Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1706
AUTHOR:
George Washington (1732–99)
QUOTATION:
Not only do I pray for it, on the score of human dignity, but I can clearly forsee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union, by consolidating it in a common bond of principle.
ATTRIBUTION:
Attributed to GEORGE WASHINGTON.—John Bernard, Retrospections of America, 1797–1811, p. 91 (1887). This is from Bernard’s account of a conversation he had with Washington in 1798. Unverified.
