Viewed apart and alone, as a transaction separate and distinct from its antecedents and bearings, it takes rank with the most cold-blooded and atrocious wrongs ever perpetrated; but just here is the trouble--this raid on Harper's Ferry, no more than Sherman's march to the sea can consent to be thus viewed alone.
He critiques the tendency to view events in isolation, stressing the interconnectedness of historical actions.
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The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.