Senator William Seward’s Speech to the
Senate, March 11th 1850
There is another aspect of the principle of
compromise, which deserves consideration. It assumes that slavery, if not the
only institution in a slave State, is at least a ruling institution, and that
this characteristic is recognized by the Constitution. But slavery is only one of
many, institutions there – freedom is equally an institution there. Slavery is
only a temporary, accidental, partial, and incongruous one; freedom, on the contrary,
is a perpetual, organic, universal one, in harmony with the Constitution of the
United States.
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 the
highest attainable degree, their happiness …
You say that you will not submit to the
exclusion of slaves from the new territories. What will you gain by resistance?
Liberty follows the sword, although her sway is one of space and beneficence.
Can you propagate slavery, then, by the sword?