Lincoln2012

Fernando Wood:
I've asked you a question, Mr. Stevens, and you must answer me. Do you or do you not hold that the precept that "all men are created equal" is meant literally? Is that the true purpose of the amendment? To promote your ultimate and ardent dream to elevate-

Thaddeus Stevens:
The true purpose of the amendment, Mr. Wood, you perfectly named, brainless, obstructive object?

Fernando Wood:
You have always insisted, Mr. Stevens, that Negroes are the same as white men are.

Thaddeus Stevens:
The true purpose of the amendment... I don't hold with equality in all things, only with equality before the law and nothing more.

Fernando Wood:
That's not true! You believe that Negroes are entirely equal to white men. You've said it a thousand times-

George Pendleton:
For shame! For shame! Stop prevaricating and answer Representative Wood!

Thaddeus Stevens:
I don't hold with equality in all things, only with equality before the law and nothing more.

George Pendleton:
After the decades fervent advocacy on behalf of the colored race-

James Ashley:
He's answered your questions! This amendment has naught to do with race equality!

George Pendleton:
You have long insisted, have you not that the dusk-colored race is no different from the white one?

Thaddeus Stevens:
I don't hold with equality before in all things, only with equality before the law and nothing more.

George Pendleton:
Your frantic attempt to delude us now is unworthy of a representative. It is, in fact, unworthy of a white man!

Thaddeus Stevens:
How can I hold that all men are created equal, when here before me stands, stinking, the moral carcass of the gentleman from Ohio, proof that some men are inferior, endowed by their Maker with dim wits, impermeable to reason, with cold, pallid slime in their veins instead of hot red blood! You are more reptile than man, George! So low and flat, that the foot of man is incapable of crushing you!

George Pendleton:
How dare you!

Thaddeus Stevens:
Yet even you, Pendleton, who should have been gibbeted for treason long before today, even worthless unworthy you ought to be treated equally before the law! And so again, sir, and again and again and again I say: I do not hold with equality in all things. Only with equality before the law.