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Welcome! The life of James Buchanan Home Pre-Presidentcy While President The Hostess Post Presidency Just the Facts Quotes Pictures |
"I had hoped for the nomination in 1844, again in 1848, and even in 1852, but now I would hesitate to take it. Before many years the abolitionists will bring war upon this land. It may come during the next presidential term." "It is the imperative and indispensable duty of the government of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved. That being accomplished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a territory free from all foreign interference to decide their own destiny for themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." (Of course by "people" in the territory he meant only the white male voters, since blacks were not eligible to vote, whether free or slave.) "I believe [slavery] to be a great political and great moral evil. I thank God, my lot has been cast in a state where it does not exist. But, while I entertain these opinions, I know it is an evil at present without a remedy . . . one of those moral evils, from which it is impossible for us to escape, without the introduction of evils infinitely greater. There are portions of this Union, in which, if you emancipate our slaves, the will become masters. There can be no middle course." (1826) "It is better to bear the ills we have than to fly to others we know not of." "Whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country." "There is nothing stable but Heaven and the Constitution." "Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world." "The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among freemen." "What is right and what is practicable are two different things." "What, sir! Prevent the American people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might as well command Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." "How easy it would be for the American people to settle the slavery question forever and to restore peace and harmony to this distracted country! They, and they alone, can do it. All that is necessary to accomplish the object, and all for which the slave States have ever contended, is to be let alone and permitted to manage their domestic institutions in their own way. As sovereign States, they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the world for slavery existing among them. For this the people of the North are not more responsible and have no more right to interfere than with similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil." To his successor, Abraham Lincoln: "My dear sir, if you are as happy on entering the White House as I am on leaving, you are a very happy man indeed." (1861) |