Dauthaz Beech Phagein: Quotes of the Civil War Era

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[Abraham Lincoln]

"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! -- All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a Thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

"The Republican party, on the contrary, hold that this government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State."

"The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatable things, called by the same name———liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatable names———liberty and tyranny."

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party--and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose."

"Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came..."

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

"The intention of the lawgiver is the law"

"Suppose it is true, that the negro is inferior to the white, in the gifts of nature; is it not the exact reverse justice that the white should, for that reason, take from the negro, any part of the little which has been given him? "Give to him that is needy" is the Christian rule of charity; but "Take from him that is needy" is the rule of slavery."

"It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself."

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

“I certainly wish that all men could bee free.”

“You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you then, exclusively to save the Union. I issue the [Emancipation] proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Wheenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it swill be an apt time, then, for you to declare you will not fight to free Negroes.”

“Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that, among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost.”

"It may seem strange that any men should dare ask a just God's Assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be no judged." A. Lincoln

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln78.html

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Alexis de Tocqueville (1830s)

“In the United States, Christian sects are infinitely diversified and perpetually modified; but Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it.”

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Frederick Douglass

"They framed the constitution plainly with a view to the speedy downfall of slavery. They carefully excluded from the constitution any and every word which could lead to the belief that they meant it for persons of only one complexion." -1863

"I was never more quickly or more completely put at ease in the presence of a great man, than in that of Abraham Lincoln." -1863

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Grover Cleveland

“Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people” -In reference to Congress' proposed aid to disaster struck Texas [America's First Real 'Disaster'], Cleveland held steadfastly to the principle of individual charity, which [in the absence of government assistance, with all its negation of individual 'get up and go'] raised twice as much as the amount Congress had proposed.

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Henry David Thoreau

"Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way."

“Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”

“Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.“

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

“How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?”

“How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?”

“I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. “

“I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls. “

“I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while.”

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Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens]

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

For in a republic, who is "the Country"? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is "the Country"? Is it the newspaper? is it the pulpit? Is it the school superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in a thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn't.
Who are the thousand--that is to say, who are "the Country"? In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide on way, and that way be the right way accordng to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country--hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
- "Papers of the Adam Family"

Where I First Came Across This Quote-

SpiderMan 537: CIVIL WAR

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose."

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Quotes Sorted by Age
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[Quotes of Antiquity] before 1700

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[Quotes of the Founding Age] 1700s to late 1800s

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[Quotes of Modernity] from the Birth of Futurism to the new Millenium

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[Quotes and Writings Referenced by Dr. Savage] the name says it all

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[Aphorisms] Latin and Colloquialisms