respect Henry Clay, for uttering a wish that it might sometime, in some peaceful way, come…

More than that; take all the argument made in favour of the system you have proposed, and it carefully excludes the idea that there is anything wrong in the institution of slavery.

What other thing that you consider a wrong do you deal with as you deal with that?

You may have a wen or a cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it out lest you bleed to death; but surely it is no way to cure it, to engraft it and spread it over your whole body.

What has ever threatened our liberty and prosperity save and except this institution of slavery?

Has anything ever threatened the existence of this Union save and except this very institution of slavery?

And if there be a man amongst us who is so impatient of it as a wrong as to disregard its actual presence among us, and the difficulty of getting rid of it suddenly in a satisfactory way, and to disregard the constitutional obligations…

They also desire a policy that looks to a peaceful end of slavery some time, as being a wrong.

They insist that it, as far as may be, be treated as a wrong; and one of the methods of treating it as a wrong is to make provision that it shall grow no larger.

They look upon it as being a moral, social, and political wrong; and while they contemplate it as such, they nevertheless have due regard for its actual existence among us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way…

The sentiment that contemplates the institution of slavery in this country as a wrong is the sentiment of the Republican party.

The real issue in this controversy--the one dressing upon every mind--is the sentiment on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it as a wrong.

Is it not a false statesmanship that undertakes to build up a system of policy upon the basis of caring nothing about the very thing that everybody does care the most about,--a thing which all experience has shown we care a very great deal…

I say where is the philosophy or the statesmanship, based on the assumption that we are to quit talking about it, and that the public mind is all at once to cease being agitated by it?