Quote

The right to have a slave implies the right in some one to make the slave that right must be equal and mutual, and this would resolve society into a state of perpetual war.

William H. Seward

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William H. Seward
Age: 71 †
Born: 1801
Born: May 16
Died: 1872
Died: October 10
Diplomat
Former Governor Of New York
Lawyer
Politician
Florida
New York
William Henry Seward
William Seward
States
Perpetual
Right
Resolve
Must
Mutual
Make
Slave
Would
Equal
State
Society
War
Implies

More quotes by William H. Seward

Image
Simultaneously with the establishment of the Constitution, Virginia ceded to the United States her domain, which then extended to the Mississippi, and was even claimed to extend to the Pacific Ocean.
William H. Seward
Image
It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces.
William H. Seward
Image
No man will ever be President of the United States who spells 'negro' with two gs.
William H. Seward
Image
But I deny that the Constitution recognizes property in man.
William H. Seward
Image
I mean to say that Congress can hereafter decide whether any states, slave or free, can be framed out of Texas. If they should never be framed out of Texas, they never could be admitted.
William H. Seward
Image
But the Constitution was made not only for southern and northern states, but for states neither northern nor southern, namely, the western states, their coming in being foreseen and provided for.
William H. Seward
Image
I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue.
William H. Seward
Image
I speak on due consideration because Britain, France, and Mexico, have abolished slavery, and all other European states are preparing to abolish it as speedily as they can.
William H. Seward
Image
The whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible.
William H. Seward
Image
It is the maintenance of slavery by law in a state, not parallels of latitude, that makes its a southern state and the absence of this, that makes it a northern state.
William H. Seward
Image
Idea is a noble one — an idea that fills and expands all generous souls the idea of equality — the equality of all men before human tribunals and human laws, as they all are equal before the Divine tribunal and Divine laws.
William H. Seward
Image
Revolutions never go backward.
William H. Seward
Image
There is a higher law than the Constitution.
William H. Seward
Image
The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.
William H. Seward
Image
The two systems slave and free-labor are incompatible. They have never permanently existed together in one country, and they never can.
William H. Seward
Image
Therefore, states are equal in natural rights.
William H. Seward
Image
But assuming the same premises, to wit, that all men are equal by the law of nature and of nations, the right of property in slaves falls to the ground for one who is equal to another cannot be the owner or property of that other.
William H. Seward
Image
But you answer, that the Constitution recognizes property in slaves. It would be sufficient, then, to reply, that this constitutional recognition must be void, because it is repugnant to the law of nature and of nations.
William H. Seward
Image
There is no social life outside of Christendom.
William H. Seward
Image
Sir, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we are, which would establish slavery.
William H. Seward