American Slavery Quotes

• Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Life, Strong, Freedom

  Speech to 140th Indiana regiment, 17 Mar. 1865

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• My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Believe, Struggle

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 Aug. 1862

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• I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Thinking, Feelings, Civil War

  Letter to Albert G. Hodges, 4 Apr. 1864

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• A house divided against itself cannot stand.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Leadership, Inspirational Life, Twilight

  Speech at Republican state convention nominating him to run for U.S. senator, Springfield, Ill., 16 June 1858

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• If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Civil War, Unions, Slave

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 Aug. 1862

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• I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Believe, Patriotic, Government

  Speech at Republican state convention nominating him to run for U.S. senator, Springfield, Ill., 16 June 1858

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• Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Prayer, War, Men

  Second Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1865

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• Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.

  Abraham Lincoln

  God, Civil War, Unity

  Second Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1865

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• Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspiration, Slave Labor, Slavery

  Abraham Lincoln, Mario Matthew Cuomo, G. S. Boritt (2004). “Lincoln on Democracy”, p.160, Fordham Univ Press

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• A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Believe, Fall, Government

  Speech at Republican state convention nominating him to run for U.S. senator, Springfield, Ill., 16 June 1858

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• If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Presidential, Civil War, Slavery

  Letter to Albert G. Hodges, 4 Apr. 1864

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• What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle - the sheet anchor of American republicanism.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Men, Anchors, Principles

  Speech, Peoria, Ill., 16 Oct. 1854

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• I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

  Abraham Lincoln

  Believe, Purpose, Slavery

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.250, Wildside Press LLC

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• So plain that no one, high or low, ever does mistake it, except in a plainly selfish way; for although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Selfish, Mistake, Men

  "Fragment on Slavery" ca. 1 July 1854

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• I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.

  George Washington

  Country, Mean, Law

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1835). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private”, p.159

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• I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was'.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Unions, Way

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.388, Wildside Press LLC

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• I intend no modification of my oft-expressed wish that all men everywhere could be free.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, Men, Wish

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 August 1862

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• On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.

  H. Allen Smith

  Monday, Morning, 4th Of July

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• The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Giving Up, Russia, Crowns

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln(1832-1865) (EasyRead Super Large 20pt Edition)”, p.74, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Strong, Freedom, Men

  Speech to 140th Indiana regiment, 17 Mar. 1865

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• The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Mean, People, Civil War

  Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Md., 18 Apr. 1864

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• The world has never had a good definition
  of the word liberty

  Abraham Lincoln

  Civil War, Liberty, World

  Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Md., 18 Apr. 1864

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• Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Change, Freedom, Father

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863

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• If any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly, those who desire it for others

  Abraham Lincoln

  Desire, Firsts, Slave

  Abraham Lincoln, Mario Matthew Cuomo, G. S. Boritt (2004). “Lincoln on Democracy”, p.343, Fordham Univ Press

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• One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Powerful, War, Southern

  Second Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1865

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