George Washington Quotes
I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.
Washington, George. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 29, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939, p. 5.
The military weapon of freeing the slaves was advocated from the earliest days of the Civil War. However, most Northern political leaders were sure that the South would be economically broken by emancipation, and many were hoping to end the rebellion swiftly by some military victories, and the Confederate soldiers could return to an economically viable South. If the slaves were freed, Southern soldiers would have little to return to and would all have to become laborers and thus would fight then to the death. However, the more battlefield success the South had, the more the combination of the moral pressure of the abolitionists and the practical strategic pressure of those who wanted to cripple the South militarily by freeing the slaves, influence Lincoln’s decision.
Jefferson’s views, actions and inactions regarding slavery are very complex and contradictory. This quotation is one example of the many statements and activities to end slavery. Yet he never freed his own slaves (as did George Washington) and he fathered a child by one of his slaves with no attempt at freeing even her and the child. The Andrew Dickson White article is one of the first serious studies of the Jefferson contradictions regarding slavery.
His family was one of the wealthiest in Rhode Island. He called in the entire family and he formally read the deed. The family itself had actually been active in the slave trade under John, his oldest brother, so this deed was very shocking to them. Moses became a leading abolitionist in Rhode Island and John the major defender of slavery in the state. Despite that, the brothers actually remained close.
The National Enquirer was originally a serious abolitionist newspaper, not the sensationalist tabloid it became in modern times.
In what turned out to be a tragic prediction of things to come:
Lincoln had promised amnesty to Southerners who would pledge loyalty to the Union. What many feared was that this would include slave owners re-enslaving their former "property," or that the government would allow them to do so in order to stop the rebellion.
On February 11, 1790 American Quakers submitted a petition to immediately abolish the African slave trade from America. Southerners like Jackson argued that the Congress should not even “consider” such a petition or debate such as subject for if it did, that per se, would imply the possible consideration of emancipation, and if that were possible, they would be on the slippery slope toward emancipation of existing slaves which would be the end of the world as the Southern whites then knew it.
The Act was passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly whose clerk interestingly enough was Tom Paine.
The issue of slavery which had been suppressed in Congress for the first decades of the nation broke out when Missouri was considered for statehood. By previous agreement, slavery was not even discussed in Congress but the time period elapsed. Tallmadge not only proposed that no more slaves could come into Missouri but most shocking to the Southerners was that every person born in the new state would be free at the age of 25. In a generation, there would be no more slavery in Missouri and there would be no economic compensation for slave owners at all. The House of Representatives accepted the amendment, but it failed in the Senate. At that time, Senators were not elected by voters but were appointed by the state legislators and the Southern slave states had a disproportionate share of the senate from a population point of view. But what this quotation shows clearly that a majority of the country in 1819 were opposed to slavery and were willing to end it without compensation.
See {613644} for the earlier decree which this modified.
Although some Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia maintained legal slavery into the 1960s, Tunisia’s Emancipation pre-dated that of the United States.
One of the many complaints that many people made at the time about Smith and his Mormons was that they opposed slavery. In fact, Smith not only opposed it be had a plan for compensating the slave owner and a method for paying for it. Smith was not advocating the kinds of personal lifestyle issues of his church the way modern religious leaders do, but was concerned with the much larger issues of expansionism, corruption of the courts and judiciary, and land distribution. He was a classic reform candidate in that sense. Smith had written to most of the then likely Presidential candidates of both major parties asking for their position on the Mormons who were facing persecution wherever they went. None of the politicians would make any satisfactory commitments. Smith took Direct Action and became the only major religious official to have run for the Presidency of the United States until Pat Robertson tried and failed in 2000. Smith’s assassination shortly thereafter cut his run for the Presidency short before it made much headway and politically he had no chance to affect the race.
On his deathbed he claimed to Kelly that he had been offered command of the Army of the Potomac but was not willing to "pay the price" which he claimed was to accept the terms. Pleasonton, always more of a bureaucrat than an ideologue or strong leader, like many Union officers, only wanted to defang the South so that they could not threaten the rest of the states but was not convinced that "crushing" the rebels was worth the cost or that slavery or the reelection of Lincoln was worth it. There is no independent verification of his receiving the offer, but what is more likely was as the Cavalry Commander of the Army of the Potomac he was "sounded out" on the subject.
This quotation is often given by those who argue that Lincoln really did not care about the slavery issue. It is a terrific example of the limitations of quotations where there is artful rhetoric. Douglas, had in the 1st debate posed 7 “interrogatories” to Lincoln asking if he were pledged to certain positions regarding slavery. Douglas was trying to associate Lincoln with the most radical abolitionists in the land. By asking if Lincoln were pledged to the positions, Douglas thought that he had cornered Lincoln. For if Lincoln denied the pledges, he would appear to be backing off his anti slavery positions, and if Lincoln would not, then he would appear to support the most radical elements. Lincoln turned the rhetorical tables on his opponent. He first answered the question literally, emphasizing “pledged”. Just as Douglas thought he had forced Lincoln off his anti-slavery views, Lincoln stated what he would “like to see” as opposed to what he was pledged for. See {615826}.
George Washington was the first President of the United States (1789-97), the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the current United States Constitution and during his lifetime was called the "father of his country".
