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.

Idea is a noble one — an idea that fills and expands all generous souls; the idea of equality — the equality of all men before human tribunals and human laws, as they all are equal before the Divine tribunal and Divine laws.

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.

No man will ever be President of the United States who spells 'negro' with two gs.

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.

The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.

Revolutions never go backward.