Gerrit Smith quotes
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“We must continue to judge of slavery by what it is, and not by what you tell us it will, or may be.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1837). “Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie: Of the State of Mississippi”, p.12
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“But I love honesty, and, therefore; do I make great account of facts.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1855). “Controversy Between New York Tribune and Gerrit Smith”, p.18
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“True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“To say, that Capt. Ingraham violated the rights of Turkey, is nonsense.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1856). “Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress [1853-1854].”, p.18
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“It, sometimes, suits the slaveholders to claim, that their slavery is an exclusively State concern; and that the North has, therefore, nothing to do with it.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1856). “Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress”, p.22
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“To no human charter am I indebted for my rights.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“But, although America cannot be justly charged with violating the rights of Turkey, Turkey nevertheless can be justly charged with violating the rights of America.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1856). “Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress”, p.300
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“The Southern slave would obey God in respect to marriage, and also to the reading and studying of His word. But this, as we have seen, is forbidden him.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1837). “Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie: Of the State of Mississippi”, p.10
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“The only ground on which a neutral State can claim respect at the hands of belligerents is, that, so far as she is concerned, their rights are protected.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1856). “Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress”, p.18
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“I prefer, in a word, the republican system, because it comes up more nearly to God's system.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“God cannot approve of a system of servitude, in which the master is guilty of assuming absolute power - of assuming God's place and relation towards his fellow-men.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1837). “Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie: Of the State of Mississippi”, p.11
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“I do not object to the construction of rail roads and canals.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“I am a plain man, and I care and know comparatively little about rhetoric.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1855). “Controversy Between New York Tribune and Gerrit Smith”, p.18
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“It is manifestly vital to the success of the anti-slavery cause, that the authority and influence of proslavery, especially of slaveholding, ministers should be destroyed.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“Our concern, however, is with slavery as it is, and not with any theory of it.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1837). “Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie: Of the State of Mississippi”, p.11
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“I trust, that your readers will not construe my words to mean, that I would not have gone to a 3 o'clock in the morning session, for the sake of defeating the Nebraska bill.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1855). “Controversy Between New York Tribune and Gerrit Smith”, p.17
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“Truth and mercy require the exertion - never the suppression, of man's noble rights and powers.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“But as well may you, when urging a man up-hill with a heavy load upon his back, and with your lash also upon his back, tell him, that be has nothing to do either with the load or the lash.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1856). “Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress”, p.22
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“It is not to be disguised, that a war has broken out between the North and the South. - Political and commercial men are industriously striving to restore peace: but the peace, which they would effect, is superficial, false, and temporary.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
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“I need say no more, to prove that slavery is entirely unlike the servitude in the patriarchal families.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“Our political and constitutional rights, so called, are but the natural and inherent rights of man, asserted, carried out, and secured by modes of human contrivance.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“There is room in our ranks for the old and decrepit, as well as the young and vigorous.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“There is one class of men, whom it especially behoves to be tenacious of the right of free discussion. I mean the poor.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
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“When a good man lends himself to the advocacy of slavery, he must, at least for a time, feel himself to be any where but at home, amongst his new thoughts, doctrines, and modes of reasoning.”
-- Gerrit SmithSource : Gerrit Smith (1837). “Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie: Of the State of Mississippi”, p.8
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“I welcomed the organization of the Anti-slavery Society.”
-- Gerrit Smith -
“My rights all spring front an infinitely nobler source - from favor and grace of God.”
-- Gerrit Smith
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