Nevertheless, the republican cause, however odious in Europe, was our national cause.

He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow.

He who surpasses or subdues mankind, Must look down on the hate of those below.

But the emancipation of Spanish America was necessary for our own larger freedom, and our own complete security.

That freedom and that security required that the nations of Europe should relax their grasp on the American Continent.

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

From and after the fourth day of July, 1842, there shall be, throughout the United States, NO HEREDITARY SLAVERY, but on and after that day every child born within the United States shall be FREE.

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

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

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.

How long emancipation may be delayed, is among the things concealed from our knowledge, but not so the certain result.

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.

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

Let it be remembered, that it has ever been the pride and the boast of America, that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human nature.

By the blessing of the Author of those rights, they have prevailed over all opposition, and form the basis of thirteen independent States.

But power, confessedly derived from the people, must be exercised in obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them again, at least in death.