and, for reasons too obvious to require statement, what I am about to
say will be listened to with no inconsiderable apprehension as to what
next may be forthcoming. Nevertheless, this is a necessary part of my
theme; and I propose to say what I have in mind to say, setting forth
with all possible frankness the more mature conclusions reached with the
passage of years. Let it be received in the spirit in which it
is offered.

So far, then, as the institution of slavery is concerned, in its
relations to ownership and property in those of the human species,--I
have seen no reason whatever to revise or in any way to alter the
theories and principles I entertained in 1853, and in the maintenance of
which I subsequently bore arms between 1861 and 1865. Economically,
socially, and from the point of view of abstract political justice, I
hold that the institution of slavery, as it existed in this country
prior to the year 1865, was in no respect either desirable or
justifiable. That it had its good and even its elevating side, so far at
least as the African is concerned, I am not here to deny. On the
contrary, I see and recognize those features of the institution far more
clearly now than I should have said would have been possible in 1853.
That the institution in itself, under conditions then existing, tended
to the elevation of the less advanced race, I frankly admit I did not
then think. On the other hand, that it exercised a most pernicious
influence upon those of the more advanced race, and especially upon
that large majority of the more advanced race who were not themselves
owners of slaves,--of that I have become with time ever more and more
satisfied. The noticeable feature, however, so far as I individually am
concerned, has been the entire change of view as respects certain of the
fundamental propositions at the base of our whole American political and
social edifice brought about by a more careful and intelligent