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

It depends not on the zeal and firmness only of the reformers, but on their wisdom and moderation also.

The perils of the enterprize are already passed--its difficulties have already been removed--when it shall have been accomplished it will be justly regarded as the last noble effort which rendered the Republic imperishable.

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.