But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purpose. The territory is a part of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the Universe.
— WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Speech in the United States Senate, March 11, 1850.
a longer excerpt:
There is another aspect of the principle of compromise which deserves consideration. It
assumes that slavery, if not the only institution in a slave state, is
at least a ruling institution, and that this characteristic is
recognized by the Constitution. But slavery is only one of many
institutions there. Freedom is equally an institution there. Slavery is
only a temporary, accidental, partial, and incongruous one. Freedom, on
the contrary, is a perpetual, organic, universal one, in harmony with
the Constitution of the United States. The slaveholder himself stands
under the protection of the latter, in common with all the free citizens
of the state. But it is, moreover, an indispensable institution. You
may separate slavery from South Carolina, and the state will still
remain; but if you subvert freedom there, the state will cease to exist.
But the principle of this compromise gives complete ascendancy in the
slave states, and in the Constitution of the United States, to the
subordinate, accidental, and incongruous institution, over its paramount
antagonist. To reduce this claim of slavery to an absurdity, it is only
necessary to add that there are only two states in which slaves are a
majority, and not one in which the slaveholders are not a very
disproportionate minority.
But there is yet another aspect in which this principle must be
examined. It regards the domain only as a possession, to be enjoyed
either in common or by partition by the citizens of the old states. It
is true, indeed, that the national domain is ours. It is true it was
acquired by the valor and with the wealth of the whole nation. But we
hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power over it. We hold no arbitrary
authority over anything, whether acquired lawfully or seized by
usurpation. The Constitution regulates our stewardship; the
Constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defence, to
welfare, and to liberty.
But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our
authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes.
The territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common heritage
of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the universe. We are
his stewards, and must so discharge our trust as to secure in the
highest attainable degree their happiness. . . .
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