Quotes to Remember

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phantomtruth/message/856

Quotes to Remember
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Why these quotes? The reason is that today with Sollog , his buddy J. P.
Essense, historical revisionists and other people who don’t believe in tons of
people or much anyone else in the 1700’s-1800’s fighting for equality and
slavery, so I’ve devised these quotes to put the Nail in the coffin and set the
record straight. It blows the half-truthers out of the water. This includes 20+
quotations so enjoy. The people included in these quotes include:

-Abraham Lincoln
-John Wesley
-Henry David Thoreau
-William Lloyd Garrison
-Frederick Douglass
-William Seward
-John Laurens
-Richard Henry Lee
-Luther Martin
-Richard Allen
-Noah Webster
-Sojourner Truth
-Thaddeus Stevens
-Benjamin Rush
-James Madison
-Patrick Henry




1). “"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see
it tried on him personally." (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by
Roy P. Basler, Volume VIII, "Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment"
(March 17, 1865), p. 361.)

2). “Perhaps you will say, "I do not buy any Negroes; I only use those left me
by my father." So far is well; but is it enough to satisfy your own conscience?
Had your father, have you, has any man living, a right to use another as a
slave? ...

It cannot be, that either war, or contract, can give any man such a property in
another as he has in his sheep and oxen. Much less is it possible, that any
child of man should ever be born a slave. Liberty is the right of every human
creature, as soon he breathes the vital air; and no human law can deprive him of
that right which he derives from the law of nature. ... Give liberty to whom
liberty is due, that is, to every child of man, to every partaker of human
nature. Let none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary
choice. ...” (John Wesley (1703-1791), excerpt from 1774 pamphlet "Thoughts upon
Slavery")


3). “Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man
is also a prison. The proper place today, the only place which Massachusetts has
provided for her freer and less despondent spirits, is in her prisons, to be put
out and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put
themselves out by their principles. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the
Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race
should find them; on that separate but more free and honorable ground, where the
State places those who are not with her, but against her - the only house in a
slave State in which a free man can abide with honor.


If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no
longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within
its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how
much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced
a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely,
but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the
majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs
by its whole weight.


If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and
slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not
to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody
measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and
shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable
revolution.”( Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849)


4). “Abolitionism, what is it? Liberty. What is liberty? Abolitionism. What are
they both? Politically, one is the Declaration of Independence; religiously, the
other is the Golden Rule of our Savior. I am here in Charleston, South Carolina.
She is smitten to the dust. She has been brought down from her pride of place.
The chalice was put to her lips, and she has drunk it to the dregs. I have never
been her enemy, nor the enemy of the South, and in the desire to save her from
this great retribution demanded in the name of the living God that every fetter
should be broken, and the oppressed set free.

I have not come here with reference to any flag but that of freedom. If your
Union does not symbolize universal emancipation, it brings no Union for me. If
your Constitution does not guarantee freedom for all, it is not a Constitution I
can ascribe to. If your flag is stained by the blood of a brother held in
bondage, I repudiate it in the name of God.


I came here to witness the unfurling of a flag under which every human being is
to be recognized as entitled to his freedom. Therefore, with a clear conscience,
without any compromise of principles, I accepted the invitation of the
Government of the United States to be present and witness the ceremonies that
have taken place today.

And now let me give the sentiment which has been, and ever will be, the
governing passion of my soul: "Liberty for each, for all, and forever!"( William
Lloyd Garrison, speech at Charleston, South Carolina (14th April, 1865)


5). “A beloved friend from New Bedford prevailed on Frederick Douglass to
address the convention. He came forward to the platform with a hesitancy and
embarrassment, necessarily the attendants of a sensitive mind in such a novel
position. After apologizing for his ignorance, and reminding the audience that
slavery was a poor school for the human intellect and heart, he proceeded to
narrate some of the facts in his own history as a slave, and in the course of
his speech gave utterance to many noble thoughts and thrilling reflections.

I shall never forget his first speech at the convention - the extraordinary
emotion it excited in my own mind. I think I never hated slavery so intensely as
at that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which is
inflicted by it, on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more
clear than ever.

It was at once deeply impressed upon my mind, that, if Frederick Douglass could
be persuaded to consecrate his time and talents to the promotion of the
anti-slavery enterprise, a powerful impetus would be given to it, and a stunning
blow at the same time inflicted on northern prejudice against a colored
complexion.” (William Lloyd Garrison met Frederick Douglass soon after his
escaped from slavery. In 1841 he recruited him as an agent for the American
Anti-Slavery Society.)


6). “The slave system is one of constant danger, distrust, suspicion, and
watchfulness. It debases those whose toil alone can produce wealth and resources
for defense to the lowest degree of which human nature is capable, to guard
against mutiny and insurrection, and this wastes energies which otherwise might
be employed in national development and aggrandizement.

In states where the slave system prevails, the masters directly or indirectly
secure all political power and constitute a ruling aristocracy. In states where
the free-labor system prevails, universal suffrage necessarily obtains and the
state inevitably becomes sooner or later a republic or democracy.

The two systems are at once perceived to be incongruous - they are incompatible.
They never have permanently existed together in one country, and they never can.
Hitherto, the two systems have existed in different states, but side by side
within the American Union. This has happened because the Union is a
confederation of states.


But in another aspect the United States constitute only one nation. Increase of
population which is filling the states out to their very borders, together with
a new and extended network of railroads and other avenues, and an internal
commerce which daily becomes more intimate, is rapidly bringing the states into
a higher and more perfect social unity of consolidation. Thus, these
antagonistic systems are continually coming into closer contact, and collision
results.

The Democratic Party derived its strength originally from its adoption of the
principles of equal and exact justice to all men. So long as it practised this
principle faithfully, it was invulnerable. It became vulnerable when it
renounced the principle, and since that time it has maintained itself not by
virtue of its own strength, or even of its traditional merits, but because there
as yet had appeared in the political field no other party that had the
conscience and the courage to take up, and avow, and practice the life-inspiring
principle which the Democratic Party surrendered.

At last, the Republican Party had appeared. It avows now, as the Republican
Party of 1800 did, in one word, its faith and its works, "Equal and exact
justice to all men." The secret of its assured success lies in that very
characteristic, which in the mouth of scoffers constitutes its great and lasting
imbecility and reproach.

It lies in the fact that it is a party of one idea; but that idea is a noble one
- an idea that fills and expands all generous souls - the idea of equality - the
equality of all men before human tribunals and human laws, as they are equal
before the divine tribunal and divine laws.” (William Seward, speech, Rochester,
New York (25th October, 1858)


7). “The argument in favor of an Industrial College (a college to be conducted
by the best men, and the best workmen which the mechanic arts can afford; a
college where colored youth can be instructed to use their hands, as well as
their heads; where they can be put in possession of the means of getting a
living whether their lot in after life may be cut among civilized or uncivilized
men; whether they choose to stay here, or prefer to return to the land of their
fathers) is briefly this: Prejudice against the free colored people in the
United States has shown itself nowhere so invincible as among mechanics. The
farmer and the professional man cherish no feeling so bitter as that cherished
by these. The latter would starve us out of the country entirely. At this moment
I can more easily get my son into a lawyer's office to study law than I can into
a blacksmith's shop to blow the bellows and to wield the sledge-hammer.”
(Frederick Douglass, letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe (8th
March, 1853)


8). “I am one of those who believe that it is the mission of this war to free
every slave in the United States. I am one of those who believe that we should
consent to no peace which shall not be an Abolition peace. I am, moreover, one
of those who believe that the work of the American Anti-Slavery Society will not
have been completed until the black man of the South, and the black men of the
North, shall have been admitted, fully and completely, into the body politic of
America. I look upon slavery as going the way of all the earth. It is the
mission of the war to put it down.

I know it will be said that I ask you to make the black man a voter in the
South. It is said that the coloured man is ignorant, and therefore he shall not
vote. In saying this, you lay down a rule for the black man that you apply to no
other class of your citizens.


If he knows enough to be hanged, he knows enough to vote. If he knows an honest
man from a thief, he knows much more than some of our white voters. If he knows
enough to take up arms in defence of this Government and bare his breast to the
storm of rebel artillery, he knows enough to vote.

All I ask, however, in regard to the blacks, is that whatever rule you adopt,
whether of intelligence or wealth, as the condition of voting for whites, you
shall apply it equally to the black man. Do that, and I am satisfied, and
eternal justice is satisfied; liberty, fraternity, equality, are satisfied, and
the country will move on harmoniously.” (Frederick Douglass, speech at the
Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia during the American Civil War (4th
December, 1863)


9). “I abhor slavery. I was born in a country where slavery had been established
by British Kings and Parliaments as well as by the laws of the country ages
before my existence. . . . In former days there was no combating the prejudices
of men supported by interest; the day, I hope, is approaching when, from
principles of gratitude as well as justice, every man will strive to be foremost
in showing his readiness to comply with the Golden Rule ["do unto others as you
would have them do unto you" Matthew 7:12]. (Frank Moore, Materials for History
Printed From Original Manuscripts, the Correspondence of Henry Laurens of South
Carolina (New York: Zenger Club, 1861), p. 20, to John Laurens on August 14,
1776.)

10). “Christianity, by introducing into Europe the truest principles of
humanity, universal benevolence, and brotherly love, had happily abolished civil
slavery. Let us who profess the same religion practice its precepts . . . by
agreeing to this duty. RICHARD HENRY LEE, PRESIDENT OF CONTINENTAL CONGRESS;
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION (Richard Henry Lee, Memoir of the Life of Richard
Henry Lee, and His Correspondence With the Most Distinguished Men in America and
Europe, Illustrative of Their Characters, and of the American Revolution,
Richard Henry Lee, editor (Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1825), Vol. I,
p. 19, the first speech of Richard Henry Lee in the House of Burgesses of
Virginia.)


11). “I wish to see all unjust and all unnecessary discriminations everywhere
abolished, and that the time may soon come when all our inhabitants of every
colour and denomination shall be free and equal partakers of our political
liberty”( This is John Jay’s letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush at March 24, 1785Jay ID
#9450)


12). “I would most ardently wish to become a member of it [the society in New
York] and . . . I can safely promise them that neither my tongue, nor my pen,
nor purse shall be wanting to promote the abolition of what to me appears so
inconsistent with humanity and Christianity. . . . May the great and the equal
Father of the human race, who has expressly declared His abhorrence of
oppression, and that He is no respecter of persons, succeed a design so laudably
calculated to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break
every yoke. “(William Livingston, The Papers of William Livingston, Carl E.
Prince, editor (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988), Vol. V, p. 255,
to the New York Manumission Society on June 26, 1786.)


13). “[i]t ought to be considered that national crimes can only be and
frequently are punished in this world by national punishments; and that the
continuance of the slave-trade, and thus giving it a national sanction and
encouragement, ought to be considered as justly exposing us to the displeasure
and vengeance of Him who is equally Lord of all and who views with equal eye the
poor African slave and his American master. LUTHER MARTIN, DELEGATE AT
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION” (Luther Martin, The Genuine Information Delivered to
the Legislature of the State of Maryland Relative to the Proceedings of the
General Convention Lately Held at Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Eleazor Oswald,
1788), p. 57; see also Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption
of the Federal Constitution, Jonathan Elliot, editor (Washington: Printed for
the Editor, 1836), Vol. I, p. 374.)


14). “Many of the white people have been instruments in the hands of God for our
good, even such as have held us in captivity, [and] are now pleading our cause
with earnestness and zeal.” (Richard Allen, The Life Experience and Gospel
Labors of the Right Rev. Richard Allen (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983), p. 73,
from his "Address to the People of Color in the United States.")


15). “Justice and humanity require it [the end of slavery]–Christianity commands
it. Let every benevolent . . . pray for the glorious period when the last slave
who fights for freedom shall be restored to the possession of that inestimable
right. NOAH WEBSTER, RESPONSIBLE FOR ARTICLE I, SECTION 8, 8 OF THE CONSTITUTION
(Noah Webster, Effect of Slavery on Morals and Industry (Hartford: Hudson and
Goodwin, 1793), p. 48.)


16). “That men should pray and fight for their own freedom and yet keep others
in slavery is certainly acting a very inconsistent, as well as unjust and
perhaps impious, part. JOHN JAY, PRESIDENT OF CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, ORIGINAL
CHIEF JUSTICE U. S. SUPREME COURT” (John Jay, The Life and Times of John Jay,
William Jay, editor (New York: J. & S. Harper, 1833), Vol. II, p. 174, to the
Rev. Dr. Richard Price on September 27, 1785.)


17). “Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out
of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the
North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But
what's all this here talking about?


That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted
over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into
carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?


Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into
barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?
I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear
the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen
most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none
but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?


Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member
of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with
women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours
holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure
full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as
men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did
your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down
all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it
right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to
say.” (Sojourner Truth, speech at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio (1851)


18). “Since the surrender of the armies of the confederate States of America a
little has been done toward establishing this Government upon the true
principles of liberty and justice; and but a little if we stop here. We have
broken the material shackles of four million slaves.

We have unchained them from the stake so as to allow them locomotion, provided
they do not walk in paths which are trod by white men. We have allowed them the
privilege of attending church, if they can do so without offending the sight of
their former masters. We have imposed on them the privilege of fighting our
battles, of dying in defense of freedom, and of bearing their equal portion of
taxes; but where have we given them the privilege of ever participating in the
formation of the laws for the government of their native land?

What is negro equality, about which so much is said by knaves and some of which
is believed by men who are not fools? It means, as understood by honest
Republicans, just this much, and no more: every man, no matter what his race or
colour; every earthly being who has an immortal soul, has an equal right to
justice, honesty, and fair play with every other man; and the law should secure
him those rights. The same law which condemns or acquits an African should
condemn or acquit a white man.” (Thaddeus Stevens, speech in Congress (3rd
January, 1867)



19). “I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference
for solitude; but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules,
I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I
advocated through a long life, equality of man before the Creator.” (Thaddeus
Stevens, wrote his own epitaph that appeared on a tombstone in an African
American cemetery.)


20). “…One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves
constituted a peculiar and powerful interest.


All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents
would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do
more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected
for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained.
Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even
before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and
a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to
the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange
that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread
from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged.
The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered
fully. The Almighty has his own purposes.


"Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences
come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that
American Slavery is one of those offences 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God
always ascribe to Him?

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 bond-man'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"


With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to
bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle,
and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations. (Portions of the
Second Inaugural Address Washington D.C.
March 4, 1865)


21). “Domestic slavery is repugnant to the principles of Christianity. . . . It
is rebellion against the authority of a common Father. It is a practical denial
of the extent and efficacy of the death of a common Savior. It is an usurpation
of the prerogative of the great Sovereign of the universe who has solemnly
claimed an exclusive property in the souls of men. BENJAMIN RUSH, SIGNER OF THE
DECLARATION” (Benjamin Rush, Minutes of the Proceedings of a Convention of
Delegates from the Abolition Societies Established in Different Parts of the
United States Assembled at Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Zachariah Poulson, 1794),
p. 24.)


22). “"We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened
period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man
over man."
-- James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention, June 6, 1787


23). "Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual
total extirpation of slavery from the United States ... I have, throughout my
whole life, held the practice of slavery in ... abhorrence."
-- John Adams, letter to Robert Evans, June 8, 1819


24). “[W]e must deny the fact, that slaves are considered merely as property,
and in no respect whatever as persons.

The true state of the case is, that they partake of both these qualities: being
considered by our laws, in some respects, as persons, and in other respects as
property. In being compelled to labor, not for himself, but for a master; in
being vendible by one master to another master; and in being subject at all
times to be restrained in his liberty and chastised in his body, by the
capricious will of another, the slave may appear to be degraded from the human
rank, and classed with those irrational animals which fall under the legal
denomination of property.

In being protected, on the other hand, in his life and in his limbs, against the
violence of all others, even the master of his labor and his liberty; and in
being punishable himself for all violence committed against others, the slave is
no less evidently regarded by the law as a member of the society, not as a part
of the irrational creation; as a moral person, not as a mere article of
property.
-- James Madison, Federalist, no. 54

25). I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish
this lamentable evil."
-- Patrick Henry, letter to Robert Pleasants, January 18, 1773

By TruthSeeker
8:46 am. EST
July 23, 2003