The Works of William H. Seward, Volume 1

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Page 443 - act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited : Provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed, in any state or territory of the United States, such fugitive may be
Page 255 - kept steadily in view was the consolidation of the Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each state in the convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude than might have been otherwise expected.
Page 679 - party, and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now more than ever before demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph. SECOND. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the declaration of independence and embodied in the federal constitution, " That all men are created equal; that
Page 127 - the authority of British law, as he found it written down by Blackstone: " The law of nature being coeval with God himself is of course superior to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all time. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all
Page 679 - power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.
Page 680 - provision of the constitution against all attempts to violate it ; and we deny the authority of congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States.
Page 680 - without due process of law." it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the constitution against all attempts to violate it ; and we deny the authority of congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States.
Page 680 - SIXTEENTH. That a railroad to the Pacific ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the federal government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction ; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail should be promptly established.
Page 679 - FIRST. That the history of the nation during the last four years has fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation of the republican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now more than ever before demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph.
Page 444 - the meaning of the constitution in respect to the legal points in dispute." This report gives us the deliberate judgment of the committee on two important points. First, that the compromise of 1850 did not, by its letter or by its spirit, repeal or render necessary, or even propose the abrogation of the Missouri compromise;

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