William Seward: “Human nature, with all its infirmities and depravation, is still capable of great things.”

Let it be remembered, that it has ever been the pride and the boast of America, that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human nature.

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

That freedom and that security required that the nations of Europe should relax their grasp on the American Continent.

From and after the fourth day of July, 1842, there shall be, throughout the United States, NO HEREDITARY SLAVERY, but on and after that day every child born within the United States shall be FREE.