William Lloyd Garrison: “It is plain, therefore, that whatever cannot flourish except at the sacrifice of that being, ought not to exist.”

The more the South reflected, the more clearly she must see that she has a deep and vital interest in maintaining the Union.

It is not a struggle for national salvation; for the nation, as such, seems doomed beyond recovery.

Yet I know that God reigns, and that the slave system contains within itself the elements of destruction.

With the North, the preservation of the Union is placed above all other things--above honour, justice, freedom, integrity of soul, the Decalogue and the Golden Rule--the Infinite God himself.