The proposition of an established classification of states as slave states and free states, as insisted on by some, and into northern and southern, as maintained by others, seems to me purely imaginary, and of course the supposed equilibrium of those classes a mere conceit.

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.

Sir, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we are, which would establish slavery.

It would be contrary to the spirit of the American Government to use force to subjugate the South.

But you answer, that the Constitution recognizes property in slaves. It would be sufficient, then, to reply, that this constitutional recognition must be void, because it is repugnant to the law of nature and of nations.

Revolutions never go backward.

The two systems slave and free-labor are incompatible. They have never permanently existed together in one country, and they never can.