The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Slavery
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Abraham Lincoln House Divided Speech · 1858

Quotes

“One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“Thus ended the great American Civil War, which must upon the whole be considered the noblest and least avoidable of all the great mass-conflicts of which till then there was record.”

Winston Churchill · A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, 1956-1958 · Primary source

“If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Compensation, 1841 · Primary source

Works

Henry David Thoreau · 1849
Resistance to Civil Government

An argument for individual conscience over unjust state authority, examining taxation, slavery, war, resistance, and the moral limits of government.

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Abraham Lincoln · 1861
First Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s argument that secession is unlawful, the Union must be preserved, and civil conflict should be avoided through restraint and reconciliation.

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Abraham Lincoln · 1865
Second Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s reflection on slavery as the war’s cause and his appeal for humility, reconciliation and a just peace.

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Related Tags

National unity 4 Political division 1 Sectional conflict 2 Institutional stability 2 Territorial expansion 1 Moral disagreement 1 Secession crisis 2 American Civil War 7 Union 1 Emancipation 1 Historical judgement 2 Oppression 1 Moral consequence 2 Freedom 15 Compensation 6 Preservation of the Union 3 Constitutional government 1 Divine judgement 1 National reconciliation 2 Reconstruction 2 Civil disobedience 4 Conscience 12 Political resistance 2 Mexican-American War 1