"Gentlemen on this floor, and in the Senate have repeatedly ... asserted that slavery was a moral, political, and personal blessing, and that the slave was free from care, contented, happy, fat, and sleek ... Well, if this be so, let us give all a chance to enjoy this blessing. Let the slaves, who choose, go free; and the free, who choose, become slaves. We will not complain if they establish societies ... for that purpose - abolition societies to abolish freedom. (Thaddeus Stevens 1850)
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