A Study of Greatness in Men |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln action admiration appears army Austria barbaric battle Bonaparte British called career cause character Church civil Colonel Pride command Congress Constitution Consul court Cromwell Cromwell's declare Desaix despotism duty emancipation emperor ence enemy England English ernment faith feeling forces Fort Sumter France Freeport doctrine Frémont French friends gave genius give gress hand human intellectual Italy judgment Julius Cćsar kind king Leclerc letter Lincoln Lord Lord Protector master means measure memoirs ment military mind months moral Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte nation nature never officers Oliver Cromwell parliament party patriotism peace perfect political Presbyterians President Pride's Purge proclamation Protector Prussia Puritan question rebellion Rémusat resolutions Richard Cromwell save the Union seems sincerity slavery slaves soldier speech spirit Talleyrand temper things thought tion took Toussaint troops victories Washington wrote
Popular passages
Page 268 - Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save Slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy Slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery.
Page 291 - Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
Page 268 - My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
Page 290 - If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him?
Page 254 - One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute.
Page 239 - I think I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up.
Page 271 - By general law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the Nation.
Page 273 - What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do, especially as we are now situated ? I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet.
Page 239 - I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself.
Page 269 - I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.