Political Quotes

On the record
The first great controversy that grew out of slavery was whether Missouri should be admitted into the Union as a slave state, and whether slavery should exist in the western territories.
Said by
John Sherman
Ohio

Editor's note · Context

Sherman discusses the contentious debate over Missouri's admission as a slave state and its implications for western territories.

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More from John Sherman

The worst evil that could befall our country is civil war, but the outrages in Kansas cannot be continued much longer without producing it.

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God forbid that the despots of the Old World should ever adorn their infernal logic by pointing to a disrupted Union here!

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Confiscation is not only justified by the laws of war, by the practice of many nations, but it is practiced by our enemies in the most obnoxious way.

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If that party had been content with the compromise of 1850, and had faithfully observed the pledges in its platform, there would have been no Civil War.

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