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Quote by Thomas Jefferson

“We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”

Author

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, a distinguished politician, philosopher, architect, and scientist. He was born on April 13, 1743, and died on July 4, 1826. Jefferson advocated for democracy and freedom in politics and was one of the main authors of the Declaration of Independence. His political ideas had a profound impact on the founding and development of the United States. more

“In the way our Fathers originally left the slavery question, the institution was in the course of ultimate extinction, and the public mind rested in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction . . . . All I have asked or desired anywhere, is that it should be placed back again upon the basis that the Fathers of our government originally placed it upon.”

Way Should Mind Government Courses Father Belief Left Ultimate Bases Institutions Slavery Extinction Our Father Back Again

Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)

Source: The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)

“The Federal Government was never, in its essence, anything but an anti-slavery government.”

Government Essence Slavery Federal Government Anti Slavery

Book:Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

Source: Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

“Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered. It was purposely so framed as to give no claim, no sanction to the claim, of property in man. If in its origin slavery had any relation to the government, it was only as the scaffolding to the magnificent structure, to be removed as soon as the building was completed.”

Source: Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

“The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition, that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.”

Use Rights Crisis Slavery Slave Customs Submit Arbitrary Imposition

Book:The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799: prepared under the direction of the United States George Washington bicentennial commission and published by authority of Congress

Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799: prepared under the direction of the United States George Washington bicentennial commission and published by authority of Congress

“The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state.”

States Desire Objects Slavery Infant Colony Abolition Objects Of Desire

Book:Memoir, correspondence and miscellanies from the papers of Thomas Jefferson

Source: Memoir, correspondence and miscellanies from the papers of Thomas Jefferson

“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce...”