21st Century: Query 180 (William H. Seward)
“There is
a higher law than the Constitution.”
~ William H. Seward was United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor
of New York and 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. Seward was also responsible for the Alaska Purchase, known more commonly as “Seward’s Folly.”
When might Seward’s
assertion be true? False?
When might “a
higher law” be congruent with Democracy?
When might “a
higher law” be dangerous for a Democracy?