William H. Seward Quotes


I saw exhausted soil, old and decaying towns, wretchedly-neglected roads, and, in every respect, an absence of enterprise and improvement, distinguish the region through which we have come, in contrast to that in which we live. Such has been the effect of slavery.


Context

After traveling thorugh Virginia which was then the wealthiest and most developed of the slave states, he wrote ...


Citations

Willim H. Seward, Quoted in Zeitz, Joshua. Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image, 2014

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William H. Seward
William H. Seward
  • Born: May 16, 1801
  • Died: October 10, 1872
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Statesman

William Henry Seward was United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was a prominent figure in the Republican Party in its formative years, and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War.