Men of Our Times; Or, Leading Patriots of the Day: Being narratives of the lives and deeds of statesmen, generals, and orators. Including biographical sketches and anecdotes of Lincoln, Grant, Garrison, Sumner, Chase, Wilson, Greeley, Farragut, Andrew, Colfax, Stanton, Douglass, Buckingham, Sherman, Sheridan, Howard, Phillips and Beecher.Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
Men of Our Times; Or, Leading Patriots of the Day: Being narratives of the lives and deeds of statesmen, generals, and orators. Including biographical sketches and anecdotes of Lincoln, Grant, Garrison, Sumner, Chase, Wilson, Greeley, Farragut, Andrew, Colfax, Stanton, Douglass, Buckingham, Sherman, Sheridan, Howard, Phillips and Beecher.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
United States -- Biography; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Biography
any satisfactory way, and all the Constitutional obligations thrown
about it. I suppose that in reference both to its actual existence in
the nation, and to our Constitutional obligations, we have no right at
all to disturb it in the States where it exists, and we profess that
we have no more inclination to disturb it than we have the right to do
it. We go further than that; we don't propose to disturb it where, in
one instance, we think the Constitution would permit us. We think the
Constitution would permit us to disturb it in the District of Columbia.
Still we do not propose to do that, unless it should be in terms which
I don't suppose the nation is very likely soon to agree to--the terms
of making the emancipation gradual and compensating the unwilling
owners. Where we suppose we have the Constitutional right, we restrain
ourselves in reference to the actual existence of the institution and
the difficulties thrown about it. We also oppose it as an evil so
far as it seeks to spread itself. We insist on the policy that shall
restrict it to its present limits."
Still more sharply and strongly he stated the question in the last
debate, at Alton, as simply this: Is Slavery wrong?
"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this
country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be
silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles--right
and wrong--throughout the world. They are the two principles that have
stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue
to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the
divine right of kings. It is the same principle, in whatever shape it
develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil
and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes,
whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people
of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one
race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same
tyrannical principle."
With equal force he often exposed and rebuked the moral levity shown
by his opponent--his affectation of indifference to all principle,
his supercilious dazzling contempt of moral distinctions. In his last
speech at Alton, he very fully reviewed the whole question, and Mr.
Douglas' individual position before the country, with great breadth and
power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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