William H. Seward quotes

The color of the prisoner's skin, and the form of his features, are not impressed upon the spiritual immortal mind which works beneath. In spite of human pride, he is still your brother, and mine, in form and color accepted and approved by his Father, and yours, and mine, and bears equally with us the proudest inheritance of our race - the image of our Maker. Hold him then to be a Man. (William H. Seward)
Whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it incessantly.
William H. Seward
There is not only no free state which would now establish it, but there is no slave state, which, if it had had the free alternative as we now have, would have founded slavery.
William H. Seward
Therefore, states are equal in natural rights.
William H. Seward
Sir, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we are, which would establish slavery.
William H. Seward
There is no social life outside of Christendom.
William H. Seward
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
Douglas, no man will ever be President of the United States who spells 'negro' with two gs.
William H. Seward
If slavery, limited as it yet is, now threatens to subvert the Constitution, how can we as wise and prudent statesmen, enlarge its boundaries and increase its influence, and thus increase already impending dangers?
William H. Seward
There is a higher law than the Constitution.
William H. Seward
The Democratic Party is inextricably committed to the designs of the slaveholders. (William H. Seward)
The nation thus situated, and enjoying forest, mineral, and agricultural resources unequalled, if endowed also with moral energies adequate to the achievement of great enterprises, and favored with a Government adapted to their character and condition, must command the empire of the seas, which alone is real empire.
William H. Seward
The government of the United States, under the conduct of the Democratic Party, has been all that time surrendering one plain and castle after another to slavery.
William H. Seward
Such is the Democratic Party.
William H. Seward
Remember always that the cause of the United States is the cause of human nature.
William H. Seward
He is the most gentle-looking and amiable of men. Every word and look indicate sincerity of heart, even to guilelessness.
William H. Seward
The history of the Democratic Party commits it to the policy of slavery. It has been the Democratic Party, and no other agency, which has carried that policy up to its present alarming culmination.
William H. Seward
Love one another.
William H. Seward
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
But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes.
William H. Seward
The United States are a political state, or organized society, whose end is government, for the security, welfare, and happiness of all who live under its protection. (William H. Seward)
But I deny that the Constitution recognizes property in man.
William H. Seward
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
The proposition of an established classification of states as slave states and free states, as insisted on by some, and into northern and southern, as maintained by others, seems to me purely imaginary, and of course the supposed equilibrium of those classes a mere conceit.
William H. Seward
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