If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature.
Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.
Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.
No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.
The world is agreed that labor is the source from which human wants are mainly supplied. There is no dispute upon this point.
I am always for the man who wishes to work.
If at any time all labour should cease, and all existing provisions be equally divided among the people, at the end of a single year there could scarcely be one human being left alive – all would have perished by want of subsistence.
Work, work, work, is the main thing.
And I am glad to know that there is a system of labor – where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.
If you intend to go to work there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to work, you can not get along anywhere.
When I have a particular case in hand, I have that motive and feel an interest in the case, feel an interest in ferreting out the questions to the bottom, love to dig up the question by the roots and hold it up and dry it before the fires of the mind.
Again, a law may be both constitutional and expedient, and yet may be administered in an unjust and unfair way.
Let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children’s liberty.
I understand that it is a maxim of law, that a poor plea may be a good plea to a bad declaration.
Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling.
How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer.
Don’t kneel to me, that is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.
I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this his almost chosen people.
Tell the truth and you won’t have so much to remember.
We know nothing of what will happen in future, but by the analogy of experience.