"The legal right of the Southern people..." - Quote by Abraham Lincoln
The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress to interfere with their institution in the states, I have constantly denied.
More by Abraham Lincoln
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.”
“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.”
“Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man.”
More on Law
“The civil justice system is a backup system when the criminal justice system fails.”
“I bet that if you actually read the entire vastness of the U.S. Tax Code, you'd find at least one sex scene . . .”
“After divorce of Pompeia in 62 BC I feel that members of my family should never be suspected of breaking the law. -Meos tam suspicione quam crimine iudico carere oportere”
More on Slavery
“Slavery is ...an atrocious debasement of human nature.”
“To take away (voting) is to reduce a man to slavery.”
“Cassius Clay is a name that white people gave to my slave master. Now that I am free, that I don't belong anymore to anyone, that I'm not a slave anymore, I gave back their white name, and I chose a beautiful African one.”