William H. Seward was praised for enduring years of silence under cruel doubt, the slanders of debate, the assassin's knife, and the scorn of party hatred without pausing at each step to vindicate his work, which was hailed as freedom enshrined in a regenerate state and as making one of those who had been divided. He declared that the Constitution regulates stewardship and devotes the domain to union, justice, defence, welfare, and liberty, but also that a righter law than the Constitution regulates authority over the domain and devotes it to the same noble purposes. In 1888, he was honored in Auburn for his beneficent life and his distinguished services to the state, the nation, and mankind.