Document 8: Quotes from Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, in a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1859
I neither then had, nor have, or ever had, any purpose in any way of interfering with the institution of Slavery, where it exists. I believe we have no power, under the Constitution of the United States; or rather under the form of government under which we live, to interfere with the institution of Slavery, or any other of the institutions of our sister States. I declared then and I now re-declare, that I have as little inclination to so interfere with the institution of Slavery where it now exists, as I believe we have no power to do so.
Abraham Lincoln, in a speech in New Haven, Connecticut, 1860
We think slavery a great moral wrong, and while we do not claim the right to touch it where it exists, we wish to treat it as a wrong in the territories, where our votes will reach it.
Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to Alexander Stephens, a Georgia Politician, 1860
Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears.
