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.

Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by force; but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one of love and mutual good offices.

The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.

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

All we ask is to be let alone.

Be not haughty with the humble; be not humble with the haughty.

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