Gerrit Smith

My rights all spring front an infinitely nobler source - from favor and grace of God.

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.

Truth and mercy require the exertion - never the suppression, of man's noble rights and powers.

After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface.

Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?

It is characteristic of science that the full explanations are often seized in their essence by the percipient scientist long in advance of any possible proof.