William Seward: “Truth, however unpalatable, or however it may be obscured for a season, must eventually triumph.”

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

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

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 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.