g that all men are created equal; but now from
that beginning we have run down to that other declaration, 'that
for _some_ men to enslave others is a sacred right of
self-government.' ... In our greedy chase to make profit of the
negro, let us beware lest we cancel and tear to pieces even the
white man's charter of freedom.... If all earthly power were given
me, I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My
first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to
Liberia--to their own native land. But, if they were all landed
there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days; and
there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough to carry
them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all, and
keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this
betters their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery at
any rate; yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce
people upon. What next? Free them, and make them politically and
socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and,
if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white
people will not. A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded,
cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot then make them equals. It
does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be
adopted; but, for their tardiness in this, I will not undertake to
judge our brethren of the South.

Our Republican robe is soiled--trailed in the dust. Let us repurify
it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not the blood,
of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of 'moral
right,' back upon its existing legal rights and its arguments of
'necessity.' Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it,
and there let it rest in peace. Let us re-adopt the Declaration of
Independence, and with it the practices and policy which harmonize
with it. Let North and South--let all Americans--let all lovers of
liberty everywhere--join in the great and good work. If we do
this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so
saved it as to make and to keep it forever worthy of the saving. We
shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free and
happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us