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Quote by Edward Bates

“Ambition is a passion, at once strong and insidious, and is very apt to cheat a man out of his happiness and his true respectability of character”

Quote by Edward Bates

Author

Edward Bates, an American lawyer and politician, was born on September 4, 1793, and died on March 25, 1869. He served as the United States Attorney General during the American Civil War, becoming the first African American Attorney General in U.S. history. Bates is renowned for his exceptional contributions to the legal field and his steadfast political stance. more

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“We must look at the institution of slavery as publicists, and not as casuists. It is a question of law, and not a case of conscience.”

Looks Law Cases Conscience Institutions Slavery Publicists

Author:Roger Brooke Taney

“I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: 'Here lies one who never rose to any eminence, who only courted the low ambition to have it said that he striven to ameliorate the condition of the poor, the lowly, the downtrodden of every race and language and color.'”

Ifs Said Lying Language Poor Race Written Conditions Color Ambition Lows Rose Satisfied Epitaph Eminence Downtrodden

Book:The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868

Source: The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868

“The whole fabric of southern society must be changed, and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost. Without this, this government can never be, as it never has been, a true republic.”

Ifs Has Beens Done Whole Government Opportunity Lost Changed Republic Southern Fabric

Book:The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868

Source: The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868

“I wished that I were the owner of every southern slave, that I might cast off the shackles from their limbs, and witness the rapture which would excite them in the first dance of their freedom.”

Firsts Might Slave Casts Witness Owners Southern Limbs Rapture Shackles

Book:The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868

Source: The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868

“I can never acknowledge the right of slavery. I will bow down to no deity however worshipped by professing Christians - however dignified by the name of the Goddess of Liberty, whose footstool is the crushed necks of the groaning millions, and who rejoices in the resoundings of the tyrant's lash, and the cries of his tortured victims.”

I Can Christian Names Liberty Millions Cry Victim Slavery Acknowledge Necks Tyrants Rejoice Goddess Bows Deities Crushed Lashes Groaning

Author:Thaddeus Stevens

“The greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America.”

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Author:Thaddeus Stevens

“At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he know he can't.”

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“I don’t hold with equality in all things only with equality before the law and nothing more.”

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Author:Thaddeus Stevens

“Strip the proud nobility of their bloated estates, reduce them to a level with plain republicans, send forth to labor, and teach their children to enter the workshops or handle the plow, and you will thus humble proud traitors.”

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Book:The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868

Source: The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868

“The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conquerer.”

Conditions Depends

Book:The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868

Source: The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868