I think that if anything can be proved by natural theology, it is that slavery is morally wrong.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature - opposition to it is [in] his love of justice.

Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.

We must have though a man who recognizes the slavery issue as being the living issue of the day; who does not hesitate to declare slavery a wrong, nor to deal with it as such; who believes in the power and duty of Congress to prevent the spread of it.

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union ... If I could save the Union without freeing any slave... if I could save it by freeing all the slaves... I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.

Whether we will or not, the question of Slavery is THE question, the all absorbing topic of the day.