Louis the Fourteenth, in the pride of conscious power, exclaimed, “I am the State”; and permit me to say, that our own Executive, undertaking to act in this matter without the sanction of Congress, effectively makes the same declaration.
In this statement, Sumner draws a parallel between the French monarch's assertion of power and the actions of the American Executive.
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They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
It is true, doubtless, that there are various races of men; but there is but one great Human Family, in which Caucasian, Ethiopian, Chinese, and Indian are all brothers, children of one Father, and heirs to one happiness.
It is clear that the only question of present practical interest arises from the usurpations of the Slave Power and the efforts to extend Slavery.
Tendencies of nations, as revealed in history, teach that our aims are in harmony with prevailing laws, which God, in his benevolence, has ordained for mankind.
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