William Seward: “Rulers, statesmen, legislators! study and emulate such a life--seek after a character so beloved, a death so honorable…”

For the rest, the work of emancipation abides the action, whether it be slow or fast, of the moral sense of the American people.

The recital of heroic actions loses its chief value, if we cannot discover the principles in which they were born.

Slavery therefore must be restrained, and, without violence or injustice, must be abolished.

Stoicism, that had no charity for error, never converted any human society to virtue; Christianity, that remembers the true nature of man, has encompassed a large portion of the globe.