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I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.

Gerrit Smith

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Gerrit Smith
Age: 77 †
Born: 1797
Born: March 6
Died: 1874
Died: December 28
American Politician
Lawyer
Philanthropist
Politician
Utica
New York
Nathan
Lover of all who love Jesus Christ
Use
Government
Believe
People

More quotes by Gerrit Smith

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True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased.
Gerrit Smith
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I am a plain man, and I care and know comparatively little about rhetoric.
Gerrit Smith
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We must continue to judge of slavery by what it is, and not by what you tell us it will, or may be.
Gerrit Smith
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But I love honesty, and, therefore do I make great account of facts.
Gerrit Smith
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There is one class of men, whom it especially behoves to be tenacious of the right of free discussion. I mean the poor.
Gerrit Smith
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It is manifestly vital to the success of the anti-slavery cause, that the authority and influence of proslavery, especially of slaveholding, ministers should be destroyed.
Gerrit Smith
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God cannot approve of a system of servitude, in which the master is guilty of assuming absolute power - of assuming God's place and relation towards his fellow-men.
Gerrit Smith
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True liberty acknowledges and defends the equal rights of all men, and all nations.
Gerrit Smith
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To say, that Capt. Ingraham violated the rights of Turkey, is nonsense.
Gerrit Smith
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I welcomed the organization of the Anti-slavery Society.
Gerrit Smith
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When a good man lends himself to the advocacy of slavery, he must, at least for a time, feel himself to be any where but at home, amongst his new thoughts, doctrines, and modes of reasoning.
Gerrit Smith
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I prefer, in a word, the republican system, because it comes up more nearly to God's system.
Gerrit Smith
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To no human charter am I indebted for my rights.
Gerrit Smith
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Truth and mercy require the exertion - never the suppression, of man's noble rights and powers.
Gerrit Smith
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But as well may you, when urging a man up-hill with a heavy load upon his back, and with your lash also upon his back, tell him, that be has nothing to do either with the load or the lash.
Gerrit Smith