“Why, then, in the absence of all control over the subject of African slavery, are you agitated in relation to it? With Pharisaical pretension it is sometimes said it is a moral obligation to agitate, and I suppose they are going through a sort of vicarious repentance for other men's sins… Who gave them a right to decide that it is a sin? By what standard do they measure it? Not the Constitution; the Constitution recognizes the property in many forms, and imposes obligations in connection with that recognition. Not the Bible; that justifies it. Not the good of society; for if they go where it exists, they find that society recognizes it as good…”

— Jefferson Davis

Speech in Boston http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=80 (11 October 1858).
1850s

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Jefferson Davis 44

President of the Confederate States of America 1808–1889

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