"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel."

"I have been selected to fill an important office for a brief period, and am now, in your eyes, invested with an authority which I must soon yield to the regularly chosen successor, and which I hope to…"

"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal."

"Gold is good in its place; but living, breathing men and women are better than gold."

"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 wou…"