It would be contrary to the spirit of the American Government to use force to subjugate the South..

The right to have a slave implies the right in some one to make the slave; that right must be equal and mutual, and this would resolve society into a….

I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their mo….

The two systems slave and free-labor are incompatible. They have never permanently existed together in one country, and they never can..

Whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it inces….

It is the maintenance of slavery by law in a state, not parallels of latitude, that makes its a southern state; and the absence of this, that makes i….

No man will ever be President of the United States who spells 'negro' with two gs..

The color of the prisoner's skin, and the form of his features, are not impressed upon the spiritual immortal mind which works beneath. In spite of h….

The constitution regulates our stewardship; the constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty. But the….

But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes..

Idea is a noble one — an idea that fills and expands all generous souls; the idea of equality — the equality of all men before human tribunals and hu….

The proposition of an established classification of states as slave states and free states, as insisted on by some, and into northern and southern, a….

But assuming the same premises, to wit, that all men are equal by the law of nature and of nations, the right of property in slaves falls to the grou….

The United States are a political state, or organized society, whose end is government, for the security, welfare, and happiness of all who live unde….

It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces..

I know and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backwards..

Revolutions never go backward..

There is no social life outside of Christendom..

We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them, and holding them in bondage where we can set them free..

Therefore, states are equal in natural rights..

Sir, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we are, which would establish slavery..