William Seward: “When a great man falls, the nation mourns; when a patriarch is removed, the people weep.”

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.

But power, confessedly derived from the people, must be exercised in obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them again, at least in death.

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

By the blessing of the Author of those rights, they have prevailed over all opposition, and form the basis of thirteen independent States.