Slavery exists. It is black in the South, and white in the North.

Duties have been mine; consequences are God's.

The life of a republic lies certainly in the energy, virtue, and intelligence of its citizens.

It is our sacred duty to transmit unimpaired to our posterity the blessings of liberty which were bequeathed to us by the founders of the Republic.

If blacks were given the right to vote, that would place every splay-footed, bandy-shanked, hump-backed, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, woolly-headed, ebon-colored in the country upon an equality with the poor white man.

I feel incompetent to perform duties...which have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me.

Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.