And since no man can stand between us and God, it belongs to each conscience for itself to determine its final obligations, and where pressed to an unrighteous act,--as if to slay, or, what is equally bad, to enslave, a fellow-man charged with no crime,--then at every peril to disobey the mandate.
In this statement, Sumner advocates for individual moral responsibility, particularly in the face of unjust laws.
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This will be the FREEDOM POWER, whose single object will be to resist the SLAVE POWER.
They who strive after it, Ixion-like, embrace a cloud.
As the Brotherhood of Man is practically recognized, it becomes impossible to restrict the feeling within any exclusive circle of country, and to set up an unchristian distinction of honor between civil war and international war.
The subterfuges of the politician cannot escape it.
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