John Sherman

Slavery was thus forever prohibited within the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

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.

It was the general expectation of the framers of the constitution that under its provisions slavery would be gradually abolished by the acts of the several states where it was recognized.

Yet, as will appear hereafter, the leaders of the 33rd Congress of both parties, and mainly on sectional lines, openly and flagrantly violated the pledges of their party, and renewed a contest that was only closed by the most destructive…

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.

It would seem that under these platforms both parties were committed to acquiescence in existing laws upon the subject of slavery, and to a resistance of all measures to change or modify them.

The Democratic party more emphatically denounces any renewal in Congress, or out of it, of the agitation of the slavery question under whatever name, shape or color, the attempt may be made.

Resolved, That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing in Congress, or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.

The clear and specific indorsement of the compromise measures, though supported by a great majority, divided the Whig party and led to the election of Franklin Pierce.

I was classed as a conservative Whig, and heartily supported the compromise measures of 1850, not upon their merits, but as the best solution of dangerous sectional divisions.

The hostility to slavery had grown chiefly out of the acquisition of Texas as a slave state.

Clay was a candidate for President, but I then made my first political speech to a popular audience and cast my first vote.

I shouted for Harrison in the campaign of 1840.

I felt that the emotion of such a man as Corwin was the highest possible compliment to the memory of Daniel Webster.

He was, perhaps, the greatest man of intellectual force of his time, but he had faults which the people could not overlook.

I admired him for his great intellectual qualities, but I do not wonder that the people of the United States did not choose him for President.

In the possession of the United States its gold and silver have been discovered and mined, and, together with all the vast interior country west of the Mississippi, it has been developed with a rapidity unexampled in history.

Without this war California might, like other provinces of Mexico, have remained undeveloped.

Whatever may have been the merits of this war in the beginning, its fruits were undoubtedly of immense value to this country.

I was somewhat tempted to enter the service, though I did not believe in the justice of the war.

There is, now, no doubt that such was the object of the war.

The general feeling among all classes, and the universal feeling among the Whigs was, that the Mexican War was purposely and unjustly entered upon to extend the institution of slavery.

I have always thought, without any reference to its supposed secrecy, that it is an association of great value, especially in bringing young men under good social influences with men of respectable character and standing.

I soon learned that it was better to gain the confidence of a jury by plain talk than by rhetoric.

I got the reputation of being successful by full preparation and a thorough knowledge of the facts and law of the case.