William Seward: “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions…”

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

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.

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

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.