Note 180 — Chapter XVI · THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 1854-5

"He never became unduly excited about slavery. He had no sympathy for the religious or sentimental side of abolitionism, nor was he moved by the words of the philanthropists, preachers, or poets by whom the agitation was set ablaze and persistently fanned. He probably regarded it as an evil of less magnitude than several others that threatened the country."—Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John A. Dix, Vol. 1, p. 338.