God cannot approve of a system of servitude, in which the master is guilty of assuming absolute power - of assuming God's place and relation towards his fellow-men.

Our political and constitutional rights, so called, are but the natural and inherent rights of man, asserted, carried out, and secured by modes of human contrivance.

We must continue to judge of slavery by what it is, and not by what you tell us it will, or may be.

To no human charter am I indebted for my rights.

I prefer, in a word, the republican system, because it comes up more nearly to God's system.

My rights all spring front an infinitely nobler source - from favor and grace of God.

True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased.