Therefore, states are equal in natural rights.
From William H. Seward
There is not only no free state which would now establish it, but there is no slave state, which, if it had had the free alternative as we now have, would have founded slavery.
But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes.
I mean to say that Congress can hereafter decide whether any states, slave or free, can be framed out of Texas. If they should never be framed out of Texas, they never could be admitted.
It is the maintenance of slavery by law in a state, not parallels of latitude, that makes its a southern state; and the absence of this, that makes it a northern state.
Sir, there is no Christian nation, thus free to choose as we are, which would establish slavery.
The United States are a political state, or organized society, whose end is government, for the security, welfare, and happiness of all who live under its protection.
There is a higher law than the Constitution.
But the Constitution was made not only for southern and northern states, but for states neither northern nor southern, namely, the western states, their coming in being foreseen and provided for.
I submit, on the other hand, most respectfully, that the Constitution not merely does not affirm that principle, but, on the contrary, altogether excludes it.
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