Beavers build houses; but they build them in nowise differently, or better now, than they did, five thousand years ago. Ants, and honey-bees, provide food for winter; but just in the same way they did, when Solomon referred the sluggard to them as patterns of prudence. Man is not the only animal who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship.

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

Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet.

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Our adversaries [ the Confederate States of America ] have adopted some declarations of independence in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit the words "all men are created equal." Why? They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by Washington, they omit "We, the People," and substitute "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view, the rights of men, and the authority of the people?

A tendancy to melancholy...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.

I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring.