Power Duty, and Necessity of Destroying Slavery in the Rebel States

This, the first emphatic enunciation of the philosophical fact of the antagonism between liberty and slavery, the eternal and irrepressible conflict between them, electrified the country, and made Abraham Lincoln President of the United States. The moment the fact is recognized that liberty and slavery are antagonistic, and that there can be no peace between them-that our country, all of it, must pass into the dark night of slavery, or all of it emerge into the clear light of freedom - all loyal, patriotic men become at once anti~slavery men, abolitionists. Such I avow myself here, to-day, and I shall deem it a proud distinction if I can merit the name by aiding in bringing about the entire abolition of slavery in my suffering country.