I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion. Leaving the higher matter of eternal consequences, between him and his Maker, I still do not think any man has the right thus to insult the feelings, and injure the morals, of the community in which he may live.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government-that is despotism.

We think slavery a great moral wrong, and while we do not claim the right to touch it where it exists, we wish to treat it as a wrong in the territories, where our votes will reach it.

Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?

We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued.

I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.

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