In days when the public safety is imminently threatened, and the fate of a nation may hang upon a single act, we owe frank speech, above all other men, to him who is highest in authority. I shall speak to you as man to man. Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
If, amid the multitude of contending counsel, you have hesitated and doubted; if, when a great measure suggested itself, you have shrunk from the vast responsibility, afraid to go forward lest you should go wrong, what wonder? Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
How few, since the foundation of the world, have found themselves in a position environed with public perils so numerous, oppressed with responsibilities so high and solemn, as yourself! Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
They feel assured, as to yourself, that if the option remain with you, it is but a question of time and of form when and how a proclamation of emancipation will be issued. Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
The people are forbidden to give aid and comfort to rebels. What of a government that has the power to cut off from aid and comfort all the rebels of the South and fails to exercise it? Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
Of the unjust rights which in virtue of this ceremony an iniquitous law gives me over the person and property of another, I cannot legally, but I can morally, divest myself. Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
Men ever follow willingly a daring leader: most willingly of all, in great emergencies. Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
Men acquiesce in a thousand things, once righteously and boldly done, to which, if proposed to them in advance, they might find endless objections. Robert Dale Owen Read Quote
