On the record
The idea is intolerable, that any State, under any pretension of State Rights, can set up a political oligarchy within its borders, and then call itself a republican government.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sumner argues against the idea that states can create political oligarchies while claiming to be republican governments.
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More from Charles Sumner
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.
The devices of party can no longer stave it off.
Controlled by such a code, employing such representatives, sustained by such agencies, animated by such Furies, and producing such fruits of tears and bitterness, it must be open to question.
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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