"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"
About this Quote
Seward redraws the American map with a lawyer’s pen and a moralist’s impatience. “Southern” and “Northern” look like geography words, harmless as weather, but he treats them as political alibis. The line refuses the comforting fiction that slavery is a regional quirk, a matter of climate and custom. If a state enforces human bondage “by law,” it has chosen a civilization; if it doesn’t, it has chosen another. Latitude is scenery. Statute is destiny.
The phrasing is doing more than defining terms; it’s stripping away euphemism. “Maintenance” is a cold, bureaucratic noun, the language of upkeep and budgets, implying that slavery isn’t merely inherited but actively sustained - repaired, defended, renewed - through courts, legislatures, sheriffs. Seward’s target is the moderate habit of treating slavery as a regrettable tradition rather than an ongoing state project. He makes the state itself the actor, and the law the weapon.
Context matters: Seward was a leading antislavery Republican in the 1850s, arguing against the era’s favorite dodge - that the Union could stay intact by pretending slavery was just “how the South is.” His formulation also needles Northern complicity. If “southern” is a legal condition, not a latitude, then any state flirting with slave codes, fugitive slave enforcement, or proslavery expansion risks reclassifying itself. It’s a warning dressed as a definition: stop calling this a sectional misunderstanding. It’s a constitutional choice with moral consequences.
The phrasing is doing more than defining terms; it’s stripping away euphemism. “Maintenance” is a cold, bureaucratic noun, the language of upkeep and budgets, implying that slavery isn’t merely inherited but actively sustained - repaired, defended, renewed - through courts, legislatures, sheriffs. Seward’s target is the moderate habit of treating slavery as a regrettable tradition rather than an ongoing state project. He makes the state itself the actor, and the law the weapon.
Context matters: Seward was a leading antislavery Republican in the 1850s, arguing against the era’s favorite dodge - that the Union could stay intact by pretending slavery was just “how the South is.” His formulation also needles Northern complicity. If “southern” is a legal condition, not a latitude, then any state flirting with slave codes, fugitive slave enforcement, or proslavery expansion risks reclassifying itself. It’s a warning dressed as a definition: stop calling this a sectional misunderstanding. It’s a constitutional choice with moral consequences.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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