The increase of the slave-traffic was so great in the decade 1850–1860 that Lord John Russell proposed to the governments of the United States, France, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, that they instruct their ministers to meet at London in May or June, 1860, to consider measures for the final abolition of the trade.
— from The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870 by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

In the face of that noble effort, revealing the enormous pity of the United States for suffering people, and a careless expenditure of that "almighty dollar" which now the American people poured into this abyss of European distress, it was impossible for France or England to accuse the United States of selfishness or of callousness because she still held back from any declaration of war against our enemies.
— from People of Destiny: Americans as I saw them at Home and Abroad by Philip Gibbs

He certainly had the mind, and he had had the body before he gave it to his mind to squander, and it seemed to me, as I pulled up suddenly from some peroration and caught the expression of his eye as he turned his face to mine in the yellow lamp-light, that he was listening to the echoes of an early anthem—and found them sweet—even at the cost of his so-called honor !
— from The Mountain of Fears by Henry C. (Henry Cottrell) Rowland

In 1853, a radical amendment was adopted by which Separate School supporters received a pro rata share of the legislative grant only, and upon subscribing for school purposes a sum equivalent to the grant secured were relieved of all taxation for Common School purposes.
— from Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada by J. Harold (John Harold) Putman

One squat funnel amidship told that she used steam for some purpose, and out of this funnel black masses of smoke rose slowly in the motionless air.
— from The Cruise of the Dry Dock by T. S. (Thomas Sigismund) Stribling

Second: field flowers are never double: double flowers change their useful stamens for showy petals and so have no seeds.
— from The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 2 of 2 by Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir

And be it further enacted , That the superior court of each organized territory of the United States shall have the same power to appoint commissioners to take acknowledgments of bail and affidavit, and to take depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which is now possessed by the circuit courts of the United States; and all commissioners who shall hereafter be appointed for such purposes by the superior court of any organized territory of the United States shall possess all the powers and exercise all the duties conferred by law upon the commissioners appointed by the circuit courts of the United States for similar purposes, and shall moreover exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
— from Report of the Proceedings at the Examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on the Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave: Held in Boston, in February, 1851. by Charles G. (Charles Gideon) Davis