"To remain silent is the most useful service a mediocre speaker can render to the public good."

"The most formidable of all the ills that threaten the future of the Union arises from the presence of a black population upon its territory."

"The French want equality in liberty, and if they can't have that, they'll take equality in slavery."

"I do not know what to say of a society which, after having created a magnificent civilization, seems to be on the point of destroying itself by its own hands."

"The Negroes who inhabit the United States, are in some measure strangers to the country which gave them birth; they are the children of slavery, and not of society. Therefore, they have no place among…"