God cannot approve of a system of servitude, in which the master is guilty of assuming absolute power - of assuming God's place and relation towards his fellow-men.
Our political and constitutional rights, so called, are but the natural and inherent rights of man, asserted, carried out, and secured by modes of human contrivance.
There is room in our ranks for the old and decrepit, as well as the young and vigorous.
Truth and mercy require the exertion - never the suppression, of man's noble rights and powers.
Let the poor man count as his enemy, and his worst enemy, every invader of the right of free discussion.
I trust, that your readers will not construe my words to mean, that I would not have gone to a 3 o'clock in the morning session, for the sake of defeating the Nebraska bill.
Let us tell our legislators in advance, that this is a right, restraints on which, we will not, cannot bear; and that every attempt to restrain it is a palpable wrong on God and man.
I need say no more, to prove that slavery is entirely unlike the servitude in the patriarchal families.
True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased.
The poor North has much to do with slavery. It staggers under its load and smarts under its lash.
There is one class of men, whom it especially behoves to be tenacious of the right of free discussion. I mean the poor.
But as well may you, when urging a man up-hill with a heavy load upon his back, and with your lash also upon his back, tell him, that be has nothing to do either with the load or the lash.
But, although America cannot be justly charged with violating the rights of Turkey, Turkey nevertheless can be justly charged with violating the rights of America.
