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In those days, as I understand, masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves; but since then, such legal restraints have been made upon emancipation, as to amount almost to prohibition.

— Abraham Lincoln Speech on the Dred Scott Decision (1857)

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More quotes by Abraham Lincoln

Without the military help of the black freedman, the war against the South could not have been won.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice.

Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)

Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.

We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read.

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.

All Abraham Lincoln quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Abraham Lincoln (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.