To attain this idea we must proclaim the rule of justice.

Slavery thus far has been the very pivot round which the Republic revolved, while all its policy at home and abroad has radiated from this terrible centre.

Hereafter the Equal Rights of All will take the place of Slavery, and the Republic will revolve on this glorious centre, whose countless, far-reaching radiations will be the happiness of the people.

The fields will nod with increase, industry will be quickened to unimagined triumph, and life itself raised to higher service.

There will be that repose which comes from harmony, and also that simplicity which comes from one prevailing law, both essential to the idea of Republic.

Our country will cease to be a patchwork where different States vary in the rights they accord, and will become a Plural Unit, with one Constitution, one liberty, and one franchise.

With all these things the Republic will be the synonym for justice and peace, since these things will be inseparable from its name.

Nor need we go back to the memorable sage who declared that the best government was where every citizen rushed to the defence of the humblest as if he were the state, for all this will be ours.

The whole case is before you in its grandeur and its humanity, infinite as human aspiration, beautiful as the vision of a republic.

Vindicate the great cause, I entreat you, by the suppression of all oligarchical pretensions, and the establishment of those equal rights without which republican government is a name, and nothing more.

Strike at the Black Code, as you have already struck at the Slave Code.

You have already proclaimed Emancipation; proclaim Enfranchisement also.

Nor longer stultify yourselves by setting at nought the practical principle of the Fathers, that all just government stands only on the consent of the governed, and its inseparable corollary, that taxation without representation is tyranny.

What was once true is true forever, although we may for a time lose sight of it; and this is the case with those imperishable truths to which you have been, alas! so indifferent.

Save the freedman from the outrage which is his daily life.

As a slave he was “a tool without a soul.” If you have ceased to treat him according to this ancient definition, it is only because you treat him even as something less.

In your cruel arithmetic he is only a “cipher,” without the protection which the slave sometimes found in the self-interest of the master; or rather let me say he is only a “cipher” where rights are concerned, but a numeral counted by…

Not only is the freedman compelled to pay, he must fight also, and he must obey the laws,--three things he cannot escape.

But, according to the primal principle of republican government, he has an indefeasible right to a voice in determining how to be taxed, when to fight, and what laws to obey,--all of which can be secured only through the ballot.

The Rebellion began in two assumptions, both proceeding from South Carolina: first, the sovereignty of the States, with the pretended right of secession; and, secondly, the superiority of the white race, with the pretended right of caste…

All agree that the dogma of State sovereignty must be repelled; but this is less offensive than the other, having the same origin, that the Declaration of Independence is “the most dangerous of all political errors.” To repel such…

It is illogical, inasmuch as our fathers, when they declared that all men are created equal, gave expression to a truth of political science, which, from the nature of the case, admits no exception.

As axiom it is without exception; for it is the essence of an axiom, whether in geometry or morals, to be universal.

Against this assumption I protest with mind, soul, and heart.

It is false in religion, false in statesmanship, and false in economy.