If the State cannot survive the anti-slavery agitation, then let the State perish. If the Church must be cast down by the strugglings of Humanity to be free, then let the Church fall and its fragments be scattered to the four winds of Heaven, never more to curse the earth.

Whether permitted to live to witness the abolition of slavery or not, I felt assured that, as I demanded nothing that was not clearly in accordance with justice and humanity, some time or other, if remembered at all, I should stand vindicated in the eyes of my countrymen.

Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.

I am accused of using hard language. I admit the charge. I have not been able to find a soft word to describe villainy or to identify the perpetrator of it. The man who makes a chattel of his brother - what is he? The man who keeps back the hire of his laborers by fraud - what is he?

The process of forming government in a minority is one where you talk to everyone and see: What do you have in common? And is there enough commonality?

Democracy is difficult and demanding. So is history. It can crack your voice; it can stir your soul; it can break your heart.

After each war there is a little less democracy to save.

Politics was never in our blood and in our family... I will never return to it.