I ... ran for Legislature [in 1832] ... and was beaten-the only time I have been beaten by the people.

I shall adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views.

Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.

Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.

Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave OTHERS is a "sacred right of self-government." These principles can not stand together. They are as opposite as God and mammon; and whoever holds to the one, must despise the other.

I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, according to the bond of service - the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them.