William H. Seward Quotes

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• I know and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backwards.

  William H. Seward

  World, Revolution, Backwards

  At Rochester on the Irrepressible Conflict, October 1858

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, War, Two

  17 Copy quote

• 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

  Fall, Men, Law

  19 Copy quote

• The whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible.

  William H. Seward

  Progress, Growing, Influence

  21 Copy quote

• We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them, and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.

  William H. Seward

  War, Slavery, Bondage

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Party, Selfishness, Vices

  william h. seward (1852). “speach in the senate”

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Spiritual, Brother, Father

  William H. Seward's argument as defense attorney during the trial of an African-American criminal defendant, Auburn, New York (July 1846) as quoted in "Works of William H. Seward", Volume I (p. 417), 1853.

  9 Copy quote

• The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.

  William H. Seward

  Change, Growth, Purpose

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Happiness, Government, Political

  7 Copy quote

• The constitution regulates our stewardship; the constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge our trust as to secure in the highest attainable degree their happiness.

  William H. Seward

  Law, Justice, Liberty

  11 Copy quote

• No man will ever be President of the United States who spells 'negro' with two gs.

  William H. Seward

  Men, Two, President

  William H. Seward's retort to Stephen A. Douglas on the Senate floor after the Illinois senator used an offensive slur in a speech, as quoted in Doris Kearns Goodwin "Team of Rivals" (p. 163), October 25, 2005.

  14 Copy quote

• Revolutions never go backward.

  William H. Seward

  Atheism, Politics, Revolution

  At Rochester on the Irrepressible Conflict, October 1858

  14 Copy quote

• It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces.

  William H. Seward

  Conflict, Force, Endure

  Speech, Rochester, N.Y., 25 Oct. 1858

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Party, Men, Law

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  Law, Purpose, Noble

  William H. Seward's speech at the United States Senate, March 11, 1850.

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Law, Southern, Maintenance

  15 Copy 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

  War, Slave, States

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Class, Southern, Slave

  9 Copy quote

• Sir, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we are, which would establish slavery.

  William H. Seward

  Christian, Slavery, Nations

  4 Copy quote

• I deem it established, then, that the Constitution does not recognize property in man, but leaves that question, as between the states, to the law of nature and of nations.

  William H. Seward

  Men, Law, Doe

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Purpose, Energetic, Policy

  William H. Seward's memorandum to President Abraham Lincoln, April 1, 1861.

  7 Copy quote

• There is no social life outside of Christendom.

  William H. Seward

  Christianity, Social, Christendom

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 142), 1895.

  5 Copy quote

• Therefore, states are equal in natural rights.

  William H. Seward

  Rights, Hair, Natural

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Ocean, Virginia, United States

  16 Copy quote

• It would be contrary to the spirit of the American Government to use force to subjugate the South.

  William H. Seward

  War, Government, Would Be

  4 Copy quote

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