Sparks Commentary

“England's course towards the United States during the rebellion exasperated the people of this country very much against the mother cou...

“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war . The Government will not assail you...

Note: This post quotes from Frederick Douglass’s memoir, where he recounts racist treatment that he received from various white men. Althoug...

“On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate...

If you feel like you don’t understand the Gettysburg Address, this post is for you. What the heck does “Fourscore and seven years ago” mean?...

Warning: For obvious reasons, this post does not censor the offensive language out of the historical sources that it quotes from. To do so w...

It might seem strange to say it today, but the “Bill of Rights” amendments were once understood to apply only to the federal government, ...

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union , and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union wi...

"Treason against the United States shall consist only in  levying war against them , or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid...

"No person held to service or labour [a. k. a. "slavery"] in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, sha...

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continu...

"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounti...

"The plaintiff [Dred Scott]... was, with his wife and children, held as slaves by the defendant [Sandford], in the State of Missouri...

"The executive power [of the Confederacy] shall be vested in a President of the Confederate States of America. He and the Vice Presid...

"My family is American , and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral." - Opening lines of "P...

"The war between the States was a very bloody and a very costly war. One side or the other had to yield principles they deemed dearer...

" ' A house divided against itself cannot stand .' I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half ...

" ... that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom ... " - Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863) ...

"Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system , and haste...