I hold that Congress is bound to take care of the territories, and so execute the trust as will best promote the interests of those who may hereafter be entitled to the beneficial use.

I desire so to acquit myself that my own conscience will not upbraid me, and that when I shall pass away, no reproach shall fall upon me, or my children after me, for my acts here upon this momentous question.

Think you that when I am gone, and he shall grow up to manhood, and shall come forward to act his part among the citizens of the country, I will leave it to be cast in his teeth, as a reproach, that his father voted to send slavery into…

And, sir, the constituencies have spoken ‘upon honor.’ They are determined, and will execute their purposes.

But gentleman need not ask me for my vote to extend the institution of slavery one single inch beyond its present boundaries.

Ay, I would not extend it one sixteen-thousandth part of a hair’s breadth.

But, sir, sir, if the alternative should be presented to me of the extension of slavery, or the dissolution of the Union, I would say, rather than extend slavery, let the Union, ay, the Universe itself be dissolved!

Never, never will I raise my hand or my voice to give a vote by which it can or may be extended.

As God is my judge, I cannot, I will not be moved from the purpose I have now announced.

While I desire to do every thing which may protect the rights of property which are guarantied to citizens of the slave states, I cannot consent to sacrifice the rights of liberty which belong to the citizens of the free states.

If territorial bills are presented for the government of New Mexico and Utah, I shall vote for the exclusion of slavery from those territories.

Were we frank and in earnest, or were we hollow and fraudulent?

Every young man amongst us sets out in life determined to better his condition.

This, to me, is no cause of regret, but of rejoicing.

If the spirit of thrift does not transgress the limits of honor and duty, it is not only right but laudable.

The animal wants of man must be supplied before he will develop his intellectual or moral powers.

You may find individuals who will be virtuous amid want and privation,--heroes in virtue;--but a virtuous community in rags and hunger, you will never find.

We must put society in a condition of physical comfort, before it will rise to mental excellence.

I am an ardent advocate, therefore, of all measures tending to increase the wealth of the country; but on this ever-present and everlasting condition, that it is done without a sacrifice of principles.

Any enlargement of business, any increase of profits, any augmentation of wealth, gained by a community through a dereliction from principle, is as insecure and as ignominious as the gains of an individual through fraud, embezzlement, or…

It has always seemed to me that we must protect our labor against foreign labor, or our laborers at home will fall to the condition of the pauper laborers abroad.

In Manchester in England, and Glasgow in Scotland, and many other manufacturing towns in Great Britain, there are thousands of wretched, degraded female operatives, who earn scarcely a shilling a day.

After their day’s work is done, they visit the dram-shops, roam the streets till midnight, and if not invited away by vicious men, they huddle by scores into filthy lodging-houses, where they sleep, men and women promiscuously, till…

Now where labor is so scantily paid, fabrics can be produced more cheaply; and if these fabrics can be sent into this country, free of duty, they will undersell ours, until the prices of our labor and the condition of our laborers are…

Have we got any thing but disgrace in the eyes of the civilized world?