Baffling all attempts at description, they sink into that chapter of Sir Thomas Browne entitled “Of some Relations whose Truth we fear,” and among kindred things whereof, according to this eloquent philosopher, “there remains no register but that of Hell.
Charles Sumner: “Baffling all attempts at description, they sink into that chapter of Sir Thomas Browne entitled “Of some Relations whose…”
Editor's note · Context
Sumner uses a literary reference to describe the indescribable horrors of slavery, likening them to hell.
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Nay, more,--if it would be criminal in these several clusters of States to reëstablish the Institution of War as Arbiter of Justice, then is it criminal in the Commonwealth of Nations to continue it.
Above all, welcome to the united regenerated Democracy of the North, which spurns the mockery of a Republic, with professions of Freedom on the lips, while the chains of Slavery clank in the Capitol!
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.





