Perhaps he does not know, that, in the worst days of the Polish aristocracy, this same argument was adopted as excuse for holding white serfs in bondage, precisely as it is now put forward by the Senator, and that even to this day the angry Polish noble addresses his white peasant as “Son of Ham.
Sumner draws a parallel between historical arguments for white serfdom and contemporary justifications for slavery, emphasizing the absurdity of such claims.
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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.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
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.
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.
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