William Seward: “But the emancipation of Spanish America was necessary for our own larger freedom, and our own complete security.”

Slavery therefore must be restrained, and, without violence or injustice, must be abolished.

How long emancipation may be delayed, is among the things concealed from our knowledge, but not so the certain result.

The perils of the enterprize are already passed--its difficulties have already been removed--when it shall have been accomplished it will be justly regarded as the last noble effort which rendered the Republic imperishable.

For the rest, the work of emancipation abides the action, whether it be slow or fast, of the moral sense of the American people.