I mean to say that Congress can hereafter decide whether any states, slave or free, can be framed out of Texas. If they should never be framed out of Texas, they never could be admitted.

The whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible.

Therefore, states are equal in natural rights.

It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces.

The United States are a political state, or organized society, whose end is government, for the security, welfare, and happiness of all who live under its protection.

I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue.

We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them, and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.