The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-03-15
GREAT SPEECH
s-.r go r- sls OF
SENATOR SEWARD.
Delivered in the United States Senate
Wednesday, Feb. %, 1850.

In the United States Senate, on We'd
nesday, Mr.. Seward having presented
the memorial of the Legislature Of
Kansas praying for admission into the
Union, spoke as follows:
Mr., President, the admission of Kan
sas into the Union, without further de-
lay, seems to me equally necessary, just
and wise. In recorded debates have
already anticipated the arguments for
this conclusion.
In coming forward among the polit-
ical astrologers, it shall be an error of
Judgment and not of disposition, if my
Interpretation of the feverish dreams
which are disturbing the country shall
tend to foment, rather than to allay, the
national excitement. / shall say moth
ing unnecessarily of persons, because,
in our system, the public welfare and
happiness depend chiefly on institutions
and very little on men. / shall allude
but briefly to incidental topics, because
they are ephemeral, and because, even
in the midst of appeals to passion and
prejudice, it is always safe to submit
solid truth to the deliberate considera-
ton of an honest and enlightened peo-
pie.
1t will be an overfowing source of
shame, as we'll as of sorrow, if we,
thirty acknowledgements by extrac-
ton, Americans by birth or discipline,
and Christians in faith, and meaning
to be such in practice-cannot SO COM
bine prudence with humanity, in our
conduct concerning the one disturbing
subject of Slavery, as not only to pre-
serve our unequaled institutions of
Freedom, but also to enjoy their bene-
fits with contentment and harmony.
Whenever guiltless slave exists, be
he Caucasian, American, Malay, or
African, he is the subject of two dis
tinct and opposite ideas-one that he
is wrongly, the other that he is rightly
slave. The balance of numbers on
either side, however great, never COM
pletely extinguishes this difference of
opinion, for there are always some de-
tenders of Slavery outside, even if
there are none inside a Free State,
while also, there are always outside, if
there are not inside, of every Slave
State, many who assert with Milton,
that "no man who knows aught can be
so stupid as to deny that all men natural
ly were born free, being the image and
resemblance of God himself, and were
by privilege above all the creatures, born
to command and not to obey" 1t often,
perhaps generally, happens, however,
that in considering the subject of Slave
ry, society seems to overlook the natur-
al right or personalinterest OF the slave
himself, ,and-to act exclusively for the
welfare OF tse citizen. But this fact
does snot mss sally affect ultimate results
for the elementary question of the
rightfulness or wrongfulness of Slave
ry inheres in every form that discussion
concerning it assumes. What is just
to one class of men can never be injuri
Gus to any other, and what is unjust to
any condition of persons in State, is
necessarily injurious in some degree &C
the whole community. An economical
question early arises out of the subject
of Slavery-labor either of freemen OF
of slaves is the cardinal necessity ot
Esociety. II
/ Some States choose the one kind
some the other. Hence two municipal
systems widely different arise. The
4 Slave States strikes down and affects
to extinguish the personality of the la
borer, not only as II member of the DO
t1.f.<.oI h0Ix, h,,t olc0 hrc
band. child, neighbor or friend. HI
thus becomes, in political view, mere
ly property without moral capacity, anG
without domestic, moral, and social re
lations, duties, rights, and remedies;
chattel, an object of bargain, sale, gift
inheritance, or theft. His earnings are
compensated and his wrongs atoned
not to himself, but to his owner. The
State protects not the slave as man
but the capital of another man, which
, he represents. On the other hand, tn,
State which rejects slavery encourages
and animates and invigorates the la
borer by maintaining and developing
natural personality in all the rights anC
] faculties of manhood, and general,
with the privileges of citizenship. II
the one case capital invested in slave
becomes a great political force, whil
IN the other, labor thus elevated ant
: enfranchised, becomes the dominating
political power. 1t thus happens tha
we may, for. convenience sake, and no
, inaccurately, call Slave States capita
States, and Free States labor States. =
So soon as State feels the impuls
of commerce or enterprise or ambition
. its citizens begin to study the effects o
: these systems of capital and labor re
spectively on its intelligence, its virtue
its tranquility, its integrity or unity, it
defense, its prosperity, its liberty, it
: : happiness, its aggrandisement, and it
/ fame. In other words, the great ques
!. tion arises, whether Slavery is mora
e social and political good, or mora
social and political evil. This is tn
Slavery question at home. But ther
}. lis mutual bond Of unity and brother
: hood between man and man through
Iont world. Nations examine freely th
political systems of each other, and {
all preceding times, and accordingly q
A they approve or disapprove of the tw
. systems of capital and labor respective
< ly, they sanction and prosecute, or col
h denim and prohibit commerce in mel
Thus, Jinssonec way or In another, til
Slavery question which SO many anon