The Best William Seward quotes

Revolutions never go backward. — William H. Seward

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

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

There is a higher law than the Constitution. — 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

Sir, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we are, which would establish slavery. — William H. Seward

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

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

No man will ever be President of the United States who spells ‘negro’ with two gs. — 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

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

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

The whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever–growing influence of the Bible. — William H. Seward

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

I know and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backwards. — William H. Seward

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

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

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

But I deny that the Constitution recognizes property in man. — William H. Seward