Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our Republican character.

[Christianity] existed and flourishes, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them.

It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.

The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less informed part of the community. They have seen, too, that one legislative interference is but the first link of a long chain of repetitions, every subsequent interference being naturally produced by the effects of the preceding.

Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.

By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.