Without the aid of the slaves this war cannot be ended successfully.

But the time has come when the truth must be told.

But I am sure that with the slaves our victory will be more prompt, while without them it can never be effectual completely to crush out the Rebellion.

This can be done only by removal of the disturbing cause, and the consequent assimilation of the people, so that no man shall call another master.

If Slavery be regarded as a disease, it must be extirpated by knife and cautery; for only in this way can the healthful operations of national life be regained.

If regarded as a motive, it must be expelled from the system, that it may no longer exercise its malign influence.

So long as Slavery continues, the States in which it exists will fly madly from the Union, but with its destruction they will lose all such tendency.

The Slave States, by the influence of Slavery, are now centrifugal; but with Slavery out of the system, they will be centripetal.

From the beginning of the war, we have assumed, as an element of strength, the presence there of large numbers devoted to the Union, ready at the proper moment to coöperate with the national forces.

Yet most of these faithful Unionists are not white.

Let these be rallied, and the Rebellion will be exposed not only to a fire in front, but also to a fire in the rear.

The Union army thus far is like a single blade of a pair of scissors, which, though of choicest steel with sharpest edge, must be comparatively useless.

By Emancipation we not only hasten the war to a close, but we give it an effective finality, preventing it from breaking forth anew, which can be obtained in no other way.

The heads of the hydra will be extirpated and the monster destroyed, never more to show itself.

Without Emancipation the whole contest is delivered over to present uncertainty, while the future is left to glare with all the horrors of civil strife unsuppressed.

The last chapter of “Rasselas” is entitled “The Conclusion, in which Nothing is Concluded”; and this will be the proper title for the history of this war, if Slavery is allowed to endure.

If you would trample down the Rebellion, you must trample down Slavery; and, believe me, it must be completely done.

Such should be the final fate of Slavery, naked and dishonored, stretched where all may tread upon it.

Never can the Rights of War be employed more justly than to create this doom.

Not to see Slavery in this guilty character was a mistake, and grievously have we answered for it.

All are agreed now that Buchanan played into Rebel hands, when, declaring that there can be no coercion of a State, he refused to touch the Rebellion.

Alas! alas! we, too, may play into Rebel hands, when, out of strange and incomprehensible forbearance, we refuse to touch Slavery, which is the very life of the Rebellion.

There are many generals already in the field,--upwards of thirty major-generals, and two hundred brigadiers; but, meritorious and brave as they may be, there is a general better than all, whom the President now commissions,--I mean General…

Heavy battalions are something, but they are not everything.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.