The Declaration supplies the principles giving character and object to the machine.

The Constitution is an earthly body, if you please; the Declaration is the soul.

The powers under the Constitution are no more than the hand to the body; the Declaration is the very soul itself.

This immortal state-paper, which for its composer was the aurora of enduring fame, was ‘the genuine effusion of the soul of the country at that time,’ the revelation of its mind, when, in its youth, its enthusiasm, its sublime confronting…

The vivid presentment of this state-paper, in its commanding character, like an ordinance for mankind, above all other contemporary things, shows its association with our great national anniversary.

Certainly the Constitution of the United States must be construed upon the same principle.

I am happy in any word of respect for the Declaration,--because the claim of Equal Rights stands on the Constitution interpreted by the Declaration.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Every word in the Constitution is subordinate to the Declaration.

Before the war, when Slavery prevailed, the rule was otherwise, naturally; but, as I have already said, the grandest victory of the war was the establishment of the new rule by which the Declaration became supreme as interpreter of the…

Take, therefore, any phrase in the Constitution, take any power, and you are to bring it all in subordination to those supreme primal truths.

Why, Sir, it is the baptismal vow of the Republic; it is the pledge which our fathers took upon their lips when they asked the fellowship of mankind as a free and independent nation.

It is loftier than the Constitution, which is a convenience only, while this is a guide.

It was the promulgation of primal truths, not only for the good of our own people, but for the good of all mankind.

The Senator proclaims that I fly from the Constitution to the Declaration, which I insist is the source of power.

Repeatedly I said that in my judgment the Declaration of Independence was not a grant of power, but coëqual with the Constitution,--the one being a grant of power, and the other a sovereign rule of interpretation.

I challenge the Senator again to point out one word that has ever fallen from my lips, during my service in this Chamber, to sustain him in his assertion.

Now I tell the Senator, and I beg him to understand it for the future, that I shall not allow him to elevate himself above me in any loyalty to the Constitution.

But I do not concede precedence in that service, where, if he does not magnify himself, he degrades me.

I have served the National Constitution longer than he has, and with such fidelity as I could command.

I have served it at moments of peril, when the great principles of Liberty to which I have been devoted were in jeopardy; I have served it when there were few to stand together.

In upholding this Constitution, never did I fail at the same time to uphold Human Rights.

That was my supreme object; that was the ardent aspiration of my soul.

The Senator speaks without authority, and, he must pardon me if I say, with levity, when he makes such an allegation against one whose record for the past twenty years in this Chamber is ready to answer him.

I challenge him to point out one word ever uttered by me to justify his assault.