“A large body of people, sufficient to make a nation, have come to the conclusion that they will have a government of a certain form. Who denies them the right? Standing with the principles of '76 behind us, who can deny them the right? ... I maintain on the principles of '76 that Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter. ... You can never make such a war popular. ... The North never will endorse such a war.”

Wendell Phillips

~ Wendell Phillips
(1811-1884) American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, orator, lawyer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 13, 1861, p. 2.