If slavery, limited as it yet is, now threatens to subvert the Constitution, how can we as wise and prudent statesmen, enlarge its boundaries and increase its influence, and thus increase already impending dangers?
William H. SewardRead
But I deny that the Constitution recognizes property in man.
Interpretation
The quote asserts that the Constitution does not endorse the idea of individuals as property.
William H. Seward's quote speaks to the fundamental principle that the Constitution should not acknowledge or permit the enslavement of individuals. It highlights a moral and legal stance against the concept of human ownership and affirms the inherent dignity of all persons, advocating for a more just and equitable society where individuals are not treated as commodities.
In practice
In a debate about human rights, this quote could emphasize the importance of recognizing individuals as free beings.
If slavery, limited as it yet is, now threatens to subvert the Constitution, how can we as wise and prudent statesmen, enlarge its boundaries and increase its influence, and thus increase already impending dangers?
But you answer, that the Constitution recognizes property in slaves. It would be sufficient, then, to reply, that this constitutional recognition must be void, because it is repugnant to the law of nature and of nations.
I deem it established, then, that the Constitution does not recognize property in man, but leaves that question, as between the states, to the law of nature and of nations.
But assuming the same premises, to wit, that all men are equal by the law of nature and of nations, the right of property in slaves falls to the ground; for one who is equal to another cannot be the owner or property of that other.
I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue.
The two systems slave and free-labor are incompatible. They have never permanently existed together in one country, and they never can.
Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
In the country of the blind the one eyed man is king.
I teach you the Overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? ... The time has come for man to set himself a goal. The time has come to plant the seed to his highest hope.
There is no philosophy that is not to some extent also theology.
There has always been a strange dissonance between the public and the private in Nigeria.
Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it but the free-thinker alone is truly free.
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