Property that endangers the safety of a nation should not be suffered to remain in the hands of its citizens.

Property in man, always morally unjust, has become nationally dangerous.

It is idle to await unanimity.

If, amid the multitude of contending counsel, you have hesitated and doubted; if, when a great measure suggested itself, you have shrunk from the vast responsibility, afraid to go forward lest you should go wrong, what wonder?

The dangers which threaten us are twofold: First, from the Confederate forces, composed of men whose earnest convictions and reckless bravery it is idle to deny.

We can constitutionally extirpate slavery at this time.

Boldness and decision command, often even in evil, the respect and concurrence of mankind.