The proposition that there is a struggle between the white man and the negro contains a falsehood. There is no struggle. Speech at Hartford (1860)
If two men are adrift at sea on a plank which will bear up but one, the law justifies either in pushing the other off. I never had to struggle to keep a negro from enslaving me, nor did a negro ever have to fight to keep me from enslaving him. Speech at Hartford (1860)