Gerrit Smith
Gerrit Smith
Gerrit Smithwas a leading United States social reformer, abolitionist, politician, and philanthropist. Spouse to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860, but only served 18 months in the federal government—in Congress as a Free Soil Party Representative, in 1853–4...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth6 March 1797
CountryUnited States of America
consent ranks room secure slavery votes
There is no room in our ranks for the politician, who, to secure the votes of the youth, would consent that American slavery be perpetual.
slavery needs prove
I need say no more, to prove that slavery is entirely unlike the servitude in the patriarchal families.
organization slavery anti-slavery
I welcomed the organization of the Anti-slavery Society.
slavery suits sometimes
It, sometimes, suits the slaveholders to claim, that their slavery is an exclusively State concern; and that the North has, therefore, nothing to do with it.
slavery causes influence
It is manifestly vital to the success of the anti-slavery cause, that the authority and influence of proslavery, especially of slaveholding, ministers should be destroyed.
slavery theory concern
Our concern, however, is with slavery as it is, and not with any theory of it.
war slavery permanent
True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased.
judging slavery may
We must continue to judge of slavery by what it is, and not by what you tell us it will, or may be.
honors repose rich solace wealth
The rich and the honorable, if divested of this right, have still their wealth and their honors to repose on, and to solace them.
attempt cannot god palpable
Let us tell our legislators in advance, that this is a right, restraints on which, we will not, cannot bear; and that every attempt to restrain it is a palpable wrong on God and man.
load north poor
The poor North has much to do with slavery. It staggers under its load and smarts under its lash.
errors freely time
As this is the first time I have had the floor, it may be well for me now to confess, that I am in the habit of freely imputing errors to my fellow-men.
believe doctrine government people subscribe
I do not subscribe to the doctrine that the people are the slaves and property of their government. I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.
count invader man worst
Let the poor man count as his enemy, and his worst enemy, every invader of the right of free discussion.