Speech at Chicago, Illinois
March 1, 1859
I do not wish to be misunderstood upon this subject of slavery in this country. I suppose it may
long exist, and perhaps the best way for it to come to an end peaceably is for it to exist for a
length of time. But I say that the spread and strengthening and perpetuation of it is an entirely
different proposition. There we should in every way resist it as a wrong, treating it as a wrong,
with the fixed idea that it must and will come to an end.
(III, 370)
Next Selection
Back to Lincoln on Slavery