Quote
By John Quincy Adams
Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union, and it is a contemplation worthy of the most exalted soul whether its total abolition is or is not practicable: if practicable, by what means it may be effected, and if a choice of means be within the scope of the object, what means would accomplish it at the smallest cost of human sufferance.
- Source
- Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, comprising portions of his diary from 1795 to 1848, vol. IV, 1875 · p. 531 (diary entry of Feb. 24, 1820)
- Read at
- Internet Archive (scan of the Lippincott first edition, Philadelphia, 1875; edited by Charles Francis Adams)
Share this quote
About this quote
From John Quincy Adams's diary, February 24, 1820, written while he was Secretary of State and Congress was fighting over slavery in Missouri. He had just talked with John C. Calhoun about whether the dispute could split the Union. It is printed in the Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, edited by Charles Francis Adams (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1875), vol. IV. The book prints a space before the colon after "practicable".