If slavery be a sin, it is not yours. It does not rest on your action for its origin, on your consent for its existence. It is a common law right to property in the service of man; its origin was Divine decree.

God forbid that the day should ever come when to be true to my constituents is to be hostile to the Union.

Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South’s two halves together.

Obstacles may retard, but they cannot long prevent the progress of a movement sanctified by its justice, and sustained by a virtuous people .

Pray excuse me. I cannot take it.

A question settled by violence, or in disregard of law, must remain unsettled forever.

My own convictions as to negro slavery are strong. It has its evils and abuses...We recognize the negro as God and God's Book and God's Laws, in nature, tell us to recognize him - our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude...You cannot transform the negro into anything one-tenth as useful or as good as what slavery enables them to be.